September this year we're going to the US for a four week holiday. It's our first visit to the US. After a 2,5 day stopover in New York, we will be flying to Denver. From thereon we will be traveling by car. Besides several national parks we'll spend time in Las Vegas, San Fransisco, Los Angeles and San Diego.

I would love to take pictures in these cities at night and therefore I am thinking of buying the 35mm f2 IS. My current gear: 6D, 16-35 f2.8 II, 24-105 f4, 85 f1.8, 70-200 f2.8 IS II. My wife has the SL1, 18-55 IS STM and the 55-250 IS STM. We will both take our gear with us. The Lowepro roller will be in trunk of the car and for every daytrip I will select two lenses max to take with me in the shoulder bag.

Why the 35? It offers me IS and 1 stop of light compared to the 16-35 and it offers me 2 stops of light compared to the 24-105. Since we will be walking around a lot, I don't think I will be carying a tripod with me. Finally the 35 can also be a nice low-light addition to my wife's set of lenses, but that will not be the decisive argument.

What do you think? Does this make sense to you? Or shall I stick to the 24-105 and use high ISO settings? Looking forward to your comments.

Hi,

Locally, there is a used 400 mm 2.8 L II USM (NOT the IS version) to be had for 3000 €. Taking the age and weight and the fact that Canon won't repair it into account, does it make any sense to get it? Or would it be better to wait for a used IS-version mark I?

Thanks,
Stephan

In the spirit of the latest round of provocative post titles, I'd like to start this one to post some animal love. I've seen a fair amount of mating in zoos, but this is the first time I've captured it in the wild. It didn't last long, but it was cool to watch. Here's the best of the many frames I captured - I think the falling bark gives it something extra:


Red-shouldered Hawks Mating
300mm f/2.8L IS II + 2x III - 600mm @ f/8, 1/640s, ISO 320 - cropped to roughly 2/3 frame

Please share your photos.

Discuss our review of the Sigma 24-105mm f/4 OS here.

It may be that I have missed something, but I am surprised that we have not seen any info or spy images of new bodies and/or lenses from the Olympics. If we are to expect any interesting bodies from 7DII and above, during this year, I would have expected them to be field tested in Russia.

Canon have published a "Story of the PowerShot G1 X Mark II Development", 6MB PDF-file.
http://www.brochures.canon-europe.com/getFile.php?productid=9001&languageid=-1

See here:

http://denver.craigslist.org/pho/4336810330.html

For your harsh C&C


.

On Valentineday I gave my wife and I a short four-night trip to NY in April (we never had a honeymoon trip), and I want to take a picture of the magnificent skyscrapers of New York in the dark. Preferably a high vantage point so I can get as much of the city as possible.

I will be shooting full frame, and the lenses I am contemplating to bring are: 16-35II, Sigma 35 Art, and 135L.

BTW: Finally I will have the chance to visit B&H Something I have wanted to do for years.

Cheers,

G.

PS. Are there any regulations I need to be aware of when it comes to taking pictures in NY?

I going to buy a new lens, a Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM, and I am struggling at finding a store in Europe that I can trust.

There are some stores that sells at a significantly reduced price that the average. Obviously, I prefer lower prices.

Anyhow, I have a doubt: it may be that the distribution channel, or even directly Canon, selects lower performing copies and sells them through less expensive stores; while better performing lenses are sold through more expensive stores.

Lens performance variability is there and can be easily measured by Canon. For low cost lenses, such additional work (select and send to different stores) would not make sense, but it could make sense for expensive items.

I would like to know your thoughts. Is my idea plausible, or is it completely crazy?

Thanks in advance for your answers!
Fausto

Hey guys,

I recently got a 6D that I'm very happy with alongside the 24-105, as well as 50 and 85mm primes (all canon). Now I'm thinking of adding a 70-200mm lens and would love that to be a 2.8. Now as much as everyone raves over the canon 70-200 f2.8 ii IS, it's simply out of my budget. So I was thinking between the Tamron f2.8 macro version (700ish), the tamron f2.8 VS version (1400ish), Sigma f2.8 HSM (750ish), Sigma f2.8 OS (1250ish), or any other lens you can recommend that I haven't mentioned. I could probably afford the less expensive lens now, but would require a while longer saving for the more expensive ones. I also plan on adding a teleconverter on whichever one I choose (probably a 2x) soon after in situations where I want more reach. Any advice you could offer me? Would be much appreciated.

