CalevPhoto

Upcoming purchases and debates

Recently I have been debating quite a bit two questions.

1) What will I get next?

2) What do I eventually want to get?  In the end there should be some limit to what I buy?

In terms of what to buy next, I have had several thoughts given my budget.  I have already decided to pickup the Canon TS-E 17mm once our kitchen remodel is finished.  The question is what else to purchase.

Option 1

Canon 200mm F4 Hybrid IS Macro – This is only a rumor of course.  However given Canon’s press release about a hybrid IS coming out in a lens before the end of the year this is a very possible reality.

I am very torn about this one.  Recently I sold my Canon 180mm macro because I just could not get dependable results out of it.  I do not know what it truly was, but while I can get consistent results from the MP-E 65, I found that the sharpness on the 180L was lacking.  I suspect this new macro would not have this issue.

Canon 85mm 1.2L

This is one incredible lens, but my main worry is how much I will use it.  I would mainly use it for shots of my kids.  It would certainly allow me to sell my Canon 50mm 1.4 that I hardly ever use.

Canon TS-E 24 II

At first it seemed silly to buy this together with the TS-E 17mm.  However, they make an incredible combo.  While the TS-E 17mm has the width, the TS-E 24mm has the advantage that it accepts filters and has more shift.  For real estate, the TS-E 17mm is the best for interiors, while the TS-E 24mm is better suited to exteriors.

Buy nothing and save for the 600mm

This is my dream lens, but it doesn’t seem very logical to put everything into this lens right now.  Besides, at the end of next year they’ll probably announce a replacement.

And the answer is…

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Canon 5D Mark II and microstock

I have owned my Canon 5d Mark II for about four months now and have taken around 3500 shots.  Overall I am very impressed with it but I had not yet truly tested it in terms of microstock.

Lately I have taken the attitude that I will not waste my time with the microstock sites.  I take the shots that I like to take, and later on figure out if something may sell.  This works out the best for me, as I do not feel pressured to take particular shots that I would not have taken other than to sell them.  When these shots are not accepted or are accepted and do not sell, I have wasted my time.  However, if I take the shots I like in the first place, my time is never wasted.

I went through my shots and found a bit over forty that looked stock ready.  Now was the moment for the true test of the 5D Mark II – what would the editing experience be like?

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Congrats to Canon on the TS-E 17!

Recently it has been a bit of a bummer being a Canon user.  Granted, the 5D Mark II is a great camera and competes very well with the D700, but every other camera in their SLR line seems to take a back seat these days.

Therefore it was nice to see Canon still has a bit of ingenuity up their sleaves in the TS-E 17 F4 lens.  One area where Canon still has an advantage over Nikon is in their lenses.  Canon simply has far more lenses and far more good primes specifically.  Nikon has a few lenses Canon doesn’t – such as the 14-24 and the 200-400, but the Canon lenses I use most often – the 70-200/4 IS and the MP-E 65 – have no equivalents in Nikon.

Still, Canon has the tendency lately to sit back on their laurels and let Nikon catch up.  That is what happened with high ISO capabilities and I expected the same to occur for lenses – where Canon’s strategy lately has been to upgrade existing lenses.

This is not the case with the TS-E 17 – which is the ultimate interior photography lens.  Already I am salivating at the thought of taking real estate pictures with this lens – though I’m having more than a little trouble convincing my wife that it is worth it!

I had planned to buy the TS-E 24 at some time, but I wasn’t crazy about it.  I had heard that the lens was not great optically and 24mm is a great distance from my 16-35 that I normally use.  I did use a friend’s TS-E 24 briefly in a house I photographed, but I put the lens away because I needed something much wider.  The TS-E 17 fits the bill exactly.

I hope that this is a sign for the future – that Canon will keep innovating.  They now have another lens with no equivalent in other systems and I suspect a good number of interior photographers will buy a Canon camera if they are not using one just to be able to use this lens.

Now if I can just figure out where to get $2500.

To the Zoo, with the 100-400

For a birthday gift at the end of last year, I bought the Canon 100-400 lens.  It has been rather cheap lately, so I couldn’t resist getting a zoom longer than my 70-200 4L IS.  Of course, my luck will be that they do wind up upgrading it later this year, but if that is the case I should be able to get a good price for mine since I bought it at a good price.

I also bought a Gitzo monopod together with the RRS tilt head.  I will review these at a later time, but from experience I knew that if I wanted a sharp picture, I needed some kind of stabilization.

I’m not much for taking shots of teddy bears and diagrams in the house to test a lens.  I prefer to take it in the field and give it a try.

The following are the shots I got.  At the end I will give my impressions of the lens.

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5D Mark II Auto Focus is awesome!

OK, I now have to say that the AF in the 5D Mark II is definitely a step up from the 5D.  Given that hardware-wise they have the exact same AF, the difference must be the Digic IV processor.

This weekend we took the kids to a birthday party at a jumping house.  I had been to this identical location several months earlier with my old 5D and I was keen to see what the true difference would be.

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What lenses will Canon release next year?

Before I begin speculating, let me first state very clearly that I have absolutely no inside knowledge of what Canon will release next year.  These are just educated guesses.  However, it can be fun to guess.

To be honest, recent lens releases by Canon have been extremely dull.  I was completely underwhelmed with the recently announced 24mm 1.4 II as I really have absolutely no use for a lens like that.  My suspicions are that this trend will continue for next year.

