Let me say I know the Mark 2 is better in every way then the Mark1 but I have to scrape together money for the 6D body let alone a 2K lens. So I'd debating weather I buy the 6D kit or just body and a 24-70mk 1

If it helps people answer... I don't' pixel peep or anything crazy, I'm in the group that if 90% of the population who are not photogs think it looks good then that's all I need.

What do you expect to seein this new lens if it comes out any time soon

This poll is not based on what your line of expertise, this is a wildlife/sports competition.
Pretend you aone going on a wildlife expedition, or to a sports game. You are going to use this lens handheld, with a monopod, a tripod, extenders, etc.
Which would you choose.

My question is clear, sigma has a cheaper 50mm 1.4, that is newer, and made for digital camera, with all it's coatings, and apparently it has a special digital focusing system. But, then there is the 1.2 l, it has about half a stop of luminosity more, which I don't know what difference that makes, and it's an "l" lens.

Please keep in mind that I'm asking which is better in total and in different ways.

This is to fill a gap in my range, (16-35 and 70-200 2.8 is ii), so I'm looking for one that won't fail me

Loving this random streetlight art in here Finland! 8)


If you can't see the picture here's direct link to it:
http://flic.kr/p/dfbCQJ

I'm looking for a compact street shooter with crazy fast auto focus and would like to hear your real-world suggestions.

In my kit today, I have a G11, D60 and a Mamiya 7

With a crazy fast focus on a compact body, there are some of the other filters that will guide me:

-excellent IQ (for the size)
- articulated screen
- sharp lens/sharp lens availability
-SD card
-ability to use an intervalomiter
-Macro
-Short minimum focus on wide/normal
-fixed lens ok
-shirt pocketable
-RAW

Thinking maybe the Sony Rx100, (RX1 if I win in Vegas) don't know enough about the Canon Mirror

I just sent this question to Canon today. What's the general opinion on why Canon hasn't added shutter count to the camera's firmware or EOS Utility?

Hello,
A couple days ago I had to pay $1.59 to a website called eoscount.com to check my shutter count. The website has you accept an add-on for Internet Explorer which could very easily be a virus for all we know. The owner of the site, Sergey Vasilevskiy, may be a fine upstanding programmer for all we know. However, does Canon think this is an acceptable way for customers to get information from their expensive DSLR cameras??? We are risking the security of our computers by going to outside websites for this software. Canon's EOS Utility could very easily provide this information if programmed to. So what is the problem? The only acceptable answer to this is Canon is going to add this functionality to the EOS Utility in the next version. The only reason I can see for Canon not adding this functionality is because they are hiding something. So how does Canon respond to this request that shouldn't even be a request?

Dear all of you,
I am a 7D owner and I am waiting to deal for a new lens, a stadard one like 15-85 ("f/ is not good" bla bla bla) but I need one compact for trips.

Do you think that Canon will develop any new lenses for new APS-C rumored bodies in the near future?
If not I'll make a Christmas present with ol'15-85.

Thanks in advice !

Hey guys, I'm working on some wildlife now, and my 70-200 2.8 is ii and my extenders aren't giving me enough reach.
I found a local photographer wanting to sell his canon 300 2.8 l non-is.

My question is, will using the lens with the extenders even on a monopod case blurry photos?
Sharpness is also important since I'm doing some large prints.
Should I try to negotiate a deal with him, or should I just save up and get the is 1 or 2?

Hi I am thinking of upgrading from 500D to 5D Mark 2 or 3. I would like to know what difference I would expect to get, as in whether it would improve my images considerably. I've been taking photos for quite a few years but my photos always seem to lack that extra punch when compared to other photographers' photos taken with the 5D.

This was discussed a few days ago in a thread that dropped off.)

