You definitely need to buy or rent a 2nd body. I'd make it a 5D MK III so your batteries will fit, and so you know how to use it and don't run the chance of doing something wrong.

chilledXpress said:

neuroanatomist said:

But...who took the wedding pictures??

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I heard it was done entirely with a wrist mount GoPro.

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The President has been known to grab Pete's camera and snap a few photos.

Panning can be a stunning creative technique when you pull it off perfectly.
There are plenty of good online tutorials both YouTube and written articles with good solid basic data.

Most of these use motor sports as examples, but the fundamental lessons are the same.
http://digital-photography-school.com/mastering-panning-to-photograph-moving-subjects
http://ruleofthirdsphotography.com/get-the-perfect-panning-shots/
http://improvephotography.com/726/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Panning-The-Art-of-Motion-in-Photography/
http://www.ephotozine.com/article/camera-panning-technique-4768
http://www.carphototutorials.com/make_panning_shots_like_a_pro.html

HTH,

-pw

EF is pure electronic, unlike many others, which still kept the mechanical aperture lever.

This made tilt/shift lens easy and consistent to implement.

Take a look at how many mechanical parts in a Nikon zoom lens just to keep the aperture work, and why Nikon PC-E lenses is an exception, you will see that EF mount is superior.

Also, have you seen any Nikon camera that can change Aperture value when recording movie? They can't, because of the mechanical design. To change / step aperture value, they have to activate the aperture lever, which causes the aperture to snap to the fully open value, then re-release the lever again to get to the target value. EF lenses on the other hand, could step aperture value in any direction and steps you want. So EF mount is better for video too.

They only repair in Commack, NY, but they are really quick.

distant.star said:

.
Perhaps some clever (and old) person will develop one of these for folks who started 40-50+ years ago in the recesses of the pre-digital world.

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And pre-auto . Some of it I can relate to, other bits I can't, especially the phone bit, I had a hate/hate relationship with mobiles for a long time and only really found a use for the camera on my current one for work a few weeks ago.

Don't be afraid to go third party. I use a Tamron 28-75 f2.8 on my 5D and get great results. It cost me about $300 used.

I dont know if it is or not, but with results that good...who cares!!!

Hi,

thanks for the comments and ideas. I can't quite stretch to a 600EX at the mo - would love to, but it is way to pricey for me, but I'll go ahead with the YN-560 conversion and report back, hopefully positively and in the not too distant future!

cheers guys, much appreciated!

Grant

chilledXpress said:

The Fuji files do seem to have a crisper look and the skin tones always look better coming from the X100S, given images from multiple cameras clients always seem to pick the Fuji's over any of the Canons.

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examples?

yes the 580 has the option to use second curtain sync its the little symbol like 3 triangles with the last one solid
looks a bit like this >>>
430 should have it too

set the 430 to slave
580 to master and select that mode and it should all be sweet

look here
http://www.learn.usa.canon.com/app/pdfs/quickguides/CDLC_580EXII_QuickGuide.pdf

3rd column on first page about the middle

and here for the 430
http://www.learn.usa.canon.com/app/pdfs/quickguides/CDLC_Speedlite430EXII_QuickGuide.pdf

AvTvM said:

tnargs said:

It would be interesting to know, of those here who are saying they would buy the new Sony....
[1] Would it be a supplementary camera, or your main camera?
[2] If it would be your main camera, what system would you be moving from? FF DSLR? APS_C DSLR? Smaller mirrorless?

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1) a mirrorless FF-sensor system camera like the Sony A7/R will be my only camera (other than smartphone)
2) Currently Canon 7D + all good EF-S lenses and a few good EF-lenses and a few speedlites. Will definitely have been my last DSLR system and my last APS-C camera.

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That is almost exactly my kit too.

For my photography as amateur/enthusiast I need only one camera system at a time and I don't want to buy, own, store, insure, carry, learn and use more than one camera system in parallel.

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ditto - we have some things in common, it seems!

Looking for a small light photographically fully capable FF-sensored mirrorless camera and a small set of "AF-only" lenses. [no manual focus ring, no manual focus gear, no distance window, but weathersealed @ IP67].

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It certainly is a nice ideal, one I have thought a lot about.

Ideally a 24-70/85 f/4.0 IS for street/city/events/general purpose/walkaround, a 20mm/4.0 pancake mainly for landscape/city/architecture, a minimalist pancake 40mm/2.0 for street/people @normal angle, a 85/2.0 pancake for studio/portraits/concerts and a very compact and light tele lens for travel, say a 200mm/4.0 plus 1.4x teleconverter. Plus wireless ETTL flash trigger built into camera and 2 slave speedlites. Entire system for less than the price of a Leica M240 with 50/2.0. That's it.

