Thanks all for your posts. Your advice is most informative and the images on your websites are fantastic and most humbling.

IndustrialAndrew and CreationHeart, thanks for explaining the pros and cons of umbrellas. As a result I did buy some umbrellas (2 convertible see through/reflective, 1 silver double fold) but I got them cheap (@ average $ 15 per at B&H). I will, however, get a 64" soft silver PLM from PCB with umbrella mount as soon as I move in April. Got some great advice from the tech stuff there. I just love the fact that I will get something with pretty directional light allowing me to feather while still wrapping around nicely. Very versatile, and a steal for 50 bucks or so. Thanks, Paulc (Paul C??).

Thanks, Spiros and Jamesy, for the Westcott/Phottix advice. For now, I decided to stick with stuff where I can get access to the flash, and the movement on the Apollo seems too restricted- I will definitely need something like the offset arm if I ever get an umbrella softbox so thanks for the tip, Andrew!

On the umbrella swivels crushing the rods point- both my umbrellas have sealed ends- does that mean that the shaft might be solid or is that wishful thinking?

PW, great advice re bouncing flash, but you do have the knowledge to use a PLM whenever you need to. I need to practice and have that tool in my belt since I am a complete novice with modifiers.

Pookie, thanks for the very informative post. I have seen a bunch of images and the rotalux boxes look great, but maybe down the line. I ended up getting the 24inch softbox but unfortunately one without internal diffuser (there are ones on ebay that do have the baffles, I just got one from Amazon and didn't notice it didn't. I suppose I can DIY a diffuser if I see a hot spot, although I need to figure out which cloth will have the same kind of heat resistance and diffusion. Also, you mentioned baffles to make the catchlight round. How would you do that? (on hindsight, Cheetahstand sells a box with 2 baffles, a grid and the round mask, but it is also 4x the cost. Maybe later I will go for that one when this one breaks).

The Images created by the Canon scream 'fisheye', while the Samyang looks much more natural. I could imagine getting away with the effect for much longer before sickness sets in with the Samyang.

Unfortunately the two lenses don't have similar test shots for an easy comparison, but here are lenstip reviews of both:

http://www.lenstip.com/422.12-Lens_review-Samyang_12_mm_f_2.8_ED_AS_NCS_Fish-eye_Sample_shots.html
http://www.lenstip.com/311.1-Lens_review-Canon_EF_8-15_mm_f_4_L_Fisheye_USM_Introduction.html

Hi PBD.
I think I watched a documentary on this, yes it was an incredible event, had a brief skim through the document you linked and have it as an ibook to peruse later. Thanks.

Cheers, Graham.

privatebydesign said:

This is the ballsiest intentional beaching I ever heard of http://www.uscg.mil/hq/cg5/cg545/docs/documents/monarch.pdf over 3,000 aboard, middle of the night and an intentional beaching. For those interested in this stuff read the bit about WTD #10 not being closed, I'll bet most passengers thought their Christmas was ruined, yet he saved 100's of lives.

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bholliman said:

anolis23 said:

I have to say this lens is great, coming from the 400 5.6, this is a much more dynamic and useful lens. You can check out a few pictures with the new 100-400 here, sadly I don't have too many since its brand new and I am now in the dead of winter in upstate NY https://www.flickr.com/photos/puertoricanwildlifephotography/

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Have you done any side-by-side IQ testing vs. the 400/5.6? I'm looking to buy either the 400/5.6 or the 100-400 II. Obviously the zoom is much more flexible, but expect to shoot mostly at 400mm anyway. I'm trying to decide if the zoom versatility and IS is worth the extra $1K.

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There have been several comparisons on the web - there isn't much between them in IQ at 400mm. The MTFs etc on photozone.de favour the 100-400, TDP has them very similar on FF, but the 100-400 seems to gain a bit on crop. Tony Northrup has the 100-400 the winner. I wouldn't worry about the difference in IQ. The 400mm is an excellent lens and very good value. The 100-400 is much more versatile and the IS enables a much wider range of possibilities. I'd miss about 80% of my shots if I didn't have IS, but that's the way I use it.

I found this great video showing how the rolling shutter on the EOS 7d (and presumably all other Canon DSL models)
http://www.dpreview.com/articles/7983095405/canon-7d-mirror-box-filmed-at-10-000fps
Fascinating....

It also shows just how robust the 7d actually is. I say to my friends that one of the reasons for owning Canon equipment is just how tough it is. Everything about these bodies makes them real users' machines - big positive buttons, solid build quality.... I also have an Olympus EM-10 which I acquired the other day. Now it takes great pictures but its toy-like build quality instantly puts me off using it except in good weather no-drop situations. Has anyone seen that video that that Kai guy (DigitalRev) did where he tries to destroy a 7d? I do feel tempted to go to the dark side sometimes for that high DR, but I love my Canon equipment too much for now. The 50mp jobs that are coming out do interest me but there's no way I could afford to get one for a long time, and given the need to upgrade my lenses while I'm at it.

