Pascal Photography Studio

Living with the Canon EOS 7D – Part 2

It’s been a while since I have received the Canon EOS 7D, ad to tell you the truth I am rather happy and even sometimes very impressed with it, the ISO noise reduction is amazing but I’ll leave that for another day.

But as all things good and 95% of this camera is pure goodness itself but I encountered certain limitations that are from the unexpected to the absurd, all related to the use of flashes. I have to be honest too, the following is advanced stuff and I mean advanced, but not all of it.

First up, to me not advanced but rather required, is “rear curtain sync” using the built-in infrared remote remote on the camera, mind you we tried the same with a Canon Speedlite 580EX set as a commander too with the same results, well he is the news flash (sorry for the pun), it is not possible! Read the manual it will tell you so, absurd you say? I agree completely. Obviously, whether you use a  Canon Speedlite 430EX or 580EX on the camera’s shoe, it will work 100%. I could not find a Canon Commander to test this with, so I cannot tell about that but I suspect the same issue will arise.

The second one is what is known as Multi or Strobe, this function allows the photographer to have multiple flash exposure on one exposure, the Canon EOS 7D does this with ease using it’s pop-up flash, unfortunately it is far from powerful enough. So I put it in remote to trigger the 3 Canon Speedlite 430EX and… The option in no longer available. Ok so maybe I ask a little too much, it is advanced stuff. I fit a Canon Speedlite 430EX to the camera shoe and the option is still not available. So the pop-up flash can do it but not the semi-professional flash… Confusion sets in… So, thanks to the guys at Cameratek, we put a Canon Speedlite 580EX on the camera shoe… Multi is now available! And it works, but here is the kicker, you are going to love this! Put the Canon Speedlite 580EX in Multi mode and make it a master, guess what! The Canon Speedlite 430EX receive the Multi order and execute it. So the Canon Speedlite 430EX is capable of it but it looks like the Canon EOS 7D’s infrared commander is not a “full” commander.

But do not mistake this for a rant, these are true limitations of the flashes, I still love my Canon Speedlite 430EX as well as my Canon EOS 7D and find very little wrong with it.

Now here is a word to Canon, DO NOT DO HALF A JOB!!! Nikon’s have no issues with this to my knowledge, so next firmware update include it in! Both please!

Living with an iPhone 3GS

So what is the hype with this iPhone thing anyways?
I mean it just another mobile phone, right?
Yes it is and the iPhone 3GS does a wonderful job at being just that a phone but, unlike most of my previous Smartphone, it has an edge…
You see it’s a computer in your hand with an operating system that works, unlike my previous Microsoft Mobile phones it does not freeze and 99% of the application that I want work, no fidgeting, no wasted time, it just works.
And yes not all the application are free but the care and quality is generally better than it’s Windows Mobile platform counterpart, so far.

And to prove my point, this was all written on an iPhone 3GS in under 15 minutes!

More on the iPhone’s use in photography soon.

Does the camera really makes a difference in the real world? Part 1 – Intro

I am going to talk about a scary subject in a few forthcoming posts, one that frightens me terribly…

Imagine for a moment, maybe in horror because that’s what is happening to me right now, that you taking this prise winning photograph and your beloved Canon EOS 5D, yes Charl I was thinking of you, or Canon EOS 7D’s shutter locks up or something happens that renders your professional camera completely useless. It gives me the shivers, just thinking about it. There is nothing in the world that you can do about it. What now?

But wait, there is a Canon EOS 1000D in your bag! Your partner uses it from time to time to help out at a wedding or other event where you need to be at 2 places at the same time. You are saved!!! But are you, really?

I am not really exactly talking from experience here, but I have had my share of catastrophes that came uncomfortably close to this scenario. The worst was our trip to the Kalahari where my prized Canon EOS 300D and Sigma 170-500 were destroyed just before entering the park for 5 days. I had no backup cameras, I could not afford one at the time. To tell the truth going to any game reserve without a camera would be the equivalent of being blind for me. I was lucky enough to have found a Canon EOS 400D in Upington and I still had a kit 55-200 lens with me which I promptly used for the rest of the trip.

Today, I feel a bit like the Mythbusters, I am going to simulate that very improbable catastrophe using 2 very different cameras both 1.6 cropped. One is considered as the ultimate Canon entry level, Canon EOS 1000D, the other camera is the one that may have change the way Nikon fans, whether they admit it or not, look at Canon cameras, the Canon EOS 7D. Do not mistaken this for a comparative review, it’s not. It’s about living with an uncontrollable event and how to handle it and make the best of it.

