Messages

271

Canon General / Re: Camera advice requested for parents in Africa

« on: December 13, 2012, 03:02:17 PM »

Ditto.  The other thing to consider here is the reason they need it... the last camera got stolen.  Any DSLR no matter how old (to us) will attract more theft attention than a decent P&S.  Plus, as neuro mentioned, there's the dust issue.  So the SX500 is likely the best option for a variety of reasons.

272

Technical Support / Re: I solved my own problem, but thought I would share

« on: December 13, 2012, 02:55:09 PM »

So, I did some digging and found that under the Live View settings you have to set Silent Shooting to Disabled in order for the body to trigger the strobes. Why? No flipping idea.

Well, obviously the Live View won't be silent with those noisy strobes attached!!   

Seriously, thanks for sharing.  I don't get it either.  Another question for the engineer that perhaps has never shot a photo in their life?  Who knows?  Sometimes I think the designers sit around after work and smoke a little weed and decide to mess with our minds a little as an inside joke.  Ha, ha.  Very funny.

273

Software & Accessories / Re: 5diii and IPAD 4th Generation

« on: December 13, 2012, 09:53:30 AM »

Best solution to preview images for me is to write medium JPEG to SD card and RAW onto CF card. Then, I just take out SD card and transfer to ipad using $4 ebay knockoff ipad camera connection adapter. All other solutions had some issues or were too slow.

Ditto for this.  However, has anyone used an Eye-Fi SD card the same way and paired it with the iPad?  I'm thinking this is the ideal solution but I haven't actually done it since I don't have an iPad.  Works great with an Android phone though.

274

Software & Accessories / Re: Adobe Lightroom 4.3 Released

« on: December 13, 2012, 09:49:53 AM »

Ahh.  Finally.  Now I can start the wait process to see what problems and performance issues 4.3 introduces!  Ever since ver 4 was released into beta it has been a trainwreck.  4.2 fixed a lot of that but performance issues still linger.  It is my sincere hope that 4.3 will finally bring the performance back to at least ver 3 levels.

275

EOS Bodies / Re: 5Dmkiii difficulty focusing with flash infared at receptions

« on: December 13, 2012, 09:43:18 AM »

speirsphoto - I highly recommend that you rent the 5D3 before you buy.  Maybe rent a 6D after that.  See what you think.  I am a low light shooter who has used (and loved) the 5D Classic for years.  (Along with the 30D, 40D and 60D.)  My first 5D3 didn't focus worth a damn in low light.  4+ second avg (some shots up to 7 sec).  By 'low light' I mean normally lit indoor rooms at a party.  Probably a stop or more above a reception.  I returned that 5D3 and the replacement I received worked a LOT better.  Fairly normal AF performance and what is expected but not necc 'blow me away' performance.  Better than the 5D but not as better as you might think.  I'm a Center Point + One Shot shooter, always have been.  You really need to find out for yourself.  The 5D3 is a great camera but for $3K I'm not sure I'm as impressed as the hype suggests I should be.  Maybe after the next firmware update??  The true value of the 5D3 for whatever you use it for (stills, video, showing off, whatever) is a highly debated topic all over the web.  Many 5D3 owners take it very personally if you mention anything negative about their baby.  Sigh.    Myself, I just see the 5D3 as a tool and an expensive tool at that.  I'm trying a 6D soon and if it works for me, I'll sell the 5D3.  Good luck in your decision process!

276

EOS Bodies / Re: 6D Top Focus Point Light Bleeding Issue

« on: December 13, 2012, 09:20:53 AM »

Umm... No.  This is a reflection in the viewfinder area where the focusing screen and focus points exist, not the sensor area.  Verify this by seeing if the problem exists in liveview.  Wait, those points don't show up in live view because....

277

EOS Bodies / Re: 6D vs 5Diii vs 5Dii - Speedlite AF Focus Beam Assist Tests

« on: December 13, 2012, 09:15:26 AM »

I wonder, for example, what portion of the mis-behaving 5D3s have s/n lower than RustyTheGeek's replacement camera?

FYI, the replacement 5D3 I received from Beach Camera that performs better has a 4 in the 6th digit and ends in 4736.  So my current serial number is xxxxx4xx4736 if that matters or helps anyone.  By comparison, the 1st problem 5D3 that I returned had a serial = xxxxx4xx4037.

Not sure if the serial number is relevant to the problem but there it is.   

278

EOS Bodies / Re: Are you really serious about 6D?

« on: December 13, 2012, 08:48:31 AM »

.................

http://www.flickriver.com/photos/pipoujid/popular-interesting/

Great portfolio with stunning photos. I like them

I agree, very neat shots, cool, fun.  I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that you own a macro lens and somehow got attached to it!   

279

Canon General / Re: How to arrange new SSD and regular HDD

« on: December 13, 2012, 08:24:31 AM »

Here is a good deal on the Samsung 840 Series SSDs.  On Cost per GB, the 250G is the best deal.  Amazing how the larger SSDs have drastically dropped in price in the last 6 months or so.  Wow.  Look and decide quickly, these eCost deals go fast.  Merry Christmas!

