Messages

1

Lenses / Re: Help with Long Lens + Backup Body choice for Iceland

« on: May 24, 2013, 09:01:06 PM »

Hmm...maybe instead of getting a longer lens, get a wide angle zoom.  Perhaps a 17-40mm f/4L and the 7D as a compliment to the FF.  The 1.4x on the 200mm f/4L IS should work decently well stopped down to f/8.  Never been to Iceland, but imagine during this time, there is plenty of light with little night.

I'd take the 5D III, 7D, 17-40mm, 50mm Zeiss, 70-200mm + 1.4x.  Light and covers mostly any situation.  If you have more money to spend, get the 16-35mm instead.

Kind regards,
Jason S.

I tend to favor primes and not bringing the Zeiss 21 is non negotiable :=)  that rules out buying any wide angle zooms. I'm starting to rule out the 100-400 also so it's looking more and more to bring "a" 70-200, the 1.4x extender and get a used 7D for backup.

Still haven't decided whether selling the 70-200 F4 IS and getting the 2.8 II though.  As I mentioned I'm not a fan of my 70-200 F4 IS with the 1.4extender (neither at f/5.6 nor 6.3), so this is were the extra stop of the 2.8 II can improve things.

 

2

Lenses / Re: Help with Long Lens + Backup Body choice for Iceland

« on: May 24, 2013, 02:26:51 PM »

Hi,

I visited Iceland last year with my 7D and took only 17-55IS 2.8 and 70-200 f4 L IS.

I could get as close to puffins as 2 meters. Just go to an area that allows that, like the Guided tour at Ingolshofdi.
Instead of a large collection of primes, why not take versatile zoom like the 24-105 instead?
I had 2.5 weeks of great weather, but if its rain and wind as is not uncommon, I wouldn't wanna be changing primes all the time when hiking. Just put he 70-200 f4 on the crop body and enjoy the holiday...

Thansk for the advice, I take it you did not miss at all any more reach than 200mm (with crop body). But was you 17mm wide enough in crop for the icelandic landscapes? you see, I'm leaning towards option 1 in my original post but my big fear is loosing the wide angle capability in case the 5DIII fails and I have to rely on the APS-C only.

Btw, i'm not taking all the primes, probably the 21, 35 and 85 only. The 4th lens will be either the 70-200 F4 or the 70-200 2.8 II or the 100-400, base don your recommendations  ;=)

3

Lenses / Help with Long Lens + Backup Body choice for Iceland

« on: May 24, 2013, 01:43:16 PM »

Hi

This topic may have been beaten to death and I have tried to read whatever I could find for Iceland but haven't yet decided the way to go so hopefully you guys that have been there could advice. I'll be there this summer and being one of those one in a lifetime trips you want to ensure all bases are covered. My current equipment consist of:

5D III
Zeiss 2.8/21
Sigma 35 1.4 HSM Art
Zeiss 2/50 MP
Canon 85L II
Zeiss 2/100 MP
Canon 70-200 F4 IS (+ 1.4extender II)

I got therefore a nice focal range covered but the question I may need your advice with concerns the darn Puffins, the occasional bird in the Myvatn area and the long reach landscape shots. I think this will in turn also influence the choice for the backup body to get:

From what I read (or not???) a 200mm may be a bit short for Puffins or the birds at the Myvatn area and  I'm not impressed by the 70-200 F4 IS coupled with the 1.4x extender I currently have. The options I can think of is to selling the 70-200 F4 IS and getting a 70-200 2.8 II (keeping the 1.4 extender) or to get a used Canon 100-400 instead.

Regarding the backup body I would consider the following options:
1) any used APS-C (7D that I know well or 60D or even a 650D etc): I can get them cheap used. APS-C has the added crop factor bonus so the option to take a 70-200 II with extender becomes very versatile for the birding. However in the eventuality the 5DIII fails then I'll have only an APS-C so my 21mm becomes effectivelly a 35mm which is not very nice for a place such as Iceland...

2) a cheap used 5D II:  whatever happens with the 5DIII I still have the wide end properly covered with the 21mm but then I may need to get the 100-400 (?)

So, to end a long post what would you do:

-Used APS-C as backup body, selling 70-200 F4 IS and getting 70-200 2.8 II (I keep the 1.4 extender anyway)
-Used 5DII as backup body, selling the 70-200 F4 IS and getting the Canon 100-400

Nota: I plan to resell whatever backup body I get after returning.

Thanks for the help!

4

Lenses / Re: Canon 85L II AF speed on 5D III???

« on: May 02, 2013, 09:47:15 PM »

Just confirmed - camera off, mounted the 85L II (set to AF), powered camera on, touched no buttons/dials/etc., and as soon as the self-clean finished, rotating the focus ring extended the front element.

