Messages

361

EOS Bodies / Re: Canon, range finder to medium format.

« on: January 13, 2012, 09:46:41 AM »

As a company, Contax no longer exists so there's nothing to acquire except the brand name.

I expect lenses from the Contax 645 series could work with a Hasselblad but surely not their 35mm lenses - a 35mm lens's image circle is too small. For the same reason, medium format with an EF mount is not possible.

Sorry to wake you from your dream. 

362

Lenses / Re: Canon EF 28 f/2.8 Disappears From Price List

« on: January 13, 2012, 09:13:00 AM »

I hope they replace these non-L primes with new, inexpensive non-L primes but somehow, I doubt they will.

363

EOS Bodies / Re: New 5D MK2 Owner

« on: January 11, 2012, 05:40:49 AM »

Did anyone else spot the spelling mistake on the photo that Ron posted? 

364

EOS Bodies / Re: Nikon D4 gets it right on movie mode!.....will Canon strike back?

« on: January 09, 2012, 05:54:29 AM »

-Full-time AF - In addition to manual focus, four modes are available, including normal, wide area, face detection and subject tracking, which uses fast contrast detect AF to accurately focus while recording video and in live view.

On paper this represents a real leap forward in Dslr movie making: Expanding possibility for experienced cinematographer but also helping still photographer(weddings,ceremony,journalist etc.) shooting movie on the fly without getting stacked with manual focus issues

"Fast contrast detect AF" is surely a contradiction in terms. It might prove to be "less slow" but I feel sure it won't be "fast" by any comparison with phase detect AF. Remember that contrast detect AF cannot focus-track on moving subjects.

If you're expecting Nikon's AF system to lock immediately when panning from one focus distance to another, thereby eliminating the intervening period of non-focus, prepare to be disappointed.

365

EOS Bodies / Shutter Life - non-serious post :-)

« on: January 07, 2012, 04:24:57 AM »

It's nice to see that the 1D-X's shutter life of 400,000 actuations takes a full 9 hours 16 minutes to be exceeded, when used at 12fps.

This is better than the 1DIV shutter's lifespan of 300,000 actuations which, at 10fps, takes a measly 8 hours 20 minutes to be exceeded.

 

(Both times are obviously theoretical and ignore all other factors).

366

PowerShot Cameras / Re: Making sense of compact camera sensor sizes

« on: January 06, 2012, 01:25:58 AM »

Many thanks for the link, Peter.

Quote from Wikipedia:

"The sensor sizes of many compact digital cameras are expressed in terms of the non-standardized "inch" system, as approximately 1.5 times the length of the diagonal of the sensor. This goes back to the way image sizes of early video cameras were expressed in terms of the outside diameter of the glass envelope of the video camera tube."

As a unit of measurement for today's compact camera sensors, this seems completely bonkers! It only confirms the validity of my question: why can't they just state the height and width in mm!?

367

PowerShot Cameras / Making sense of compact camera sensor sizes

« on: January 05, 2012, 11:50:04 PM »

I've never really been interested in compact cameras but now that the good ones are getting bigger sensors, I'd like to be a bit more informed about them.

Please would someone explain to me what 1/1.5" means. I know that it doesn't mean the sensor is 1" x 1.5" because that would make it fractionally larger than full-frame.

I think I'm right in believing that it indicates the ratio of height and width, but how does it tell me what actual size the sensor is. Why don't the manufacturers simply state the sensor's height and width in mm so that simpletons like me can understand?

368

PowerShot Cameras / Re: The Future of the G Series

« on: November 12, 2011, 08:10:11 PM »

Do people still by G Series, when they could have a not-much-bigger Olympus E-PL3 or similar? The G Series looks obsolete to me - none of the compactness of the S100, inferior image quality to the compact system cameras.

369

Lenses / Re: canon is not for poor film makers anymore! 47,000$??!!!

« on: November 05, 2011, 06:00:32 AM »

haha, I've been to India. I know what you guys mean by "good deals". You want quality but you don't want to pay for it.

I hope I'm not alone in finding this remark objectionable.