Desired setup at events where pre-setting flashes is possible:
Two *manual* lights high up in the "back" corners of the space high enough to paint the key areas. Radio triggers. My camera has one on-camera strobe operating in ETTL mode to fill in faces, moments not fully lit by the light coming from the "back". That light I measure in advance so know the fall off and amounts in various places around the room. This fixed lighting might at times be seen as sidelighting as I move back and forth during the event, but as the photographer I KNOW there will always be at least rim lighting. The intention is that this manual lighting will in most cases be brighter than what comes from the camera-mounted strobe as fill light.

OK, I used to do this stuff without ETTL gear. Annual reports, location stuff of all kinds. Parties, too. (fun!)

Flash-forward to current day rigs. I see the complexity of the possible answers: The timing of the flash is different. I am assuming that there will be no HSS, but it might still introduce different delays. And then maybe HSS would be needed if the event were outdoors.

But back to the ETTL issue: Can ETTL just worry about its exposure/distance calculation without allowing the brighter light to freak it out?

I am planning to buy several more modern speedlights either Canon or YongNuo to add to a motley assortment of Vivitar 285's, a Canon 580EX(not v2) and Norman-hulking-mega-Watt-second power pack or two (not used very much these days!) so I can do more events, editorial and help with my existing real estate work. New and old units will end up sometimes in softboxes, umbrellas (yuk but convenient) bouncing off ceilings. You know: the whole weird Mcgyver thing-whatever works.

So, can modern ETTL operate in this kind of mixed strobe environment? Have to all be the same brand while still set for manual and ETTL? Or free-for-all?

Thanks for suggestions...
jonathan7007

I just received my Nikon D600 yesterday. I was expecting tremendous performance from another soon-to-be legendary Nikon/Sony sensor.

Well... I was quite disappointed.

With both cameras at ISO 12,800 and 1/1,600 exposure, with identical lenses (Sigma 85mm f/1.4 for Nikon and for Canon at f/2.8 ), what I get from the RAW data is shown in the attached images cropped at 100%.

This is really stupid, Nikon. I thought that with most of another year of tech gone by, and the legend of Nikon and Sony thrown in, that the D600 would perform better than the 5D Mark III. Boy, was I wrong.

The Canon image looks almost as smooth as butter under identical processing. The Nikon image looks like it came from a pocket camera or something like that.

I am also starting to get very suspicious about DxO Mark. Why do they have results for Nikon in a heartbeat all the time? Why do they measure dynamic range by trying to measure a theoretical definition (black point photo level to white point photon level) rather than trying to measure actual amount of detail in images that are under or over exposed by a certain number of stops?

I am thinking about doing a simple and truly mathematical measurement of image noise now, just to see if maybe I'm not giving the D600 enough credit.

The real thing that matters isn't DR or anything. Once the finite-dimensional subspace of data is fixed (which it is for raw files), the only thing that matters mathematically is signal to noise ratio, which is basically an aggregate of precision and accuracy, the two components of any recording technology, including photography.

Here's my plan, before I do it.

Take two or more successive exposures in RAW at the same settings, and repeat this process to obtain other pairs of image data with various under/normal/over exposure settings and various ISOs.

Then I will measure the actual noise by calculating the difference between identical images. The means of the data will be adjusted to account for a tiny variation in exposure times. Any difference between the images would be purely due to the random variation of noise.

Then I will use the old formula from science for relative error (observed-expected)/expected * 100 and then use the RE to calculate the signal to noise ratio.

And one number is meaningless. DxO Mark loves to give the highest ISO where (in their system of experimentation) the SNR falls below about 80-85%, a "critical point" of image quality.

But with cameras like the 1D X, the SNR barely falls any further for a long, long way.

However, cameras like the 5D Mark II fall off much, much faster after getting to this "critical point" even if their score reported by DxO Mark isn't very much different from the 1D X.

For example (made up numbers):

Camera A:
ISO 1,000 SNR = 90%
ISO 10,000 SNR = 75%

Camera B:
ISO 990 SNR = 90%
ISO 10,000 SNR = 45%

Obviously, camera A is 65% better than camera B, but the way DxO Mark reports things, there would only be a meaningless difference of about 1% of one stop in the "ISO score" of camera A vs. camera B.

