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gerrymorgan

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Posts posted by gerrymorgan

    UK Government Response to Photography Petition

    in Casual Photo Conversations

    Posted

    <p>

    I recently signed a petition (and also wrote to the UK government) about the misuse of terrorism legislation to prevent people from taking photos in public. Today I had a reply from Gordon Brown's office (link below). Here is my reply:

    <br>

     

     

    <br>

     

    Rt Hon Gordon Brown<br />

    The Office of the Prime Minister<br />

    10 Downing Street<br />

    London SW1A 2AA

    <br>

     

    Dear Mr Brown,

    <br>

     

    Thank you for your response (http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page20750) to the petition that I signed regarding freedom to take photographs in public places. I am writing this reply as an open letter published on the popular photography web site, photo.net. I encourage you to read the comments on the page where I have published it. The link is here: (Note to PN readers: I will provide a link to this forum thread).

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    In essence, your response is that section 58A (of the Terrorism Act 2000, inserted by section 76 of the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008) does not make it illegal to photograph a police officer. You point out that "An officer making an arrest under section 58A must reasonably suspect that the information is of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism". However, there are documented cases of police officers preventing members of the public from taking photographs (or shooting video footage) and using recent terrorism legislation as a justification for doing so. For example:

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    Gemma Atkinson was detained, handcuffed and threatened with arrest under section 58A of the Terrorism Act for filming a police officer who was conducting a routine stop and search of her boyfriend at Aldgate East underground station.<br />

    <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jul/21/police-search-mobile-phone-court">http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jul/21/police-search-mobile-phone-court</a>

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    Alex Turner was arrested under section 44 of the Terrorism Act for taking a photograph of a police officer and a police community support officer in Chatham High Street.<br />

    <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/15/tall_photographers/">http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/15/tall_photographers/</a>

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    Klaus Matzka and his son, Loris, were prevented by police from photographing Walthamstow bus station. The police also intimidated them into deleting their photographs. The police said that this was in order to prevent terrorism.<br />

    <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/apr/16/police-delete-tourist-photos">http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/apr/16/police-delete-tourist-photos</a>

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    Despite your assurances that photographers have nothing to fear from terrorism laws, the above newspaper reports argue the contrary. None of the people involved in any of the above incidents could be reasonably be considered terrorists. Yet the police invoked terrorism laws in order to stop them from taking photos.

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    Mr Brown, photography is not a crime, and photographers are not terrorists. It is time to repeal the Terrorism Act 2000 and the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008, and replacing them with more clearly worded legislation which, rather than merely extending police powers, protects the open and free society that most people in the UK value highly.

    </p>

    TS-E 24mm Metering

    in Canon EOS Mount

    Posted

    <p>I find the best way to work with TS-E lenses is iteratively, both in terms of focus and exposure. I first set the focus and exposure, then apply tilt or shift, then adjust the focus and exposure again, and often repeat both steps once or twice more. With experience, it's often possible to get the exposure compensation approximately right first time, but I don't find it to be entirely predictable. The 24mm TS-E can even require more than two stops of exposure compensation.</p>

    <p>Fortunately, it's much easier than it used to be with film cameras where the only solution was bracketing (with no immediately histogram feedback)</p>

    Which EOS film bodies don't drain battery during long exposures?

    in Canon EOS Mount

    Posted

    <p>The 6xx series cameras that Douglas listed are (to my knowledge) the only EOS cameras that do not require power to hold the shutter open in bulb mode. The 630 is the best of the bunch for anyone who does not need the high performance of the RT, but you might not care about its advantages over the 620 and 650 (faster film transport and better flash metering). The fixed pellicle mirror of the RT costs you some light and is therefore not best suited to astro use.</p>

    <p>If you decide to get one, the achilles heel of these cameras is a sticky shutter caused by the breakdown of a rubber stopper on the bottom of the shutter blade.</p>

    remotely triggered speelite - AND the (40d) built-in?

    in Canon EOS Mount

    Posted

    <p>Yes, you should use all your flashes in manual mode, or all in E-TTL mode. Unfortunately, with your existing setup, you have one flash that only works in E-TTL mode (the camera's popup flash) and another that only works in manual mode (the 580 cannot do E-TTL because you are using Pocket Wizards to fire it). Your choices are:</p>

    <ul>

    <li>Get another manual flash and use an additional PW to fire it (or, to save money, use a cable connected to the camera's PC socket, or perhaps an optical slave if working indoors or in subdued light). If you do this, do not buy another 580EX -- get a cheaper flash because you will only be using it in manual mode. There's a strong argument for getting a non-Canon flash because anything older than the 580EX II will need an adapter (or some electrical modification) in order for you to plug in your PW cable.</li>

    <li>Get a second 580EX (or a used 550EX), abandon the PWs and use one flash on the camera's hot shoe and the other triggered by the first flash via Canon's infrared system. The advantage is E-TTL. The disadvantage is infrared (line of sight, unreliable in bright light).</li>

    <li>Get a second Canon EX flash and a Canon ST-E2 transmitter to fire the two flashes. Same advantages and disadvantages as the previous option, but you get to have two flashes off-camera. However, it's more expensive. </li>

