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Birds with Better Beamer & sync times

Hi everyone,

I´m very happy with my 5D III and my Speedlight 600EX . Now that I put the order down for my EF600 II Lens I try to get all the right equipment for shooting Wildlife.
I thought I get the RRS B91-QR to put my Speedlight 600EX with a OC-E3 cord on it and then add the Better Beamer FX3.

So far so good, I hope this is a setup I´ll be happy with, if you know a better solution let me know.
I don´t have a Gimbal I´ll use it on my Sachtler head.

What setting do you use to get a good lightning of your wildlife?
Isn´t there a sync speed limit I have to watch ?
Because with 600mm and maybe a 1,4 Extender 840mm I think I need about 1/1000 to 1/2000 to get really sharp pictures, but from my tests it looks like the strobe won´t keep up with it.

So what are you using ?

Sadly there is not always the chance to walk around it and get the sunlight shining as you need for a perfect shot.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions and story how you did find the right setting.

Cheers

Florian

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Budget wide-angle for FF

Hello!

As of this moment my only lens is 85 f/1.8 and I am in dire need of something wider for landscape, architecture and some street photography.

Next year I am going to get myself some quality L lenses, but in the meantime I still would like to shoot stuff :)

I need the lens to be under $300, and within the 16-40mm range. I'm fine with both prime or zoom.
Need it sharp at F4-F6.3.

I'm leaning towards purchasing the recent 40mm pancake, though realising that it is not quite wide enough.

Which other lenses should I take note of? What good stuff is available at this price in the 16-24-28mm range?

Would I be correct to assume that my best bet is a used 24 f/2.8?

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Convince me to shoot in RAW

Now, I had always known there were distinct advantages to RAW, but hadn't thought about it much until recently since I was only a hobbyist on a Rebel XT for five years. I upgraded to a 50D two years ago and tried RAW once or twice but still didn't have much knowledge about photography.

Now, I've been doing photography professionally for several months, have learned a crazy amount, and am pushing to get the absolute best out of my 50D until I can save up for the MkIII.

This article: http://digital-photography-school.com/should-you-be-shooting-raw
Finally made it stupidly obvious to me why RAW will always be a higher quality then the camera-JPEG equivalent. Somehow I didn't realize until now that there is quite a bit more tonal data in a RAW file.

So I would really like to be shooting in RAW, but a few things are holding me back:

1) Data management.
I don't have the budget for a bunch of HDD's, especially while saving every penny for the MkIII. This is not my biggest concern, but it will be a greater task trying to back up 800 RAW files instead of JPEGs. I know there has got to be a way to delete all images in a folder not chosen for import when using lightroom. If someone could explain that to me or if anyone knows of a workaround, data management wouldn't concern me as much. I always import more than I truly end up with, and I don't want to add to my workflow time by deleting all the out of focus images outside of lightroom before starting the import process.

2) Workflow time with only RAW files.
I know I'll figure out the speediest way for me once I actually start taking on the beast, but some advice on getting started would be greatly appreciated. I advertise a photo-journalistic style for weddings, so I often come home with over a thousand images expecting to choose about half of them to process. Part of this is needing to be more selective in shooting, but I still feel much safer taking three shots of the same pose using the 50D and shallow DoF as there is such a razor thin margin for getting critical areas in focus.

Does lightroom handle RAW files in an efficient manner? With so many images per session, I'd prefer to keep all my work within lightroom. I'm just worried that processing RAW and then processing all the produced images will prove to be too time consuming. It may not be a problem if I did photography full time, but it is currently a weekend job on top of my normal full time job. Business is starting to pick up for me, and time management is starting to become a real issue.

Help please ;D

Shooting a moonrise - Need advice

I figured I'd take the opportunity on night shift to get a few shots of a moonrise along the beach. Does anyone have any advice on when the best lighting would be for reflections on the ocean (i.e., how long after the offical moonrise)? Any other advice that you could offer too would be appreciated (besides bringing a tripod) such as color temperature settings, wide or narrow aperature, etc. I know it's going to be a waining crescent, so light is going to be minimal. Camera and lenses are limited to what is listed below (no high ISOs for me).

