Thanks all for your valuable input. I will consider it before I buy my new camera I guess it will be the Canon combo 8)

timkbryant said:

Yeah. It was like 2am. I totally never looked at the LCD in depth and saw it showed how many exposures remained. I was tired.

I admit it is a DSLR. I should have been more diligent.

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There is no shame in admitting that you were looking at the lady's legs and hands. ;D

weixing said:

Hi,
For setting <AF-ON> button, look for it under [C.Fn III: Operation/Others]->[5. Custom Controls]
For selection of center point as AF, press the <SET> button... you can only change AF-point if you are using Creative Zone mode (Av, Tv, B & etc).

For details, look up in the manual.

Have a nice day.

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Thank you! That helped me find the details in an online manual. For some reason, it doesn't seem to be in my paper manual. Anyway, I got it figured out so thanks.

Re: 35mm lenses and people shots

distant.star said:

.
Wow. Lot of years since I was on a commercial aircraft. Lots of memories -- mostly awful. Had to travel so much for "business" and hated it.

Should have told me you were coming to Philadelphia! The flower show is currently going on (all this week), and it's perhaps the best in the world. A little too pricey for me at $30. though.

I agree about the 35mm. Back in the early days of SLR, that was considered the "normal" lens. It's on all my rangefinders.

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Yes, air travel has gotten to be more like bus travel nowadays.
And I didn't know you were in Philly...couldn't you guys elect a guy with a better name for Mayor? ;D

nsurg said:

Consider trying the ettl average mode?

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I was messing with it and figured out switching to average mode fixes it, so nice to confirm it with your experience as well. Setting to average mode allows bounce to meter correctly.

Thanks everyone for your input!

BTW, I'm liking this flash at this price point, pretty solid value. I also have a pair of YN-460 II manual flashes and they are likewise nice bang for the buck.

I was skeptical about the AF assist but it actually works pretty good on the central points. I'll check later the actual number and placement of AF points it illuminates and post.

angox said:

Thanks for the input! In your experience, do you think the mustache distortion in Zeiss to be significant? I saw some samples in the internet, and got mixed feeling about it. Hypothetically speaking, if you were to only keep 1, which would it be? (I know you had some struggles even selling one, but just for discussion sake.. ;D)

I also heard that Zeiss 25mm f/2 isn't as good as the 21mm f/2.8.. what do you think?

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I haven't ran in to the mustache distortion yet. I've read that it is most apparent when the composition contains a horizontal line running across the top of the frame.

If I had to keep only one...oh no...really? In that case I think I'd have to go with the Z21. I just love the IQ.

Let me add that if I was trying to make it as an architecture photographer, it would be the TS-E, and if I was a dedicated street shooter, or photojournalist it would be the 24 1.4. I haven't used the Zeiss 25/2. I've seen some very nice photos from that lens though.

You mentioned portraits from the TS-E...it does actually make a pretty darn nice portrait lens. If you search for the TS-E image threads over at fredmiranda.com, Peter Figen has posted a few nice portraits with the TS-E.

Here's a doggy portrait with the TS-E:

9VIII said:

I've read some "less than great" things about IQ on the old lens, and given Sigma's other recent products the I have high hopes for the new one. The new lenses should be compatible with the USB connector for user adjustability too, so getting the old one seems a little silly right now.

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Exactly- I didn't even consider the old one because of QC issues, but the new one is promising, and will definitely be smaller than the 35/1.4 if pictures are anything to go by.

Atonegro said:

Watch out ! They drive at the wrong side of the road !

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Its the rest that drive on the wrong side of the road....the reasons behind driving on the left is back to the old horse and carriage, knights day where most people in the world are right handed and therefore hold their weapon (sword, pistol etc) in their right hand and hence the reason to drive on the left

Hi Malzz,

I have the 550D/T2i and the EF 85mm f/1.8 USM is fantastic on this camera IMHO.

Okay, just going to provide my basic 2 cents... (I agree with Drum)
A lens is largely dependent on your own style, budget, and what, when, where and why the subject is being photographed.
So there are many reasons why a lens maybe someones trash, but anothers treasure.

The 85mm lens on a 1.6x cropped body of the 550D/T2i makes 136mm. According to the Canon website closest focusing distance id 2.8 ft and yes, if your in a really tight space your going to have a challenge and sometimes I used a Kenko extension tube 12mm or just changed the lens, that is one of the beautiful things about a DSLR to me.

Also the EF 40mm f/2.8 STM was recently on sale 20% to 30% off on Canon's online store the refurbished lens was only $127 (Out of stock now)
If you bought these to lenses together you may just have a winning pair IMHO.

