As part of a learning process I’ve been shooting The Beat Robbers at various different places.
Not the best images in the world, but an interesting insite it to shooting live (and Studio) images. I promise not to make habit of it.
New Glass (part II – probably)
A while ago I had an idea, this idea was to buy one lens a year. Of course this never happened, it would be nice if it had but things like houses, cars and kids had to be funded first.
Anyway, enough of these dreams – back to reality. I’ve bought a new lens, of course not the one I intended on buying – no that would have been sensible. Instead I bought the EF24-70mm f/2.8 L MkII. It initially started out with me buying the EF135mm f/2 L, then I was leaning towards the EF85mm f/1.4 (because I tried one) then finally ended up with the 24-70.
Why then? Well, I’ve always sort of regretted getting the EF24-105mm f/4 L IS – it’s not a bad lens, in fact it’s been my main carry round lens since I’ve had it. I’ve for a while looked at the f/2.8 lenses with a bit of envy. I think my EF200mm f/2.8 hasn’t helped to be honest. At f/2.8 it’s superb. What has helped is the £235 cashback on this lens (plus £100 from my 6D), £210 in cash and the promise of £190 for my EF50mm f/1.4 – the latter I will miss as f/1.4 was a nice thing to have. But the 24-70 isn’t so far off the mark as it’s 50mm will be at 2.8.
A couple of images from the 50mm shows the differences aren’t too bad.
f/1.4
f/2.5
(o.k. it’s f/2.5 but it’s not far off!)
As for the 24-105, well that’s due to be sold – problem is eBay prices are relatively low at present – so I may keep it for a while.
Forgot to mention 0% for 12 months (50% deposit) from Clifton Cameras has helped make the decision easier.
Plugins – Time is almost up
After a very quick 2 weeks time is almost up for the Nik Collection plugin trial (15 Days – though I do have a plan to extend this by using my Macbook and possibly a VMware Mac!). So what have I done, well dabbled a little bit – sadly unless you have a bit of spare time 15 days probably translates to maybe 3-4 hours per week (hence my plan to extend time a bit). I’ve really not had a chance to dive into the individual settings on any of the plugins – just mostly using the custom presets.
So below is a small selection of what I’ve looked at (Click on the links for the larger flickr hosted images – 3000x1000px). Oh and apologies for the mainly aircraft pictures 😉
First up is Viveza (Selectively adjust the color and tonality of your images without complicated masks or selections. – text taken from the Nik Collecion site as it’s probably the best description of the plugin).
Quite a nice effect can be created to enhance a relatively dull image – here I’ve only adjusted the Structure slider to 75% (I’ve found Structure to be quite a handy tool on a number of plugins).
Viveza again
This time using it for a black and white conversion (without wanting the effects of Silver Efex) – whilst this looks nice, this is probably achievable in CS6 or LR4
Next up is Colour Efex Pro 4
The number of filter effects are too numerous to list, but a quick Polarisation (to bring up the detail in the field) and fog effect look quite good. The Polarisation most likely could be achieved in CS6/LR4 and fog possibly in CS6 using a white graduated layer faded in. Still this plugin saves you the time in doing this (though I an relatively inexperienced in CS6 – so it might be an easy action to create).
Next the dreaded HDR Efex Pro 2 (24 – Outdoor 2 filter applied).
Why dreaded, well cos mostly HDR looks awful – so does this image to be honest – but if I want the really horrible HDR effect I know where to go. In fairness, it does it simply and you can customise each filter so it doesn’t look like HDR (probably the best HDR method!).
Now it’s time to get serious – Silver Efex Pro 2 (005 High Structure – Harsh filter)
When you mention Nik plugins, Silver Efex seems to get talked about – and after a brief play I can understand. The standard filters have enough to keep most happy (especially certain northern based photo societies).
Colour Efex Pro 4 again (Various filters added)
Possibly a little overdone this one, but it’s a combination of stacked filter effects. Whilst this image isn’t great – it the process is one to get excited about.
So I’ve missed out, Dfine 2 (Noise Reduction) and Sharpener Pro 3 (errrrr, it sharpens!) – these two I’ve not used yet. I’m sure they’ll be a good as the rest if you need them.
As for the collection, well I’ve seen what they can do and for $150 for the whole set they are a bargain (there are some money off codes – if you search) You can find the plugins available on the www.niksoftware.com website. All available in one package to try for 15 days (for use in Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom and Apple Aperture – possibly others as well, but I’ve not fully checked)
Eos 6D Review
I suppose it’s difficult to be subjective in a camera review if you’ve already spent a fair amount of your own money to buy the item. There’s always going to be a little bit of shiny new toy syndrome about the purchase, but as I carry on I’ll try not to be in this frame of mind.
