The Filmtools Gripper 3025 Car Mount with Triangulation Kit - All setup and ready to go with the Canon 7D & Tokina 11-16 f2.8

This thing is seriously f’ing cool! There’s something to be said for some crazy fast drivelapse, or a nice cruise through a tree-lined mountain pass. Trouble is not all car mounts are created equal and for those of you looking, it might be well worth spending a few minutes reading this little post!

My first experience with a car mount was somewhat lack lustre. It was a two cup mount with no stabilisation and the camera wobbled all over the place as soon as you hit a bump. Shooting with the 5DMKII, this meant the footage turned to jello and it was totally unusable. It was a less than awesome experience and somewhat disillusioning.

I was most interested in getting some drive lapse footage and also some cool lifestyle shots from around the place – coastal drives, buildings and a bunch of other stuff – so I put my head down and eventually came across the Filmtools Gripper 3025 Car Mount with Triangulation Kit.

As soon as I saw it, it made sense. . .stick the camera to the car, then stick a stabilizing rod in the hot shoe of the camera and connect it to another 2 seperate suction cups with some rods. It holds the camera steady while you’re driving along, preventing all the shake, rattle and rolling shutter shittiness that I’d previously experienced. As a sidenote, I cannot say just how infuriating it is scrolling through minutes of (what should be great) footage captured using an unstabilised mount looking for the rare couple of seconds that it isn’t unusable mush.

So I decided to drop the cash on the mount. . .It didn’t arrive straight away. . .in fact due to heaps of other probably really smart people who had the same idea I did, the kit was on backorder for quite a while. But when it did arrive I was suitable impressed.

For one thing, Filmtools don’t shaft you! Imagine that!? There are no optional extra’s that should be included. . .everything you need is right there, the suction cups, the clamps and most importantly 3 different sized rods to do the stabilising bit for you. It really impressed me that they didn’t just include one length of rod and then make you find out after you’ve got the thing that you actually need to buy the others. +1 on the props scale there.

The build quality is really solid. The clamps feel really well made and the whole kit gives you the impression that it will last a long while. I would think that it’s most likely the rubber will perish before any of the metal components will. I have been using the mount for close on 6 months now and it’s still in very good condition, the rubber is still very soft and i haven’t experienced a decompression yet (touch wood!).

Secondly, the mount is really easy to fit and it doesn’t take a long time. Probably around 5-7 minutes (if you are really taking your time because it isn’t your Mercedes ) and it is all ready to go. One thing though, the actual camera mount doesn’t really allow for a huge range of movement and getting your head around how it moves and how to get it in the position you want can be a little mind bending at first. Even on a fairly curvaceous vehicle, it is possible to get it in some tight positions, with a little creative suction cup placement. In my experience there was a bit of trial and error involved in getting a good stable setup when you have the mount in a less than ordinary position, but it does get easier and knowing what’s going to work the first time around won’t take you too long.

So what’s the footage like? Well, it’s good and it’s stable. It’s not perfectly stable all the time, but it stands up really well under normal road use. Off road, I can’t comment on. With a DSLR, it’s pretty easy to turn your footage to Jello by getting on a rough bit of road and I didn’t test with any other type of camera. The 3025 seems to suit the size of a DSLR very nicely and the camera can be mounted nicely over the top of the suction cup, maintaining a nice, tight centre of gravity. You can tell for yourself by watching the footage, but as I said, the stability of the rig really depends on your ability to work out the best length rods to use, where to place the support suction cups and also the rigidity of your mounting surface. You can gurantee the windscreen is going to wobble a lot less than the middle of the bonnet.

But it’s really a night and day comparison when you compare the unit to the non-stabilized rig that I’d first used. You can actually feel confident that you will get the shot you need using the Filmtools Gripper 3025 Car Mount with Triangulation Kit.

So would I recommend it? Hell yes I would, I spent my money on it and it’s been really great for what I need. 100% perfectly solid? No, you’re not going to get that at this price bracket, if you need 100% perfect, not going to wobble one little bit, you need to be spending a little more than $400. . .but I’d have to say that if you mount it nice and solid, it’ll do a really great job 98% of the time which should be more than enough for most of us.

Check out the embedded video clip, it’s a really rough cut of some different shots I managed to hustle together just now. I didn’t grade it or do any post processing on it at all. All the clips are shot with Canon DSLR’s – a 5DMKII and a 7D – There’s some Canon 15mm Fisheye stuff, Tokina 11-16 f2.8, Sigma 30mm f1.4 and that’s about it I think.

If you’re looking for a car mount for your DSLR, this is definitely worth a look at. . . Filmtools Gripper 3025 Car Mount with Triangulation Kit.

