Goodbye Canon 5d mk III- I loved you, but need to move on!

[sagittariansrock]

An anecdote, completely open to interpretation:
I was shooting the Statue of Liberty when a couple of girls came and asked me to take their photo in front of the statue. They handed me a D800E attached to a 24-70mm lens.
I found that the camera was in A mode, and the focus point selected was offset and to a corner. ...However, it was way too overexposed. So I asked them if they can turn the exp. comp. down, and one of the girls (presumably the one owning the camera) said it was ok, she will fix it afterwards.

Another way to look at it


It is possible that the lady put the camera in auto mode when she handed it to you, not knowing how much you know about cameras. If I were to hand my camera to a stranger (not likely), I would most likely put it on auto.

The focus point being in a corner, leads me to think that the multi-selector got bumped. That's easy to do, especially when handing the camera to someone else, unless it is locked.

She may has said she will fix it in post because she did not want to spend any time talking with you and wanted to get back to her friend. It was, after all, just a holiday snapshot with her friend.

She may have known a lot about her camera, she just did not know a lot about you. ;D

First, the A mode in a Nikon stands for Aperture priority, not auto.
Second, she was actually waiting while I was shooting before she approached me, and ended up holding my 5DII+24-70II+600EX-RT. So unless she is very skeptical of inexperienced photographers with high-end gear, she would have thought I know something about using a dSLR.
Third, I am pretty sure nothing got bumped, and it isn't very easy to bump the AF point selection on a D800E. I am almost certain she was using the off-center AF point for composition purposes.

Other than that, you and I are basically saying the same thing. That it is quite likely she knew what she was doing, and rather than have some stranger fiddle with exposure comp, decided to fix it in post and not waste holiday time. Only, Neuro's comment makes one wonder if it was something else.
By the way, I do hand over my camera to strangers (with severe anxiety accompanying the action) sometimes when my wife demands we get a picture of BOTH of us taken. Fortunately I have started being very slow in unstrapping my camera so my wife just hands over her iPhone nowadays

 

[9VIII]

It's funny, though. I wrote a blog post addressing THIS VERY camera release and how it relates to gear freaks:

http://danielmedini.com/blurry-pictures-are-not-a-crime/

I wrote that on June 26, as if I could predict the tendency of nerds to "NEED" the newer, shinier, camera body.

Nice blog post, however, there's one problem with arguing that sharpness isn't everything: that is, when the photographer just wants to make mechanically accurate images.
I'm not a strict purist and I do have aesthetic preferences, but the point is that it's a different underlying motivation, to capture what is rather than trying to "tell a story" or convey emotion.

 

[mrsfotografie]

Yawn... this is turning in a Nikon vs Canon thread.

You know what? When two photographers are fighting over Nikon/Canon, the third runs away with the Sony.

 

[slclick]

Yawn... this is turning in a Nikon vs Canon thread.

You know what? When two photographers are fighting over Nikon/Canon, the third runs away with the Sony.

blah blah blah dslr brands. I'll take film brand/type debates over DR and pixels any day....the proof is much more easily digestible and seen.

 

[Robert Welch]

I just was looking in my 5DmkIII manual to see where it says you can't print larger than 32x48. Can anyone direct me to the page that says that? I can't find it. Thanks for the help in advance.

 

[AtSea]

It's funny, though. I wrote a blog post addressing THIS VERY camera release and how it relates to gear freaks:

http://danielmedini.com/blurry-pictures-are-not-a-crime/

I wrote that on June 26, as if I could predict the tendency of nerds to "NEED" the newer, shinier, camera body.

Nice blog post, however, there's one problem with arguing that sharpness isn't everything: that is, when the photographer just wants to make mechanically accurate images.
I'm not a strict purist and I do have aesthetic preferences, but the point is that it's a different underlying motivation, to capture what is rather than trying to "tell a story" or convey emotion.

Of course there are exceptions, and I briefly allude to that by saying "Maybe the particular job requires knowing optical strengths and weaknesses of the aperture, right down to the last pixel."

I'm not really addressing photographers that want to make "mechanically accurate images". That's a scientific pursuit, not an artistic one.

 

[Northstar]

I personally like the green skin tones (at least on the camera's LCD) of the D800. /sarcasm

More than the hue, the live view implementation of the D800 completely killed any interest I had in it, one of my primary interests in the D810 is to see what they did in that area.
Nikon D800 Live View MF Issue followup

the green is like a combination of "oscar the grouch" green and "swamp monster" green.....so yeah, pretty cool if you like those things. ;D :

 

[dryanparker]

I just was looking in my 5DmkIII manual to see where it says you can't print larger than 32x48. Can anyone direct me to the page that says that? I can't find it. Thanks for the help in advance.

+1

I love when people complain about not being able to print "larger than AxB". How often are we really printing anything larger than 36x24? I've printed that size with amazing detail from the 7D. I'm sure you could print 40x60 from a 5D3 with fantastic results. Larger artwork, just like larger TVs, are really meant to be viewed from greater distance.

Obviously, there are limits. You definitely don't want to be printing posters from iPhone photos...which I've seen...IN GALLERIES!!

But, these late model cameras are more than capable of beautiful prints at most reasonable sizes.

 

[emko]

i use the 5d3 its a very good camera but i do get jealous of sony's sensor when i see how it can bring up the shadows compared to the 5d3 its impressive as right now if i tried that it brings some very noise lines. So when i do need more dr i just have to do some HDR usually just mask out the sky and replace it with a proper exposed sky nothing stops me from getting the same result just would be easier. Hopefully Canon makes 5d4 as good or better then sony's sensor.

 

[Robert Welch]

I just was looking in my 5DmkIII manual to see where it says you can't print larger than 32x48. Can anyone direct me to the page that says that? I can't find it. Thanks for the help in advance.

+1

I love when people complain about not being able to print "larger than AxB". How often are we really printing anything larger than 36x24? I've printed that size with amazing detail from the 7D. I'm sure you could print 40x60 from a 5D3 with fantastic results. Larger artwork, just like larger TVs, are really meant to be viewed from greater distance.

Obviously, there are limits. You definitely don't want to be printing posters from iPhone photos...which I've seen...IN GALLERIES!!

But, these late model cameras are more than capable of beautiful prints at most reasonable sizes.

A portrait I took of a lawyer with a 40D was printed on a billboard. That is what? 10'-12' tall? Did id look good at 2' away? Of course not, but nobody was looking at it from 2' away.

 

[Don Haines]

I just was looking in my 5DmkIII manual to see where it says you can't print larger than 32x48. Can anyone direct me to the page that says that? I can't find it. Thanks for the help in advance.

+1

I love when people complain about not being able to print "larger than AxB". How often are we really printing anything larger than 36x24? I've printed that size with amazing detail from the 7D. I'm sure you could print 40x60 from a 5D3 with fantastic results. Larger artwork, just like larger TVs, are really meant to be viewed from greater distance.

Obviously, there are limits. You definitely don't want to be printing posters from iPhone photos...which I've seen...IN GALLERIES!!

But, these late model cameras are more than capable of beautiful prints at most reasonable sizes.

A portrait I took of a lawyer with a 40D was printed on a billboard. That is what? 10'-12' tall? Did id look good at 2' away? Of course not, but nobody was looking at it from 2' away.

You definitely need a better camera.... With a 60D I have been able to take 2 Gigapixel images