Posts

Sporgon · Jan 24, 2016

If you want to try this sort of thing get an old Takumar 55/1.8 off e bay for about $30 and a simple M42-EF mount.

cpcw06 · Jan 24, 2016

Beautiful photos

scyrene · Jan 23, 2016

I got into photography by accident really. Never had much interest in it...

In 2011 I had a blog, and wanted to take photos for it. The only camera I had was on my (first generation!) iPhone, which was terrible, so I decided to get a 'proper' camera - a DSLR (though like most laymen it was mostly that DSLRs had an aura, when I could probably have done just as well with a compact or bridge camera). I got the cheapest secondhand one I could find on eBay - a battered old 300D with the kit lens. But the image quality was so much better than anything I'd had before, I was very pleased.

Didn't use it all that much for the first year. Got a telephoto zoom, but I had very little idea what I was doing, so never got much out of it. Later I bought a couple more secondhand lenses.

But it was really the following year I started exploring, and accidentally taking an interest in birds, and photographing them. That led me to a series of improvements in my kit - longer lenses, extenders, a better camera (the 50D), and so on. From that point, it became something of an obsession, and I spent hundreds of hours reading the theory, reviews and forums, and especially trawling through Flickr.

The last couple of years I've spent mostly with the same equipment, but learning new techniques - astro image stacking, focus stacking, HDR, panorama stitching - and honing my fieldcraft and knowledge, travelling to new places and suchlike. I've not got bored of it yet, and I don't think I ever will now

tcmatthews · Jan 22, 2016

Luds34 said:
Pookie said:

sunnyVan said:

Pookie said:

My wife bought me the 200mm f/2 a few years ago and I think that answers all the question perfectly.

Click to expand...

Did she buy with your credit card?

Click to expand...

I know this is a novel idea these days but we don't use credit cards ;D

Click to expand...

No no no! Gotta use the credit card for the rewards, and not a line of credit! Pay the balances in full each month and you got free money.

It's how I bought my latest Fuji, funded 100% with cash back from my Discover card.

+1
I bought a m4/3 lens this month with of points.

Mt Spokane Photography · Jan 22, 2016

Skywise said:
Should I do the low level format after every shoot? I thought the basic format would be enough.

Buy a very large card. Why would you format it? Is it too full to do another shoot. If so, do a low level format. If it has plenty of space left, don't format it, use it until remaining space is limited and do a low level format. That keeps it out of the overwrite mode.

A in camera format makes the files invisible to you, but they are still there. That's why file recovery software works, it merely asks you to provide a name for the files and copies them to your computer.

The card itself has a controller internally that tries to give equal use to all memory cells, so additional files are usually written to the blank cells before overwriting existing ones, but its sporadic, so you see hiccups' as it decides to overwrite cells and slows way down.

That's why pros prefer CF cards, you don't see that happening, and don't need to low level format to regain your speed.

Sdiver2489 · Jan 22, 2016

Pookie said:
TWI by Dustin Abbott said:

I've done seven Sigma reviews in the last 16 months that have been read by tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people, and I would think that they might be motivated enough to make sure that I have the best tools to make their lenses shine.

Click to expand...

I think that statement alone makes the purchase of a Sigma dock imperative, if not, why would you even review Sigma lenses. If 59$ breaks your bank maybe lens reviews should be left to others.

If it was considered imperative by Sigma they would include it in the box.

I've used three sigma lenses:

100mm macro - Just fine...no major issue but didn't have it long
30mm F1.4 DX (non-art)...focused alright in some conditions and some targets but my confidence was never high with the lens. I was always hoping it would perform ok and sometimes it would...other times...not so much.
35mm F1.4 ART - Terrible focus performance. I tried the dock...but like others have said you can't fix something that is inconsistent. When it hit...it was great...when it missed it was WAY out of focus. To make matters worse this lens was a lens in their refurb store which means they evaluated it and considered it ok. After this lens I swore to myself I'd avoid Sigma in the future.

