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.

Mt Spokane Photography said:

Does anyone know that Nikon does not produce EOS Bodies??

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True. But Volkswagon does.



The ultimate car for a true Canon afficionado would be one of these in black (or white), with a red pin stripe.

generalstuff said:

neuroanatomist said:

dilbert said:

I think that it has just taken time for the better sensors to get into camera models that actually get attention: D800 & D600.

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Three years ago, the D7000's APS-C sensor was way 'better' than it's competitor, the 7D (in DxOMark-land). Which was more popular?

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Yes, which one was it , I have not seen any soner SRL figures then this.
Photoscala has posted an interesting Gain & Loss analysis of the worldwide DSLR market, for the period 2006-2008. According to their findings Canon, who were the undisputed worldwide leaders in 2006, have lost 9 percentage points and barely managed to keep their number one position against Nikon, who have gained 4 percentage points in the meantime. The biggest winner is Sony, who managed to more than double their market share, and took the third position from Olympus with ease. The rest of the market is devoid of any major changes, although Panasonic has managed to double its share, partially owing to its introduction of the DMC-G1 (which is, technically speaking, not a DSLR, but is nevertheless included in the figures). Nota bene: Photoscala warns that these numbers, which were derived from multiple sources, are to be taken with a grain of salt, but allegedly “the tendencies have been captured quite accurately”.

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Do you have actual numbers? Last I heard (and this is for 2011-2012, a far more relevant timeframe than 2006-2008), Canon held around 45% of the digital camera market, Nikon held about 28-29% of the market, and Sony around 10%. It is easy to grow, relatively speaking, by a huge amount when your market share is still only a fraction of what your main competitors have. Sony doubling their market share would mean going from 5% to 10% market share...which is still 1/5th of Canon's market share. (Ironically, I think Sony actually had a far greater percentage of market share in the past than they do now...on the order of 30%. Goes to show that as Nikon grows, it's Sony, not Canon, who is losing out. Makes for strange bedfellows.) And how does Canon having a 17% lead on Nikon mean they are "barely managed to keep their number one position against Nikon"? If the race was neck and neck, 30% vs. 29%, I'd call that "barely holding the lead"...but Canon is solidly in the lead right now. In 2010, Canon still had almost 45% of the market, and Nikon still had around 28-29%, so things have not really changed all that much lately.

gferdinandsen said:

This is the last time I ever use open-source for anything.

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Do not confuse community camera hacking with the open-source movement in general.

As much as I support community camera hacking, (among other things, as a great way to show camera mfrs what their products *really* should have been like from the factory), it remains just that: an unsupported hardware hack built by some very skilled volunteers. In this case, it seems you got what you paid for.

But open-source projects like linux, the BSD operating systems, Mozilla/Firefox, OpenOffice/LibreOffice, Android, etc. etc. etc. are managed largely by professionals (i.e. people paid to work on them) who Know What They Are Doing. You can thank open source for creating competition in markets where there previously wasn't any, and the consumer (& even the original incumbent player in each market) has benefited enormously as a result.

You can bet that there's some open-source code somewhere in the factory OS/application stack running on your Canon. Manufacturers are even putting Android on cameras now (Samsung, Nikon)...

Roger at lens rentals has opinions on these lenses that you might find useful. Apparently both the Canon 1.2 and Sigma have AF quirks that fall into repeatable patterns.

See Roger's Take:

Canon 50mm 1.4 : http://www.lensrentals.com/rent/canon/lenses/normal-range/canon-50mm-f1.4
Canon 50mm 1.2L : http://www.lensrentals.com/rent/canon/lenses/normal-range/canon-50mm-f1.2l
Sigma 50mm 1.4 : http://www.lensrentals.com/rent/canon/lenses/normal-range/sigma-50mm-f1.4-dg-hsm-for-canon

No, Big value, INC is not a authorized dealer. this comes up about every two weeks.

Here is he link to the video:
http://www.stockhammedia.com/2012/10/03/san-diego-wedding-videography-christina-and-carlos/

This was a stressful day but I did my best to capture it well =-) Tell me what you think!

Over here in Europe the situation is not too different from Australia. My gear is all covered through my home insurance (from Axa), but I had to raise the insured sum, so that it will also cover my gear, which I might bring along, when I am travelling. I have some 15k$ of equipment insured against theft, accidents or damages, when I am out of my house and beyond 100k$, when I am at home.

The same insurance company also offers to insure photographic gear as a specific insurance for photo equipment, but that seems to work only in case you rent something or use something for a specific trip (safari or such), because it only insures listed equipment and only at time value, so if you leave this insurance running for some years, your old equipment will not be replaced with new equipment, while your insurance rate will stay up, but in case of claims they will calculate how much value your equipment has lost, so it is not better than a normal insurance and in addition, if you buy new equipment, your insurance rate will go up, if you add it to the list of equipment or it will not be insured.

Please be careful with those options. For me the combination with home insurance works fine, although I must admit that my yearly rates are similar to purchasing a small L lens per year.

