yanzhang

January 26, 2010

Dear all,

Currently I am using 82mm Singh Ray Vari-ND filter on my EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II lens on 5D MArkII. However, I found most of the time, the out door shooting results (I am doing landscape photography) with this filter at more than 4 stops are not acceptable - the exposure is very uneven, the middle sky and foreground got very dark.

So I am considering to buy a fixed stop screw-in ND filter, because the reviews for fixed screw-in large stop ND filters didn't report this problem, though other problems such as color cast exist. But this always exists for all these kinds of ND filters I guess.

The two filters I am considering are B+W 82mm ND106 (6 stops) and B+W 82mm ND110 (10 stops). But I was advised yesterday by B+W that they no longer produce these 2 filters on 82mm size.

So my question is: Have some people bought any 82mm screw-in ND filters at 6 stops and 10 stops recently? Or any other suggestions?

Many thanks for your help.

Yan

December 7, 2009

Dear Helen,

Thanks for your information. I'll order one from Adorama.

December 7, 2009

Dear Geoff,

Thanks for your information, this confirmed that Hoya PPRO 1D polarizer is a thin filter. I'll order it.

December 6, 2009

Dear David,

Thanks very much for your information. I think that's all I like to know. I am using 5D Mark II body with 16-35mm f/2.8L II lens.

December 6, 2009

That is true, but not all cases: I have a Heliopan 82mm slim MC UV filter which has front threads.

December 6, 2009

Angel,

Thanks for your information. I think B+W and heliopan polarizing filters for this size seem not to be able to fit with lens cap. Heliopan may even not have front threads.

December 6, 2009

Dear all,

I am planning to buy a Hoya 82mm DMC PRO1 Digital Circular Polarizer Glass Filter for my Canon EF lens

16-35mm f/2.8L II.

I have confirmed with Adorama Customer Services that this filter has both front and back threads, and can fit with standard Canon lens cap, which are particularly important for my requirement.

But I have one more question that Adorama Customer Services could not answer: I like to confirm if this polarizing filter is a thin ring mount (slim) filter or not. I want to avoid vignetting when I put this filter on my 16-35mm f/2.8L II lens.

Does anyone have this polarizing filter for 16-35mm f/2.8L II lens? If so, is there any vignetting?

Thanks very much for your help.

November 22, 2009

I have 1, 2, 3 stops GND both in soft and hard edge filters. 1-stop GND is not so often used, but sometimes using 1-stop could be crucial. 2,3-stops are most frequently used. I am planning to get 4-stops soft and hard GND as well. For Reverse GND, I only have 3-stop, I found it is possible to combine it with 1, 2 and 3 stop GNDs in many ways, so not really need to get 2 or 4 stops Reverse GND. But if money is not an issue, I would recommend to get both 3,4 stops Reverse GND.

Only Singh Ray produces reverse GND. For GND, there are many other options. But I think Lee GND filters are equally good as Singh Ray's. But Lee only has 1, 2, 3 stop GND.

November 22, 2009

Both are important filters for landscape, and you should also get GND hard edge filters, that, if not more, at least are equally important as those soft edge filters. By the way, Singh Ray are very good of making GND and reverse GND filters, though their prices are higher than other brands.

The following photo used a 3-stop Singh Ray reverse GND:

November 22, 2009

I used Singh Ray Vari-ND a lot during my landscape photography. It is very useful when you need long exposure under strong light condition.

But one thing you need to remember: using it on wide angle lens may get vignetting. For example, with my 5D Mark II, lens 16-35mm f/2.8L II, Vari-ND can only avoid vignetting at focal length 24mm and above. Below is an example that I took at a very strong light condition with about 5-stop slower shutter speed.

November 21, 2009

Hi Charles and Cooper,

Thanks for your useful information.

November 19, 2009

Hi All,

I am planning to buy a Singh Ray polarizing filter, I have two options: either Singh Ray LB Warming Polarizing filter, or Singh Ray LB ColorCombo filter. But I have two questions, hope someone can help me to make a decision. By the way, I always take landscape photographs with Can 5D Mark II and lens 16-35mm f/2.8L II.

Question 1:

To avoid vignetting, I like to buy a thin ring mount polarizing filter, but not sure if it has front threads or not, because I also want to put a Lee filter holder on it for GND if necessary. I know Singh Ray Vari-ND filter thin ring mount type has no front threads.

Question 2:

I know Singh Ray LB ColorCombo filter combines LB warming polarizing and color intensifier. But not sure if this ColorCombo will be a better investment over just buying a LB Warming Polarizing filter for landscape photography? Consider money is not a issue.

Thanks in advance.

September 30, 2009

Thanks Bob and Norma for your information.

