Min DOF Photography

I’ve got a really special offer for you all; 40D for unbelievable 800 EUR. Now that’s a real steal. Don’t forget to check out the updated pricelist as well. The further discounted prices are coloured red, to make it easier to spot for you.

You don’t have to rob a bank to get yourself a nice camera .

And here’s the complete Canon cashback scheme:
EOS 5D body €200 Cashback
EOS 40D body €150 Cashback
EOS 400D body €60 Cashback
EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM €50 Cashback
EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM €50 Cashback
EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM €100 Cashback
EF 17-40mm f/4L USM €50 Cashback
EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM €70 Cashback
EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM €60 Cashback
EF 50mm f/1.2L USM €70 Cashback
EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM €100 Cashback
EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM €60 Cashback
EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM €70 Cashback
EF 70-200mm f/4L USM €50 Cashback
EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM €50 Cashback
EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM €50 Cashback
EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM €100 Cashback
Speedlite 580EX II €50 Cashback
Macro Ring Lite MR-14EX €30 Cashback

Oh my god, I almost forgot about ONA covers, after waiting for so long to be published. So now that it’s finally here I’m almost as overjoyed as the first time that my photo was published on the cover . The scan still sucks and to make things even worse, I’ve messed up her nose, trying to “iron” the paper wrinkle that was there. I’ll swap it as soon as I get my hands on a wrinkle-free copy. I thought that this photo (added space on the left to fit the cover, since I didn’t want to crop it), would look better on the cover (in my opinion it’s more of a cover material, she looks her best on this one and it’s a bit more positive), but at the end it was, as always with all the newspapers, the editor’s choice. From a photographical point of view, I like it (the one on the cover) better, so it just might be a better promotion for me (although it’s not a photograph made for the masses).

EDIT 21:34: new scan

If you’re one of my frequent readers, then you already know about the Sony alpha 300 kit that I’ve tested last week. The a300 review is already written and is just waiting to be proofreaded, so it’s hopefully going to be posted due tomorrow on slo-foto. In this post I’m going to focus on one of the crown jewels of the Sony lens lineup . I’m not going to draw any concrete conclusions, since that would be very unwise after just five days of mostly bad weather testing, along with two other lenses. I’ll just post some samples and write my thought about various aspects of this lens.

Sharpness is good. Even very good. The lens gets sharp at f1.7 and continues to gain sharpness up to f4. To be honest, I didn’t even try it above f4. It just doesn’t matter to me, wether the lens is sharp at f8. Especially when it comes to a f1.4 lens. And because I’m not a studio photographer. What confused me a bit, is the lack of “microdetails” (skin pores etc) especially when shot at wider apertures. I suspect that might (also) be the result of a rather strong AA filter on a300. I also got the feeling that it’s not as sharp wide open as either of the Canon 85’s. But as I said before, I’m not drawing any conclusion. I’ll let you be the judge of its image quality. So please, leave a comment. CA is also quite noticeable at f2. I know that CA is a common problem with fast lenses. But usually things get a lot better when a lens is stopped down for 1 f stop or more. Bokeh is really smooth and creamy and the colours also seem good, natural, nicely saturated, but not too punchy. I can’t comment on the AF speed, since a300’s AF is pretty slow, but it is accurate, I got the vast majority of wideopen and almost wideopen shots in focus. Built quality is excellent, the housing is made of metal. It gives you a really robust feeling while holding it in your hand. I just don’t understand why it doesn’t have internal focusing, since the lense stretches quite a bit during focusing. The difference in length of the lens between extreme focus distance (min focus distance to infinity) is approximately 2 cm.

Below you can see the samples, so you can judge the lenses image quality for yourself. All shot in RAW and converted to jpg. Downsized samples are slightly sharpened (the first is obviously also desaturated and I’ve added quite a lot of contrast), while 100% crops, of course, aren’t postprocessed. View LARGER, or else you’re just judging the quality of Wordpresses downsizing algorithms.

f2, 1/320, ISO 200

f2, 1/250, ISO 200

f1.7, 1/160 ISO 100

I’m not posting the complete shot, because I don’t want him to get his ass whooped by his momma . The framing is almost identical to the first sample. This one looks best to me, perhaps ISO 200 is already “eating up” microdetails…Both are taken at ISO 100 (both crops are from the same image).

