smokin!

A little surprised. But then again, Samsung are marching towards worldwide domination in all things electrical from phones, to tvs to whitegoods. I'd heard that their camera division was coming under increased pressure. What better way to stand out? Give the people what they want. I wonder what their lenses are like?

I love this lens. This is my very first lens. It has its weaknesses but it should not stop you from taking good pictures.

Marsu42 said:

dmosier said:

I know this probably sounds like a minor quibble, but I can't stand that I have to hold down a button with my thumb while turning a dial to change my f/stop on the T3i. To me it is worth the extra cash just to get the better form of the 60D body.

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Same here, I'd never want to use a camera body w/o back wheel since I often change exposure compensation and currently try to shoot full m more often - both a pita on a Rebel-style camera.

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Yeah the non-Rebel Canon UI is so much more friendly to use. I love the UI on the xxD,7x,5x and now startign with 1DX 1 series UI a ton, way more than Rebel or Nikon UI.

Radiating said:

It seems Zeiss's new 55mm f/1.4 lens which promises to be as sharp as current Canon 50mm lenses are at f/5.6 wide open is making a lot of news (50mm lenses tend to fall far behind other primes for image quality, delivering what 24mm and 85mm primes deliver wide open at f/4.0). In my own quest for a great 50mm prime I've looked at every 50mm prime thats ef compatible or ef adaptable made since 1970 and all deliever this mediocre image quality (though being 55mm is likely key in allowing the iq).

So Zeiss has cracked the high quality normal prime mystery that has eluded all other manufactures for decades.

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Well, I'm not sure it is as astounding as it may sound. A diffraction-limited lens at f/5.6 pumps out 123lp/mm of spatial resolution at the sensor. Theoretically, a diffraction-limited f/1.4 lens could pump out 494lp/mm of spatial resolution at the sensor! That is a monster difference, and indicates that even Zeiss' 55mm f/1.4 lens is extremely aberration-limited wide open.

There is also the difference in goals. Canon's 50mm primes, particularly the EF 50mm f/1.2 L, are designed to produce softer focus. The 50/1.2 is explicitly designed to retain a certain amount of spherical aberration as it produces very nice boke blur circles and a soft glow around OOF elements near the plane of focus when the lens is used wide open. People who are looking for a lens like that buy the Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 explicitly for that purpose...pixel-level sharpness isn't a concern in such a context.

If you want extreme sharpness, you would probably be better served stopping any one of these lenses, Canon or Zeiss, down to f/2.8, where spatial resolution should be approaching it's highest, and DOF will still be fairly thin (and more manageable, allowing you to get your whole subject in focus and nicely sharp...which is kind of the antithesis of why you would use an ultra-fast lens in the first place). If you stop down like that, you might as well look into the new EF 24-70 f/2.8 L II, and use it at 50/2.8. It sports an MTF that neither the EF 50/1.2 nor the Distagon T 55/1.4 can touch, and would pound out far better sharpness wide open than you would know what to do with. ;D

You have to be very careful if buying one used!! The early 105mm models are not compatible with Canon DSLR's and are definitely not good deals, since the aperture cannot be controlled, and you get a error 99.
I had to pay Sigma over $100 to fix mine with a updated chip so that it was actually EF compatible.
The lens is very sharp, just like all macros, but AF is very slow, so its not useful for some non macro photography.

Hey guys, so I just recently got the 6D (I was going for the MIII but the built in WiFi made it for me). I have a couple thousand left.

The only lens I have so far is the 50mm 1.4. I want to get a new lens and I'm leaning either wide-angle or portrait. Plus I need a new tripod as well.

In terms of lens these are what I want in order of most wanted to least:
1. Zeiss 21mm
2. Canon 135mm
3. Samyang/Rokinon 14mm

Tripod I want:
RRS TVC-23 + BH-40 LR


Why I want a wide-angle lens is because I am going to many trips to take a lot of landscape + astrophotography. Also landscape shots are easier for me to come by (Minnesota) than getting people infront of the camera.

Reason for Portrait lens is because I really do want to start working on my portrait as that is where the money will come from later on, plus its interesting.

Reason for RRS TVC-23 is because I heard it is pretty much the best, and I cheap'd out last time and got an okay tripod (Velbon dv-7000) which did me good but I kept finding small aggravating things with it (plus no vertical position).

Basically the SMART choice would be Samyang + Canon + RRS
but I don't know if that's the RIGHT choice.

**oh btw...I'm happy for the people who got the Refurb discount this week, but my god I was waiting for this sale for three weeks and by the time i got the email they were sold out *raise fists/gently*

risc32 said:

For the corner sharpness i'd just look at the charts Roger at lensrentals has posted a few times with the sigma in the mix. I really like all the great reviewers out there, but somethings can really only be learned while tested in mass, and Roger gets it done better than anyone. He's in a unique position owning and testing hundreds of camera bodies and lenses on high end equipment. The sigma is the real deal.