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;-) indeed! But AFAIK pancakes are inherently lesser optically than a 'standard sized' prime, so I have gone off the pancake idea for now. Why get the big sensor and then add a lens that has more blur units? The Zeiss 35f2.8 that came out with the A7 weighs about 120g, nice.

If I had to buy tomorrow, it would be the A7R (preferred) or A7 ... depending on AF performance ... plus 24-70/4 plus EF-adapter.

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For me, right now, I'm starting to think the m43 or APS mirrorless is the right answer. I'm starting to think that, for any given budget, the better lens kit I could buy with a smaller sensor outweighs any theoretical advantage in IQ -- which will largely evaporate without a tripod anyway. And I'm not at all sure *just how much* weight and bag space are saved by going to FF mirrorless, once you include all the lenses for a decent system. Maybe it is a disappointing end game if the real goal was * large* savings in space and weight.

spamis said:

I currently have a T2i and want to purchase a 6D. My 17-55mm is my favorite lens for the T2i but it will not work on the 6D. It looks like the 24-70mm will be very close to the 17-55 (27-88mm) but which one do I get? I really don't want to spend the $2,000 (give or take) for the 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM so I'm left with the EF 24-70mm f/4L IS USM ($1,200 used) or the a EF 24-70mm f/2.8 USM (used for about $1,000). I would consider the II USM if everyone believes that it is the only option but I can't see how I could justify a $1,000 difference in price. And while you're at it, is there really that much difference between the two two f/2.8's? Thanks.

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Does Adorama still ahve the $1620 special on the 24-70 II? A few stores had them for that after special sale and mail in rebate and cash back deals ($1699 without the latter).

There is a huge difference between the 24-70 2.8 I and II (the new one also has a bit better AF, more noticeably so when paired with a 5D3/1DX that use the new ultra-precision mode it has, not sure if the 6D allows that or not though). The 24-70 f/4 IS is better than the 24-70 I too.
The Tamron 24-70 vc might be an option too, although that one I've never tried.

The 24-105 is far inferior to the 24-70 II and quite inferior to the 24-70 f/4 IS. Of course the price is far, far superior so it all depends on how much you have and what your priorities for spending are (and what they are for shooting too, if you just shoot centered subjects with the rest a blur and do it a lot hand-held at slow shutter speed the 24-105 IS might work out fine; if you love 24mm (where the 24-105 is not at its best) corner to corner with fine natural landscape details and shoot against bright skies at times and hate PF and so on the newer ones might leave you much happier; etc.) You can take plenty of awesome shots with the 24-105 and dont need anything else. That said, the others can deliver those shots in nicer technical ways, occasionally by a good deal. Some don't care about that, some do.

ajfotofilmagem said:

Yes, so no manufacturer wants to make a APS-C camera noticeably superior to current models at ISO 6400. This would bring down the sales of full frame, and Canon wants exactly the opposite, forcing demanding amateurs to migrate to 6D (or more expensive) and L lenses.

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I guess Pentax wants the same? Or Oly?

No manufacturer can make such a camera. If they could, they would, and then they will make better FF cameras as well.

This was said many times. The hard limit at a given ISO (more precisely, at a given exposure) is the area. Same exposure (a.k.a. "same ISO ", which is not quite correct) over a larger area means less noise per unit area. As simple as that. Sensors of the same generation have some differences in how they record that noisy image but the the differences are too small to beat the sensor size factor.

Yes. When C.Fn I 2 is set to 1/3 the auto ISO will change by 1/3 instead of full stops. I regularly shoot junior hockey using auto iso on my 70D.

LetTheRightLensIn said:

Lichtgestalt said:

it also matter if you have black point compensation turned on or not.
with BPC enabled the tone curve will be slightly rounded, blacks around the papers DMAX will be slightly lightened. means there is no hard clipping when the DMAX of the paper is reached.

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I took having BPC on as a given.

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yes, but BPC is just a part.

thanks guys, no problem posting into my post.......amazing how much detail you can get at night. I couldn't see banding on my moitor at all, lovely shot.

i have been using the lens for a couple days now. if you are interested in this lens you have to get the dock and will need to spend some time tuning it and then it is really, really good it is super sharp everywhere on the 70d especially wide open at 300 where it counts. the lens is internally zooming and focusing, it suffers from heavy focus breathing. it is 300 at infinity focus but only 230-240 or so at minimum focus. that's why lens testers point out its 280 at the distance they are testing at.

you can set custom af speed, focus limit and is behavior with the dock. i have c1 set to fast af, limited the focus from 10m to infinity and set moderate is. using it like this and ai servo it has no problem focusing and tracking low flying geese in the fog as they pass overhead.

i haven't used it with converters and i am not sure i will. its a really useful range on an aps-c body and there is plenty of room to crop with the 70d if you need to. the 70d is too small for the lens, your fingers pinch between the grip and the lens. it feels good on the 40d so i think it would be really good on the 7d and presumably the 7d2.

you have to be willing to spend some time tuning and fiddling with this lens but then it will give you excellent results. it is heavy, sigma tank construction on this one, there does not appear to be any consideration for weight saving, its around 8 lbs with the collar and hood

So, at last - here's an update. We've had some very bad weather 'round here the last few days so I did't have any opportunity to test the lens with natural light as proposed.

