steve_brantley2

"The fact that a lens is or is not an L is utterly irrelevant to a test of how it performs and the conclusions that can be drawn. Just the facts, Ma'm. Just give me the facts."

 

That comment, Larry, would panic the Canon R&D "L" lab, if their engineers felt the majority of Canon lens owners believed what you said. I think one of the advantages of an expensive L lens, as well-marketed by Canon, is the ability to shoot sharper images, especially in the corners, with the aperture wide open.

 

So I'll say it again. Most any consumer priced prime or zoom lens, at its widest aperture setting, is going to be softer than when used at f/8. Even a Leica M or R 50mm will not perform at its optimal capability unless the aperture is set closer to f/8. So how can dpreview.com criticize the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 prime lens for being soft at f/1.4? What did the reviewer expect to find at f/1.4? By their logic, the lens deserves to be praised if it is sharp at f/8. Duh?

By the way,Paul G, I do have an amazing copy of the 50mm f/1.4. It is soft wide open at f/1.4, like any other non-L

lens, as most people and camera manufacturers expect them to perform.

 

When I said the dpreview.com writeup is absurd to criticize the softness of this lens at f/1.4, I am referring to the

reviewer's expectation that the lens should ideally sharper at f/1.4. Again, this is not the L version, so what does the

reviewer expect to find at f/1.4? Ever heard the adage "F/8 and be there"? A wide open lens is not going to give you

the best sharpness any more than cranking the aperture down to f/22 or beyond, when the tendencies inherent

with "circles of confusion" emerge. It is somewhere in the mid-point of the aperture range that generally produces

the best image quality. Therefore, I stand by my comment that the dpreview.com summary of this particular Canon

lens unfairly criticizes the sharpness when shot wide open.

I found the review to be rather poor and critical of a great lens, probably my favorite lens in my camera bag. To characterize this lens, or any lens (other than a true L Canon lens) as soft at f/1.4, is absurd. What does the reviewer expect for a non-L lens? I think the reviewer spends too much time testing a lens in a controlled lab environment, and not inthe field.

Greetings, and thanks in advance for recommendations about which of these two great lens choices to consider. I

have read the archives here to check on similar inquiried, but I still have a few questions.

 

I am familiar with the EF 70-200 F/4 L lens, and rented one this weekend to pan motorcycle racers speeding by at a

sporting event. The results were impressive with shots where my focus was tack sharp, with great contrast and color

saturation. So now I want one, or something similar, as my longest lens I currently own is the EF 100 macro. I

briefly considered the EF 75-300, but prefer something faster, and ideally an L lens.

 

I usually prefer a prime lens, so my question has to do with purchasing either the EF 70-200 f/4 L or the EF 200 f/2.8

L. Both are L models and are priced in the same range. The 200 f/2.8 prime probably has fewer glass elements, is

lighter, and is probably a littler sharper.

 

At the motorcycle race, I never used the 70-200 zoom feature, but shot everything at the long end at 200mm.

Therefore, the zoom option wasn't really a benefit for me, and probably wouldn't be a strong reason for me to want

the 70-200 for that convenience alone. Instead, I care more about optical quality, and dont mind changng lens or

using "feet" zoom.

 

Is there anything I'm overlooking in thinking the 200 f/2.8 L may serve me better than the 70-200?

 

Again, thanks for all advice from users of either lens.

Well, I bought both version for my 5D, and I can say the Digital Field Guide is far superior in content and illustrations. That makes me assume the 40D Digital Field Guide is the better choice.

I have the 100 Macro for my full frame 5D, and love it. But it I owned a 1.6x crop body like a 40D or the XTI,I would prefer to have the 60mm macro and a Canon extension tube. It would be less expensive to purchase the 60 macro and an extension tube, and would not be so huge on the XTI, as I think you woud find the 100 macro to overwhelm the smaller size of the XTI.

http://mycanong9.com/index.html

 

Any Canon Powershot G7 or G9 owner should frequent this great web site.

Thanks to everyone's helpful comments to my original question. As I am most comfortable shooting JPEGs and using the latest version of Photoshop Elements, and I have only recently begun to learn RAW post processing, I still have to work within the confines of the JPEG image. But in time, I hope to jump fully into the RAW.

 

I do not have my Canon 5D any longer (sold, with regret, to finance my D200 when I left the dark side and came back to Nikon). But I recall the Canon 5D basically gave me a JPEG image that closely approximated what the eye saw in terms of color, saturation, etc. It seemed to more faithfully reproduce the scene without the surprises that my D300 yields too often.

