Upgrade Dreaming

Sometimes it is fun to dream about what I want to see in my next camera body. In fact I am already saving up for it, and then a computer upgrade as well. Back when I was dreaming of upgrading from my rebel I posted about what I was looking for in my next body. The list included the following:

• Higher ISO than 1600 (3200 at least 6400 would be nice)


• 1/3 stop ISO settings (XT only does full stop)


• Less noise at ISO 800 and 1600 (XT is pretty noisy at 1600)


• Better focusing in low light


• More focus points


• Real spot metering


• ISO in viewfinder


• Full frame sensor (this isn't a requirement though I really want it!)


• Bigger LCD


• Better weather sealing

It's funny that some of the things I wanted (spot metering) I actually don't use. And things I didn't know I wanted (AF microadjust) I use a lot. I am surprised I didn't mention easier to toggle focus as a want, because I remember that being an issue.

Turns out my new body did have most of what I wanted, here is what I am happy with in my 5D mark ii

• Full Frame - I just LOVE it, it is perfect for how and what I like to shoot.


• Megapixels - it was a nice jump to go from 4MP on myh P&S to 8MP on my rebel XT and then really nice to go to 21MP with this body. I don't think I need a lot more for what I shoot


• ISO - the low light image quality is great, especially when I nail my exposure. If they can make it better of course I would be happy, but I really don't think I need to be able to shoot at higher and higher ISOs, really I rarely need to go above 3200.


• Custom functions - I love the ability to change what all the buttons do. Especially using that nubbin thing to move my AF point, and using the AF-on button to stop AF for when I want to use manual focus for macros


• AF Microadjust - my 50L would be sunk without it!


• Video - I am actually glad that the body has video, I don't use it a lot, but the quality is amazing when I remember that it is an option. Now I just have to figure out what to do with those videos since I can't put them in a blurb book


• Weather sealing - I love that with an L lens I can feel safe taking my body out in a light drizzle for a couple of minutes to shoot some wet macros, or out in the snow, or out into the sandy desert in Egypt.

I guess that all begs the question why do I want to upgrade? In general I don't really need to upgrade. I would say overall I am very very happy with my 5D mark ii. I just hate using "old" technology so I know that when Canon does get around to annoucing the next in the series I will want it. Who doesn't want to be able to do just a bit more with what they have? Of course I want Canon to keep all the things I love and even update them a bit (like the megapixels, but really I think 28-30 is the max I would want and if they can make the high ISOs better, who am I to say no?), but what else would I like in my next body?

• Improved Autofocus - I just want more cross type points. Ideally the 19 that the 7D has. There are times when only my center point will be able to lock focus easily (some of the others will depending on which way they look for contrast) and it would be much easier if all of them did this better.


• Dual card slots - I know this isn't likely, unless I go insane and upgrade to a 1D series body (which likely will never ever happen, too many lenses to buy!) but it would be awesome for vacations to be able to shoot Large RAW on one card and a small JPG on the other that the ipad could handle so I could share photos on the road. Or I could use the second slot to backup the photos.


• More lens calibration options - I was just reading an article yesterday where someone mentioned this (here is the link, it is in the updated part, but read the whole article if you haven't before, awesome!) and it is a brillant idea.


• Built in Remote Flash Trigger - ideally radio signal based instead of IR, though then I would no longer need my PWs and I would probably need a new flash, but it would be handy! (canon did submit a patent for this actually).

Can you believe that is really it? I told you I was happy with my 5D mark ii.

Sharp Gibson

I started playing around with the autofocus micro adjustment setting on my camera. The first lens I tried it on was my 50mm 1.2L, I always thought it wasn't sharp enough for an L lens. I don't know if I have gotten the setting perfect yet (currently at +2) but it is definitely much better!


5dm2, 50mm 1.2L, ISO 4000, f/1.2 ss 1/200

I will post a full review of that function and the resources I used after I play with it more.