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Jonny Petts was not successful in his attempts to hack the 500D and he has put the project to an end. There will be no 500D firmware hack. At least not from Jonny Petts anyway, but to my knowledge there is nobody else still working on it.

For those of us who were hoping and praying for this to come to fruition, it is a tough blow and to the 500D owners out there still hanging for Manual Controls, I’m sure it is gutting to hear but I hope this will at least will give you some kind of closure.

I think it’s all got a bit difficult, with the advent of the 550D, now the 60D and the inexorable march of technology it seems it’s inevitable that the 500D will remain as it always was, a great but somewhat limited camera that is still capable of some fantastic images in the right hands.

I have extracted the following from Jonny’s most recent message to me and will share it with you here. Don’t hate on the guy though, he did give it his best shot and tried to lead the charge in a task that was immensely challenging, even for the most knowledgable hackers.

Well, from the start I had alot of issues. I had no real experience with these programs, I made small amounts of progress and began to understand what I was doing and so on. I mean, this is why i did not want any payment for it. This was meant to be a little project I could work on and learn from. I mean I am still working it, rarely, but I doubt i will get anywhere. I appreciate all your support and interest, it means a lot to me, you took a big risk in doing so, I have tried my best to produce it, but as you know I am no Trammel Hudson who has this database of knowledgea and has all the resources. I know I’ll get a wave of hate comments for this but i didn’t wish to get peoples hopes up, I just think that the 500D really is for point and shoot with some creativity, but I really think that if you want these manual controls we will need to get the 550d. Which is what I am currently saving up for (that or a 7D). My message to 500d users is to use what you have! I got drawn into hating on Canon for not giving us manual controls, but a photographer recently told me, that it’s the vision you have that makes the shot not the gear, and with the 500d i have found work around for these issues.

I really feel the 500d is a great camera, and I do love it, it produces some great shots but this camera is not for pro’s. It’s for the small time beginners like me, but as i have learnt so much I feel i want these features so I am ready to upgrade.

Sorry mate,

Jonny

So there it is, straight from the man himself with some wise words that ring true no matter what the profession. It’s not so much the tools as the vision of the creative behind it. . .

I’m sorry to all of those that feel they have been misled, it was neither Jonny’s nor my intention to mislead anybody at all. It’s a real shame it hasn’t come off, but don’t let it dishearten you. Go out, shoot great pictures, enjoy what you have and keep smiling!

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I used to shoot a lot of wakeboarding. It was a passionate love affair that eventually got left in the wake (no pun intended) of corporate production and an actual income.

I shot everything on the Panasonic HVX, loved it and had an absolute ball. . .but now the HVX has been gone for quite a while, I got to thinking about what might happen if I turned a Canon lens on the action.

Enter James Boggia, a mate of mine who is fresh from being crowned World Champion in Turkey and happens to be pretty good at the standing sideways on a water board thing.

We decided we would start getting some footage, and this is just a quick and dirty camera test cut of what we have after two very short sets. It’s a major work in progress, but instead of collating footage for an eternity and releasing one 5 minute clip, I thought we’d leak stuff along the way so you can watch things come together. This is here strictly as a point of reference to look back on and probably for Boggia to sling around facebook.

The edit is rough as guts, continuity was tossed roughly aside, it’s ungraded footage straight out of the camera, has no filters applied – this folks, is as dirty as it gets. . .The angles are limited, but it’s a start. . .from here the only way is up and that’s where we intend to take it. . .

All real time footage was shot on the Canon 5DMKII and the slow motion was shot on the Canon 7D.

Stay tuned for more info as things develop and a full run down on the shooting techniques when we’re done and dusted!

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Everybody loves a 50! It was a kit lens focal length for a long time, back when SLR’s first started appearing and ever since then it’s been the darling of every photographer out there. With the advent of video in the DSLR world, things aren’t much different. From the budget Canon 50mm 1.8 II right through to the deluxe Canon 50mm f1.2L & extraordinarily expensive Leica 50mm .95 Noctilux, there’s a 50mm to suit every budget and taste. But what about the inbetweeners? Couldn’t there be some right pearlers in there? Well yes there are, and the Sigma 50mm f1.4 EX DG HSM is one of them, a midde of the range lens that gives a surprising performance.

Now given that I am a self-confessed gear whore and quite partial to an L series lens, I’m sure you’re wondering why I opted for the Sigma 50mm f1.4 EX DG HSM over the Canon 50mm f1.2L, especially considering the wider aperture of the Canon? The answer is quite simple. . .The Sigma 50mm f1.4 EX DG HSM is a really great lens and at 1/4 of the cost, it’s very hard to justify that extra expenditure for a red ring around the barrel and a little more street cred.