 

But as I said, I have mostly solved the overexposure issue by turning down the brightness setting in the Picture Mode options, and I hope to get eventually straigthen out the saturation and contrast extremes that plague my JPEGs too frequently. And if I can't get it solved, I suppose I'll wait for the next generation 5D MK II to come out later this year and then I'll jump back to the dark side.

 

Regards.

I have a question for fellow D3 and D300 users regardng the Picture Mode

settings, and specifically, if anyone can comment on the use , or your results

when selecting the "Average" (A) setting for contrast, saturation, sharpening,

etc., compared to the default settings centered between the + and - marks. I

find the Nikon user manual for my D300 doesn't really explain this point

clearly. Does anyone routinely use the Auto feature, and what are your results?

 

I have finally solved my persistent overexposure problem after I reduced the

Brightness setting. Don't know why my particular D300 shoots at up to 1 1/2

f/stops overexposed on many images when the Picture Mode setting for brightness

is in the middle default setting. Thanks to the archives for revealing this

troubleshooting fix.

 

Right now I prefer the Standard setting for most images, and my only tweak to

it has been to reduce the brightness level. I also turned down the Saturation

level on the Vivid picture mode because the default setting gets out of control

on sunny days with lots of contrast.

 

Adjusting the Contrast level above the default settings also seems to give

mixed results in sunny days with extremes in the exposure range. Right now I

think I prefer to adjust Contrast later in post processing, using Photoshop

Elements.

 

I also am learning that is better to not crank up the Sharpness setting above

the default (lower) level. It seems better to sharpen in post-procesing

instead, as I keep reading here.

 

The Monochrome picture mode setting now seems of less value to me and I do not

use it anymore, now that I've started to learn, and use the superior B&W

settings in Photoshop Elements. Does anyone disagree?

 

I have also successfully downloaded the D2's three picture modes, and I am

playing around with them. So far, I like II and III the best for their greater

saturation (compared to I's neutral tonality).

 

In conclusion, while I appreciate Nikon's effort to give the D300 user several

choices of Picture Modes, I find my images don't always give me what the eye

sees, with odd contrast and saturation results. I never had trouble like this

with film, or when I had my D200 or Canon 5D.

 

Thanks for any comments about the Automatic setting, or other observations

about the various picture modes.

I have Canon's (huge) wide angle lens adapter, and all I can say is the quality of photographs taken with it are excellent. Just be careful you don't scratch the front lens element, because it is huge, and exposed with no lens hood provided.

Yes, I routinely have the same problem with my D300, and efforts to look for an answer here on photo.net have not yielded quite the advice I need. If you do a Google seach for "D300 overexposure", you will see the extent of this problem among many D300 owners.

Linda, it is possible you changed the D300's default settings for the Standard picture control in a way that raised the saturation level at, or above the Vivid setting. Go back and check to see if an asterix * is beside the Standard indicator, which means, I believe, that something has been changed from the default setting. You can easily (or inadvertantly) change any of these picture control modes from the default "0" setting over to "A" for automatic, or above/below the default settings, by adjusting the "Quick adjust" setting. Perhaps this is the problem with the too high saturation. If this is the issue, then although you think the camera is set to Standard, the actual saturation level could be adjusted too high. When Active D-Lighting is turned on, you will not be able to adjust the contrast and brightness settings, however. Good luck finding the culprit.

Thanks to everyone (except Tak Imura sensei) for their comments. I will follow your advice. Today I went out again with the D300 set to the same settings, except the Auto ISO was turned off, and my images were much improved in exposure, color, dynamic range and contrast. I muct have had some errant setting inside the camera working against a 18% gray card level exposure, though I don't quite know what that was.

 

PS - Isn't it remarkable how most any question posted here in this forum often resutls in at least one smart-a*s comment from someone (see above)? Ah, the unbridled ego some people abuse by hiding within the nameless internet.

I failed to mention that the D300's auto bracketing was turned off, EV compensation was turned to 0.0, the AE lock button was not pressed, and Active D-Lighting was originally turned on to the normal setting. PC monitor is calibrated. Thanks again for any observations about what may be going wrong with the D300 settings.

I suppose its time to read the D300 manual again. And perhaps press the reset

button on the camera for factory default settings?. After an outing at the

local zoo, I was disappointed to find that many of the images are at least 1 to

1 1/2 stops (or more) overexposed, with washed out color, very poor contrast

and poor dynamic range. Outdoor shooting conditions were bright with some

cloud cover, and D300 settings were at ISO 200, Aperture mode, white balance

set to auto, general lens aperture settings of around f/8 on my 50mm f/1.4 and

85mm f.1.8, Matrix metering, 3-D multi point focusing, Active D-lighting turned

off, and Standard picture control. I started out with the ISO Auto turned on,

but I later turned it off. Judging the histograms at the time of shooting was

rather difficult due to the bright overhead sun's glare on the camera screen.

