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Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Let’s answer the big question on everyone’s mind:

This is the best camera Canon has every built. Jim Rose

I got the opportunity to play with the 5D Mark II and photograph with it. Long story short: it is very much worth the wait. It may seem arrogant and perhaps even premature to say, but I do believe the new 5D Mark II will reestablish Canon as the market leader. This couldn’t have come at a better time after the focus issues with the 1D Mark III and 1Ds Mark III has caused a lot of headache and bad blood between Canon and Canon loyalists, but the 5D Mark II brings some light to what has been a very dark tunnel of despair.

On paper, the 5D Mark II sounds very impressive: 21.1 MP, UDMA support, 1080p HD video, ISO up to 25,600, a 3 inch LCD with 922,000 pixel resolution for about the same price as the 5D Mark I when it was first introduced. In my hands, it is very well constructed and feels quite solid, but not quite the same build quality and durability as the 1D/1Ds series bodies as others have mentioned.

Jim Rose was discussing how low noise is at ISO 6400 and when the staff photographers at San Francisco Chronicle (they have two on order BTW) saw the images at ISO 6400, their jaws dropped. Jim was discussing how even George Lepp (of the famous Lepp Institute of Digital Imaging) was very impressed and said that ISO 6400 on the 5D Mark II is very usable. That’s a very nice seal of approval. At ISO 12,800 things start getting a bit noisy, but not terribly bad. By ISO 25,600, things are quite noticeable noisy, but if this is the only way to get a shot, it is still usable. According to Jim (not Canon’s official stance), ISO 3200 on the 5D Mark II is comparable to ISO 800 on the 5D. I was allowed to fire off some shots on my memory card with the 5D Mark II and the images are very nice with very low noise. Unfortunately, despite being a production camera and not a prototype, I am not able to publicly post the pictures at the time (they are posted but password protected but I’ll remove the password after the 5D Mark II starts shipping).

The 1080p HD video feature of the 5D Mark II is very, very nice. You can record up to 12 minutes of video and take stills while recording. How that works is while you are recording, you just press the shutter button as you would if you were taking a picture and it will pause the recording, take the picture (or pictures) and then resume recording. You lose half a second of video for each photo taken during recording. So if you are recording a video and three minutes into recording, you snap a picture, half a second later the recording will resume resulting in a single file, and not split video files with the thirty second skip where the photograph was taken. Very cool! Also Canon recommends that you prefocus before you start recording although you can auto focus while recording (by pressing the AF-On button), it is very slow because it uses the Live View contrast detection auto focus. Another thing to note is that you can only record videos in Aperture priority mode. You select the aperture, the camera will select a shutter speed and auto set the ISO to maintain a constant consistent shutter speed. You can also dial exposure two stops up or down. You also need a UDMA card to take full advantage of the HD video recording.

The back LCD is stunning and breath taking. At 3.0 inches with 922,000 pixel resolution, checking for sharpness has become so much easier. The images displayed on the LCD are very stunning. Also the viewfinder has been redesigned and is definitely brighter than my Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II viewfinder.

Jim has been with Canon for more than eight years, since the start of megapixels (i.e. Canon D30) and this is the first camera that he is really excited about and believes that it is “going to re-energize Canon”. Jim also speculated on the 1D/1Ds line as it was asked about it’s future considering that Nikon has moved in full frame, which I won’t post as it is all speculation. Jim also mentioned the 5D Mark II should sell very, very well considering how many people want the ultimate in megapixels but couldn’t afford or justify the cost of the Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III. This is certainly a good thing because I think the Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III, while is a spectacular SLR, it is not worth $8,000. It’s worth $5,000 and that is where they are selling used for now (and in some cases even less). Once the new Nikon D3x is released and priced around $5,000, I’m sure Canon will no longer be able to justify pricing the 1Ds at $8,000.

So is it worth it? Yes. Am I getting one? No. I’m waiting for the the new Canon EOS 1Ds Mark IV. I love the ruggedness, durability, and auto focus. Adam Tow is thinking of downgrading from his Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II and Canon EOS 1D Mark II to two Canon EOS 5D Mark II because of the size and the HD video options.

Other little tidbits: there are seventy eight Explorers of Light and Printmasters, of which Vincent LaForet, Joe Buissink and George Lepp are members. Jim Rose does in fact read DPReview.com.

I also forgot to mention:

Adobe CS3 DOES NOT support Canon EOS 5D Mark II RAW files. It also appears that there will NOT be an update for CS3 to fix this and you have to either buy CS4 or convert the Canon RAW to DNG.

The shutter on the 5D Mark II is very, very quiet. I was quite shocked, it sounded almost 25% quieter than my 1Ds Mark II.