Don’t get me wrong, the Canon 50mm f1.2L is a beautiful lens – fantastical build quality, amazing optics and super fast, there is no doubting that it’s a better lens than the Sigma 50mm f1.4 EX DG HSM. But for me, it’s not THAT much better. It’s not a whole 300% better as the price would have you believe and for the most part, I think a lot of people would have trouble telling them apart if they were looking at video shot at the same aperture on the same camera in a blind test.

Photography however, that’s another story entirely, of course when shooting wide open at the 21MP, pixel peeping at 100%, the 1.2L is going to eat the Sigma for breakfast (A nice hearty, solid breakfast though, given the build quality of the Sigma). Ok, maybe eating it for breakfast is a bit extreme since the Sigma is quite sharp in the centre at f1.4 but the Canon 50mm f1.2L will still outperform it, it’s got to be said. For me it does the job, it falls off a bit towards the edge of the frame, but not so much that a client is going to spit chips. On a full frame camera, there is also a slight vignette when shooting wide open, which I absolutely love. Why people find this an undesirable characteristic I don’t know, I think it looks great. If you don’t like it though, stopping down to around f2 will make it disappear.

Despite still being quite sharp when wide open the Sigma 50mm f1.4 EX DG HSM does exhibit some chromatic aberration at f1.4. When fine-tuning focus in live view mode, it is clearly visible. Stopping the lens down to f1.8 does show a marked improvement, increasing sharpness and dramatically reducing CA.

In my experience, I get the sharpest photo’s out of the Sigma at around f8-f10, but that’s when being an overly picky pixel peeper. I have no real hesitation shooting this lens at any aperture when shooting video, the differences are really so small you would be splitting hairs to quibble over it.

But wide open is where I find myself most, lounging around in the Sigma 50mm f1.4 EX DG HSM‘s creamy bokeh, which is really quite lovely. Thanks to it’s 9 aperture blades, the Sigma’s out of focus highlights are nice, round and considerable in size when focused on a close subject. With this lens, you will not have any trouble getting your background to dissolve into a dreamy haze of focusless (I just made that word up! Patent pending.) vapor. I just re-read that and man, I’ve got problems. Yeah, I’ll admit it, my name is Christian and I’m a bokeh addict – The Sigma does give me a good fix though. Don’t take my word for it though, check out the video!

Now the AF in this lens, I don’t know, I seem to get inconsistent results when shooting portraits and I’ve read of focus issues with this lens on the net, but if you search any lens at all, you’ll undoubtedly find somebody who has focus issues. So that doesn’t necessarily mean they all do. I use the lens in manual focus mode 99.9% of the time anyway, so it’s not really an issue for me. It’s got a HyperSonicMotor (Which is where the HSM comes into the inordinately long model name) so it does focus quite quickly and quietly which is cool. But the focus ring on this lens, like it’s little brother the Sigma 30mm f.4, is a dream to use. Well damped and very nice for manual focusing. You won’t find it hard to hit a mark or execute a nice focus pull with this lens.

Overall, The Sigma 50mm f1.4 EX DG HSM is a nicely constructed, well performing lens than will suit most peoples purposes. I am a stickler for quality and at the time could have purchased either the Canon 50mm f1.2L or the Sigma. I couldn’t justify the extra expenditure for a fraction of a stop, the “L series” badge and a less than impressive increase in image quality. It’s really as simple as this. Sigma made a great lens, they made it affordable, and what it comes down to is the pictures – in this case they look fantastic.

Please do your own tests and share your thoughts with us here in the comments section.

The LumoPro LP160 Quad Sync Flash

The LumoPro LP160 flash is the follow up to the widely popular LumoPro LP120 flash and comes from the lovely people over at Midwest Photo Exchange (MPEX for the rest of this article).

But, before we get stuck into the nitty gritty, let’s take a trip down memory lane  – *cue harps and soft blur dissolve*

There was a time when the earth was green, fresh, unpolluted and full of wonder. . .that was a long time ago. But about 2.5 years ago (give or take a few) the Strobist community was in a bit of a bother. The cheap all manual speedlights coming out of Asia, (China, Taiwan, Hong Kong etc.) started to suffer from some pretty erratic quality issues. Things were all over the shop and not improving. They were burning out quickly, breaking too easily and being just general ‘not good’ flashes. As tensions rose and frustration reached an all time high, MPEX did a very cool thing. They decided they would take it upon themselves to stick it right up those Asian manufacturers and make their own manual speedlight that was as powerful, of better quality and designed by the very people that would use it, Strobists, to solve the problem once and for all. (If you don’t know about the Strobist movement and in particular a very awesome dude by the name of David Hobby (Edit: Wrong last name! Woops!), where have you been? Check out his site, now!) They wanted something done properly, so they did it themselves. . .good thing they did too.