Not really knowing how to post an example photo here should not make any

difference, if anyone asks because as I said, many images are just way over-

overexposed. It is as if I had left the D300 in manual mode but didn't adjust

the exposure settings, and shot into the sun. But I am knowledgeable enough

about general photography to not have done that. So, is there something I'm

overlooking? I have scanned the photo.net archives and found one reference to

the auto ISO setting being a possible explanation. There is obviously some

setting in my D300 that is not giving me what the eye sees. Any advice would be

appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Scott Warn came close to understanding what my original question concerned. and trust me, I am not a newbie who needs a tutorial, like use the "picture" icon insted of the letters P,A or S on the shutter speed dial. Someone please tell me how, on a D200 or D300 and a modern AF Nikkor lens, you do ANYTHING different in the A, S or P modes to achieve the exact same combination of f/ stop and shutter speed combinations for a proper exposure, when all you do is just turn one little wheel? It doesn't matter if you set the camera in Aperture, Program or Shutter Priority (use of a flash not being considered). As you turn the single wheel/dial, and the camera gives you any number of aperture/shutter speed combinations that the light meter controls, you can selectively choose any setting that has a bias for longer or shorter shutter speeds, or varying degrees of f/ stop openings. So being in Aperture Priority has no inherent greater control over having command of the f/ stop than does any other shooting mode (not including Manual Mode). As long as you know what you want, like a shuuter speed of at least 125/sec, then the single wheel/dial you turn in A, S or P modes will ultimately show you a host of exposure combinations. This is the reason I say there is redundancy in these 3 shooting modes. it is NOT the same thing as when yoou use a film camera, like the FE2, when you turn an aperture ring ona lens and not woorry about what shutter speed the camera selects, or vice versa with the shutter speed dial on top of the FE2. But even then, you can still achieve the same f/ stop and shutter speed combinations with either mode.

Regarding modern DSLRs such as the D300 used with a modern AF Nikkor lens with

no separate aperture ring, doesn't the choice of Program, Aperture Priority and

Shutter Priority shooting modes seem redundant? With any of these three

shooting modes, when you change the aperture (or shutter speed), the

corresponding shutter speed (or aperture) changes as well. You still have the

exact same combination of aperture and shutter speed settings that give a

proper exposure. Therefore, it doesn't even matter which mode the camera is set

for, because you really don't have the ability to independently change the f/

stop or shutter speed with separate controls, as you could with older film

cameras. All you need to do is watch in the camera's viewfinder for the target

f/ stop, or minimum (or maximum) shutter speed to want to use, and turn just

one dial until you stop at the desired exposure setting. The process to select

any combination of exposure settings is exactly the same regardless of the DSLR

being in Program Mode, Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority, isn't it? This

occured to me as I tried to explain to my daughter how to use her new digital

camera. Since she never learned photography on a film camera having a lens f/

stop ring or a separate shutter speed dial, it was quite difficult for her to

visualize what I was trying to tell her concerning the various shooting modes.

Therefore, my question is this: are the three exposure modes kept on a modern

DSLR to help shooters transition over from film cameras? Or is it to assist

with the ocassional use of a Nikon AIS manual focus lens? Or is there another

reason?

http://www.nikonusa.com/template.php?cat=1&grp=2&productNr=25438

 

Nikon USA's web site has the full details, to include the new kit lens AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR (Vibration Reduction) Image Stabilization Lens

I have the G9, and I also bought the S5 for my daughter's Christmas present, so I am very familiar with that model as well. That said, I recommend the G9 because the controls and menu options are much easier to access compared to the S5, it is 12 megapixels compared to 8 megapixels with the S5, and the eye viewfinder shows the actual scene as you look through a glass "window" that is couled to the lens zoom range (identical to looking through a 35mm or digital SLR), whereas the S5 viewfinder is a grainy little TV image type viewfinder. The G9's superior eye viewfinder will enhave the user's comfort, and probable framing accuracy and composition. I would not be concerned about the G9's relative lack of "reach" on the far end of the telephoto zoom range compared to the S5, because even though both the G9 and S5 have built-in image stabilization, I believe it of diminishing value as you zoom out too far. Camera shake will still be present at the extreme end of the zoom range. Instead, I have Canon's optional wider angle zoom lens that attaches over the G9 camerea body, and it enhances my wide angle nature scenics very well. Of course, a wide angle lens adapter is also available for the S5, as well as a telephote lens adapter for bot the G9 and S5.