How do I know my rating is anonymous? I just go to the critique forum or people's photo sites, and click the photos, then rate them, or comment them. In which way I keep my rating be anonymous?

September 29, 2009

From time to time, I commented some photos and rated them. I never checked whether my rates have been in place to integrate with the existing rating of the photo.

However, I found a very strange thing recently. I rated a photo, but then the existing rating of that photo never changed, both the number of rates and the scores stayed exactly the same as before I rated.This happened most of the times. Only in a very few times, I found my rate immediately affected the existing rating of the same photo.

I also sent an email to photo net technical maintenance staff to report this, no any response.

Why this happened? Does anyone have a clue? Should we trust photo net's rating?

July 27, 2009

Heliopans are slim filters. For 17-55mm lens on crop body, you don't need slim filters. I used this lens for 2 years without using slim filters, just fine. Now I am using 16-35mm f/2.8L II on 5D Mark II, I use Heliopan slim filer, no vignetting.

July 25, 2009

Dear Charles,

Thanks for your information. I like to use LED lamp to illuminate the nearby area when I do nigh landscape photography. For instance, When I shoot in the dark in seascape, I like to have some light in the nearby rocks, and the sky could be quite dark. During the long exposure, I can capture the star trails in the sky, as well as to allow the rock be presented with some color from the LED lamp.

Will LED headlamp will do this?

July 24, 2009

I am considering to buy a LED headlamp for night landscape photography. I have got general informaiton about LED headlamp, but I found there are so many different types, not sure which particular one I should buy. There is one called "1 Watt Side-Emitting High Output LED headamp", seems to be the one I can buy. Hope some people who have experience can tell me some details for this.

Many thanks,

Yan

May 12, 2009

I travel a lot with couple of lenses and I recently purchased 5D II and then had a long distance travel to mountainous areas with 70-200/2.8L IS lens plus another wide angle lens. I believe 70-200/2.8 is a very useful lens, with 5D II, you really don't need another 40D body.

May 4, 2009

I mainy dolandscape photography, so I don't have experience in real world wildlife shooting. But I can tell you what I found out just recently, you may find helpful.

I am using 5D Mark II and I have 70-200 f/2.8 L IS. In my mountainous landscape photography, I found 200mm focal length sometimes is not enough, so I was thinking between Canon 2x II or 100-400 L lens. I first got some advice from experienced photographer, then I borrowed from a friend a 2x extender, and combined it with my 70-200 f/2.8 L IS on 5D mark II. I shot with different apertures from f/5.6 to f/16 with focal lengths from 200mm to 400mm.

I must say that from f/8, at 100% closed look, the results are very sharp. If with proper PP, the difference is almost invisible even with 100% enlargement. By the way, I used manual focus though auto-focus was still working.

March 22, 2009

I used a 16 GB Sandisk Extreme III on 5D Mark II, and tried moive shooting. It is quite good. Don't feel any problems.

March 18, 2009

Puriantoh,

What you observed is true.

I have found out that in MacBook, we can run 5D Mark II video using both picasa3 and Quicktime, both run very smoothly, better effect by using VLC on Windows. So I have decided to change to MacBook.

March 16, 2009

VLC works good. But picasa3 and Quicktime couldn't work on my machine. picasa3 only has sound, not images, Quicktime says there is a need for a software that my system does not have.

March 15, 2009

I think you need to think about your lenses before considering to upgrade to 5D or 5D Mark II. I have been using 400D for 2 years. My main interest is landscape. After about one year having my 400D, I had a plan to upgrade to a full frame. I first bought 16-35mmf/2.8II and then 70-200mm f/2.8 IS. I used these two lenses on 400D for sometime. Then I got my 5D Mark II. I must say that using these two lenses on 5D Mark II is really amazing, that I never had such experience from using 400D.

So my suggestion is: If you decide to get excellent lenses for a long term, then upgrade to 5D Mark II, you wouldn't regrete. Otherwise, you just upgrade to 40D or 50D, these are excellent bodies too.

March 15, 2009

Thanks Romy. I'll try.

March 14, 2009

I just got my 5D Mark II couple of days ago. While movie shooting is not my main interest, I still try to handle it with basic knowledge. I have two problems and hope people who got this camera may give me some help:

(1) The manual says we can shoot movies in P, M etc modes, but when I set M mode to shoot movie, it seems that I cannot change the aperture during shooting, and the aperture showing in the LCD panel during the shooting is not what I set up earlier either.

The manual says the ISO will keep automatic from 100-64000, but does not mention whether we can change aperture during the shooting. Is it the case that we cannot set aperture for movie shooting, or change it during movie shooting?

(2) Although I can play back the movie on the camera, I cannot play it on my PC, it says that it requires software to play it that my computer does not have. What software do we need to play 5D Mark II movies on Windows?

Thanks in advance.

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