Hostas

I have been so focused on the house that I haven't really picked up my camera for anything fun in a while. Our apartment complex always has great landscaping and I have been watching the hostas blooming all week and wanting to shoot them. But it has always been raining or the sun has been too bright. This morning was perfect, I woke up early, it is overcast but bright and dry! At 7:45 am I was out with my macro lens and bedhead, the things I do just to get some good shots.

All shot with 5D Mark ii, 100mm macro lens


f/2.8, ss 1/125, ISO 100


f/2.8, ss 1/125, ISO 100


f/5.6, ss 1/100, ISO 320

Finally some progress

We went over to the house tonight, like we do every night, this time to work on the office walls some more (will those ever be done?) and of course to check on the progress the contractors are making. I was starting to get worried that they were moving too slow, and I am still a little worried but I feel a little better now.




Color in the nook! Same color as the dining room.


Color in the powder room, its a darker blue than the living room.


Dining room looks finished, very happy with this room!


Wainscoting, is it too short?




Upstairs bath, loving this gray!

All shot with 5D Mark II and 50mm 1.2L

Anyone know?

So far I have been able to guess a lot of the plants in our yard, but I am still not sure of this one.


5dm2, 100mm macro, f/5.0, ss 1/320, ISO 200

Anyone know?

Photography Tips 5: DOF Beyond Aperture and a little Bokeh

DOF Beyond Aperture and a little Bokeh

Hopefully if you have read some of the articles I suggested in my first post you know by now what a shallow or deep depth of field is and that your aperture opening has a big impact on this. What you might not know yet is this isn't the only thing that impacts your DOF, nor is it the only way to get good bokeh. There are several other factors to consider and play with, mainly your focal length, focusing distance and for bokeh especially the distance between your subject and it's background. I thought it would be fun to go over each of those one at a time with example images. Another good way to understand the magintude of these changes if it interests you is to play with an online DOF calculator. This is a good one. You can enter in various combinations to see what the results might be before you go shoot and after. I have added the calculated information from below each image. All images shot with 5D Mark II.

Aperture:
Let's start with a review of aperture and how that impacts your DOF. The aperture (recorded as something like f/1.2, f/2.8, f/8, etc) designates how open the aperture of your lens is. The larger the number the smaller the opening (because it is a fraction) letting in less light, the smaller the number the larger the opening the more light allowed in. Now a larger number also means a deeper depth of field, and a smaller number means a shallower DOF. The easiest way to show this is with my 50mm 1.2 lens. So here is a shot at f/1.2 and one at f/8. Obviously I had to change other settings in these images to get the same exposure for each so there are other differences as well.


50mm, f/1.2, ISO 50, ss 1/500, focusing distance 1.5 ft
DOF Near Limit:1.49 ft, Far Limit:1.51 ft, Total:0.02ft


50mm, f/10, ISO 800, ss 1/125, focusing distance 1.5 ft
DOF Near Limit:1.43 ft, Far Limit:1.58 ft, Total:0.15ft

Focal Length
Aperture was pretty easy, focal length is a little bit different. I am not going to try to explain why (frankly I am not sure I know enough techincally about it to be able to anyway) but basically at the same aperture your DOF will be deeper with a wide angle lens versus a telephoto lens.


20mm, f/3.5, ISO 100, ss 1/125, focusing distance 1.5 ft
DOF Near Limit:1.35 ft, Far Limit:1.69 ft, Total:0.33ft (for some reason the online calculator I am using has f/3.4 and f/3.6 but not f/3.5, so I used f/3.4 for these calculations)


100mm, f/3.5, ISO 100, ss 1/125, focusing distance 1.5 ft
DOF Near Limit:1.49 ft, Far Limit:1.51 ft, Total:0.02ft


Standing in the same place as with the 20mm with 100mm, also obviously changes the composition, so I also backed up and took an image with the same amount of the rose bush in the frame
100mm, f/3.5, ISO 100, ss 1/125, focusing distance 5 ft
DOF Near Limit:4.93 ft, Far Limit:5.07 ft, Total:0.14ft

Focusing Distance:
This plays a big part in macro photography and is well worth understanding if that is a type of photography you are interested in. The closer the point you are focusing on to your sensor the narrower your DOF will be. Two shots with my 100mm f/2.8 macro both at f/4.5.