f1.4, 1/160, ISO 100

And below you can see a series of boring sharpness comparisons between different aperture settings. All shot at ISO 200.

f1.4

f1.6

f1.7

f2

f2.8

f4

Unfortunately there seems to be impossible to get 1Ds mkIII long enough to make a complete review. So there won’t be any review on slo-foto, as I promised. So I’m posting a few high ISO samples, that JD asked for. All the photos were taken in sRAW mode (approximately 5.2 mpix), since I think that it’s insane to shoot snapshots at 21 mpix. You can see a few downsized samples, all taken at ISO 1600 or pushed 1 stop from ISO 800 (exif is included, so I’m not going to write it down below the photos). Taken at a local Texas Hold ‘em tournament. It was for the first time that I was glad I didn’t make it to the finals. I had the time to shoot . Photos are postprocessed (only contrast and slight sharpness added after downsizing).

EDIT: I forgot to mention that all photos were taken with the nifty fifty (50 1.8). And it performed pretty well, I’d say better than on any of the croppers (sharpness seems pretty good at f2.2). Even bokeh wasn’t bad and the colours were ok too. But what fascinated me the most, is the field of view. It’ s awesome, its’ perfect, you can shoot virtually everything with it. And no, it’s not the same as mounting 30 1.4 on 30D. You get the same FOV, but the feeling is just different. It’s the difference that you really can’t put your finger on.

worried

If you can’t maintain your poker face, then put ya glasses on

Checkin’

Bettin’ (I wish I shoot it with the chip in mid air, but it was a one time opportunity, since players usually don’t throw chips around)

100% crop, totally unprocessed of course. I looks amazing to me (not in the D3 class of course, but with almost the double resolution, that’s impossible)

And for the end, a snapshot from slo-foto’s last workshop. He really wants to be a model . f2, 85mm. Looks pretty nice, right (DOF!!!, bokeh…)?

Model: Lucifix

Gear: a300, Dt 11-18 (11mm, f4.5, 1/40, ISO 400)

I got a very nice alpha 300 kit today. I was given the choice to handpick the lenses that interested me. Carl Zeiss Planar T* 85 1.4 was, of course, my first choice. From the rest of the lenses, flasguns etc I decided to take DT 11-18, since UWA lenses are always fun to use. I also got the battery grip, which is amazing. I’ve never seen such awesome ergonomics, my hand becomes one with it.

When I came home with the kit I opened up the 85 1.4 box. Damn, the lens already feels crazy. Such a solid built and you can just feel the cold though metal housing. I feels even tougher than Canon 85 1.2L aka Canonball. I guess it just because Canon is bigger and heavier, so you expect the toughness and massiveness. Besides that I think Canon was a plastic finish…I’m not sure and it doesn’t really matter. What I’m sure about is that it’s top class merchandise. But there is one thing I noticed and find a bit weird. It (CZ 85) changes length during focusing and quite a lot, around 2 cm when you move it from min focus distance to infinity. I wonder how’s this affecting durability, does it get loose in the long run etc. Even my cheap Canon 85 1.8 has internal focusing. But it’s plastic on the other hand.

Here are a couple of the kit’s pics:

EDIT: I forgot to write down that Canon Cashback is still alive and kickin’ (until 30.6.), so some items really do come cheap (400D 464,40 EUR for example). Here’s the complete list:
EOS 5D body €200 Cashback
EOS 40D body €150 Cashback
EOS 400D body €60 Cashback
EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM €50 Cashback
EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM €50 Cashback
EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM €100 Cashback
EF 17-40mm f/4L USM €50 Cashback
EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM €70 Cashback
EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM €60 Cashback
EF 50mm f/1.2L USM €70 Cashback
EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM €100 Cashback
EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM €60 Cashback
EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM €70 Cashback
EF 70-200mm f/4L USM €50 Cashback
EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM €50 Cashback
EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM €50 Cashback
EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM €100 Cashback
Speedlite 580EX II €50 Cashback
Macro Ring Lite MR-14EX €30 Cashback

Last saturday a couple of my friends Tunyo and Lana got married. I already wrote a post about preparing for this wedding. Well, the weather turned out the way I didn’t wanted. But everything else was running smooth. And you know what they say; bad weather on the wedding day brings luck. And I wish them all the luck in the world. And after all it’s batter having a “sunny” marriage and a “rainy” wedding day then the other way around.

