I get this question a lot too.  The problem with any ultimatum, is that it’s going to invite bias and subjectivity.  Whether it’s lenses, cameras, computers, software or even media cards, there is no objective and universal vendor or manufacturer of media cards that is head and shoulders above the others in the field.  What I can tell you is that there are some who are notably superior.  I’ve not ranked these in any specific sort of order, but from my own experiences, these are the vendors that deliver a stable, high quality product with a good focus on QA:

• Lexar
• Sandisk
• Hoodman
• Ridata

If you get your media from them, by and large, you will probably be happy with the results.  I’ve heard stories of amazing success and durability anecdotes ranging from going through the clothes washer, to getting pounded by a 2000 pound vehicle.  One of the most amazing ones I read was someone who took a swim in the ocean, sweated in a sauna, and cooled off at a pool bar before realizing the media card wallet was in his swim trunks pocket – and all survived!  So, you can really pick and choose from the above and likely get quality results.  For my own tastes, I have used all of the above, but will say that I’ve noticed Lexar cards can be found for slightly less, either through promotions or sales for equivalent capacities.  Of course in the interests of full disclosure, they have also contributed to the contest giveaway series here, so that in and of itself could introduce some subjective bias on my part again.

So, there you have it!  On On Monday I looked at capacity considerations in Megabytes vs Megapixels, then later an article looked at speed transfer rates in How Fast Can You Shoot, and today, the last in this series of articles – the vendor portion of the equation.  There are, of course, other factors that could go into any buying decision, but this wasn’t about being exhaustive, rather being informative and sharing my own thoughts, insights, and experiences with media cards in photography.

Just a couple final reminders as we go into the weekend:

First up, the LDP Contest Series is underway, and I’ve added a 70-200 Special Edition from the folks at Photojojo to the giveaway.  Expect a review forthcoming shortly!  Make sure you enter for your chance to win.  Already in the prize list is a license for Photo Rescue software.  Enter here!

A new newsletter is forthcoming shortly, as is a new eBook!  This time it’s free, but only going to subscribers, so be sure to get signed up before that is released!  Special promos and discounts may also be in the newsletter for other products too, so if not signed up, you can get in on the action here.

Have a great weekend everyone, happy shooting, and we’ll catch up again next week….”on the flip side”!

On initial glance from the title, one might think this blog is segueing into a dialog from the Top Shot show over on the History Channel (very cool show btw), but I’m actually referring to the notion of speed often associated with shooting digital.  Sports shooters, action shooters and the like often will get the fastest cameras, the fastest cards they can get, with the fastest processors, and go to all sorts of degrees to eliminate bottlenecks in their capacity to shoot fast and on the go.  To an extent, their efforts are justified, but how fast does your card need to be?

As you may recall on Monday, I talked about how the real meaning of memory in media cards.  We talked about Megapixels and Megabytes, and I gave some real world number ranges for what you could expect a media card to handle.  So, today, we’re going to follow up on that topic of discussion and take a look at speed ratings for cards.  As always, there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye, primarily because there are lots of numbers bandied about when speaking about card transfer rates.  Before we wade hip dip into this, one brief note here is to give serious props to Rob Galbraith for compiling a pretty extensive database on his website of data transfer rates for a whole slew of cards with a whole slew of cameras.  If you really want to dig into the minutia of how fast cards really are, be sure to check it out!  Just one note though, that this database has not been updated since 2008 so cameras made since then will not be found with any reliable information.

With that in mind, today it’s probably more helpful to walk through the various points that can contribute to data transfer rates for cards.  The natural first stopping point is in the camera itself, in what is commonly known as fps, or “Frames Per Second”.

Frames Per Second

Quite simply this refers to the number of actuations a given shutter in a camera can cycle through in exactly one second.  As indicated above, the abbreviation for this is typically fps, and is easily culled from the spec sheet for pretty much any camera on the market today.  For those of you that want to see a compilation though, here you are (I should note that I grabbed all this data from the vendor websites on claimed fps for the highest resolution image settings.  If you set your file size to sRaw, or jpg and add compression, your max frame rate may increase…:

The bottom line here though is that with most DSLR’s on the market, if you expect more than 10 fps, that’s probably not going to happen (assuming also you are shooting continuous and on the highest resolution setting.)

So, even the camera you have can cause bottlenecks in write speeds…if your camera can’t write data that fast, it really doesn’t matter how fast your card can write data if it doesn’t have the data to write.  Now granted, each camera will have different MP counts so the Canon 5D (for instance) will of course have a slower fps rate because it’s a larger file, and it’s a full frame camera, so will naturally be slower than the 7D by comparison simply because it has to be.  So what we really need to be measuring is the amount of data that is being transferred per second (see now why I did that article first? )  So, we’ve reached the second point of bottleneck now in talking about transfer speeds and that’s the buffer.

Buffer

The best analogy I have is that the buffer in a camera is very much like the RAM in your computer.  It’s a sort of staging area, where data is stored before it gets actually sent to the processor and then saved to the card. Without the buffer in place, fps rates would drop dramatically because there would be no place for the camera to temporarily hold data before writing.  The buffer is what allows you to keep shooting.  So, this brings up two important questions:

1.  How can you increase the buffer?  (You can’t really…)

2. How can I tell how much of a buffer my camera has?  (As of this writing, I am not sure if this metric is reported consistently by vendors, except when reviewers say “an increased buffer size improves performance”…which is still relatively meaningless.)

Since it’s not something we can really measure, nor change without buying into a whole new camera, here it’s just sufficient to say that this is the second bottleneck point, and is usually where you will run into moments of pause.  Why? Because cards are usually transferring data that fills up the buffer, and at that point the camera can’t take in any more data. When this happens your camera won’t let you take any pictures.

The other factor that comes in to play though ties more to the card itself and not the camera, which is the speed factor.

Speed Class Rating

Media card vendors like Lexar, Sandisk and others like to use terms to define their speed.  Catch words like Extreme, Pro, Extreme Pro, 300x, 600X and all sorts of fancy jargon is used for marketing purposes.  Notice the various cards on the market – the more buzz words, usually the faster the transfer rate claim, and of course, the more expensive the card! 

So, rather than pour over all the various vendor semantics, I figured it’d probably be better to stay on what is a more neutral metric – speed class ratings.  While we could also introduce variances between the CF and the SD format in terms of write speeds, since most devices are moving to the SD format and it’s smaller cousins (mini SD and Micro SD), these are likely the ones we’ll see more often in the future, so the speed class ratings here are most relevant.

To that end, there are 5 different ratings or grades given to SD cards.  These are 2, 4, 6, 10, and 1 respectively.  The last rating (1) is reserved for the SDHC and SDXC card types, and has a special designation as UHS, for Ultra High Speed…while the lower ratings all have transfer rates classified as normal and high speed.  A full chart is viewable on it here.  In a nutshell, the higher the number, the faster the card can transfer data, so keep that in mind as you shop for media.  The ultimate barometer really though is not how fast you need to capture, but more what you need to capture, and as the chart indicates, video needs faster transfer rates than stills, so naturally the higher ratings are intended primarily for videographers.

If you really wanna geek out on data transfer rates, a better place to go for that is the Rob Galbraith database I mentioned upthread.  Again, it’s not been updated since 2008, but the general trends are probably consistent with the current market of vendors we have to choose from.

One final note on data transfer rates…card technologies have changed substantially in recent years, enough that there are now cards referred to as UDMA cards.  While the current generations of cameras from both Canon and Nikon support this mode of reading and writing data to media cards, older cards may not and will read the card at the slower rate. So, if you have an older camera, you may want to check for UDMA compatibility before getting a newer UDMA style card.

 Conclusion

So, what’s the takeaway from all this?  Hopefully three things:

1.  Transfer Speeds are not just a function of your media card, fps rates and buffer rates in cameras are factors too.

2.  Paying more for a faster media card might not be needed if you are not shooting video.

3.  If you are shooting video, or need the extra oompfh of speedy cards, make sure you are using the right speed class, and with the best camera you can.  As the old adage says: it’s a poor craftsman that blames his tools…

Happy shooting and we’ll see you tomorrow to wrap our discussion of Media Cards with a look at the various vendors!

And for the more detail-oriented, here’s the extended version…

Just one of the many considerations here is how you are saving your images.  There are also many facets in the “how you save your images” too.  For instance, RAW as a file format will always have more data in it than its more lightweight sRaw counterpart. Even further, jpg does a certain degree of compression in camera to help save on file storage space, so it will also decrease your file size usage.

2.  Quantity of Light

Another consideration to factor in is whether you are shooting in low light or bright light.  With digital photography, the more light you have in a scene, the more data there is to the image.  Conversely, darker images will have less data and take up less storage space on both your media card and your computer. Take, for example, this series of images I took of “Dino” outside on Sunday.  The exposure is set to under-exposed by 2 stops, neutral exposure, and over-exposure by two stops, as defined by my shutter speed.  The amount of storage space that was consumed on both the media card and my computer is indicated beneath each image.

3.  Varying degrees of color

The amount and types of color can also factor into how much storage space an image takes up.  I’ve actually addressed the issue of color in these exact terms before, so for a more thorough explanation of that, check out this article here.  Here, the summary is really the only relevant part, where green encompasses the largest amount of data, blue comes in second, and red encompasses the least.  Other color hues will fall somewhere between these three primary colors, so storage space will be a function of colors in your images as well.

4.  Bit Depth

Another factor that will enter into play (mostly in post production though) is that of bit depth, which is basically how you are saving your file out from processing.  Most cameras will capture in 16 bit depth, and will be imported in Photoshop or Lightroom at their native bit depth, unless you manually change it from 18 bit to 8 bit (which a lot of people do when using the full version of Photoshop, because that enables tools that are not available in 16 bit mode).  You can also output to24 bit or 32 bit mode, but these are mostly used for offset printing (think CMYK) and HDR imaging, which while popular does not speak to standard storage space for images captured natively in camera.  So, the bit depth is really beyond the scope here, but if you’d like to learn more about various bit depths and their usage, feel free to get started at the Wikipedia article here.

