I have the current 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L and love it. With a new version coming out I'm thinking of upgrading to it. But how should I go about that to save the most money? Do you think I should sell off the one I have now a month or two before the new one is released and then buy the new one? Any thoughts how how different the new one will be?

I typically shoot sports indoors with a Canon 60D (no flash), 70-200mm 2.8. I manually set to F2.8 at 400 shutter speed, ISO 1600 and then use Lightroom to remove the noise. This particular wrestling event, surprisingly they allowed us to use a flash. Not having used the flash before for sporting events, I broke out the 580EXii. This was a good time to practice with the flash. I tried various settings from ETTL, Manual and Multi flash setting and realized that I could not achieve a shutter speed faster then 250, and seems no matter what setting I tried, this was the limit. When I was able to get the shots, they were good. Playing with the setting, I found that some where overexposed, some under and some just right (you know the three bears story…lol). Anyway I was lost as far as the shutter speed on the camera was always reduced to 250. Even when setting it faster like 400, when I went to take the shot, it automatically reduced it to 250. I have a feeling this is a limitation of using a flash. Maybe this is one of those simple “you should know this” kind of things or a known thing when using flash and fast shutter speed, but I am just not understanding it.
Would anyone have an explanation to why this happens with high shutter speeds ?
Thanks in advanced.

Just wondering if anyone has cancelled their mk III pre-order for Nikons D800? I've been thinking about it since I'm only invested in canon with a 70-200 2.8 after selling my 60d and kit lens (for the mk iii).

My dealer informed me this morning that Canon is shipping their 5D order "in a day or two" and they'll ship my order this week.

There are many reviews online that say the Canon DLSRs, which are fantastic still cameras, are lacking in their video mode 1920x1080p resolution. Several web sites calim that the Canon DSLRs (not including the 5D) in 1080p mode are only a little better than 720p when tested on resolution charts. Online video examples show that the 1080p resolution is not the 1080p resolution of a true video camera.

And then there are the video resolution charts.

Why might this be going on?

How do they down sample a 5184 x 2192 (16:9) raw image (using the 60d specification here – the 5D has slightly larger numbers)?

Here is my technical explanation for a possible reason, if the online reviews are correct about the soft video images. (I do not own a Canon DSLR so cannot test this myself.) My explanation may very well be off in space but provides a plausible technical reason. But I can’t say this enough: my explanation may totally wrong! And keep in mind that most people do not even see a difference between 1080p and 720p video on their home HDTV. (And my explanation is wrong in the details – each “photo site” has 2 green, 1 blue and 1 red image sensor. Translating this into megapixel images is more complex than in my simplified explanation.)

The image sensor on the camera is much higher resolution than 1920×1080 used in video. The original image must be converted or downsized to 1920×1080.

They likely take every 2nd row and every 4th pixel across and throw away the extra rows and pixels. In 16:9 aspect ratio, the camera (60D) has a resolution of 5184 x 2192.

If this raster is simplified by pulling out every 4 pixel and every other row, this yields, for 1080p:
5184/4 = 2592 pixels wide (or alternatively, take every 2 of 3 for 1,728)
2192/2 = 1096 rows high

To convert this into 1920x1080p, they might do a simple weighted average of pixels horizontally across each row (the 2592 wide row or up size the 1728) to produce a 1920 row. This is going to soften the image horizontally but is an easy way to get to 1920. Dropping out rows, too, loses information and other processing adds information that wasn’t there (by averaging multiple elements) creating moire and aliasing. The result is an image that looks better than 720p but softer than true 1080p.

(There’s a reference in a comment here that the 5D samples every 3rd row and another comment saying it throws every 3rd row … take your pick!).

720p is much simpler:
5184/4 = 1296
2192/4 = 728

which is so close to 1280×720 that all they need do is throw out some pixels at top and bottom. This creates worse moire because even more rows are thrown away.

The Canon 720p should look fine except for moire. The Canon 1080p is going to look softer than true 1920x1080p and introduces aliasing artifacts.

With only one DIGIC 4 processor on board, they likely lack the processing capacity to do a clean conversion from 5184×2192 sensor down to 1920×1080, 30 times per second! Instead they take shortcuts to make it work.

My prediction: Starting this fall, the Mark III has a dual core processor and all cameras announced from then on will have dual core processors. Within 1 year, Canon will solve the moire problem.

Some of the cameras from competitors have dual core or even tri-core processors now.

DSLRs do enable photographers to shoot very narrow depth of field video, which would be harder to achieve on all but high end professional video cameras that are very expensive – or by using various schemes, like the Letus adapter, that project the image on to a screen.

