Bought my 5DII with 3yr warranty in 2010 for $2200, and a 28-70 2.8L for $300 from the same guy.

Heh, I suppose the lens purchase strategy depends on whether you are a professional, what things you like to shoot at, and what is financially possible. Or if you happen to decide that particular objective would be interesting for your "research" (hey, I do optics in my day job). I checked a 200/1.8 recently, but decided against that since it really wouldn't work with the way I shoot. Too bad for the large aperture though.

Seriously though, since I live in Scandinavia where light is scarce for four months of a year, I do sort of need two sets of lenses. I use fast primes for the winter time, and zooms in the summer, though you won't find me carrying a zoom on vacation.

But I'd recommend not going for the most expensive thing first, but just something on the focal length range that you think could be interesting. For example, Sigma 12-24 is completely sufficient for me in the ultrawide area, while 120-400 does the trick for the 400 mm stuff. Most of the things I take photos of reside between 24 and 200 mm, typically between 24-70 inside and 70-200 outside. 120-400 is more for small animals.

For a vacation, if I think I need a camera with me, I'll probably go with a 20D and 28/1.8 and 85/1.8. That tends to cover all I need, up to night time too.

I just bought the 600EX-RT to replace an older 430, and this 600 is fantastic. I'd recommend heartily.

Zen

Your welcome.

FTBPhotography said:

I personally dont see why everyone feels the need to upgrade every two seconds. I need to upgrade my 3 year old 7D!

Meanwhile, its only got 1200 shutter clicks on it. :

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That's almost new..... mine is at 2700 for this year and I am sure that some of the forum members are way beyond that.... if you figure that the shutter is rated for 150,000 clicks then at this rate you are set for the next 372 years before you reach the rated number of shots...

Harry68 said:

I've tested the Canon 8-15F4 and the Canon 17-40F4. At the first one I always used the long end and with the second one I used the short end most of the time.

For me it is now clear that I need an objective starting with 14mm and ends at 24mm or 28mm. Less than 14mm is cutting the edges at full frame. For more than 24mm I can use my 24-70.

So I hope a 14-24 or 12-24 will come soon to the dealers.

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14mm on a fisheye is much wider than 14mm on a rectilinear lens:

14mm Rectilinear:


14mm Fisheye:


12mm rectilinear lenses do exist, as in the Sigma 12-24 - and this doesn't have cut the edges on full frame. However, the optical quality isn't up there with the Nikon 14-24:
http://www.lenstip.com/326.11-Lens_review-Sigma_12-24_mm_f_4.5-5.6_II_DG_HSM_Summary.html

It should be Ok-Good. Decently sharp @ F/5.6, Really sharp @ F/8

STEMI_RN said:

I headed to Honolulu on business during the first week of February.

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I hope I'm not too late:

Take Tantalus Drive up to Puu Ualokua park. You can see from diamond head (past it, actually) all clear over to the far side of pearl harbor.

neuroanatomist said:

Congrats!

Doesn't really matter (as long as you're buying direct from Amazon, not a 3rd party even if fulfilled by Amazon).

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ditto!!

Also, nice with amazon.com, if you sign up for their store card, you can charge and with an amount like this, pay it off 12 mos interest free.

I like that!!

On the other hand, I bought my 5D3 from crutchfield, they too had a credit card for interest free payments (was nasty interest after that deal tho, so dropped it after paying off)....BUT one nice thing from that is Crutchfields rewards points system.

I got enough points off my initial purchase of the 5D3 and 85MM 1.8 lens, to where when the Canon lens rebates were on, I got a brand new 70-200MM USM L IS II for about $1400 total.

Those rewards points can really add up on a large purchase, I even earned more points off that last lens purchase and will use those towards another lens when I get ready again, likely the 5OL.

Give them a look.

HTH,

cayenne

Ive seen occasional lock ups on my 5D MkIII twice in fact and both occasions I didnt need the images on the card so formatted the CF card, at that time I also have save JPG to seperate SD card which was not in the camera.

So just try to Format your card in camera when you've taken the images off it.
It worked for me!
(I had no error just a complete lock up had to take the battery out.) not sure but I believe it was an after market battery I had in at the time but formatting worked.

expatinasia said:

I have always shot sRGB but this article makes me think. What do you shoot with in-camera?

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I shoot RAW. I can specify a color space appropriate for the intended output when I convert to JPG.

Rienzphotoz said:

Ellen Schmidtee said:

Rienzphotoz said:

Where did you lose it? ;D

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He didn't lose it - it was shipped to me by mistake, and I like it too much to give it back.

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Be nice, do the right thing and give it back to him ... bcoz of you he is upset with Canon ;D

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Yes, father, I'll give him his lens back...

I wanted to order the Better Beamer and an SB910 from B&H but B&H does not ship Nikon gear to the Middle East ... so I had to choose Adorama, but Adorma does not have Better Beamer, instead they have a similar one called Harbor Digital XT Flash Extender (http://www.adorama.com/HBXTA29.html) ... does anyone know much about this? i.e. anything I should watch out for etc?

Its OK ... not particularly funny. But thanks for sharing

wopbv4 said:

Hi,

I am rather disappointed with the HOYA 82 UV IR filter on the 16-35. There is a very clear green color cast in the corners.

At 205$, this hurts.

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If spending $205 on a filter that produces green color cast in the corner hurts, imagine the Nikon D800 (costing around $3000) producing green "cast" cross the entire image.
One can easily remove the Hoya filter and not have the green case at all but with D800 you have no choice but to deal with it in PP

Bummer. Bought a Strato Multi II to test expanding a set of Odin receivers intended for my Canon flashes into my existing batch of Vivitar 285HV units. I had hoped this lower-cost rcvr would fire the Vivitars for those interiors that needed "just one or two more flashes". I am posting to see if anyone here ever tried the Strato successfully with these Vivitar 285's. The Odin rcvr *will* fire the Vivitar. Vivitars offer no TTl feedback. There's just one metal connector in the shoe, and eyeballing that spacing it *does* line up with the Strato's center connector.

The Strato rcvr will not fire the Vivitars with the test button, or a pc cord run from the Vivitar into the 3.5mm receptor at the back of the unit.

This may mean I have to buy a few more Canon flashes. I like the lower cost of the Canon 550EX used, but I already had the Vivitars and hoped to use them mixed with my Canons for a little while.

I had also planned to have the Odin controller tell the Strato to fire a Norman studio pack. That pack needs a quick repair -- in a day or so -- before I can test it, but now I am not to so sure it will work.

RGomezPhotos said:

I'm sure there are times when extracting stills from video can be great.

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There is one severe problem: Video relies on motion blur to gloss over the only 24fps thing, while stills should freeze motion. Doing both the same time sounds challenging, at least if you want to use the video stream.
(Not that I'd use the same composition or lighting for two essentially different media, but thats a matter of style)

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