So the LumoPro LP120 was born, featuring no fancy TTL crap, but just pure good old manual switching fun. It had four trigger options, including an optical trigger and answered a lot of peoples prayers. It was packed standard into all the MPEX Strobist kits and for a time the Strobist Earth was as it should be.

Fast forward to the present day *whip pan* and we’re here with the LumoPro’s latest release and what can only be described as the LP120′s steroidal big brother, The LumoPro LP160.

The LP160 In all it's optical slave firing glory! *Cue choir*

I brought three of the LP120′s way back when. They were great little flashes, I still have them now & they’re still going strong after almost 18 solid months of daily (ab)use. The only thing they lacked was power, I wanted more power, i wanted serious power and in looking for that, I had to get a Canon 580EXII.

But then I saw the LumoPro LP160 had come to town with some bold claims. As much power as a Canon 580EXII, improved optical trigger, electronic zoom and flash power control – I have to say I was immediately very interested to see what the LP160 would be like. Would it really be as bright as my Canon 580EXII, surely something that powerful wouldn’t come in at such a low cost. Surely it couldn’t. . .well it did. . .This thing kicks like a mule and holds it’s own against the 580EXII, sure it hasn’t got all the fancy dials, LCD panels, bracketing and crap that the Canon 580EXII has, but that’s not what this flash is about, this is all manual, all good, all the time. . .no mess, no fuss!

I’ve been using it exclusively as a slave to my on camera 580EXII, triggering it using it’s built in optical slave and I want to talk about this first, because I find it one of the best features of the LumoPro LP160. Simply put, the optical slave in the LumoPro LP160 kicks ass. It’s so sensitive I haven’t had to use my radio triggers at all. Which is great, because batteries in those things used to cost me a fortune, and it means I can plonk the LP160 almost anywhere (Within reason…It’s not going to fire 50 metres away in the sun, nor will it fire inside a closed cupboard) and it’ll pop when it see’s my Canon 580EXII flash, even when it’s set on it’s lowest setting. Which means with most setups, I can bounce the 580 on it’s lowest setting so it’s not affecting my exposure at all and run the LumoPro LP160 as the only perceived light source. . .with no triggers. . . .stoked! It also has a new optical slave mode for those TTL fans, that ignores the TTL pre-flash. I could never get my 580EXII and my LP120 to flash at the same time when using the 7D’s inbuilt flash transmitter. The LP120 would fire on the TTL preflash and not affect the exposure. There is no such trouble now.

The power level is not quite as I have read elsewhere. It’s nearly as powerful as the Canon Canon 580EXII, not ‘as’ powerful. I’d say about 1/3-2/3 of a stop under in my very unscientific tests (Check out the comparison shots below), but not so much that you begrudge it. I’m just really happy to have that kind of power and not have to fork out another $600 for a Canon 580EXII. I don’t need all the bells and whistles of that flash, I use it in manual mode mostly anyway, I just need the power it provides. Now that power is available in a cheaper package, happy days!

Now I’ve sung some of it’s praises, it’s time to get real. It’s not all roses, of course there are some things that niggle me. . .the build quality still feels a little on the cheap side, but then again, what do you expect for $160? The LP120′s felt the same way and they’re still trucking for me, so I don’t think it’s going to be detrimental to it’s life expectancy. It’s an all plastic construction, but this time around it does have a metal shoe. One small design oversight is that the flash is so wide at the base, it is hard to get your fingers on the lock wheel to do it up or undo it when it’s on a camera or a stand. Speaking of stands, the LumoPro LP160 comes with a cool little stand so you can sit it on a flat surface and it will stand by itself. I really missed one of these with the LP120′s.

One thing that has taken quite a step backwards, is the battery door. For some reason, the design they had on the LP120, which was similar to the Canon 580EXII, a slide-to-release folding flap, has been replaced by a dinky, slide out tab that’s not physically attached to the flash body. I have a strong feeling this will get lost one day and I don’t really like the design. It’s not so easy to get the tab back on when the batteries have been put in and . . .yeah. . .not ace. . .It’s not a deal breaker, but it’s got be said.

With an increase in power comes in increase in size. The LumoPro LP160 is a bit of a beast. Quite a lot larger than it’s predecessor and the 580EXII. It’s not a huge issue for me, I just wish it was a little more petite. It does look very cool though. . .angular, tough and serious. . .I like my camera equipment to look a bit tough, don’t you?

There is the ability to go to a lower power now, down to 1/64, which is nice and also zoom from 24mm through to 105mm, all controlled by pressing the corresponding button (singluar) on the back of the flash with little LED’s telling you what’s what.