DSLRs also generally have very good low light performance capabilities.

Ultimately, resolution is hardly the only criteria for shooting with a DSLR. Convenience, size, low light, depth of field, lens quality and that you just like how the image looks anyway may be more important.


http://coldstreams.com/video/?p=383

I was just looking at T4i rumors and they said it would have the DIGIC 5 processor. I just starting thinking that with that onboard combined with a smaller sensor I wonder if it will have 1080p video?

It wouldn't be unprecedented for a feature to make its way to the rebel before it got into a flagship product. What do you think?

Edit: Somehow I didn't mention 60 FPS outside the subject, which was the point of my post.

As a few people on this forum probably are, I'm pretty excited about the new gear that just got announced. I always try to limit myself to one large purchase per year, and so, I'm really stuck on the fence about whether to get the 5d3 or the 24-70L II. I know that reviews aren't out on either one yet, but just based on specs/needs, I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts. I'm kind of an all-around hobbyist from family pictures (candid/portrait) to some nature/street photography. I used to have a 1d3 and really miss the joy of having fast reliable AF (even with its perceived issues it was worlds above the 5d2 AF). Thoughts? Thanks!


Current gear is:
5D Mark II, Canon 35mm f/1.4L, Zeiss MP50 f/2, Canon 85 f/1.2L II, Canon 70-200 f/2.8L II

I just cancelled my B&H preorder (good news if you preordered with them as I had placed my preorder within the first hour) after I found out that I could get 6% total cashback when using my discover card at J&R.

The 'shop discover' program is well known at this point, but basically you can order your 5dIII from J&R (the only affiliated retailer that you can preorder it from, although you may be able to preorder it later on from retailers like buy.com, circuitcity.com, compusa.com, etc.) for $3500 with free shipping and no tax (unless you live in NY) and get 6% cashback (5% from the J&R deal and 1% from your normal cashback deal with discover) if you use your discover card (and you have to login to your discover account at shopdiscover.com and go to jr.com using the link there).

So, it breaks down to $3500 - $210 = $3290 total. It pained me to cancel my B&H preorder (and I wish I had thought about this when I initially preordered -- J&R told me today that they had "hundreds" of 5dIII preorders at this point, so it could be a substantial wait) but for $210 cashback it was worth it to me. If it's worth it to you also, you should take advantage of this offer also (and no, I don't work for either J&R or Discover).

Btw, I did confirm with J&R today that the cashback offer applies to 5dIII preorders for the full amount (no upper limit on the cashback amount).

Can anyone show us examples of when your 5d2 has banding/shadow noise on low ISOs? And can you show and/or explain how/where you cleaned up the files to remove the banding at ISO 100, 200, or such?

It will give me an idea what can be done with files on the 5d3 to solve this issue. Some of you are amazing at post-processing. Also, I read an article where ISO 160 was better than 100. Here's the useful link:

http://photocascadia.wordpress.com/2011/05/13/canon-eos-5d-mark-ii-iso-noise-test/

Well, I don't know if i want it to be ditched, but what about a giving us something else? Sure with modern high mp cameras we can just crop whatever, but i still think i'd rather have a different shape. Or maybe a sensor with a 3x2 and maybe a 4x5 option, and i'm not referring to inbody cropping. i haven't done the math to see what the mp would work out to with the pixel density of say the 5dmk3, but wouldn't a 4x4 format offer the most sensor real estate anyway? If you were interested in such things... I don't know if it's even technically possible for this arrangement, but i think it could be advantageous. Or is it just me that finds 3x2 to not usually be the best arrangement?

I was looking into buying an intervalometer and was wondering if anyone had experience with the Yongnuo MC-36R?

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/YONGNUO-MC-36R-C3-Wireless-Timer-Remote-CANON-5D-II-7D-1D-IV-50D-40D-30D-20D-/330673602061?pt=Camera_Camcorder_Remotes&hash=item4cfdaebe0d

It seems like it would work with any Canon that has a C8 connector such as the 5D2.

When I started out with my first DSLR about 6 years ago, I was mostly shooting with automatic exposures in "P" mode. The camera would pick a nice combination of shutter speed / aperture for correct exposure (auto ISO wasn't an option in my body yet). When I saw that some portraits I'd been shooting in bright daylight turned out to be f/11 at 1/400sec shutter speed, I decided to use "aperture priority mode" (aV) instead. It gives me the control over aperture that I want, but it's the absolute opposite of something completely "auto": it's totally fixed. The middle way is to use 'portrait mode' which will hide all the settings it chooses but pick larger apertures. It uses a bias.