    </ul>

    <p>I would go for the first option and do a lot of reading on the <a href="http://strobist.blogspot.com/"><strong>Strobist</strong> </a> web site and on Photo.Net's own lighting forum.</p>

    Is the Canon 50D for me?

    in Canon EOS Mount

    Posted

    <p>Some respect for your folks' budget is called for. Also some realism about how much difference there is between "full frame" cameras and those with "crop" sensors. I have a 20D and a 5D (Mark 1). The difference is subtle.<br>

    There are some good deals on the 40D at the moment (refurb at Adorama). Paired with the Canon 17-55mm, you would have a great low-light setup, as long as your subjects are not moving (IS will not stop the action, of course). That lens is decent for portraits too as long as you don't need to get in too close. Add a Tamron 90mm macro and you have portraits and macro covered with a truly remarkable lens.</p>

    remotely triggered speelite - AND the (40d) built-in?

    in Canon EOS Mount

    Posted

    <p>Even if you could get this setup to work, would it not be a problem that the popup flash can only do E-TTL but the 580 on the PocketWizard must operate in manual mode? So you would not have complete control over the output of the popup flash.</p>

    <p>Would your budget stretch to an inexpensive manual flash (Vivitar 285HV / used Nikon SB-28 or Canon 540EZ, or similar)? Another 580EX would be overkill for the second flash because your Pocket Wizard setup cannot use E-TTL. To save buying a second PW, you could trigger it using your 40D's PC socket, or use an optical trigger (if the ambient light will not be too bright).</p>

    Let's Stop Complaining and Do Something About Critiques

    in Casual Photo Conversations

    Posted

    <p>Critiques are the life blood of this site. They make Photo.Net far more than just camera gear forums. And because many of the critiques have real substance, they are far more valuable than what is to be found on, say, Flickr (which has its place, but there is more to life than "great captures").</p>

    <p>John Galyon started a thread in this forum earlier this month about critiquing photos we do not like (some of the people here, including Fred, participated). I promised to try doing precisely that, but it is hard because I cannot easily work up the enthusiasm to critique a photo without feeling passionate about it. What I feel about photos that I dislike is usually indifference. Conversely, when I like a photo, I would find it hard <strong>not </strong> to critique it.</p>

    <p>However, I think creating a ready-made template for critiques is not the right approach. A good critique is a discussion of the photo, or at least adds to that discussion. So how can Photo.Net inspire in its members the type of passion that is called for in order to want to spend time critiquing?</p>

    <p>Here are some procedural ideas:<br /> - Introduce "Critique of the week", just as we have a photo of the week. Let PN members vote for it, or let the elves choose it. Either approach would work. This would inspire more critiques and also foster a culture of "critiquing critiques", which would help many members to understand what good critiques look like.<br /> - Introduce some stickiness into the Critique forum so that the more often a photo is critiqued, the longer it stays around there.</p>

    <p>But things like that take time. In the meantime, let's all take five minutes to critique a photo!</p>

    Full Frame decision

    in Canon EOS Mount

    Posted

    <p>I bought a 5D (Mark 1) to complement my 20D. I got it because I wanted to use fast 35mm primes at moderately-wide focal lengths that were not well served for my 20D. I'm very pleased with it. The viewfinder is indeed wonderful. An unexpected benefit is that I also prefer the quality of the out-of focus areas that I get with my 50/1.4 (Sigma) and 85/1.8. The bokeh looks smoother with those lenses than when I use them on my 20D. However the quality of sharp areas of my photos is only marginally better with the 5D than with the 20D, and then only when displayed on screen very large. I print as large as 14x21 and I do not see a difference in my prints.</p>

    <p>If you are only looking to improve the quality of your 11x17s, I do not think you will see any difference with a 5D. I have not tried the 5D Mark II, but I doubt that it would make any noticeable difference to 11x17 prints.</p>

    Mirror Lockup

    in Canon EOS Mount

    Posted

    <p>At 1/60, the benefit of mirror lock will be slight, especially with a 50mm lens. There's not much point in locking the mirror for shorter exposures than that. There's also not much point for very long exposures (say, > 1 second) either, because the exposure still has a lot of time to run after the vibrations from the mirror have subsided. So the optimal range for mirror lock is probably from around 1s to 1/60s. Also, the longer the lens, the more useful mirror lock will usually be.</p>

    <p>As Mohammed mentioned, mirror lock is particularly useful when support is flimsy. So, if you are shooting a vertical and your tripod head requires you to flop the camera over to one side to frame the shot, mirror lock will be particularly useful.</p>

    <p>On the other hand, as others have said, if you have time to lock the mirror, it can't do any harm to do so.</p>

    Current 20D pricing... overvalued?

    in Canon EOS Mount

    Posted

    <blockquote>

    <p>"The 20D is a good camera but personally I would save a bit more for the 30D because of the bigger LCD and the better ISO quality at 400."</p>

    </blockquote>

    <p>I have both these cameras and see no difference in noise at ISO 400. Nor would I expect to -- the 20D and 30D share the same sensor and image processor (DIGIC II).</p>

     

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