370

Lenses / How much!?

« on: November 04, 2011, 07:36:54 AM »

Canon, I take my hat off to you. $45,000 for a lens. A new benchmark. I suppose it will make new L lenses seem cheap.

371

Lenses / Re: Another WA question

« on: October 29, 2011, 06:56:54 AM »

I have a Sigma12-24mm II and would recommend it if you plan to switch to FF in the future.

372

Lenses / Re: The price 300mm 2.8 IS--is just greed--maybe?

« on: October 26, 2011, 02:26:53 PM »

I know we'll never see those figures from Canon, but if I had to guess, for every 1 EOS camera, the breakdown of the 1.5 lenses would look like this:

• 0.95 EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 (various flavors)
• 0.30 EF-S 55-250mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
• 0.15 EF 50mm f/1.8 II
• 0.05 EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
• 0.0499999999 all other lenses except the supertele primes
• 0.0000000001 supertele primes

Being the obsessive aspie that I am, I applied your estimated fractions to the number of EF lenses actually made and calculated that Canon have made 0.007 supertele primes! 

EDIT: correction - 0.004666 supertele primes :-)

373

Lenses / Re: The price 300mm 2.8 IS--is just greed--maybe?

« on: October 25, 2011, 11:13:15 AM »

I do have some sympathy with the OP's view. Here in the UK, the best available price on a 600mm f4L II is about the same as a Volkswagen Polo. There's no denying that, in absolute terms, that's a huge amount of money for for what is essentially 16 pieces of glass in an alloy tube. Also, version II is about £3,000 more than version I (which incidentally has 17 elements). That's pretty hard to reconcile.

374

EOS Bodies / Re: Does 1DX mean Canon is reshuffling their pro lineup?

« on: October 23, 2011, 04:04:53 PM »

Regarding updating the AF, history has shown there's no need. First off, Nikon's AF isn't necessarily 'kick-ass'.  Just like more MP doesn't automatically make a sensor better, more AF points don't automatically make for better AF. Nikon's systems have never had the high-precision points that Canon offers, for example. More importantly, Canon can look back at sales records. The 40D, 50D, and 60D use the same AF.  The 5DII was a huge success, using the same AF as the 5D but with more MP. So who's to say a 5DIII with even more MP and still the same AF won't sell, especially stacked up against a 1D X with less MP? 

I know it's not a popular opinion, but don't be surprised to see the 5D's AF reused on the 5DIII, or if not that, a token improvement.  If they give it a high MP sensor, compared to the 1D X, they've got to not give it something else.  Weak AF, only one Digic5+ so the frame rate drops lower that the Rebel line, some kind of handicap will be there. Pick your poison...

As I've mentioned before in these forums, I believe most 5D MkIIs are owned by amateur enthusiasts for whom it is their only body (other than the old Rebel from which they upgraded). As such, it has to have good capabilities in all types of photography if it is to to appeal to its largest audience. And yet, if internet forums are any guide, a large section of MkII users are often frustrated by its substandard ability to track moving subjects in AI Servo AF. Neuro, you yourself have said in the past how much better your 7D is at tracking.

I'm willing to accept all sorts of compromises in the 5D MkIII's spec but if the AF remained the same, I certainly wouldn't upgrade. AF is simply too fundamental to the camera's overall performance for it to be compromised for marketing reasons and I believe Canon will soon learn this if they leave the MkIII's AF system unchanged.

375

EOS Bodies / Re: Does 1DX mean Canon is reshuffling their pro lineup?

« on: October 23, 2011, 06:37:45 AM »

My take on this, FWIW...

I think that Canon are essentially taking a new direction in their camera strategy. I expect that they will announce a new, effectively, medium format camera for studio users. I think this will be in the range 30 to 50 megapixels (I expect around 40 for first generation). Part of me says that this will be with a new lens system...the other part of me says they will stick with the EF mount. I also half expect the new MF camera to be mirror-less...

Just my 2 cents worth!

How would EF lenses work with medium format? The image circle wouldn't be big enough.