serendipidy said:

Jim,

Thanks for the advice. I really should start using RAW instead of JPG. I will checkout Fencecheck.

Any tips on how you keep the plane so sharp when it is moving and shutter speed is 1/50-1/80 range? I guess it is really good panning. Do you use IS when panning? I love that sharp spiral effect behind each propeller. How do you do that...is that because of the prop vapor?

The Blue Angels "Fat Albert" C-130 was at the air show and I got this shot (wasn't in a good location so cluttered foreground/background).

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I hold the shutter button down and just keep shooting a continuous series of shots. It seems like after about the first 2 or 3, you get "aligned" with the motion of the aircraft and can sometimes get some that come out sharp enough. Of course you eat up alot of card space this way, so you have to decide if it is worth getting one good one for a hundred blurry pieces of "abstract art"! I use IS mode 2 (moving target), because I figure it increases my odds of getting aligned with the moving target. Start building up your panning skills slowly, i.e. start with panning at 1/100th and get comfortable with that and then slow it down even more gradually. I like to practice on airliners coming in over my house, or with birds, and I know alot of people use cars on highways to practice. Maybe you could use surfers there in Hawaii?? It definitely is also a muscle memory thing, it seems like once you are comfortable with a range/method of movement it gets easier, but you also havge to maintain that, so I try to practice at least every couple weeks.

The vapor off the props is a benefit of the slow exposure. If your exposure is slow enough and you are shooting from the side (as opposed to head or tail on) the blades will actually make several complete arcs as the aircraft moves forward, and you get a corkscrew effect. I have seen some shots where it is quite dramatic. Shooting in high humidity or fog makes this even more dramatic. Would love to see more of your pics, there are probably some unique opportunities there for aviation shots.

Jim

took this one the other day. enjoy

drjlo said:

"What Id really like though is a 24-85mm F1.4 that weighs less and has image stabilisation — I wont hold my breath though."

Couldn't agree more

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Well theoretically, I think that might be possible, but you forgot one thing in there that makes it impossible. Image quality. The greater the aperture the more you need extra elements to deal with all the issues caused by it. Plus bigger aperture requires bigger glass. Thus bigger elements * More elements = Greater weight. In this case (24-85 1.4) I don't even know if it's possible but if it was it would so heavy you couldn't carry it. Now if you said, forget image quality we'll just have say 4-6 big glass elements to meet the aperture objective and not worry about correcting for anything. But hey it's a 24-85 1.4. Who else has one of those? Yet nobody would buy it. Oh and even though it might be advertised as 1.4 aperture it's T-stop would probably be more like t3.8 or something since in order to save on cost they wouldn't coat the elements to prevent light loss in each element. Wanna buy one? I always see signs at a auto repair shops that say you can only have two cheap, fast, high quality. In photography I think you could say light, cheap, and big aperture. I'm not sure if cheap and big aperture so well but you get the point. Bigger aperture means more money. There's no getting around that.

I think it's left open too long, based on what I think you are trying to do. I would use a faster shutter, maybe 15 seconds or so.

One morning after an awesome rain storm I went out to finish off some gardening and to my surprise found my 5d and lens hanging from a branch, where I had left it the night before. That soaking was about as intense as sitting it in a bucket of distilled water.
I took the batteries out immediately, and of course did not remove the lens. I then gave it all to my dad who took it in to his work where they had a vacuum desiccator, which effectively sucks ALL the water out of whatever you put in there as vapour.
Camera worked perfectly for years after.
Good luck with your gear.

While i don't think that one shot of the city at night looks any more like reality than the canon shot, i do understand what you guys are saying. thanks.

one thing though. the guy starts out by saying that the 5dmk3 is better for high iso work, then doesn't show any samples. at what iso does the BMC start to fall down, and how far?

-daveswan- now it looks like you'll have to finance a super computer, and a BMC.

Great lens (just bought one!).

Good to know about the knobs and the cost of repair.

New here but I'll chime in on the 15-85. Borrowed a friends for my 7D and it was noticeably better than my 28-135, but as others have said, quality control varies. Over time I accumulated three (!) 28-135 lenses from Canon.... two of them developed I.S. problems, and you can actually see image quality differences between all three if you look at their images side-by-side, with one of them being obviously sharper than the other two.

But the 15-85 I tried was still noticeably sharper than even the better of the three above. Not as good as a prime of course (my 60mm macro is excellent), but I'd consider it an excellent daily walk around lens, and am considering buying one myself. With the holiday season about here, I'd watch for sales like someone mentioned - they pop up without warning and only last a short time, so keep checking.

That Sunpak flash looks pretty small and light. I think I might try it...if it doesn't work I can always return it. Thanks!

Re: Canon EOS 3D Outed by B&H Photo [CR0]

DarkKnightNine said:

Ricku said:

I really hope it is a hoax!

I don't want this camera to be elephant sized. :-\

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Elephant sized?
Have you ever held a 1DX?
The thing just fits into your hand (or at least mine) like it was molded for it. It's a perfect fit. It was one of the reasons why when I first starting shooting professionally 6 years ago that I chose Canon over Nikon. The 1 series Canons just felt right in my hand.
By contrast, my 5D Mark III feels small and gives me fatigue because the bottom part of my palm has no place to rest.

