photos of hans koot

<p>Advise needed. Yesterday I was on the beach nearby in the great weather we photographers need. Shower on the right, sun and a low tide. I was actually on a hike with my family and brought my new 5dMKII with me My shots in conditions without a bright sky were correctly exposed, but pracitcally all shots with a bright sky/ front light were overexposed by 1 to 1'1/2 stop about. In the example the image settings are shown. Walking there with the family made it tough to look and control all settings so I started exposure autobracketing to be sure. I can only work with the files that are 1 2/3 underexposed. The 'normal' shots are overexposed and the 1 2/3 overexposed ones have little viewable data. (highlight priority was off)<br>

- do i use wrong settings<br>

- should I have the camera examined by canon?</p>

<p>thanks!</p><div></div>

<p>You can stop down the lens a bit and vignetting will improve as well as sharpness. I found vignetting sometimes adds to the photo, but thats no common rule of course.</p>

<p>there is a review (in dutch, that might be a problem :-)<br>

here: http://digifotopro.nl/artikel/2320844/review-sigma-24-70mm-f2-8-if-ex-dg-hsm<br>

there is no comparison however. It scores well on sharpnessspecially wide ande medium distance, flare resistant, good contrast, fast AF. cons are large filter tread 82 mm, distortion and CA.</p>

 

<p>As an addition: I was very impressed after my first 30 minutes by the quality it delivers.<br>

I have my 5dMKII just a week now and it keeps amazing me , I shot a theatre production in dim light with results previously not possible. But nearly 48 GB needed for 1800 shots... thats a real problem :-) Battery capacity is great, I only needed to change after 6-7 hours working in the theatre with more then 1500 shots on the counter and still had about 20% left. I had no focussing problems with a rented 70-200 2.8 in these circumstances.<br>

My advice is to use it</p>

<p>I agree with Ken, the mlu discussion has become useless because of the one button live view direct access, I think its great option. You can even project a grid (two possibilities). I am not worried about the mentioned minors, I am more concerned with weather sealing problems that might occur after the quite dissapointing antarctica experience of the luminous landscape. (this dicussion has been done).</p>

<p>Seems like the 24-70 will not give you what you're missing right now. Some thoughts, just mine... You might also look for a mint 5d body and have them both, though I must say that I heard they are difficult to get in Canada. Its the question if you need the pixels and the low light sensitivity. Nevertheless its always a quarrel as hobbyist between justifying and and... I say that its cheaper then having cars as a hobby :-). So I ordered a 5d MKII myself and will do with a tamron 28-75 first. Mine is very sharp on a crop body, but I have to see it on ff again, couldn't miss the ff as well. You can buy the MKII with a 50mm again as well and start saving for the 24-70 later. But I had trouble in dealing with that as well so I told myself to be lucky that I am able to choose.. haha, succes!</p>

<p>We should have been in contact just a week ago, I buy you a mint 5d and you buy me a new 5d mkII, hmm sounds good, minum effort maximum profit.... pity its too late only :-)</p>

<p>It will be a very interesting test, if you publish your findings again?<br>

Here in the netherlands its relatively easy to find a mint 5d for round 1000 euro's, bad luck the course of the canadian dollar is that low. It might also be the cause when they shop from the US perhaps. you can even buy it new here in some places round 1300 euros, and thats low.... I just ordered a 5d MKII, can hardly wait :-)<br>

I've problems with a second hand sigma 12-24. my latest try with it suggested focussing at about 2 meters improved overall quality dramatically instead of focussing on infinity. But a more proper test is needed to confirm these findings, so I probably run a test this afternoon again.</p>

<p>A shot thats sharp cannot be sharpened as much as a shot wich isn't, at least in my experience. It will hurt your eyes when you crack it up like you siad :-) Therefore it seems to me your 'new' 5d is a tad off focus, and not the second hand you bought. Besides what Rainer mentioned more causes can be true. Youre camera/ lens combination might also be front/backfocussing the other way around, tests with other lenses might give you a clue of whats happening.<br>

And yes, every item is made within tolerances, and together they just might turn out wrong.</p>

<p>I used 28-75 tamron and 70-200 2.8 IS on a 400D, iso 800 if permitted otherwise 1600 (terrible from a 400d). A stabilized and long zoom gives great advantage, both in stabilising and in making your crops while shooting. A pro lens gives the advance of very fast and reliable af. Other then said I found IS very valuable while shooting, but everybody finds the best way for him or herself. In my opinion theatre is most demanding from gear. Rapid changing lights, and often fast movement. As said before spot metering and only center AFwill most times work best. I personally think a Nikon d700/D3 will probably do the best job in theatre.<br>