5.  Megapixel Count (Resolution)

The final element to consider in how much storage space an image will take up on either a card or a computer is the megapixel count.  Now, unfortunately there is no direct correlation from megapixel to megabyte as one is defined by the resolution of the image and the other is defined by a byte in computer terms.  While the former is mealleable depending on sensor type (CMOS vs CCD vs Foveon, etc.), the latter is pretty well delimited as a byte is a single unit of data.  So

Having said all of the above – raw versus jpg, light versus dark, one color versus another, bit depth, and megapixel count…there are some general rules of thumb we can draw based on significant research that has been done in this area (and by significant, I mean me hitting Google, Wikipedia, and various communities, asking if anyone knows of any authoritative resources I could check out).  The upshot is that images will largely be a function of their megapixel count.  Now, because of the variances in the other factors here, there is no hard and fast rule that is set in stone for image file size relative to MP count, but on a very rough scale, each megapixel of data will typically contain about a megabyte of data.  So the conversion is almost a 1:1 ratio.  Keep in mind of course that this is very rough, because I have seen with my 10MP camera that I have raw file sizes in excess of 17 MB!  It’s always better to work within an expected range, rather than using hard and fast rules anyway, so for that reason, here’s a chart:

Keep in mind that these formulas are very generic in nature as the methodology is not completely scientific, but can help you determine the expected capacity of your media cards for photos!

So, the natural extension of this takes us back to the original question:  How many images you can store on a media card given a certain pixel count?  Extrapolating things out is just a simple matter of math and Excel!

Coming up next, another factor to consider in your media cards:  speed transfers!  (See the theme forming for the week?)  Until then, keep on shooting!

So, in the interests of not hitting the email subscription base with a lot all at once, I’ve pulled the remaining posts and will have them go live next Monday (possibly over the weekend as well), to ensure the gear reviews get their fair share of “air time”.  I know some will be very interested in reading about the Sigma 85mm f1.4 I’ve had on loan for a few months here now (being returned to Sigma on Monday).

In any case, thanks for all your patience as I sort out these snafus and hopefully return to a regular blogging schedule come Monday!  Have a great weekend all!

Over the weekend I had the distinct pleasure of joining my colleague and good friend Kerry Garrison (who you probably know from Camera Dojo) out “in the wild” as we traveled to the Breezy Point Resort north of Brainerd MN (about three hours west and north if the twin cities) and spoke at their Northern Lights conference.  Through the coordination of our sponsor, Nations Photo Lab, and the conference hosts, MNNPA, we had a wonderful time.  Not only did the coordinators treat us like Rock Stars (we did give some autographs though), the attendees were quite engaging too.

The pre-conference sessions were set to start at 12, and our gig started at 5.  After a few of the logistical things were addressed that always come up with hosting conferences (they even had a live wedding going on one room next to us – what a great opportunity for a bride to get a wide range of photographers applying their trade), we got rolling.  A mere five minutes into our introduction, we paused to add even more tables and chairs to the room as more and more people started filing in.  For a regional conference to have a crowd this big during a pre-conference tech talk was quite surprising, but also very enjoyable.  So, what did we talk about?

The topic was none other than Lightroom 3!  We talked about how to navigate around, some of the benefits and tips and tricks of LR to soon realize that we are very fortunate to be in the position that we are.  It was humbling to realize that we really are on the cutting edge as so many people are using Lightroom 1, LR 2, or even earlier generations of Photoshop for their workflow.  Our discussion quickly was adapted to both demonstrate why and answer questions on what makes Lightroom 3 such a useful tool for both established and emerging photographers.

The questions raised were just wonderful ranging from very broad-ranging ones like “Why should wedding and portrait photographers care about upgrading their work flow?” to ones as detailed as “Can Lightroom manage PSD files?” and “How can I keyword photos during import?”  By the time our two hour segment was up we had barely covered the import process, a little bit on the adjustment brush, and the nuts and bolts of things like cropping, selective color, and black and white conversions.

Ours was the last segment for the day and we were then invited to the after party over in one of the adjoining houses.  Food snacks, drinks and such were all available and in abundance.  With the abundance of spirits, everyone was in great spirits themselves as we laughed and talked further with lots of people about photography stuff until the wee hours of the morning.  By 1am we were done though and needed to head back to our respective cities (myself to Denver and Kerry to Anaheim, CA).  So, during our road trip back to Minneapolis for the return flight, we decided to record this show for you.  Answers to all the questions above and more are here, as well as a few photo opp stops!  Thanks for taking the time to listen, hope you enjoy it and we’ll be back again soon with more photo goodness!

Catch up with Kerry:

• Blog
• Website
• Facebook
• Twitter

Follow me on:

• Facebook
• Twitter

Learn more about the Northern Lights Conference and MNPPA here:

• Northern Lights Photography Convention
• MNPPA

A while back I teased about a forthcoming lens review (nearly 3 months ago actually, in the Teaser Alert), and after several project shoots, the holidays, and scheduling delays, I am finally getting my act together to bring you the latest gear review…that of the Sigma 50-500mm.  As a word of caution, you should be forewarned that the Sigma line-up of lenses that I have reviewed has become quite extensive.  Right away this should tell you two things:

• Sigma has been quite generous with me in terms of making a variety of lenses available.  They likely are doing this for a number of reasons, but primarily because they know that I will give a fair, honest, and 9 times of out 10, a positive review of their equipment.
• I like Sigma lenses!  It should be no secret by now that I do like their lenses.  They are optically on par with what one would expect from lens manufacturers by todays standards.  Heck, sometimes I think the optical quality even exceeds that of the main brands out there (of course here I mean Canon and Nikon).  The price is almost always right on – sometimes the price tag is a little high for my taste, but the advantage that Sigma has is that they are what is considered a “third party lens”, and because of that designation, their pricing is a notch below comparable lenses made by either Canon or Nikon for equivalent glass.

So, when Sigma came calling (actually I called Sigma), with the 50-500, the game face was put on.  Right off the bat, here Sigma has been more than generous because I have now had this lens in my possession for nearly 3 months!  I’ve posted a few photos from this lens over the past three months, so you may see some repeated images here, but they serve the purpose of demonstrating the various settings that I have used to shoot and test this glass.  Having set the stage, let’s get started with the review.  In the past, I’ve talked about things in terms of Pros and Cons, listing first the things I like, then the things I was not as much a fan of.  While it has worked to a degree, I am trying to make things more uniform in the review section, so will start adhering to some more concise points and then indicating whether it is a pro or a con.  Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the

Sigma 50-500mm f4.5-6.3 Review

1.  Focal Range: The focal range is how lenses are most commonly identified, and this is the measure of how much “zoom” there is in the lens.  Here, the description says it all.  This lens ranges from a widest point of 50mm to an impressive “zoom” of 500mm.  On a crop sensor camera, that means you are looking at a range of 80 to 800mm!  By any standard, this is a pretty wide range, encompassing a difference of nearly 700mm in focal adjustments.  I am going to call this one a Pro.

2.  F-Stop Range: The f-stop range is the measure of the minimum (or maximum depending on your way of thinking) aperture the lens can handle at various lengths.  When dealing with a zoom lens, as you move further out, the elements have to compensate for the change in the length by increasing the size of the opening of the aperture, so you will see adjustments as the lens “zoom” increases.  The Sigma 50-500mm is dialed in to a minimum aperture opening of f4.5 to f6.3.  So, at the widest zoom of 50mm, the lowest aperture setting you can get is f4.5.  Likewise, if you zoom this all the way out to 500, the minimum aperture is f6.3.  So, don’t be misled by the numbers, shooting this lens at 500mm will not afford you the f4.5 that is capable at the widest setting any more than the f2.8 is available on a 70-200 at the longest zoom.  When you have zoom lenses, there is a compromise in aperture capabilities that must be met when zooming out, and such is the case here.  I did some experimenting at various focal lengths, and here are some apparent limits at different zooms:

Given the technology of aperture limitations in zooms, I would say that the Sigma is on par with what the expectations would be for this range. To build this lens for any lower aperture settings would make the lens both heavier and longer.  I don’t even want to think about what it would do to the price either!  It’s not the greatest in aperture abilities, but it’s no slouch either.  I’m going to have to thrown an “Even” flag on this.

3.  Noise: I brought in the noise consideration based on my first Sigma lens I ever purchased, the 70mm Macro (f2.8) which did not have HSM.  The inclusion of HSM in almost every lens since has been a Godsend.  This holds true for the 50-500mm as well.  It’s super quiet and has convinced me that I will never stray off the Hyper Sonic Motor (or USM on Canon glass, ever gain!  ‘Nuff said.  Pro

4.  Size/Weight: My last big lens I reviewed here was the 18-250.  It was a respectable weight, but this is by far the heaviest lens I’ve ever tested.  Weighing in at a shade upder 4.5 lbs (that’s 1970 grams for you Metric folks), it can cause some serious arm strain after extensive shooting.  I would recommend using either a monopod or a tripod for this lens whenever possible.  It also bears mentioning here that due to the weight of the lens, you want to support it in the provided collar.  Supporting the rig by the camera can result in some serious shear force, which can rip the lens right off the camera.  Other size considerations involve the length of the lens both fully closed and fully extended.  This will draw some eyes at either end…whether it be the short side (8.5″) or the long side (12″)!  Here’s a comparison shot with it next to several other lenses so you can get an idea of its relative size:

Another consideration to take into account about this size is the filter required.  For those interested in using the ND filters to protect front elements, you will need a 95mm filter to cover this – not a cheap thing to purchase by any means.  Ultimately the size/weight considerations really will depend on your personal ability to handle it effectively.  For me, most of the time it was not a factor, so I’ll acquiesce and call it a Pro.

5.  Build Quality: In line with expectations, the Sigma quality showed here.  Their now easily recognizable textured exterior exudes professionalism, and just feels good in your hands.  Given the weight of the lens, you don’t want to hold this gingerly, but at the same time, if the body took a slight bump from another lens in your bag, the “other lens” would likely bear the brunt of it.  No questions here.  It’s a Pro.