When I have a lens that isn't consistent I find myself shooting test targets more than shooting things I actually care about because I am always trying to dial the lens in to "fix" it. I've since gotten the 35mm F2.0 IS and it does wonderfully. Focus is spot on. It may not have F1.4 but like others have said its worthless if the lens doesn't focus correctly. I'd love to get the 35mm F1.4 II but its out of my price range at the time. Maybe at some point I'll make the upgrade.

Orangutan · Jan 22, 2016

Adelino said:
The original post didn't say anything about wanting to get rid of patents, or did I miss something? I took at as Canon should implement their extensive patents more aggressively in their new products.

It was certainly implied strongly

nightscape123 said:
Canon, stifling innovation to control the market for 11 years in a row!

This doesn't really seem to be something to be proud of.

nightscape123 is clearly implying that Canon is using patents to control the markets, and that receiving patents is nothing to be proud of. It's a very VERY short step to infer that he thinks patents are inherently bad.

DudeInTheSky · Jan 21, 2016

Lots of misinformation in this thread! And some good info too. Some points about CFast 2.0 and XQD and CF.

1. CFast 2.0 is here and now and it works. So is XQD 2.0. (I own CFast 2.0 cards and use XQD cards too...) CFast 2.0 cards and XQD 2.0 cards are right now pretty much on par performance & price wise. Just above 400Mbytes/s write. CF is much slower. I barely get 100Mbytes/s write out of my 1066x CF cards.

2. CFast 2.0 is based on SATA 6Gbit/s. SATA is EOL'ed, so once faster memory cards are desired it will be a new type. So the CFast 2.0 cards you buy right now are pretty much as fast as they will ever get. My guess is 3-5 years until this standard hits the wall, but could be sooner.

3. XQD 2.0 has two lanes of PCI-Express 2.0, so should be upgradeable to PCI-Express 3.0 and then to PCI-Express 4.0. And possibly add more PCI-E lanes if needed. So XQD 2.0 has 1000MBytes/s interface speed now. 4000MBytes/s (or even faster with more lanes) later, with backwards compatibility very likely. In other words: Your memory cards will last a long time if the XQD standard is maintained. My guess is 10 years, maybe 15 for this standard.

4. CFast 2.0 is much more reliable than CF (Yes, that's my opinion based on theory and my real life experience, but just the frail mechanical 50pin design of the old CF should speak for itself... it sucks!) CFast 2.0 is still missing a write protect switch, which is not good.

5. Right now only CFast 2.0 Sandisk 64GB and 128GB work in Canon C300mk2. They are also the only two memory cards approved by Canon for this camera. My colleagues who bought Lexar CFast 2.0 cards have reported write errors and lost footage. Both the discontinued 3400x and the new Lexar 3500x. It's very possible that we will only have one brand and two capacity options of CFast 2.0 cards available in the beginning for this new Canon 1D stills camera! (Hopefully more cards will work!!!!)

6. Neither CFast 2.0 nor XQD 2.0 are proprietary formats. They are both open formats. Right now there's limited availability of cards that actually work in various cameras for both standards. With Canon C300mk2 being the most limited with only Sandisk CFast 2.0 64GB & 128GB working.

7. Currently both memory card standards are limited by flash memory heat generation. This gives a small advantage to CFast 2.0 since those cards are a bit physically bigger so more space to dissipate heat. This year (2016) will see the release of products with new memory technology (Intel/Micron 3DxPoint). If we are to believe the specs, we are soon to get memory cards limited only by the interface speed. Hence, XQD could end up with a significant speed advantage 10 months from now. This, of course, remains to be seen.

Hope that helps a little.