As I said, the weather was awful, it was pouring rain. So we really had to cut short the “romantic” or better said posed part of the shots. I wrote down 15-20 ideas on a piece of paper, but I could only take a few. We took a few photos under the castle’s arches, a couple on the hallway (the ambient sucked) and we ran outside to take a few shots. Below you can see one of the shots that I took outside. Please view the ENLARGED photos (click on them) for better viewing experience (better quality as well).

We got a bit wet. I’m glad I had 1Ds mkII that can handle all weather situations.

After that we moved to the hotel. We started with some cocktails, then took a lot of group shots. The food that was served at the dinner was delicious and the games between the meals interesting. I really enjoyed taking shots of all the events that occurred, it’s a really if you shoot people that you know. And that are cool, are willing to pose and get into some stupid shit as well. Take a look at the photos and you’ll know what I mean. There were quite a few rappers among us, I’ll name them next to the photos they’re on.

I forgot to mention that the ambient and setting was nice, romantic etc.

Let’s get to the people shots:

Pimpin’

Tunyo’s crew

First dance

Another rapper, Flamie on the right

The shot above was taken during a very interesting and fun game. Men had to protect their girlfriends which had a balloon tied to their ankle, from other men’s women which were trying to punch the balloon with their high heels

Did I mentioned the food was great? He couldn’t get enough of it

Even I ended up on a few shots. Just before that we were freestylin’, the one on the left is a real freestyler and rapper - Palijo. The rest of us were just improvising. I’m not sure who’s the author of this photo, I think it’s the girl on the right on the photo below

Girls…

Karaoke

The beast is mine. Yeah! Ok, it’s mine for an unknown period of time. Besides being a FF 21 mpix monster it has a few very cool new bells and whistles. The one that became useful almost the same instant that I got it, was the AF microadjustment function. I used it to compensate for the (just a few days ago discovered) backfocus of my 85 1.8. User can adjust it in 40 steps (from -20 to +20). The others are…Well ask google . Below you can see the before/after difference:

I just have to get me a RAW converter (I’ll probably try Lightroom 2 Beta), so I can finally shoot in RAW. I’ll use it with prime lenses exclusively. I was making arrangements to rent a 70-200 2.8 tomorrow, but I’ll probably just take 50 1.4 instead, which is also available. Along with my 85 1.8, it’ll be a pretty nice combo. It’s just a shame there’s no way to get a 135L. Now that would be a killer combo.

And here’s the pure gold diptych :

I got it today, along with the new 18-55 IS lens (kit). I haven’t done any testing yet since it’s cloudy and windy outside and it could start raining any minute as well. The first things that I noticed were the larger display, slightly bigger grip (it does feel a bit better in your hand) and a bit larger viewfinder. But basically it still looks like 400D. Most of the improvements are however beyond what your eyes can see. The new 12.2 Mpix sensor, DIGIC III with 14 bit processing, highlight priority, higher capacity battery and you can now continuously shoot at 3.5 fps. There’s also live view and it takes SD memory cards. I’m not sure about the latter, it sure is fine for those who are swapping their compact cameras for 450D, because they most likely already have SD memory cards. And SD cards can also be used for other purposes, as a storage device in MP3 players etc. On the other hand it’s yet another expense for those who have used CF based cameras. I have to test it with a 256 MB SD card . I have to get me a larger capacity memory card. If someone can spare one for a week, it would be great . Menu system has been redesigned as well and it enables features such as direct control of Speedlite flash units from the camera LCD.

The things that I can see as a con are; buffer that can store only 6 RAW images and the reduced number of buttons on the camera. Canon could have also incorporated sRAW. After all, 3 mpix would be more than enough for web publishing and 13×18 cm prints. That would be enough for media coverages and it would save users a lot of space on their memory cards and hard drives. While the user would still enjoy all the benefits that RAW can offer: better DR, more postprocessing options etc.

Here are a couple of Canon press release photos:

I’ll write a review on slo-foto.net and probably post some samples on this blog as well (surely if I’ll get a nicer lens to use along with 450D). Stay tuned .