Messages

16

Technical Support / Re: EOS Utility/FoCal not recognizing 5D3 in Win8 64-bit

« on: November 16, 2012, 04:32:24 AM »

After the camera is connected to a USB port, open Windows Device Manager and see if there are any devices with a yellow exclamation point next to them. This will tell you if there is a driver that stopped or failed to load properly.

17

EOS Bodies - For Video / Re: 5D3 vs. BMC

« on: November 14, 2012, 09:14:47 AM »

I don't see any reason to choose a 5D3 over the BMCC for video. It doesn't even compare. It's a great camera at an even better price point. It records direct to SSD, so that has to be factored into price if you don't already own some. SSD prices have come down a lot in the past year or two. However, if you use anything less then 120 or 240gb SSDs, you're going to be changing them out like magazines.

For editing, you're going to want a SSD or fast RAID 0 system to work with those files. A fast single or dual processor will speed things up, but isn't required. GPU speed can help if you are using a hardware accelerated NLE like Premiere Pro. My dual Xeon workstation has no problem editing 4k REDCODE RAW footage with a $100 nVidia Quadro card.

18

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: 5D3 & 600ex-rt + AF assist beam = slower focus

« on: November 01, 2012, 05:07:54 PM »

I can confirm this also. Was using 5D3 with 600EX-RT during a dimly lit wedding reception and the focus was hunting with the AF assist beam on. Didn't think to try turning it off  . I felt like I was walking around painting targets for an airstrike.

19

Lenses / Re: If you could only have 2 lenses for a wedding...

« on: October 08, 2012, 03:43:30 AM »

So I took most of your advice and rented the 24-70 and 70-200. The gear should be here on Thursday. Wedding is on Saturday.

Also, I'm not just showing up as a guest with a camera. He specifically asked me if I could help. There's also some times when the other photographer won't be able to be in 2 places at once. I'm definitely not pro, or claiming to be. He can't afford to hire a real wedding photographer, so I'm doing what I can. I'm a fan of available light photographs, so we're hoping I can get some good shots that wouldn't be possible with her crop body, slow lenses, and flash.

I'll report back after the wedding with samples for you guys to critique lol. Thanks for the advice!

20

Lenses / If you could only have 2 lenses for a wedding...

« on: October 04, 2012, 04:13:39 PM »

My friend is getting married on the 13th. He's having a girl with an entry level crop body do some photographs. I'm also going to be helping out. I'm interested in switching to Canon, so I figured it would be a good time to try out a body before purchasing. As I'm not the Primary photographer, there's isn't any pressure. I've used a Nikon D300s, D80, and D70 in the past.

I'm going to be renting a 5D Mark III, BG-E11, and a 600EX-RT.
The church is fairly big and well lit, so I was thinking of using a 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS for the ceremony, and a 35mm f/1.4L L for the reception.

The last reception I did, I used a 17-50 f/2.8 and I was wishing it was faster. I was thinking a 35mm on a full frame should be sufficiently wide.

Any suggestions or recommendations?

21

Software & Accessories / Re: Aperture 3 now supports 5D Mark III RAW files

« on: May 14, 2012, 08:00:12 PM »

Have you done a comparison to files processed in LR4 or DPP? Curious if Aperature suffers from the same noise/softness issues as LR4/ACR.

22

EOS Bodies / Re: My only beef with 5d3 right now...

« on: April 23, 2012, 01:06:06 AM »

Microsoft is really slow with releasing updates to the Camera Codec Pack. The latest version (16.3.1483.0410) which was released 4 days ago added support for the Nikon D7000, and D3100. Both of those cameras are a year and a half old. Expect to be waiting awhile for 5D3 support.

This doesn't bother me as I don't ever see the thumbnails for my photos in Windows Explorer. I import directly into Lightroom, and it files the images away in dated folders on my RAID array.

23

EOS Bodies / Re: Canon 5D MarkIII & 1Dx - 1080p/60fps???

« on: April 22, 2012, 03:07:02 PM »

There is absolutely no reason the Canon 5D MkIII should not be able to record 1080p @ 60fps. The Digic V has sufficient processing power. 1080/60p would most likely have to be limited to IPB compression though, as ALL-I would require a sustained write speed of about 23MB/sec.

