Messages

31

Reviews / Re: Review - Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM

« on: April 12, 2013, 05:29:55 PM »

Justin, just curious about the photo labeled "Trevor Portrait". Was that lit with flash or natural light?

32

EOS-M / Re: EOS M and Flash X-Sync Question

« on: April 09, 2013, 04:15:20 PM »

I'd definitely consider buying one if high sync speeds are possible! 

High sync speed is different from high speed sync (commonly abbreviated HSS).

A high sync speed is a feature of the camera body, regardless of which flash is used . High speed sync (HSS) is a feature only available on certain flashes.

I don't care about high speed sync (HSS) because I want to use AlienBees, which do not have HSS as a feature. However, I do care about the EOS M's sync speed, because if it has a high sync speed then I can use it to cut more ambient light out of an exposure in which I use my AlienBees to light the subject.

33

EOS Bodies / Re: 6D Autofocus not impressive

« on: April 06, 2013, 02:45:37 AM »

I disagree, don't discount the MK3 sales price when the 6D sales price is 1800$. The 6D also has he equally crappy AF as the 5D2. Fell free to read my previous posts.

I'm not going by a sale price, I'm going by the actual price at which you can easily acquire the camera. There is nowhere you can buy a brand new or refurbished 5D3 and only pay $2375. Nowhere. There is one place where they advertise $2375 as the price, but you are going to pay closer to $2500 after shipping and tax. On the other hand, the 6D is easily and readily available at many major online camera retailers, brand new for an ACTUAL price of $1800 (or less, see Amazon). That is how much you pay for the 6D in total, including shipping and tax.

The 6D AF is slightly improved over the 5D2. The extra two points are meaningless, but I've found that the center point focuses excellently in low light and all of the points in general are more accurate compared to the 5D2. Other than those 2 minor things, however, you're right: the 6D autofocus sucks and I wish I had a 5D3 because I rarely compose images with the subject directly in the center of the frame.

But that's not my point. My point is this that the 5D2 is a bad value and it has no place in the current Canon lineup. No matter what your priorities are, there is a camera out there that does what the 5D2 does but better. See here:
5D3: Great low-light performance. Excellent autofocus. $2500 (refurbished).
6D: Excellent low-light performance. Mediocre autofocus. $1800 (new).
7D: Bad low-light performance. Great autofocus. $900 (used).
5D2: Medicore low-light performance. Bad autofocus. $1200 (used).

Care about low-light performance AND autofocus? Get the 5D3, but pay a high price.
Care about low-light performance, but not autofocus? Get the 6D, lower price than 5D3 but low-light performance that is miles ahead of the 5D2.
Don't care about low-light performance, but do care about price? Get the 7D, for its superior autofocus over the 5D2, and yet an even lower price as well.

If you look this completely objectively, you can see that the 5D2 has the worst value of these four cameras. I'm not saying it's a bad camera. I'm not saying you should get rid of yours immediately if you still have one. I'm just saying if you're starting from scratch there's really no reason to get the 5D2. If your priority is low-light performance, the 5D3 and the 6D are better. If your priority is getting a good price, then the 7D is better. If your priority is getting a good autofocus, then the 5D3 and the 7D are better. There is no scenario in which the 5D2 is better.

I'm not saying you're wrong, RLPhoto. And I normally enjoy reading your posts as you usually make a great contribution to the threads here. But this time, I have a strong opinion that your logic is flawed. Why can't you just admit that there is NOTHING* the 5D2 can do better than the 6D but there are SOME THINGS that the 6D can do better than the 5D2?

*Except for price. But as I've stated, if price is your priority then the 7D with it's superior autofocus and high frame-rate is superior to the 5D2 and still available at a lower price. Better value than the 5D2, even with price as your priority.

34

EOS Bodies / Re: 6D Autofocus not impressive

« on: April 05, 2013, 07:01:38 PM »

Yes, It's 1800$. I must have viewed an old page.

Not bad, but I can find mk2s locally for 1200$. Still A bad value.

The 6D is not a bad value. As a matter of fact, the 5D2 is the bad value... allow me to explain:

If you care about high-ISO noise performance, then the 6D is an incredible value at $1800 because it provides the same high-ISO performance as a $2500* 5D3 or $6000 1DX.