Firstly, these are 2 completely different cameras with 2 completely different characters, never mind specifications, check Digital Photography Review for the reviews of each. The Canon EOS 7D is a pro level SLR, the rig is with a battery grip and 2 batteries in it and a Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 USM L weighs a massive 2.5KG, than again you can feel the the magnesium alloy body quality as you grip the camera, it feels and holds right… On the other hand the Canon EOS 1000D is an entry level that with one battery and the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 USM L weighs a respectable 1.6KG but because it it smaller physical size it is going to be harder to handle.

Next, the real life test, for that I will use the same lenses and flashes with both cameras, either the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 USM L or the Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8 USM L and do the same photos with the same settings with both and see how hard it can get without having to spend more money.

Till next time when I take the challenges of a studio photography environment.

By the way, should you have a couple of challenges for me please feel free to add them to the comments and I’ll try to do some, given time.

Editor’s note: The Canon EOS 1000D was returned to the workshop due to an error 99, so this may be longer to test then expected.

Macro photography extension tubes.

Yesterday, I tried something new, something I had never done in photography. True macro photography. And though my shoulder, back, neck, hand and right arm are complaining today I am thrilled with what I have learned and achieve.

So what have I learned? Well how about a short list of things you have to consider when making macro photographs:

1. The gear.
   • I do not have millions to spend on another lens, particularly when it would be a specialised one that would not be used often. So opted to go the extension tube route, a set of Kenko to be exact, why these? because they have the necessary connections to the lens, so you can still control your Depth of Field and, though completely futile, the auto-focus still works. But when you are 1 cm away from your subject auto-focus just hunts, even with a Canon EOS 7D.
   • Use a 70- 200mm with a f/2.8, it will make your life easier, I started with a 24-70 that I could only use between 50 and 70mm.
   • Use a tripod!
   • And have something (or someone) to give shade when required, which I found was most of the time.
2. The technique:
   • Pick one or more extension tube, I would recommend the shortest to start with, put your choice of lens on and find a really small flower or use a book and focus on the text, it makes for interesting photographs too.
   • Set the whole gear up on your tripod.
   • Set your focus ring to the closest possible point in manual, no kidding.
   • Use your zoom ring to focus, it took me a while to get that, forget about the focusing ring. If you cannot get focus you are either too close or to far, you will also find that you need to change distance if you add or remove tubes. As my instructor said a zoom between 80 and 130mm works best, find your lens sweet spot if you are not using a pro grade lens (I find Canon’s EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L lens perfectly suited).
3. The catches:
   • DOF, I tried to change it from f/2.8 right down to f/22 I could not see a difference.
   • Because of the above, if you are using all 3 extension tubes, I did not check with different combinations, you end up with a depth of field focus area of about 5mm, believe it or not a bee’s back side and it’s wings can be in perfect focus but not it’s head, so be careful with that.

And that is it, go and try, it’s loads of fun and your garden is the first please to visit, I know it’s a long trip. By the way, none of the photos below have been tempered with outside of being resized, what you see is exactly what the camera gave me, no colour calibration either than white balance set to day light, the camera used was a Canon EOS 7D.

Click on photos to enlarge

Click on photos to enlarge

Living with the Canon EOS 7D

Firstly, this is NOT a review, if you are looking for a review please go to dpreview.com they dissect the camera to the nth level and then put it back together or Digital Photography School. By the way, DPReview’s rating is “Highly Recommended” with an average of 9.16/10 as compared to Nikon’s D300s (which I have a lot of respect for) with an average of 9.16/10, how odd is that? Anyways, this is about living with it and I have the camera for nearly a month.

First thing you have to understand about the Canon EOS 7D, it is a professional graded “still” camera!!! I will come to the video in a latter post, 1 thing at a time. So what do I mean by that? Well, coming from the very good and light Canon EOS 400D, its like coming off a bicycle with training wheels and driving a racing bike, I know I said this before and I will probably say it again.

First thing you will notice when you pick up the Canon EOS 7D is it’s weight at 918g with the battery in is not light add a battery grip with 2 batteries, a CF card grip and  a 24-70mm f/2.8 L lens and here comes 2,378 kg, not light at all I can tell you.

Second thing you will notice is it’s size, it is massively larger than the Canon EOS 400D, but what a grip, with 2,5kg in your hand you better have a good grip and you do.

Thirdly you will feel the magnesium alloy quality of this professional camera, it fells so good.

And then you switch it on and at first glance life just became more complicated, the buttons and the menu (until you figure out the Quick and Custom menus) looks devastatingly confusing. I read the manual cover to cover 3 times so far, about to do it again but not cover to cover this time. I can now drive the racing bike around a track but I am still far for being able to race…

There are little things I have noticed using the camera, if RAW is used at high ISO you might be disappointed with the amount of noise, oddly enough I did not find this problem with the use of JPGs, most probably due to the high amount of post processing. Taking movement of anything whilst is high burst mode (up to 8 frames a second)  is wonderful but watch how quick you fill your memory card. Lastly, it is deadly silent in comparison to other DLR’s I have used or tested.