Canon Rumors · Jan 21, 2016

HTML:

<strong>MELVILLE, N.Y.</strong> – Canon U.S.A. Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, announced today the company will return as a Sustaining Sponsor to the 2016 Sundance Film Festival (January 21–31, 2016). In sponsorship with Sundance Institute, Canon will pay tribute to the best of independent film and offer exciting new programs dedicated to the filmmakers behind the camera.</p>
<p>Canon celebrates the creativity behind every film at the Festival and is pleased to share that at least 51 of the 247 films premiering as part of this year’s slate — over 20 percent — were shot using Canon equipment. Canon-shot projects screening at the Festival include the seven-hour true crime documentary<em>O.J.: Made in America, Miles Ahead, </em>Liz Garbus’s <em>Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt & Anderson Cooper</em>, <em>The New Yorker Presents, Holy Hell,</em> <em>Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You</em>, and Bryce Dallas Howard’s short film <em>solemates</em>.</p>
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<p>“In sponsoring with the Sundance Film Festival, Canon and the filmmaking industry connect and grow together,” said Yuichi Ishizuka, president and COO, Canon U.S.A. “The Festival is an annual reminder that the tools we engineer are being used at the highest creative level all over the world, and the conversations we have with filmmakers here help shape the new products that we create for the industry.”</p>
<p>In 2016, Canon will again invite select Sundance Film Festival attendees for a hands-on exploration of the filmmaking process at the Canon Creative Studio (427 Main Street; open Saturday, January 23-Tuesday, January 26, from 11am-6pm). At this daily hub for cinematographers, directors, editors, producers, and crew, guests will explore how Canon supports all aspects of filmmaking — from production design to image capture, through edit and workflow. The Canon Creative Studio will also serve as host to the invite-only Raise Your Glass with Canon cocktail party on Sunday, January 24, Canon’s fourth annual celebration toasting the filmmakers who push creative boundaries.</p>
<p>Inside the Canon Creative Studio, guests are invited to experience a touch-and-try display of the latest Canon gear, including the new EOS C300 Mark II Digital Cinema Camera, an EOS C500 Digital Cinema Camera mounted on Intuitive Aerial’s Aerigon professional cinema drone and a pitch-black demonstration of the ME20-FSH Multi-Purpose camera, Canon’s exciting new ultra low-light, four million ISO camera.</p>
<p>Each day, Canon Live Learning will offer hands-on workshops with Canon’s newest cinema camera, the Canon EOS C300 Mark II. Loren Simons, Canon senior product and sales trainer, will lead intimate groups on walking tours through scenic downtown Park City, exploring the camera’s high-sensitivity shooting capabilities, dual-pixel CMOS autofocus, and internal HD/2K/4K recording system.</p>
<p>To exhibit how Canon serves filmmakers through the post-production process, Canon is honored to partner with Adobe<sup>®</sup> for a live 4K post-production demonstration led by filmmaker Jon Carr. Utilizing two of Canon’s DP-V3010 4K Reference Monitors, Carr will demonstrate his tricks of the trade for editing and coloring 4K footage shot with the EOS C300 Mark II camera in Adobe<sup>®</sup> Premiere<sup>®</sup> Pro CC software.</p>
<p>While motion picture is at the heart of the Sundance Film Festival, Canon is rooted in supporting the art of still photography. The walls of the Canon Creative Studio will be adorned by a never-before-seen gallery of original images from leading cinematographer Polly Morgan (<em>Holy Hell, The Intervention</em>), shot with a range of Canon EF lenses. Festival filmmakers will also have the opportunity to have their portrait taken by photographer Michael Ori on the Canon EOS 5DS R DSLR camera. Canon will send their guests home with an 8×10 copy of their portrait, printed in-house with the new Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 Professional Inkjet Printer. Canon has partnered with <em>No Film School</em> to launch a new filmmaking podcast out of the Sundance Film Festival, debuting with 10 live episodes recorded on-site at the Canon Creative Studio. The podcast will feature lively interviews with top festival filmmakers including Roberto Schaefer, ASC, AIC (<em>Miles Ahead, Quantum of Solace</em>), Wolfgang Held (<em>Sophie and the Rising Sun, Years of Living Dangerously</em>), Nick Higgins (<em>OJ: Made in America, The Crash Reel</em>), Martina Radwan (<em>Trapped, The Eagle Huntress</em>), Richard Henkels (<em>Author: The JT Leroy Story</em>), Bernardo Britto (<em>Glove, Jacqueline (Argentina)</em>), and Bérénice Eveno (<em>solemates, Verbatim: The Ferguson Case, The Free World</em>).</p>
<p>On Monday, January 25, in the New Frontier Gateway Microcinema, Canon will present a screening and panel in celebration of the 10 year anniversary of the Canon EOS 5D camera called <em>“A Decade of DSLRs: Creative Minds Talk the Evolution of Hand-Held Filmmaking</em>.” Moderated by Ryan Koo (Founder, No Film School and author, <em>The DSLR Cinematography Guide</em>), cinematographers Bryce Fortner (<em>Too Legit, Portlandia</em>), Tom Hurwitz, ASC (<em>Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt & Anderson Cooper</em>), and Joe Passarelli (<em>Anomalisa</em>) will join photographer, director, and Canon Explorer of Light Lauren Greenfield (<em>The Queen of Versailles</em>) and Canon’s Senior Film and Television Advisor Tim Smith in discussing evolution of DSLR filmmaking, with an eye to the future.</p>
<p>Canon is also pleased to partner again with<em> Indiewire</em>, the leading news and networking site for the independent film and television industry, to deliver exclusive content and share up-to-date happenings from the Canon Creative Studio. Throughout the Festival, <em>Indiewire</em> will feature a series of interviews with Sundance cinematographers called “How I Shot That,” presented by Canon. To read the series, please visit</p>
<p><a href="http://www.indiewire.com/tag/how-i-shot-that" target="_blank">http://www.indiewire.com/tag/how-i-shot-that</a>. <em>Indiewire</em> will also feature an online gallery of a selection of Michael Ori’s photographs taken in the Canon Creative Studio portrait studio.</p>
<p>For a full schedule of events for Canon’s activities at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and to request access to attend, please visit<a href="http://sff16.splashthat.com/" target="_blank">http://sff16.splashthat.com</a>.</p>
<p>To find out more about Canon’s Festival activities, please visit our <a href="http://cinemaeos.usa.canon.com/news/" target="_blank">Cinema EOS website</a> or follow us on <a href="https://twitter.com/CanonUSAimaging" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://vimeo.com/canonpro" target="_blank">Vimeo</a>.  Join the <a href="https://twitter.com/#%21/search/%23futureofdigital" target="_blank">conversation</a> with #CanonCreativeStudio.</p>
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Canon Rumors · Jan 21, 2016