<br /> For white balance I first used an expodisc and made white balance with white light, I asked before the play to give my some white light for my shooting, wich normally was no problem. I now mainly shoot with auto white balance, somehow it looks better, while perhaps a bit less neutral (as far as possible with many coloured lights).<br /> I've ordered a 5d mkII now and hope its there before next saturday, I will be able to make testshots for the coming play in two weeks and see how iso 6400 will do as well as raw vs sRaw! For me best choice was the 5d mkII because my other hobby is shooting landscapes. If I was only shooting landscapes I would probably have ordered an A900 Sony, only theatres a D700 and for both a 5dmkII, being most alround camera. Photos from past years can be found on my website.</p>

<p>Hi Colin, yes, polariser will not be possible, but large nd grads are good idea. I did use them handheld before, and when the camera is mounted on a tripod I often find it much easier to adjust the right position by handheld use! large filters might pe pricy though, I will see and check, or perhaps just autobracket. Though I must say canons autobracketing functions are primitive for a semi pro body, and compared to the competition. In the meantime I've ordered my 5dmkII, quite a steep step up! I am looking forward.</p>

<p>Hi Colin , Thanks very much for your answer, and nice to see you (well, sort of) here again :-). I tested mine at f8 and f11. Because there indeed hardly is any competition for this lens I want it, it also fits well in my photography. Wich filters did you use for it? because its an extra problem indeed with this lens. Good to hear you have better experiences, though the sharpnes from side to side seems bit weird as well.</p>

<p>Thanks Juergen, did you have youre copy calibrated with sigma? Anyway good to hear there are sharp copies around. I just found this one on the web http://www.juzaphoto.com/eng/articles/sigma_12-24_review.htm<br>

I downloaded the raw file and was impressed (no way mine has that sharpness). He also warns about less sharp copies.</p>

 

<p>I Seemed to have picked up a bad copy of this one (second hand), wich as I found out (to my shame, I should have checked better) seems to occur more often. After some testing: focus/sharpness seems a bit wave like, very soft in the center and noticably , actually quite much, sharper to the corners. Raising the sharpness high in ps raw improves a lot, more then expected, but still makes it not spot on. Curiously enough this seems not to spoil (oversharpen) my photo as it would do with my other lenses (comparison with tokina 12-24). This is on an aps-c sensor. More about the wave form of the sharpness: I asked someone to make some shots on a 5d 'mk II (I ve planned on investing in a 5d mkII, thats why I bought it) and sharpness seems off to the corners again. So here the pattern is: soft in the center, then a quite sharp area, and soft to the corners. It was tested on my 6 kg Gitzo. No stability problem. So what should I do, are there good experiences with calibrating, or aligning a sigma 12-24 or should I better sell it again and take care to get a good copy?</p>

<p>Thanks for your input here!</p>

<p>congrats!</p>

<p>puppy face is right, as an addition: I noticed the same with theatre shots with red or blue lights. My explanation is that if you look at the bayer pattern of the sensor you see the reds only cover one quarter of the sensor. When you shoot nearly pure red and blown out or near blown out youre camera is having hard times to get it right. I am interested in other opinions about this theorie.</p>

<p>mostly, exept in artificial light. I always shoot in raw, and take care later most of the times.</p>

<p>Ray, I used the 2200 and now I have the 4800. The 2200 just doesn't print B&W, it gives different color casts in every light source. Any of the others will make you wonder why you didn't do it before. Other inksets might be an option if you print only B&W.</p>

<p>On the other hand, did I ever explain how much detail you get from a polaroid? Of course it has to be properly exposed. Cosider it as a kind of medium format direct positive. The best thing is you don't even have to bother about an expensive printer! or bother about lenses!</p>

<p>Hi William, I am sure you now know what to choose.</p>

<p>tripod yes, and consider to buy something at the long end, 70-200 or 70-300 accounting the things you do, with IS (image stabilisation). wide maybe another step.</p>

<p>or a used 10-20 sigma, or used tokina 12-24. If you're tight on a budget thats what I would advise you, and is what I do.</p>

<p>What an endless discussion.... great!, here is my part :-)</p>

<p>question: Is there a difference between scanned film and digital? whats the best way to have film scanned by a lab?<br>

1 scanned film is a digital image (call it high res photo wehn performed best) from a neg or a slide<br>

2 a digital photo is directly taken with the sensor by a camera.</p>

<p>best way to have it scanned is where they scan with a drumscanner. (expensive yes)</p>

<p>its as easy as that.....<br>

what you like or not just depends on your personal interest.</p>

<p>shot on a wedding last year in stormy weather. Something what might have easily become boring became rather hilarious.</p><div></div>

<p>pc, quad core , 8 gig, 2,5 tb, lacie 22, vista 64 fast and stable, pleasure working with.</p>

<p>I am with Jun. There is plenty to explore on the xsi in terms of quality and in developing your skills.<br>

As a mountain hiker I also think that weight counts.</p>