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Well said...

docholliday said:

425 is a good deal, especially with 2 lenses. I shot a Pro-S with 6 lenses and 10 backs for quite a while before I went to Hasselblad...

Lenses are cheap - look at KEH.com. I'd also suggest getting a Beattie Brightscreen/Intenscreen for it, makes the world of a difference in being able to see and focus well. I actually preferred the waist level over the prisms, as the prisms are darker, heavier and there just ain't anything like shooting with a waistlevel. FP-100C is beautiful off the 6x7 back. As far as the backs go, I wouldn't worry about light leaks - it's cheap to get them refoamed. Just order some foam strips, sharpen a chopstick and use some alcohol to scrape out the old foam. Then, stick in the new strips and you're done.

The 90mm is the standard length for the view, equiv to a 50mm in small format, 80mm in Hasselblad. The bellows make it nice as you don't need tubes to get closer than normal. HOWEVER, do rack out the focus and check to be sure the bellows aren't crinkled or have pinholes - that'll do more damage than bad foam!

I dragged my RB all over the country, with a 50mm, Sekonic L-327 and Fuji Acros/Provia. Heavy, but with a op-tech prostrap, it wasn't bad.

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Thanks for the suggestions and recommendations. I'll try it out a bit first and see where I want to go with it. I'm actually doing a video/photo fun shoot with a beautiful musician and her artist/graphics friend on Sunday, so when we head up and I pull this out with the Polaroid back, should make for some fun and interesting photos! Not sure if it has the waist-level view or not. The CL images don't show it, I'll ask when I go to pick it up. Even if he doesn't, looks like Keh.com or ebay to pick one up easily for an OK price.


UPDATE: So, I went ahead and bought it. Oh excited I am!! There's a few rolls of quite old (not stored in freezer) 110 color and b&w film that came with it. Perfect for learning how to load the backs I'm going to stop by Samy's tonight and pick up some of the Fuji instant-develop film, and start using that to start with for a pack or two, and then on the weekend actually loading some of the old 110 film and find a place that develops locally, if I can.

Re: Patent: Canon EF 14 f/2.8 with Flourite

J.R. said:

"Flourite® is a specially fracted, stable porous clay gravel for the natural planted aquarium"

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So does that mean it is an underwater lens?

CanonGrunt said:

Cam Ranger!!!! I love it. Everything you want and more!!!!!

For use with iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.

www.camranger.com $299, so it costs a little bit, but worth it I'd say.
...

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The 1Ds II isn't on the supported hardware list for presumably the same reason as dslrcontroller - the need for liveview. It's still neat.

I wonder what a large format telephoto prime would cost.... Probably more than my house......

JasonATL said:

The alpha version that I'm using does not auto-boot. You must load it each time you want to use it by going into the Canon menu and selecting Firmware update. Not a huge deal. The nice thing is that it can be on your SD card and only loaded when you need/want it.

Also, the alpha that I was using on the 5D3 is quite conservative in not writing over Canon settings. Thus, there are key ML features that aren't there right now. But, for me, having focus peaking, zoom, histogram, and vectorscope make it very useful and address a lot of shortcomings on the 5D3 with respect to video.

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Ok, thanks...

Just on the ML site and appears a new Alpha version is out. I think I may download, read up and try it this weekend!!

Thank you!

C

Marsu42 said:

You're saying that 2x cpl doesn't work as a vari nd or just that cpl+linear is cheaper?

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Two stacked CPLs won't work effectively as a variable ND. A CPL is a linear polarizer with a 1/4-wave plate behind it, that 1/4-wave plate in a sense 'un-polarizes' the light, because AF systems cannot use linearly polarized light. A varible ND cuts down the light as the orientation of a pair of linear polarizers approaches orthogonal (90° to one another would be 'black' if the polarizers were 100% efficient, which they aren't). The commercial variND filters have just one 1/4-wave plate at the back to circularize the the output so AF works. If you stack two CPLs, the light is already circularized when it hits the second linear polarizer (the 'front' of the second CPL), meaning you can't approach the orthogonal orientation that results in progressive light blocking.

Therefore, two stacked CPL's in 'normal' orientation (i.e. if you don't modify one of them) won't yield very much darkening. If you pull the glass from one of the filters, flip it, and put it back in the mount, and put that modified CPL in front of the unmodified CPL, then it will work as a variable ND filter - but that's because by flipping it, you've put the 1/4-wave plate in front, and actually converted your circular polarizer into a linear polarizer. Easier to just buy a linear polarizer...

Bottom line, the way to make a DIY variable ND filter is with a linear polarizer stacked in front of a CPL (not the reverse).

I'm not a videographer but I have all three lenses. If I could only have one lens it would be the 24-105. If you already have a crop camera, the 24-105 on full frame + 70-200 on crop makes a terrific pairing, which I use.

I had the original (Tamron 70-200 "Macro") for a while and it definitely wasn't compatible with the Canon 1.4x teleconverter that a mate of mine owned (rear element collision). I can't speak for the new one, but I'd want to test the combo out before buying.