100mm, f/4.5, ISO 320, ss 1/100, focusing distance 1.3 ft
DOF Near Limit:1.29 ft, Far Limit:1.31 ft, Total:0.01ft


100mm, f/4.5, ISO 320, ss 1/100, focusing distance 2 ft
DOF Near Limit:1.99 ft, Far Limit:2.01 ft, Total:0.03ft (that doesn't sound like a big increase, but it tripled and in macro work that actually is a long distance.)

A great exercise to complete especially for macro work to help you get a handle on this one is to put your camera in aperture priority mode, start at your minimum focusing distance and go up through the aperture settings (f/2.8, f/4.5, f/5.6 etc) then back up and repeat. Ideally you would do this with your camera on a tripod so that slower shutter speeds at narrower apertures do not negatively impact your images.

Distance between subject and background:
Now this doesn't actually change your DOF at all, but it does change sort of the apparent DOF, and definitely impacts the bokeh you get in your image. If you have played around at all with the DOF calculator you will see that your DOF falls off as you travel away from the focus point, therefore the more distance between your subject and the background the less likely the background will fall in the in focus area. Examples here are again 100mm macro lens,


100mm, f/4.5, ISO 320, ss 1/100, focusing distance 1.5 ft
DOF Near Limit:1.49 ft, Far Limit:1.51 ft, Total:0.01ft


Here I just moved around the bush to a spot with more leaves right behind my subject flower.
100mm, f/4.5, ISO 320, ss 1/100, focusing distance 1.5 ft
DOF Near Limit:1.49 ft, Far Limit:1.51 ft, Total:0.01ft

Photography Tips 4: My Equipment

Canon Digital Rebel XT with 18-55mm kit lens
My first real photography purchase was my original digital SLR. The current version of the Canon Rebel is the XSi or the soon to be released T1i. This was a great camera to start with, it allowed me to learn how to shoot in manual and control my shutter speed, aperture, ISO, focus, exposure, it let me learn to shoot in RAW and to start building up my collection of Canon lenses. You can see images shot with this camera in my flickr stream. I am a firm believer that it is the photographer not the camera that makes good pictures, but better equipment does give you more options.

Canon 70-300mm IS
One of the first places I took my camera was a horse show at a local park in CA, while I was there I realized that I needed a lens with more reach. I picked this lens because it had the longest reach in a zoom lens, was under $1000 (this was before I started to buy L lenses, and I knew that it likely wouldn't get a lot of use), and had IS built in which I knew would come in handy at 300mm. You can check out some shots I have taken with it in my flickr stream. The IS saves me at least two stops in my ability to handhold this lens. When I used it at 300mm on my XT I should have had a shutter speed of at least 1/500, but I could easily get away with a shutter speed of 1/160 and get a sharp image. I really should do some experiments with the IS on and off on my 5D and see how much it really saves me.

Canon 20mm f/2.8
The first big vacation we took after I had my XT was our 1 year anniversary/honeymoon trip to Hawaii. While my 18-55 lens went pretty wide, I wanted a sharper wide angle lens, so I bought my first prime lens (boy did that confuse Mike while we were in Kauai "how do you zoom with this?" "use your feet"). I didn't realize how much better the image quality would be from this lens compared to my kit, it kind of blew my mind. You can see several shots from Kauai taken with this lens on flickr. This lens sort of got pushed to the back of the pile later as the next lens I bought was much better for indoors, and I discovered generally I like zooms more than primes. However since I upgraded to a full-frame camera this lens is getting a lot more use. It gives just enough distoration to make things interesting, especially for architectural photos.

Canon 50mm 1.8 II
Somewhere in the dark hours of my first winter trying to shoot with an SLR indoors without flash I realized that my kit lens wasn't going to cut it in terms of letting light into my camera. I did some reading and the 50mm f/1.8 came up all over the place as a great affordable option. I ordered this lens right before we left for Kauai, thinking it would come in handy at the luau we went to. Would have been better if I had really known what I was doing with it, but I got some lucky shots.

