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.

I used Adobe Premiere Pro CS6.

I generally use Elements, and had a bit of head scratching to get around the differences between Premiere Elements and Premiere Pro, but there is so much more you can do in Pro.

A few weeks ago I buy the Manfrotto 405 Pro Digital Geared Head.

I my opinion the perfect head for your tripod.

The 405 utilizes large, easy-to-grip knobs that provide smooth, positive, geared control through 360 degree pan and -30 to 90 degree frontal and lateral tilt.

In addition to its 3-D geared functions, the 405 also incorporates a unique feature that allows you to instantly disengage the gears and rough position the camera by hand, then instantly reengage them for ultra-precise final alignment.

The 405 comes complete with quick-release plate, 1/4"-20 and 3/8" camera mounting screws, and 3/8" tripod mount.

Pros
stable
attaches firmly
large range of motion
strong clamp

Cons
heavy (but solid)
expensive (but worth every cent)

Best Uses
Landscape
Night shots
Long exposures

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

We'll just have to manually focus, won't we?

Thanks to everyone for the kind words! Winning this award has been amazing!

It was awesome to see the whitehouse photographers at work. So smooth and in control of their craft. What a damn cool job too: they getto see and be around all the most influential people in the world. I'll definitely have to see if I can dig up that special on them...

I wonder what they use for cataloging... Lightroom? Or do they have something custom built? Do they shoot in RAW? So many questions. I was going to snag one of them after the picture to ask, but I got hung up talking to some people and they left before I had a chance.

Maybe I can use some of my new contacts at the White House to get some info...

I've seen pictures of the stuff offered by the bigger vendors, but haven't used it. Read lots of reviews.

The one thing that keeps coming to mind is how cheap and cheesy these things appear to be made, but with pricetags approaching $100 USD.

What could be substituted for the ready-made versions?

Again loads of great info here - many thanks to all for opening my eyes in so many ways it was overwhelming and most enjoyable ...not to sound ambiguous but I've opted to go with the Elinchrom kit as my readings and conversations with various folks have caused my abandonment of the Master + 2 Slave option. I've been seeing time and time again it's best to have more light than less. BandH also stated that these Elichrom lights are very accurate with respect to color temps whereas many others are not. In taking all of the good info posted here I was able to talk with some intelligence with B and H and notched out what I believe to be a good quality mobile rig using AC power (DC later) So here's what BandH proposed. The PDF attached here was their proposal though I think I can do better on the Background System this is the one I am considering on Ebay not sure if anyone has tried this rig. Also within the quote you note umbrella, stand, hotshoe, etc this is for the 580 EX to run off a third Sky Port receiver also in the quote. I'll probably add a Snoot to this ensemble as well - thanks again to all contributors for all your help, guidance and input

I appreciate your reply -- as you said, it doesn't explain how it fits perfectly on one but not the other. The filters don't change size when I try to swap them on the lenses

It's the Canon lens thread that is different from the other...there's no other way it can be.

I ended up ordering another 55-250mm from B&H Photo in the deal they had today ($150 for brand new). So, I'll see how that one goes -- even though, in reality, I'll probably never use the filters on 55-250mm to begin with I'm going to contact Canon about it.

I bought my 5D MK II new when they first came out, and was very happy with it. I sold it for $1700 when the MK III came out, but returned it.
I bought a refurb thru CLP by trading in a old broken and worthless film SLR. The price was $1407 plus tax, with free shipping, or $1514 total. The Camera had about 275 actuations on it, and is excellent, probably better than my first one, as far as lack of hot pixels is concerned.

Thats a $500 savings, you can buy a decent lens for that.

1) Versatility... Can use with both 1.4x and 2x extenders with excellent results. Amazing build quality and performance.

2) Nothing really!

3) I have been through three copies so far... The original I had for a week before the IS was grinding. Sent back to B&H and got it replaced. Used the 2nd copy for about a year and the IS start grinding again, Canon repaired under warranty. The third copy was only because of rebates I was able to "refresh" my warranty with a 2-yr through my AMEX and such, so I bought another and sold the one I was using... Within 2-weeks I had the IS grinding again, sent to Canon and they again replaced the same exact IS assembly part. All has been great with it since. The IS is something else though... Three lenses and all the same issue? One of which bought well over a year after the other two.

4) The last one I got for $1974 with the $400 rebates during winter.

5) Lens performance is excellent... Amazing colors and sharpness all the way through. All three of my copies were sharper at 70mm than 200mm, but its so minimal it is non-issue. Solid performer all around.

Wait what will be announced in August and what will be announced at Photokina? And does canon usually just announce that they're new product will be available sometime in the future or at the time of announcement is it available?

I'm a little sad to see some of the altercations above. Hope this is all based on misunderstandings since this is rather untypical for this specific forum. But hey, we're all sensitive artist types here and passionate on top of that - so things happen.

In any case, I was intrigued by the discussion in a way and checked out the flickr page. In context this makes sense now to me. There are some outstanding shots there in my opinion and to my taste. The OP obviously has excellent control over exposure and contrast. By itself, I personally thought also that the posted first photo was overexposed (that's not a bad thing) and low in contrast (not bad either). So that didn't work for me really either, which is again taste not criticism of skill set. But in context with a bunch of the other shots it started to make more sense to me and it actually creates a certain mood that is tangible.