Ebrahim Saadawi said:

wow, I never knew the camera world was so aggressive.

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The biggest egghead egos and assholes I have ever seen are on camera forums. If you measure the size of both I am sure there is a correlation.

I don't know if this is the correct thread but cream will rise to the top?

I placed an order for the 400mm DO II I don't know how long ago at B&H. Just got an email that the lens has shipped.

They must be finally clearing out the backlog of whichever California port had container ships to the horizon while some longshoremen or whoever went on strike and caused months of delay in offloading.

Re: The Kirkstone Pass Inn, in the Lake District, Yorkshire, UK

tomscott said:

Still doesn't change the fact its in Cumbria not Yorkshire… imagine the offence ;D

Anyway where are the pictures of the pass itself!? Far more interesting than the Kirkston Pass inn… Its a great drive!

BMW Z4Mc Kirkston Pass by Tom Scott, on Flickr

BMW Z4Mc Kirkston Pass by Tom Scott, on Flickr

BMW 320SI, Kirkston Pass, Cumbria by Tom Scott, on Flickr

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Nice series! Also nice number plate.

Sorry my ignorance of English geography.

I have taken a few panos that I will edit and put up soon.

Seems that Sigma slow down the production in favor of other better selling models.
Besides, at this moment one can find a canon (used) for way less than the Sigma, which is hard to find used btw - yes, I have been looking for one, as I have already the 24-105L but need a second lens in that range.
I know that the canon 24-70mkII is far superior, but the 105mm really makes a difference for me as a walk-around lens.
I read several reviews regarding the sigma, and overall opinion is that the IQ has better than the Canon counterpart. However, has too a bit of an unreliable AF and questionable QC. Together with its higher price, is IMO what kills the attraction factor for canon users.
That's why I have struggling with buying it new, and now with a rumor about a new L zoom coming - could be indeed a 24-105mkII, I almost sure that will put a stop in my intentions regarding buying this lens.

Wish the price was less aggressive for a Canon mount....but now I am really rooting for a 24-105mkII ;D

LonelyBoy said:

StudentOfLight said:

I used a friend's Nikon APS-C body recently and the variable aperture kit lens annoyed the crap out of me. I don't like using auto/semi-auto metering modes so definitely would only be interested in fixed maximum aperture lenses.

While most of my lenses are f/2.8 or faster, I'd be willing to trade in trade in one stop of ISO performance for the convenience of a zoom and if it's a static subject then there's always the latest generation of kickass IS to make up for the loss of light-gathering capability.

In terms of focal range, if I can live with the angle of view of the 24mm pancake on APS-C then I can easily live with 28mm on the wide end and I love 70-200mm for portraits and reasonably close-by subjects. Anything further away either gets treated as a snapshot (only for ID purposes) or needs a dedicated lens for it to be a keeper.

So summarizing, I'd say 28-200mm f/4 IS USM would be great walk-around lens from my perspective. I'd much rather have a brilliant 200/4 than a mediocre 300mm f/5.6.

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Why not just set the aperture to 5.6 instead of 3.5, so it stays constant? I'd be intrigued by your 28-200/4 though. Better yet, 25-200/4.

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I was shooting with an older generation APS-C sensor and in dimly lit conditions was a huge disadvantage. Outdoors is fine to shoot f/5.6 but indoors when you can hardly get a usable image at ISO 1600 ... (who am I kidding none of those images were usable.) Also the flash was malfunctioning so I had to shoot ambient only. Brings me to tears :'( Anyway, I eventually just resigned myself to shoot at 18mm f/3.5 indoors.

Monopod, if you shoot sports with a long lens and are shooting from a cramped space.
Tripod, if you have room to spread out - and the tripod is good for landscapes as well.
Tripod head.
Quick release clamp for the head - Arca-Swiss standard is best, many many manufacturers use A-S standard; Manfrotto is proprietary, no third party clamps or lens/camera plates.
L bracket for the camera, lens plate for any long lenses with lens collars.
Strap or closed bag for tripod and head.
Wired shutter release, with or without intervalometer.

Advantages to shooting on a tripod:
You can use base ISO for landscapes, even at dawn or dusk, and get best quality.
You can do star shots.
Macro is easier.
Supertelephotos are easier, especially with gimbal mount base.

Then again, I am a tripo-holic. Have 3, plus a monopod, all used in different situations.

tron said:

StudentOfLight said:

With the 7D-II, which AF points are cross-type with a lens of maximum aperture f/5.6?

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http://gdlp01.c-wss.com/gds/8/0300016618/01/eos7d-mk2-bim-en.pdf

pages 82-86

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Thanks for the link Tron

Thanks for the explanation Roger.

Click said:

WOW. Amazing shot.

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Yes, the Pantanal offers greater ease of seeing wildlife than anywhere else in Brazil.