I also have the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC HSM Lens and Tamron AF 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di-II LD SP Aspherical (IF) Zoom Lens, but I have not used them in a year and I'll likely sell them. Also they can't be used on a full-frame camera, so that maybe a consideration if your thinking about upgrading the camera body someday. I may purchase the Sigma 50mm f1.4

When I first got the 550D/T2i I used the EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM almost all the time until I purchased the EF 85mm f/1.8 USM. I don't use the 28-135mm as much now mostly because I'm using L lenses on the 5D mark ii, but I love the EF 85mm f/1.8 USM even more now. The EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM is also a good backup lens when traveling if I have an lens issue with one of my other lenses and unable to use it until it's repaired the good ole EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM is there for me. The EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM will cover a wider range than the two primes 28mm and 85mm as well as take great captures, has IS and most EF Canon lenses in this focal range will not and it's $245 on Keh.com website (used in excellent + grade) and the EF 50mm f/1.8 II same grade cost $94, so this combo may also work too. The EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM can be your all purpose walk-around lens and the EF 50mm f/1.8 II can help in low light indoor settings.

Happy shooting and have fun with your new 550D/T2i

rihanishtiaq said:

And to me, I personally don't think Any camera body will change the way I take photos

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For me, a camera with a really good af system would - like the 5d3, or even better 1dx ... unfortunately way out of my budget. As for the other lesser cameras, the differences won't matter that much.

Never knew that spot AF was slower in low light. Thanks for the tip!

Very neat but Canon really beat them to it in a way. With the Canon 6D (and others maybe?) you can do that via your smart phone. No need for a removable back

Andy_Hodapp said:

ThomasT said:

If its not good enough, he tells us, if its superior, you get to know.

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I really hope you are trolling or kidding.

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KR certainly has the ability - for good or worse - to convey his personal mid-range amateur preferences as a definite opinion, and for people (re)entering the dslr market imho that's at least better advice than the usual "just get expensive gear, you'll get sparkling(tm) shots" often found in stores.

Btw what the poster above wrote is also KR's business concept - "help me help you" and make things (apparently) simpler - so no need to attack people who (currently) like KR.

Great shots. 4-6 months in Africa is beyond a dream. Do you rent or own the Landcruiser. I will need to study your website.

BTW, where do spend the 6 to 8 months? I hope some place equal exciting.

Same issue happened twice so far. Happened with a 3rd party battery grip. First time I panicked - then I calmed down and pulled the battery and disconnected the grip and reconnected everything and it was working again. Still saving $150 on a grip is worth it though.

I've had the same thing happen a couple of times with my 5D2 and its genuine Canon grip. My best guess is that the wheel on the grip gets slightly off of a detent position and "locks out" the main wheel. As Andrea mentioned, moving the wheel on the grip back to a detent seems to correct the problem.

LetTheRightLensIn said:

scrappydog said:

LetTheRightLensIn said:

Even at ISO3200 my 7D usually beat my 5D3 for birds.

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How so? I have a 60D and 5D2. Never in a million years will ANY photo that I take with the 60D at ISO 3200 even come close to the 5D2 at ISO 3200. Not even close. The noise and breakdown of resolution is terrible.

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compare them at the same scale and not at 100%, don't just shoot two birds and compare, filter and scale the 7D bird down to 5D2 scale and then compare

the 7D sensor is a touch more efficient per sensor area than the 5D2 sensor, now if you are shooting landscapes and filling each frame the same way of course the 5D2 has less noise since the sensor is 2.6x bigger (although the 5D2 does band more in deep high iso shadows, so for particular scenes where very dark regions fill up much of the image the 7D image might look better even in this case, but that is a very special case)

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The FWC of the 5D II is still three times higher than the 7D. Even though the 7D is slightly more efficient, assuming you fill the frame with the bird, the 7D will never touch even the 5D II. The scale factor is small, and the higher megapixel count of the 5D II would actually mean you get more pixels on subject than with the 7D...so the more realistic comparison is to scale the 7D image UP to 5D II size.

Assuming you only filled the APS-C area of the frame on the 5D II, scaling the 7D down to that size does improve things, but not enough to really overcome the significant full well capacity benefit the 5D II has. The 5D III is even better in this area, as it has a larger FWC thanks to an even more efficient sensor than the 7D. Even in normalized comparisons, the 7D at ISO 3200 doesn't quite hold up to the 5D II, and doesn't even come remotely close to the 5D III.

Makes sense - thanks!

I'd get a cheap adaptall adapter, forget the FD lens and forget Ed Mika for a cheap lens. You could spend the price and get a good autofocus lens or a excellent Nikon lens plus adapter for the same money.