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Prime Lens Focal Lengths

Hi all,

Long-time reader, first time poster here looking for some advice.

I've recently started and am in the process of building up my kit of lenses, specifically primes. My big question, is there much of a difference between 24mm and 28mm lenses? what about 100mm and 105mm? I've picked out the other focal lengths I'd like to pick up. If anybody has any comparison pictures that would be awesome.

For a bit of context, I do mostly video work, with the occasional bit of still stuff when I'm shooting events. My main body is a 7D, but I'm also looking to jump up to a full frame as well in the near future.

Thanks :D

Post Hurricane Sandy black out photos.

I took advantage of the blackout and took some long exposure shots of the city last Wednesday. The 1 train was running to 34th, so I took the train down and road my bike around with tri-pod in hand. Spent a good six hours photographing! All shots were taken with a Canon 50D with 17-40 and a 10-22. I should have brought my 70-200 too! Constructive crit is always fine. If you are curious about exposure detail or any other geekyness, just ask.

IMG_4938.jpg


IMG_4972+copy.jpg


IMG_5074.jpg


To take a look at the full blog post, check out my blog at: http://jamesandrewphotography.blogspot.com/

Thanks for looking!

PS, this was my first post on the forum.

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Photos of film's demise

While film doesn't really occupy front of mind for many of us any more, this is an interesting view into the last days of the film industry:

http://www.wired.com/rawfile/2012/11/robert-burley-disappearance-of-darkness/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Top+Stories%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Personally, I only started my migration to digital just over 12 years ago, so I still have boxes full of negatives packed away.

It also makes me think of the fond memories of slide shows, which formed the central event of many get-togethers with friends when I was a child. - My father still has an entire cupboard full of slides, covering a period from the early 1960s to the late 1990s.

What is also interesting is to see a generation growing up who have never known film. One thing I do hope to show my children when they are a little older is how my wife and I used to take photos before the arrival of digital photography.

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Can someone explain the Canon 50mmL f/1.2 "backfocus problem" ?

Hello all,

I've been eyeballing getting the Canon 50mm L lens, the f/1.2 one.
Reading the reviews on Amazon.com...I seen references about the lens having a problem with backfocusing.

Can someone explain this to me...what it is, why it happens?

Have others experienced this with this lens? Is it a bug through all of these lenses, or does it happen here and there?

Is this a reason to avoid this lens? If so..why hasn't Canon fixed this?

Thank you in advance,

cayenne

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Which way to go

I've recently developed an interest in nature and landscape photography after working in weddings and journalism for some time. I'm considering a new lens, but am struggling to decide what I would get the most use out of. My current glass setup is as follows:

17-35/2.8
28/1.8
35/2.0
50/1.8
85/1.8
100/2.8 macro
70-200/2.8
2x teleconverter

I'm considering a fisheye (15mm/2.8 ), a tilt/shift (most likely either 24 or 90) or something longer (400/2.8, 600/4 etc.). What do you feel would have the broadest application? (Not limiting it only to nature/landscapes but other areas as well)
Thanks for the help!

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EOS 7D AF- Centre point 'increased sensitivity' with fast lenses

With the EOS 7D, all 19 AF points are cross type, but the blurb states that:

"for enhanced precision, the central AF point features extra sensitivity when used with lenses having a maximum aperture of f2.8 or faster" (taken from Canon's official EOS 7D brochure)

Does this mean the centre AF point is double cross type or have an additional horizontal / vertical line activated at f2.8? Or is it just a more sensitive standard cross type sensor? I can't find anything in Canon's literature or in the likes of dp review that clarifies it.

Thanks!

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Canon Surveys for 5D Mark III

So I got my feedback request e-mail for the 5D Mk. III from Canon today. Thought a couple of questions were interesting. Firstly:

How desirable would it be for you to have the following features in your future digital SLR? Please rank your first, second and third most important features:

1. Higher resolution (more megapixels)
2. Higher dynamic range (shadow/highlight detail)
3. Faster shooting speed
4. Bigger buffer memory
5. Wider ISO speeds
6. Larger/brighter/more shooting information in viewfinder
7. Faster Auto Focus (when shooting by viewfinder)
8. More accurate Auto Focus (when shooting by viewfinder)
9. AF performance (when shooting by liveview)
10. More Auto Focus points

Second interesting question:

How desirable would it be for you to have the following features in your future digital SLR? Please rank your first, second and third most important feature.