So if I get time (tonight is a RARE few hours off for me), I will try to report the results. And I'll be totally unbiased. I use about half Nikon and half Canon equipment, and I have absolutely no grudges or favoritism on either side.

I've been reading strobist blog and decided to start playing with the lights a bit.

My plan is to start with the following configuration:

3 YN568 flashes, (maybe 2 should be enoght for a start)
2 YN622 transmitters,

He recommends using umbrelas to difuse the light, but what I found out was that using softboxes gave you softer light. (which I guess is good in general), so I decided to get softboxes. The only thing is I'm not sure which to buy and what size.
My understanding is the bigger the better, but how big is not too big for a YN flash as a source? I belive thay sholud come with a L-bracket for the flash or maybe buying it separately is a better idea.

Is this one good to start with? http://www.cheetahstand.com/servlet/the-38/Cheetah-Qbox-24/Detail

He also recommends LumoPro compact size stands. Is that a good choice?

Question for the crowd... I am in the process of selling my condo and will be renting. My gear is currently covered under my homeowners policy, but I'm looking to separate it with a separate policy. Anybody have any info on insurance programs for photo gear??? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!!!

I'm thinking of getting a fisheye for my 7d.

Basically I want to go as wide as possible but without having the heavy vignetting/black circle some fisheye lenses cast in the corners. (I already have a 10-20 for normal wide)

I'm only familiar with the samyang 8mm (which is 167 degrees on canon crop), but the manual-ness is putting me off. What are the best other options that get as close to 180 degrees on canon crop?

I have been using this lens for a few weeks now and I have published some of my thoughts here - not very technical but will show my hands-on experiences shooting an entire documentary wedding with it are:
http://www.markcareyphotography.com/2012/jo-and-karim-canon-ef-24-70mm-f2-8-ii-usm-l-review/

Thank you for reading.

Good evening to all,

Knowing that there's no perfect lens, I am desperate to find an ultra-wide angle or wide angle with a performance excellent or very good in the corners.

Here's what I found with the lenses I had or still have:

(had) 17-40mm L f4.0: Poor in the corners at 24mm and 20mm, but unusable for me becaus it's only f4.0.

(had) 16-35mm L f2.8 mark ii: Very poor in the corners at 24mm and 20mm, at 16mm it was terrible.

(have) 20-35mm L f2.8: Much better than all the previous ones in the corners and at any focal length, but with two probems: the minimum focusing distance is too long, only 50cm; and the lens is very prone to flare.

(had) 24-70mm f2.8: I always found this lens not very sharp at 2.8, and the performance in the corners was not better than 17-40.

Are the 20mm f2.8 or the 24mm f1.4 better? The lens I want doesn't exist? =) I will mostly use it at 24mm or 20mm.

Took these this evening. Feedback welcome.


Boat House by RCARCARCA, on Flickr

EXIF: 5DMkiii, 24-105mm @ 85mm, 1/100sec, f5.6, ISO640


Bridge near the Thames by RCARCARCA, on Flickr

EXIF: as above, except 28mm, 1/40sec


Bridge at the edge of the Thames by RCARCARCA, on Flickr

EXIF: as above, except 1/50sec, 55mm, ISO1000

Thanks

Richard

I won an auction to shoot sideline/endline at a MLS game here in Seattle. Having done this before, I was slightly limited in what I was shooting, but I'm going all out for this one. The dilemma I'm having is what to rent to augment my existing kit... At this point here's what I have coming from Roger (in red) with my existing kit:

Monopod with Manfrotto T bar and RC4 QR plates with:
5d3 with 300/2.8IS and 1.4xII tele
1d2 with 70-200/2.8

Spider belt with:
Right Hip 7d with 24-70/2.8
Left Hip T4i with Tokina 12-24/4 with a 40/2.8 and 17-55/2.8IS for fun

Now, to start with, I'm not even sure the placement of the 5d3/1d2/7d is correct, but I think that with the range on the 300 and the wide of the 24-70 (28-112) are going to be the main image makers, but the 1d2 is getting lots of range in the middle of things.