On my current body (the 60D), there's an "auto ISO" function; but it too tends to be too biased on low ISO values / slow shutter speeds. The only way to customize this auto ISO setting on my current camera is that you can set an upper limit to the auto ISO it is allowed to pick.

Since learning about the workings of these "auto" modes, I've always had the idea of factually customisable auto ISO playing through my mind, being able to bias it manually. I've yet to see this in Canon cameras. Currently, auto ISO is coupled with "minimum shutter speed" and will always bias ISO value first, and only start to increase it when shutter speeds become really slow. The minimum shutter speed is coupled with the focal length (at least for the 5D mk2), but it's not customisable.

Now what I read recently, on the Nikon D4, was the following:

"In the D4, Nikon has (at long last) added an 'Auto' option to the minimum shutter speed options, which allows the camera to automatically set the minimum shutter speed based on its knowledge of the focal length that you're working at. This response can be biased in 5 steps, from 'slow' to 'fast' depending on whether you'd like the camera to err on the side of slower or faster shutter speeds. A small change but one that (along with the D4's extremely wide ISO sensitivity span) finally makes Auto ISO more like the 'set and forget' function that it should have been long ago."
-Barney Britton, DPReview

Click to expand...

I think it would be great to have a customizable / auto ISO bias setting in-camera. And having seen some of the abilities of the Magic Lantern software I'd be curious whether something like this functionality would actually be possible to make.

Example:

In aV mode (fixed max aperture), biased auto ISO doing two things:
(A) Take a low ISO setting;
(B) keeping the shutter fast between 1/200 and 1/8000.

Now say that you could change the weight of A versus B (i.e. a low ISO having more weight, or a fast shutter having more weight), and that you could change the minimum/maximum range of B. You could perhaps even give weights to individual ISO values to be able to not make it pick the dodgy 1/3rds, or to further reduce the value of the superhigh ISO's.

Setting a fixed aperture value in aV, you'd be able to shoot with auto ISO on, with the camera picking much more useful/appropriate 'auto ISO' settings to start from. It would make Auto ISO much more useful for me in aV mode.
Action sports: give a bit more priority to fast shutters (for action, 1/1000 @ iso 400 is better than 1/250 @ iso 100). General outdoor: moderate bias on low ISO. More landscape-focused: big bias to the low ISO.

I'm not sure if this is quite what the Nikon D4 is said to do in the quote above, but I'd personally very much love to have the option of customising the auto ISO to be biased, as described here.

Rather than hijack any of the existing threads on DR, I thought I'd start a new one.

I'm still struggling a little with the concept by which a few people (LetTheRightLensIn and maybe a couple others) are computing Dynamic Range.

Maybe my understanding of DR itself is faulty.

Is not DR the total range between brightest bright detail and darkest dark detail that a camera is capable of recording in a single exposure?

If so, how does having two separate exposures, one completely underexposed (body cap on stopped down fast shutter) and one completely overexposed (bright, slow shutter) aid in computing maximum potential DR?

Wouldn't you instead need a to meter at the median brightness point in a scene containing a fairly slow transition to complete dark and a fairly slow transition to complete bright (i.e. overexposed white and underexposed black existing together in a single exposure with smooth gradients towards the center) in order to determine useful DR?

I have a technical background, but I'm looking more for conceptual understanding than anything.

Thanks!

To compete with Nikon's line up. Admit it, we were all expecting the 1dx and 5dmkiii to be at least 25MP, etc. Some people are fine with the 18MP from 1dx or the 22MP from 5dmkiii, I know but what about the rest of us who would like it?

And will it be in a crop or FF camera? E.g the 5dmkIV (wishful thinking and part fantasy)? (dont smite me, just an opinion/idea)

here

http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/32182/canon-eos-5d-mark-iii-test/

Hello...

Just had a quick hands on with the Canon 5d mrk3 (about 2mins to look over it)

Here are the few images I took

The first image was in manual mode,, the others in the fully automatic mode

Sorry for the bad quality, these are just point and shoot

Lense was the newer 28-70mm

http://s1184.photobucket.com/albums/z331/ianpowell76/5d%20mrk%20III/

One image full size
http://www.skyscraperlist.com/admindocs/243A9930.JPG


The layout of the camera is the same, though it felt different.
I say different as they have done something to the paint finish that made it feel different.
I would hate to say the build quality was less than the 5d mrk1 and 5d mrk 2, which I both own..
You'll see when you get one..

