Noted. Everyone seems to be pushing me towards the 17-55mm f2.8. I am trying to find it gently used for around $800 or less. I know the refurbished one is $868 shipped currently, and new its $1060. Been trying to find a deal for a while. I really want the 17-55mm for general use and the 30mm for shooting detailed objects (50mm is just too small a window), but it sounds like I could do both easier with the 17-55mm. Both are on my list, but I will see what I can find as far as a good deal goes. I also want to get something quickly so I can go exploring some more with an upgrade.

On my pictures, I was using a tripod for quite a few of the shots, but not everything. I need to get a better one than the old one I found in storage. I hope I didn't piss off the ghosts in the baker hotel after clunking that thing around exiting down the dark stairwell.

The 70-200mm f2.8 is out of my league anytime soon. I would get a full frame before that one. The 15-85mm seems like a much better upgrade than the 18-135 f3.5-5.6, but can be covered with the range I have for now. No clue which full frame I would get yet, but that's another issue for another time.

I also would shoot some concert photos occasionally, which the 17-55mm f2.8 should be good with. I tend to take all sorts of pictures, but want a good setup for urban exploration.

Anyone? Anyone?
Bueller?

8)

Cgdillan said:

cayenne said:

Cgdillan said:

cayenne said:

Cgdillan said:

also, I dump the footage after the video is complete and the client is happy, so if i keep one 2TB hard drive on Thunderbolt or Esata then I should do pretty well with storage space shooting one house at a time.

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Hey, just wondering, if since the BM 4K camera was announced, and also the BM Pocket Cinema camera.....have you reconsidered going BM and getting one of these cameras?

Just curious,

C

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Yessir. I pre-ordered the pocket camera and will be using it with a Metabones Speed Booster and my Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8. I am also on the look out for a decent 1" c-mount super wide angle lens 5-7mm range.

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Too Cool!!

PLEASE, do a post, maybe this thread, to give a report on how it all works,and of course, some footage.


I'm looking to go this route too.
I didn't think the Speed Booster was out yet, or was that just for Canon lenses it isn't out for?
I'm trying to learn the differences and what I would need for the BMPC....I am a bit of a noob, and only know what EF focal lengths are like..not sure how to relate them to the lenses for MFT lenses...etc.

Thanks!!

c

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The speed booster was announced, but is not available yet for MFT and Canon combo. Basically, if you have a FF canon camera and you adapt your lenses to the BMPCC, just multiply your lens "mm" by three. That how tight the lens will be. so a 100mm lens on a FF Canon camera is 100mm but on the pocket camera it would look like a 300mm. and with the speed booster is would look like a 200mm.

Now due to some very unexpected news, releases, and possibilities from magic lantern in the last week, my BMPCC is in danger of being cancelled. Magic Lantern has announced their ability of recording 24p continuos RAW video to CF cards on the 5D mkIII with likely no heat issues. If they get this stabilized, then I may be sticking to my 5D mkIII for my RE video work and canceling my black magic pre-order. We shall see what ML brings us. The way I see it, Magic Lantern has 2 months or so to polish up the raw video from 5d mkIII and win me back from Black Magic. I doubt there are any decent lenses sub $1K that would give me the quality I have with my 5d3 and bower 14mm. So to not have to invest further and just upgrade to better CF cards would be great!

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I'm excited about this ML possibility too!

I have the Rokinon version of your Bower 14mm...very fun lens for a bargain price!!

I would like to try to break into the Real Estate video business, and I've been a big fan of your posts, VERY good stuff. I'm trying to learn by the C.A.S.E method (Copy And Steal Everything)...haha.

But seriously, I'm learning a lot from what you've posted, both posts and videos.

I believe we're in different parts of the US, I'm in the New Orleans area...so,we'd have no competion, so I was wondering if you had any advice on how to get started...what all equipment and processes you use...

I have a slider, an optonika (sp?) cheap-o steadi-cam....manfrotto monopod and tripod...and use FCPX for editing.

Do you use the 14mm a lot? What other lenses do you use? Are you using HDR (I think I recall a post or two showing you did, especially to help with keeping from blowing out highlights in a room from windows, etc).
Are you doing HDR video too?

Any advice or pointers welcome.

I have a couple of contacts in local realestate, but I wanna have my story together before approaching them. I might try to shoot a couple of friends' homes first to put an example video together.

What is the going rate for a real estate video shoot? Do you sign contracts keeping your rights to the video or do you sell those?

I'm also a bit of a techie...I was thinking of offering the videos to be hosted from my home business office servers...I have a business ISP account so I'm good to go on running servers, etc.

Anyway, any advice appreciated!!

Cayenne

We're on it, hope to have it fixed shortly.

Personally, if you are not in a hurry and can wait a bit longer, I'd suggest 60d's replacement - whenever Canon decide to release it.