There are two main reasons why I think Canon will not release many new lenses next year.

1. Canon doesn’t really need to do this.  Canon already has a good lead over Nikon in terms of lens variety and Nikon has been releasing lenses at a slow pace itself.  With cameras, I have noticed that Canon seemed to prefer to let Nikon catch up to them before releasing anything new.  To a lesser degree, that may be the same case with lenses.
2. We are in an economic downturn.  Most companies I know of have cut features from their products and reduced the number of products in development.  Canon (and Nikon) are no different here.  If Canon releases more lenses next year than it did this year, the only reason will be that these lenses were already very mature in development.

That being said, the following are my opinions on upcoming lenses.  Rather than state what I think will be released compared to what will not, I will rank them from one to ten with one meaning the chances are very low to ten being an almost certainty.

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My own rumors about Canon

For some time, I have been reading different rumors about Canon on Dpreview.com and CanonRumors.com.  Recently, I have grown frustrated with the information presented – most particularly CanonRumors.  In fact, I cannot remember when they have actually gotten something right there – even things they mark as ‘done deal’ have turned out to be wrong (for instance the early release of the Canon 5D Mark II)

Therefore, I thought I would compile my own list of rumors.  These are exactly that – rumors.  However, I have compiled them based of numerous posts in DPReview, past practices of Canon, and common sense.  Therefore, without further ado.

When will Canon release the 5D Mark II?

They will release it the same time they have been saying all along – at the end of November.  I think this will be very close to the end of November, and many packages may arrive the first week of December.

Will everyone receive the 5D Mark II that preordered?

It depends on when you preordered it, but everyone in the US that preordered within the first few days of the announcement will receive it in the first wave.  If you have not already preordered the camera, you likely will not receive it this year unless you get in on one of the first orders from B&H or you get lucky with your local camera store.

What SLR cameras will Canon announce soon?

Canon will release an upgrade to the 40D/50D next year – most likely in September but there is a possibility for April.  The new model, tentatively called the 60D, will be similar to the 50D but will have video.

Will Canon release a 1 series body next year?

Yes, the new body will include video, will have more megapixels (though my guess is the 1Ds body will not be substantial – probably from 21 MP to 24).  The bodies will have a new AF as well.  High ISO performance will be similar to the 5D Mark II.

Will Canon release a new flash to update the 580EX II?

Yes, it is just a matter of time.  There is always a small team at Canon working on the next flashes.  It is possible this flash may be released next year, but I don’t think Canon feels rushed here.

Will Canon ever get rid of the direct print button?

Nope, the button will be there for the foreseeable future.  Some exec at Canon has a soft spot for this button.  They have made it more multi-purpose though – it now controls Live View.  This is likely the future of the button.  Canon will keep the direct print feature until it becomes too expensive to maintain.  When someday in the future a new generation of printers is released that won’t work with this button, expect the direct print feature to be removed, but the button will stay for Live View purposes.

My thoughts on the Canon 40D

Recently, one of my friends felt pity for my cameraless plight and let me borrow his 40D over the weekend so I could take pictures of my sons at two Halloween parties.

Coming from the 5D, the 40D is certainly a different camera.  I suspect that many people right now are trying to make up their mind whether to purchase a new 50D or a used 5D, so I thought I would offer my opinions on the differences (the 50D and 40D are very similar cameras).

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Zen and the art of the MP-E 65

Recently I lent my MP-E 65 macro lens to two colleagues at work.  Both are very good photographers but had never used this lens before.  Interestingly, neither one was able to come up with decent shots from the lens.

Comments that I heard were

“I just don’t have that much patience.”

“I took a number of shots, but they all came out blurry”

I feel like some sort of zen master, when I prognose that the reason that they failed to take good shots had nothing to do with their photography skills (they’re both better than I), but that they were unable to find their inner peace to use the lens correctly.

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5D Mark II and Video

While I’m without camera and waiting for my 5D Mark II to arrive, I thought I would share some of my ideas on how to take advantage of the video feature in it.

First of all, I have never really bothered with video that much.  I tend to not enjoy watching videos of weddings, events, and vacations that others greatly enjoy.  I do enjoy videos of my kids, so we purchased a Canon HF10 some time ago.  This is a very nice video camera, though we still do not have a good decoder for the AVCHD format.

However, the Mark II offers some new perspectives on video previously unavailable to me.  For one, the quality is considerably better than the HF10.  While it is certainly missing features present in top video cameras, the raw quality of the video is on par with the best video cameras.  Therefore, I plan to use it for the following purposes.

1. Video of kids.  I’m not sure how much we’ll take with the HF10 and how much we’ll take with the Mark II.  My guess is the HF10 will still take the lion’s share of the video.  However, when I feel that the video is very important, I will likely use the Mark II.
2. Macro video.  In particular I hope to take macro stock video.  I am still working out a number of the details on how I plan to go about this, as lighting and stability are significant issues that I have not yet fully addressed.  Once I do start creating these videos, I will obviously post them here along with my technique.
3. Real estate videos.  I have gone back and forth about the need and use of video in real estate.  The truth is I have yet to see a real estate video that does a good job.  However, I have some ideas on how this may work and I plan to do use an upcoming listing of Nelya’s to test my theory out.

So, yes, the HD video feature of the Mark II is useful in my opinion.  It is not a replacement for a full video camera, but I suspect if you understand it’s limitations it makes a great tool for those of us unable or unwilling to spend tens of thousands on a professional video camera.