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The two little ones

Discussion in 'General Photography' started by aposhark, Apr 12, 2018.

  1. aposhark
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    aposhark Well-Known Member Lifetime Member

    Hi Jim,

    I haven't tried the 7D Mk 2 but still have the Mk 1 and like it very much.
    I have been looking at FF cameras over the years but have been able to fend off GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome).

    Here are a couple taken a few days ago at home with 2 x Bowens lights (Umbrella and Softbox) and backdrops:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
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  2. aposhark
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    aposhark Well-Known Member Lifetime Member

    I only have FF lenses, Jim because there is a chance I will get a FF camera one day.

    I may get a Sony A7 iii in the future and a "Metabones iv" adapter to use the FF lenses I have.

    Are you happy with the 7D Mk ii ?
  3. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    I used it on a job for my pal in Spain back in December and it did not let me down, worked very well in terms of focusing for all of my long lenses but it is a tricky camera to learn and focusing does not behave in quite the same manner as earlier Canon autofocus systems.

    For this upcoming trip I also bought the incredibly cheap EFS 55-250 f4-5.6 it is incredibly sharp for the price (113 quid on eBay) and focuses really well it is also light and I am only likely to use a tele lens during daylight so the speed was not too important.

    I got the EFS 17-55 F2.8 basically because between the two lenses I would have every range I really wanted covered and on the 7Dii the extra stop on the EFS lens makes it more versatile than my 24-105L it is also a little sharper than the 24-105.

    So my kit is really lightweight this time, as with Emirates I only have 7kg hand baggage allowance, also less to worry about as I'm not taking the expensive 70-200 f4 L or the 16-35 f2.8 L although I have noted a fault in the 17-55 (second hand eBay) which might make me rethink taking the 16-35, my copy of the 17-55 is only showing 55mm in the EXIF no matter what the zoom setting is and it seems to affect the accuracy of the camera when it comes to focusing at the wide end as the lens is telling the camera it is at 55mm so the focusing tolerances are not accurate for the wide end.

    Too late to send it back or to send it to AJ in Scotland for repair so I might take the 24-105 or the 16-35 instead, my 24-70 f2.8 L is just too heavy even though it is a wonderful lens, I will get AJ Johnson to fix the 17-55 when I get back though as it is a fantastic lens in all other respects.

    The 7dii is quite a step up in sensor performance and the high ISO is really really good and it has that totally solid professional feel to it, I am spoiled by my 1D and 1Ds and I really would not like using a camera that didn't have similar build quality these days and the 7dii delivers in that respect.

    My next camera will probably be the 5Dmk III next year at which point I might retire the 1Ds mk ii but I really love the 1Ds so I'm not sure I could ever part with it :) I still suffer from GAS :D

    Your kids are getting big :) lovely pictures!
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  4. Sanders
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    Sanders Banned

    There is something not right about the lads football top. :D
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  5. aposhark
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    aposhark Well-Known Member Lifetime Member

    Does the 17-55 only shoot at 55mm or is the exif just not showing 17mm or anything else than 55mm, Jim?

    I had a problem with my 24-105mm once and sent it off to Colchester Camera for repair. When it came back repaired it was much better than when I first bought it!

    It does seem like the new mirrorless bodies are smaller but their lenses are often big and heavy.
    The Sony A7 iii looks amazing as it has amazing low light capability and is silent so I can take shots of the kids at home without them knowing.
    The A7s iii is out later in the year.......the changes are coming so thick and fast that it makes me stick with the 7D for now.
    Camera development is bewildering these days.
  6. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    The zoom works fine but I believe there is a sensor attached to the zoom ring that reports the current focal length and this would appear to be broken.

    The software in the lens and camera uses this kind of information to decide how to control the focusing motor and the stabilisation motors and I think even when it is at the wide end of the zoom that the software thinks it should be focusing and stabilising for a scene at 55mm as the EXIF never changes.

    Actually when I think about it maybe it is the stabilization that is overcompensating as it would require more movement at 55mm to steady shaky hand movements and if it applied that amount of movement to try to stabilise a scene at 17mm it would potentially blur the whole lot of it which is in fact what I am seeing.

    I think I will test it again tomorrow with the IS off and see if it is a bit better.

    I have looked at the Sony and they are as small as the old Olympus OM1 film cameras but I will just never accept that an EVF is better than an optical viewfinder, I have looked through them and I don't like them, on the other side of the equation I am also not too fond of the Sony's ergonomics, I've been very comfortable with Canon ergonomics since way back in the 1980s when I bought a Canon T90 film SLR :)

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_T90

    I have the EOS M which was Canon's first mirrorless body and it is a nice wee camera, I also have the EF adapter but it is better with its native lenses as with the adapter and a full size lens like the 24-105 it just feels unbalanced, the main fault with the M is that it is slow, it's not great for capturing kids running around as there is a lot of shutter lag, but the sensor on it is great and in most ways it is a smashing wee camera.

