Messages

31

Lenses / Focal Distance: furthest possible maintaining blurred BG

« on: November 23, 2012, 08:43:24 AM »

Hi!
I was wondering with which lens (on FF/crop) one gets the largest object still isolated from the background.
It is probably safe to define "still isolated" as "if near focus is 0% and infinity is 100%, putting the focus to 80% (maybe 90% for macro lenses) still isolates an object at focal distance".

Of course in a single shot (no pano) with a canon camera and without any tilting, post-processing or other manipulations.

What I don't mean is the distance from the camera, but the size of object fitting the conditions above.

32

Software & Accessories / Re: Compact Travel Tripod with Head for Video and Photos

« on: November 18, 2012, 06:21:23 PM »

The Cullmann Nanomax 200T (not sure wether this is the "52001") is solid stable without extendend legs, even more if you take the "spreaded" position. only problem: the grass might block your view
One extension is a bit criticial for balance, the height/base surface ratio is not that optimal, but in the field I normally find a suitable spot to have one leg spreaded. so if you are NOT on a flat field, there is always a stable position. Im quite creative in positioning it

Fully extendend, i would not mount the sigma 150mm with camera on it, it may hold, but i couldnt be at rest nearby, even more if there is more than the slightest breeze

The head should be replaceable - never tried it as a havent seen any lighter head, and a ballhead is ok for me; its the weight that counts

I have tested it for travelling - walked with it all over the Zwischbergenpass (~3300 meters over sealevel), thats some 1700m ascent in two days - took the 600D, 11-16 tokina, 40STM, 85f/1.8 and sigma 150mm OS and of course this tripod with me - and some other things like food and clothes It was the weight of the sigma that nearly killed me...

33

Software & Accessories / Re: Compact Travel Tripod with Head for Video and Photos

« on: November 18, 2012, 05:53:50 AM »

I have a Cullmann Nanomax 200T, it it very lightweight and very compact, but, as one might expect, not super stable (but totally acceptable if not fully extended).
I have used it so far for non-nodalpoint-critical panos with the 600D and the sigma 150mm and a "long time exposure" of the nightly sky consisting of 400 pics, each exposed for 30sec.

With the right head it might also fit for video, as long as you dont want ultrasmooth, perfectly stable pans

34

Lenses / Re: BIG MEGAPIXELS small lenses?

« on: November 17, 2012, 05:51:18 AM »

Zeiss will release some lenses that are supposed to deliver enough resolution:
http://blogs.zeiss.com/photo/en/?p=2860#more-2860

35

Landscape / Re: Help Me Get Better - Crashing Waves

« on: November 16, 2012, 05:01:04 PM »

i like image 2306 - its like the impact of a bombshell (not that i ever seen one, but hollywood says it looks that way. But as others said, underexposed because of the sky and all the white foam.

36

Lens Gallery / Lensbaby Edge 80 Optic

« on: November 16, 2012, 04:54:49 PM »

Finally got the "new" lensbay edge 80 optics this week, and this afternoon i finally had time for the first stroll with it. Enjoy a nice view of zurich, switzerland
I mounted the optic on the Lensbaby Composer, all shot with the 600D. Post in LR.


The very first picture by SwissBear85, on Flickr
The focussed stripe should be a bit more tilted counterclock wise to match the quai...


Bahnhof Stadelhofen, Hauptpendelzeit by SwissBear85, on Flickr

37

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Convince me to shoot in RAW

« on: November 09, 2012, 09:00:41 AM »

RAW is that back-up mechanism that lets you correct the missed manual EV stteing to compensate the black tux or that bright window behind your subject.

Oh, and dont hesitate to underexpose 1-2 stops to get a more reasonable shutterspeed

38

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Convince me to shoot in RAW

« on: November 09, 2012, 08:43:33 AM »

For Lightroom: after the import (actually after the first 10-20 images have loaded), i check in the "previous import" every pic and use pick [ p ] and reject [ x ] while having a first look at the pictures. everything that is obviously bad gets trashed.
then i select via attributes (top middle in the catalogue window) either all rejected pic or, depending on the projet, all that are not picked and the rejected. Then its easy: selet all, delete (also from disk).

Woosh, and you have only the pictures left on your drive that are "good".

Then make a new collection and put everything that i wanna keep in it and then the real work begins and however so often another pic gets an [ x ] and sooner, but normally later (that point when only 50GB are left on the drive) it gets cleaned

I work on a 2 year old mid-class notebook, previewing is normally fast (1sec per picture to get full resolution, 2sec max to change to develop).
On my desktop (which catches dust at my parents home), a 3 year old i7-920 then-high-end-gaming machine, there is no visible delay.
So your computer should be able to cope quite well with RAWs, as also jpegs need to be decoded.

39

Lenses / Re: do image stabilisers decrease image quality?

« on: November 09, 2012, 06:10:05 AM »

I observe (sometimes) with my 24-105 that if the IS kicks in heavily, the bokeh SUFFERS.
The focussed parts are still quite sharp, but the bokeh gets wild and rough.

This makes actually some sense, as the theory says that "good" bokeh comes from well aligned elements, we all agree that most primes have a "better" bokeh than zooms.

40

Landscape / Re: Shooting a moonrise - Need advice

« on: November 09, 2012, 05:54:20 AM »

It vatly depends on wether you want to photograph the moon for "scientific" reasons, menaing that you can make out details in it, or it is only an "artistic" source of light.

For the latter: on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure_value#Tabulated_exposure_values you find a table with approximative values to start experimenting. (these values are for the landscape, not the moon, so the moon will be totally overexposed)

For rocks, wave-crashes and so on, id go bulb (experiment on aperture) and light the scene with the flash (handheld) starting the experiment with half power or less. it's possible to walk around and iluminate a rock from several sides

Shoot in RAW, as white balance is rather impossible set on field.

41

Lenses / Re: Best solution for organizing numerous lenshoods

« on: November 05, 2012, 03:34:47 PM »

i heard that tulip-shaped lenshoods start to soar if spinned with 1000rpm or more.

42

Lenses / Re: Canon 100 2.8 L or 70-200 IS II L with 12 or 25mm extension tube

« on: November 02, 2012, 04:14:20 PM »

All i can talk about is macro&flash: i own a 600D and a 580ii, my trick is to use the built in flash to trigger the handheld 580 as a slave - works quite nice, even better if i can grab a third hand Sometimes the built-in reflector, the 14mm plate or a sheet of white paper are handy to get a bit better light.

AFAIK the 5diii has this built in wireless trigger, so it should work similar

43

Landscape / Re: Post Your Best Landscapes

« on: October 17, 2012, 02:31:33 PM »

My first Panorama: ~400MP, 3 Lines
EOS 600D with Sigma 150mm OS


Monte-Leone-Panorama by SwissBear85, on Flickr

And the actual pano can be found here: http://gigapan.com/gigapans/116755

44

Technical Support / Re: Huge Panos: where to upload

« on: October 17, 2012, 01:48:08 PM »

thank you wickidwombat
Yes, they offer upload, and after half an hour of searching their the webpage, i eventually found the uploader.

But the pano unit they sell sounds also quite nice...

45

Technical Support / Huge Panos: where to upload

« on: October 16, 2012, 06:04:48 PM »

Hi there!
i'm about to finish my first pano, it's some 400MP and i would like to give it a decent place somewhere on the net.
Experiments say that, in decent quality, it will be too big for flickr (50Mb max upload size).
Is there another place that offers some kind of viewer (flash, HTML5 or similar) and doesnt cost too much?

Thank you for your answers!