As for the type of photographer I am, I don't get any money out of it but it's a serious hobby for me, that's been growing steadily. I tend to do a bunch of portraits and am shooting a wedding for a friend next year, but love and also do some landscapes, sports, nature, basically a bit of everything. All-around would probably best describe my needs.

I have read several posts on CR from people that said they had experienced problems with the Canon Factory Service Center in Irvine, CA. Well, I don't believe it's just me, but I have never been anything but completely satisfied with the folks at Irvine. I've used them for over 16-years now and they never fail to amaze me with their excellent customer service, and professional product repair/clean & check procedures.

Although I live in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I make several trips out to the coast each year. The Canon Irvine facility is located just 20min. from where my Daughter lives, making it very convenient for me to drop my gear off and get it serviced while I enjoy the great California weather. Additionally, I save a bunch on shipping and insurance costs this way too!

On my trip out there last week, I needed to have my 1DX and 1D4 bodies cleaned and checked. The 1D4 also required adjustment, as it took a large amount of MFA (-10 to -16) on most of my telephoto lenses to attain sharp focus! I had never checked this fully, as I had a second 1D4 that I used almost exclusively and only used wide-angle lenses with this body. Although the body was obuiously in "as new" condition and the shutter actuation count was exactly 1,000, I was informed that there would be a service fee ($100+) for that body.

Lesson learned, always fully check new bodies thoroughly before the warrantee expires! Fortunately for me, after reviewing my CPS account and discussing the issue with CPS management, they performed the service at no charge. Additionally, they completed work on my bodies well ahead of the projected three-day turn around. They certainly didn't have to do all this for me, but they did! Just one more example where the Canon Irvine folks went above and beyond for one of their customers.

Dear Friends.
Yes, " Smile" that make our world smile with us.
Would you please Post the Smile Photos on this Post, and let all of us smile/ Laugh with your capture/ Photos of the SMILE.

Thousand Thanks for your SMILE Photos that make all of us smile and have the happy feeling.
Surapon

I'm off to Iceland next month for an annual photography trip. I currently have a Canon 5Diii and 24-70mm f2.8 I lens which I use for most of my landscape photography (I'll also take a 70-200mm zoom).
This year I'd really like to take something wider with me, and am hoping for at least one clear night to do some star or aurora photography (have been the last couple of years and haven't had much luck with clear skies at all, so hoping for third time lucky - and I do have 10 days). I like to do long exposure shots and have a variety of 77mm screw-in filters. So here's my dilemma - do I hire the Canon EF 14mm f/2.8 or the Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 (neither of which I can use my filters on) or the Canon EF 17-40mm f/4 (which I can use all my filters on)?? I think the 24-70mm covers most of my daytime needs, but would love to try the extra width (I used to use a 10-22mm on a 60D and liked the wide angle of that). I've read quite a few reviews of the 16-35 vs the 17-40 and in good light and wide depths of field it would appear that there's not a great deal of difference, but at night there is. If I take the 16-35 then I can't use my filters (I could get a step-up ring but then there would presumably be a fair amount of vignetting given the filter being 5mm smaller), but with the 14mm obviously I'd not be able to use any filters, but I think it would be the best one for night skies...
Anyone got any recommendations or faced the same dilemma? I've been mulling over this choice for weeks!

I've been watching the Olympics and in years past, I've occasionally noticed photographers carrying interesting (and new) gear which ends up on store shelves shortly thereafter.

I was wondering if anyone had noticed a possible 7DM2 or other bodies they didn't recognize during any of the coverage viewed. Anyone see anything?

Canon lenses cut in half:

http://www.dpreview.com/news/2014/02/16/cp-2014-cameras-and-lenses-cut-in-half/3
http://www.dpreview.com/news/2014/02/16/cp-2014-cameras-and-lenses-cut-in-half/4
http://www.dpreview.com/news/2014/02/16/cp-2014-cameras-and-lenses-cut-in-half/10

Click through the pics.