First of all, thank you all for your help and your suggestions. I repeated the process outside (didn't have much time til it started raining again) with the following results:

- first of all: the results were a lot better for the 24-105 under these conditions (seems the 70-300mm didn't suffer as much from the suboptimal conditions last time)
- at the long end the lens is still not excellent, noticeably worse than the 70-300L@100mm and much worse than it is @24 to 35mm.
- at the short end the lens is quite good, even slightly better than the 70-300L
- af ist quite spot-on most of the time

After all I've read, I think this is quite how this lens is expected to perform - so I'm happy and I'll continue shooting other things than resolution targets .

And btw: a little skin oil really helped the hood. It's still stiff and not very smooth running, but it is okay for me now.

Here is how I tested:

- Outside, ISO 100 ~1/300s-1/500s, f4
- IS off
- no filter
- Sturdy heavy tripod
- EOS-Utility attached to my laptop, LiveView with maximum magnification
- Distance to Object ~25 times the focal length to keep the target size consistent (target was about the size of the center viewfinder circle)
- Used only the very center to judge the sharpness
- MF and AF (to review the results of my afma settings obtained last time)

- focussed manually using the Liveview on the Laptop and did some Photos.
- with "AF on" I checked if I could improve things by overriding the focus manually (which hardly was the case).
- took some Photos using AF only (for comparison)
- tried to optimize the results using the AF-controls of the EOS-Utility (focus to infinity, phase AF, correct step-wise and count, repeat, feed the result back to afma)

After trying both the manual (operating the af ring by hand) and the AF+EOS-Utility (operating the AF step-wise by software) approach to afma, I think the latter is quite a bit easier/faster to do and yields very similar results.

Orangutan said:

The problem has NEVER occurred with nearly 1000 pics using the same lens on the 5D Mk II.

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There may be other usage differences between the two that account for that. Can you do controlled tests side-by-side? Are you using a faster shutter to account for the crop "zoom" factor of the 70D?

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He should compare the same lens on the 5D2 and on the 70D, same position, same SS, good light, no camera shake, same aperture, the FF image cropped. Did I say no filter?

Sporgon said:

... 'cos I have a disease involving long faces, tails and four hoofs

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You too?

hawaiisunsetphoto said:

Heads up.... just picked one up at B&H for $799.00....

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Thanks. Will check it out.

JordanT said:

Does anyone have any recommendations for a wide angle lens? I'm looking mostly for affordability (about $400), but I will be willing to go over if its a good deal. Any recommendations are appreciated. Thank you

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I owned the Tokina 12-24mm f/4 and upgraded it to the Canon EF-S 10-22mm f3.5-4.5 and with the latter I was very pleased and satisfied (sharp, top performer). The Canon is found now refurbished around US$500 on Canon web site and also used on eBay.
However, I sold it to buy the Canon EF-S 15-85mm since it covers longer focal range and I found myself using most of time the EF-S 10-22mm on the range 15-22mm. Hence, I sold it.

If your camera is affected, you'll defiantely see debri in the corners, especially hte upper left corner from what I udnerstand- Have you taken a shot of a light area such as sky at F/22 and max zoom and checked yet? That wil ltell you if there's any debri on the sensor or not-

I only use live view for maybe 1/8'th of my total for the landscape shots, or less even- I only use the live view when the camera is low to hte ground, or at a position that makes it too awkward to look through viewfinder

Alan J said:

Mt Spokane Photography said:

Looks like a different Aberdeen from the one near where I grew up Nicer too. Logging / Fishing towns can be rough places here on the West Coast. Of course, the lumber and fishing industries are no longer what they once were, the last lumber camp at Grisdale has long closed down, and loggers live with their families. Well, there might just be a few weekend brawls in the local taverns, but not of the old time quality.

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This is Aberdeen, Scotland. My home town. I presume your Aberdeen is this one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aberdeen,_Washington.

Iv'e driven thro' on my travels around the pacific northwest. Been to Spokane too, Boise, Lewiston, Asotin, Clarckston, all round the tri state area. Up north to Cape Flattery and as far south as Monterey CA. Beautiful country.

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I've only managed a few of Scotland's better cities like Peebles, where I took a bus each morning to the hamlet of Edinburg (or was it the other way around ). In any event, It was beautiful and the people were all friendly. I'd go back and stay a lot longer if I could. My distant relatives are English and Scottish (Walker and Farris), but that's 13 generations back.