Now the fun, if I get ambitious, what would you 'upgrade' from this?? I've considered a second 5d3/7d, 70-200/2.8isII, 300/2.8isII even going so far as a D800e with a 200-400 or a 14-24/4. In a really bad dream I'd have a H5d-80 for some amazing shots, but my bank isn't that crazy with me...

The location is Qwest Field / CenturyLink field (just hosted Monday Night Football) so the lighting is as good as it'll get. Time frame is beginning of November, and being Seattle, there is a chance of rain possible... I've been digging around my existing photos from a few years ago trying to notice a pattern in MM, but it's all over the board, and some of it I cropped down. Oh, and we get some great support so there'll be plenty of crowd shots:

Good evening all,

i will say hi as I'm not new just this is my first post.

wondering what filters people use to protect there lenses if any...

I'm really undecided on what type of filter i need i have just purchased the 17-40 L so i know i need a 77mm filter and i know i need a top quality one as there would be no point putting cheap glass in front of it..

so what do you guys and girls do?


any help appreciated.

thanks

Hey guys, I'm having a bit of a dilemma, I'm trying to decide which way to go gear wise to accommodate my 70-200 2.8 l is ii. I am an enthusiast looking to move up to a ff, and shoot landscapes, portraits, and some sports(why I got the 70-200 and my extenders.)
I'm deciding between a canon 16-35 2.8 and maybe a sigma 50mm 1.4/canon 1.2 l/new canon 50mm 1.4
Benefits:
1.) a great wide angle that is good for portraits
2.) a good 50mm as an upgrade from my 1.8 that will bridge the gap
Cons:
1.) there is the fact that I may need a bunch of filters, which could be worth it.
2.)it may be more expensive

Or, a canon 17-40 and a canon 24-70 2.8 l mark 1
Benefits:
1.) a good standard zoom that works for portraits, and vacation
2.) those along with my 70-200, I have constant 77mm, so I can carry less filters.
Cons:
1.)may be heavier
2.)the weight may be a problem.
3.) if I only use the 24-70, it may be hard to take wide scenes.

For those of you out there who has any experiences with the Tink Tank Sling-O-Matic 10 camera bag,would you know if a pro body camera like a 1DX with a 70-200 F2.8L MKII lens attached fit into it?

Thanks.

This topic has been moved to Third Party Manufacturers.

http://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php?topic=9809.0

For the past couple of weeks many people on this board have been telling those of us that are not overly enthused about the 6D but are still wanting to go full frame to "Jump Ship to Nikon". Well... I decided to dip my pinky toe into that water and rented a D600 and the Nikkor 24-70 f/2.8G.

I received it late last night (wife missed the Fedex guy). First impressions: body feels lighter than my 7D but still well made; lens is damn heavy. I put the lens on and proceeded to go through my normal rituals of learning a new camera. This is where trouble started.

I was expecting the control layout to be different... but I wasn't expecting it to be retarded. It's as if someone was throwing darts at a picture of the camera to decide where to put buttons / functions. There is no central "theme" or purpose behind the design at all. Let me go through a few functions to demonstrate:

1. AF selection. This is the worst offender.
1a. Manual Focus. There are two places to choose manual focus vs AF. On the lens _and_ on the body. They both have to be set to AF for AF to work.
1b. AF mode selection. There is a stupid button down by the barrel on the front left (if you are holding the camera to your face) _on_ one of the AF/MF switches that you have press and hold and twirl one of the two control wheels (but which one?) to select AI Focus, Single, Continuous and the other control wheel (but which one?) to select an AF point selection mode.

The first problem there is that you have to use your left hand to change AF modes! How the hell do you do that with a big 400mm+ lens while you have the camera to your face?

The second problem is that it's not clear which wheel changes which thing. On my 7D anything controlled by the wheels is on a button by the LCD (which, first of all I can press with my right hand while holding it to my face) and it is obvious (because of the label on the button) which wheel controls which option. This is a small thing because you will ultimately remember which wheel is which... but it's this lack of thought that permeates the whole way this camera works.