Cheers

the simplest would be to shoot freehand and use a tool like kolor autopano.

i often shoot freehand panos simply because i don´t have a tripod with me.
autopano works wonders.

on the other hand i had a few P&S cameras with panorama mode and they never worked.
results had visible seems etc.

rambarra said:

Personally I am not a big fan of extremely long focals in climbing photography. As you pointed out best angles are obtained hanging at the side and slightly above the climber. If you are able to place your rope close enough to the climber a 24-105 or even a 16-35 are more suited for the work compared to a heavy 70-200, which is quite difficult to handle when you will be swinging around attached on a rope (especially when doing videos).

Of course if you are far from the climber and/or if you need to isolate the climber from background or make details of hands and such a super tele is best suited.

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Indeed, some of the very best climbing photos I've ever seen were taken with a 24mm (Ed Webster and his pictures of the Neverest buttress route). The IS makes a massive difference when dangling I've noticed which is really when the 24-105 would shine. What I was looking for was mainly for when standing somewhere on the crag shooting people from the side if it is too much hassle to rig up a rope and jumars etc, remember this is a hobby and my I doubt my friends would happily hang around forever while I faff with a rope or two.

I'll give the 70-300L some serious thought, it isn't perfect but then few things rarely are. I may well end up getting a 70-200 f2.8 down the line but you certainly have a point with regards to the weight of it.

I had similar happen to me; the images were coming out pink, and it was the previous image reshown as pink, not what I was pointing at. I sent it to Canon; they fixed a PCB assembly or something like that.

tobiasv said:

Nice pictures of these Transatlantic guys!

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Lol, it took until Page 3 before the prog fan identified the act. Technically, the shots were of The Flower Kings followed by The Neal Morse Band, but there was a Transatlantic encore.

As the OP, shame on me for leaving the topic.

- A

Good for you Canon

I supposed I'm a bit disappointed that they're gone, but there's a reason I hesitated on getting a second… I don't actually need it; it was just a great deal that's all.


Funnily enough, the other sellers are selling it for £315 lowest price, whereas Amazon are selling the 6x7 Hilite for £299.

I know which one I would go for…




I agree that they were probably just getting rid of them. The price difference between the 6x7 and 5x7 makes it a no brainer at regular prices.




Of course, we didn't pay anything close to regular price. 8)




Enjoy, mate. You'll love it!

Taking pictures of people surfing the Eisbach is always fun.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisbach

Cheers

9VIII said:

My wallet says (pleads) yes.

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Even if it is released tomorrow, you could delay purchasing till 2014. Besides the price may be a bit lower then.

Tanja said:

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/content.php?103-Why-We-Need-Cinema-Lenses

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Very helpful. Thanks!

Normalnorm said:

They are the immediate predecessor to the Esprit line and are very similar. AFAIK they are almost identical.

I use Bowens and have been very happy with them. Very solid units with complete reliability. The S mount for modifiers is very good as there is an astronomical amount of stuff available for it online as the Chinese have adopted it as a de facto open standard.
The fact that they seem to come with reflectors for the umbrellas is good as those reflectors are significantly more expensive than the regular ones.

Good product it seems. Fair price. Not screaming deal you may be able to get a bit better.

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Thank you

I have now tested them and they seem capable.

paul13walnut5 said:

HOWEVER...

The older canon push pull zooms (70-210 f4, 80-200 f2.8L) do hold focus through the zoom, af can be very slow, but for video and on an adapted gh, thats hardly an issue.

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AFAIK the only 80-200 push pull was for nikon. I have a "Magic Drainpipe" canon 80-200 2.8L and it is not push pull, although it does hold focus from 100-200 if you're more than 5m away. It has great colors, slightly warm and a little "glowy"

Due to smaller pixel density, smaller noise patterns (so you can crop deeper), and the new Mk II lens paired with the 5D3 offers closed loop AF for better accuracy and repeatability.

And not to diminish the fact that it has 4 stop IS so handheld is rock solid even with the 2XIII attached.

AlanF said:

I have been using the 300mm f/2.8 II with the 1.4 and 2x TCs III for nearly a year with initially the 7D and now the 5D3 for bird photography. It is so sharp with the 2xTC that the 1.4 stays in its grey leather pouch unless the bird is too close. The camera and lens are sufficiently light that an old geezer like me can carry them around all day. By the way, the lenses perform even better on the 5D3 than on the 7D.

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Quasimodo said:

kirispupis said:

Quasimodo said:

Beautiful shots.

Please excuse my ignorance, but where is this city located?

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First one is Riomaggiore, in Cinque Terre.
Second one is Florence.
Third is Siena.

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Looks like I have to do some travelling

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It's an awesome part of the world and extremely photography friendly. If you do go, may I suggest this travel group with which I had a great experience: http://nadasitaly.com

Could be a bit of marketing but it likely stems from the fact 1) there are a lot of counterfeit batteries out there and 2) both the counterfeit and 3rd party batteries are often made cheaply...maybe the same actual batteries just packaged and labeled differently. Some of them burn up and melt down while charging AND once installed in the camera.

