CalevPhoto

Why autofocus on the 5D Mark II wasn’t improved

For those of you who have been living in a cave for the past several weeks, there is a new camera coming out that replaces the current Canon 5D.  Although the new camera introduces a number of improvements over the old one, a lot of people have been voicing strong concerns that the autofocus wasn’t improved at all over the one from the original 5D.  In a recent interview a Canon exec stated that the reason is due to size.  He stated that it is not possible to fit a newer AF in the 5D without expanding the size of the body.  For some reason, though, Nikon engineers managed to figure out a solution to the same problem.  In my opinion, and in the opinions of pretty much everyone else out there, his answer was complete BS.  However, I disagree that the reason why the 5D Mark II does not have an improved is because Canon doesn’t want to reduce sales in their 1D line.

First though, I do think that for the majority of uses the AF on the 5D isn’t so bad.  I took the picture below recently in poor lighting and with AI servo.

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Introduction to Microstock Photography – Other Rejection Reasons

In this post I will finish with the main reasons a photograph will be rejected.  I will start off with the Not Stockworthy category and its very similar category – Too Many on Site.  There are certain subjects that microstock sites have far too many of and don’t sell that well in the first place.  Some of these types of photos will even anger the reviewer – who likely has to sit through endless pictures of seagulls and ducks at times.  Most sites – IStockPhoto in particular – have long lists of types of photos that they do not want any more of.  The most common ones are

- Flowers – Most sites have every type of flower you can imagine now.  Certainly if you send an image of a flower and put in the description “pretty flower” it is almost sure to be rejected.  However, if you take a picture of a flower that is not very common (such as a rose or rhododendron) and you include the species name and location of the flower it may be accepted.  Even with roses – I suspect if you include the variety there is a chance it will be accepted.

- Fruits – There are endless pictures of apples, pears, and other types of fruits on the microstock sites today.  They come in baskets of fruits, isolated fruits, fruits on sale, fruits falling, eating fruits, and every possible thing involving fruits.  Do not bother submitting pictures of fruits unless they are a rarer tropical variety that is not already covered well.

- Sunsets – Pictures with descriptions of ‘Gorgeous Sunset’ are almost sure to be rejected.  However, I have found that if I am very specific about the location of the sunset – and it’s a good sunset – it has a chance of being accepted.  Some locations – I suspect Hawaii – are still overdone here and no matter how great the sunset is it will still likely be rejected.

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