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Canon 70-200 f2.8 II vs. f4.0 IS

Looking for some clarification...

With everything else being equal, would you expect to see a discernible difference in a picture take with f-stop 4.0; shutter 1/1000 between the Canon 70-200 f4 and the Canon 70-200 f2.8 (shot at f4.0)?

If you already owned the f4 IS, is it worth the nearly $1k extra to get the f2.8 IS version?

Thanks for your comments! ;D

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Dslr upgrade: I found my Niche

Hey guys, I've found what I specialize at, and I'm looking to upgrade.
I'm now specializing in sailing(action sports), and I enjoy portraits and landscapes. Im trying to decide on a dslr, and it's hard to decide.

What I need:
-aps-h or full-frame sensor: I can maneuver close enough to boats where I can use a 70-200 at 200mm, or I can use my 2x extender
-good focusing: the sailors are moving fast
-good ISO performance: I need high shutter speeds, at f4 and 5.6 if I use my extenders. Fps isn't a big deal, 5-8 works.

I'd prefer the 1d series due to the bulk since the weight will prevent shake, and the weather sealing is important, even though I'll have a cover, I don't want to take any chances.
I'm wavering between the 1diii, iiis, and 1div.
I really don't want to go to the mark ii, because even my friend who owns one is confused by it.

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Entering the world of needing a flash at darker weddings

I won't try and talk up any knowledge of external lighting I may have.

I have none.

But what I do know is that I have a couple weddings on the books with receptions in dimly lit restaurants and the 50D has laughable ISO qualities when it gets that dark, so I'd better start learning and move away from my comfortable world of natural light.

My budget for a single flash unit and any necessary accessories is about $400, but I can go higher if need be. Currently I'm considering a 430EXII and some sort of wireless/off camera trigger and on-flash softbox.

However, anyone in this section of the forums knows more than me, so I am very open to suggestions.

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YN622C trigger experiences?

Hello everyone,

For my 5D Mark 2 I'm currently using either the build in line-of-sight flash (with a 580EXII and two 430EXII) or all manual with a bunch of cheapo Chinese triggers. The latter work pretty reliably up to about 1/160.

Since I've started doing more of this I've been thinking about getting a different set of triggers. And with the current price structure I'm not ready yet to move to 600EX flashes ( 3 or 4) and the Canon remote as nice as it all looks.

And with that in mind there still are a bunch of options. I've actually started to see that I may end up in the manual-over-ETTL camp. So a few solid Pocket Wizard Plus III would probably do the trick. What I'm not so thrilled about is that I'd end up with more cables and adapters then now. And even when setting things to manual it would be nice to be able to control things from the camera menu. So that would get us to PW minis (etc) or the Phottix Odins. Issues with both of these as well. PW with the reported issues on the US model with interference and blowing out of 580s. And Odins have the preflash even in manual which makes them problematic for later use with studio strobes.

Then there are the YN622C triggers from Yongnuo. Read some good things about them, price is great and features should work with what I'm looking to get at. Question is how sturdy they are and if they have the preflash issue as well. And that they are no Pocket Wizards, meaning no industry standard that would work with other stuff or in rented studio etc.

Any one any first-hand experiences with these and in comparison to the Plus III?

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Help me decide: 270EXII vs 90EX

I am deciding whether to go for the 6D when it becomes available. Not having a pop up flash was a bit dissapointing so now I am trying to figure out what the true cost of the camera would be. Considering that I do own a 430EXII, currently my greatest use of a camera is on holidays and travel, but there is kids on the way and thus potraitures and candids would become more important.

So to add fill flash to my 6D (or 5DIII) without lugging the 430EXII around which one will be best.
270EXII 90EX
+More Power +Small and light
+Titable head +Optical Master for 430EXII
-Larger +Wider @ 24mm
-No optical master -Low power and no tilt

At first this was an easy decision but the Optical Master is intriguing as it would allow me to start experimenting with off camera flash. I do want to limit my cash outlay, so if the 270EXII is, in your opinion, overwhelmingly better for the intended main use, what "cheap" offbrand controller would you recommend. Maybe something that goes beyond line of sight.

I know most will say it depends on yout intended use, but if this is not clear, qualify your recommendation then

Thanks alot

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Has Canon entered the Graveyard Spiral?

Between the wife and myself we have 5 Canon bodies and 18 lenses of which only the 15mm fish eye and an old 100 macro are not L glass, with 7 series 2 lenses, so there is a sizable investment in Canon kit.

