Canon

Canon Cameras

I Really Like This Older Lady Photographer

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 21. February 2012 - 7:05

I really like this older lady photographer. She is Japanese. She uses a Canon 400D, it's a 10 megapixels Rebel XTi if I'm not mistaken, with a Canon 100-400mm f/4-5.6 L lens. I like her because she is fearless. She must be in late 60s, early 70s. She came all the way to Canada from Japan as part of some tour.

I really like this older lady photographer I really like this older lady photographer. She is Japanese. She uses a Canon 400D, that's a 10 megapixels Rebel XTi if I'm not mistaken, with a Canon 100-400mm f/4-5.6 L lens. I like her because she is fearless. She must be in late 60s, early 70s. She came all the way to Canada from Japan as part of some tour.Notice her left arm, she supports the 100-400mm lens and carries a fully loaded hand bag at the same time.I'm sure that I won't like her photos. I will even like a lot less the tall girl's photos. One does and held and the other one has a great tripod fully extended.The old lady is around 5ft to 5ft1 (around 1½ meter) and the younger girl is around 5ft6, 5ft7 (around 1.7m.) Take a look at my perspective. Take a look at their perspective. I'm on one knee. My right knee is on the ground and my left knee half bent. Rocks, gravel… My secret, I wear a carpenter kneepad on my right knee. I bought it for less than half price at Home Depot. Somebody stole the other kneepad and they were left with half of the set.Sometimes, it's OK to take photos from higher up if you are going after some special effect. Most of the times it doesn't work, they look squashed.BTW, take a look at the photo tour leader in the background, just to her right, sitting on the bench. Boredom… reifel-20120211-2606.jpg — ©2012 Syv Ritch -- foto-biz.com: http://www.foto-biz.com/usageterms

I really like this older lady photographer   click on image for gallery

Look at her left arm, she supports the 100-400mm lens and carries a fully loaded handbag at the same time.

Canon: Battery Life

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 17. February 2012 - 6:21

Canon created the LP-E6 battery for the Canon 5DMk2. It's an expensive battery, $100+ in Canada. Canon said that it's expensive because it has its own CPU. Many people have speculated that it's a strategy to “kill” the “generic” batteries. Actually it's not just the CPU but also the significant higher capacity. The benefit of the LP-E6 is the much longer battery life. In the “good old” days, it was very common for a battery to last between 300 to 500 photos.

Canon claims that the LP-E6 last approximately 1,000 photos at 23°C/73°F without the popup flash and 900 photos with a 50% popup flash use.

Here's a poor photo of the battery info on my Canon 7D. It had to be, I was in the field, and I had to use somebody's else point and shoot. My other camera had a long tele without any close focus. But it's good enough to see the battery status:

Canon: Camera Error Codes

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 15. February 2012 - 6:10

Before we go into the error codes with the Canon Cameras, you need to realize that all the new digital cameras from the cheapest point and shoot to the most expensive Hasselblad are not cameras but computers with a lens at the front, a screen at the back and various buttons instead of a keyboard. They all have a CPU, a screen, memory and a drive (usually some flash) to store the photos.

Canon like most camera manufacturers have not been very helpful in figuring out what are the problems with the cameras. Here's the list of what I figured out:

Nikon D800: Thanks but No Thanks

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 8. February 2012 - 6:27

Canon 7D

Now that Nikon has finally announced the D800 and the D800E at around $3,000 and $3,400. The biggest, the meanest camera at 36 megapixels, but great looks. This is a full-frame FX camera. The megapixels are the numbers of a medium format camera: Mamiya starts at 22 megapixels for $11,000, Hasselblad and Phase One both starts at 31 megapixels and at $14,000 each.

We don't know if the trinity, that's the 12-24 f/2.8, the 24-70 f/2.8 and the 70-200 f/2.8, will be able to resolve the full 36 megapixels. Let's hope so and that will be great news.

The Secrets of Huge and Sharp Prints

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 6. February 2012 - 6:10

I just printed this photo 20” by 30” or 50 centimeters by 76 centimeters.

Pouch, the cat Wile E under his favorite tripod/platformpouch-20080810-0104.jpg — syv ritch ©2008 — foto-biz.com: http://http://www.foto-biz.com/usageterms

You can't see it as a print, you can only view from the web. But… It looks great on the wall. Viewed even close, there's no pixilation, no visible noise with a naked eye even at 5 inch from the print. All the hairs and whiskers are sharp.

The Secrets of Straight On Flash

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 30. January 2012 - 6:10

One of the most popular photography website is the http://www.strobist.blogspot.com/ from David Hobby. I'm not in the same league and I don't even pretend. But I use flashes regularly. I specialize in simple setups. The problem with most of the photos sites where they give you the lighting diagram, they tell you how they did it but not why they chose this or that solution.

Jasper is not a happy camper. Jasper clearly doesn't want to be here. If he could escape and go back home he would. Treats and weird/special noises didn't help to get his interest.

Jasper clearly doesn't want to be here. If he could escape to go back home he would. Treats and weird, special noises didn't help to get his interest.charlie-20120126-2457.jpg — ©2012 Syv Ritch -- foto-biz.com: http://www.foto-biz.com/usageterms

Jasper is not a happy camper   click on image for gallery

First look at eyes, no “evil” glowing eyes, good definition and not hard shadows. Here's the technical data:

Lens Acronyms

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 27. January 2012 - 6:21

I was talking to Marg who, proudly, showed me that she just discovered that her lens was also a macro. It's one of these, wide angle to extra tele, all in one lens (no name mentioned). The “macro” is not a macro mode, I would call it a close-up mode and that's not even that close. Then I looked at her lens… so many acronyms

Canon

Packing List

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 26. January 2012 - 6:15

Did you ever forgot to take… for a very important photo session or for a trip? I did, I realized that I forgot to take my flash cables (at the time, we only used cables, there were no Pocket Wizards) and forgot the extra batteries to make it worth.