If you don't care about high-ISO noise performance, a used 5D2 is a bad value because it costs $1200 and has crappy autofocus whereas a used 7D can be had for $900 and has superior autofocus.

*Please do not say that the 5D3 is easily available for $2375 or whatever refurbished. That price is only when you buy direct from Canon, and Canon adds sales tax and shipping which drives the price closer to or over $2500.

35

EOS Bodies / Re: 6D Autofocus not impressive

« on: April 02, 2013, 02:17:56 PM »

More like a market for a re-badged 1200$ 5d2 performing camera that costs 2000$. 

Useable 12800 ISO is nothing to scoff at coming from a 5D2. The center AF point is fantastic in low light as well. If you need the low-light performance, the 6D is easily worth an extra $500 over the 5D2.

How do I know? I upgraded from a 5D2 to a 6D, and I will never go back!

36

Lighting / Re: 600EX RT vs AlienBees

« on: March 25, 2013, 05:01:39 PM »

Well, I've made my decision.

Was shooting some dancers in a theater yesterday after their performance. Had three speedlights set up, and the main light (430EX II) failed. I did bring tons of extra batteries and had two extra speedlights as a backup but there was simply no time to troubleshoot, so I just decided to wing it with the 2 lights I already had set up.

The resulting photos are acceptable and the client will like them but I am unhappy with them. The first few shots before the speedlight failed look exactly how I envisioned the whole shoot and are completely amazing.

And the whole time I was shooting I saw these electrical outlets everywhere. They were all over the stage, they were all over the walls, and I wished I'd had AlienBees instead of speedlights -- they were the right tool for the job.

37

EOS-M / Re: EOS M and Flash X-Sync Question

« on: March 22, 2013, 06:44:13 PM »

First of all, the maximum shutter speed on the EOS-M is one four thousanth of a second. With a Canon 580EXII flash and the EOS-M set to high speed sync, you can use the fastest shutter speed available. There is no PC terminal on the EOS-M so a triggering device would have to be fitted to the hot shoe for strobes.

PC terminal doesn't work with HSS anyway, as the camera must communicate to the flash to let it know when the shutter is going to open.

Anyways, the question has nothing to do with HSS. We just want to know the normal flash sync speed of this camera.

38

EOS-M / Re: EOS M and Flash X-Sync Question

« on: March 22, 2013, 03:47:48 PM »

phottix odin on it lets me fire up to 1/8000 sec on my elinchrom lights if that helps

That's just an old trick that works with any camera -- turn your strobes up to full power so the flash duration is longer and set your shutter speed to the fastest it will go and chances are the flash will be lit the entire time the shutter is open.

At less than full power flash or with a slower shutter speed this doesn't work anymore. Try it with 1/1000s and strobe at half power.

39

Speedlites, Printers, Accessories / Re: Best diffuser for canon 430 ex II?

« on: March 21, 2013, 10:09:33 PM »

At the first wedding I shot, I used a Sto-fen on my 430EX II for the reception. The photographs with the Sto-fen were properly exposed but mediocre in terms of lighting (ugly shadows behind people with dark, underexposed backgrounds/cave look).

I now shoot with the 430EX II bare and on-camera as a fill flash (usually with -1 or -2 stops of FEC) and let two Yongnuo YN560 flashes do the heavy lifting from off-camera light stands.

I still use the Sto-fens from time to time, but they stay off the camera. I only use them when I want my off-camera flashes to have a bare-bulb lighting effect.

Definitely take a look at the YN560s... only ~$50 a piece and they will do a hell of a lot more for your lighting than any on-camera diffuser. Alternatively, depending on what kind of studio strobes you have you can get a battery pack and use them instead of the Yongnuos for the off-camera lights.

40

EOS-M / Re: EOS M and Flash X-Sync Question

« on: March 21, 2013, 02:35:44 AM »

I would be interested in this as well. Any EOS M owners out there want to try it for us? I'd definitely consider buying one if high sync speeds are possible! 

41

EOS Bodies / Re: Canon EOS-b Images Leak & a New Kit Lens

« on: March 19, 2013, 12:51:31 PM »

So the 6D has a sync speed of 1/180th while this toy camera could go up to 1/200th? If that's true I really don't get what Canon is doing with the specs of their semi-pro/pro cameras…

The crop cameras have a much smaller sensor so the shutter curtain doesn't have to travel as far. That's why it's easier to make crop cameras with a fast sync speed compared to a full frame.

