ssvane

Hi, I could use a bit of input on what equipment to buy for a trip to Kilimanjaro and a bit of safari. As the title suggest I am trying to figure out which way to go in terms of value since I do not have money to do both.

Currently I have the following equipment: Canon EOS 6D (primarily for landscape photography) and a Canon EF70-300 mm1:4-5.6 IS USM for telezoom. I also have a couple of wide angle lenses for landscape.

I have never been on a safari before so I have no idea of the distances to the wildlife. The question I am trying to answer, is if I would be better of (considering the gear I have already) buying and carrying and extra camera body such as the EOS 7D mk II or EOS 80D which have faster autofocus than the 6D or buying a L-series telezoom such as the EF 100-400 mm F4.5-5.6L?

Or do you guys have completely different suggestions? Any input would be appreciated!

Hi,

does anyone have experience with the Apurture Amaran Halo AHL-H100 ring light? I was actually off ring lights for macro again but this one seems to have gotten ok reviews while not being super exspensive... Any thoughts?

Aputure Amaran Halo AHL-H100 Ring Light

Baby alligators resting on a leaf with mom nowhere to be seen

A view of Rondvatnet lake and the mountain station in Norway's Rondane national park. To reach this point it's already a 10 km hike from the parking lot. From here trails go into Rondane area.

I would recommend not worrying too much about and just carry a powerbank (one with ability to solar charge) to top up batteries each day. Of course it depends on how much you shoot and how much sun you have each day but in my case I went on the Snowman trek (which is around 30 days with no external power) and did fine with 3 batteries and a Power Monkey solar charger. It should be noted that we had 11 days of rain and it still was not a problem.

I used a Canon 6D.

American alligator waiting for a meal

A gulf fritillary on a thistle shot outside Slidell in Louisiana. The shot was made with a hand-held 70-300 mm (at 300 mm) and not a macro lens - hence the ever so slightly out of focus :P

Mount Jichu Drake in the Bhutanese Himalayas. The mountain is around 6600 meters and as all other mountains in Bhutan it's not allowed to climb it due to the spirit living on the peak.

The problem is clearly not the plane of focus, as the center is relatively sharp throughout the image, despite the increasing distance from the camera. IMO you pretty clearly have a lens out of whack inside, because even though the fault is apparent on both sides, the left side is much worse, and it is apparent along the entirety of the left side. You'll need to send it in to Canon unless you've an optical bench handy, and some skill w/ both a JIS0, and a disassembled lens ;) ...that, or you can sell it on ebay as 'used, seems to function fine - don't like the optical quality though' ;)

Thanks for the reply - this is what I was afraid off to be honest.. sending it to Canon is pretty expensive :/ I have tried to do a normal alignement and I'll see if it makes any differences. But it's beginnning to look like sending it for service is the only real option :p

I agree. It's possible that it is an alignment problem. However, when I click on the photo to blow it up, it's clear that the problem isn't just the left top corner, even though that is where it appears worst. For example, the trees on the center of the horizon, which are about 1/4 of the way from the edge, are not in focus, and neither is the foliage near it. Unless there is a major problem with the lens, it looks to me as though it wasn't focused at or near infinity.

Well, regarding the lens not being focused properly I would agree that it could of course happen, but not as consistently as it did (I have a number of photos where the problem is evident). All other lenses works fine so I'm assuming that its not an operator issue ;)

Hi everyone,

I have a Canon EF 17-40 f/4L USM wide angle lens which I have been using with my 6D. However, I have recently discovered that on some pictures (especially long-distance landscape shots - i.e. focus on infinity) there appears to be a significant loss of focus but only in the left hand side of the frame. I have never seen this before and I have been unable to find any info on similar problems on the web. So now I hope someone here may know what could be happening.

It is fairly clear that the left side of the frame is blurry while the center and right side is okay (see attached photo ). The lens is otherwise fine. For the record I do not have any issues with other lenses including other wide angles. So it is probably not a camera-problem. It does not seem to make any difference whether "Lens aberation correction" is on or not.

I have contacted Canon support here in Denmark but so far no answer (they may not have any idea either)

Hi and thanks for the answer

The flash fires normally when mounted on the camera. Unfortunately I do not currently have any other flash guns to try with the trigger but it is of course something I will do when the opportunity arises. Before buying the trigger I checked for compatibility and according to JJC's own webpage the Sigma 530 DG super flash is one of the flashes which should work.

I'll check out the YongNuo, hopefully they are available in Denmark.

Hi everyone,

I have recently bought a JJC JF-U1 Wireless Remote Flash Trigger in order to use my Sigma EF-530 DG Super Flash gun remotely with my Canon 6D. However, the trigger consistently fails to trigger the flash although channel settings are correct. It seems that the communication between the control on the camera and the receiver/trigger on the flash gun is working as they both start blinking whenever the shutter release is pressed. But the flash does not trigger.

The company has, so far, not answered any questions so my hope is that others may have had similar experiences and know of a solution.

Any recommendation for another remote flash trigger system that will work with this flahs gun and camera body would also be appreciated!