Hey Neuro (and Infared) thanks for testing that.  I was doing some research and found this: "If you have the shutter button half pressed, you can override the focus manually, or if you have it set to back button focus, you will always be able to override it."  So low and behold I switched to back button focus and I was able to manually focus without touching anything else.  If you get a chance can you switch your camera to shutter button focus and verify that the front element doesn't move when you turn the focus ring if your not holding the shutter button half-way down.  I'm just super (neuro)tic and since I bought this lens from a seller on craigslist, I just want to make sure it is working properly.  Anyway, sorry to totally hi-jack this thread, but I really appreciate the help.  This is only my third day with this lens but I am totally loving it.  It's nice to be able to just open a small window in a totally dark room and have enough light to get great pictures.

Your 85L is fine. Mine behaves exactly like that (85L II with 5D3)

- if shutter button controls AF: MF override only works after pressing the shutter half way (and in AF one shot mode only, not in servo)

- if back AF-ON button controls AF: manual focus override is enabled all the time, regardless of the AF mode.

5

Software & Accessories / Re: Nik Software worth it?

« on: April 07, 2013, 04:42:31 PM »

its absolutely worth the 129.00

the noise reduction plugin is great...
colorFX and silverFX are both amazing..
HDR Pro 2 is the best HDR software out there.

when you buy the software you get more than the plugins, you also get their training.. their training videos are amazing.. the software is very user friendly, but there is a lot of power under the surface... Their training is by real photographers showing their workflow and technique. i highly recommend it.

Indeed, I find Nik's pulgins better than what Lightroom can achieve, in particular Noise reduction and above all, Color Efex and its various tonal and contrast modules, the best I've seen.

@ darrellrhodesmiller: Where do we get the training videos from? I've downloaded the full suite from the link I received via email but there was none for videos.

6

Animal Kingdom / Re: Show your Bird Portraits

« on: March 17, 2013, 05:11:29 AM »

some of mine, for some reason latelly I like to turn them into B&W

7

Canon General / Re: your scariest photography moment?

« on: March 11, 2013, 05:31:09 PM »

I was photographing lightening,had the camera and the umbrella in the same hand and just as I was switching the camera (putting another one on the tripod)  a gust of wind pulled my hand and I hit myself with the 7d's hotshoe right in the face and broke my nose

OMG, that's a winner.

But is the 7D OK?  :=)








That wasn't the scary part,2 seconds later lightening stuck the neighbouring building literally 20 ft away

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Landscape / Re: How Would You Edit This Landscape Photo?

« on: March 08, 2013, 05:38:16 PM »

Cropped a lot, rotated a bit, a lot of tonal contrast, some color burn and warming to try and get some textures out. Initially tried tilt shift effect I did not like but I see now that forgot to fully erase part of that effect at the bottom.  Should have desaturated probably a bit too!

90% done with Nik Color Efex.

I see now the flicker jpg compresion brings some nasty halos at the top egde of the mountain range


untitled-1 par Fegarix, sur Flickr

9

Lenses / Re: 50mm 1.2 / 85mm 1.2 VS Zeiss 50mm1.4 / Zeiss 85mm 1.4? Which should I buy...

« on: February 25, 2013, 04:56:03 PM »

I also plan to upgrade to the 5D Mark3 within a few months, if that makes any difference...

Yes it does make a difference. The 5D3 will greatly improve your chances with fast manuals and also with "super" fast auto such as 1.2's without needing to use LV all the time simply because the viewfinder's green dot focus confirmation is that much reliable in that camera.

I pondered more or less around the same question as you and decided the following for myself:

-50mm: discarded the 50l and Zeiss 1.4 went for the Zeiss Makro Planar F/2 because it is outstanding at any aperture and a joy to hold and use. Top build and frankly a stellar performer wide open at f/2 with macro capability (well, 1:2 but macro anyway). The 50L has only going for it the 1.2 aperture and from what I read it is not very sharp there. Look on the forums for examples of the Zeiss 50MP's bokeh and even at f2 it can compete handsomely with the 50L at 1.2.  And the famous/infameous 3D effect: oh boy does the Zeiss 50MP render in 3D

-85mm: went for the 85L: besides being very very sharp at 1.2,  my experience with the Zeiss 100 (which I also own) is that it is very very difficult to nail focus in manual at those king of apertures with medium teles such as those. The the autofocus becomes a necessity. I still use the 100 MP but for those occasions I KNOW i'll have the time to take n-pictures until hopefully one is critically focused. If you wonder  why did I chose a fast  manual 50mm such as the Zeiss 50MP, I can tell you that manually focusing at f2 at 50mm is much much easier than doing it at 85 (exit the Zeiss 85 1.4 then).

