hi everyone and happy new year!! i can't wait, and i only just got back!!! kenya is FABULOUS!!! barb i'm still there emotionally, and i caught myself mentally packing yesterday,and had to resist the urge to go and start putting things aside ... oh boy, it's going to be a long 8 months and 20 days!!
ok, a question, seeing as comments are starting on equipment. i have a 5dmk2 with 70-200 and 300 plus 1.4 teleconverter. 7d is in the mail :-))) arriving tomorrow to replace the 40d that i took on this last trip.
many images are poorly focused, having used bean bag (home made as the molar bean bag that would require 8lbs of rice/beans did not show up till after my departure). bean bag was light - filled with buckwheat husks, but normal size. i was unsure as to whether image stabiliser should be on or off when using a bean bag. it seemed pretty stable, but not perfect? i kept the aperture around 9-11 to aim for the sweet spot, and even images of a g@# d#$$ tree were blurry!! yes, people sometimes wiggled around as they lined up their shots, but there seems to be have been a consistent (on an erratic basis) problem. one difficulty was that there wasn't enough time to view photos, detect problems, and problem solve, and i am aware of that...
so question, should the image stabiliser be on or off with a bean bag? is there any point in keeping the better bean bag to fill up with lentils/rice/whatever on the way to play with the animals? anything else anyone can think of that i did wrong? i did even use the cable release sometimes, but not the mirror lockup as i really did want to look through the view finder to see the animal behaviour (less important for the tree, of course!)
so, thoughts would be much appreciated.
looking forward to meeting you/seeing you all again. YAYYY!
cheers, sarah
ps. c'mon charlie - if you need a kick start, africa will certainly fire the adrenaline!!!!!!:ivar
.......................................... Sarah A Wager, MB BS
Beneath the shadow of Kilimanjaro lies a vast universe of life and death. This unique struggle for survival is known to all, but few see it for themselves. Get up close and personal with creatures great and small.
If you've got Africa on your Bucket List, here's your chance to do it "Muench Workshops" style, with Marc Muench and Andy Williams. We're taking 10 photographers on their trip of a liifetime. We only have 4 spots left, so we hope you can join us!
Next time you guys plan a trip do let us know..... I would be interested in joining..
Canon Digital EOS 60D D-SLR Canon Lens 55-250mm Canon Lens 18-55mm
Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 EX Macro
Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 Wide angle
What were your shutter speeds, Sarah? Show a couple links to pics. I'll help.
hi andy - thanks very much for your noble offer!!
here are some images, retrieved from the garbage!
this image was one of a series that i took to do a massive pano -used the tripod, first with is on (my mistake -realised and reshot, in a bit of a hurry because we weren't supposed to be outside the jeep, so i skipped mirror lockup and cable release. i manually focused each image to be sure, as the angle of the camera, to animals was changing as i panned round:1/250sec, aperture 9.0, iso 640, 300mm plus 1.4 tc. Crikey!!!! and they're all like that, with and without the IS, and no, i had not been drinking!!
so after the pano debacle, this is 1/400 sec f/10 iso 640, 300mm plus 1.4 tc. i must have shot about 100 images - all same quality. the flamingoes were moving but i would have thought that 1/400 would have quelled them into submission,
same for the next image which is 1/400 sec, f/8, iso dropped to 400 in the hopes of less noise as it was getting lighter with sunrise
just to prove that i can manage something in focus, here is a heffalump:
i did shoot throughout on a1 focus in the hope that if something stationary started to move, it would track, and what i discovered on setting up some testing this afternoon was that the IS was set to 2, which it was noted to be on first day in africa (after shooting of course!) i am beginning to wonder if the fairly random disasters were because sometimes the switch would get moved on packing/unpacking. i must confess that i did not check it every time.
it would seem from playtime at home here, that the IS is not required for bean bag use as long as it is stable, but AI focus is still better than "one shot". i was indoors and need to do some serious stuff outdoors. i had done this before i went, but obviously another round is required
anyway, i would really appreciate your thoughts, and everyone will benefit from the do's and don't's of nailing these shots on the first trip!! i dread to think how i'll get anything in focus from the plane......
many thanks, sarah
.......................................... Sarah A Wager, MB BS
The elephant is the same lens as the other images?
hi david,
yes, it was.: 300 plus 1.4. 1/320 sec, f10, iso 640. sorry , should have given that info. there are plenty of images that are well focused with just the 300 or the 300/1.4 combo, and plenty that were a disaster. one thing that i did notice is that the 5d mark 2 is hard to focus on AF, unless the centre point is used, which is hard when trying to compose a decent image as well as grab the shot. i quite often tried to use a peripheral point, and when it refused to focus, switched to centre point, and 'targeted it'. i don't think that that was an issue in the images that i've shown though!
thanks for looking, and all the best,
sarah
.......................................... Sarah A Wager, MB BS
Marc MuenchRegistered UsersPosts: 1,420Major grins
edited January 11, 2011
Hi Sarah
The 7d has a MUCH better auto focus! Though, it looks to me like those Flamingos are in focus? just a shallow depth of field is knocking out the back ground and foreground.