Political Photography Part II: Jared Polis

Adam and his wife, Rae, went to Colorado to photograph the last week of his high school friend’s campaign for Congressional seat in Colorado District 2 before the elections. Jared Polis is an internet entrepreneur having started Blue Mountain, ProFlowers, and Fuser which he sold all off during the height of the dot com boom making millions. Jared is also founder of the New America Charter Schools. Jared has been campaigning for a year and half for this two year term. Adam spent a week following Jared around as he campaigned at Park-N-Rides, Honk and Waves, Meetings, Halloween and Farmer’s Market, Canvassing, and finally Election Day.

Adam packed his Canon EOS 1D Mark II and Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II with the following other items: Canon EF 28-70mm f/2.8L USM, Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM, Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM, Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L USM, Canon 1.4x Extender, Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM, Canon Speedlite 550EX, and a Gary Fong Lightsphere. He found he was primarily using the 28-70mm on his 1Ds Mark II and 135mm on his 1D Mark II.

Adam’s daily workflow:

1. Shoot in the morning
2. Select, rate, process in Apple Aperture 2 and upload photos to SmugMug
3. Recharge batteries
4. Shoot in the evening
5. Repeat steps 2 and 3

Reason Adam does the post processing in the afternoon rather than the evening is he figured he wouldn’t do it in the evening.

Jared Polis won the Congressional District 2 seat with 60% of the vote. To see Adam’s pictures, you can visit his SmugMug here.

Gallery

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The class was quite informative with quite a bit of hands-on tuition from Jennifer. We met at Keeble & Shuchat Photography at 11:00 AM and had a one hour introduction by Jennifer including some information from Jim Rose. Afterward, the group of fifteen broke up and had lunch at Mollie Stone nearby. The plan was meet at Pescadero (Half Moon Bay) at 3:00 PM.

Most of us commuted with each other as a precaution because parking can be some what difficult on a weekend. Jim Rose (Senior Professional Market Specialist for Field Market Support), David Carlson (newly promoted National Manager for the Canon Field Market Support), and Adam I-can’t-spell-his-last name (Canon’s Liaison Rep to stores like Keeble & Shuchat) from Canon brought out thirty something Canon L lenses for us to use and try. I had an excellent opportunity to try many lenses including Canon’s new $12,000 800mm f/5.6L IS USM lens, 500mm f/4L IS USM, 400mm f/4 DO IS USM, 300mm f/2.8L IS USM, and a bunch of other telephoto lenses. Jim also brought a pre-production Canon EOS 50D with the new Canon EF 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens. They both garnered good comments. I think the 50D will do well. I had also an opportunity to use Adam’s personal work camera, the 1D Mark 3, which was great. The entire event lasted for some five hours. The weather wasn’t great, but I’m sure a lot of people still got some great shots. Me, being the “people” photographer, spent most of my time shooting people. The cost for this very informative class was $49.

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Canon EOS 1D Mark III with Canon EF 800mm f/5.6L IS USM

The Canon L Series Lenses

The class started off with Jim Rose discussing about what makes Canon “L” lenses so special from the normal consumer level lenses. He also confirmed that the “L” does, in fact, stand for Luxury. What defines a L lenses is the existence of:

• Two or more Ultra-Low Dispersion (UD) elements (and/or)
• Fluorite Element (and/or)
• Ground and polished aspherical elements

Fluorite is a natural occurring element, but usually not enough in quantity to be useful, so Canon has developed a method to “grow” them. It takes at least two ultra-low dispersion to equal one fluorite element. The fluorite element eliminates almost all chromatic aberrations.

Wide angle lenses and “fast” lenses (f/1, f/1.2, f/1.4, f/1.8, f/2) experience spherical aberrations which causes the images not to be as sharp until they are stopped down to apertures of f/5.6 or f/8. By using aspherical elements, this counter-acts the spherical aberration effect and can also make zoom lenses smaller in size. There are three types of aspherical elements:

• Molded aspherical element: round glass is super heated until near melting and is poured into a molding and allowed to cool thus making a molded aspherical element. This process makes creating aspherical elements cheaper, but not as good quality.
• Replicated aspherical element: a piece of specially created resin is glued to the round glass to create an aspherical element. This types of aspherical element tends to appear in the consumer grade Canon lenses
• Ground and polished aspherical: glass is grounded and polished until they meet the aspherical criteria. Very expensive and appears exclusively in the L line.

The Canon L lenses are designed to be durable withstanding: torrential down pour rain, extreme temperatures, snow, grueling wear and tear. All the L lenses use ring type Ultra Sonic Motor (USM) focus motors. This is the fastest type of auto focus that Canon has. Jim also spoke of the f/4 zooms (17-40mm, 24-105mm, and 70-200mm) and offering customers a choice in lighter weight equipment at a lower price with the same L quality. Jim also spoke briefly of Canon’s “S” line, the EF-S mount lenses specially designed for the crop sensors.