Here some examples of the  "pop" effect, bokeh, shaprness and particular contrasty colors of the Zeiss 50MP (Heck I've even had to desaturate some). You'll finder bigger on the flicker page where I put them.


untitled-3 par Fegarix, sur Flickr


untitled-10 par Fegarix, sur Flickr


untitled-4 par Fegarix, sur Flickr




And a couple of "3d" examples (though need to be appreciatted better in a bigger pic:

untitled-1 par Fegarix, sur Flickr


untitled-6 par Fegarix, sur Flickr


untitled-8 par Fegarix, sur Flickr

10

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: 5d3 and FoCal errors

« on: January 03, 2013, 02:37:34 PM »

I'm myself quite interested in this post. Have the SAME error with my 5D3 and the only answer I got is pasted below despite having purchased the top version of the software. Haven't got any further feedback after explaining I had already paid attention to those requirements.

Then I stopped trying because on one hand whenever I did I'd loose the camera's AF capability(!) and had to reset to factory values. On the other hand because I had to re-arrange half of my flat (yes, a small one ) to do each test setup... By the way, in my case was with the Canon 70-200 IS F4, the only AF lens I had at the time. Maybe this weekend I'll get the necessary motivation to try again...

Anyway, if it helps you this is what I got a few weeks ago until the emails stopped:

This message means the camera is being asked to focus and after a certain amount of time has not reported that it has achieved focus.  This could be due to a few things:

- not using the correct focus point (you can check this with the Target Setup utility),
- poor flickering lighting (e.g. mains LED or fluorescent lighting),
- unstable camera support (even solid tripods can wobble a little with longer telephoto lenses, but you shouldn't really have an issue at 200mm),
- lens focus issues

The best way to check is to disconnect the camera from the computer while not running any FoCal test, and try to manually focus on the target and see if the camera succeeds.  If there is an issue, you can move the camera a little closer to the target, or slightly shift the focus position a little.

With a 200mm lens you can run the test at anything over around 5m (this document explains testing distance in a little more detail: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11469157/FoCal/Docs/FoCal%20Test%20Distance_1.0.pdf  It may be worth trying close to 5m rather than at 10m.

Strangely, this lens has also caused some problems in the Reikan lab with regards to focusing, but we have a copy with a known focus drive issue which needs to be repaired.

11

EOS Bodies - For Video / Re: my new hero3 black, why is it better then my 7D?

« on: December 29, 2012, 09:23:38 AM »

fegari

Oh boy, do I disagree with your last sentence...

As is your right.

You'll see I use a 7D and a GoPro, so it's not like I have any direct idea of comparative qualities, strengths and weaknesses or target market or for that matter cost.

When somebody asks a silly question I always think it best to give a really silly answer, as the subtleties of irony can sometimes be lost.

I was a newb once, and I asked a professional video suppliers if they did monochrome tape.  The guy said they could order some in along with tartan paint and elbow grease,  and in the meantime he could offer me a long stand etc etc etc.

And I still ask silly questions.  Sometimes in earnest.  Sometimes to poke a viper.

That teacher that told you there was no such thing as a silly question was wrong.  There are questions that are sillier than even I could imagine just waiting to be asked.   

Thank you for your feedback.

"That teacher that told you there was no such thing as a silly question was wrong"

You almost got that one right. In fact my teacher told me there are only silly people and that questions are just questions.

Anyway, I have no interest in hijacking this post or entering into pointless arguments so I'll stop here, it is just annoying to still seeing people getting picked on because of their questions.   

12

EOS Bodies - For Video / Re: my new hero3 black, why is it better then my 7D?

« on: December 28, 2012, 09:27:00 PM »

Why doesn't my tractor taste like an apple when i bite it?

Why can't my leathrman include a two week holiday to spain?

Why can't a dslr behave like an action cam?

Somebody here is being very silly, and I'm sure it isn't me.

Oh boy, do I disagree with your last sentence...

13

Lenses / Re: Canon EF 14-24 f/2.8L in Late 2013 [CR2]

« on: December 14, 2012, 01:23:08 PM »

Very interesting focal range, hopefully it can compete with the Zeiss 21/2.8 in IQ.

However the more people say they are willing to pay 3k, 4k for it and that they'll buy ten of them...the more that Canon is going to charge 3k, 4k.

I've always thought they only leak products preciselly to finetune their price point...and have a bunch of people reading forums...see what happened with the 5D3, all forums full of people saying they were willing to sell a kidney for it...and then I had to sell mine to get it! now is significantly cheaper, not very long after release.

Anyway, hope the 14-24L becomes a reality :=)

14

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: 5D III auto focus not working after using Reikan FoCal

« on: December 11, 2012, 04:43:20 PM »

Same here with my 5D3...after the initial panick and after resetting the darn settings got the AF back...

15

Animal Kingdom / Re: Birds with attitude

« on: November 25, 2012, 05:22:28 AM »

Thought I just might share some of those angry birds too