What’s my take on it? I like it. . .alot! I’ve been using it heaps and it’s simplistic operation, fantastic power and super sensitive optical slave make this  very valuable tool. It’s quick to set up, no hassle with radio triggers on the job, which makes life easier. . .that’s what you want. The niggles I have with it are really overshadowed by it’s phenomenal price point. I mean for US$160 how can you go wrong?

For more information and to grab yourself one of theses babies, head on over to MPEX’s web store and go nuts, or just follow this link! I want a LumoPro LP160.

[Show as slideshow]

Jonny's life is full of text based awesomeness!

Is it happening? Isn’t it happening? Has something happened? When will we know what happened? Can we donate to make it happen quicker? Will we know after it’s happened or will they tell us while it’s happening?

All tough questions, with one easy answer. Yes! It is happening, work on the Canon 500D Firmware hack is still in progress. . .but sadly, there hasn’t been much progress. . . *Queue sad face*

It was never going to be an easy road for Jonny Petts to crack the 500D open like a ripe walnut, exposing the oh so crunchy inner centre to his machinations. In fact I knew it was a rather ambitious project to be undertaking given Canon’s tightening of all things related to firmware. Considering that Trammell Hudson got his dirty little mits on the Canon 5DMKII and taught an already sexy piece of kit how to pole dance it’s no wonder. Surely Canon want to drip feed us easy to implement features in order to keep the profit centre close to home? Hey, if you were a multinational corporation with a plan, wouldn’t you do the same?! I know I would!

But it’s not all bad news, there are some really positive things that have happened in the last couple of months that may give you cause for hope.

Firstly here’s what Jonny had to say in our last communication. . .

I don’t want any donations for this yet, but the news is that I’m currently a bit stuck with some of the code. But luckily for me my uncle is a programmer for Store counting systems and he uses IDA extensively so he offered to provide assistance with the bits I don’t have a total grasp of. I am not on the level of Magic Lantern and I’m still learning as I’m doing all of this. I am also close to purchasing a Canon 550D so I can compare a lot of the things between them and find out what everything does!!

So as you can see, it’s not full steam ahead without any hiccups, but it was never going to be and the project is still very much alive and kicking. That Jonny is not willing to accept whatever cash people want to throw his way I think is quite decent also. So while there is still determination driving this thing, I think you’d be silly to count it as down and out.

Another very positive fact worth noting, is that the previously unknown to me, Tester 13, who is working on the project too, has well and truly earned his stripes. You may or may not have read about the firmware hack that gave the Panasonic GH1 it’s wings (Greatly increased bitrate amongst other things) and got many a shooter very excited, well, even if you haven’t the work was pretty bloody awesome! Rambo has been raving about it, he’ll pop up around here somewhere singing it’s praises (won’t ya?! ). Well that was the fine work of Tester 13. So there is some very good help on the case with Jonny.

So considering how long it too to see progress with the GH1, perhaps it will just take a little while to see this come to fruition. Don’t lose heart, friends. . .Stay the course. . .We will see in time!

More soon!

The new camera shine has rubbed off the Canon 5DMKII and I’m now quite partial to shooting with both it and the Canon 7D on the same shoot. It’s not always practical, but there has been instances where using the tilt shift and the macro on the 7D, as well as the overcranking capability have really added to a production. Having the two bodies effectively gives each lens another look and use due to the crop factor of the Canon 7D. So very happy on the front, now if they’d just bring out a full frame 7D with all the Canon 5DMKII audio perks, I’d be pumped!

Anyway, enough about that for now, here’s a quick rundown on what’s coming to Highdefedition.com over the next few weeks. . .

The LumoPro LP160 Review
A new all manual speedlight from Midwest Photo Exchange in the good ‘ol US of A.

The good folks at Midwest Photo Exchange (lovingly known as MPEX) were kind enough to supply us with one of these beasty flashes for review. I’ve been using it exclusively as a slave, which fires by way of it’s amazingly sensitive optical trigger every time it see’s another flash, but there are three other methods of triggering it, hotshoe, PC and a mini jack. So far I’ve been really impressed with it’s simplistic operation and considerable power. It produces a flash almost as bright as the Canon 580EX II, it’s just about a fraction of a stop less. It’s a huge improvement over it’s predecessor and once I’ve had a little more time with it, I’ll be putting a story about it here. If you just can’t wait, check out the MPEX web store for yourself, I’d have to say at this stage, for the price, you can’t go wrong.

Sigma 50mm f1.4 EX DG HSM Lens Review
A great inexpensive prime lens for your full frame or crop camera.

I just got my grubby little mits on one of these this week, by way of a not-so-great experience with Australian retailer, Dirt Cheap Camera’s. Negative experience aside, the lens is very nice and a great upgrade from the tried, tested and much loved Canon 50mm f1.8 II that I had. For the price it’s very hard to justify the extra expenditure to go up to the Canon 50mm f1.2L, I should have some nice footage to illustrate that.