On the first three your aperture settings were between f8 and f10. The aperture really needed to be stepped down to get the kind of image you were going for.
I usually keep the IS turned off unless my shutter speed goes lower than I can safely handhold.
Harry http://behret.smugmug.com/NANPA member How many photographers does it take to change a light bulb? 50. One to change the bulb, and forty-nine to say, "I could have done that better!"
The 7d has a MUCH better auto focus! Though, it looks to me like those Flamingos are in focus? just a shallow depth of field is knocking out the back ground and foreground.
hi marc - thanks for looking. yes, i figured that that was a good excuse to be getting the 7d . i noticed as i attached the photos that the flamingoes look better on the posting than they do when i check here at 100%. they're pretty soft, and i don;t think they're acceptable. i had quite a good hunt to find anything tack sharp, and i figure if i have to hunt for the focal point, i don't think i can flag it as a 'pick' ! thanks for the encouragement though!
ciao, sarah
.......................................... Sarah A Wager, MB BS
Marc MuenchRegistered UsersPosts: 1,420Major grins
edited January 11, 2011
The other consideration is the aperture! When using the Canon 70-200 there is a very noticeable diff in sharpness between F 5.6 and F8. It is possible that the sweet spot/aperture might change with the 1.4 attached? Have not tested that.......
This image I suspect mis-focusing, or shake of the camera. Or your TC is just really bad TC will introduce softness anyhow, though nothing like this shot. The flamingos (in particular the 2nd flamingo shot) are sharp- you have focused on the near flamingos and the rest is just natural out of focus due to the DOF.
This why I was asking about the lens. The bokeh on those first shots just looks weird, like the lens or the TC are bad. I had a problem with my 70-200 that Canon fixed, and it looked a lot like that.
hi guys - thank you all for comments and thoughts. i wondered if the teleconverter is junk, but i do have some sharp shots that suggest not. one thing is that the connection is not great and i have to check that it clicks in to lock. a couple of days after the dreadful "pano every shot out of focus" , i 'noticed' this problem demonstrated by the 300 falling off the teleconverter as i focused - the whole lens turned on the teleconverter, and then separated!! a heart-stopping moment - fortunately onto very soft ground, but maybe the connection for those shots wasn't locked.
re sweet spot and teleconverter, yes marc, i think that that is a fair comment, and i need to go back do some more in depth testing, and also look at iso's and noise levels, so that once i can see just what is my aperture of choice, whether i can get it handheld with a high iso, and image stabiliser if required, or whether i need to rest on bean bag, in which case my suspicion is that image stabilisation is not required, judging by your comments. sounds like the bean bag i've got is perfectly fine, and the rest of the system needs more analysis.
also sounds like i'd be better off using the 7d with 300 (plus or hopefully minus the tc) for most of the 'grab the animal' shots. ie using the crop factor effect rather than the teleconverter, when distance allows, and put the 70-200 on the 5dmk2 for wider shots. that will give me faster focusing, less need for the teleconverter and still a good number of megapixels to compensate for any cropping loss. i didn't have that luxury with the 40d, so kept the 5d mark2 as the main wildlife camera. nice to be getting the set up organised 8 months and 18 days before we go!!! (not counting or anything!)
thanks for all your helpful comments,
sarah
.......................................... Sarah A Wager, MB BS
<< sounds like i'd be better off using the 7d with 300 (plus or hopefully minus the tc) >>
By my reckoning, comparing ...
5Dm2 + 300mm +1.4x 7D + 300mm
You'll get nearly 12% more pixels (by area) on the subject with the 7D / 300mm combo.
Fwiw (prob not much, as am not a pro), when using a bean bag with my rig (1Dm3/500F4) I use IS mode 2 - on the times I've not checked and it's been on mode 1, I've not noticed much difference - but have when it's been off ... prob 'cos everything's always blurred whatever I do
Happened upon this thread as I worked in E and W Africa in the 70's.
#10 just signed up He saw Marc on yesterday on Fine Art Photography Weekly and heard there was one spot left. He's from Norway and shoots Phase1 and Canon. Can't wait to meet him!
#10 just signed up He saw Marc on yesterday on Fine Art Photography Weekly and heard there was one spot left. He's from Norway and shoots Phase1 and Canon. Can't wait to meet him!
figure out what form of camera support to get for the trip (besides bean bags),
Check out the Todd-Pod here http://www.gustafsonphotosafari.net/?page_id=43 and on his video page you can see it in action. Looks very interesting. I'm checking with our guides to see if that'll work with our vehicles (see no reason why not)... love the idea of being able to use the Wimberley, eh?
