I C U R Digital Photography - Blogs

5D MKII Blog

Admin — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 19:19:07 GMT

I finally got this camera and have had it for a bit over a week now, it looks and feels like the 40 or 50D cameras, the only difference is that the buttons are not on the bottom, but rather on the left hand side of the camera. The LCD is very nice with 3" in size, and has a coating on to see the images in the bright light, have not had it out in the sun yet. The quality of the LCD is much improved with the added mega pixels and you can see the image much better than ever before.

The shutter frame rate is not as fast for this camera 3.9 frames per second, this could be much improved even for this camera. The full sensor is nice for landscape images and portrait images, but not bad on the longer end of things that I can tell yet. Having the full sensor for wide angle shots is real nice to see, no the 16-35mm is going to give that extra wide angle of view.

I was shooting the hawks here at home, and found that the images are better than with my 1D-MKIII and no macro calibration done at this time. I'm awaiting the LensAlign to show up, in customs now! Than I will do both cameras at the same time to really see what happens.

Video is neat but have not really played with this feature a whole lot. The one thing is a must is a tripod there is no way that one can hand hold the camera without jerky video even with the smaller lens. Manual focus only, and you can only use the view screen on the back of the camera and not through the lens. I made a video up when I meet Don at the park and it turned out to be rain, so we did a test in his van of the rain hand held and than in the coffee shop I put the camera on the table and let it run for a bit. Not bad since I have not read the manual for this yet. The movie is 2 minutes and 15 seconds long, and you will need to use Windows Media Player to see it. Note that this is not High Def as the file would be huge in size, plus I don't have space on the web site to store that large of a file.

All in all I'm happy with it, and if anything else I can add to this blog I will add it later on. Remember this is not a high def image for the reason is disk space on the web.

My First Video <====Click Here

Canon 50D Specs

Admin — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 16:44:50 GMT

The 50D
* 12.2 Megapixel APS-C sensor
* Single Digic III Processor
* ISO 100-3200 (High 6400)
* 6-8 fps depending on grip
* 3" High Resolution OLED LCD
* Will accept EF and EF-S Lenses
* 11 point AF
* 35 Zone metering
* Viewfinder: 100 percent coverage .95 magnification
* Pop up flash
* New Lithium Ion Battery
* Weather sealing slightly better than 40D

Canon 5D MKII

Admin — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 14:53:00 GMT

Canon EOS 5D MkII: Specification

Resolution: 21.1Mp
Sensor size: 36x24mm full frame
Sensor type: CMOS
Image size: 5616x3744
Aspect ratio: 3:2
Focus system: TTL-CT-SIR
Focus points: 9 point AF plus 6 assist AF points
Crop factor: 1.0x
Lens mount: EF (excludes EF-S lenses)
File type: JPEG, RAW, sRAW1, sRAW2
Sensitivity: ISO100-6400 (expandable toISO50, ISO12,800 and ISO25,600)
Storage: Compactflash
Focus types: One-shot, AI servo, AI focus
Metering system: TTL full aperture
Metering types: Evaluative (selective AF point), Partial (approx 8% of centre), spot (approx 3.5% of centre), centre-weighted
Exposure compensation: /-2 EV in 1/2 or 1/3 step increments
Shutter speed: 30sec-1/8000sec
Frames per second: 3.9fps (max 78 images in JPEG or 310 with UDMA card, max 13 images in RAW)
Flash: Built-in, hotshoe for external EX speedlite
Flash metering: E-TTL auto flash
Flash sync speed: 1/200sec
Image stabilisation: Lens based
Integrated cleaning: EOS integrated cleaning system with fluorine coating
Live view: Yes, 100% coverage
Viewfinder: Optical, pentaprism type with approx 98% coverage
Monitor: 3in TFT LCD 920,000dot (307,000px)
Interface: USB 2.0
Power: LP-E6 Li-Ion battery
Size: 152x113.5x75mm
Weight: 810g

I was looking at getting a new lens, and and while surfing the Internet abut the 50D and 5D MKII, I thought that it would be best to look at a backup camera just in case.

I started to look at the 50D and the specs quite good I must add, but than I started to read the reviews and the specs of the 5D MKII. And than I decided to run more focus tests on the Canon MKIII and I found that the images were soft looking to me, but maybe I'm just too picky with the results and things are fine? So when I use the Canon Rebel XSI and ran test on that camera things seem to be sharper to me. So the best thing that I can do is send it in to Canon and have them look at it and see if in fact there is an issue.