Do not get me wrong, but Amazon has dense forests that make it very difficult to photograph animals, because of obstacles such as branches of trees that also block the sunlight.

Just to clarify:
The photography teacher Luiz Claudio Marigo NOT died attacked by a jaguar or by bandits. He died of a heart attack.

The Canon 200-400+TC is technically already a variable aperture lens that goes out to 560mm. Even if Nikon makes a 500mm f5.6 zoom lens it'll still be inferior in focal length range.

If it cost a bit less than $12,000 I think people would forgive them though.

neuroanatomist said:

If you want utter misleading nonsense, look no further than Panasonic. At least Canon doesn't print 600mm f/2.8 right on the lens barrel.

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Sweet, a compact camera whose lens has a 8-and-a-half inch diameter aperture.

About 35 years ago I was going off to college with a Canon 50mm 1.8, 28mm 2.8, an a medicre Tamron 80-210 zoom that made me avoid zooms and 3rd party glass after that, along with an A-1. I have since changed my mind on zooms (as long as you buy high quality ones) but still can't bring myself to buy 3rd party glass. Go with one of the full frame options recommeded by others, if you wind up shooting for you college yearbook the bigger sensor's image quality vs. crop will serve you well. If you decide you like primes, I suggest a 24, 35, 50, 85, 135, 200 and 300 (for sports - I added a motor drive to the A-1 too but either the 6D or 5DII can go aboout as fast - 5fps (it is not 7D speed but it is enough) - you can build a kit you like over several years, you don't need it day 1. If you prefer zooms, get the best you can afford to over the same range. If you can afford stuff longer or wider than what I suggest by all means do, but don't buy junk glass and enjoy learning everything you can over the next few years!

Best wishes for your future

Ruined said:

I would go with the 16-35 f/4L IS or the 24mm f/1.4L depending on your priority. Or get both

In your case, it sounds like the 16-35 f/4L IS will do great.

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Thanks Ruined

Once I have my Lee filters, 16-35 variant and a full frame camera, I'll be a MP-E65 and 70-200 f/2.8 IS mkii away from my dream kit.

Then my kit money becomes travel money and time to start adding to my portfolio

Recently I received my 6D back from LifePixel converted to infrared (OK, 590nm - so purists won't consider this true infrared) and I decided to try out a few more uncommon lenses to see how well they handled.

Below are a few of the photos, but here are my rough findings.

200-400/1.4x I had problems getting AF to catch, so I had to use MF. Not really a big deal. The lens seems to handle fine and I used this for the heron shot below.

MP-E 65 The jury is still out in terms of diffraction. It seems like it might be a bit worse but my MT-24EX ran out of batteries before I could stress it out much. The ant shot below is with this combo.

100/2.8 IS Macro This lens handled fine. However, this is one lens I have used with an unconverted camera + 720nm filter and with that combo I saw banding except at apertures 2.8-4. I'm not sure if this is an artifact with the longer exposures or with the infrared bandwidth, but at 590nm I am not seeing problems. The bee below is with this combo.

70-200/2.8 II This is another lens that performs poorly with a 720nm filter, but performed fine with the 590nm 6D.

24-70/2.8 II Similar to the 70-200/2.8 II. Works fine with the 590nm converted 6D, but just OK with the 720nm filter. In particular there is extreme flaring if the lens is pointed anywhere near the sun (which does not happen in visible light). Note that I have yet to test the converted 6D with the sun in the shot.

8-15 fisheye Works fine with the converted 6D. Of course I cannot test with the filter.

11-24 Works fine with the 590nm 6D. Could not test with the filter.

16-35/4 IS Have not tested yet with the 590nm 6D, but I doubt there will be any problems. This is one of the few lenses that works without issues with the 720nm filter.

TS-E 24 II With the 720nm filter this lens works fine as long as I don't shift it. I haven't tested it with the converted 6D yet.

I also have a TS-E 90 and TS-E 17 that I have yet to test.

Bee Story by Joseph Calev, on Flickr

On the Edge by Joseph Calev, on Flickr

Waiting by Joseph Calev, on Flickr

How much mag do you need? Or how big/small an area do you want to get detail from? With MP-E 65 mm, at 4:1 you max out the resolving power of the lens at f/2.8 on 5DsR, so you can resolve around 10 µm. See my other post here
http://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php?topic=27058.msg534841#msg534841

Re focus stacking, depth of field is minuscule, so you will benefit from computer controlled motorized focusing stage (Cognisys StackShot). For software, forget about Photoshop. For those kind of applications is worse than useless. I have both HeliconFocus and Zerene and like Zerene a bit better because it tends to produce fewer edge artifacts.

Re processing, see the post above re computer power required to crunch the numbers.

Interesting, but not likely to affect any of our members.