So would I recommend it as an upgrade from a 400D/450D/500D? Not unless you are going into photography seriously, the price does not warrant it. If you are doing casual photography and want the ability to do the odd video clip, I would advise either the Canon 500D or the cheaper but versatile Canon PowerShot SX20 IS (I will do a “living with the Canon PowerShot SX20 IS a little later). If you, like me, are either in action, sport or wildlife photography the Canon EOS 50D will do fine if you do no care about video. But if you are serious and have the finance for it the Canon EOS 7D paired with a versatile L lens, I recommend the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L USM to start with bringing you to an equivalent of 39-112mm of this 1,6 cropped sensor,  is the way to go.

I will write more about this in the weeks to come as I will soon have the opportunity to try a Canon EOS 5D Mk1 and maybe others in the field. I am also taking some courses in the next few months of subject maters I had not really thought off previously. But first impressions are that It was a very good investment.

Geotagging photos

This is the follow up from my previous post on geotagging.

I had scheduled some time during the weekend, an entire day to be honest, to do some photography and try to geotag… First, the weather was not on my site, cloudy and threats of rain but this did not stop me. Batteries charged, GPS tracking on, backpack ready and off we went, more about the places we visited in the next few days. Even if the photos were not great my geotagging experiment would yield results.

There are a few issues with geotagging that one needs to be aware of:

• Synchronise the Camera’s Time with your GPS!!! I cannot stress that enough.
• Keep the GPS on tracking all times.
• Make sure the GPS is always on you, I forgot it in the car once and it skews the locations.

That will allow you to have all the necessary data to enable you to go the geotagging  when you get back to your computer.

After the photos are downloaded to your computer the possess is rather simple, download the track data from your GPS to your computer, I used Easy GPS for that task, it is free, supports wide array of GPS units and works well. I would advise to save the GPX file in the same folder as the photos, it will make it easy to find it later.

Next comes the synchronisation of the photos and the location stamping, for that I used GPicSync. GPicSync is very straight forward and supports Jpeg pictures and main RAW files format as well as being free. How to geotag? Select the GPX file, select the picture folder and let it go it’s job. Beware of the time it takes, I did a full 8GB of photos, about 350 RAW and JEPG (700 files) in about 1 hour, it is a slow possess. Also remember to set the UTC Offset and I set the time difference to 600 because I was in a few buildings.

The catch, if you have downloaded the photos using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2, you will have to refresh the metadata after the geotagging process.

The conclusion is that my Gramin eTrex C will now be a permanent feature in my camera bag, the geotagging process is simple enough to warrant it.

And now for something completely different… Geotagging

So I lie a little, it’s still about photography.

I have a conundrum, when I do have the chance of doing some photography for fun I am usually nowhere near home and to be honest with you when I get home I have little time to do post-processing and no time to geotag. You would of noticed that I try to give a location in all my photographs.

So here is my solution:

1. Use a BIG monitor, 22inch +
2. Use Adode Photoshop Lightroom 2
   I am sold, that is it. It is the best photography related software I came across for the PC, MAC guys sorry I do not have a MAC so I cannot try Apple’s Aperture. From sorting, tagging to adjusting and publishing, it does 95% of what I need. Adobe, you should include a stitching utility though, really. 
3. When sorting if it does not catch your eye in the first 5 seconds, forget it.
4. Use a preset workflow when importing.
5. Geotag your photographs using a GPS to record location.

And here is the catch, to use a GPS to geotag you need a GPS capable of either creating a trail (track) or that knows when you shoot. I had a look at on camera solutions, expensive to tell you the truth. I would rather spend the money to a new wide-angle lens.

But wait, I own a Garmin Vista C, sure it’s not new but it works and it tracks movement! It might not be as glamorous as a Jobo but at least I do not need to have further expenses, I found some good resources on line to take the GPX file and auto geotag my photos. And I am going to try it this week-end.

I thing to remember when going it this way, synchronise the Camera’s time to the GPS!

Further on my experiences soon.

About photographing marine wildlife from terra-firma…

This was my first time trying to get photos of marine wildlife. I learned a couple of things trying to get them whales when they breach. I thought I would share them with you…

1. Do not use a tripod!
   OK, I lie, I would use a tripod if you have it fitted with a Wimbley Head and a 800mm weighing a ton, I do not have either as both have seriously prohibitive prices. The truth is the tripod will be in your way.
2. Do not look through the viewfinder to search!
   You will miss the action, rather scan that large ocean, when you see something point, shoot and hope that you got it in the frame.
3. Set your camera to continuous shooting.
4. Set your camera to centre focus
   Actually, now that I think about it, is there any other settings? At least for a wildlife photographer.
5. Pick a good sensible exposure.
   Around 250ms and up to catch the action, the higher the better.
6. Do not go to the full extent of your zoom.
   You can always crop it later… Try Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, it changed my mind about workflow and post-processing, it makes it so easy.
7. Try to be on a high point with a wide view.
8. And try to be there on a sunny day, I was not and it unfortunately shows…

All of that because marine wildlife moves bellow water and you cannot predict where or when thing are going to happen.