PhotographyFirst said:

The 6D2, will move down market in terms of price and build quality. It is not quite down to "super rebel" standards yet. I think there is a large market for a bare-bones full frame model that can entice people to move up from crop. Current 6D prices are pretty good, but maybe Canon can get the next model even lower? They would be silly not to give it a Rebel form factor with the articulating touch screen. A near $1000 FF model like this would fly off the shelves.

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Did you forgot about this?

Aside from that. DSLR segment is shrinking and the trend will stay that way for sure until 2020 (sensors):




Taken from here

Also check this trend

I don't like this whole thing with Canon new-good-old-segmentation SPORT vs STUDIO, but hey they've gotta make some profits. More than 60% of their business is related to cameras so to speak. And its market is quite shrinking and competitive.

Paddyglass said:

I just got some old 8mm video reel converted to digital (taken on a Canon 514XL in 1978).
While its content is priceless I was struck by how incredible the gear we have today is in comparison.

Back to 2015 and the video from my 1Dx is stunning. Every time I put on a different Canon lens on my body I think - actually this is an incredible lens too! So thank you to all the engineers and scientists who have contributed to gifting us insanely powerful photography equipment.

Some people are waiting for the never to arrive tomorrow to be satisfied - incremental updates in dynamic range come to mind!

I seem to be having a very insighful and mindful morning

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I have drawers full of medium format 6x6 and 6x7 negatives and transparencies as well as a number of 5x4 transparencies. All in great nick; I'll scan some and post a few on CR some day.

I recon that FF is now comfortably ahead of 6x7 and my stitches are ahead of 5x4.

noisejammer said:

niels123 said:

I just like to have only the eyes in focus in the face, so subject-background-seperation will not help here. From Zeiss I only own the 135 f/2, and I wish to get it tag sharp at least 90% of the time at f/2 without zooming the live view on the camera.

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You can easily calculate the distance to the subject by using
D = F * H / h where F = focal length (in your case 135mm), H = subject height or width ( I'll guess 450 mm width) and h = sensor height or width (if you're in portrait orientation it would be 24 mm width. From this, I get your subject distance is going to be about 2500 mm.

Now go to www.dofmaster.com and do your own calculations. I got that the total DoF will be 3.9 cm split nearly equally between front and back. That assumes the circle of confusion is 0.03 mm. If you want the image to be a fair reflection of your lens' capabilities, you can set the CoC at 0.015 mm and you'll find the total depth of field is 1,9 cm. That's 1 cm in front and 1 cm behind. If you're human, you will sway by several mm (as will your model - even if he / she is trying to stand absolutely still.

The result is that even if your focus is perfect, you might only get 50% of your images sharp but you should get about 25% sharp. This is why it's far smarter to stop down the lens a little and make sure you nail every image.

It's easy to test this - focus on something that's difficult to see then shoot off several images. You can even use this to estimate how much you sway which should inform how fast an aperture you should be using.

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Thanks a lot, that makes a lot of sense I hope to get a Zacuto soon and then start shooting with it ;D

I have been surprised how good the batteries have been with my 7d2. I'm about 20,000 exposures into this new body, and I've been using a combination of Canon brand batteries that came with the 7d2 (the "n" version, which is supposed to have some nominal amount of extra juice) and my off-brand Wasabi batteries that I have had very good experience with in my former body, the 70d. Interestingly, the Canon batteries have gotten better and better each time I charge them. I'm getting about 1,000-1,200 exposures per battery. I do shoot in bursts, doing wildlife (and 4-year-old human wildlife), and this seems to really up the shutter count per charge. However, my off-brand batteries are doing terribly. I might get 400-600 shots per battery. I do not know why this would be the case, unless those "n" batteries made for the 7d2 have a lot more extra juice than advertised.

I'm not doing chimping, do not have GPS turned on, and generally have a pretty low power profile in my use of the camera, but this isn't a deliberate effort, but rather just how I like to shoot. Oh, and I've been shooting outside in weather that has been roughly between 10 degrees and 30 degrees f.

I hate how much Canon charges for name brand batteries, but I think that's the way to go with this camera.

AvTvM said:

Adding 2nd curtain sync to a wireless remote flash protocol must be really easy. Even Nikon can do it ... for many years now. Even with old-style optical triggering. I am convinced, some ML guys could do it within very short time ... if Canon gave them proper access to the current wireless ETTL source code and fully specs for the hardware involved (ST-E3-RT and 600EX-RT)

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I'm certain Canon could do it...they have just decided it doesn't meet the wants/needs of the majority and thus it's not worth the (comparatively minor) development costs.

That is pretty violent in there. Thanks for posting

Jesse said:

Thanks

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You have my sympathy, even with the (allegedly) helpful "far" mountain and "near" camera icons on the 6d I keep forgetting which direction is which and always have to look it up again

Go minus for backfocusing to bring the plane of focus closer.