Ellen Schmidtee said:

insanitybeard said:

Canon has updated the 24 and 28mm 2.8 primes- even if the price is a bit steep at present. The 24L has been revamped and is a mk.2 already and there have been hints on this site that a mk2 35L and possibly non L may be coming....

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I should have stated in advance I'm limiting my self to non-L lenses. I'm sure the L primes have a market, just like the superteles, but it does not include the average hobbist who isn't making any money off his lenses.

As for the 24mm & 28mm, I hope two swallows do make summer. The photozone review of the 28mm f/2.8 is encouraging, even though I would rather have f/2 over IS.

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I was also interested to see the Photozone review of the 28 IS, I'm hoping they also review the 24 IS. If it performs similarly I will be tempted (after leaving it a while to see if the price drops!), the 24 will make a nice compact walkaround and slightly wider than standard lens to use on my 7D, and if it is corner to corner sharp then it will be ideal as a landscape lens.

LifeAfter said:

So i'ts for Full frame, the 5D III

Can you tell me the overall image quality of the Sigma 85mm f1.4 vs Canon 135mm f2.0
(resolution, CAs, focusing..etc)

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I own the 135 L and recently rented the Sigma 85 for a week. Based on that somewhat limited experience I would say that image quality is very similar; for me, the main difference is that, thanks to the longer focal length (presumably), it's even easier to get really smooth backgrounds from the 135L than the Sigma 85 (the same's true of my 200 f/2.8 L, but I've no idea how well that works on human faces...). Both are extremely sharp (perhaps the 135L is a bit sharper wide open than the 85, but you really have to look for the difference), and I've not noticed any CAs with either one. The135L focuses amazingly fast, considerably faster than the Sigma (the copy I rented, anyway) but the Sigma seemed just as accurate when it got there (and it wasn't exactly slow anyway). I've no idea how either one compares to the 100mm f/2. The Sigma produces somewhat smoother backgrounds than my Canon f/1.8, but again doesn't focus anywhere near as fast. (I use a 5DII.)

However, since you have a 70-200L f/2.8 you might first want to ask yourself (1) what it is that you want from a lens that the 70-200 can't provide, (2) which focal length you find most useful/desirable out of the three, and (3) if you're photographing weddings, is a zoom more useful anyway? You may not need to buy any of these ....

Mt Spokane Photography said:

There are issues with IP filtering, I just do not mention them, enough trolls know how to work the system already without giving a tutorial.

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I understand. Just that doing the basics eliminates 99% of the problem users. There will always be the 1% that are cockroaches.

I've been asking myself a very similar question: get the 24-70mm II or the 70-200 2.8 II? I've never had prior versions of both, and my current collection of L lenses includes the 17-40 f/4, the 50L and the 100L macro 2.8 IS.

After hearing all sides of the responses, I can surmise that it really depends on your subjects, expected shooting distances and typical lighting conditions vs available light.

Here's a question to throw into the mix: if the OP wants flexibility of the 24-70 with some extra reach but without the needed bulk, what about investing in the 24-70 II + a 3rd party extender like the 1.4x or 2.0x (Canon's own extenders are not compatible)? :

I'd of course presume that with this combo, the excellent sharpness, lack of CA and slight distortion of the new 24-70 will all be degraded slightly with the extender, but the penalty's not that severe hopefully. Extenders from makers like Kenko or Sigma are suggested. Anyone has actually tried such pairings before?

Cheers, Joe

brianleighty said:

I think I read this somewhere one time that some people set their cameras to 0 for sharpness to make it easier to tell if the shot is actually in focus or not on the LCD. Similar to how you get a focussing screen without the tiny micro lenses which make it look sharper than it really is. Is there any weight to this at all? Of course in post you can set it to whatever you actually want.

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Never heard that one. I use 5X or 10X and live view and am pretty confident in the focus adjustment. However, except for special conditions, I have never been able to focus more accurately than a properly adjusted AF system.
I think that my vision might not be as good as some.

I've got a 189 f/2.8L.

Er, that is a 135 f/2L and a 1.4x TC .

Very versatile & portable setup, and you can leave the TC at home when you don't think you'll be needing it.

I sold the 70-200 f/4L non-IS zoom after I got the 135 & TC as the zoom just ended up not fitting in my bag when it came time to pack for a trip, & the 135L always came along.

I was thinking of the 7d, but it's just too old now and the ISO performance isn't good enough for me as i sometimes need to do low light filming, (concerts/clubs) so I'll get the 5dm3 at the end and pay the price as it just has better video options than the 1dm4...

Renting out isn't an option for me as it's way too expensive, and I have panasonic hpx500's available for short time renting from my university at no cost.

neuroanatomist said:

zim said:

Is it correct that this limitation (I also have this issue with the 500D) has been fixed in the 7D through a software update only?

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Yes. But given that your camera has already been replaced (three times over now), I would not expect an update for you. The 7D firmware update seems to be something of a stop gap, since Canon is not yet ready to release a 7DII.

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:'( :'( :'( :'(
A well, still it's got a great little (under-rated I think) sensor