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He's stated before that he is waiting for the price of the 5D Mark III to come down. If that's the case, he's never going to buy one of these so I'm not sure why on earth he cares whether it has a grip or not. I really believe that anyone spending this kind of money generally prefers a grip. Canon doesn't care about the opinions of those that aren't or can't spend that much coin.

jdramirez said:

neuroanatomist said:

ajd2k8 said:

Well this is my first L lens so I'm just scared of dropping it .. Never dropped a lens but if I'm going to it will be the L lol!

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Honestly, if you drop the lens a filter will almost certainly not help.

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I've seen pictures of shattered uv filters and the lens is unharmed... so it can help...

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Happened to me with my 24-105L at Disneyworld a couple of years ago. Lens fell off the baby stroller, and the filter (B+W) shattered. No damage to the lens! Of course the people near me were ready to call an ambulance until I realized that only the filter broke!

Dropped lenses.... "There are those that "have".. and those that "will""

Mt Spokane Photography said:

Sorry, I misread what you were asking.
Its difficult to give a cost for a shutter. If it dies at a ripe old age, its likely that the mirror box and some other wirk will need to be done, while a new camera with a bad shutter might get fixed for $500. with your discount, $300 allowance for the shutter sounds reasonable. I sold my 1D MK IV for $4200 recently with a very low shutter count, under 2,000.

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That's a really fair price for such low acuations. No idea if that's spelled right but thank for the info about the mirror as well

i do love canon lens, but when talking about zeiss lens... there is no where near from image quality to build quality comparing to zeiss. i do not have one, but my friend has one 21mm f/2.8. he let me use that one for a while and i love it. i can tell how solid it is at first time twisting the focus ring... but i cannot buy more stuff since i already spent too much money on gears within last few months.

Boy it seems like no ones making money lol! Stupid cell phones and point and shoots ruining everything lol

Ricku said:

Canon's high MP / high DR body does not have to be insanely expensive. Just cripple the FPS, give it 16 point AF and native ISO up to 12800. It won't touch the 5D3 sales, nor the 1DX.

This camera is ment to compete with the D800 / D800E, and therefore the price tag should not exceed 4K.

But then again, it is Canon we are talking about here. The camera will probably be overpriced.

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Don't talk about or mention the word "Cripple", I think Canon has been a doing too much of that lately. We don't want to give them any more bad ideas or make them think we're OK with it. They just need to try and give us the best camera they can. I'm sure the overpriced 5D Mark III is going to more than pay for the R&D they put into that AF. Now they just need to put it in every body they can (within reason).

Thanks!

They did not ask me to do video, but I told them I have the capacity to record a couple of moments - if they wish.

If I do end up shooting -some- video, it will be limited. I will also charge more to cover more memory cards and perhaps another battery.

So I just tested the canon 2XIII stacked with the canon 1.4xIII using an extension tube in between on my 300mm 2.8L. 12mm tube did not offer enough clearance to stack them but was successful using the 25mm tube. In camera AF did not work, manual focus worked, so did Live View AF. However as expected it would not infinity focus. I got maybe 25-30ft before reaching the stop. for those interested in close up high magnification shots this may be an option while still using the canon high quality III extenders stacked.

bkorcel said:

You can stack a 2X II and 2X III but not two III's. The IQ loss is significant. Better than not getting the shot but from a practical standpoint you are better off just cropping using a 2XIII only.

I personally think most of the loss is due to the 2XII.

I've heard of people using two IIIs with an extension tube in between but again you wont get an infinity focus...only good for closer up work. I haven't tried that but I will and see how it works out.

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wickidwombat said:

sarangiman said:

Sony really does seem to be the more innovative camera company these days...

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Actually, I should add Fujifilm to that list.
http://www.fujifilm.com/products/digital_cameras/f/finepix_f550exr/features/

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main problem is fuji diservice departement = utterly useless
so if you go fuji pray nothing goes wrong with the camera

at least canon have good service

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+1 to Canon service. Maybe that's one of the reasons you pay premium with Canon even if their product is a little bit underspec'd and overpriced.

Canon Rumors said:

Both could possibly be available in the 3rd or 4th quarter of 2013.

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3rd or 4th quarter of 2013? :'(

I'd like to thank everyone for your great feedback. All of you have given me quite a bit to think about.

I also appreciate the honest assessment of breaking into the landscape photography industry. I know it is going to be difficult and realize fully that in all likelihood I will need to wear many hats if I'm going to make this career change feasible/workable. If not, I'll still have some great camera gear...whatever it is....

Just ordered mine from Newegg.com! ;D

They had four in stock when I ordered, so as of this posting there should still be three available.

Go get'em!! :-*

I personally only crop when I have to, but I can definatley see Canon going with a new aspect ratio. However, My guess is that it will look pretty similar to the 1D X, with a few alterations (don't ask me what) to make it more distinctive, and to stand out from all the 1 series cameras.

Richard8971 said:

Oh, one more thing, the 5D2 is rated for 1/4000th of a second max shutter speed and the 5D3 is rated at 1/8000th of a second max shutter speed.

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What should I do, I have lots of images taken with my 5D MK II at shutter speeds over 1/4000. Even at 1/8000 sec.
Is it broken? I've had two and they both use 1/8000 as stated in the manual on page 236.

I wouldn't want to buy a camera with 43K on it, at least not as my primary camera.

With the price drop on the 5D MKII, buying used for anything over $1300 seems a little unjustified to me.

AG said:

And the more we donate the sooner he can afford to port the 1DC firmware onto a 1DX.

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Won't happen.