Filmtools Car Mount for the 5D & 7D
A 3 suction cup car mount rig – One sucker for the body, 2 suckers for the triangulation kit to stop the shake.

This is not set in stone yet, I am looking seriously at getting hold of one of these, but cannot source one at the moment, due to their being no stock. It’s unfortunate as otherwise I would have had it weeks ago and would have been able to elaborate on it in this very post. I’ll keep you posted as things develop on this front. Make sure you keep an eye on the twitter feed and the Facebook page for the good news.

That’s about it for now guys, I did say it would be a quick one. . .if there’s anything out there you’ve had some fun shooting, throw us a link on Facebook or Twitter and show us what you’ve been up to. . .If you haven’t got anything to show, get out and bloody shoot something!

Until then. . .

Go on! Go full screen and watch it in HD. You won’t!

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Shooting with the Canon 100mm f2.8L Macro IS USM is like delving into another world. A world of tiny things made large, hair thin focal planes and immensely sensitive focus rings. It’s as close to ‘Honey I shrunk the kids!’ as I’ve ever been and funnily enough, every time I focused upon a leaf, blade of grass, flower or a grain of salt, that’s exactly what I thought of. . .but without Rick Moranis. . .he always scared me.

Ok, first up, let it be known that macro shooting is seriously awesome! I’d seen shots from the Canon 100mm f2.8L Macro IS USM before, wanted that look and knew what I was getting. What I didn’t know, was how much joyous, childlike fun I would have shooting with this lens, peering at things very close up through the live view and then gazing transfixed at them on the iMac. Initially I thought this lens may be very limited in application, but now having seen the results I’m inclined to think otherwise.

But obviously you’ve seen how close in you can get with this thing, as no doubt you’ve watched the video before reading this literary masterpiece. So enough, let’s get to the bigger picture.

What I love about the Canon 100mm f2.8L Macro IS USM, aside from it’s amazing image quality and ability to focus so close, is it’s focus ring. Being a lover of manual focusing, the nicely damped focus ring is a dream. It feels really great in the hand and the stops, although they are not hard, are sufficient for my style of shooting. I can see how purist “my lens will have hard stops or die” types may frown at it’s easy going ways, but for me, it’s not a huge problem. As well as feeling good, it’s nice and wide since we’re not sharing the barrel with a zoom ring, which means you can get a comfortable grip on it any which way when you’re shooting handheld. Speaking of shooting handheld, as you may or may not know, I’m a pretty big fan of shooting handheld with the IS on. This lens is no exception, I did have quite decent results shooting handheld video and photo’s with the IS on, but it does not feel like as good an implementation as it does on the Canon 70-200 f2.8L IS USM. The IS on that lens seems to perform a lot better, especially when shooting video. It just seems to have more room for movement.

The AF is super fast and super quiet and despite having switches to limit the focal range (and hunting) I didn’t make use of them this weekend. I’ll let you know how they go a little way down the track.

I like that it comes with a soft case to keep the outer plastic shell from scratching too badly and that it also comes with a lens hood. Speaking of the plastic shell though, that’s one thing I don’t like. Although it probably is, The Canon 100mm f2.8L Macro IS USM, does not feel like a tough and sturdy lens. Sure it’s nice and weighty in the hand, but the plastic construction of the outer shell does not inspire a lot of confidence. I’m not rough with my gear, but I do like it to have a solid feel to it’s construction, and given the L Series classification, I was surprised to find this. It doesn’t feel like it’s about to fall apart or anything, but it is missing that tank like build quality of the other L series lenses. We’ll see how it holds up over time.

On the camera (I have used it on the Canon 5DMKII and Canon 7D) it feels nice, not too heavy and if I’m to be a complete wanker, looks quite cool with the lens hood on. Of course how it looks doesn’t affect the images, but hey, some people like cars. . .I like camera’s. . .don’t we all? That’s why you’re here! But I digress. What’s it like to shoot with I hear you clamouring, get to the bloody point!

It’s good! Real good! And when shooting video or photo’s, very closely, wide open at f2.8, insanely difficult to manual focus. Now I’m sure I’ll get used to it, but this is seriously a whole new ball game. I pride myself on being able to rack a pretty decent focus when I need to, but this is unbelievable. The focal plane is literally hair thin. At the minimum focus distance, wide open, a grain of salt is deeper than the focal plane. That’s some pretty shallow depth of field. Moving the focus ring a little actually does quite a lot at this stage and even the usually imperceptible swaying of your body can mean the difference between a keeper and a dud. The bokeh it produces is just gorgeous and the out of focus highlights are beautiful perfect circles at f2.8 thanks to the 9 blade aperture diaphragm. For the best result when shooting super close you’re going to have to use a tripod. I found my Glidetrack to be a great help, moving the camera instead of the focus ring. You’ll see examples of that in the video with the shot of the eyes. That’s not a racked shot, that’s a Glidetrack push.

