Messages

4891

Lenses / Re: EF 35-350mm L vs. EF 28-300mm L IS

« on: January 22, 2012, 10:47:38 PM »

I bought a 35-350 last summer, nice lens.  The rear element was covered with dust on the outside, but after cleaning it, it was spotless inside.

Here are two sample images taken from the same point and focused on the same flower at min and max focal lengths.  Handheld.

at 35mm: 



at 350mm:

4892

Software & Accessories / Re: Lightroom 4 Beta What happened to the Noise?

« on: January 22, 2012, 07:56:22 PM »

I seldom use ISO 6400 with my 5D MK II, but took about 5 images out of hundreds due to the low stage lighting Thursday night at our local small town school play.

I went ahead and developed the images in LR 4 with NR turned off.  There is a little added sharpening.  In the past, this image would have had very noticible noise.  Something is different, I can only really see it at 1:1, and then, its faint.



There is noise, mostly chroma, as you can see in the 100% crop, but its pretty minimal, and just a little NR makes it go away.

4893

Lenses / Re: Focus speed comparison between 70-200 f4L and 200 f2.8L II

« on: January 22, 2012, 07:28:14 PM »

I own the 2.8 Mark II, a friend owns the f4 IS.  To me the 2.8 feels faster, but not by much.  The 2.8 part is critical for night sports.  Honestly when It's not my primary lens, I wish I had the f4.  I even traded my buddy for a week when I went traveling.

His take on the 2.8 II: Wow it's awesome.  Wow it's heavy.

+1

Exactly my feeling.  I bought one and returned it.  Then a year later, I bought a refurb at the 15% off price thinkiing maybe it wasn't as heavy as I thought.  Returned it as well, I've been hooked on primes.

4894

Lenses / Re: Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L II [CR2]

« on: January 22, 2012, 06:45:29 PM »

Based on rumors over the years, Canon has yet to find a design that users really like, but then, I never liked the five copies of the existing 24-70mm L that I had. 

I certainly hope they can come up with one that is better and lighter. 

4895

Lenses / Re: Focus speed comparison between 70-200 f4L and 200 f2.8L II

« on: January 22, 2012, 06:39:57 PM »

There are no focus speed specifications, and focus speed is impacted by not only the subject, but by the amount of light, as well as camera body, and likely other things as well, so careful testing on a range of targets, distances, light levels, and camera bodies would be needed to really get a correct answer.

Until a test method comes along, we only have the feelings and opinions of users, no facts.

I've had both, and never noticed a significant difference, both were fast enough for me.

4896

Canon General / Re: Never delete images 'in camera'

« on: January 22, 2012, 02:02:33 PM »

There is no problem deleting images while in your camera, many photographers do this all the time.  Its certainly not going to damage your processor.  I'd take anything your friend says about photography with a grain of salt from now on.

However, unless you need desparately to make more space on your card, I'd just transfer all the files to a computer and then decide which ones to keep or delete.  It may turn out that that image you wanted to delete was one that you will keep, or you may accidentally delete the wrong one, and you can easily undelete on your computer if that happens.

4897

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: 5D Mark II or 1D Mark III

« on: January 22, 2012, 01:44:26 PM »

I've had the 1D MK III, 5D MK II, and 7D.  The best for wide vistas is the 5D MK II.  My 1D MK III was wonderful, not enough MP for high detail, and there are no wide lenses for it.  You need a 13mm lens to be the equivalent of 17mm with the 5D MK II.  I bought a 14mm Samyang to try with the 1D MK III, but that lens was a piece of junk, and the 1D MK III did not work right with it except in full manual.

The 10-22 sounds like a good way to go, otherwise, I'd get a FF body. 

Since you are on a motorcycle, why not look at smaller cameras?  There are a number of small mirrorless cameras on the market that would be a lot easier to take on a cycle.

I took this image in Yellowstone with my 17-40L and 5D MK II at 28mm.  I was on a boardwalk and could not move back, so a wide, but not superwide was needed.



Old Faithful at 70mm /5D MK II.  I had to back way off with my 70-200mm f/4 L, a wider lens should have been used.

4898

Software & Accessories / Re: Lightroom 4 Beta now available

« on: January 22, 2012, 11:55:04 AM »

Thank you Mt. Spokane.  Should I download the V4 Beta and use V3 books and tutorials or just use V3 with the appropriate study materials?  Not sure how much difference there is between V3 and V4?  I would need to buy V3 or download the trial version (not sure how much I can learn in 30 days).

Dumb question - Can you save a processed RAW (Canon 7D) image in Lightroom as a TIFF or JPEG for sharing with others or web posting?

And I have PSE 8 but I have never used it or even read chapter 1 of the book I bought.  My question is, do you even need PSE if you use Lightroom?

Many thanks for all your help.  Carl

I'd borrow a book on LR 3, books on LR 4 are not available.  However, you can download a trial version of LR3 and test it.

LR 4 does not work significantly different from LR 3, but the edit controls have changed quite a bit, and soft proofing, book creation, and lots of minor changes have occurred.  Using the beta LR4 is fine for a experienced LR user, but  for a new user, I'd hold back.  There are bugs, and they might discourage you from using what will be a fine product once the actual release happens.

