After thinking it over for a few days, I'm now strongly leaning towards buying a Panasonic FZ200 for my gf to shoot with instead. It'll make things a whole world easier for her having a 24x zoom and AF. 120fps would be a bonus too; I can think of a few nice shots that I could use it for. It'll be nice to have as a multi-purpose camera that I carry with us all the time, taking the total to 3 cameras for the trip (not counting the GoPro's)

I'll wait for the reviews to appear and for some video samples to come out, but I think this option is going to be easiest overall.

Strange that a camcorder has never entered the equation as an option... it's kinda odd that the consumer camcorder world is mostly still trudging around with 1/4" chips, interlaced video, auto-everything, etc, while still cameras (both DSLR and compact/bridge) seem to be making all the advances with large chips, 120fps slow motion, more creative control, better colours, etc.

M.ST said:

Yes, the EF 1200 is very rare. But only one person (not me) own a EF 3000. The EF 1200 is very heavy, but for the EF 3000 you need a truck.

I have all the latest L lenses and some other lenses with exeption EF 24-70 L I (sold, you know why), EF 17-40, EF 24-105 IS (sold after 3 days use a few years ago), the EF 500 2.8 II L and two of the tilt-shifts.

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You have a very impressive kit list - what kind of photography do you do?

Which is your favourite lens?

I bought one today but checked with a few Ebay vendors first indicating I wanted quality vs. price. Most pointed to a brand called Linco saying they were the sturdiest. Sure enough I inquired with them and found their stands are much more durable and constructed better supporting up to 15 lbs, 3 year wararnty as well. Here's their store - whether they ship to Euro I'm not sure

Link to background systems: http://img.lincostore.com/Background-Support-and-Backdrops/category/54.html

I know Adorama sells a few of their items as well on ebay and at adorama.com

Good luck

Kata D-3N1-33 3 in 1 Sling Backpack, Large same price range as lowerpro fastpack 350 fits almost 7d with 70-200 f 2.8 , 17-40, 28-135, 50 1.8 , 70-300 usm,laptop bag + extra space on top for other things, free rain cover

check more at http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/656755-REG/Kata_KT_D_3N1_33_D_3N1_33_3_in_1.html

its not about large you should check for how comfortable you are carrying is matters, i am using it not sure about Lowepro DSLR Video Fastpack 350 AW (Black)

There could be a mis-moulded part that has some surface defects. its not likely to ever be a issue, but you have a limited tome to return it, so you might want to exchange it for peace of mind.

wickidwombat said:

brianleighty said:

I don't totally understand depth of field yet but the closest I've come is that the depth of field is based off the

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Um I dont mean to be rude but if you dont understand depth of field then you really should not be shooting a wedding!

weddings are about as full on shooting conditions that you will ever encounter you need to be 100% clear on how your camera works and all fundamental photography basics

otherwise you might end up here
Judge Joe Brown - Cheap wedding photographer

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I agree with the Judge. If you get pay as a wedding photographer, please DON'T use consumer level cameras or lenses...PERIOD

XTi + 18-55 lens for wedding, and NO FLASH??? What's next S100 for wedding??? U gotta to be kidding RIGHT?

mostly sunsets over oceans and occasionally some mountains , should i buy all three in one set or just buy .9 and .6 to start i save 30 $ buying all together worth buying all three at a time or just buy what i need i heard people say either i need two .09 or one .9 and .6 to shoot sunsets ?

I would assume that they collected all stuff just for olympics to be in one place. They could divide it into regions to support different events around the globe for CPS members.

I dont think they sell it as "refurbished/used". If you think for a while: how many shutter actuations could 1 pro photog take during covering (lets say) one day ? 5 000 ? 10 000 ? even more ? And Im sure that 1 camera goes thru different hands.

Just my 2 cents.

jacktaka said:

hey guys, try www.focusingscreen.com

also, can someone tell me what's so special about brightscreen?

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Some say they are better, some not.
They use cut down Canon or other larger screens, and / or make their own. They treat them with a undisclosed process to be brighter than the ones Canon supplies for $45.00.
Making the best possible focus screens is a art, and it can be expensive to make really good ones, as opposed to merely milling down one made for a 1 series camera, or a Hasselblad, etc.