Jim also spoke of the tilt-shift lens and it’s uniqueness in the Canon line. Also someone in the audience had asked why only one of the three tilt-shift lenses offered by Canon is designated as a L and Jim’s response was: 1) L designation is given to lenses who fit the above requirements and 2) not all lenses require fluorite or ultra-low dispersion glass to achieve optimal quality. Thus, the 45mm and 90mm tilt-shift lenses are not L quality lenses because they do not contain fluorite or ultra-low dispersion elements.

Nature’s Elusive Beauty

Jennifer Wu gave a great PowerPoint presentation on capturing Nature’s Elusive Beauty, the one moment in which the scene is perfect, the lighting is just right, the colors are popping, the scene is ready to be captured.

Jennifer shoots with a new Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III and a Canon EOS 5D. Her lenses are the Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM, Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM, and the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM. She does very little post processing, usually dodging and burning and does not remove anything from the scene with Adobe Photoshop or up the saturation in anyway. She uses a circular polarizer and neutral density filters.

Some of the bullet point tips she offered:

• Finding locations: Internet, guide books, asking the locals
• Things to consider: seasons, fall colors at peaks, when flowers are in bloom
• Get local advice: call ranger stations (rangers have most likely hiked every inch of the area and done it repeatably where they would know the best times to visit), visitor shops to find the answer to questions
• Scout the area: scenic routes, pullout areas, off the side of the road
• Get off the beaten path. Don’t just come to a pullout area, get out, take a picture, and leave. Walk around a bit, get a different angle.
• Things to consider for photographing: weather, clouds and light (arrive before a storm-clearing storm, fog create mystery, rain-saturated colors, snow-first dusting on mountains (versus white covered mountains), wind and movement
• How to create perspective: lens coverage, distance to subject, and camera angle
• The lens you choose is about the type of coverage you want
• Focus using hyperfocal distance to get things near and far in focus.
• Always use a tripod for maximum sharpness.
• Camera angles: look down, look up, get low. Create depth with wide angle lens by getting up really close.
• Use ND and Polarizers. Polarizers for foilage, water, and midst
• User manual with spot metering on 18% grey of red or blue. Aim for exact exposure, not under or over. Shoot RAW and aim for f/16.
• Foreground elements: fill the subject with the foreground element.

One of Jennifer’s other favorite types of photography is star photography. Here are some great tips she offered for photographing stars:

• To avoid star trails and get points of light: Take 500 divided by focal length of the lens (if you are using a crop sensor, you have to take that into account and get the actual focal length) will give you the seconds to set your camera to get points of light. Anymore and you will have star trails
• Use wide angle lenses at 30 seconds or less.
• Shoot at wide open aperture (f/2.8, f/1.2 if you can)
• For moonless night, set ISO to 3200, with moon (depending on how bright), set ISO to 200-400
• Use your ISO to change exposure and not aperture or shutter
• Turn your camera’s noise reduction on which is great help
• After you take a night shot, let your CMOS sensor cool down for at least 30 seconds or you may have additional noise in your picture because of the heat on the sensor
• Set your white balance to custom kelvin from 3200-3800 to give the nice bluish sky
• WB custom 4200 works really well at the beginning of sunset, but not at 3 AM
• Try focusing on the brightest star and not on a tree or foreground element. If nothing to focus on, set to infinity and back off a bit.

Conclusion

This was a very informative free seminar sponsored by Canon. It was also an introduction course for those who signed up for the Canon Field Workshop the next day. Jennifer Wu has some absolutely stunning landscape shots and is able to articulate her technique and give steps and advice and not boring useless technical details.

As an added benefit, we were able to try all the twenty four lenses and four bodies and all the participants were given a free copy of the newly updated EF Lens Works III book that includes the new Canon Mark 3 bodies and new lenses. Awesome.

Gallery

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Canon Professional Services (CPS)

Jim Rose, Canon Pro Markets Rep

First up was Jim Rose from Canon Professional Services (CPS) to discuss about membership: how to sign up, what it entails, and answer questions. It was quite informative. Jim explained that CPS is designed for the “working professionals” by Canon. Membership is free, but you do have to meet the criteria for membership, not everyone can just sign up. The two primary services offered by Canon Professional Services are 1) expedited equipment repair and 2) try before you buy equipment loan. The expedited repair means that any Canon equipment that qualifies as professional level that is sent to a Canon repair facility will take 3-5 days to repair versus 4+ weeks. According to Jim, they currently strive for 72 hours. Impressive. And while the equipment is out for repair, you can request, free of charge, loaner equipment.