Now... as for the AF modes themselves... they suck compared to my 7D. I love being able to toggle through AF point selection modes _while my eye is to the camera_ and use the joystick to move it around on my 7D... it is EXTREMELY fast. On the D600 that's not really possible (because of the button location) but even if it were there are really only _two_ AF point selection modes: Auto and Single Point. Now, there are some "restrictions" you can put on Auto... but it's still basically Auto. Compare to my 7D where I can cluster, I can do point expansion, single point, full Auto, etc. Even worse: the D600 doesn't have Orientation Sensitive AF Point Selection! I really don't understand that and it's one of those things I love about my 7D. I could go on about how limited the AF system is for quite a while but I'll stop there.

2. Everything looks cheap. This is harder to put down in words. The LCD on top looks like an old 80's LCD watch and the menus on the back screen look like they would be more at home on a $100 P&S. For instance when you hold down (yes you have to hold it down) the exposure compensation button (which is in a random position next to the LCD) and twirl one of the wheels (which one? and why?) to set some exposure compensation it shows you a big 80's style watch number instead of the cool pointer that you move left and right on a 7D. It's a small thing, but it just leaves me feeling that they were cutting corners...

3. Finger gymnastics. As I've already pointed out, to change any settings you have to _hold down_ buttons with one finger (or even another hand) and twirl a random wheel. But it gets worse. To change shooting modes you have to hold down the lock button (I know some people like that, and that there is even an free "upgrade" you can get for your 7D that does this, but to me it's just a pain) AND you have to hold a release button to change "Drive Modes" while twirling a tiny ring around the shooting mode selector. All of this adds up to sore finger tips and sore fingers. Seriously, I shot for hours last night with this thing around my house and as I'm typing this my fingers are sore! I have rather big hands, but even for me it is uncomfortable to hold down some of the buttons and locks and twirl wheels. This is not too mention the fact that the grip is uncomfortable (it has a pretty sharp edge just under the front twirly wheel that digs into your finger when you have a heavy lens on like the 24-70 and it's smallish... which means I am gripping pretty hard with my fingers instead of my hand unlike my 7D)

4. ISO. Why in the holy hell of the world is the ISO selection button (that you have to HOLD DOWN and twirl a random wheel to change the ISO) on the back bottom LEFT of the camera? Again... you cannot do this with one hand. You canNOT do it while holding the camera to your face. One other quick hit on ISO: Why does it BLINK at me in the viewfinder that it's on Auto ISO? Why? Why blinking? Right in my eye! I truly don't understand.

5. Drive mode selection "ring". I mentioned it earlier... but it warrants it's own section. Why is drive mode (Single shot, Continuous, 2 Second Delay, Remote, Mirror Lockup) selection a _physical_ ring that you have to press and hold a lock button and twirl? This is dumb on a number of fronts... but I think the most egregious is that it mean that I can't set the drive mode to one of the user defined settings (U1, U2). On my 7D I have a "Fast Action" user setting (which is the last one BTW... so I can just crank over the mode dial and I know I'm on it... the Nikon mode selector spins all the way around so you have to actually take the camera away from your face and LOOK at the dial to know where you are) that sets continuous focus and highspeed continuous drive (among other things). You CANNOT do that on a D600.


I could go on for longer about stuff I don't like... but what about things I like about the way the D600 works?

1. The on/off/LCD light switch switch integrated into the shutter button is cool.
2. Minimum shutter speed with Auto ISO is really nice.
3. Max ISO selection is good.


All griping with no pictures on a photography forum? Yes. I haven't shot anything worth posting yet (just around the house last night and my office this morning). I'm headed into the mountains this weekend to put it to the Landscape test... and I'll post back with my findings. From what I can tell on the back screen the image quality looks really good (which is why I'm doing this in the first place). But can the IQ overcome the inequities in the functioning of the camera? We'll see....