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Digital SLR / DSLR Camera Question / DSLR Thread 2

I'm shooting at the same location tomorrow...I hope it's hazy, because the sun goes down pretty much directly behind the gazebo, and the ceremony is at 6-7pm.
 

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cycle61 said:
I'm shooting at the same location tomorrow...I hope it's hazy, because the sun goes down pretty much directly behind the gazebo, and the ceremony is at 6-7pm.
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That looks cool, but you might want to look at it again at 6pm tonight. That hill and tree look like it might be blocking the sunset at the appointed time.
 
I didn't get anything too exciting, photography-wise. Lots of portraiture mostly, but the scenery was pretty awesome.

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1) The 200/2 is freggin amazing. :wow :love I'm buying lottery tickets, because that's the only way I'll ever afford one.
2) My right shoulder hurts
3) I need another couple of gigs of memory cards.
4) Pics later tonight hopefully. I've got a few that are definitely going on the website. :thumbup
 
cycle61 said:
1) The 200/2 is freggin amazing. :wow :love I'm buying lottery tickets, because that's the only way I'll ever afford one.
2) My right shoulder hurts
3) I need another couple of gigs of memory cards.
4) Pics later tonight hopefully. I've got a few that are definitely going on the website. :thumbup
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Looking forward to it!
 
drizz said:
Looking forward to it!
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As promised. :)

At short range, DOF was incredibly shallow. Even stopped down to f/8 here, the ribbon is starting to go soft and the dress simply dissolves into a dreamy background.
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Focused on the tips of the flowers, wide open at f/2.
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Also wide open. The one toenail in focus is unbelievably sharp at fullsize, and everything else simply softens and melts away.
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Same for the shoes. These are just sitting on the carpet in a crowded dressing room, but everything else disappears.
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This little guy is maybe two feet in front of the groomsman standing behind him. And this is stopped down to f/4, otherwise I can only get one eye in focus. I have some more portraits that stand out even more, but those are for my clients to see first. ;)
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And of course, how can you rent a $5,000 lens and not shoot a picture of your dog/cat/goldfish/etc? :laughing My wife came out while I was shooting this and pointed out that I was laying on the ground about two feet from a big steaming dog turd. The things we do for our art. :p
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Lessons learned from a weekend with the exotic:

Holy subject isolation, batman. :wow I was shooting pictures in a crowded dressing room that looked like studio stuff. The backgrounds were simply creamy, colored smears. I ended up stopping down in many cases simply to give some sense of location to the pictures.

Focus points are incredibly critical at f/2. You have to choose manually, and put the focus on an eye, or else it will be soft. DoF is simply too shallow to let the camera choose some random spot on the face.

Incredible performance, shooting almost directly into the sun. Only 2-3 pictures out of several hundred showed any flaring, loss of contrast, etc.

VR works. Able to get solid shots down to about 1/40th of a second. Unless the subject was moving.

Confidence. I probably didn't accomplish anything that couldn't have been done with a 70-200, but I tried a lot of things that I might not have otherwise, and many of them worked. It just begs you to push it to the limits, and expand your thinking a bit. :thumbup

I like it far better on a full frame body for this type of event. I understand it was designed as a DX replacement for the 300/2.8 but 300mm equivalent is longer than I needed or wanted.

Shot the day primarily with the 24-70 and the 200. Number of times that I missed having 71-199mm available: 0

It's a huge beast, and definitely draws attention. Even got a raised eyebrow and a comment or two from the staff at the banquet hall, who see probably 15-20 weddings a month. :laughing

And returning it this afternoon was sweet, sweet sorrow. :cry

Overall:

I certainly won't be renting one every time, due to the price tag, but wow. I'll be back.
 
I'll share some portraits after the clients get them. And yeah, I wasn't expecting to use it for detail shots but I loved the background control. :thumbup
 
cycle61 said:
I'll share some portraits after the clients get them. And yeah, I wasn't expecting to use it for detail shots but I loved the background control. :thumbup
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I'm totally looking forward to seeing more shots from the wedding especially that shot with the sun going down behind the gazebo. I hope that one turned out as good as you were hoping! :thumbup
 
cycle61 said:
Lessons learned from a weekend with the exotic:

Holy subject isolation, batman. :wow I was shooting pictures in a crowded dressing room that looked like studio stuff. The backgrounds were simply creamy, colored smears. I ended up stopping down in many cases simply to give some sense of location to the pictures.

Focus points are incredibly critical at f/2. You have to choose manually, and put the focus on an eye, or else it will be soft. DoF is simply too shallow to let the camera choose some random spot on the face.

///[snip]....
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:wow :wow :wow

Now, I mean this in the nicest possible way: damn you Cycle61! :laughing

Those photos are awesome. I need to stop oogling over them now. Really.

I've told myself I'll buy a 70-200mm f2.8 HSM knockoff Sigma when I become employed again. That was a going to be a real treat; now you've gone and ruined it. :twofinger

Seriously though, very cool.
 
Great shots! Even at 2.8 I generally feel like manually deciding a focal point can be important when you're up close. At 2 it must be even more nuts.
 
OK, Canon just announced the 7D today:

http://www.usa.canon.com/templatedata/pressrelease/20090901_eos7d.html

It appears that this this is still going to be somewhere in between the capability of the 5D MKII and the 50D. The built in wireless flash trigger is nice, but Ithink that I still need to save up for the 5D MKII. Unless I'm wrong, it doesn't appear that the 7D is going to have a full frame sensor.

I don't see this thing forcing a drop in price on the 5D MKII. :(
 
Looks like it's kitted with the 28-135, which is a crop sensor lens, right?

Either way, keep saving your pennies. The 5DII is a great camera, you won't be disappointed when you get one.

Full-frame has spoiled the hell out of me, I can't see going back. :)

Edit: More info and sample gallery.
 
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