But the dissatisfaction with Canon’s tardiness is steadily mounting.

On a recent leopard safari the Nikon D4 crowd simply ran away with shots compared to the best our 1D Mk4s could deliver. We are not only talking sensor performance, although we lived like lepers with only ISO 1600 max, the most frustrating feature is that the fitting of a flash to the 1D Mk4 forces Auto ISO to fix at 400. Damn nuisance if you are doing night work, want to work Manual at ISO 1600 with a fill flash and the clever Canon firmware decides that it is time to override your settings. The 1DX has the same problem feature. This could explain why 7 out of the 10 photographers that joined the leopard safari shot Nikon.

Then there is the long wait for the release of partially sorted equipment.

I waited almost 2 years for the 24-70 Mk II lens. The 200-400 lens, as staple for wildlife shooting in the Nikon stable, is yet nowhere in sight. Would also love a 14-24 for landscape work….

All recently released bodies had significant problems and required post release upgrades and firmware replacement.

A lot of noise being made about the 1DX, probably the best copy of a Nikon 3D that Canon ever produced, and is probably marginally better than the D3, I seems a capable camera but only if compared to the previous Nikon model. It is the probably the very best Canon camera but that is a bit like being the most beautiful girl at an all-male party.

IMHO it seems that the constant release of superior Nikon products is forcing Canon’s hand. Canon has since the release of the D300 been in catch up mode and are being forced to announce products that are still on the drawing board, and then have to rush half-baked stuff to market, at prices that exceed the Nikon range.
Has Canon fallen terminally behind?

My concern is the rate at which the local photo community is switching to Nikon. With profitability already down Canon is yielding significant market share to innovative and high quality Nikon products and that means less money, also for R&D, resulting in less capable kit, resulting in less sales, resulting in less money…..

Should they rather focus on the point and shoot consumer market and leave the high end stuff to professionals?

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5D2 Dust :|

Um. There's this fadish black dot on the bottom right quarter on the picture every time I take one. I cleaned the front of my 24-105 and it was still there. So I changed it to my 50mm, took a picture it was still there.
My dad used his air blower thingy on the mirror and it still didn't work.

Any advice? x-x Thanks

Playing with water drops

Just thought I would post a bit about my water drop setup progression. These photos were all taken with two Stopshots from Cognisys.

This first shot is an example of what I could do before I rebuilt my setup. The orange is from food coloring while the background is construction paper. The shot is relatively simple. I use one drop to get the column then hit it with a second drop to create the splash.

Ending with a Splash by CalevPhoto, on Flickr

In this next shot I rebuilt the siphon system to support three configurable siphons. This allows me to use three different colored drops in a single photo. The rest of the system is similar with the same plate holding the water. I illuminated the background slightly, but otherwise didn't do anything there.

The Well of Souls by CalevPhoto, on Flickr

In the next shot I moved to illuminating from underneath. I used a Tupperware container and a glass dish. Although I could use three siphons, I only used one siphon here and the shot is similar in complexity to the first one. The difference in shape is due to the makeup of the liquid. There are a number of problems with this shot and I realized after taking it that the Tupperware was not very practical.

Watercolor by CalevPhoto, on Flickr

The last shot I took yesterday. I built a small light table and rested the glass dish on it. One flash was used to light from below while another was geled and placed behind the table to create the background. Another flash illuminated from the side. Two siphons were used.

Drop Playground by CalevPhoto, on Flickr

I am getting there, but more work needs to be done.
  • The table shook a bit and was not level. This is the reason for the unlevel background and harsh transition on the side. I have since fixed this with leveling legs.
  • I need more flashes for the setup. In particular I would like at least two for the background, another one on the other side, and two for underneath (to light up the water behind the drop more).
  • I bought polarized filter paper for my flashes and have a polarizer for my lens. I just need to brave up and cut it ($50/sheet) and use it on the side flashes to see the effect - which I hope removes some of the glare I spend time in PP removing

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Use of 5D MarkIII Chromatic Aberration Correction feature built into the camera?

Dear Forum Readers who uses the new Canon EOS 5D Mark III.

The Canon 5D Mark III is the first Canon full-frame DSLR that has Chromatic Aberration Correction feature built into the camera firmware (vignetting and distortion correction have been available previously).