Adam Tow

They also offer a try before you buy where you can request any professional Canon SLR and/or L lenses for free of charge for a two week period. Jim stressed that CPS’s try-before-you-buy program is intended for trial only, not continuous free loaning. CPS keeps tracks of your rental requests and will begin to wonder if every month you keep requesting the same lens or camera.

The application review process takes approximately 4 weeks and CPS rules have recently changed requiring annual renewal. There are two requirements that people are (or not) aware of: must be a professional that derives at least 51% of their income from photography and must own some pro equipment listed on the CPS application. Both those requirements aren’t as stringent as you would believe. For example, the 51% income number is an arbitrary number that Canon selected for no particular reason. CPS recognizes that not every legitimate professional actually derives 51% of their income from photography. Jim gave us an example of a sports photographer he knows: by day, a BMW mechanic and on the weekends, a published sports photographer. Obviously the guy doesn’t derive 51% of his income from photography, but he is a professional as far as Canon Professional Services is concerned.

Another thing I found out from Jim is that Canon no longer does calibrations on misfocusing cameras and lenses, but rather resets the camera(s) and lens(es) to their default values because it seems to work better. Another unknown advantage of CPS that helps them ensure expedited repairs is that you put a credit card on file and a maximum repair amount and when you send your equipment for repair, they will do any and all repairs up to your maximum specified amount. This saves CPS from having to call you back and forth to authorize repairs and increase the time it takes to get the repairs done.

CPS in the U.S. currently does not have a website, they are working on it. Also another thing Jim was telling us is that CPS is working on reorganizing CPS as a worldwide service rather than a regional service. Currently, if you are a US CPS member and you need to use Europe CPS, it doesn’t work as smoothly as it should, but that is changing. Also having CPS does not mean you get discounts or any thing special other than expedited repairs and the trial loan program. Don’t join expecting a discount on repairs.

For those who are looking for further information, you can read the CPS Loan Program FAQ here. The membership application for CPS can be downloaded here.

Also Jim Rose mentioned that Canon and Keeble & Shuchat are having a class on September 12 featuring Jim Rose discussing about “L” series lenses and Jennifer Wu discussing about “Nature’s Elusive Beauty”. Admission is free, so sign up quickly. I’ll be there.

As an added bonus, on Saturday September 13, Jim Rose, Jennifer Wu and another instructor will be doing a workshop shooting on the coast between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz. Jim Rose will be providing:

A variety of “L” series lenses will be available including super wide angle, tilt/shift, macro, super telephoto and zooms

The cost is $49 per person with a limit of 15 participants. I’m so there.

Here is Jim Rose’s contact info: jrose@cusa.canon.com, telephone is 408-468-2332. Canon U.S.A., Inc. 3300 North First Street, San Jose, CA 95134. Main line is 408-468-2000.

Art Shows by ShutterBudd

Jeff from ShutterBudd was kind enough to come by and talk about what ShutterBudd is and the Art Shows they are sponsoring. ShutterBudd is a social networking photography site that is a place for everyone to display their artwork. It’s very similar to Flickr, but expands upon it by offering users articles on photography, user websites, in-depth gear bios (with whose using what and ratings, etc.), a forum, and so much more. They have a nicely designed website, easy to navigate.

So they are sponsoring a number of art shows at two venues: Sweet Corner and zpizza and the theme is “Life in the Bay”. These art shows are a great concept especially for up and coming photographers:

Have you ever gone into a local cafe or restaurant, seen beautiful art on the walls and wondered how you could get your photographs in a public place? ShutterBudd can help you get your work out to the general public by sponsoring art displays at local cafes and restaurants. We’ll take care of all the work to get the images framed and work with the business owners on the actual display. All you will need to do is submit an image that you think fits with the theme.

The images have to be submitted in black & white and can be uploaded or submitted via print. If your photograph is selected to be displayed, you have to take care of the printing, but ShutterBudd will handle the mounting and framing.

ShutterBudd is an interesting concept, definitely keep an eye out for them. I think they’ll do some great things.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2

I had briefly used Adobe Photoshop Lightroom beta when it was first introduced, but never quite liked it compared to Apple Aperture. Now with Lightroom 2 and after what Chris Pederson (creator of Phoxle white balance card) and Mark Jaremko demonstrated, I am seriously considering giving Lightroom another go.

There are some really neat tools built in such as advanced vignetting controls, blown highlight sensors, and much, much more.

One thing that happened was Mark’s catalog file somehow got corrupted and he had to restore to a previous version. One of the members in our group mentioned that if you have catalog corruption, email Adobe and they have a person who will repair the catalog for you. Pretty cool.

It was quite a long discussion and I don’t want to regurgitate everything because I forgot most of it, but it’s a very cool software.

COBA Monthly Picture Contest

The theme for this month’s picture contest was angles. See the gallery for the winner. The winner gets a complimentary 1 year professional SmugMug account.

Gallery Images

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