Not sure if this is the right forum but there doesnt seem to be one for places and situations arther then gear.
In a couple of weeks I'll be making my trip down to Arizona... I'll be spending a couple of nights at the Grand Canyon South Rim.
Does anybody know which viewpoints are best and at which times of day?
We are going in an RV so will be using the shuttle bus and feet to get around mainly because taking the rv to all the view points would be a pain... also the wife and kids wont want to be driving back and forth to view points at sunrise and sunet!
Any advice you guys have would be appreciated
Thanks

Agree with the 24mm f1.4L II. I have this lens and it provides great speed and excellent subject isolation (or integration) depending on aperture. On the crop body this will give you wide without being too wide (distortion).

Drizzt321 said:

neuroanatomist said:

Drizzt321 said:

kzhlin said:

I am using a 5d2 and I heard that the 600ex-rt's do not work with the 5d2 (sync speed).

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I can't believe that. The 5d2's sync speed is 1/200, just like the 5d3.

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Would you believe if you read it on p.51 of the 600EX-RT manual? With pre-2012 bodies, the 600EX-RT loses one stop off the max sync speed when triggered wirelessly with the RF system (e.g. 1/100 s max with the 5DII), and HSS and Group control are not possible via radio trigger, either.

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Seriously? Wow. I guess I should have RTFM before I opened my big (proverbial) mouth on the internet. This actually shocks me. Anyone have any idea why it does that? I have a hard time believing it's nefarious, not something as important or odd as that.

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I wonder if the wireless protocol introduces a delay that means the shutter has already been open a while by the time the flash fires ressulting in the slower sync speed? Maybe the newer bodies take that into account and send the command to trigger the flash a small time in advance while the shutter is still opening. Canon might have stuck with a fairly low bandwidth for the RF link to give better range with small in-built antennas giving it more lag than some 3rd paty devices.

KKCFamilyman said:

I have a canon 5d mkiii and I am testing my new 270ex ii for vacation and in tv mode shutter 1/125 iso 400 wb flash eval metering it tries to use 1/3 sec or best I can get is 1/20 at iso 1600. I thought it was my batteries but I recharged them. I put my 430ex ii on and same results. Any suggestions? I should be able to shoot at iso 400 with a speedlite? I even reset all my settings. Very frustrated 2 days from a trip.

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In TV mode the camera is setting the speeds based on the ambient light rather than using the flash to light things up.

Try using M at 1/125, iso400, f/5.6 for starters and adjust from there. The more flash light you use the darker the background gets

surprised this hasn't been posted here yet but:
http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2012/07/autofocus-reality-part-3a-canon-lenses

Very interesting results!

Any lens older than the 70-200 2.8 IS II did much worse with phase AF consistency than with liveview AF on both bodies, 5D2 and 5D3, no surprise, already well known and expected.

Regardless of lens age they all did much worse with phase precision than contrast focus precision on the 5D2.

But with a 5D3, all of the new lenses, on that body only, focus much more precisely!

The 70-200 2.8 IS II was sort of in between somewhat better but not like with the newest lenses.

They found that the new 24mm 2.8 IS, 28mm 2.8 IS, 300 2.8 IS II and 70-300mm IS L all focused much more precisely when used with the new 5D3 (and likely 1DX) AF system than on the older 5D2 and that the 70-200 2.8 IS II possibly focused somewhat better (although they were not sure in this case). They said those few lenses actually focused almost as precisely with phase AF as with contrast liveview AF. The old 300 2.8 IS did not.

So apparently the new AF system can hook into some secret stuff with the newest lens designs.

I wonder if that means that third party lenses are not likely to be able to match the same AF precision of the new Canon lenses on the 5D3/1DX, at least not for some time, since they won't have the special whatever it is that makes the new Canon lenses focus extra well with the new AF system.

part 3B (http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2012/08/autofocus-reality-part-3b-canon-cameras) has now been added to the part 3A stuff I talked about above.

Basically yeah only the 5D3 and 1DX have the new ultra precision AF unit although the 1D4 isn't that shabby.

7D, as I've long said, has a LOT more in common with the cheaper AF units than the 1 series ones, it's more the xxD just with more points and some more speed added and more options than high quality focusing units and sensor and most updated code

the newest lenses have high precision rotation readers that allow for nice closed loop AF, without both the new high precision readers in lenses and the new high precision detectors (1DX,5D3 and to a lesser extent 1D4) you won't get the ultra precision

i think you also need to use the center point or at least the center column other than very top and bottom points of that.