To be honest, I've never had a 3rd party battery last as long as a canon battery in both shots per charge and battery life. You really get what you pay for. As far as other 3rd party accessories go, I have also figured out that the canon accessories are mostly built better and have less issues.

I've stopped wasting my money and have just bought the canon accessories as that is usually where I end up anyway.

archiea said:

iP337 said:

I just talked to CPS Hollywood the other day and got into a conversation about what 3rd party accessories I should get, and they warned me not to use any 3rd party batteries because they might blow up in camera, I told them I've been using Canon DSLRs with only 3rd party batteries for about 10 years and not only have I never had that happen but I've also never heard about it either but the lady insisted that they have seen it...

I don't mean to be an alarmist but now with this extra warning in camera about 3rd party batteries and the fact they tweaked the camera to misread some chipped 3rd party batteries I can't help to wonder if they did something that might make this happen :/ like no longer restricting something on the higher capacity aftermarket battery. I've had batteries from other stuff blow up on me before (an Apple Macbook, an Avid portable M-Audio recorder and a few cellphones) they just bloat up and no longer work.

This is probably just some marketing trick to scare me into giving them more money but I wouldn't surprised. (who the hell is running Canon now a days anyway?)

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I think its part alarmist, part reality. Canon can't QC third party battery manufacturers. While I'm sure a quality 3rd party battery vendor wouldn't put out a failing product, thats not stopping some cheap knock off vendor from providing batteries for canons and users purchasing them. All it takes is one battery failure and canon is correct in their assessment. And considering all the battery options I see on ebay, I see it more a likelihood that a user would buy one just to save a few bucks.

If you are going to spend $3K on a camera, a $70 battery is part of the cost of doing business. Playing lottery with a microprocessor controlled power source is a risk.

If I put out a pro product, I'd definitely put out a boilerplate statement about using OEM accessories just to save me the pain. Sure OEM cost more, but you are paying for reliability.

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smithy said:

It's an interesting problem. I'd recommend simply sending it to Canon for repair.

During a location shoot about a week and a half ago, my 50/1.8 started malfunctioning... again, it was a focus issue. It was 'missing' focus on every shot. Luckily my client (and subject) is a photography teacher and knew that gear sometimes failed. I changed to my 24-70mm/2.8 and got the shots I needed, in perfect focus, so everything was fine in that regard.

I won't be repairing the 50mm. I bought it during a trip to the US in 2004 (from B&H), and it has served me well. Now, if only Sigma would release a new 50mm Art Series lens, I'd be a happy chappy.

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I'd sell it on ebay for parts. there are a lot of buyers willing to spend a few dollars to fix it themselves. It is very likely that the flex print cable inside has one or more conductors failed, a new one is cheap, but paying someone to do it for you isn't.

J.R. said:

rpt said:

J.R. said:

rpt said:

I mean, I never bought or used Nikon. So what do I know of the colour of the lens?

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That should give you a gold plated approval already ... Stop messing about with those captchas. ;D

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The captchas are cool. It is these darned trick questions that get me...

So if asked "what is 2 and 2" the best answer is "it depends" (and that works for most questions too - try it out - you would be surprised...)

So is this an arithmetic question, is it a binary logic question, or is it just messing with your mind? I can elaborate - the answers are:
A. 4
B. 2
C. 22

See, It is hard to answer such questions...

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Damn ... I've been trying to explain to the shareholders that the answer is 5 and that is not even listed as an option

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Hmmm 5
Simple. Obviously you are not an engineer. You are an economist. So we need to add inflation. I'd say that is option D. 5 = (4+4) + 20%...

For my purposes, my XTi is good enough optically to satisfy me, so I've been holding off upgrading my camera waiting for something with built-in GPS.

I can't believe Canon released a full-frame camera with integrated GPS almost a year ago, and they still haven't brought that feature into their crop-body line. I would have expected the crop bodies to get that feature first, since they are more consumer-oriented products. Canon's consumer point-and-shoot cameras have had GPS since early 2011. It's time. Actually, it was time several years ago. Now it's just painful.

Thanks!!!

The 580EX II can be a master, so you can fire your 430EX II in slavemode and it fires when the 580 fires. No need for an extra device. But it does not work the other way around because the 430EX II can't work as a master flash. I have a 430EX II and a Yongnuo YN-565EX and both work great with the YN-622c triggers. I have 2 pairs of them and they work really well.

paolotaverna said:

So did 3 tests with Focal and result was +3, + 2, +4(on 50L)
I've decide to make a 4th test and got +3...so +3 it is. (used strong Hallogen light to be EV 12)

after taking tests shots I am more confident the correction is accurate. Although there is no true alignment with Focal...I still like it

thx guys

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Aye, FoCal is pretty good stuff. It DOES need a LOT of light to really work right, but it really simplifies an otherwise complicated process.