I'm a big supporter of Graham and Breakthrough Photography. The process of making and selling products is never going to be a perfect experience for every person that participates, especially when you throw crowdfunding into the mix.

Breakthrough Photography is the ONLY Kickstarter campaign I have ever promoted, because I trusted Graham was going to be able to deliver (which is still not the majority of KS campaigns) and he has and will continue to do so. I get requests weekly from people wanting me to promote their campaign on Kickstarter.

However, be reasonable as a customer and you're more often than not going to get reasonable treatment in return.

I've decided to lock this up, but it will remain on the forum.

Larsskv · Jan 21, 2016

Cheekysascha said:
Vikmnilu said:

One quick question?

Did you insure your photo equipment? I highly recommend it. In Finland, where I live, it is included in your home insurance if it is not over 5000 Euros. A small fee would be paid (e.g. 150 Eur ) and then the company would cover the rest, which is great.

it is a pain to pay that for an accident. Hope you are well and get your equipment back soon!

Victor

Click to expand...

No stupidly I didn't, I just signed up for CPS platinum a month before the camera and lens broke, home insurance covers that in Finland? that's pretty cool! i'm not sure if it covers that here in Norway I'll try and check if it does, thanks for the tip! and thank you!

I broke my 24-70 f/2.8LII on vacation in the US, Yosemite actually.

the accident was my own foult, but still I got it covered on my Norwegian home insurance. My travel insurance didnt cover it.

Edit: the repair estimate in Norway was equal to 2100 USD so it was cheaper to get a new one. I got a new lens.

Tried to have it repaired in the US. The price estimate was 390USD, but they wouldnt help me since I didnt live there..

et31 · Jan 21, 2016

tyger11 said:
I'd really prefer they start with proper cine versions of their existing Art lenses. But that's just me.