Nice that I swapped to both 70-300L and 5D3.

He will test Nikon next. That will be interesting.

he will test nikon next, interesting to find out if any nikon lenses have the rotational counter and what, if any bodies, can make use of it, if it exists for them

I have a question and I hope this is within the thread...

I LOVE the focus system, point blank period!!! I got the 5Dmk3 as a second to add to my 5D2 kit for pro work( I have made more than a few bucks with the 5Dmk2 and a 50D), so I have become accustomed to registering my quick menus on both cams.

the focus system on the mk3 with its shooting scenarios would be a beautiful thing to register to the quick menu ( ie, when pressing the menu button six custom often used choices pop up first).

So my question is, is there a way to place the entire scene selection tab onto the quick menu?
I do use and have my tracking sensitivity as an option on the quick menu, does anyone know how to add it to the quick menu? Or is it not as desired an item for an add candidate to the quick menu as it is for me? maybe it'll be in a future firmware up grade I pray!

as submitted yesterday....

zim said:

Woa what just happened!

http://www.mathersoflancashire.co.uk/prodDetail.html?intProductID=2301&intCategoryID=5

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Update -

This appears to be lens specific. I dont know why it should be so. Pressing the multicontroller should be the same as remapping the set button to do the same thing, but... the set button works nearly instantly and positively, whole the multicontroller has some lag and is not as positive. Again, once the screen is displayed with the mf controller, the response on the screen is snappy, positive, sure...

Does anyone else experience this? That is, my 24-105 takes a bit of doing to get the screen on, while the 28/1.8 or 50/1.4 are instant. Other lenses vary....

My initial though was contact cleanliness. They're clean. Then I started thinking about lens/camera firmware interaction, and perhaps the way the camera makes the screen access is more convoluted (in firmware) when the mf button is pushed.

Canon themselves... clueless as to even what the problem is that I'm trying to describe, giving the stock response of "send it in for evaluation".

Any feedback sure would be appreciated

It all depends on how you use your remote speedlights. I've personally never used remote TTL and just set my background and accent lights manually. If you are camp that likes TTL controlled remotes, there are certainly ways to put that to good use. The most obvious is doing ratio lighting where you have a main and a fill light that you can set to do 1/2 or 1/3 ratios for brighter light on the mains. Being able to transmit TTL data also means you can transmit control data that is used for other things besides TTL. That means you can control remote speedlights with your master flash or directly from the back of the camera if you have any of the new Canon SLRs. I think on the newer cameras you can even do manual control of the remote flashes.

Northstar said:

neuroanatomist said:

Northstar said:

Regarding AI Focus, you would think that with the word "focus" in the description that this setting would get you the best focus...but it surely doesn't...it's far and away the worst setting of the three.

It's really interesting when you think about it....you have this company that spends tens of thousands of hours of time and countless dollars developing and testing their product, and then they put a function in the product (ai focus in this case) that just doesn't work well. It makes you think, they must know right? And if they do know why do they do it? Marketing a camera "feature" is the only answer I can come up with.

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I'm pretty sure they do know. On 1-series bodies, the only options are One Shot and AI Servo.

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interesting...i didn't know that. that makes me believe i'm correct in my assumption about marketing the feature. they believe that marketing that feature(even though it isn't a good feature) eventually results in more profit for canon......even though the user will eventually dislike or become dissapointed in the feature and not use it...or even possibly return the camera.

the thought process in the corporate world, especially product management...sigh.

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Whatever it is, I have now stopped using it But like you said, not only is it intuitive to use it, it was also listed in several photobooks like the option that would serve me most for the type of pictures I take most. Well, no more.

Like neuro said, I have the 1Ds III that I have borrowed with the 85 1.2, and it does not have the AI Focus option.

Yep, I've now got mine
Pro camera shop seem to be able to get hold of them

Flake said:

The Olympics is pretty much a disaster for the UK, greedy hospitality companies raised prices so high that no one used their facilities, and now they're cutting prices to less than they were normally. London is pretty quiet, no real bonus from visitors to bars & restaurants.

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This is simply not true. And in reference to your post about being banned from posting on Facebook and Flickr, that is also not true.

It will always be the new one until a newer one comes out. Then canon will just call it the almost new one.

The 15% off sale is now over... FYI