Then the actual functions of the buttons are in different places.
Such as the zoom of the shot you have just taken operates in a different way.
To zoom you have to press the magnify button located to the left of the display screen, but the function of the zoom is controlled by the dial wheel next to the shoot button.
Maybe this is a default setting ?

The Focus is better than the older models,, was fast and didn't have focusing.
When looking through the view finder, very pleasent to see an array of focus points.

As I said,, I had a limited time with the camera,
Will be getting it, to add to my collection..

Hi All,
I'm looking to upgrade from my 20D. I decided I wanted to upgrade after realizing that my 20D wasn't great at low light/high ISO shots. I am a recreational photographer, take photos of my kids, friends, family, travel, sporting events etc - mostly for fun, do some printing, usually 4x6 or 5x7, occasionally 16x24 - though would consider larger sizes for home decoration. I want to be able to shoot in low light and indoors without a flash.
I already own the Canon 50 f1.2L and 24-105 f4L - and on the 20D the 50 1.2L is too tight for indoor shots. So I figured I should either get a FF body and use the lenses I already own, or a 7D + 24,28,or 35mm fast lens.

So as I see it my options are:
7D + 35 f2 (approx $2000 total)
7D + 35 1.4 (approx $3000 total)
5D2 ($2150 total)
5D3 ($3500 total)

I could swing any of the options financially - but would only want to spend the extra $$ on the 5D3 if it was really going to make a difference for my needs.

Thanks!
Michael
20D, 50 f1.2L, 24-105 f4L, 430EX II

Hello CR folks!

For those of you who shoot primarily primes, or even 100% primes, what are your combinations? Brand is not a restriction here!
The "Holy Trinity" consisting of the 35 L, 85 L and 135 L is a popular one, but are there any other combinations you have found that give versatility? What needs do your selected lens choices fulfill, or have you purchased every quality standard prime to be safe?

I've found what works for me, but what works for all of you?

AS the title shows~
For my opinion，the 3×3 binning is much like a digital low pass Filter .By binning pixel ，it cloud reduce Moire，but like the low pass Filter ，it will cause resolution loss in return.
When I saw the ISO test video shooted by 5DM3,it showed resolution loss ,but I did't think it's caused by NR or out of focus.After all,the video was came from Canon Japan,which mean it is highly credible.
What's more ,as it's cuased by binning pixel,the high bit rate mode like ALL-I won't be able to make up the lost resolution,and sad to find out this function can't be disable if user wanted.

I am not a expert in this aspect,so I can't sure my opinion is absolutely correct.
So let's figure it out.

Hey all,

I am trying to put together a "wish list" of lenses, and am considering these 3 for the wider end of the spectrum on, currently, a 7D, and possibly a ff somewhere down the road. Anyone that has experience with these compared to each other would be helpful. Thanks in advance!

Gary W.

This topic has been moved to Third Party Manufacturers.

http://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php?topic=4210.0

http://nikonrumors.com/2012/03/09/nikon-135mm-f1-8-lens-patent.aspx/#more-35442

It appears Sony's 135/1.8 has sped up Nikon's new 135. Wonder when Canon will do the same, hopefully with the inclusion of IS.

Hi all,

I've had my 17-40 L f/4 for about 5 years now and was using it on a 400D, and was always very pleased with the lens on the crop body.
About 3 months ago I upgraded to a 5DII and the very lens I thought I was going to love taking over to FF has been a pain in the backside. I like shooting landscapes (among other things) - as wide as possible, but the 17-40 on my 5DII is:

a) too soft in the corners for my liking - even stopped down to f/11
b) too much vignetting in the corners
c) as soon as I put my cokin filters on it, the corners are blacked out, and IQ appears to be even worse in the corners. Filters are important to me - so the blacked out corners are a nightmare as currently I've got to crop so much out that I'm better off with the 24mm end on the 24-105L.

I did know all the above was going to happen, but I just didn't think it was going to affect me the way it has. For what it's worth I'm now shooting landscapes with the 24-105L at the wide end and of course still getting wider view than with my 17-40 on the crop body.

So, I've decided to sell the 17-40 (it's already on ebay - I couldn't take it, the lens just doesn't perform the way I need it to on FF) and want to know if any or all of the above issues might be resolved by getting the 16-35 2.8II instead? Or am I going to have to sell a kidney and get the 14mm f/2.8L II???

Your thoughts are very much appreciated - as always!
Thanks.

Hey guys, I'd like to pick up some black material to experiment with product photography. What should I get? Paint or, some kind of fabric? What would you recommend? Thanks.

Is there a new 50mm 1.2 in the future? How old is the current design?