There are 4 distances you need to calibrate and set. Reikan Focal is highly recommended, but a simple ruler and chess board will work. Spyder LensCal is another one.

Since the AF is the most stable with the Art lenses, shoot at least 10-20 shots at each distance.

All should be fixed, let us know if there's any more issues.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/focusing-ts.shtml

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/tilt-shift-lenses2.htm

Click said:

Thank you for sharing, Mr Surapon.

Have a great weekend.

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You are welcome, Sir, Dear Friend Mr. Click.
You too, Have a great weekend.
Surapon

Beautiful, well done!!

Just curious, what gear did you use to capture these images?

PVS said:

There you go

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Intersting - let's hope many people dump their outdated 5d3 and crop cameras so they become available for the rest of us :-> ... with the advanced metering and crop mode, I'm sure Canon will have problems producing enough of these for the upcoming demand.

This are the specs that are actually interesting (apart from the missing dual pixel af in the list)

* Continuous shooting 5 frames / sec.
* High precision 61-point AF
* 150,000 pixel RGB + IR photometry sensor
* 1.3x and 1.6x crop shooting mode

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AcutancePhotography said:

I liked the bit about the cork and the shadow. That was cool

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Yes that's an amazing frame to demonstrate rolling shutter. I love it.

Nice review Kent. You went to alot of trouble.
You are talking some nice shots
Personally I have found the Canon 100-400 works better on a 5D Mark III.
Not to do with the lens but the fact the picture quality on the 5D Mark III is much better than the 7D II.
The 7D II might be good for an APS-C but when you work with Full Frame it seems to be hard to accept the quality of current APS-C sensors

Kind Regards
Fergal

Review: Canon EOS 7D Mark II

My First Impressions

10 FPS is great fun (even if you produce way to many photographs)
Layout is great if you are used to a 5D Mark III.
ISO performance is disappointing. I can't compare it to a 7D but alot poorer than a 5D Mark III.
Maybe I am expecting too much from an APS-C camera but I've found it disappointing.
I could be spoilt by the 5D Mark III.
I find cropability of picture is much less than a 5D Mark III. Pixels seem to break up faster.
Again here maybe an unfair comparison but it's the first camera I've bought that is lesser than the previous.
I wouldn't see a huge difference in picture quality from a 500D to a 7D Mark II.
Whereas there was a huge difference between a 500D to a 5D Mark III.

Focusing is very strong on the camera. It's snappy and accurate.

So in summary it is a good camera for an APS-C.
I'd be surprised if it is king of the APS-C. If so they are not progressing much in the last few years.
It's not a great leap forward.
It's main positive is 10 FPS.
I would see that as the only reason to buy it over a 5D Mark III.
I don't you'd actually get better reach using it over a 5D Mark III.
A crop on a 5D Mark III would give a better result.

Great shots.

Thanks East Wind Photography and bluenoser1993, I agree with what's being expressed. I have until the end of March to decide and maybe just stick with my 6D for now. Still spending time on the Queen Charlotte Islands is the plan and there are birds and wildlife in abundance including bears, eagles etc. so ........??

I'll be watching all the threads! :-\

Jack

This guy explains it very nicely in this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jva08HY6uLE

More than 45 days after the last topic post I am revisiting especially for our beloved Jrista in order to update it with some Canon Financial Results 2014 and two additional summaries. First one & Second one

In short:

Results

Within the Imaging System Business Unit, although sales volume of interchangeable-lens digital cameras declined owing to the shrinking market—in Japan as a result of the reaction following the rush in demand prior to the consumption tax increase, and in Europe and other markets due to worsening economic conditions—the advanced-amateur-model EOS 7D Mark II achieved healthy growth, enabling Canon to maintain the market’s top share.

Outlook

As for the digital camera market, although projections indicate continued market contraction mainly for low-priced compact models, demand for interchangeable-lens digital cameras is expected to recover gradually.

And the most interesting part

As for the industrial equipment market, with manufacturers expected to continue making capital outlays for semiconductor lithography equipment in response to increasing demand for memory devices and image sensors, demand is expected to remain at the same level as the previous year. And as for FPD lithography equipment, demand is projected to increase as device manufacturers boost capital investment amid growing panel demand projected for 4K televisions and mobile devices.

Would that mean update of the old 0.5 tech? As well as using the SONY systems or CANON own 5 layer CMOS? ;-)

2015 - good times!

Imaging System
2015 - 1,399,000
2014 - 1,343,194
2013 - 1,448,938

Business share of Imaging systems:
2015 - 64 %
2014 - 64 %
2013 - 67 %

R&D EXPENDITURE (based on constant 8.2% of sales) in Millions of yen

2015 - N/A out of 320,000!!!
2014 - 84,377 out of 308,979
2013 - 87,510 out of 306,324