Best diffuser for canon 430 ex II?

captainkanji said:
I've been using the Gary Fong lightsphere for awhile now. I've had pretty good results with it. I just got the rogue flashbender with softbox attachment. I'll try it out this weekend.

The GF sphere is OK if you are in a room that has objects to bounce off. As a stand alone like outdoors it is useless as it throws light 360 degrees in all directions. The size of the area at the front face of the dome that scatters photons which actually reach your subject is slightly bigger than you bare flash. Waste of light and batteries. You will have better control in that situation with the rogue. Indoors as well if the area is big like a convention centre.
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Colour help...please!

it looks as though you at least popped a bit of flash into the scene (bit of a catchlight in the heel of her shoe). was there another strobe source lighting her?

the reason i ask is that you can gel flashes/strobes with a straw colored gel to get better/healthier looking skin tones. she does look rather pink in the first shot but there is a bit of coolness to her skin tone that could use some warming up. fair skinned people often shoot like this and benefit greatly from a straw colored gel.

the 2nd shot she starts to look washed out. any chance you can link to some photos that you find the color pleasing so we have a better frame of reference?

nice shot regardless though. and your b&w interpretation is nice.
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Anyone using UDMA7 cards in 1DsMk3? ...and they work?

I checked my order and my memory was right: ordered and fulfilled from Amazon. I had an interesting discussion with Lexar, too. The long number etched lightly on the end was not traceable by Lexar. They said that oral descriptions over the phone can't prove much but that they are willing to test cards in their labs. The Lexar tech said, though, that the gold color was usually off on counterfeits.

So something was wrong with the first example I had and Amazon didn't miss a beat when I asked to return it; they sent another before I got my bad copy back to them. So far my new one seems OK... have to shoot more with it before It goes to a shoot for $$.

That bad card seems to have made my 1Ds body throw camera shutter errors so I have to watch all the components carefully for a while.
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Experience with CP-E4 Battery Pack and/or clones

Not quite a clone, but I have both the Turbo 2x2 (now replaced by the Turbo 3) and the Turbo SC. Pricey but worth it in my opinion. Every few years I need to replace the battery in each unit.

I tried the canon battery pack but never enough life out of it and had to replace the AA batteries (lithiums at $2/each or recharge AA NiMH).
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Need help with choosing a telephoto for $800 and under

Thank you to everyone who gave me advise, I ended up going for the 200mm F/2.8 USM II L. I'm a big prime shooter and this lens fit my budget and is so sharp. Here are some shots I got with it on my 5D MKII on my first day with it.

This was shot through a tinted window, I am so impressed how sharp it was

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Another shot through a window

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The new Voigtlander 28mm f/2.8

verysimplejason said:
wickidwombat said:
I have the 20mm and I love it, hard stop infinity is so nice and the electronic aperture control with very snappy AF confirm for manual focus to. Build quality is awesome.

Sorry, off-topic. I'm interested in the 20mm. Is its IQ better than Canon 17-40? I need an UWA for FF because I'm moving to FF next year.

yes I think its better than the 17-40
here are a couple of pics from it
they are at f22 though as i was using a cpl and iso 50 to get the longer exposure
f8 to f11 is sharper

Its a nice partener to the 40mm they both use 52mm filters so they can share and 52mm filters of high quality are cheap even B&W 10 stop ND and cpl :) adding a filter does not increase vignetting

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Focus confirmation on Samyang lens?

Artifex said:
Mt Spokane Photography said:
Since your 14mm lens is in focus from 3.5 ft to infinity, why would you need a AF chip? I've found that there is so much tolerance in AF lights that its worthless to use for critical focus, just gets me to a slightly blurry image.

I'll be honest, I also don't have much problem with the 14mm; working with hyperfocal is easy enough. It is more with the 35mm that it gets annoying, but since the chip cost about 5-20$, why not upgrade both!
Many of the cheap chips are not worth the cost of the epoxy. They seem to fail or be DOA in a lot of cases. If you are going to get one, get a good one.
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need advise on what speedlite?

Chris Burch said:
I use Phottix Stratos II for my remotes lights because I don't need the TTL functionality. I love the Stratos -- great range and very reliable.
I have heard great things about the Stratto's and they are also compatible with the Odin's - nice touch. Had the 622's not come out I may very well have jumped on them.
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1Ds III

charlesa said:
It was not my intention of selling directly through CR and my OP is proof of that, just asking what other options I have. Sorry for the trouble.
Those who are interested could send a private e-mail. I'd recommend a face to face cash deal.
Craigslist and ebay have UK forums, and might be good. Craigslist has forsale forums around the world.

http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites#EU

There are 5 1Ds Mark III's forsale in London

http://london.craigslist.co.uk/search/sss?zoomToPosting=&query=1Ds+Mark+III&srchType=A&minAsk=&maxAsk=
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Thoughts on Canon 20mm f/2.8?

I bought a used 20/2.8USM and used it for years. It got stolen. I immediately bought another.

It has a few limitations. One is - it has considerable vignetting at f/2.8, and even f/4.0. By f/5.6 or so, its a lot better. If you have a camera that has peripheral illumination correction it will correct most, but not all of the situation at f/2.8. By f/4.0 with correction, there is no problem at all. Even at f/2.8 with correction... most shots are not going to be objectionable.