By the way I have a 6D which I use with off-camera manual flash at 1/200s and it syncs correctly at least 80% of the time.

42

Lighting / Re: ST-E3-RT and 600EX-RT to trigger 580EXii ?

« on: March 13, 2013, 12:24:11 PM »

Alex, if you want to trigger the 600EX with the ST-E3 and then have your manual slave triggered optically by the 600EX, there is a way to do it:

Sell your 580EX for ~$350 and buy five Yongnuo YN-560 II flashes. They are manual only -- when you set them to S2 mode they will ignore the 600EX's TTL preflash and fire during the main flash. Exactly what you want, and you can get five of them for selling just the 580EX!

43

Speedlites, Printers, Accessories / Re: Chinese aftermarket guns

« on: March 09, 2013, 04:02:02 PM »

You're raising an important point, by implication at least.  The value proposition of a $300 Phottix is a bit different from that of a $167 Yongnuo.  At $300 for a 580ex ii-like featureset I think I'd rather have a 580ex ii.  At least the 580 can be repaired/refurbished, I assume. 

There is a price threshold which makes the China-based flash solutions attractive compared to the latest Canon solution.  For me, that threshold is a bit lower than $300.  That said, the Phottex featureset (including their triggers) is attractive, to be sure, which means that your decision point may be more about features than price.  If you value the Phottix featureset and the ability to update the flash in the future, then your decision is pretty much  made -- especially if you are already invested in their triggers and have confidence in the promise of updates.  The assumption here is that investing $300 today in an  updatable Phottix flash will assure compatibiilty with future Canon cameras yet to be announced and which may introduce new things, i.e. a new ETTL version.    that, or it assumes that bug fixes are addressed via firmware updates.  I don't have any experience with Phottix, but something tells me that the inclusion of a USB port is more about bug fixes than adding new functionality to pace the market.  There's no incentive, unless they charge money for firmware updates, for them to add new features to existing hardware.  i would think they would rather sell more hardware . In the Phottix model, you pay more up front and expect hardware quality to be commensurate with a long term investment.  When you update you get new life out of the same hardware.  Kind of like putting new ink into a worn print head. 

The Yongnuo model is different.  Future proofing comes in the form of buying a new flash (the Yongnuos are just over half the cost of the Phottix).  Yongnuo's quality model emphasizes initial quality and hardware repalcement under warranty, instead of firmware updates.   You pay about half the cost up front, compared to Phottix (a third of the cost compared to Canon) leaving dollars on the table to invest in new hardware at a later date.  When you update, you buy new hardware.  kind of like replacing your ink cartridge instead of re-filling it.

I doubt Phottix would add features via the USB port -- my guess is they will only use it to update the flash to be compatible with new cameras/triggers.

However, Phottix stuff is durable and reliable, and I believe their customer service is good as well (though I've never had to test that out for myself). I trust the Phottix brand to the point where if a Phottix flash's features match a Canon flash but at a lower price, I would just buy the Phottix and not feel like I was settling for an inferior product.

Whereas with Yongnuo, I'd prefer to have the Canon if I could afford it.

44

Speedlites, Printers, Accessories / Re: how reliable are cheap third party flashes (yongnuo)

« on: March 09, 2013, 03:56:31 PM »

Never had a problem with my YN560s. I use the original one as it's cheaper than the II or III. If you need a manual hotshoe flash this is a great choice. If it fails in a year or two it's cheap enough that you can buy a new one.

45

Lighting / Re: 600EX RT vs AlienBees

« on: March 09, 2013, 03:50:36 PM »

Will this work with one of the new Canon radio controllers like the 600EX-RT, or I think the other is the ST-E3-RT?

No, CyberSync won't work with the Canon RT system. No 3rd party radio system does, and I suspect there won't be one for a while, if ever.

However, I have seen some people use a Canon 580EX II flash in TTL mode on camera, and they velcroed the Cyber Commander to their 580 and plugged in to the camera's PC port. The camera would trigger the 580 through the hotshoe and the Alien Bee's/Einsteins from the PC port, and still use the Cyber Commander to remotely control power of the strobes.

And yes, the antenna on top of the Einsteins in the pictures on the Paul Buff site are the Cyber Sync receivers, but they don't come with the Einsteins and you have to buy them separately. (~$20)