Just in the moment of receiving this camera - I would appreciate answer to this one question first; - are you using this feature IN CAMERA as "Enable",

OR

are you instead using .CR2 - RAW files but WITHOUT this feature and set to "Disable" and doing the correction in DPP?

Is there any benefit of using NR for long exposures IN CAMERA when using .CR2-RAW files?

I would appreciate your advice and take on these two questions.

Happy Shootings!

C

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lowlight lens Af action resource?

I'm looking for some info on how well different lenses Af in low light conditions. I haven't been able to find much of anything on the net thus far. I know much depends on the camera body, but i'd still like to get any info i possibly can. Anyone got any thing? I'm even thinking about getting my gear out and running it threw a bit of testing in my kids playroom while slowly dimming the lights to see what can be learned. but i have only a small lens collection, and most of the lenses I'm curious about I don't own. Thanks

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Revenge of the Primes

When I was putting my kit together a few years ago (5DMKII, 70-200/2.8II, 24-105, 8-16, 16-35) I beat around the bush for awhile trying to get a good range of focal lengths with primes. For whatever reason I like the simplicity of a few good primes and in the old days I enjoyed my AE-1 immensely with its 35mm and 50mm lenses. But now in the electronic age it seems Canon was letting their primes languish with only these really old designs. So I bought the zooms.

But now Canon seems to be coming out with a refreshed line of high IQ primes, 24mm, 28mm, 35mm, 40mm and a rumored 50mm. All of them with similar high quality (and price). If I knew they were coming out with a 20mm (my favorite) that would cinch it.

Thoughts on ditching my present collection for a set of primes? I'd probably keep the 70-200mm/2.8.

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Canon 6D + 24-70 f/4 IS kit price

Hey there, I was just on Amazon.jp and noticed the 6D kit is now available for pre-order. see price list below (the USD prices are just a straight conversion to make it easier to see the difference and is not the price of the kit in the US) -

6D body only = ¥178,201 ($2,242)

6D + 24-70 f/4 IS = ¥328,997 ($4,139)


The 24-70 f/4 IS on it's own is ¥146,526 ($1,843) pre-order so the discount there is non-existent! In fact at the moment it's cheaper to buy them separately!

For comparison the 6D + 24-105 kit = ¥268,200 ($3,375)

And also the 5D mk II + 25-105 kit = ¥224,341 ($2,823)

Interesting. :o

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5D III AFMA for Zooms - Adjust Wide or Telephoto First?

While AFMA my lens, it occurred to that I might be making matters worse based on how I was testing zooms.

Here is my scenario: I setup and test my 24-105 for the telephoto end first. I determine that +5 is my ideal focus position at 105mm. I set the value +5 in the camera. Now I setup my camera for testing at the wide end. Common sense tells me I should change the telephoto value back to 0 while I test for the wide end at 24mm. Then once I determine both values, I enter them in the camera.

So is it best to test one end while the opposite end is set to the new value or to zero? My guess is zero or maybe it doesn't even matter. The manual does not specify anything this specific so I though I'd bounce if off the CR community.

Thanks

Note: I doubt it matters but I am using the LensAlign Mk II tool, plan to switch to FoCal in the near future.

Edit: The 5D3 can store 2 AFMA values (wide and tele) for zoom lens.

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Shooting straight down with 24-70 mm II -- possible?

Testing out a new 24-70 II (after running it through Fo-Cal three times, thanks again for everyone who helped with that :)), and some of the photos are sharp. But those where the camera is steeply angled down, often aren't.

Is that expected? Do others see the same thing?

I don't notice any lens creep, but could it be so miniscule that I wouldn't?

Sorry for my ignorance :/

Cheers.

Shawn L.

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Suggestions for website hosting?

I have used yahoo for the past 5 years, but they have dropped ftp support so my website is still live but I no longer have the ability to update it. I have a flash site that I have been managing with Front Page 2003. I can keep what I have and move it to a new host or start from scratch, but I do want to retain the ability to manage it myself. Anyone have any good ideas? Thank you in advance for your input.p,Debbie

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Dead Pixels on Sensor and LCD - Canon Warranty?

I know dead pixels could be a pain in the a__... But i never got this very clear and explained.

I am looking for an official Canon link where they clearly explain:

* How many dead pixels should have a Sensor or the LCD to be accepted for sensor/camera replacement?


By the way... I know a dead pixel could be mapped when it appears just on a photo, but what happens when it appears in video? Can Canon service remap it?

Anyone knows if the remaping software is available anywhere?

Thanks in advance for your help.

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