6.  OS/IS/VR: Due to the limited aperture range, and the weight, the presence of OS is invaluable.  Using the OS allows you to keep your aperture value low, allowing for bother faster manipulation and shorter shutter speeds, as well as some nice bokeh in the background when your distances are good.  What was extra nice about this is the ability to toggle between the vertical and horizontal planes to control vibration in different circumstances.  When I was on a monopod, I switched to OS 2 to help control vertical (or up and down) vibration.  When shooting handheld, I was on OS 1 most of the time, under the premise that my own face, body and camera holding helped to minimize the vertical and thus needed more help with horizontal.  When I was on a tripod, I turned it off per normal procedures for when using OS/IS/VR.  In my book, having versus not having OS/IS/VR is definitely a Pro.

7.  Cost: The average retail market for this lens is approximately $1500.  Given the focal range, the aperture range, and other considerations thus far, it seems to be pretty competitive.  The Canon lens with the longest zoom range is their 100-400 and that factors in at $1800.  Nikonians can salivate over their 80-400 for $1850.  Both price in over the Sigma lens, and it still gives an extra 110-150mm of variable range.  For my own personal budget, that’s a tougher call because while I would love to own this lens – I would have to sell something else to do so, and am not sure I want to dispose of anything else in my camera bag at the moment…the jury is out on this for me personally, but for those interested in purchasing any time soon:  Pro

8.  Image Quality: Image quality is always subjective to the viewer/shooter, so here I will just let everyone defer to their own tastes by sharing a few sample images taken over the last few months:

Kissing Squirrels

Chopper Series

Miscellany:

Other features that bear mentioning here include the locking mechanism and the focusing rings.  I thought about including the latter in the build quality, but decided to bring it in here for discussion.  First, the locking mechanism is a handy feature to have for keeping the lens locked in place to prevent lens creep.  The idea is a good one, but for this particular lens, it would not lock in the “zoomed” position, where I would have thought lens creep would be more of an impact, than in the “closed” position.  Having said that, from the lunar shots I did (as shown above), the fully extended lens did not experience much, if any, creep.  This could be because the lens was recently brought back from a service stop where knobs and buttons and toggles were all tightened and such.

This brings me to the focusing rings.  The rear focusing ring is the one used for fine tuning and the front ring is for zoom.  This was an adjustment for me as my other zoom lenses have these rings reversed (where the zoom is on the back ring and the focus is on the front ring).  it forced me to change my style of shooting a little, but since I was working off a lens-mounted setup most of the time rather than a camera-mounted setup, my shooting habits were already being adjusted anyway.  The last part is that the zoom ring did seem a bit tight to move.  Whether this is by design or because of the recent factory adjustments, I am not sure, but it was just a tad stiff to adjust.

Summary:

All in all, the Sigma 50-500mm is a great lens.  It stood up for the challenges of both wildlife and aerial photography, as well as lunar and even a portrait shot of the canine companion.  The compression it exhibits at the far end (which is characteristic of these long zooms) is to be expected, but I would probably not be using this for landscapes unless I was in a pinch and had no other lens with me.  Still, it could be done, depending on what kind of landscape you are trying to capture.  The zoom really had no noticable effect on image quality without going into some serious pixel peeping, and thus, meets or exceeds all criteria that I can think of.  I would definitely make a positive recommendation on this lens for either a wildlife or sports shooter where distance from subjects is often greater than 10-15 feet.  (The minimum focusing distance at 500mm is something like 6 feet!)

That does it for today – I hope you enjoyed the review and photo gallery from the Sigma 50-500.  Here’s the final results/scores I give the lens:

Have you shot with this lens?  Share your own thoughts in the comments or with me via email.  Likewise, if you have a lens you would be interested in having me review, feel free to drop me a line or share your requests through the comment area as well.  Special thanks to Sigma for giving me such an extended testing period to review the lens, and we’ll see you here again soon!  Happy shooting!

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

The G12 is a compelling camera.  The features I am liking are the LCD resolution, the f2.8 on the lens, and the manual controls over the exposure triangle (shutter, aperture and ISO).  It helps that I can also shoot in RAW which would fit my existing work flow.  The biggest cons for me are the proprietary battery, the MP count (I’d rather have 8 than 10 for this size sensor – makes for better noise handling in my opinion), and the price tag.  (Really?  $500 for a P&S Canon?  I can get an entry level SLR for that price…take it down $100 and you’d have a lot more buyers!)

The Powershot SX130 IS  is equally compelling.  With the larger 3″  LCD, acceptance of regular AA batteries, and manual controls, it’s tempting to go with this option.  The problem is that the Megapixel count is so high.  I wasn’t thrilled with the 10MP count above, so 12 here makes me very nervous.  After all, let’s face it that Canon’s handling of noise is not at the standard of the Nikonian crowd.  Here it’s also not the budget-buster that the G12 is either – a very enticing element to consider.

The Powershot SX 120 IS is no slouch either.  Saving a little more coin is always a good thing (it retails $20 cheaper), and is back down to 10MP for the sensor.  The problem here?  Saving $20 also compromises the ability to control things manually.  Frame rate is also noticeably slower too.  That’s a lot to lose to save a few pennies.  I likely will not go this route as it’s just too much being sacrificed for a minimal short term savings.

So, it’s really between the G12 and the PowerShot SX130 IS.  I think I am leaning toward the latter simply because I am not going to sacrifice as much in functionality.  Still have to check out some reviews and DXOMark ratings though.  A final answer should be forthcoming soon, but that is the upshot of where the Christmas Cash is gonna ching!  Of course, new gear is always coming out and Spring time is no exception.  That will lower the cost of entry on these current generations considerably, so I might hold off for a month – see what happens in the market to these three!

Some, of course, will ask why I didn’t consider the new SX30 or the A12000.  Truth be told, in Canon’s line-up, the A series is a notch below the SX series for a reason…it’s just as beefy!  As for the SX30, I read several reviews on it and the noise level at even ISO 400 seems high to what people were expecting.  I’m just not willing to throw money at a P&S for no reason other than “because it’s new”.

Let’s turn the perspective outward…anyone out there get any Yuletide Yen they’ll be using for new gear items?  What are you getting and why?

The Manfrotto 488RC2 Ballhead

As with all equipment, a lot of research and engineering goes into the design, and you really do get what you pay for if you invest your money wisely.  Here’ the 488RC2 was no exception.  I bought it new, and paid $130 for it.  Don’t let the sticker shock fool you – as there is a lot that goes into it.  Take a look at several of the components:

Quick Release Plate Receiver

Model Number Designation - 488RC2

360 Degree Markings

Pan/Lock Measurements

Locking Arm Open - Pin Up position

Mounting threads

As you can tell, I’ve taken shots here that show the full unit, the easily recognizable logo, the top of the quick release plate receiver, the 360 dial markings, the pan/lock directional arrows, the pin that snaps up to lock the arm open, the safety cotter pin that keeps it closed, as well as the design underneath that shows the wave pattern to ensure it grips tightly onto your legs.  There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that at 4130 retail, this is worth the investment.  But another part of the equation to be watchful for is warranty, service, and support.  I mentioned earlier that this unit has been in my gear bag for several years – the grand total is 5 years.  When you consider the R&D that has gone into this item, it is definitely structured well, and intended to keep in working form for a long time.  Given it’s heft, I also would have thought that it would still be under warranty coverage.  Such was not to be the case.

Check out the pin in photo number 8 – that is a spring-loaded pin and it actuates to both cock the locking mechanism open and closed.  This may not sound important, but if this spring-loaded pin were to say, pop out, the mechanism will no longer lock either open or closed – and your tripod quickly becomes useless:

Spring Loaded Pin

Now while I grant you that all the elements that went into this design are impressive, but of any component in this system, my thought was that if anything could be replaceable, and cost effectively, it would be the spring-loaded pin that goes in here.  After all, it’s just a spring, right?  Wrong.  Without that pin, the locking arm flops open and closed easily and it has no tension to keep it in either position.  The problem is that not only is this likely the most easy and cost effective item to replace, it’s also the most replaced!  When I first went to ask for a quote, I was informed they were out of stock, and it would be two weeks before they were in stock again.  This was a big deal, because without the ball head, the legs are useless.  And when one element goes wrong with the ballhead that renders the entire unit unusable, that is a problem.  I would have expected them to not be out of stock of these.  It’s the most commonly replaced item for a reason – it’s likely the only item that would or could fall out of the system from extensive use.  Cock that arm open and up flies the spring with all the tension behind it.  You’ve got to figure that at some point either the tension will be lost, or it will exert too much force and push the retaining pin straight out.

Sure enough, the latter happened to me while on a canoe trip back in August.  After trying to tighten things down with my own Allen wrench set, I realized it was something that had to be replaced by the folks at Manfrotto.  I wasn’t too concerned…after all, the entire unit was only $130 and this was easily the lightest component of the system.  A couple bucks, at most right?  Wrong again – $45!!!

That’s right, it was considered “out of warranty”, and the cost of the spring, the labor (5 minutes), and return shipping was $45!  (They return shipped it via UPS ground, at what you know were heavily discounted prices.)  So, $45 for what was in all likelihood a 50 cent part.  And the entire unit costs $130.  The one little spring was a full third of the entire unit price – and likely the cheapest component and quickest to replace.  Yet, it was still cheaper than buying an entirely new unit, so what was I to do?

This will give me a moment of pause moving forward though…the carbon fiber material these days is much more expensive, and there are more options available.  I have seen knives with lifetime warranties, so if I am going to shell out over $200 for something of this quality, I’d expect a warranty longer than 1 year.  With their stellar reputation in tripods, heads, and camera equipment, I was stunned that Manfrotto would “stick it” to people to this degree when it comes to service and support.

The ballhead is back though, and I am now back in business!  But let my experience be a warning to all others – be sure about your ballhead!

*****

On a lighter note – this being the first Friday of November, you can expect a newsletter to be coming out shortly.  I try to get things out about now, but time just got away from me, so if you sign up for the newsletter by Sunday, you should see it in your mailboxes on Monday!  It’ll be full of free promotional codes, discounted items, an extended article, and the Flickr photo favorites of October…with much much more!  All this is free for the premium subscribers, so make sure you register before Sunday to get the latest news from here at the blog!  Simply send in your email via the form on the sidebar, or at the Newsletter Subscription Page!