In lightroom, the process of saving a file to a different format is called exporting.  You can export a edited copy to tiff, dng, jpg, and other common formats.  The original RAW file is unchanged, you are making a separate file with your edits baked in to the file.

If you already have tiff, dng, jpeg, etc.  You can edit those files in lightroom, but cannot convert them back to CR2.  CR2 files are basically Tiff formatted images with a bunch of extra information added in.

Yes, LR can edit a tiff , jpg, dng, and other formats.


PSE 8 may do some things that LR cannot do, however, I have photoshop CS5 and only use it occasionally for doing some things that LR cannot do.  There are a ton of things you can do in photoshop and not in Lightroom, but they are not commonly used features for most photo editing.  LR can be looked at as a subset of photoshop features plus additional ones intended for editing photographs, while PS has a much broader application.

4899

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Will new 1d Mark IVs drop in price come March?

« on: January 22, 2012, 11:32:45 AM »

I expect prices to rise.  That typically happens when a new higher priced model arrives.

4900

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: 1DX Cards

« on: January 22, 2012, 11:30:00 AM »

Help requested..
I will buy the 1DX as soon as I can get hold of one. I want to know which would be the best (speed and capacity) memory card for it? I do wildlife photography and want to reduce buffering time after shooting bursts.
I currently use 5d2 and 7d. Will the cards you advice work on these camera's as well?
Thank you for your time.

The buffer is built into the camera, and buffering time is fixed.  A fast card will not change it, but will speed up the process of emptying the buffer.  I'd get the fastest CF card available, 16 or 32GB at least.  i'd also stick to Sandisk or Lexar rather than going for a cheapie.

4901

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: How many 1D X pre-orders will be fulfilled on release?

« on: January 21, 2012, 08:34:36 PM »

B&H generally does not take pre-orders until they are notified that a shipment is imminent.

They told me it's because Canon hasn't confirmed the price yet.  I heard that there were incidents where their pre-order price was lower than the manufacturer's final price and they didn't ask the pre-order customers to pay the difference.

B&H has not taken pre-orders in the last few years, at least.  They usually take orders less than a week before a new model arrives.

Even Adorama is not taking them.  They have said its because a price hasn't been announced, but they were taking phone only orders from previous customers and the price was $9999 as a place holder because a firm price was not set.

4902

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: 1dx is it all hype or the camera we have been waiting for?

« on: January 21, 2012, 08:28:56 PM »

It seems pretty clear that Canon was reacting to Nikon's announcement.

Reacting to WHAT announcement?  The one Nikon made a couple of months later??

The Nikon and Canon bodies will be available within a few weeks of each other, this is not a long time as was noted.

Since neither is available yet, we only have approximate availability dates to go by, and either or both might slide.

4903

Software & Accessories / Free CPS 2012 Pocket Appointment Calendar / Log

« on: January 21, 2012, 01:11:38 PM »

I just received my annual free CPS Pocket Calendar / Note book, its about 3.5 X 6 in and a little under 1/2 thick with black simulated leather pages. 

I do not have a use for it so I'll give it to the first person who wants it.

I do ask that you paypal me the actual shipping cost of $2.75 for mail to any US location (includes cost of padded mailer).  I'll also send it to Canada, for my cost, its about the same, but remember, Canada customs sometimes takes weeks, so it can be fast, or slow and frustrating.

It has a daily calendar, lens specifications, removable phone number log, and lots of other useful stuff.

PM me if you want it.

4904

Lighting / Re: Any suggestions on cheap ebay triggers / poverty wizards?

« on: January 21, 2012, 12:30:56 PM »

I bought some of the low cost wireless triggers from ebay.  They had about a 6 ft range on a good day.  Be careful.

4905

Software & Accessories / Re: Lightroom 4 Beta now available

« on: January 20, 2012, 11:05:18 PM »

Anyone have any info on the release date (or estimate) for the final version?  And is LR4 a good place to start for a new user of post processing software who is actually just starting with RAW?  I have always used JPEG with my 7D and counted on getting it as good as possible in the camera, has not always worked!

If you use a PC, lightroom is very good.  For Macs, Aperture is very popular.

You do need to understand how lightroom works, go to a library and borrow a Lightroom 3 book.  Lightroom does not change your original photos, it merely saves the adjustments in a database, and renders them real time so you can see what the proposed changes will look like.  This allows you to come back at any time and re-edit, or even edit multiple virtual versions of the same print, for example a version for 4 X 6 prints, and another for 8 X 10 prints, or a web version.  you can have as many as you want, you are merely saving a bunch of different settings in a database.  Each set of edits has a low resolution image associated with the virtual image, you can make them high resolution, but your database will grow quickly.  You can also specify a life for those rendered images so you do not have to store them forever.  You can always generate a new one in a second or less.

When you are ready, you can then export a COPY of your image that has the changes cooked in, but your original is unchanged.  You also need to get your head around the image management part, you no longer need to sort images into dozens of different folders / directories, you can sort by title, keyword, date, place, camera, lens, aperture, ISO, almost anything.  Its very powerful, but using all the features as they were intended requires some self training, or you can take a class. 
The discovery method will waste a lot of your time.