That's why I created my photographic equipment list.

  1. All of my photo gear is in a chest
  2. All the boxes or unused equipment or monopods, tripods are in a separate closet
  3. Almost all of my “everyday” is already in the backpack

Do I use my list everyday? No, because many items are in small pouches.

Superwoman Photographer

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 18. January 2012 - 6:46

This woman photographer is amazing! She must be from the planet Krypton.

Amazing Woman PhotographerThis woman photographer is amazing! She must be from the planet Krypton. She's an older person and carries a 1DMk4 with a 500mm f/4. She makes her photos *HAND-HELD*. That's 17Lbs/8Kg at the end of the extended arm. That day, the light was not the greatest, low contrast and very cloudy. Either she's super-woman or she uses ISO 12800 or more. Just holding such a big and heavy rig at the end of the arm is hard enough for me. That's why I use a tripod or at least my monopod, usually set at 2½ feet tall. I wear a knee pad and I kneel down, like Tim Tebow but I was doing it long before he started to play football, so I'm closer to the ground.The way she holds the lens from the tripod collar, she can't even tuck her arm underneath.snowy-owls-20111231-0867.jpg — ©2011 Syv Ritch -- foto-biz.com: http://www.foto-biz.com/usageterms

This woman photographer is amazing! She must be from the planet Krypton   click on image for gallery

Canon 1Dx vs Nikon D4

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 8. January 2012 - 21:35

The mine's better than yours war has ready started. Nikon has finally announced their D4, almost 6 weeks after Canon announced their 1Dx.

  • It looks like Nikon will ship first. 1 point for Canon announcing first and 1 point for Nikon shipping first.
  • The prices are in the same range, the $6,000 range, 1 point Nikon and ¾ point for Canon because the announced price will be high end of the $6,000 range but I'm convinced that they will quickly match Nikon's.
  • Photo side: technically, if you read the specs, they are pretty much equivalent on the photo side. Canon is a little bit more here, Nikon is a little bit more there. In the real world, the major difference is clock-wise (Canon) vs counter clock-wise (Nikon). I defy you to identify a photo taken with the 1Dx or by the D4. They both have 60 years of experience and it shows. Nikon has closed the megapixels gaps by going to 16 megapixels. So 1 point for Canon and 1½ point for Nikon.

Canon: The Right Way of Metering

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 5. January 2012 - 6:15

Canon has 4+ metering modes:

  1. Evaluative Metering
  2. Partial Metering
  3. Spot Metering
  4. Center-weighted Average Metering

All new dSLRs have similar modes, they just call it differently

And then there's the manual mode. So what's the right way? That depends:

  • On the direction of the wind
  • The age of the captain
  • What about the exposing to the right?

Does this sound whimsical? Because exposure is whimsical. There's no right exposure. It just depends. The metering is only one step in the exposure.

Image Stabilization The Proper Way

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 20. December 2011 - 6:00

Canon calls it Image Stabilization, Nikon calls it Vibration Reduction, Sony calls it SteadyShot, Pentax calls it Sensor-shift Image Stabilization, Sigma call it Optical Stabilization and so on.

It's very much black magic. It's based on between two to as many as six tiny gyroscopes that track the pitch and the yaw to compensate for the movements of the photographer either on the CMOS/CCD sensor or around one of the optical element of the lens.

Canon 7D: My Basic Setups

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 19. December 2011 - 6:00

Recently, I was asked as to what was my everyday use setup for the Canon 7D. I have 5 stored settings. Yes, I know that there's only C1/C2/C3 but I can set the A mode and the M mode and the Canon 7D remember these settings.

I do mostly indoor landscapes and indoor & outdoor portraits, be it people or animals.

  1. I have removed the focus from the shutter. I always use the AF-ON back button or the focus will change every time that I press the shutter. See: Canon 7D and the AF-ON Button

Canon: Micro-Adjustements, How Often?

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 14. December 2011 - 6:00

Many people will micro-adjust their lenses as soon as they buy/receive their new lenses. But… How often should readjust the micro-adjustments?

Canon 7D Micro Adjust Screen

Canon 7D C.Fn III - 5: Micro Adjust Screen

Lately, I noticed that many of my photos were slightly out of focus. Either it's an operator problem, aka me, or the camera.

Canon: MicroAdjustment Not Working

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 5. December 2011 - 6:46

I received an email from Tatyana. Here's the key extract for her email.

I've tried to follow your instructions for the Micro-Adjustment. I can't get it to work, I still have some front-focusing…

BTW, I expected Tatyana to be either from Russia or Central Europe but she is from the Netherlands.

My instructions are at: C.Fn III -5 - AF Microadjustment. The Micro-Adjustment is controlled by the C.Fn III-5 - AF Microadjustment. After an exchange of a couple of emails, I found that instead of focusing and taking the photo through the viewfinder. She tried to make the procedure much faster by using the Live View.

Canon 7D: C.Fn III -5 - AF Microadjustment

Canon 7D: C.Fn III -5 - AF Microadjustment

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