Have a great weekend everyone and we’ll see you back here next week for more photo goodness, including the next LDP podcast!  Happy shooting!

ETA:  The 488RC2 has officially been replaced with the 498RC2.  For the most part it appears to be the same, but probably with improvements in engineering and design:

• Sigma 8-16mm
• Sigma 4.5mm Circular Fisheye
• Sigma 50mm f1.4
• Sigma 10-20mm
• Sigma 18-250mm
• Sigma 70mm Macro

Having compiled quite the list of review lenses, I am happy to announce the latest addition to this review series (some day I hope to have reviewed every lens Sigma has! ) I give you the Sigma 70-200 f.28…

This lens is the comparable one to the Canon 70-200 f2.8, and while I’ve not had a chance to test the Canon equivalent, there are some optical similarities.  I won’t go so far as to compare it to my own Canon 70-200 f4.0 simply because there are enough differences that it would be an apples to oranges comparison.  So, here I’ll just share my own thoughts and shots on and from the lens for everyone to consider.  Here is everything from soup to nuts:

The (Alphabet) Soup

This is the 70-200 F2.8 EX DG OS HSM lens – quite a mouthful, but all of these features are important.  The EX signifies that this lens has benefitted from the now signature finish of Sigma lenses.  It’s smooth but rugged, and hard to really explain, but denotes quality and professionalism while being also understated – it means business.  I’ve raved about the finish that Sigma puts on their lenses and this one is no exception.  Top Notch!  The DG?  That means it’s optimized for Digital use.  To quote Sigma,

“These are large-aperture lenses with wide angles and short minimum focusing distances. With an abundance of peripheral illumination, they are ideal lenses for Digital SLR Cameras whilst retaining suitability for traditional 35mm SLRs.”

In other words, the f2.8 means the aperture is designed for the width and opening, optimizing the amount of light that comes in, and minimizing barrel distortion.  The end result of all this means you spend less time in post fixing things.  A definite plus in my book!

OS is the now easily recognizable label of optical stabilization.  These lenses have built in mechanisms that counter your movement to allow for shooting at slower shutter speeds.  Slower shutter speeds, wide open apertures all means you can shoot and get quality results in lower light!  I’ll go into more details on their OS features later though.

HSM refers to the Hyper Sonic Motor, which means nearly whisper quiet movement as the lens picks up on the AF points.  Less noise means less distraction.  This is good regardless of whether you are shooting portraits, wildlife, or street photography.  Remember, it’s not about the photographer, it’s about the photo, and the HSM is an added bonus to help achieve that end goal!

The Nuts

All the acronyms in the world won’t tell you a thing about lens performance though, and neither will my blathering about this or that, so let’s just get to the nuts.  I went out with the lens to take some test shots and basically get a feel for the optical quality throughout the lens.  I took some at short range (70mm), some in the middle (ranging from 120-150mm), and some at the long end (200mm).  Shot groups also were mixed between simple test shots (a street) to portraits, and landscapes to get an idea of the focal range.  Here’s said shots!

The 70mm shots

70mm Portrait

70mm Roadway

70mm Landscape

Dog Portrait @ 70mm

Mid-range Shots

Mid-Range Roadway

Mid-Range Landscape

Mid-Range Park

Long Range Shots

200mm Portrait

Long Range Landscape

Long Range Landscape (180mm)

Here, you can get an idea of both the optical quality and range of the optics as well as an idea of how it would perform in a variety of functions.  I should also note that I have done literally no post production work in these at all.  The only sharpening that was applied was on output sharpening from Lightroom, and that was set “For Screen” by default on all my images.  In other words, nothing has been tweaked.  Having said that, let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons of the optics overall.

Pros ~

I absolutely love the bokeh on this lens at long range.  It compresses subjects nicely for portraiture, and throws the background nicely out of focus with some great treatment due to the optics.  These shots were taken in afternoon light, and the sun was coming in and out of the scene – which could change the settings quickly.  We were shooting on a monopod, and with IS on so the minor changes in shutter speed (these were aperture priority shots) didn’t really affect us.  The f2.8 end came out nicely too, which was as expected though – that’s the whole reason for the f2.8  My excitement was primarily lent toward the bokeh at the long end which came out to about f4.5  Not too shabby!

I also was a huge fan of the OS – optical stabilization.  It had two settings…OS 1 for shooting handheld, which counters both vertical and horizontal axis movement, and if you are shooting on a monopod (which is common with heavier glass), you can switch to OS 2, which turns off the one axis (horizontal I think).  This allowed me to take some pretty decent shots at a hockey game a few weeks ago.  You may recall seeing a gallery of those shots here on the blog.  I was toggling between the OS1 and OS2 for that series so some shots did come out better than others – the ones with OS2 were the sharper in the set!

Another advantage here is that the collar for tripod or monopod mounting is included.  I had to shell out an additional $50 for my Canon when I bought the f4, so seeing it included here was a happy surprise.   I hate to go on and on here, but there was one other feature that bears mentioning and that is the smooth rotation I was getting from the lens as I worked it through the focal range.  Either this was brand new, or had just been serviced because it was about the smoothest glass I’d seen from Sigma yet…and given the laundry list up top, that’s saying something!

And finally, the last big notch in favor of it, is – of course – the price.  Coming it at $1700 this lens is certainly not cheap.  However the savings is still there as it offers a s$200 over the Canon equivalent which comes in at at $1900!  For the cost conscious (and who isn’t these days), that $200 can go toward many other accouterments in your shopping cart!  And from what I can tell, the image quality is pretty darn good.  (I got my prices from B&H Photo – the Sigma one is here and the Canon one is here)

Cons ~

This was much heavier and bigger than I anticipated.  It was longer than my own 70-200 from Canon.  Now I grant you my own is only an f4.0 and does not have the OS (or IS if you prefer – for the strict Canonistas out there).  But I was a little surprised.  I think that’s why my initial shots were a little oof – out of focus – because my arms just weren’t used to carrying the weight around.  Lesson learned though – when moving into the fast glass category, at least shoot with a monopod, arm strain is greatly reduced!

The other big con was battery drain.  All the time I could hear the OS kicking on and off as it would sense movement, even as I walked around.  This caused some noticeable drain on my battery and I found myself swapping out after about 3 hours of shooting.  Maybe this is typical of optically stabilized lenses and I am just not used to it, but the drain was something else that I had to take into account.  I did have a spare with me, so it wasn’t that big a deal – but I certainly could not have shot all day on only two batteries with this lens.

While the collar was included, I don’t believe the lens hood is.  Now the test unit I had did include a nice lens hood with the butterflies to avoid as much vignetting as possible, but that would likely add to the cost.  Based on prices seen on B&H though, that’s only in the neighborhood of $25 (Direct link to Sigma marketplace here).

The Decision:

I would loved to have held onto this lens a while longer, and truth be told, will probably end up buying it.  The Canon 70-200f4 may be working its last days in my bag, just because the faster glass and features are sure to see much more use from me.  Coming up tomorrow, the results of the October contest giveaway – and announcing the November giveaway…make sure you stop in for that!  Happy shooting and we’ll see you then!

Here’s what you need to to:

1.  Follow me over on Twitter (@CBJason), and follow the folks at Data Robotics (@Drobo), if you aren’t following already (current followers do not need to re-follow).

2.  Tweet the following message:

RT  Exclusive Canon Blogger sweepstakes giveaway! Win a #Drobo S from @CBJason and @Drobo Details here: http://bit.ly/dgAZYy

3.  Then, follow the link provided below to enter your information and be registered for the giveaway:

http://info.drobo.com/canonblogger

Thanks so much to the folks at Data Robotics for their generous donation.  The winner will be drawn this Friday, so make sure you act now – only 72 hours to get in on the action, while the getting is good! In addition to the big winner, Data Robotics will also be sending out an exclusive discount deal to all non-winners, so really, enter this sweepstakes!  If you need a super stable, redundant, scalable, and reliable file storage system – the Drobo is the way to go!  I’ve been using mine for 2 years and have never looked back!  This limited time offer goes from 12:01 Tuesday (Pacific Time) until 9am this Friday, so it’s a limited window – but for a $700 prize, worth the incentive to act quickly!

More tk, so keep on shootin’!

What was most glaring though was that the radio trigger didn’t report itself to the EXIF data.  I’d noticed this in the past from the Cactus triggers when I first purchased them.  It could be due to the economical nature of the cirtuitry (i.e. they weren’t very expensive).  Or it could be due to the very nature of the devices themselves.  I’m not sure as I’ve not had a chance yet to test the heftier devices like Radio Poppers, Cybersyncs, and of course, the mecca Pocketwizards!

Here’s the part where the reading audience is more than welcome to chime in!  Do you own any of the above devices?  If so, which ones?  And of course, do they report to the EXIF data in your photos?  Last, but not least – how regularly do they report?  Because one of the things that is very useful in reproducing images (the very mark of a professional) is looking at flash data from one shot so you can repeat those settings again if needed.  So, in this vein, I am not happy with the Cactus Infinity triggers.  Yes, I got what I paid for, and they work well enough for their purpose…but I feel I am starting to outgrow them even more.  Guess it’s time to pony up, eh?  Only question is – to what?

Already, some questions are coming in about what kind of lighting was used, what the lighting EXIF was, and several have also asked about the background – some things I had a feeling would come up, so thanks to all sending in email asking for more details…much more is coming!  I promise!

In the meantime, take a break (or a photo) and enjoy the weekend.  For those of us in the U.S., remember, Memorial Day isn’t just a day of baseball, hot dogs and beer – it’s also a day to remember the fallen heroes that died defending our country…

In honor of Memorial Day

• Canon EF 50mm f1.4 USM

I owned the “nifty fifty” for about two months a few years ago and sold it pretty quickly because I was not happy without the USM there…it was very noisy and slow to focus…slower than I would have expected for a Canon 50mm lens on a Canon body. For me, if I get a first party lens, it should be better, all the time.  The first generation was disappointing me so this second generation with USM has a certain appeal.  We’ll see…

• EF 100mm f2.8 Macro IS USM

Don’t get me wrong, I love my Sigma 70mm Macro (f2.8), but I’ve heard really great things about this lens, and the fact that it goes a full 30mm longer (48mm on a crop sensor), and has the IS that is so legendary, just makes me salivate a little more.