As a pro-photog, I am very happy that Sigma chose to improve the optical engineering of their lenses with the Art series before venturing off into another category. Not only did it improve the company's image among other photographers, it showed their capability of providing great optics for less money than conventional Zeiss, Canon, or Nikkor glass!

Now, they can cinema away and bring another happy world to us all!

PureClassA · Jan 20, 2016

Almost immeasurable loss. 1MP. 5% at most on the 5D3.

fishprof · Jan 20, 2016

Yes, I had inadvertently left HDR enabled and forgot about it. If the Continuous HDR is selected under HDR, HDR stays Enabled even after the camera is switched off. I was not aware of that. It is working as expected now that HDR is Disabled. Thanks for the replies.

d · Jan 20, 2016

Would be a half-decent looking camera if it weren't for that Quasimodo-esque flash hump on the lens.

d.

Fosters · Jan 20, 2016

high square, Badajoz

kaswindell · Jan 20, 2016

Yes, very cute, I like it a lot.

Ivan Muller · Jan 20, 2016

Last year I stayed for three days in the town of Amalfi near Naples. Here are some of my B&W street photos.

Cameras used was a EosM3 ( 22mm & 18-55mm ) - for most of the photos - plus a Eos6D (s 40mm & 70-300L )

The rest of my portfolio of 35x B&W street photographs can be seen here:

http://thelazytravelphotographer.blogspot.co.za/2016/01/amalfi-b-street-photography.html

kaihp · Jan 19, 2016

As far as I understand, GoPro's latest camera (Hero4 Session), was a quite a let-down for a lot of people so the sales tanked. I wasn't surprised about that, since it was introduced at the same price as the Hero4 Black edition, but with much lower video specs and a fixed battery.

The only improvements from the other cams were a slightly smaller size, being waterproof to 10m, and having 2 mic's (so it would choose the mic with the least noise and not even doing active noise cancellation or similar).

We should see a "Hero5" with 4K/60p in H.265 and 4K/120p in H.264 sometime this year, based on the Ambarella H2 SoC.

Mt Spokane Photography · Jan 19, 2016

They have the lenses, and a great history in MF. Not so much in FF. However, I'm doubting that they will find much in the way of MF sales. Low sales volume is a big part of why MF is so expensive.

Canon Rumors · Jan 19, 2016

I don't like helping others make money when what they're peddling is obviously bs.

Fosters · Jan 19, 2016

Archaeological Museum of Badajoz

Valvebounce · Jan 17, 2016

Hi jcarpet.
Sorry, when I said pipe dream I was meaning being able to screw the budget with little or no impact on the future, as you point out, for you, screwing the budget could set back relationships (small ring! :'() and property purchases.
For some, screwing the budget just means leaving a slightly smaller inheritance cheque for the kids! ;D

Cheers, Graham.

jcarapet said:
Valvebounce said:

Hi jcarpet.
If you can really afford to screw the budget and do it all, good on you go for it.
If screwing the budget is really just a pipe dream (the same dream I and others must have).
Here is an alternate thought, not better just different, having just acquired an EF-s10-22, I can see the need for something as wide for FF, so grab a pre owned <16-?? bargain and go get the shots you want.
Or another idea, get a pano head and stitch portrait orientation from the 24-105 and be absolutely stunned by the quality of the details you can see, I tried this with some handheld (landscape orientation) shots and AutoStitch, blew my mind compared to looking at the single images or using canon photostitch. I just wish I'd thought or known to shoot portrait orientation for the extra height the images would have had.

Cheers, Graham.

Click to expand...

Interesting. It isn't a pipe dream, but there are things it would affect on more expensive purchases for in the future like ring for girlfriend, house, things like that. I don't know much about pan heads, so I will take a look at those. I have a decent heavy tripod with a video head, but it may be an improvement to get something more specific.

bergstrom · Jan 17, 2016

good work, ok thanks Paul. Appreciate the work you put in.

dickgrafixstop · Jan 17, 2016

I wouldn't buy either until the much rumored Canon replacement 50 f1.4 and 85 f1.8 lenses are announced. If the wait isn't acceptable get the two currently available lenses.

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