Has anyone taken a look at the Sony a77?

It's a $1400 body with a 24.3MP sensor.
It records 1080/60p/60i/30p/24p and does so with an inferior processor to the 5D3.

It's simply a limitation of firmware. Canon purposely crippled the camera to protect their higher end models (which most considering the 5D3 can't afford anyway). It's not like people in the professional market would stop buying C300s, C500s, and 1DCs if the 5D had more advanced video features. The pros are still going to buy the dedicated cinema cameras for the expandability, advanced manual controls, and I/O features (HD-SDI, XLR, Genlock, Timecode).

And yes, I realize the 5D3 is a photo camera first, but 1080/60p is not something that would handicap, or take away from its photo abilities. It wouldn't even cost extra!

24

Software & Accessories / Re: 5D Mark III - Sandisk or Lexar CF Cards

« on: April 20, 2012, 01:39:34 PM »

... stumbled on a USB 3.0 'Transcend USB 3.0 Multi Card Reader RDF8'.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/815153-REG/Transcend_TS_RDF8K_USB_3_0_Multi_Card.html

My order just arrived here at work. Interesting, the reader has a USB 3.0 cable included and a proprietary figure-8 style connector on the card reader side. I was expecting a standard micro or mini connector. Has anyone seen this approach on other card readers (proprietray or off-standard connector)?

It's actually not a proprietary connection. It is the standard Micro USB 3.0 connection. It's wider to make room for the additional contacts that are required. It is also designed to be backwards compatible. You can plug a normal micro USB 2.0 cable into one side of. the port, although you will only get USB 2.0 speeds. Search google for a USB 3.0 A to Micro B cable if you need a longer one.  I bought mine through DigiKey. Cables to Go is a good source for them too.

25

Software & Accessories / Re: NAB 2012: Apple Discusses Plans for FCP X in 2012

« on: April 17, 2012, 12:21:12 AM »

Hopefully we can expect a Mac Pro refresh to take advantage of these new features. I wouldn't want to work with 4K REDCODE RAW files on an iMac.

I'm just holding my breath for the MBP update.
If the Mac Pros actually come, and stay Xeon (which won't be Ivy for a while), then they'll lack the new magical encoder.
On the dawn of CS6, we're running out of reasons to stay Mac.
I'll stick with their MBP, but for a desktop...  I'd rather build my own.
Mac needs more CUDA options.

Well, the Sandy Bridge-E Xeon processors are available now. Those should would be what the next Mac Pro is based on. The future Ivy Bridge-E Xeons will use the same socket, and the Mac Pro could be made to support them with a BIOS update. It would be nice to be able to use a normal nVidia 680 GTX for more CUDA processing power. However, i'm curious how they will implement Thunderbolt with a discrete graphics card.

I'm actually on a dual Xeon Windows 7 machine right now. I'm interested in swiching to Mac if they offer an updated Mac Pro with at lease as much processing power as this machine. Macs seem to make better use of multiple CPU cores, especially when encoding. I also completely lost faith in Microsoft when I tried the Windows 8 consumer preview.

26

Software & Accessories / Re: NAB 2012: Apple Discusses Plans for FCP X in 2012

« on: April 15, 2012, 06:48:12 PM »

Hopefully we can expect a Mac Pro refresh to take advantage of these new features. I wouldn't want to work with 4K REDCODE RAW files on an iMac.

27

Software & Accessories / Re: No 5D Mark III Support in LR4?

« on: March 06, 2012, 08:40:02 PM »

I'm just saying... they seem to stick to a 3 month update cycle regardless of what is released in the meantime. Nikon 1 users had to wait awhile for them to add RAW support too.

28

Software & Accessories / No 5D Mark III Support in LR4?

« on: March 06, 2012, 06:47:21 PM »

I noticed the 1DX, D4, and D800/E on the list of supported cameras in the new Lightroom 4. However, the 5D MkIII was left out. I guess we'll be waiting 3 months for the next update. IMO they should release a minor update immediately when there is a major camera release. I'm sure they are granted pre-production models to use for software development. Most of my post processing is done in Lightroom, and it's a big inconvenience to have to wait 2 months before I can import RAW files directly (Assuming the 5D ships at the end of March).