Hey guys. I am still pretty new to photography. I have some question about my 6d. So I was taking some photos with my 6d in manual mode and live view with exposure simulation enable. Everything looked perfect in live view but the photo turn out to be overexposed. Then I started to pay attention to the exposure compensation bar and make sure it's at 0 but photo turn out to be underexposed. Then I try using histogram to make sure it's properly exposed. I made sure histogram was pretty balance in live view but the histogram of the result photo is shifted to the right, which is overexposed again. Is there something wrong with my 6d? Or I am doing something wrong :-\. I thou taking a photo in live view with exposure simulation would give me the exact photo as what's showing on the screen. :'( attached photo is one of the underexposed photo and correctly exposed when the exposure compensation bar is at 0.

Or at least I think it is strange

I set my 1Dx to AEB (firmware v2.0.3) in manual exposure mode.

According to the manual, the camera should adjust the shutter speed. What I observed is that the camera adjusts whatever is on the main dial. When I have the aperture control on the main dial, it is adjusted. When I have the shutter speed on the main dial, it is adjusted.

Is something wrong with my camera/firmware or is the quirk in the firmware?

Thanks

Hello guys! Has anybody used Minolta 58 f1.2 manual focus lens on Canon FF DSLRs? I'm not a big fan of 50mm focal length, just find it a little boring. Thus, I don't want to spend a lot of money paying $1000+. But I still think it's good to have the lens of this focal length in the bag. So, I went over many images of the old legendary Minolta 58 f1.2 and I really like bokeh on this lens, and it's ~$350-500. So, the question is whether or not any of you guys ever used this lens? Would you buy it for occasional use or it's better to save money and get something else? Thank you.

Sorry, don't know how those cr1-cr5 numbers go so I hope I got it right.

Samyang is planning to release a 50/1.2 lens according to their own statement, most likely sometime in 2014.

http://photorumors.com/2013/02/12/samyang-50mm-f1-2-lens-on-the-roadmap-for-2014/

Suppose Canon executes a technology exchange with Hasselblad for this technology:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20066021-264.html

Would you be interesting in having this as an option on your camera body, despite the long exposure times? What cost limit would you put for adding in this feature?

Many company moves make sense to me, but I still haven't figured out why Sigma is still producing their Foveon-based SLR bodies, or for that matter any SLR bodies of their own.

Do they believe they will eventually win substantial market share in SLR bodies with so many stronger players? Do they mainly want to hang on to potentially valuable patents in case of industry contraction? Is there a solid future for the Foveon sensor, and is this the best way to use it?

I'm not knocking Sigma here. I think they are arguably the most successful of the independent lens makers and as such can probably continue making a decent living. But what precisely is the value derived from making their own SLR lineup?

Someone please help me understand this one.

Thought it would be fun to start a thread about the possibility that we are entering an era of mergers and corporate closings in 35mm/compact photography companies. Business analysts frequently say there are too many players in these markets and a shakeout is inevitable, but it has not really happened yet.

Some general questions:

So are the analysts right? Who might buy whom, and for what reasons? Who will go down swinging because they have no technology or patents worth selling? What companies are best positioned to weather the tough times over the next several years? What data can help us forecast their futures?

Some more specific questions:

Are Canon, Nikon, and Sony swamping the market with too many SLR body choices, forcing competitors out? (Perhaps relevant here: "Too Many Choices," Consumer Reports, March 2014.)

Is there any photo company Canon should buy? If so, why?

What might become of offerings from Olympus, Pentax/Ricoh, Sigma, Panasonic, Leica, Zeiss, Samsung, etc...?

Please share data, analysis, and your reflections on this!

Hi

I am considering buying a high MP body for landscapes. Right now Canon does not a high MP body (5DM3 is 22 MP), not quite high MP.

As i see it, there are 2 high MP 35mm bodies - Nikon D800 and Sony alpha A7R. I think both use the same sensory though there is a difference in cost - the nikon is 3300 vs 2300 for the Sony.

I think it will be easier to attach a canon lens (such as the 17mm T/S) to the Alpha as well as attach the Nikon 14-24 to the Alpha (is this true) than the Canon 17mm T/S to the Nikon. Is this true?

Other lens to consider? With the Nikon 14-24 is there any reason to use the Canon 14mm?

Other thoughts are welcome.

Thanks