Topics

1

Speedlites, Printers, Accessories / Batteries or Charger fault?

« on: March 12, 2013, 11:22:36 AM »

Hi all!
Need a bit of advice please on my battery/charger situation.

When charging my 2 batteries [40d], the charger goes through all the light blinking i.e. 1 blink, 2 blinks, 3 blinks then continuous.
It does this in about 20mins which seems a bit quick and then when I put them in the camera they display as full for a minute then drop to 'low'.
I'm wondering if anybody knows what is happening? I'm thinking it's the charger not charging properly since this is happening on both batteries but they are the same age and getting on bit [6 years], maybe they lost their charge?
I can't test them out on anyone else's gear because they have different batteries for their bodies.

Anyway thanks in advance

2

Lenses / 17-40mm advice please!

« on: March 01, 2013, 06:20:32 AM »

Hi All
My Efs 17-85 broke awhile ago so I have been looking into getting a new lens.
I'm almost settled on going with the 17-40mm because:

I have a £600 budget [no 16-35mm]
Am a crop user that will upgrade to FF soon.
I mainly shoot with in 24-35mm range but would sometimes like wider, say 20mm
I'm mainly do landscapes in the day [but don't usually use a tripod]

Before I buy, I would like to ask is there another lens option somebody knows about/ can recommend? I'v been using a tamron 17-50mm for a few weeks that I like but I don't think it will work on FF. I'm also thinking they could possibly update the 17-40mm soon [it's like what? 10 years old?] to include IS and better optics but still f4 as so not to compete with the 16-35mm, anyone else think this is a possibility?

Thank you in advance!

3

Canon General / Jessops [UK camera retailer] closes

« on: January 15, 2013, 06:22:04 AM »

Sad news for it's staff and another blow to the uk high streets. With HMV sure to follow, its only going to be a few years until there is nothing left but coffee shops, eateries and clothes shops in city centres.
I just can't see the old business model of having a big 'bricks and mortar' presence working for a lot of companies now.

It got me thinking of these new 'Canon Stores', obviously it's a take on Apple stores and if it has a technical support area and a sensor cleaning/general servicing area, then cool right? Yeah, but how much revenue would come from people paying for the service as opposed to people using the warranty period? The only way I see them surviving the long run is if the in store prices can match popular online vendors. If a stores that sold a wide range of P&S's, Mirrorless,  DSLR's, lenses and accessories  from: Canon, Nikon, Sony, Olympus, Samsung and others has gone bust, then what chance does a store chance if they just sell Canon products at max RRP? 

Aping Apple is just not a smart move for most companies. If you buy a new mac [not older models] from the Apple store it will cost you 'lets say' '£1,000', if you buy it from the online Apple store it will cost you £1,000, if you buy it from another vendor it will cost you '£1,000'. Therefore, you feel comfortable walking into the store and shelling out the cash, knowing that it's not cheaper elsewhere.
You can still shop around for deals with camera gear and I doubt these Canon stores will offer the best prices.

4

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Quick 5Dmkiii WiFi Question

« on: December 19, 2012, 07:15:29 AM »

Hi all!
I was just wondering if anyone could enlighten me on the 5dmkiii wifi functions? If you get the wifi add-on can you use the same phone app as on the 6d and get all the same features? It would come in handy if I bought a 6d but I'm more inclined to go that last mile and fork out for the 5dmkiii.
Cheers!

5

Canon General / Any Pro Music and Band Photographers?

« on: October 21, 2012, 06:51:04 AM »

Hi, I'm after some insights from Pro Band photographers on how are you making money?
Not because I want to follow in your footsteps, been there, had my fun. [I always got too drunk at gigs and it became hazardous to my gear]
I ask because I have recently become aware of artists such as Coldplay, LadyGaga and the Stone Roses, are asking for full ownership of merchandising and editorial rights. As I understand, you are allowed to sell your photos to one publication just once. AND you can't even use them in your portfolio.
Now I can understand the merchandising rights because they obviously don't want their band/faces printed on condoms or something inappropriate, but can you get a percentage for the photos they actually use for marketing?
As to the editorial rights, thats just plain greed.
It seems like they are getting photographers to turn up for free, work for free and then take all ownership of the work and use it to make money. Please tell me if I am missing anything, do you get a one off fee for turning up?
From an industry that is advocating artists copyrights and cracking down on pirated music, I find it highly hypocritical and upsetting that they would start trampling other artists rights just to earn more money.
Hopefully it's just a few artists with these demands.

6

Third Party Manufacturers / Macbook pro retina advice

« on: July 04, 2012, 09:37:10 PM »

Sooooo, I'm in the market for a new macbook to do my editing on and general computer stuff. I'm on a tight budget!

I wanted to wait to see how much the 13 Inch macbook pro Retina [can't afford the 15inch] will cost [prob shipping oct] and more importantly, what size SSD the 'cheaper' version will ship with because I can't have less than 250G. but now I'm leaning towards getting 13 inch mbp without retina because it comes with enough space, is fast enough, within budget and can be upgraded at a later date when I have saved a bit of money. The only thing that really puts me off is the screen, its glossy [reflective] and is the lowest rez of the macbooks, even the macbook airs have a higher rez screen.

I have seen the 15inch mbp retina screen [twice] and I have to say it's pretty damn fine, for photos it's stunning. Yet there are a few drawbacks, websites look like crap atm because of the higher rez. Apps that haven't been upgraded yet have blurry text, I loaded up photoshop and imported a pic that looked amazing in aperture and it looked pretty bad. I guess apps will be updated soon enough though but some websites might even take a few years to be optimized for retina/hi rez.
Another problem is that people have reported screen burning and other faults, how long will it take before initial problems are sorted? Also the machine is non user upgradeable and difficult to repair, leaving you at the mercy of apple and the really reasonable prices they charge you to fix stuff 

So is it better to future proof with the retina display and hope I don't need to add any upgrades and pray it doesn't break?
Or get the regular 13inch, put up with the display, enjoy cheaper repair bills and the ability to upgrade RAM and HD?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

7

EOS Bodies / Who is waiting for Canon Mirrorless?

« on: May 26, 2012, 07:53:07 AM »

Hi All!
I'v been a long time fan of this site but I don't usually participate in forums much, hence just signed up.

Anyway, I'm a canon user [currently use a 40D] who's just stumbled upon mirrorless cameras. At first I dismissed them as being inferior to DSLR's but after a bit of research I began to see useful they could be, and began to see them as 'another weapon in the arsenal'. See, I'm quite protective of my gear [can't afford to replace it  ] so unless it's for work or a specific project that I'm working on, my 40D isn't always by my side. Which as a photographer, is a fairly stupid situation to be in

So I thought about waiting for a canon mirrorless so that I can have a 'weapon' by my side at all times.
Now here comes my question: Why wait for Canon?

Well I already own Canon equipment so I guess it is natural to stick to a 'tried and tested', but on more consideration I thought "the lens mount will probably be new, so I'll have to buy new lenses and buy into a system again". I then saw no advantage of waiting for a Canon mirrorless.

I'm leaning heavily towards a Nex 5n or Lumix G3 [midrange/ mid price]
Just interested in knowing what other users are doing really and why.
Thanks