Since I am on the subject of Image Stabilization, what’s noticeably absent from their rebate listing is the 70-200f2.8 with IS.  They have the f4 with IS, but not the f2.8 – it’s probably one of the priciest lenses in their line-up without going into things like super zooms, and is also one of the most popular, so I am wondering why.  Of course it’s popularity could also be the reason – with the logic that people will buy it regardless and that the rebates are advertising to promote products that don’t see the sales rates other lenses do.

Other than those three lenses, not much else motivating me to buy right now.  What about you?  Do you have any lenses on the list that you want?  How much can you save?  Is it worth it?  What’s next on your lens lust list?  Sound off in the comments – I really like hearing what others are looking at!

I’d like to also let everyone know that the next podcast will be up soon too – some technical difficulties prevented it going live yesterday actually, so after mitigating those, I expect it to go live tomorrow at some point.  Thanks for the patience as I scale things and adjust to ensure that you are always getting top quality shows!  Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

Sigma 4.5mm f2.8 Circular Fisheye

As things start to settle down again, I’ve got a pile of reviews pending work, so this past weekend, while in bachelor status temporarily, I really knocked out a few projects, including getting caught up on some overdue reviews and blog writing.  Today, the first of these projects is the Sigma 4.5mm fisheye lens review.  This is a super cool lens, and has a lot of opportunities for creative exploration.  I took the typical test shots indoors to get a feel for where it’s strengths and weaknesses are, how it focuses, and then took to the streets.

Right off, I should qualify that this is a circular polarizer – so the photos themselves will be circular in nature with black surrounding the entire frame.  This is an expected and widely known behavior for circular fisheyes, but it did throw me at first when I saw it in the viewfinder, so just to kind of prepare you – the black surrounding elements are part of the composition – there’s just no two ways about it as that is the nature of the circular fisheye.  The other thing I should note is that I did shoot this on a crop sensor camera.  For most lenses this is not a problem, but as you go wider and wider, more barrel distortion will come into play on the edges, and here specifically, you can even begin to see the edge of the barrel depending on how you compose your scenes.

My photo assistant on this shoot was the venerable pet, Maggie.  She waited patiently as I took a few of the typical shots you expect to see, including some of the budding tulips:

She even waited as I did the typical portrait-style work that will come with this sort of experimentation:

As for the barrel distortion issue, take a look at these three samples as I tried doing a little exploration around a playground in the park with some bracketed exposures:

See the barrel?  The important thing to note here as that there are two key elements at play.  First, I was letting in more light, and the more light you let into the lens, the more visible the inside of that barrel will be on longer exposures.  If your subject is the night sky, that’s one thing, but here where there is a decent amount of contrast variation between the sky and the composition of the subject, it’s more evident.  The other factor at play here is that I happened to place the focusing point in camera on one that actually lined up with the edge of the barrel.  If I had chosen a different focal point, it could have easily been blurred out of focus and not been as easily noticed.

I do suspect that this would be less of an issue on a full frame sensor, but cannot confirm that.

On the note of focusing, this does drop all the way down to 2.8, so it’s pretty fast glass.  It’s also got a super close focusing distance at just a shade over 5 inches, which gives a unique opportunity to get center subjects in focus and throw the distortion into play with the background.  This gave me an opportunity to try some architectural shots as well as a few additional ones that I would not have been able to attain in a slower lens.  So, that’s a good thing!

It did have a little bit of trouble focusing at times, but I suspect it’s because the point was  the lens itself!  The HSM handled nicely though, and I would highly recommend Sigma for its HS-quality alone.  Comparing it both in terms of battery drain, noise quality, and quickness of focusing, the difference is quite marked.

Here’s just a few more shots to show you some of the creative approaches you can  take with a circular fisheye:

So, what’s the bottom line?  Well, it’s $1500 retail, and because of how this lens behaves, it serves a specific purpose.  If your projects meet that work flow, it’s a must have lens because I don’t know of another one that comes close to this wide with this level of IQ.  Many people don’t like fisheye lenses because their cost is relatively high compared to the creative use of it.  While this is a good point from a business perspective,  I think it’s an advantage because the nature of the lens forces you to become more aware of how scenes look and to pay more attention to your composition.  Using this lens with any regularity will make you more creative, you’ll get better shots, and in the long run, become a better photographer.  In my mind, that’s always a good thing!

You can find the Sigma lens at your favorite distributor.  Mine is B&H, so here’s a direct link to their product page there:  Sigma 4.5mm f2.8.  Thanks also go out to Sigma for the loaner lens – it was a lot of fun to review and I got some great images from it too now.  Since it’s not due back for another few weeks, I may play some more with her, so keep your eyes open for some more test shots either here or on my Flickr Page.  Speaking of Flickr pages, don’t forget the May contest is open for entries and you can win a copy of PTGui Pano Software!  (The Sigma 4.5 lens and a wide contest….too bad I can’t enter!   )

Happy shooting all, and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

P.S.  These were all pretty much raw from camera, and processed through Lightroom 3 Beta 2

1.  Download the script from the link above (I downloaded to my desktop on Windows XP)

2.  Copy the script from your desktop (or whatever download location you configured for your browser) to your Photoshop folder, as indicated in the screen shot.

3.  Open Photoshop (if it was already open, you should probably close PS and restart it)

4.  Open the picture you want to apply the script to (I started with the largest size desktop I wanted to configure it for, in this case 1600 x 1200.

5.  Navigate to the Presets option in Photoshop and open the script

6.  The interface lets you select certain information such as the month it will run for, when the week starts, etc.

7.  Special mention here to include certain holidays – if you have custom days (say birthdays, anniversaries, etc) to add, create a text file for reference and point the script to that txt file location.  If you don’t want certain days highlighted,you can leave this option un-checked and proceed with the script.

8.  It may take the script some time to run (it took me about 58-61 seconds to run it on my computer, but I was multitasking with other things at the time…).  When it’d done, you’ll get a stack of a lot of layers that looks like this, with the default layer selected of “Picture Mask”.  Note:  I’d also recommend checking the option to rasterize most text layers otherwise you’ll have up to 30 additional layers of text (one for each day of the month)! The layers underneath this are where all the really cool stuff is, and the other layers are dates and effects that you can change to suit your own tastes.

9.  Once you have tailored the layers to suit your needs, simply flatten, save as a jpg and configure your desktop to use that image!  Since I typically will save to multiple desktop dimensions, I start with the original and re-size to each output, from largest to smallest saving each as a jpg then letting the script use that to create the desktop calendar.

There you have it!  The nitty gritty details on how to create a really slick looking desktop calendar for you and your clients.  Simply print as pictures through your favorite venue if you like and watch the sales come in!

One final little news note that is time sensitive – DIY Photography has a very creative approach to contests and the prize package is worthy of a nod (don’t know how he/she/they managed to come up with this big bag of goodies!), so stop over here and throw your hats in the ring:  http://bit.ly/aRQa9l

See you back here tomorrow for the latest in photo goodness!  I’ll also bring up a couple tips on how to tweak the layers to your own ends, but feel free to begin exploring your own creative approaches!

Polarizing Filters

Polarizing filters can be a godsend – they can really bring out blues in a sky, or minimize reflections in windows, and can really help to improve the quality of your work.  At the same time, polarizers can also be very tricky to use.  On my recent trip to Arizona (I shot a weekend with Rich Charpentier of The Airstream Chronicles), there were many opportunities to bring out the gorgeous blue sky, and contrast it with the amazing colors in the orange rocks that the American Southwest is known for.

The problem with polarizers is that the blue that is brought out is not a consistent blue – it usually gets stronger as you move toward the light source.  So, when you go to stitch things together, the results can be less than satisfactory with evident banding and shifts on hue of the blue skies.  Take a look at the example below to see what I am talking about regarding the banding…

See how the sky has blues that aren’t consistent?  It’s because I did not rotate the filter to accommodate the shift in blues as I shot across the scene.

Another problem is kind of hinted at above – what if you have a sky where you want the blue to pop, but the foreground includes a water reflection that is an integral part of your composition?  The answer here is to expose both with, and without the polarizing effect, and then blend together the two shots later in post production.  Masking off parts of images is much easier to deal with than the polarizing effect in the sky, but it’s a pitfall of panorama photography to be aware of.

As it happened, later on that day I was capturing another scene where there was no sky, so it was a non-issue.  Here, the key is to remember to spin your filter so that the reflection does reveal itself, otherwise you will think you are doing something severely wrong when you can see the reflection with your eye, but not through the lens.  I probably spent a good five minutes trying to change the angle of view before I realized it was just a quick spin of the filter to reveal the reflection below me…

As, as you can see, there are benefits to polarizers and there are also downsides to consider as well.  When used correctly, they can really add to the character of an image.  For those looking at specific recommendations, here are the ones in my gear bag:

• Moose’s Warm Circular Polarizer (58mm)
• Tiffen Circular Polarizer (77mm)

But enough about my thoughts on polarizing filters – what about you?  Do you think they are legitimate tools to alter a scene?  What about reproducing the effect in post production?  Which ones do you use?  Do you have a favorite or do you prefer all photography “au naturale”?  Sound off in the comments or via email!

Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow for more photography goodness!