The difference the 1.6x multiplier of the Canon 7D‘s cropped sensor makes to the perceived focal length is quite astounding. Effectively turning the Canon 100mm f2.8L Macro IS USM into a 160mm Macro Lens. I didn’t do a full test of this, just putting it on there briefly to see what it looked like in the live view. But at minimum focus distance the difference I saw was significant. The shot of the eye at the beginning of the video. On the Canon 7D, that shot would have been mostly iris, in other words, really bloody close! I’ll do a full test of this in the coming weeks and share the results. I’m looking to seeing what it can do that’s for sure.

The Canon 100mm f2.8L Macro IS USM is super sharp wide open, and obviously it gets a bit better as you stop it down, but I didn’t notice too much of a difference. Even wide open it’s still really impressive to me and I used it like this mostly.

All up, this is a lovely lens. Not only is it a cracking 100mm lens, it’s also got that macro ability which is really something else. Having not shot Macro stuff before, it’s been really interesting, and really refreshing being able to get that up close and personal with any subject and see it like you’ve never seen it before. To be able to pick a subject, no matter how close and not worry about your minimum focus distance, is really refreshing. What I love about shooting is freedom, and despite the limitation of it being a fixed focal length lens, the macro ability more than makes up for it. So get out and give it a go if you have the chance, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

Anyway, I reckon that’s about enough out of me for now I’ve only used the lens for about 3 hours or so and will get a bit more up here once I’ve had a couple of weeks of time behind it. Some things you only notice after extended use and I’m interested to see how I can incorporate this lens into my daily shooting and just how many applications I’ll have for that extreme close up. Only time will tell.

Now if you haven’t already, get you butt back up the top of the post and go and watch the test footage as it’s supposed to be watched. . .in 1080P. Nothing else does it justice.

Until then. . .

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More good news for 5DMKII Owners. . .

Those lovely folks over at Canon are at it again with a new firmware upgrade for the Canon 5DMKII.

I got to admit, that whilst it’s not so cool that things like this need to be addressed, it’s almost a given that any product anybody releases these days is going to have at least some problems. Even the most intense testing is bound to overlook issues that consumers will experience due to their sheer volume and impossible to replicate real world usage. Having said that, I’m very glad that these days things can be fixed by something as simple as a firmware update. Features can even be added! I mean put it this way, can you imagine if the Canon 5DMKII was still shackled to 30P and had no manual audio control? That would suck! Massively!

In this release we’re not seeing anything so exciting as the 24/25P additions or manual audio control, but more a couple of fixes for some funny little things the camera does some times. Here’s a direct quote from Canon’s Download page. . .

This firmware update (Version 2.0.7) incorporates the following improvements and fixes.

1. Fixes a phenomenon in which the aperture exhibits abnormal movement when shooting movies in manual exposure mode and Aperture Priority AE (Av mode) using some Canon lenses (such as macro lenses).
2. Fixes a phenomenon in which the exposure level shown in the LCD panel differs from what is shown in the viewfinder when shooting still images in manual exposure mode.
3. Fixes a phenomenon in which the Wireless File Transmitter (WFT-E4 or WFT-E4 II) may not automatically power off when used for FTP transfers.

These phenomenon only occur with the Version 2.0.4 and Version 2.0.3 firmware.

The Version 2.0.7 firmware being released this time is for cameras with firmware up to Version 2.0.4. If the camera’s firmware is already Version 2.0.7, it is not necessary to update the firmware.

So is it anything to sing and dance about? I don’t know. I guess it will be if you have been suffering from the above issues. I have seen the Aperture issue mentioned in point 1 on my own camera, with nearly all of my lenses, so I will be interested in seeing that fixed. If you’ve seen any of the issues above, let us know how the new firmware treats you!

Download it here.

I’ve always regarded tilt shift lenses with a sense of awe. The things they are capable of are quite astounding really and to actually get your head around it is quite difficult at first. But once you’ve got the basics sorted, it quickly becomes apparent just how much you’ve been missing out on by using conventional lenses. The Canon TS-E 17mm F/4L is one of the newest additions to the Canon Tilt Shift line up and this, my friends, is a seriously cool lens!

There are focal planes flying all over the place, perspective correction techniques galore and enough dials, nobs, twists and turns to make you queasy. So when I’d decided that the Canon TS-E 17mm F/4L was for me, I did a lot of reading about the net, trying to prepare myself for what I knew was most likely to be a confusing exerience in the beginning.