    Oh one thing about the 7dii that really impressed me was that it has the quietest shutter I have ever used on a Canon camera, quieter even than the Canon 10D which had a very soft shutter sound, so quiet that it would make for an excellent wedding camera. I think they made it so quiet because one of the big target markets for the 7Dii was the birders and wildlife photographers so they wanted to avoid startling the subjects.
  7. aposhark
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    aposhark Well-Known Member Lifetime Member

  8. aposhark
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    aposhark Well-Known Member Lifetime Member

  9. aposhark
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    aposhark Well-Known Member Lifetime Member

    I represent that remark! :lol::lol::lol::lol:
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  10. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    Yeah I read Canon Rumours a lot, the FF Canon mirrorless rumour has been doing the rounds for a long time, the problem for Canon is that the EF mount which is the largest mount of any SLR manufacturer was designed in the late 80s and because it was so big you could adapt it to just about any other manufacturers lenses and of course Canon proceeded to create the widest most comprehensive range of glass in the world, now, sadly, the size of the mount is a liability along with the register as together they set physical limits on the minimum size of a Canon camera body, also EF lenses are just big but then again all FF lenses are essentially large.

    On the innovation front Canon are still up there with the best of them, the Sony sensors are technically superior but Canon has gone a long way to catch up to the point that the current generation of Canon sensors have only a little less total dynamic range than Sony and they still tend to perform better at high ISO than the Sony design, Canon's pixel was an is I believe still the cleanest ever designed the problem has always been in the read out of the data because canon used an analogue readout method and Sony had the ADC per column on the chip which gave them the advantage, but the Canon pixels were in fact technically superior.

    It will be interesting to see what kind of FF announcement is made.
  11. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

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  12. aposhark
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    aposhark Well-Known Member Lifetime Member

    Yes, and there are the rumours of Canon 120 Megapixel sensors........but how many people will have the computing power/sufficient storage to handle that. Even the wonderful 5DSR is too demanding for most.
  13. aposhark
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    aposhark Well-Known Member Lifetime Member

    There seem to have been so many Canon shooters that have switched to Sony and Fuji now.
    Canon will have pull something out of the fire to get them back.
  14. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    But Canon still sells more than any other manufacturer, a lot was made of Canon losing customers to Nikon and Sony but there has always been a stream of people going the other way too, I certainly would have liked the dynamic range and clean shadows of the Nikon's but I have always liked Canon colours and with my investment in Canon lenses it would take something extraordinary to make me move.

    The absolute best images I ever get are from my EOS 1Ds mk ii and that camera was brought out in 2005, it still produces better results than the 7Dmk ii, all it lacks is the low light capability and of course it is a bit heavy if I am not travelling with KLM (12kg hand baggage with KLM 7 kilo with everyone else :))

    As Neuro on Canon Rumors keeps saying Canon are doing just fine making lots of money selling all kinds of cameras and lenses and as for the MILC format they have done really well in their home market with the EOS M series, I think as a business they know what they are doing.
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  15. aposhark
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    aposhark Well-Known Member Lifetime Member

    I am not sure Canon know what they are doing, Jim, or at least they seem to have dropped the ball for a long time now.
    I would have bought a good mirrorless Canon camera to use with my Canon lenses but they just seemed to have stopped innovating so I have not upgraded as the competition is in the fast lane.

    They have not produced anything as good as the Sony A7 Mk 3 at that price point for example - I won't list the specs as I'm sure you are aware of them but no silent shutter and no low-light capability in my camera is such a shame.
    The 7D is good but I don't want to use flash to take indoor shots and know I am not using the 7D as much as I would with something with specs like the Sony A7 Mk 3.

    I have used Canon since getting an AE1 in 1977 and it often feels like I am still a long way behind.

    If I was not so restricted by financial constraints, I would have jumped ship earlier.
    I just feel I am now too limited by Canon and the clock is ticking......
  16. Aromulus
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    Aromulus The Don Staff Member

    Lovely photos.........

    the toffee t-shirt kindaofoutaplace.... tho...


    :rolleyes:
  17. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    You might be happier with Canon if you were on one of their full frame offerings rather than the APS-C, I got the 7Dii for specific reasons knowing that it would not give me the results I get from the already very old 1Ds what I wanted was a focusing system that was at least equal too or better than the 1Ds and the 7Dii is better albeit a bit harder to learn, effectively you have the 1Dx mkii 65 point system in the 7Dii and it is powerful, the current firmware has sorted pretty much all the early focus issues that were reported on this model.

    Apart from the weight advantage I also wanted the extra reach afforded by the 7Dii and the low light performance, for a body like this the low light performance is a very big step up for me (example snap at the end of the post) one of my goals is also to have a camera that lets me more easily work at large music events and I include a couple of shots from one I was at last year where I used the 1Ds, it was great but the 7Dii will be better this year.