120G - $90  (.75/GB)
http://www.ecost.com/p/Samsung-Removable-Hard-Drives/product~dpno~9411600~pdp.iaciccj?source=EWB24350

250G - $160  (.64/GB)
http://www.ecost.com/p/Samsung-Removable-Hard-Drives/product~dpno~9411538~pdp.iacibgh?source=EWB24350

500G - $342  (.68/GB)
http://www.ecost.com/p/Samsung-Removable-Hard-Drives/product~dpno~9427890~pdp.iaeefcb?source=EWB24350

280

Canon General / Re: Is it worth it...for me?

« on: December 13, 2012, 12:26:43 AM »

It's all been said so I'll just throw out my opinion...  It sounds like you are starting off right, reading a lot and learning by using M and thinking about the shots.  Don't get caught up in the hype of buying so much.  It's not necessary.

The essence of a good photographer is not what he can do with equipment, it's what he can do without it!  All the fancy stuff does is make it a little easier but you don't learn as much if you can overcome all the challenges with high ISO, fast fps, etc.  For example, having a Classic 5D in low light forced me to improve my camera stabilization technique and watch for subject movement.  It also eventually made me really appreciate the difference a faster lens makes.

-  Don't spend a lot of money now.  Get ONE additional lens of your choice to enjoy at Christmas and learn.
-  Learn about the LIGHT.  Flash, Bounce, Diffuse, Available, Off Camera, whatever.  Inexpensive triggers would be easy to add.  Check out David Hobby's Strobist blog.  It rocks for off camera flash info.  Read Joe McNally.  Lots of great interesting stories about real life challenges and how their experience saved them, not their equipment.
-  Build evenly.  Buying a 5D3 is NOT building evenly.  This stuff isn't going anywhere.  Buy what you need a little at a time and really use it as you buy it.  After a year of heavy use, you will really know what you want or need and perhaps you can get a great used 5D3 for less if you still even want it.
-  Get protection for your equipment, small things like a monopod and/or tripod, high quality strap and case system with room to grow, etc.
-  If you want to experience FF, rent and then perhaps buy a 5D Classic or 5D2 used.  What's the rush to spend $3K on a body?

EQUIPMENT OVERLOAD - I can't emphasize this enough... it won't be long before you will experience frustration with too much equipment.  I know that sounds hard to believe but eventually you will have trouble choosing which lenses to take, which body works best, should I just take it all?, etc.  You'll start having storage issues.  It will happen.  So don't rush it.  I think many here will agree that there is a lot to be said about owning one body and two or three lenses total.  The more familiar you are with what you own, the easier it will be to choose how you use it and what you buy next.

I'll repeat - take it slow.  Buy used if possible.  Sure you can go out and spend $5K on a body and one L lens but I think you will be robbing yourself of a much more interesting experience of slower growth.  Enjoy the process and get plenty of books to learn from to maximize your satisfaction and knowledge.  There is another thread on here currently that is discussing books.  See my post along with others for good suggestions.  http://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php?topic=11435.0

Have fun and shoot often!!

281

Canon General / Re: Record Spending Into Camera Gear - HIGHEST

« on: December 12, 2012, 11:39:31 PM »

neuro... I think I've asked this before but again, what is your quick opinion of the 28-300?  Should I get one?  (Journalistic shooting style, outdoor campouts, summer camp, etc.)  Of course if you say yes and I get one, you are fully responsible for all my mistakes and resulting pictures, good or bad.  It's all on you dude!!     Seriously, what is that's lens' primary use for you and how do you like the push-pull, etc?  Any standout issues, good or bad?  Are you glad you bought it for your intended purpose?  Thanks.

It's a useful lens. I use it for travel, outings with kids, etc. optically equivalent to the 24-105L (very good, but not stellar), weather-sealed, I like the push-pull (have the 100-400, too).  FWIW, that's the only lens on the above list that I bought used, and I got a good enough deal that I could sell it for a modest profit if I find myself using it only infrequently.

Thanks!  OK, I'm ready to buy it from you... 

282

Canon General / Re: How to arrange new SSD and regular HDD

« on: December 12, 2012, 11:38:22 PM »

I put my os and programs on a ssd and my documents, photos, etc on a 3TB drive.  SSD's are much faster than mechanical drives.  I also put my lightroom database on the SSD, that speeds up things as well.  I'm thinking of adding a small m-sata ssd cache as well to my Dell XPS-8500.  SSD's have really dropped in price, so a reasonably large 256GB drive is available at a reasonable price.  Samsung seems to have the market cornered right now with high quality, high speed, high reliability, and low prices.

Another thing that is interesting that a friend and I were recently discussing is the performance increase that was obtained by running a smaller partition on a larger SSD (like a 256G SSD).  Something like a 200G partition that left 30% or so unused.  This gave the SSD a lot more "garbage" room for the drive controller to use which really sped up the performance.  I can't find the article recently that discussed this but it makes sense because all SSDs do this anyway without your knowledge.  They just don't allocate nearly that much workspace for garbage collection.

BTW, Samsung is indeed a great SSD but most of the major players are VERY close in performance and it will be hard to tell the difference in real world use.  Stay with a major player SSD and shoot for best price.