Olympus recalls digital point-and-shoot camera
An improperly installed part poses an electric shock risk

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/olympus-recalls-digital-point-and-shoot-camera-072015.html

Viggo said:

LSXPhotog said:

Travelintrevor said:

4)is about 1 full stop darker than the 50L when both are wide open (50L at 1.2 vs SIGMA at 1.2)

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Hmmmmm....maybe I'll return my Sigma 1.4 Art too so they will send me an f/1.2 like you received......?????

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I think he compares t-stop value.

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nah..it was a typo...50L at 1.2 vs Sigma at 1.4...my fault

chauncey said:

What is necessary, gear wise, for images like that?

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Here's an article on "buget-friendly gear" for astrophotography:

https://iso.500px.com/deep-sky-photography-guide-part-1/

StudentOfLight said:

The dimensions from Canon patents seem to fall in a narrow band. I do not see any reason to believe that the lens would be much shorter than 460mm.
From a 2012 patent:

Focal length f = 779.00mm
Fno. 5.80
Half angle of 1.59 deg.
Image height 21.64mm
Length 462.02mm
BF 120.29mm


Here is one from 2013

Focal length [mm] 779.99


Fno. 1.59


Half angle [°] 5.80


Total length [mm] 460.00


BF [mm] 97.84


Front lens diameter [mm ] 134.48

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800mm f/1.6
Was that a copy+paste error?
[/quote]

I think that the half angle somehow made its way into the aperture size slot. I was having trouble with cut and paste.

Those patents do not use the same DO elements as the new 400, the patent for it just appeared last week. It covered 400mm and 600mm, but no mention specifically of 800 mm.

DO lenses should be shorter than standard optics. The diameter is more constant.

I have bought a 2nd 500GB SSD that I've cloned my windows 7 drive to. I'll pop it in my PC and Upgrade to Windows 10. If I don't like it, I'll set it aside and hook up my old SSD with Windows 7 on it.

That was, I don't have to worry about losing Windows 7. I could have done the clone to a spinning drive, but the prices of SSD are low enough that I just bought a spare.

If I decide to keep Win 10, I'll clone to a old Hard Drive (I've got lots of those) and put it away.

That's always the way I handle new OS releases. I have the drives that came with my last two new PC's holding windows 8 that are put away. One was never even started up.

dilbert said:

Mt Spokane Photography said:

...
I'm still interested in the a7R II, but having been bit by the Nikon D800, I'm not going to jump out and get one until I see results from trusted photographers. Renting would be OK, but developing the raw images might be a issue with my existing software, and I'm not going to learn something new.

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If all three brands of cameras generated DNG files, would that make it a lesser of an issue for you?

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Maybe, although the PP package(s) I use depends on the camera I use, not the file type. Even if I converted to DNG, I assume I'd use differing software solutions since, even if they can all natively read my files, they have differing strengths.

Trevor Dennis said:

OK, although I call by CR now and again, I have just this minute registered for the forums, and I knew nothing about a rumoured 1DX MK2 or any announcements on 14th August. I called by today because I am fed up with feeling disadvantaged when shooting in low light.

I own the very first 1DsMK3 sold by Photo & Video in New Zealand's South Island, and it will be eight years old this coming November. I also own a 1DMK4, but the 1Ds3 is my preferred camera, although the 1D4 beats it for high ISO and follow focus — I suspect my 1Ds3 has similar follow focus performance to the original infamous 1DMK3, as in bloody awful! Every year I think this is the year we will see a replacement for the 1DsMK3, but it never happens. I don't shoot sport, and my work is mainly commercial, so I skipped the 1DX.

So is there any chance a new 1DXMK2 will have a high sensor pixel count? Plus all the improvements in high ISO, and AF etc we would expect? Because I am getting fed up with waiting, and it wouldn't take much for me to sell up everything and move to Nikon or Sony.

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Hi Trevor welcome to CR, I've checked out your Flickr account and agree with proscribo. The 5Ds is probably a great option for you to consider given the types of images you are shooting. The colour performance is good, is resolution excellent and the tracking capability in AI servo is good. I think it ticks all the boxes in terms of what you may need unless you really like the larger 1D form-factor (and the better battery life)

What lenses do you prefer using?

Sven_22 said:

It's the guide rails for the pop up flash, same issue with mine. Try opening the flash and rattling it around again, the sound should stop. apparently designed so the rails don't seize but I am sure they could have done something less noisy

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Interesting, I figured something like this would be more likely than a loose screw. Thanks.

I have the 1.4x blue dot version, I believe its the latest.

I used to work for 'old' jessops when I was a student and when the chief exec had the surname jessop - franks son as I recall...

They were always higher priced than the general retailers, but you were at one point rewarded with decent service and knowlegable staff.

Nowadays as far as I can see it's more about who is good at selling you warranties.

A jessops clearance sale to bring the price down to what everybody else charges sounds about right.