The other is its size. Its a big lens for a 20mm - mostly on account of the rather medium large aperture of f/2.8.

Whoever said the 16-35ii L blows it away - no way. This lens is at least as good, or better than the 16-35ii L, in terms of snap, color and corners - any all comparable apertures. I've never noticed any field curvature that gave me any grief - but I tend to not shoot flat walls, dead straight on, at maximum aperture.

I still grab my 20/2.8 on the 7D and 5Dii both... there are times when I just don't want the 16-35ii L.... its bigger, heavier... no better optically for any purpose I use it for - candids, and events, and occasional walk about on the 7D (since I really love 35mm on full frame, the 20 comes close to that).
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Canon EOS Rebel T5i Leaks

Marsu42 said:
simonxu11 said:
The 651D is here............LOL

Canon won't stop until every person on this planet has bought one of their 18mp cameras (if they don't go ff) ... but on the bright side if the price goes down Canon-like after a couple of months this is a good first camera with even 5fps...

Maybe we should have a poll: Who bought an 18mp Canon Aps-C body?

I'll put in the first vote ;D
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600D vs 100D

Random Orbits said:
I think this is a good response to the mirrorless competition. It's not much bigger than the EOS-M and it retains full functionality of a Rebel including phase-detection AF. Stick a EF 40mm pancake, and you have a small walk-around or street camera or use it as a backup to a larger camera. It won't take up much space in the camera bag.

I think this is true evolution of the Rebel line, not the T5i. It retains the physical controls that we are used to and are more efficient than menus. Canon is probably using this to gage how well the public will accept the smaller form factor for future Rebels. Now the Rebel is positioned better to compete with future micro 4/3rds systems. Why design another line of lenses (EF, EF-S, EF-M)? Play to Canon's strength: its breadth and depth of EF lenses.
I have the same opinion
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Gear upgrade: 2 primes vs new body + 1 prime??

First..thanks for the reply. As I mentioned in first post I currently work with 5dmk2 as my only body, but when I go to weddings I borrow 50d just in case of failure. Also I don't work as solo photographer. At least for now I am second photographer so if anything happens to me or my gear it would not be total disaster:)

So far I have decided to sell my 5dmk2 and buy 5dmk3. I don't have enough money too keep them both :(. For backup body I will still be using borrowed 50D (Lets hope that I will never use it).
For the lens I am going with 85 f1.2.

If I manage to save some extra money I still don't know what second lens would I get. Probably something wide.
@hawaiisunsetphoto
you mentioned to buy new 24-70...is this one so much better than old version?
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700D Launched

With the EOS 700D/Rebel T5i, Canon's made an early move to replace last year's 650D/Rebel T4i, though one with only very minor refinements. Indeed the changes over the 650D are so subtle that it's the older T3i/600D that stays on alongside the 700D - while the too-similar 650D fades into the sunset. Among the few improvements, the 700D includes a new mode dial that turns 360 degrees, a new 'upmarket' body finish; and real-time preview of Creative Filters in Live View mode.

Apart from those additions, the 700D is essentially identical to the 650D, making this the least distinct upgrade we've seen in this range of cameras. Elements carried over include the 18MP CMOS sensor, a 9-point cross-type AF sensor, 3-inch, a 1.04m-dot vari-angle LCD screen, and Full HD video mode. Its Hybrid AF system was also brought over from the 650D, and while the simultaneously announced 100D/Rebel SL1's Hybrid AF II covers a wider


suck my balls canon.... :-X
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How many years have the CR posters been shooting seriously / professionally

Interesting histories guys! I started with my dad's FujiFilm FinePix S1 Pro (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/fujis1pro) back in 2000 it was one of the first DSLRs and one of the first 6MP digital cameras (a 3mp "Super CCD" sensor actually but produced 6mp) I had no idea what I was doing, shot only in auto and swore the built-in flash was helping my night landscape shots lol, didn't even know what lens I had on it nor did I ever take it off.

Later on I got a used Canon XL1 video camcorder for school and loved it, became a Canon fanboy that day so I bought a used Canon D60 (one of the first Canon digital cameras) with a Canon EF 85mm F/1.8 USM. I was told 85mm is a good range but didn't realize about crop factors, so kept trying to do wide portraits and couldn't understand why I couldn't get what others did lol, eventually learned to use it as a 135mm and added some zooms but the 85mm on APS-C is still my favorite lens.

Found a friend (another Canon fanboy with an XL1s and 20D) and started covering Weddings and Sport Events for peanuts ($300-400 a pop lol), learned manual controls and exposure settings on the job lol. Then got a 9-5 in 2004 which took up too much time so my Photo and Video gigs got pushed to the weekends :( but I started using a Panasonic Lumix LX1 as my "always on me" personal camera and surprising learned a lot about composition. Got published as a camera man for a documentary on the 2006 Formula Drift championship tour (I helped cover LA ;-D). Got let go from the 9-5 around the time the 5D MkII came out and changed everything, so I sold everything and relearned shooting and editing video with a DSLR and instead of getting another job decided to go full pro lol. Ended up getting a 7D instead (friend got the 5D2) been happily shooting Weddings and Events ever since. We just sold the 7D and 5D2 for 5D3s and waiting for the 70D(hopefully) as I still prefer APS-C.
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