Yhe Ed Mika adapters are for those with expensive high quality FD glass.

I'd also pass on the AF confirm chip. Many of them are junk, and using them is complicated and frustrating. Read the manual for one before thinking that they are going to be really useful to send a bunch of data to your camera about focal length, aperture, shutter speed, etc. You also need to AFMA them.

Re: My (seemingly) never ending Focus woes.... BIF advice needed

Hi,
I have much more of a grip on how thinks should work and in many cases I do get them to work that way.
Tracking small Birds and getting them in focus is still not what I had hoped for so I am systematically trying to work through that now. That in itself is difficult, how should one do anything systematically with the little critters?
So, much of this has been said before, but I would like to discuss the points according to my experience at this time. Please bear with me :-\

So, I tried a setup where the birds can only fly across the FOV left to right to land on a feeding spot. And back out the same way. Using a Zoom is almost impossible here as the birds spend too little time in the field of view, plus DOF is in most cases just too shallow. So I'm currently trying with my 16-35.

I'm also planning a setup where the birds will fly more into the Camera instead of across it at 90°.

In the above case its impossible to put a focus point on the bird manually, I'm too slow for it. So I guessed that using 61-Point auto-selection is the way to go. I cant use AI Focus as I cant focus beforehand on a still subject, AI Servo requires a manually selected AF point beforehand too. So So IMHO it looks like one way is to use AI Servo and a single point pushed over to the left and hope that that achieves focus straight away.

Now to the background, I have trouble that the camera likes to focus on the background. I tried various sheets, but they provided a perfect target and the camera took them everytime. Apart from a proper backdrop, any tips here to provide something the camera wont focus on?

Comments?

Cheers Brian

Sporgon said:

I had a quite play about with it in PS

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The cables o not bther me - I really like this version of the image though - nice work.

Cheers

same, I've heard nothing but glowing reviews of the 135, including AF performance. If I hadn't been asleep when the sale started I would have bought a refurb this week...

LetTheRightLensIn said:

7enderbender said:

Question to all our physics and engineering experts here: I found an interesting location that is at the top of a building with cell phone transmitters attached to it. I think they're for major US carriers in case the frequencies used make a difference.

The place has the usual warning signs a la "may exceed the usual blahblah". From a medical standpoint I'm certain that it's a no-issue. But what about camera gear? I guess I might not want to use wireless triggers there but anything else at risk?

Thanks

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I drove up to Mt. Wilson, they have tons of transmitting towers up there. Got out walked around a bit. Went back to the car and used the clicker to try to unlock it, click, click, click, nothing! Even from 1" away NOTHING! Thank god it wasn't one of those cars that has no physical key mechanism or I would've be shafted. And it did make you wonder what was beaming on you up there. I've never had a key clicker fail to open something from a few feet away never mind still failing at just 1-2" inches away!

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I assume it worked later...

If you are near a powerful source of rf it can overload the front end of the car's receiver, everything gets clipped and nothing gets decoded. I work 19 kilometers away from a transmitter tower which blasts out 30 megawatts of tv, fm radio, and various emergency transmitters. We need to put filters on all of our hf band receivers or all we get is AM 1200, no matter where it is tuned, if the antenna is rotated anywhere near the tower

Hi all, just to share some info that might be of a use to those who look for travel destination/inspiration.

http://www.occhio-photography.com/travel-inspiration-%EF%A3%A6-cinque-terre/

Thanks,
R.

Re: Cheap Canon 300mm or 400mm

CanNotYet said:

I am thinking Tamron might step up here. They now have VC and USD capable enough for this area. A good way to differentiate themselves from Sigma/Canon would be to provide some new combinations of fast primes, like 250mm f/2.5, 350mm f/3.5, and 450mm f/4.5... They would probably end up in the space 2-5k$ (keeping my fingers crossed)

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Yes, those larger primes you suggested would be nice too, however I think they might fall more into the $4000 to $8000 category, even from Tamron. I wouldn't count on any of our suggestions happening though, because none of the manufacturers seem very adventurous about new lens categories, other than for dedicated video (which is fine I guess for them, since there seems to be big demand.)

The one I would like most, would be either a prime or a zoom...but extremely fast aperture. Obviously it would be very expensive and difficult to make. So I'm kind of glad there isn't one available right now, because I couldn't afford it even if one existed. I am thinking along the lines of a 60-110 f/0.8, and a 110-170 f/1.2, 1.4, 1.6...whichever could be possible. Again, probably be next to impossible to achieve a design with good image quality with such a fast aperture, especially if it's a zoom...but it would be oh so cool if it could be done. Getting results that are in focus might also be difficult, but I think people could figure it out eventually.