Good shooting to all.

Cross-posted from www.onlyinsothafrica.com

Some post-processing comparisons

I am by no means a post-processing master, I have only started to do post-processing in the last few months an found it more then necessary on most images I take, not that the photo is bad. Post-processing allows to add so much more vibrance to photos, some may call it cheating, I used to, I do not believe it anymore.

For example take this photo (all photos have been resized to 600×400 pixels):

No post-processing

High Pass Sharpening with Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2

Post-processed with Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 all automatic, maybe a little too sharp

Post-processed with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.4 all automatic

Tone-mapped with High Dynamic Range in Photomatix Pro 3.2 using 3 photos.

Exposure Fusion with Photomatix Pro 3.2 using 3 photos.

Personally the Exposure Fusion and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 are my favourite, however for Exposure Fusion as for High Dynamic Range  it takes at least 2 identical photos at different exposure like HDR to achieve any results, that means using a tripod and ideally taking 3 to 7 photos at different exposure to get the best results and I will need to buy Photomatix Pro 3 as i am only running the trial at this time, see the watermarks?

I would also love to use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 but the premium is preventing me right now, the demo is great though, I love it.

I still have so much to learn from post-processing, next thing you know I’ll be using Photoshop

My Camera history – The Digital Age.

After much research and deliberations, I decided to switch brands at that time, Nikon and Canon both had tempting offers and I tried both. Canon came out tops and a few months later I bought a Canon EOS 300D, the digital age downed on me…

I got a good package for the price, a Canon EOS 300D with the Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6, a Canon EF 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6 USM and the battery grip, to begin with I was satisfied. I bought a Sigma APO 170-500mm F5-6.3 DG lens to compliment and be able to do wildlife as well. I was working within my budget of the time and, retrospectively, the gear did the job very well. It was not yet a hobby though I started to like photography far more that in the film days. The simple fact that the results are immediate and that there is no printing cost associated made it easier for me to experiment and that is when photography became a hobby.

Unfortunately, my Canon EOS 300D with the Sigma attached took a serious fall at Augrabies Falls in the Northern Cape and had to be replaced quickly. I was lucky to find a Canon EOS 400D in Upington at a reasonable price. You got to understand that Upington, whilst being one of my favourite cities in South Africa, is very isolated for the rest of the world. I was lucky to find one before I went into the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Peace Park and so armed with a Canon EFS 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 and a Canon EF 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6 USM I entered the park, click here for the photographs. I found the 55-200 barely adequate for my needs it just did not have the reach, but I suppose the results were satisfactory.

After that unfortunate incident I had some serious decisions to make, my insurance did not cover the full amount (my mistake I under insured) so I simply got a replacement battery grip, a Canon Speedlite 430EX flash, a Manfrotto 190XPROB tripod with a Manfrotto 322RC2 Heavy Duty Grip Ball Head and a Crumpler bag. That was 2 years ago. I eventually got the nerves to add a lens to my collection, I was looking at the Sigma APO 170-500mm F5-6.3 DG again but I wanted something better, something more solid, I tested the Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM lens and found it to be heavy and rather pricy at the time, after all I was barely a hobbyist photographer, what would I do with a near professional lens? It took me a couple of months but the need got the better of me and I bought it along with a Canon Extender EF 2.0XII. The sheer quality of the images I could get with this lens changed my position and I became more than a hobbyist, closer to a junior amateur. That lens opened a whole new world for me and it did not stop at wildlife photography. It took me a further 18 months and a lot of research to chose the right “all purpose” lens, I finally settled on the Canon EF 28-70mm f/2.8 USM L and I am not sorry. As I say, once you have had exposure to Canon L lenses you will never go back. I sold my Canon EF 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6 USM and through away my Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6. Today I still have my Canon EOS 400D and with my investments in Canon lenses I am committed to stay with Canon. I have also added a Manfroto 804RC2 Basic Pan Tilt Head for my tripod, a polarising filter and a Lowepro SlingShot 300 AW bag to my gear.

Last year I started my Flickr collection which now includes 1422 photos and growing. This year in March this blog became a photo-centric website committing me to improve and learn more on photography, though I do not intend to become a professional, an amateur status will be good enough.

In part 3 I will discuss how I learned to photograph since I committed myself last year.