Shoot at f1.2, open the file in DPP, hit command J (I don't what it is for windows), look at the size of the focus point relative to the subject it covered. Most of the time (for my images) the DOF is thiner than the AF point!

cayenne said:

RMC33 said:

Not an issue. TSA (in the states) never hassles me when I travel and I have 2 units + ST E3 RT. All the devices with radios/wi fi etc. that people carry every day they could care less about triggers in a flash unit.

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I seriously doubt the TSA would even have a clue what those items were, much less even consider they had radio capabilities.

Besides, they're a bit too busy lately with "security theater", and hassling/groping little girls in wheel chairs.

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Oddly enough in the Reno, NV airport one of the guys is a photo buff. He "held" me (I had the time) to chat about what I was up to. Has become a good friend=).

Thanks

I have 2 of them

One is a short range from 1957.
One is brand new and is 6 bit encoded for digital.

Best 50mm I've ever used...

ET

Pretty sure sigma have a fast 28mm! Never used it though. It's not a new lens, but it's also supposed 'macro' or in real terms, pretty close focusing at least.

Hillsilly said:

Plus there must be some basic information already going to the lens. Otherwise, how does it know when to stop down and for how long? Maybe a feature we'll see on the Canon medium format camera? 1/1000 flash synch times would be a big selling point.

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with high speed sync you can get 1/1000th second synch. Only the flash power is turned way down.

off the beaten track...a few shots from New Years up by Badger Pass w/ 5dc + 24-105

bvukich said:

Rienzphotoz said:

bvukich said:

Hobby Shooter said:

Rienzphotoz said:

Eclectik said:

I think the GPS is a useless addon, provided you have a smartphone + an inexpensive appli like GPS4cam. It offers IMO the same benefits of an integrated GPS. I'd rather like Canon focus on photographic specs rather than these useless peripheral specs, that cost a lot for a very weak added value. The smartphones HAVE a GPS, we have a smartphone always with us, bar.
About the WIFI, this could be differerent, but there is too a dedicated grip... So ? I really do prefer high iso performances for less MP, weather sealing, and a lower price... I'm maybe old fashioned ?

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Disagree
I do not belive that an in camera GPS is going to add a lot of cost to the camera. I'd rather have it in camera than pulling out the smart phone, capture the GPS coordinates, identify the image to add the coordinates in post process sounds like too much of a hassle. I subscribe to the idea of have everything but give the users the option to turn them on/off.

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+1
please correct me if I'm wrong on this one, but the camera will have a 'true' GPS, meaning a GPS that will function on its own, whereas a smart phone only has the aGPS meaning assisted GPS where it will need a Wifi connection or 3G connection to be able to obtain its position. + the extra hassle of having to connect it to the phone and all that annoying stuff that won't work properly anyway, no I'm not a fan of having to rely on my phone and in this case some home cooked app too much.

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The problem with GPS without A-GPS is how long a cold start takes. The transfer rate from a satellite is extremely slow, and even though it's only a couple kB it can take quite a while, and only then can it attempt to acquire a lock. A-GPS has the benefits of being able to download that data from a faster source, and having a rough estimate of current location so it can determine where it is way faster.

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Cold start may take longer but I'd rather have it in camera than another device that I have to pull out and go through the hassle of tagging them in PP. At some point someone needs to take the initiative of including them in Semi Pro DLSR's and that's where further progress can be made with faster locking on to the coordinates can be achieved. A good example is Canon 600 EX-RT speedlite ... yes there are some AF issues, but unless the RT was not integrated by one of the big names, there would not have been much progress in this area.
I subscribe to the idea of useful new technologies being integrated into products that can benefit people ... at the moment I see WiFi and GPS as very useful features for a lot of people, especially if the user has the option to turn them off.

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I agree completely, the more features the better. I would just prefer that features that may impact reliability be deployed with extreme caution to "single digit" bodies. I don't think WiFi of GPS would impact reliability in any appreciable manner (excepting the occasional "battery died because I forgot to turn GPS/WiFi off"), things like swivel screens still worry me though.

Perhaps my fear is unfounded; I never had any problems with my 60D, nor did I ever hear of anyone else having problems. But I also literally never used it, and haven't missed it one bit on the 5D3.

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I used the swivel screen a lot on my 60D, but I sold it last week to one of my colleauges as I was hardly using it ever since I bought the 5D MK III (last August) and TBH, I did not miss the swivel screen ... maybe I am just in awe of my "first full frame" DSLR. But I do see swivel screen's usefulness for people like me who are nearing 50 (or above) and having difficult time getting up quickly after crouching/lying down on the floor for a nice shot of a flower or some macro shot etc ;D ... so let's settle this disagreement into what we can agree on: Swivel screen for old farts like me and no swivel screen for strapping young lads like yourself ;D ... I have taken the liberty of assuming you are a young lad, but no disrespect intended ... I meant it as a compliment.

Well done. Do share your first hand expericences.