1. Megapixels – I really don’t make huge prints…16×20 is my usual upper limit, and if I need to go higher, post production tools can usually handle a notch or two higher.  So, for my purposes, I really wouldn’t want more than 15 MP.  Call me crazy, but I’d rather see larger pixels that blend nicer than smaller ones that produce more noise.
2. Video – Yeah, it’s a staple in the P&S category and slowly creeping into the SLR ranks, so I may as well add it in here.  But let’s not get all lame and only throw in low end video quality…and if you think I’ll settle for the HD-like caliber of 720p, you’d be mistaken.  No, make it the full HD 1080p!  It’s already arrived, so also being realistic!
3. Frame Rate – SLR’s ar ranging anywhere from 3 to as many as 18 fps.   I am not trying to capture a speeding bullet, nor am I a sports shooter for the NFL, but a frame rate on the order of 6-10 fps (raw) would be ideal.  Since I am only asking for a Megapixel count of roughly 15, it’s not like the sensor would be hard pressed, so again, very  realistic here, right?
4. HDMI support – The Canon 1D Mark IV has it, so it clearly will become a staple of at least the higher end model SLR’s if it isn’t already, so I’d better have it here.  Besides, the ability to directly display movies and photos directly on your HD TV would be super cool!
5. Internal wireless and Bluetooth – the EyeFi card is a neat technology, but really?  Think of the space a wireless card takes up these days and there is easily room inside an SLR body for that.  Let me push my jpgs from shoots directly to the web for sharing.  As for the Bluetooth, imagine being able to shoot and have your images pushed directly to a hard drive of 500GB sitting in your back pocket?  Awesome!

Forget the first five features?  Stop back here to give those a read and share your comments there.  Or, if you haven’t commented yet (or even if you have and there’s more you’d like to share) be sure to chime in with your own thoughts and feature requests for the ideal camera!  There’s more to come, but I promise, we’re almost done, so be sure to stop back some time soon for yet another 5 features in the DREAM CAMERA!  Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!  Any features you’ve thought of that I am still missing?  Care to share?  Don’t forget to sound off in the comments!

I’d also like to take a moment and thank those of you who have been perusing the archives of the blog.  Enough people have commented that the “49 Tips Cheat Sheet” I posted back in 2009 was missing that I decided to re-publish on request.  It’s available in the store tab here for a “Dollar Download”.  (Most attachments get deleted after being in the archives for 30 days, so here’s your chance to get a very handy guide for about 2 cents per tip!)

Last, but not least, a reminder that we’re starting to wrap up March as the halfway point has officially passed, so be sure to get your photos up in the Flickr contest thread for a chance to win a Cheetah Quickstand.  Details here.

To me, the idea screamed “blog post”!  So, I decided to go for it.  I went through every major SLR on the market today and cherry-picked my favorite features from each camera.  It took a while (there’s a lot out there), but I kept on plugging at it for a few days.  Finally, I’ve completed the list, and here’s my “perfect camera” wish list:

1. Full Frame Sensor – It seems the market is trending this way, and while the added zoom on a crop sensor can be nice, I’d love to see my 10-22 on a full frame body!
2. EF-S support – This is Canon-specific, but because of my 10-22 and 18-55, I would really love to get that super wide angle on a full frame without vignetting or fisheye distortion…I know, the impossible dream, but hey, it’s not like such a camera will ever really exist, so I may as well dream, right?
3. Low Light Performance – Think Nikon here – they’re beating the pants off pretty much everyone in the market with their low light sensitivity and handling.
4. ISO handling – the fact that you can shoot at ISO 102400 is pretty amazing, but the noise is crazy.  Sure, I’ll take the high ISO, but at least let me make decent prints from it.  This kind of ties into the low light performance, but since it’s a separate spec, why not…
5. Multi-card compatibility – Lately more cameras are supporting the CF and the SD format cards, but mine currently does not support the latter, so, it’s on my list!

That’s it?  Of course not, but do you really want me to list ALL the features I want to see in my dream camera in ONE SUPER LONG POST?  Of course not!  I wouldn’t want to read that either, no matter who wrote it!  So, I’m saving the other segments for another day soon (hint, hint, hint)!  I’m not even sure this is my “Top Five”, but it could be close.  I dunno, is it worth it doing a “top five” features list?  Would you?  Also consider this:  what is your dream camera?  What are the must have features for you?  How much would you pay to have them all under one hood?  I know it’d be a pretty penny, but think about how useful and how long it would last you…!  Sound off in the comments with your favorite features!

Don’t forget, the March Flickr Giveaway is underway where you can win a Cheetah Stand, so make sure you enter your favorite WILD pic today!

Enjoy!

Well, today, I am going to give a little nod to a Windows-only program, called Printkey.  Specifically titled PrintKey2000, and under specific note that this is a freeware program (meaning it is not supported – to use at your own risk.)  While I have never had problems with it, the mentality of “let the buyer beware” should always be a consideration when downloading applications, especially freeware.

Those in Apple-land know that there are keyboard shortcuts to do a screen capture of either your entire viewing area, or a specific window, and these can either be copied to the clipboard memory for inserting in an application like Photoshop, or saved outright to your desktop.  While in Windows you can always use the Printscreen and ALT+Printscreen to copy either a full screen or active window to your clipboard, the ability to save directly to your desktop does not exist natively.  Instead, you have to capture the screen to memory, paste into an image editor, and save out as a JPG if you want to use it.  What PrintKey does is fill that void of directly saving to the desktop.  This is especially handy if capturing things for posting in a blog, in creating documentation, and other useful learning resource outlets.

To use Printkey, simply download the free application from here, run the executable, and let the program start in your system tray.  The entire packaged zip file is half a megabyte, so the footprint is super for those that are space conscious.  Here’s a capture of the software itself in action (don’t ask me how I got it – that took a few minutes to figure out!  LOL):

While there are many features wrapped up in this handy little application, the ones I use most often are the Save, Rectangle, Print, and then the dialog screen at the bottom of the screen (click the image above to see a larger view).  These should be pretty straightforward to those who are familiar with the concepts, but here we go regardless:

• Save – saves the current capture to an image file…you can specify whatever format you prefer (jpg gif, etc.)
• Rectangle – gives you a + sign that you can drag and drop around a custom area for capturing only part of your desktop
• Print – sends the captured image to your printer…(hope that was explanatory enough)

The last one is the bottm details area…I am talking about this little section here:

It’s very handy because it will tell you the dimensions of the image, how large the file is in terms of storage space on your computer, and how much free memory is left out of the total memory.  While some many not need all this info, the geek in me likes to have this!

So, there you have it, Printkey2000 in action.  I feel that I should also mention another really good counterpart and that is the program, SnagIt from the folks over at TechSmith.  With that handy application, you can not only capture images on both Windows and Mac, but you can edit them on the fly, including inserting text, arrows to call out an area, and other fun stuff.  Alas, it’s not free though – 30 day trial is allowed before you gotta cough up the $50! (Which for me is not worth it for something like this.  I have some friends that use other applications too, especially for video screen captures on both Mac and Windows platforms which include names like IShowU, Camtasia, and much more.  Here though, was just a little scoop on a little known application for the Windows crowd out there.

Got your own favorite little unknown program?  Have you used PrintKey?  Like it, love it or hate it?  Sound off in the comments as new little handy utilities are always welcome.  Happy shooting all and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

One last thing all – don’t forget the Height themed contest for the month of February – get your photos in while the gettin’ is good!  Deadline is a week from Friday!

This plugin comes courtesy of Jeffrey Friedl, and one of the greatest features of it is the cost – absolutely free!  Well, that’s not exactly true, you do need to spend one cent via Paypal, but for a penny, check out what you can do:

I started off downloading the ZIP file (and it works for Windows or Mac) and expanding the archive.  Then I moved the plugin to the root of my Applications folder on the Mac (you can choose where ever you want to store plugins, you just have to tell Lightroom – and for me this is an easy place).  The icon for it looks like this:

Flickr Uploader Plugin Icon

Nothing too spectacular yet, and there’s a little bit of installation and customization needed.  Your needs may vary based on how you want to use the plugin, Flickr, and Lightroom, but the cool thing is that Jeffrey has put together a plugin for most online locales including Smugmug, Zenfolio, Facebook, Photobucket, and many more.  So, if you use another resource, it’s worth checking out.  I’ll continue here for the Flickr plugin and you can decide for yourself if it’s worth adding this tool to your workflow.

Next up, I went ahead and configured the plugin from inside of Lightroom to use my Flickr account.  Here’s what I did. To start, click on Export, just as if you are exporting to disk or some other resource

Open Export Dialog

One the export dialog box is open (and here’s the tricky part), look to the far right of the gray bar across the top that says “Export to Disk”.  You’ll see two little arrows which means there are menu options:

Files on Disk

If you click on those arrows, you’ll get a new dialog box (bet you didn’t know that was there – did you? ), and the Flickr option will show up.  Select the Flickr dialog one for our purposes here:

Flicker Exporter

Once you select the Flickr Exporter, you will get a new dialog box that will start the authentication process that Lightroom will use to log into Flickr.  If you have multiple Flickr accounts, or specific authentication methods you prefer, these steps may change a little based on your needs.  But here, I am doing things the most straightforward way:

Flickr Authentication

Next up, if you are logged into Flickr already, the plugin will open a page that will grant access to the plugin.  So, it helps if you are already logged into your Flickr account on the internet.  So, you’ll get a dialog box that looks something like this from the plugin to that effect:

Warning Notice from Plugin

On clicking the OK button, it will take you to the grant access page, and you’ll get another dialog box that grants the plugin access to post photos to your Flickr account (which, after all, is the goal, right?).  The one notable difference you will see in yours is that my face won’t be staring back at you like here.  That is the avatar for my Flickr account, so your screen should show your avatar – if it shows something different, then you are in the wrong account (but I guess that goes without saying)!

Granting Access from Flickr Side

A second confirmation screen from Flickr will also let you know that this is a 3rd party application, and just acts as a security measure to make sure you are aware of what that means.  Click the button that says “OK, I’ll authorize it”, as shown below.  Again, while it goes without saying at this point, your dialog will look a little different different.  If it doesn’t and you see my avatar in your Flickr account, I am gonna be calling soon!

Authorization

Finally, you will get a confirmation screen on Flickr, noting what you’ve done (they make it pretty clear what you’ve done, and how to delete it if needed on the Flickr side):

Flickr Confirmation

On return to the Lightroom interface, you’ll get a confirmation screen there as well – just click it to continue:

Lightroom Confirmation

On granting access, you’ll get an authorization code, which for obvious reasons I am not going to post here, but make a note of that code and enter it back when you return to Lightroom.  On completing that you will be presented with the Flickr Uploader Dialog.  Here I am going to show you a few key ones that you have to scroll down to be aware of in making your uploading preferences.