There are a ton of performance "shootouts" around.  Anandtech is a great place to read and learn.  Here is one comparison they recently did which featured some strong players.  Notice how close in performance they all are.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6328/samsung-ssd-840-pro-256gb-review/2

283

Canon General / Re: How to arrange new SSD and regular HDD

« on: December 12, 2012, 11:28:16 PM »

As an IT guy, I see stuff here that is right and well thought out and stuff that's wrong.  Most of that has been sorted out by now so I'll try to comment appropriately...

OS Setup - I could get into partition alignments for SSDs, etc but suffice to say SSD is the only way to go for the OS and apps.  Turn off the pagefile because all it does is wear out the SSD and isn't necessary.  Ditto big time for Defrag.  DO NOT USE DEFRAG with an SSD!  Windows Vista, 7 and 8 are SSD aware if you install from scratch and will automatically align themselves during install if you set up the partition and format during install.  They will also disable the Pagefile and Defrag automatically if installed on the SSD.  Try to make sure the BIOS is set for AHCI or RAID in order to get the most benefit with data transfers.  SATA III is also best for the SSD drive.  Some systems only have one bank of SATA III. 

SSD - Fastest solution available, getting more affordable but read up on latest tech because it has also changed a lot in the last year.  Hard to go wrong with the latest Intel, Samsung, Sandisk, OCZ Vertex or Crucial M series.  Corsair isn't bad either but I haven't kept up with them lately.  If you want to be lazy, buy from NewEgg and read the reviews first.

Where it put OS?  SSD.  Where to put Lightroom/Photoshop?  SSD.  Where to put catalog?  SSD.  Where to put photos?  SSD but likely you will run out of space so this depends on convenience vs performance.  In general, you won't lose a ton of performance if you put the photos on the spinning platter drives.  This way you don't have to spend a lot of time moving pictures around in the catalog when you move them from the SSD to the larger volume for space reasons.

RAM - you can't have enough.  I use SSDs and I still noticed a huge increase in Lightroom 4 performance when I went from 16G RAM to 32G RAM.  Lightroom 4 is a dog.  i7 system with SSD, RAID and 32G of RAM and it still runs 30 to 50 percent slower than LR 3.x.  Grrr.

RAID and BACKUP - You can sink a  lot of money into the computer fast.  These digital pictures we take with abandon require a lot of storage space.  Since they are important, they require redundancy and backup.  I have a 120G AHCI SSD for the OS/Apps and three 2TB RAID 1 (mirror) volumes.  A RAID is NOT a backup.  It is drive redundant fault tolerance.  You still need Backup and preferably a rotating external backup plan so you can keep one drive at a time offsite.  I have an internal 2TB drive for backup and then I use 5 external 2TB USB3 drives for backup and rotate them weekly.  And that's still not big enough for everything, it just covers the past year or two's data, (one 2TB current work volume).  The rest is archive and doesn't change much.

I could go on but at least make sure you are doing multiple backups even if it's only to an internal hard drive.  I do MWF, TTS, Sun Weekly and Sun Monthly to the internal and external then I rotate external drives once a week.  This gives me plenty of backups to go back to if necc and the internal drive is used so if an external fails or gets disconnected, the backup still happens.

284

Canon General / Re: Record Spending Into Camera Gear - HIGHEST

« on: December 12, 2012, 10:34:31 PM »

2012, bought: 28-300L, 1D X, 600/4L IS II, both MkIII extenders, 600EX-RT, and $4.5K worth of RRS support gear.  I'm not going to do the math. 

5 years ago, I was the same, P&S, why spend more?  However, now I'm at 5D3 + 6D to go with all the glass I bought over the last 3 years.  (Not to mention all the OTHER stuff of which there is a ton.)  And the several other bodies over the years.  Still haven't ventured into the 1D arena.  Hopefully I won't get that urge!

neuro... I think I've asked this before but again, what is your quick opinion of the 28-300?  Should I get one?  (Journalistic shooting style, outdoor campouts, summer camp, etc.)  Of course if you say yes and I get one, you are fully responsible for all my mistakes and resulting pictures, good or bad.  It's all on you dude!!     Seriously, what is that's lens' primary use for you and how do you like the push-pull, etc?  Any standout issues, good or bad?  Are you glad you bought it for your intended purpose?  Thanks.

285

Canon General / Re: Recommended photography books

« on: December 12, 2012, 06:33:38 PM »

Not sure what level or type of book you are considering, art, composition, technique, lighting?

Anything by Scott Kelby, Joe McNally, Joel Sartore, Bryan Peterson and Ansel Adams.

However, you might have a great time going to HALF PRICE BOOKS after dinner one night and going over what they have.  That's always fun and I've found some gems from as far back as the '70's.  One I got that is lots of fun to look at is a large thin book by Mary Ellen Mark and Annie Leibovitz from 1974.  It has some great images from that time including a great shot of Canice Bergen shortly after her father passed away.

I've learned a lot from just looking at pictures and trying to see what works in them and makes them interesting and distinctive.

Have fun!