Recommended photography books

+1 on Michael Freeman's books.

The meat of the matter you may want to study is how photographs are taken, critiqued and analyzed. This wholistic view is discussed by David Hurn & Bill Jay's 2 books: 1) On Being a Photographer, and 2) On looking at Photographs.

A good thing to note on these books is that it's not presented in your typical lecture-type format - what you actually read are them talking to each other on different topics per chapter, very much like an interview-type format with the 2 authors interviewing each other. I found the conversational nature of the presentation makes the book an easier reading considering the subject itself is heavy and typically hard to understand.
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Infinity and Cold

I've been using my 24-70 f/2.8 and 16-35 f/2.8 quite a bit for night sky photography, and what I've found is, although there isn't a hard stop on either, there is a fairly consistent soft stop. what I do is, I turn until I hit the soft stop, then come back the other direction slightly, and I've been able to pretty consistently nail the infinity focus I'm looking for. I think at this point it's just muscle memory that's built up after doing it a bunch of times. it may sound wildly inaccurate or ludicrous, but you'd be surprised how finely tuned you can hone your muscle memory.
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Selling 70-300 IS - Suggest Replacement?

Kind of a hard question to answer as the primary need for the lens was not specified. Given the large selections of lenses and bodies you already have, I would strongly suggest going for a decent tele prime. Indoor events could use a 200mm f/2 or the 300mm f/2.8 II. You can add TC's to them for different lengths. These are suggested as price was not given as primary issue. Since you have so many camera bodies, you don't really need the functionality of the zooms as much as a person with only one body to work with. My 2 cents at least.
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anger at 1 dx review on professional photographer magazine

bornshooter said:
... and his reply to me " i didn't go into custom functions as didn't have the space to,idea was to talk about design and using it out of the box.otherwise a review would read like an instruction manual which would be pretty boring read".


I write for magazines, and there is always a balancing act in what you write, what the editor wants, and what the people want. For the most part, the buyers of magazines are not looking for super technical pieces, they want something easy to read, and almost conversational. I fully agree with the people who are going to post "NO!!! We want full technical info and in depth real coverage!!!" The problem is that information is more often than not found on sites like this, where most people will skim over it and only a few will get involved.

This causes most reviews to be written as an overview, instead of an actual review. Combine that with the need to write about new items, and a lead time of often several months before an article is written to when it hits the stands, and you can see where the internet simply slays its print edition older siblings.

I agree that mentioning a custom function would have been better, but there ends up being a lot that a Nikon shooter isn't going to know, and a lot that a shooter new to the 1DX doesn't know as well. I blame most of that on the time constraints which are put in place for the articles.
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New Lens Purchase Dilemma

of the three, I'd buy the 135. This is a fantastic lens that produces spectacular results. But for a
portrait lens, I'd stretch a little and buy the Zeiss 85mm f1.4. Unless you're using that 5DIII as a
point and shoot, the lack of autofocus in a portrait session should be no big deal and the results
will blow you away. It's 2/3 the cost of the Canon 85 1.2 and is a wonderful performer.
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Pairing 6D with Mac running OS X 10.8.2

Bearcat1 said:
Does the WFTP software come free with the camera or is that extra? I have a new 6D and I can't use the setup on the EOS Utility for the Web, FB, YouTube. It gives me an SSL Certificate Error running Mountain Lion.

The software is free and included with the camera. I haven't tried the FB & YouTube functions. Did you note the updated firmware for uploading video? There was a problem with the firmware that shipped with the camera.
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Which extension tubes to buy?

+1 for Kenko.

They are not too expensive and really do a great job. I haven't try to autofocus with them, but the focus confirmation and aperture control works perfectly. I personally believe extension tube are a great choice; it's a cheaper way to start doing macro, and even if you decide to buy a macro lens in the future, you will still be able to use them to increase even further its magnification. I use the Kenko on a SMC 50mm f/4 Macro (it is a 1:2) to be able to have approximately 1,5:1 magnification.
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Kudos Sigma warranty

skitron said:
LOL, a shipping label with every new lens, thats funny. :)

The good news is that Sigma seems to be committed to shifting from being a second tier vendor to a top tier vendor.

I think this is true and is the route to fierce user loyalty and better margins that, in turn, fund more R&D.

I am really liking the looks of the 35 and am eager to see what else they have up their sleeve.
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why my 60D is working while it is off. help me

Flip the back screen around so you can see it, display a picture on the screen, turn it off. If the on/off switch is working it should instantly stop displaying the picture, show the cleaning sensor message, and after a second or two turn off and then nothing should work until turned on again.

Is there anything plugged into the USB port?
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60D $300 Price drop?

tortilla said:
Amazon Germany offers the 60d for 750 EUR (Canon offers also an additional 50 EUR cashback). Amazon marks the 60d as a disontinued item, unlike the 7d - which keeps me thinking if we'll see a 700d/70d before the 7d successor...

MediaMarkt (biggest electronicstore in Europe) dropped (in 48 hours) from 939 to 729,- with canon-cashback you're looking at a price of 679,- euro's . But...every year in january they have an "taxfree sale". In The Netherlands the tax on electronics is 21%, every year the MediaMarkt holds a sale and gives 21% discount on everything in the megastores. So in the 3rd week of january 2013 the price of the 60D in The Netherlands will be: 729 x 0,79% = 575,91 - 50,00 = 525,91...talking about making a good deal.
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New lenses for 46mp camera?

risc32 said:
I've long read how most of the current lenses are more than capable of out resolving anything on the MP horizon, and I thought it very likely to be true, but when i look at DXO's "mpix" rating of lenses, i start to wonder.

BTW-I'm ISF certified, yet i have no idea what a quad-HD television is, but i don't disagree with Bob's point.
Sorry, 3840 X 2160
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