This first shot (above) shows the top part of the dialog, and shows how you are authenticating on Flickr.  Now, use the scroll bar on the right side to move down through the options.  First stop, the Photo Set.  On authenticating, the plugin will pull your complete list of photo sets from Flickr.  If you don’t have any photo sets built, then none will be here.  Since I do have photo sets, it will default to the first one alphabetically.  You can change the sort order, and specify what photo set (if any) you want the uploaded image to be added to, as desired.  For this example, I did not add the photo to an existing set, or create a new one.

Photo Set Choice

Pretty straightforward, but let’s keep scrolling through a few more key items you will want to think about utilizing or disabling depending on your work flow.  The next one I think warrants mentioning here is the groups.  One of the ways you can increase the visibility of your photos on Flickr is by participating in groups.  More people look at them, you’ll get more feedback, and sharing our photos with others is the goal anyway, so go ahead and add the appropriate groups here.  I selected the group “CanonBlogger” for obvious reasons!

Publishing to a Group

Only a few other options that I think are useful from this plugin, so we’re almost done.  Next up, is another social networking one that I tend to use fairly regularly – Twitter:

Twitter posting

Last but not least are the meta tagging options you have available to you from the plugin interface.  The options are just to diverse to go into detail here, and I prefer to tag photos on Flickr differently than in Lightroom, so I leave these blank, but in the interests of full disclosure, here are some of the tagging and naming options in the plugin dialog:

Tagging Photos

If you think about it, for a penny, this is a pretty good deal (I went ahead and made a donation, which I would also encourage you to do as well – Jeffrey has clearly put a lot of time into developing these plugins, and he needs to eat, just like the rest of us).  So, there you have it – the process of finding, downloading, installing, configuring and using the Lightroom Flickr uploader.  As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, there are other uploaders available as well, and I am going to probably go get the one for Smugmug as I have an account there too.  It just makes the sharing of your photos that much easier.  (Who knows, the Facebook one may also make its way into my utility belt at some point once I get more comfortable with it…)

If you have questions or problems with the installation or the uploader itself, Jeffrey has a good FAQ page here that should answer most questions for you.  If not, I am sure he has an email address available somewhere for specific questions not addressed online.  For my work, I think this plugin totally rocks!  It’s going to become a staple in my work flow, and if you are into social media at all, I would highly recommend it for those purposes as well.

In talking about all of this, it bears mentioning that some of us are not fans of Flickr, Twitter, or Facebook, and while I can understand the hesitation of some, it’s really a matter of personal preference, and maximizing the time you spend on your computer.  if these outlets aren’t your cup of tea, that is totally fine.  But if you have the Flickr plugin – it is that much easier for you to participate in the Monthly Giveaways here at Canon Blogger/Learning Digital Photography!

With those thoughts, I’ll leave well enough alone as this post has gone on long enough for one day.  Happy shooting (and uploading) and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow.

Being the eternal geek, I jumped right in (figured the water was warm), and suggested that it shouldn’t matter because they are using a card reader…right?  As it turns out, they were not, instead tethering the camera to the computer to transfer files.  While this method is needed for instant viewing (see the tethering via Lightroom post using Canon here and Nikon here), it’s not recommended for transferring of your photos and video off a card that is in your camera.  I tried to find a post on this to point the person to and realized that, son-of-a-gun, I had never really discussed this in detail.  So… here we go!

There are a number of reasons why it is a good idea to use a card reader and not connect your camera to your computer for transferring images and video:

1. Data loss/corruption – The chances for losing data is so much higher because you are relying on the computer detecting the camera, and the proprietary interface between that and the computer (with drivers and software and all that jazz).
2. Battery drain – Unless you have an AC adapter, using your camera to transfer pictures to your computer can be a serious drain on batteries…even with rechargeable batteries.  And, if you are transferring images to your computer and your camera batteries happen to die, guess what can happen…(see #1 above)!
3. Software installation – When connecting your camera to your computer, often times you will need to install software in order for the computer to recognize the camera.  Easy enough sure, but do you really want to bog down your computer with unnecessary software?  What if that software is written to preload whenever the computer turns on?  Now computer performance is decreased, you have less space for other things.  Sure, hard drives are increasing in size and decreasing in cost all the time, but consider whether you will ever use the software for anything other than image transfer.  If yes, then absolutely, use it.  But if not – why bother?  From an IT perspective, if there is a way to do something without installing software, that is always preferred to adding another layer because adding that layer adds a breaking point (or point of failure), and it’s just another item that needs maintenance and updates.  After all, let’s face it.  Software is not as cleanly written as it used to be…
4. Transfer speeds – Seriously.  Many don’t realize it, but data transfers happen a lot faster when you don’t have a camera sitting between you and the computer.  What may taken upwards of 3-5 minutes with a camera acting as the medium can often take less than 2 minutes with a straight connection to the media card.

So, there you have it, 4 reasons to use a card reader!  Need any more?  Got any of your own?  Think I’m wrong?  Please feel free to contribute your own experiences and share your own thoughts in the comments.  Until tomorrow, happy shooting all!

1. Battery Caddy – this is probably my most appreciated item.  Ranging in price from $5 to $14, I absolutely love mine and have been meaning to get more.  (Thanks go out to Scott over at Weekly Photo Tips who sent me mine as a prize for a photo contest last year – I literally love this item!)
2. Eneloop Batteries – Since you have a battery caddy now, you may as well stock it with batteries.  Yeah yeah, I know, batteries for flashes are so mundane, but get yourself a set of Eneloops and you may re-think this.  These guys are not only super powerful but they retain their charge much longer than traditional rechargeables.  Plus, they really do seem to have the staying power of traditional alkalines.  A set of 4 of these can be had from any store, whether it’s B&H, Radioshack, or Newegg.  The link above takes you to Sanyo’s page (the folks who make them), and it includes a whole laundry list, which includes Costco!
3. Stickey Filters – Okay, I am cheating here for two reasons.  First, because I discovered these from another list (Scott Kelby’s Gonzo Gear Guide), and second, because the price is actually $49.95.  But here’s how I justify it – you get two sets of these stickey filters, so it’s really like they are $25 each.  Lame?  Kinda, but these are so cool, you’re gonna want a set anyway.  These guys are basically gels that have a sticky side that slaps to the front of your flash and act as a filter.  Boom.  Done.  Stickey Filters look to be so cool!  No more cutting and using Velcro on your flash, no more buying sheets of gels and finding a place to store them.  Stickey Filters seem to be the answer to what the gellin’ photog needs in their gear bag.  Plus, they offer a lifetime replacement!  That’s impressive…
4. Camera Bubble Level – These little doohickeys are awesome.  My bubble level on my tripod cracked about two years ago and the liquid drained out, rendering it useless.  I’ve been meaning to replace it until someone (I forget who) pointed these guys out to me.  It slides in your hot shoe mount too, so you know the camera is level.  Amazon is the linked place, but these can be found many places for $10 or less!
5. Remote cable release – Okay, okay, I also stole this from Scott Kelby’s list, but truth be told, I also love mine (got it at the local camera store for like $39, but that was only because I didn’t want to wait the week for Amazon to ship me one.  YOu can get them for any brand, but I have to go with Canon given the blog name.  It’s linked above, and can be had for $24.95 at the time of this post.
6. Joby Gorillapod – I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve found myself out and about with my P&S only to wish I had my tripod with me for some stability just for a few seconds.  I’d heard about the Gorilla pod but never really thought about it for my P&S because I didn’t have a small portable until fairly recently.  When my brother showed up for the holidays with the Gorilla Pod and his P&S, not only was he more portable, but also more stable.  (Don’t you hate it when your brother beats you at your own hobby!)  I had to get one, and you should too!  For the P&S original, it’s $21.95!
7. Earbud Microphone set – When I first got my iPod Touch, it was disappointing to learn that the included headphones did not include a microphone.  The tech in me should have known, but I rushed back out to get the Apple-compatible headset.  When I didn’t have it with me one day, I tried the set for my Blackberry and sure enough, it worked just fine.  (Why wouldn’t it, it’s the same technology in headsets – all with the same adapter.)  Now that my “Apple-certified” headset has developed a short, the replacement set will be the one from Plantronics for $5 from Amazon.  Shoulda gone there first!  For those out there without iPhones, Touches, or Blackberries – most phones these days come with a headset plug, and the mini-RCA should work in all of them.  If not, you’re only out $5.  Small price to pay for the ease with which these operate (and I think they sound better too!)
8. Microfiber Cloths – I know, it sounds crazy, but these do get dirty themselves and you must throw them out.  No biggie though when a10-pack costs a mere $17.99 you can’t go wrong!  You can get different sized cloths from camera vendors like B&H, and I think even Wal-Mart Visioncare has a 3-pack for like $10 bucks, but I like the ones from Simply Good Stuff (linked) simply because the price is right, they are designed for lenses, and it’s just a cool name for a website.
9. Gaffers Tape – anyone who’s been around photography for any amount of time has heard of gaffers tape.  It’s low tack so the sticky stuff won’t adhere to your gear, but man can it save your $%^& in a pinch.  For a mere $5 you can get 12 yards of the stuff from B&H, so the question isn’t “Why?”, it’s “Why not?”
10. Flickr Pro – there’s so much more you can do with a Flickr Pro account over the standard free account.  At only $24.95, it meets the criteria, and the photog will fully enjoy the added features, including statistics, unlimited uploads, and so much more.  Plus, you can give it to them online, so it saves all that added expense of tape and wrapping paper!

There you have it, 1o things under $25 (well, 9 since I kinda cheated on one).  Have any ideas of your own?  Products or items you prefer?  Something blatant I missed?  I’m sure there are lots of other ideas out there, so sound off in the comments and let others know about your “gotta have it gadgets”.!  Just in time for the holidays too!  Happy shooting all, have a great weekend, and we’ll see you back here on Monday!

Western Digital Passport Drive

Well, not only is the second hard drive a great way to increase the capacity of your laptop, but it also saved my bacon this weekend, because when the library was corrupted (I use the method of not importing a copy to my library and save the library on the main OS drive), it was simply a matter of creating a new library when opening iPhoto, changing the option in Preferences to not copy images in, and then sitting back and waiting the hour or so for the import to complete.