I went to visit an old friend of mine and we started to look into the 5D MKII in more details and we were both blown away at what this camera can do, and the cost is not all that much more than the 50D. We both pondered over the specs from each camera and really came to the conclusion that for the bang for the buck the 5D MKII was the better out of the 2. We called a camera store that both of us had dealt with for a number of years, in fact all my cameras and lens came from this one store.
We spoke with the guy on the phone trying to get in formation of the release dates for both cameras. The 50D had been released and the 5D next month. We told him we would call back in an hour.

We called him back, and we placed a deposit down with the store, for the 5D MKII.

Here are my reasons for going with this camera.

Backup camera, I know full frame, but still good for a backup unit.
Great for landscape and city shooting which I hope to do this winter.
Video 1080 HD which was something I used to do before shooting digital. We sold my moms trailer when she passed away and I had my video camera hidden inside and forgot all about it but never went back for it.

Just in case things change from now until the release of the camera, we have asked them to mark down that this is subject to change to the 50D if we are not 100% about the 5D MKII and they agreed with that.

My MKII will be used as the prime camera when it comes back from repairs, and I can only wish that they have found a problem with it, as this would put my mind at ease, otherwise I have to work with what I have.

Your comments are welcomed about this Blog.

Noise Removal Software

Admin — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 01:49:41 GMT

Hello All, here is a blog that I thought that may be of some use to you. Noise is caused from mainly high camera ISO settings, and will show up more in the darker areas and shadows in your images. Also we need to make sure that when we apply the noise filter to the image that we are just taking away enough of the noise, over do it and your photo will have a plastic so you need to play around with the settings and get used to the software.

Now you need to decide where and what noise you want to remove from the image, in the case of bird images, we only want to remove the noise from the background only and not touch the subject. In photoshop you could use the Magic Wand around the image of the bird, invert it, and run the noise filter just on the background. One thing to keep in mind is that a plug-in is the best way to go, as you have an option here to use the Magic Wand. Stand alone such as Noise-wares free version will do the whole image, which makes it harder to control the noise in the image.

Run the noise filter first thing in your post processing, and never run it through twice otherwise for sure the image will have that plastic look to it.

Noise Ninja, this is one that I used to use all the time, very basic, but it works very well. You can have it to auto profile the image and make the changes to the amount you want to apply.

Neat Image, this is the one that I use all the time and like it because there are lots of options. If you read the text in the image about the advanced area, you can really make changes and retain details, sharpen the image and much more, but just too much to go into at this time.

Define, I got the demo from NIK and I have to tell you that this is one that I may switch to. I can go to the filter and run it and I don't have to use the magic wand, as I can pick the points that I want to remove the noise from. Or I can have the filter do the picking for me. I really like the ease of controls here not many, but it does the job. I find that the other 2 filters have controls that I have no clue about and never really got into them to see, but I like filters that are easy and straight forward and Define is one that I will use.

Conclusion:

Noise Ninja is easy to use and has some limitations

Neat Image, better control for maintaining details in the areas that you want to retail details. More sliders and buttons, than I care for, but as I mentioned I have only looked at what did the job for me in my process.

Define, very easy to use, saves time overall and does the job very well. Control points makes it easy to remove background noise in the image and colour noise.

My Picks

Define
Neat Image
Noise Ninja

First Post

rbustraen — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 23:14:09 GMT

I know this isn't what Dennis really intended this for, but this is how I am going to use it. Ban me if you wish and revoke my account, I have more than 1 personality to just re-join as Amanda Hugandkiss.

I haven't been out shooting much lately, life has a way of putting a hobby on hold and to tell the truth there is only so much you can see in Northern Ontario.

I recently purchase a new lens and flash. I cheeped out and bought the 430EXII Flash for my camera. I know I should have gone all the way, someone told me once; go big or go home, but in this case it is more for indoor pictures at Christmas time and birthdays.

I found a review that I found helpful and hope it does the same for you.

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/R...sh-Review.aspx

I also purchased a new lens. The Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Lens. This is the 129.99 lens and I have to say beside the plastic feel, I am VERY impressed with the images so far.