1. More compact & lightweight
2. Built-in Flash (with wireless flash control)
3. Vari-angle LCD screen
4. GPS
5. Touchscreen LCD
6. Wireless communication function
7. Better weather resistance
8. Performance of LCD (size/resolution)

I guess it's Canon sussing out the perception of the competition, but it might give some idea as to the future of the 5D. Make of it what you will.

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16-35 ii on crop

Was wondering if anyone else loved using their 16-35mm on their crop cameras. I used it the first time when my wife had dropped my 50mm and no longer af. I knew I loved that focal length so this was a temp way to get it. 16-35 on FF isn't super useful for portrait sessions but on crop at 56mm I have started to really enjoy it.
Wondering if anyone else has found this useful?
Also this is kinda making me think it might be worth looking at the 24-70 which would be much high quality. But similar focal range instead of the primes I have been thinking about....

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18-135 IS lens creep because of hood too tight?

Hello,

I bought recently a Canon 18-135mm IS lens with the matching Canon EW 73B hood. To save space in my bag initially I was used to screw in the hood in reverse, so that the petals would lie along the lens. Unfortunately that required an unusual amount of force, so after a few times I gave up, and now I screw it (in the right way) on the the lens only when I have to use it. I noticed later that my lens suffers a lot from creep, and that the inner shaft (pardon me if the technical term is different) is a little loose, meaning that it can move slightly also off axis. It seems obvious to me that lens creep is a consequence of the loose inner shaft.

So, here it comes the question: do you think that I damaged my lens by applying too much torsion with the hood screwing in the wrong way?
Does the loose inner shaft compromise image quality?
If the answer is yes to either of the above, is there something I can do about it, possibly not too expensive?

Any help is highly appreciated! :)

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ND or not 2B

So I've decided to keep my fujifilm x100 which i adore and buy 6d with a couple of primes.
there is a question that has been bugging me though

in my x100 i have built-in 3-stop ND filter. that comes might handy when i want to take f/2 photos in bright day light or even above average light. although the x100 goes up to 1/4000 i still found myself using it a lot.

I can only imagine whats going to happen on a 6d with 1/2000 and a f/1.4 lens

So what do you usually do in these cases when you just dont want to use smaller aperture (the reason you bought the lens in the first place) in bright day light.

do you carry a 3-stop nd filter for every fast lens and keep taking it off and on?
do you just leave it on until nightfalls?
keep a cpl on all the time?

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Are you maybe using any kind of screen-protector to your new 5D Mark III?

To any interested Forum Readers/Writers an open question!

Is there any need of adding a screen protector to the LCD screen to the new 5D Mark III?

I search this forum about the need of screen protector to the new 5D Mark III and I tried to find out if there is any real need for to add a screen protector to the the LCD screen on the 5D Mark III that seems to be gorgeous?

OTOH Canon has used hardened glass protector in front of the LCD with anti-reflective coating to 5D Mark III, - so I started to question/doubt IF there is a real need, to add a additionally screen protector of good quality to a new 5D Mark III?

I would appreciate some thoughts and opinions about this need, if someone had dug into this minor detail of the need of screen protector?

(A short note - I think I do prefer thin protective film if there is a real need instead of a more "ugly-looking" bigger plastic LCD-protector type.)

All the Best wishes to you all!

/C

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New crop bodies coming!

I just heard that we will be seeing a new 70D and 7D mkII!!!
Here is the timeline I was told

present:
The 7D and 60D will remain current

year 2015 still current

year 2018 new sensor tech announced

year 2025 70D and 7D mkII receive a long awaited upgrade and have digic VI processors and an 18MP hybrid sensor with phase AF for continuos focus in video mode! Also, the power of the new processor will enable 1 full stop better high iso when shooting jpeg.

:P

seems about right to me...

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