What I like about this Passport Drive though is the fact that I have dedicated storage for my photos, music, and documents independent of the OS drive.  I also can easily remove it from the laptop if needed.  Lastly, I also like it because I can expand this fairly easily.  To do that, I would just get another drive, plug it into another USB port, and simply drag-and-drop to copy to the new location.  The old primary can now be easily disconnected, become a back-up, and the new one becomes the primary.  Another great feature of these is that you can easily copy data to and from it, and with surprising ease.  I cannot verify this, but suspect that these Passport drives are solid state drives because they don’t get very hot, and it’s just been so awesome for letting my photos and music libraries expand without me thinking much about them.

The downside?  They are a little pricier than their larger drive equivalents.  With the ever-decreasing cost of storage these days though, it’s well worth the additional 20 cents per gigabyte in my opinion!  (My 320 GB was like $80 – it goes for $71 now at B&H.)  You can get these pretty much anywhere from your local Wal-Mart, to Best Buy, Newegg, B&H, and other retailers/e-tailers.

Oh, and there’s a moral to this story too:  always, always, always…back up your data! For more reviews and other information on this drive, feel free to find your favorite review resource online.  I like the ones over at TestFreaks myself (although this is a rating of the 500Gb unit), but as with any review resource, your mileage may vary.

In other blog notes of interest:

• The Flickr contest is in its final two weeks starting today – it’s a prize package of three pretty sweet items, so be sure to get your entry(ies) in soon.  At stake is a $25 gift card to B&H, the 11th Season of Photoshop User TV, and a book from Photographer/Author, and Friend-of-the-Blog, Matthew Bamberg.  The Flickr thread is linked up at the top of the blog, but here’s a quick link for easy reference.
• Speaking of the links at the top of the blog – you may notice that more content is being added.  The Navigation Bar is being reorganized to include more “About” pages, Archives, My Gear, and much more.  Feel free to peruse those at your leisure.  More content is coming soon too, so don’t just be checking things out in your RSS feeds – lots of content is available directly from the blog!
• Congrats to Mary Angelini as well for her witty comment from the Scott Kelby book giveaway  -  stop by her site for a good set of photo galleries to peruse too (and to congratulate her).

That’s it for today…happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow.

Kevin Mullins

by Kevin Mullins

Firstly, I’d like to thanks Jason, not only for offering me a “spot” here today, but also generally, for this great blog and the Learning Digital Photography podcast – they are both great resources and Jason, I applaud you for keeping them both going so strong.

I’m a Welsh wedding photographer based in North Wiltshire, England.  My style is documentary with a splash of bridal portraiture thrown in for good measure.  My perfect wedding day is 90% documentary photography, and 10% fashion/fine art bridal photography.

My influences are the likes of Jeff Ascough, David Murray & Crash Taylor in the UK, Jerry Ghionis and Yervant in Australia and the likes of Joe Buisink in the United States.  An eclectic and very different mix of absolutely brilliant wedding photographers that I would love to bring my images anywhere near the quality of there output.

I read a lot of wedding photography blog posts and spend a large amount of my time visiting the sites of these photographers who influence me the most – I end up deconstructing a lot of the images by looking at the Exif data if its available.  I always find myself wondering what their gear bag looks like on a standard wedding day.

So, when Jason told me to go for it on this post, I thought, well, why not open my gear bag up and give a small review/overview of what’s in my camera bag.  I know that gear does not “maketh the photo”, and the great photographers out there would make awesome photographs with an iPhone.  Obviously there are fantastic wedding photographers out there who don’t use anywhere near as much equipment as me, and you can, definitely, shoot a wedding with a lot less gear – but this, simply, is my selection – just don’t tell my wife about the 85mm though

I’ve included a shot from recent weddings for each of the lenses.

Canon 5D Mk II – a simply wonderful camera.  I’ve had one of them now since early December last year and they really are a joy to use.  The low light capabilities are just stunning and I’ll have no problem shooting at an ISO of 3200 or above  in the reception if need be.  I’m a big fan of the full frame sensor and the large mega pixel count as I like  to print some of my images out at 5 foot ratios for clients.  Conversely, the file size is an issue and, though storage is cheap these days, I find myself re-analysing my storage workflow all too often.

Canon 35mm f/1.4 L – definitely my favourite lens for the bridal preparation and dance floor shots.  I use it for any formal group shots that the couple want also.  It’s also a great portrait lens – you need to get relatively close, but the image quality is just stunning.  Its fast, meaning I can shoot out at 1.4 on those dark dance floors and still get the shutter speeds I need (well, most of the time!).

35mm f/1.4 ISO 500 1/30 Sec Av Mode

Canon 85 mm f/1.2 L – my portrait lens.  I don’t always take this to weddings as its heavy, expensive and actually really slow at AF.  It is, though, the perfect lens for studio or static portrait shots.  In manual focus, it a lens that is probably un-paralleled, but for me, on a wedding shoot, manual focus is just not always an option.

Kevin Mullins Photography

85mm f/1.6 ISO 3200 1/80th Sec Av Mode

Canon 70-200 f/2.8 IS L – A lot of wedding photographers love this lens, and a lot of wedding photographers hate this lens.  Its big, its white, its heavy and, with the lens hood on, it makes you look like the Paparazzi.  However, I love this lens for some of the portrait shooting and also for the speeches.  It gives you the option to stay away from the action for the most part but still get the quality shots that the clients require.  I try not to frighten small children with it though and I once had a pigeon land on it while I was lining up a shot.

Kevin Mullins Photography

75mm f/2.8 ISO  800 1/60th Sec Av Mode

Sigma 105 f/2.8 Macro – This lens is actually a very able portrait lens, but its macro capabilities are stunning.  I use this for close ups of the rings and any other details that require finer details.

Kevin Mullins Photography

105mm f/2.8 ISO 100 1/125th Sec Av Mode

Canon 16-35 f/2.8 L II  – A marvellous wide angle lens.  I don’t use it so much because of the superior quality of the 35mm prime.  However, when I need those really wide angles then the lens is perfect.  At 16-19mm range you can get some superb wide angles .

Kevin Mullins Photography

16mm f/2.8 ISO 640 1/6th Sec Av Mode

http://www.kevinmullinsphotography.co.uk/

http://blog.kevinmullinsphotography.co.uk

The 28-135mm Review

The luck of this review is due to the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk.  I had been hearing good things about this lens for a while, and finally bit the bullet and rented it from a local camera store to try it out.  I tried to keep in mind that the gear is a little more worn than usual, but did see some pros and cons on the lens, so let’s get started:

The 28-135 is an excellent walk-around lens.  The focal range is perfect for going fairly wide and also zooming in to a certain degree.  It offers some of the best features of both worlds, and does so at a pretty reasonable price considering what it has to offer:

Pros

1. Focal Range:  As mentioned it has a nice range for use while moving from one environment to another.  Not quite a wide angle, and also not a zoom, but a nice combination of the both.
2. Weight:  For an IS lens, this is amazingly light.  I was expecting it to be a lot heavier, so a definite positive (and happy surprise here).
3. Image Quality:  I couldn’t believe how wide the sweet spot of this was.  I got crystal clear tack sharp shots from probably 30mm to 130mm.  To get that kind of range in a “sweet spot” is significantly impressive
4. Price:  The price for this lens is a shade under $400 from B&H and for an IS lens, that’s pretty darn good – about as cheap as you can get given the feature.

Cons

1. Battery drain:  Although it’s related to the positive of Image Stabilization, the battery did seem to go rather quickly.
2. Weight:  I know, it was listed as a pro, but I am also listing it as a negative, because with many of the newer SLR’s the weight doesn’t balance as well as it might have on the 20D or even the 350D.  Don’t get me wrong, I like light, but I also like balanced, and here I think the weight of the dated design has an impact on balance.

There’s a lot more I could go into here, but on the whole, the lens is a great one, and with the pros definitely outweighing the cons, it’s definitely one to consider adding to your gear bag – if you like to photo walk!  If you’d like to see samples of the 28-135 in action, feel free to check out this montage of shots I compiled from the Scott Kelby Photowalk:

The OnOne Giveaway Finalists!

I know, the moment you’ve all been waiting for – the finalists.  I am pushing forward here partly because my counterpart at OnOne, Mike Wong, has been on vacation, and is getting back soon, and secondly, because I understand OnOne is having an excellent promo sale going on right now for the suite, so I’d like to get this wrapped up so that those who have been waiting to hear can still take advantage of the opportunity to save a little $$$!  Lastly, also because the anticipation over the OnOne giveaway is a primary focus for many listeners, and other contests are both underway and coming up!  So, without further ado, here are the finalists I’ve chosen.

OnOne Software Giveaway Finalists

The quality of entries made it super hard to pick, because there were so many that were deserving of moving forward into the finals – but decisions had to be made.  Thanks to all for entering, and best of luck to the finalists – Mike and I will talk this week and hopefully have someone get a great email by Friday with the news that they are the proud winner of the OnOne Software Plugin Suite Giveaway!

Blog Notes

A couple updates are coming soon to the blog, and a couple have already been made.  Some things you may or may not have noticed that have already taken place:

The links in the sidebar have been broken out into categories from one another so you can find things easier

A paypal link has been added to the sidebar – I had mentioned this once before, and try not to push it, but donations are always welcome to help offset the costs of running this blog (bandwidth, time, and storage on my hosting provider)

The picture has been updated in the header.  I try to change this out periodically, and in the next incarnation that will randomize on each visit through an entire gallery of photos, but a new one is in place, so if you are picking up the content from a feeder – stop on over to see the changes!

Last but not least, thanks to Terry Reinert, I’ve added a plugin for fellow bloggers – when you post a comment here, your last post from your own blog is happily linked to your comment!  Enjoy!

So, that’s it for today?  Like the review and the changes?  How about those OnOne finalists?  Kudos to everyone who submitted images too.  Don’t forget to jump into the latest and greatest giveaway – the winner will get Wacom Bamboo Fun valued at $100!  Be sure to throw your best “Fun” themed images into the contest thread here:  Giveaway Thread

Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!

Grab the feed