Here is a sample image just minutes after buying the lens. It was getting dark outside and took this inside the van with no flash. It has a great shallow depth of field and I got the results I wanted with the eye being sharp and the rest out of focus.

Here is the review for that lens I found as well...

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/r...ns-review.aspx

With that said, I went to the place here in Timmins where I purchased my camera and found out that he could have got it to me 20 dollars less than Henry's. He quoted me a price of 110.00 for the same lens. This doesn't seem lots, but I'm thinking 20 bucks on a 100; does that give me 200 on 1000?

Alright, this is my first post and hopefully not my last if the Admin doesn't decide to boot me off for good.

I am on my way to Halifax this Thursday and bringing all my gear so wish me luck and I hope to have some pictures to post.

- Randy

Sharpen Mask

Admin — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 21:34:00 GMT

Hello All,

Well I made this photoshop action about over a year ago, and it works very well, and I use this action still today.

I put the action on the system sometime ago, and I thought I would add it to the Blogs area for those that want the action it is here and Free for the taking.

Attached Files

SharpenMask.atn (2.6 KB, 5 views)

Focus Magic

Admin — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 17:47:00 GMT

Focus Magic is a program that will help you in fixing that out of focus image. This is a great program for saving an image that you really want to save from the Trash Can.

Focus Magic, will give you some default settings and detect the amount of blur in the image and try to make the adjustments it picks up, and most users accept those settings as is, and thus the image does not look much better. You need to look at the before and after image and make the changes to you image.

The image above is the default settings that the program picks up on. Notice that I selected the area on Don's shirt to get the area that I wanted to focus on. Notice the Before and After Image. For me this is over sharpened and needs to be adjusted down some what.

It is here where we need to lower the levels for the over sharpened image. This is the most common mistake that users make by not adjusting this area in the program.

Here the program picked up Blue Width of 5 and notice the before and after, really looks bad hey. What I would do here is either forget about trying to save the image here, and or click on the Detect Button again and see if it will come down in its values. The funny thing is that you are better of with the image the way it is now then have the program try to fix it. I have found that the program will come up with these values and if I Detect the image it drops to 2 or 3, and it will still do a fairly good job.

Now we are going back to image two again, but this time we decrease the percentage to 50%. This removes the over sharpened image by you guessed it 50%.

Now I have to say that this image was already processed by Andrew, but I wanted to use this image as an example to show you that you can correct your images and make them sharper even if they have been processed. Notice the second image how sharp the shirt is and then when you adjust the amount to 50% how much it takes off of the sharpness.

Notice the arrows here, this is before Focus Magic has been applied to the image.

OK, notice how everything is sharpened and a bit to much I could have taken this down to even 25%. But you can see in the shirt that the lines are sharper and also the gravel road and you can even pick out the tire marks from a car on the road. Even the bush on the left is much too sharp.

So all in all, this is not a bad program if used properly, and with the right adjustments you could produce saving that certain image.

Now I have heard that some users use this as there main program to sharpen images. But there are some major draw backs for me about this. If you noticed that when I ran Focus Magic on the image, it does the whole image, and this is not the best way most of the times. Yes if you are trying to save an image, and you need to deal with the whole image being adjusted.

But for me I only want to sharpen the subject and not the background of the photo, as I find this is more appealing. And for this reason I only use Focus Magic for a slightly out of focus image and that is it.

In closing, this program is great to have around for what it was intended to do, but not for your main sharpening process. I hope that this tutorial was a help to some of you, and I hope to do more of this in the future.

Kirkfield Photo Trip

Admin — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 15:51:53 GMT

Hello All, this is another Blog that I have created here to show you that this could turn out to be a nice feature to the system.

Here is a shot of the trip that Left to Right, Jojo, Dennis, Don and of course Andrew. I have to say that we all had a great time up there and laughed and had some great conversations in general. Lots of walking and driving around as there is a lot of areas to cover. One of the reasons for going up there was the Eastern Blue Birds and we never seen one.

We had a great time on the trip up North about 1 1/2 or so, and this trip we left at 6:00AM in the morning and did not get home for me anyways around 7:30PM.

The Cardon area is one of the top places in North America for birds, and this day, we never really seen much for the better part of our trip there. To-wards the end we managed to capture some Osprey.

I thought I would share this image and the trip with you all.