To be completely honest, a lot of what I read made zero sense. The perspective correction I understood, but the whole focal plane thing was so confusing to me, it took a good couple of reads for it to sink in. I’d seen all the miniaturised stuff that people had shot around the place, it looked cool but seemed a limited application. I had no idea what the actual uses of the effect could be and when I found out I was quite surprised. I’m not going to regurgitate everything I learnt here, but if you’re keen to take a look at some interesting reading on the effect, check this article out.

But I digress, this isn’t supposed to be a post about the basics of tilt shift photography. . .it’s about the lens. . .so without further adieu. . .

Pulling it out of the included little Canon Duffel bag, the first thing I notice, is that this thing is large and pretty heavy. Taking the lens cap off, the huge exposed convex elements on the front make me think of two things – Uncomfortably large repair bills if I ever ding the front of that lovely L series glass and the disappointing realisation that I won’t be able to put a filter on the front. I love my polarisers for landscape shooting, so this is a bit of a sad moment. Holding it though, it’s evident the build quality is as you would expect for an L lens and when it’s mounted on the front of the Canon 5DMKII it looks like a serious piece of kit, kinda tough. . .I like that!

Now at F4 it’s definitely not the fastest lens on the shelf, as a result of that you’d expect that you’d have to sacrifice that lovely depth of field we’ve come to expect from fast lenses on these large sensors. This is somewhat true, but not entirely true at the same time. The tilting ability does allow you to do some pretty crazy things with depth and where and how it’s displayed. being able to adjust the focal plane, selectively focus on or apply blur wherever you like in the frame is a very cool function. You’ll get more apparent depth of field or boken with this wide angle than with any other, this much is certain. This more than makes up for the slower speed of the lens. The minimum focus distance is also dramatically reduced when utilising the tilt effectively. How close, I’m not exactly sure, I’m not a numbers guy, what I can say is that I was able to achieve focus on something so close that when I actually looked to see how close I was, I was too close for comfort and concerned about damaging the front element. Got to watch that one.

Man this thing is sharp! Like seriously, deliciously sharp. Now I was always a fan of my Tokina 11-16 f2.8 on the Canon 7D, and it also did a passable job on the Canon 5DMKII at 15-16mm despite not having been designed for it, but the Canon TS-E 17mm F/4L eats it alive. Fantastic stuff! I’m not much of a pixel peeper, but even at full 21MP on the Canon 5DMKII viewing images at 100% it’s tack sharp. You do see a little softening and vignetting at full shift towards the edge of the frame, but this is to be expected at such an extreme viewing angle. Even wide open at f4, it’s sharp, but by the time you’re down around 8, it’s really impressive. So for the sharps it’s a massive win!

One thing I found really fantastic was the almost imperceptible barrell distortion. I read a review somewhere before I bought it that said there was slight barrel distortion. If it’s there, I can’t see it. . .Lines seem perfectly straight, it all looks great to me. For a lens largely suited to architectural photography, it would have to keep distortion of any kind to an absolute minimum.

Worth mentioning, is that this lens is manual focus lens. There is no auto focus at all. Now for some people I can see this is going to be a pain in the butt. However, ever since having a dodgy 7D that couldn’t focus to save itself, I manage quite well using the Live View and zooming in to check focus. It’s not difficult and for super sharp shots and video, it’s not a bad practise to get into. The focus ring is nice, smooth and has hard stops.

Now at this stage, I begin to look back over what I’ve written and it sounds like this is a shameless plug for Canon. It’s not. This is my honest opinion of this lens. To me, it really is this good, and for the price it had bloody well better be!

What I found to be a huge creative positive to using this lens was that I was no longer restricted to certain framing conventions and tripod heights in order to avoid any perspective distortion. Now I know this can all be done in post, but I’m an in camera guy. Stretch it in post, or do it optically through L series glass on location with no loss of detail – for me it’s a no brainer. Also, perspective correction with DSLR video and it’s limited resolution is not even an option. So now it’s just a matter of setting up your shot at whatever tripod height you want, get your perspective true and then shift away till your hearts content to re frame your shot without introducing any awkward converging lines.

For a lens to give you so much more creative control and freedom is rare. It has given me so many more options when I shoot, so many creative choices, that it’s really exciting. It gets me really motivated to shoot and go out and see what this lens can do. It can create really nice text book shots but the possibilities for throwing out the rule book completely and creating some really abstract effects make this a really versatile lens.

Would I recommend it? Absolutely! The Canon TS-E 17mm F/4L is a great wide angle lens before you touch any of the cool tilt shift functions. When you take into account the possibilities they add, it’s a clear winner in it’s class.

The video below and the images here are just a collection of test shots, all have been shifted, some tilted. I’ll post some more examples sometime soon with more detailed explanations.

Until then. . .:)

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