Right, so to begin – the Eos 6D ‘Your entry into the full-frame world‘ or so the advertising blurb keeps reminding us. Well for me it’s my 4th entry into full frame world so you may be wondering what I am doing buying this thing.
A little history – I had an Eos 5D Mark II (and 2 5D’s previous to this) – whilst it was a great camera I’ve always wanted to have the ability to remote trigger (mainly because I’m a fairly lazy nature photographer who’d rather sit indoors with a cup of tea and shoot remotely instead of getting wet/cold/muddy) – this of course is perfectly achievable on the 5D Mark II with the aid of the WFT-E4 II grip – however at nearly £600 it’s a bit steep just to justify. Looking at the 6D package as a whole it looked to offer what I want at no extra cost. Then with one my my usual rough mind calculations the 6D seemed actually affordable (Ended up Ebaying the 5D Mark II, Grip and a Mac Mini to get near the £1600 needed).
When announced the usual web moanings complained about:
Build/Weather Proofing
Maximum 1/4000 shutter
Flash Sync 1/180
Only 11 point autofocus
Single SD Card slot
Slow FPS
Lower resolution
No built-in flash
Battery drain with Wi-fi and GPS
So lets look at the individual ‘problems’
Build/Weather Proofing – So what it’s not hand crafted out of the finest metal known to man – this is actually an advantage as it means it’s much lighter – as for Weather proofing – well my old 5D’s had little protection and they worked for me in some damp stuff – with the 6D having some weather protection I can see it as been a plus
Maximum 1/4000 shutter – My Lightroom library shows out of 45,000 images only around 500 have been shot higher than 1/4000 in the past – whilst I can see it might be an issue shooting in the summer I’m happy to live with it.
Flash Sync 1/180 – I tend to use slower shutter for flash work anyway so I should be fine
Only 11 point autofocus – I use the centre typically so not an issue
Single SD Card slot – I use 32gb SD cards – I don’t think having to change cards every 1200 shots is a problem (RAW)
Slow FPS – 4.5 FPS isn’t too bad – much better than what I’ve had used in the past – plus I have a 1D MkII for fast stuff
Lower resolution – Great more disk space, seriously I only stick stuff on the web or print at max A3
No built-in flash – I have a number of Speedlites – Built in flash has always been poor except for a bit of fill in.
Battery drain with Wi-fi and GPS – I assume people who complain about this have never owned a smartphone?
So my verdict, well coming from a larger set of cameras you immediately notice how light the camera is – coupling it with something like the 50mm f/1.4 and you could easily drop it in a rucksack and not notice it. I’ve deliberately decided against getting a grip for the 6D as I want it be be a lighter travel camera (also the fact that the grip is hideous puts me off).
As I said at the start I was initially interested in the 6D because of it’s built in WiFi. Sadly due to the weather I’ve not tested it on the bird feeder, but I have tested it in house. It works quite well, the app (on my phone) is simple to setup. It works well on Ad-Hoc mode (device to device) or Infrastructure mode (via a router).
One benefit of having Wifi setup is the ability to upload images to your Phone/Tablet using the app. Handy if I want to edit quickly and upload something to Flickr/Facebook etc. As expected there is a slight lag in the live view image, but the remote triggering appears to be almost instant.
One of the benefits for me with this camera is the autofocusing – coming from a 5D Mark II this would be reason enough to upgrade – it’s fast and accurate, o.k. not as fast as my 1D but I didn’t expect it to be. The ability to autofocus in quite dark conditions hopefully should help me as I quite like shooting in the early hours – initial testing of this looks positive, there’s still moments where the focus hunts – but it’s much better than I’ve experienced before.
As usual when getting a new camera I’m interested in how bad is it at the highest ISO level – well at 102400 it’s quite noisy, but not as bad as I was expecting to be honest and at 25,600 probably on par with the original 5D at 3200
ISO 102400
IS0 25600
It’s still early days with the camera, but functionally I can’t fault the 6D – it’s what I wanted the 5D Mark II to be.
Still there are a few things that make it to my annoyances list:
I’m not overly convinced about the rear button layout
Seems a odd way to zoom in whilst previewing (using the main dial).
I don’t like the on/off switch at the top either, coming from the 5D and 1D series it feels as if it’s been dropped in as it’s a common component across the newer Eos range.
One other control I dislike is the mode dial lock. I’ve never had an issue with either of the 5D models with this dial turning when handling the camera – the introduction of a lock is a minor annoyance.
Lack of auto brightness on the rear screen may annoy.
Competition Time (again)
I’m ponding if we have too many competitions at Yardley Photographic Society. Anyway whilst I ponder here’s my 2 entries for the Geoff Hinde Memorial Rose Bowl
I’m trying my best not to get in to the mind of a visiting judge, I like the pictures – if a judge doesn’t, tough.