Any guidance would be appreciated concerning this frustrating experience I am

having with Nikon's repair service in Melville, New York. I recently purchased

a new Coolpix P5000, which is Nikon's current top-of-the-line digital point and

shoot. It is under USA factory warranty. After noticing a problem with the

wide angle to telephoto zoom feature in the eye viewer being stuck in one

position, I mailed the P5000 to Nikon's factory repair center on June 30th, and

received a service order from Nikon.

 

Throughout the month of August, Nikon said that while a one week repair

turnaround is normal, the needed repair part was on back order (probably

needing to be shipped from Asia?), and that the part would arrive by month's

end. Now they are telling me the same thing for September. At this point, the

camera has already been in their hands for 5 weeks awaiting parts, and if the

part arrives as Nikon now estimates, I still don't expect to get the camera

repaired and returned to me till late September, or even into October. That

seems like a very long time for a customer to wait for a repair, when Nikon

generally tells customers the repair time usually takes about one week. Nikon

said I'd eventually receive a 6 month warranty for their repair, but this would

run concurrently with my remaining one year factory warranty. So what good is

that? I guess it means that 2 months of my standard 12 month factory warranty

is slipping away while they are holding the camera.

 

I have demanded they either given me a more affirmative response about exactly

when the repair part will show up, or else replace my P5000 with a new one. I

told them I am a long-time Nikon customer for the past 30 years, currently own

a D200 and several new AF lens, and want to upgrade to a D300. But I said this

current experience with them makes me very reluctant to invest further into

Nikon equipment. They seem unfazed with my comments.

 

Is a 2 month wait normal to get a digital point and shoot camera repaired under

warranty? Is there something else I can do to prod them to repair, or replace

my camera sooner. Thanks for any advice.

I would appreciate receiving any user's feedback on Nikon's new SB-400

Speedlight flash, as I am thinking about adding one to my D200. For the

relatively low price (around US $110), and considering how rarely I use flash

in general, it may offer all that I need, compared to the larger and more

sophisticated (and expensive) SB-600 and SB-800 models. Thanks in advance for

all responses.

Alan and Ronald, thanks for trying to help. I took at look at my Image Size settings in the standard editor, and they are already set to the size parameters you recommended. So I remain at a loss about what to do.

I am sure there is a simple answer to this basic question, but forgive me in

advance for posing this question about downloading Nikon D200 jpeg (fine)

images into Photoshop Elements 4.0, since I struggle with learning the digital

darkroom techniques. Having a 17 year old daughter on the home computer means

I have little time myself to learn any faster.

 

Here is the question:

 

When I previously owned a Canon 20 D and later, a 5D, my highest quality jpeg

images appeared in the "Quick Fix" Editor window with the exact 4" x 6"

dimension as the 4" x 6" (or 6" x 4") crop tool that I used. There was no

image loss at all if I cropped the jpeg to this size, because the cropping

frame lines perfectly fit the jpg's boundries. The 4" x 6" size is the print

size I use at my local Wolf Camera print shop.

 

However, now that I have recently traded into a Nikon D200, I notice that a 4"

x 6" crop of each "fine" quality jpg image leaves a slight amount of the

picture outside the short ends of the picture. I canot believe it is because

the 1.5x crop factor in the Nikon D200 creates an inherently different jpeg

image size, compared to my Canon. Is there a simple "fix" to some setting

within Elements 4.0 that I'm missing?

 

I have made no other changes to my Photosho Elements 4.0 settings. I just

started downloading D200 jpegs instead of Canon 5D jpegs, and now my 4" x 6"

crops leave out part of the pictures on the ends, a bit like having to trip an

8" by 12" print to fit inside an 8" by 10" frame. Any and all advice is

appreciated. Thanks.

I had the 5D and your same lens (until this week, when I traded it all in for a Nikon D200 and 17-55 f/2.8 pro zoom). I noticed similar situations as you described, and I was constantly needing to use Photoshop to warm up my images. Perhaps your 5D's color temperature in the menu is set at a level that adds the magenta.

I have been using a friend's D80 and played around with the in-camera Retouch

Menu that allows you to take a color image and create additional B&W and sepia

shots, add Skylight and Warm filter effects, trim, do red eye reduction, and

increase or decrease the brightness level (D-lighting). But in examining my

new D200, I cannot find similar menu choices. Are they hidden away somewhere

inside the D200, or absent altogether? I understand the D80 and D200 are

virtually identical in most respects, other than build quality and the D200

having a few extra features, and so forth. So I assumed the D80's Retouch Menu

would naturally be there as well. It would be great to have these in-camera

image tweaking options in the D200, but if not, I can just use Photoshop

afterwards. Thanks in advance for all replies.