If you want to see some more shots taken with this lens you can check out the ones I have up on flickr. My copy of this lens did seem to have a bit of a focus issue, I think it front focused a bit but I have heard that is pretty easy to get fixed if you send it in to Canon.

Canon Speedlite 430EX
Also during the dark winter I realized that I needed a flash that I could have more control over in terms of power, direction etc so I bought a speedlite. Honestly it took quite a while before I was really making much use of my flash. I think how I use this deserves its own post, it's a bit more complicated than the lenses.

Canon 100mm macro
One of the subjects I have always wanted to photograph was flowers, I have never really been a portrait person but macro photography just calls to me. I knew that my other lenses wouldn't let me get the kind of shots that I wanted so I started to look into different macro lenses. Canon actually makes quite a few.
EF 50mm f/2.5 - doesn't do 1:1 without an adapter
EF-S 60mm f/2.8 - wouldn't work on a full frame camera
EF 100mm f/2.8 - great reviews, good price, lightweight
EF 180mm f/3.5L - more expensive, heaevier would really need a tripod.
MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x - I didn't really look into this one at the time, but I am thinking more about it now.
I choose the 100mm because it got great reviews overall, especially for the price, and I wasn't ready to shell out for a tripod (though it is next on my list now). I have been really pleased with this purchase. It is a sharp lens, great for macro work and it also makes a good portrait lens, especially for newborns. You can see a mixture of shots from it on flickr.

Canon 24-70 f/2.8L
I finally started to realize that this hobby wasn't going to go away, and I hated the results I could get from my kit lens compared to my prime lenses, but I also felt trapped by not being able to zoom. After a LOT of research and saving I settled on the 24-70L as my replacement. I think this lens was one of the best purchases I have made, it is sharp, has amazing color, great bokeh, fast autofocus, I just adore it. Honestly I saw a huge improvement in my photography once I attached this lens to my camera, you can see a lot of shots with it here. When I did my little study on what lenses I use the most, this one blew all the others out of the water. If my apartment was burning down and I could only grab one lens, this would be it.

Canon 5D Mark II
While my XT served me really well for a while, eventually I started to run into some roadblocks with it. Lots of noise even at ISO 800, inability to go above ISO 1600, crop factor, I even made a list in February of 2008 of all the things I was looking for in a camera body upgrade. While the 5D Mark II doesn't meet all of them, it comes very close. I feel like this camera has allowed my photography to grow in ways that I never could have with the XT. There have been so many situations that this camera has allowed me to capture that I could not have before. I adore it. Again you can check out about a million shots with it on flickr.

Canon 50mm f/1.2L
Having tasted the beauty that is an L lens, I just had to get some more of them. I knew that my 50 1.8 was a lens that I used a lot, but I had some frustrations with it, it wasn't as sharp as my 24-70L, the colors were not as saturated and it hunted for focus a lot in low light. Instead of buying new lenses, since I felt pretty happy with my lens selection I thought I would upgrade one instead. I had a bit of an issue with the first refurbished copy I ordered from adorama being really really soft, but the second copy I got is much better. Though not perfect. It does focus a lot more easily, and the colors are great. I haven't shot a lot with it yet, but you can see some here.

PS Writing up these posts takes far longer than regular blog posts, I am spent!

Out for Delivery

My camera is out for delivery! Living near NJ is sometimes a blessing. I can't wait to get home tonight and charge it up so I can play with it! I guess I will be testing it in low light first.

OMG!!!

Adorama just called me!! I am getting a 5D Mark II from the FIRST SHIPMENT!! They will ship it out Friday or Monday, I should have it NEXT WEEK!!!! I am so excited, the more I have seen from this camera the more I was waiting an announcement of when I can have it, it looks like an AMAZING camera and I am so thrilled I will have it to use over the holidays and on Becky's new baby in January!!!

I know I probably should wait but . . .

I just couldn't I have been waiting for who knows how long now (it feels like years) for a new camera (I love my xt but I am really running into its limitations). So I put in a pre-order for the Canon 5d mark ii. Of course I probably won't get it until December but at least now the decision is made, that is always a big deal for me.