    A top end Canon FF is another beast altogether having bigger pixels better dynamic range more recoverability of shadows (generally) however the current 7Dii now competes well with the much older 1Ds.

    I spent £800 on the 7D mkii body, it is in 100% mint physical condition, it looks and feels great, now that was about £600 less than the current going rate for a new one so I was very happy :D

    Here are a few shots from the 7Dii the first is just a quickly grabbed non-composed shot boarding my flight to Spain early in the morning.

    ISO 6400 24-105L @ f4
    Exposure pushed about a stop and shadows pushed about a stop, so the effective ISO is about 12800 due to post processing, even at 12800 there is no discernible pattern noise with the 7Dii (I will add shots and comments one at a time so this post will change over the next 20 minutes or so)

    [​IMG]


    This next one is ISO 100 with quite harsh side lighting, shadows pushed about 1 stop again.

    [​IMG]


    This one of the swimmers I used the 70-200 f4 L with 1.4x extender for an effective 280mm and set to f8 and of course the APS-C frame multiplies this to about a 450mm focal length, shot was taken at about 1/2000th but I was using a monopod support as well.

    [​IMG]


    Close up crop from the same shot, 70-200 f4 L is a wonderful lens :)

    [​IMG]


    These next examples are from the concert (festival) I was at last year, mixture of an old 40D and the 1Ds ii

    40D (deliberate high key) EF 135 f2 L @ ISO 800 1/400th of a second handheld, this is the kind of shot that the 7Dii will let me take at ISO 200 or even ISO 100 at the same shutter speed with this lens (one of my absolute best lenses :))

    Joe Broughton's Folk Ensemble, an unbelievable orchestra of 50 folk musicians on stage at the same time.

    [​IMG]


    Also on the 40D but with the 70-200 f4 L ISO 800 @ 1/200th

    [​IMG]

    The Fitzgeralds, this was shot with the 1Ds mk ii with the 135 f2 L @ 1/200th ISO 800 you start to see the raw quality of the FF sensor here.

    [​IMG]


    Same body and lens shutter speed upped to 1/400th

    [​IMG]


    Again on the 1Ds mk ii slightly more challenging light ISO 1600 200mm 1/200th @ f4
    Jon Boden

    [​IMG]


    Skipinnish 1Ds 135 f2 L ISO 800 1/800th, this is a huge crop of the full frame as well :)

    [​IMG]


    The 7Dii will give me more flexibility for concerts and festivals and sports it has the reach that the 1Ds does not have and the far better high ISO will let me work at higher shutter speed or smaller apertures, shutter speed was the biggest challenge at these events, my pal was at this festival too he does not have lenses as fast as mine though so he was even more challenged for shutter speed than me. :)

    (adjusted so that all the shots from the 40D are at the same size as the 1Ds, I've posted big versions to let you get some idea of what they really look like and what they could print like)
    Last edited: Apr 14, 2018
  18. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    I meant to add Mike, the lady in Joe Broughton's Folk Ensemble is Ning-ning Li, she is in all honesty one of the best Celtic fiddle players I have ever seen, so is Joe, I was moved to tears by that performance at Shrewsbury last year, never experienced anything like it at any folk festival or smaller concert in all my life.

    I gave Joe and Ning-ning (they are not partners in that sense) rights to my pictures and was very flattered when Ning-ning chose to use one of my pictures for her profile online.

    That orchestra had energy like nothing on earth, Jigs and Reels with modern arrangement, the sound in these clips is not great but it gives you an idea of what they were like, this is my kind of music and what moves me to this day, I like a lot of different genres but Celtic folk and fiddle has a power that my soul cannot deny :D (and Joe is a Brummie :D)

    The sound as I said is very poor, I saw them on a huge stage with a great PA system but I would love to see them again anywhere, one of the best hours of my life last August as I had never seen them before and it was such a young orchestra with such power and presence, gave me a lot of hope for the future that traditional music was finding a route into the future, in fact it was a truly fantastic four days at the festival.

    https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...4AE96F155BC550CB67E94AE96F155BC55&FORM=VDRVRV


    This repeats a track in the previous link but at a different venue.

    https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...4AE96F155BC550CB67E94AE96F155BC55&FORM=VDQVAP
    Last edited: Apr 14, 2018
  19. aposhark
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    aposhark Well-Known Member Lifetime Member

    It looked like everyone had a rip-roaring time, Jim.
    That Celtic-influenced music seems to come into it's own in when seen live.

    The nearest thing that I listen to like that is Penguin Café Orchestra and their "Broadcasting From Home" CD still moves me when I occasionally listen to it:

  20. aposhark
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    aposhark Well-Known Member Lifetime Member

    I like this one with the lighting, Jim:
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 8, 2019

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