Right now I'm a little torn. At first I was expecting a good zoom 200-400 would be ample. And it may still be. But the photos here http://africaddict.smugmug.com/Nature/KenyaTanzania/14274166_i4Wij#1058661764_4xv9R
are mostly all with a Nikko 500mm f/4 Shooting wildlife, my experience, and the general consensus seems to be, "you can never have enough reach" - so, options:
1- Rent a Nikon D3S (or D3X) and 200-400 VR and use a 1.4x when needed (Harry says this combination is awesome and there is little degradation with the 1.4 on the 200-400 VR)
2- Shoot with my Canon system and bring along a 500 f/4L.
The Canon 500 is only 1lb more in weight than the Nikon 200-400, so weight is not so much an issue. I suppose the tradeoff is the flexibility the zoom will give if we are too-close to our wild subjects I suppose that a Canon 100-300 (the new one) on a 2nd body will solve this problem.
How realistic is it that you're going to want to be messing with a TC in the bush, Andy? Think major dust, not to mention missing the decisive moment while you're fussing with it. I think the new 100-300 and 500 lenses on two separate bodies is a brilliant idea. Just point and shoot, no-brainer.
How realistic is it that you're going to want to be messing with a TC in the bush, Andy? Think major dust, not to mention missing the decisive moment while you're fussing with it.
Yeah, I think it'd either be ON or OFF the lens, for a long while - not messing around with changing things in the safari vehicles.
Sarah, in your first image, the trees in the very foreground of the image are the sharpest.
Were you focusing with a single, chosen by you, AF point? If you were, why did you focus on the flamingo and trees in the foreground? You said you did focus manually. Focusing manually with the ground glass in a 5DMk2, I suspect ,is challenging. It certainly is for me.
Or did you allow the camera to choose your AF point or points? Have you micro adjusted the focus of your lens to your camera? That can make a real difference too.
Marc is correct that the AF system in the 7D allows much better and faster autofocus with more shooter control as well. I really learned to appreciate the 7D shooting wildlife from a pitching boat in Alaska.
I doubt one can focus more accurately manually, than with autofocus, unless you are using Live View with magnification too. It will be very hard to do that in sunlight inside a Jeep with passengers moving around.
Were you using a 300mm f2.8 IS L from Canon, or a 300mm f4 IS L? The difficulty with AF with the 5DMKii could be explained by a 300 f4 + 1.4 TC which brings you down to an actual f5.6 maximum aperture, where the center AF point is more sensitive.
The 300 f2.8 + TC should not have this difficulty with a real effective aperture of f4.
For wildlife, a 7D or 1DMK4 is going to be hard to beat in Canon land. Harry will lord it over us all with his black lenses in the African heat.
The MTF curves that 70-300 L are really very impressive Andy. I did not really look at that lens previously, because most 70-300 lenses are not that good at the long end. But it looks quite impressive.
I have been reviewing what to bring, in the space available, and it is really very hard to bring everything I would like. I thought I would bring a 100-400 and a 300f2.8 + 2x. but after seeing the links you sent out, I think I will bring my 500f4 L and I may look at the 70-300 IS L very closely. It is a bit slow, lots of the shooting in being done in low light, but modern cameras - 7D, 1DMk4 - offer pretty fair high ISO images.
The MTF curves that 70-300 L are really very impressive Andy. I did not really look at that lens previously, because most 70-300 lenses are not that good at the long end. But it looks quite impressive.
I have been reviewing what to bring, in the space available, and it is really very hard to bring everything I would like. I thought I would bring a 100-400 and a 300f2.8 + 2x. but after seeing the links you sent out, I think I will bring my 500f4 L and I may look at the 70-300 IS L very closely. It is a bit slow, lots of the shooting in being done in low light, but modern cameras - 7D, 1DMk4 - offer pretty fair high ISO images.
I'm leaning towards the 500 f/4L, the new 70-300L. One on each body for maximum flexibility. I'll bring my 24 1.4L, 50 1.2L, and 135 f/2L for the tripodded landscape-shooting opps that come up. Oh and I expect by then to also have Canon's 8-15 L zoom, that'll be fun to play with too!
Comments
Tap tap tap. Is this trip for you?
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ok, a question, seeing as comments are starting on equipment. i have a 5dmk2 with 70-200 and 300 plus 1.4 teleconverter. 7d is in the mail :-))) arriving tomorrow to replace the 40d that i took on this last trip.
many images are poorly focused, having used bean bag (home made as the molar bean bag that would require 8lbs of rice/beans did not show up till after my departure). bean bag was light - filled with buckwheat husks, but normal size. i was unsure as to whether image stabiliser should be on or off when using a bean bag. it seemed pretty stable, but not perfect? i kept the aperture around 9-11 to aim for the sweet spot, and even images of a g@# d#$$ tree were blurry!! yes, people sometimes wiggled around as they lined up their shots, but there seems to be have been a consistent (on an erratic basis) problem. one difficulty was that there wasn't enough time to view photos, detect problems, and problem solve, and i am aware of that...
so question, should the image stabiliser be on or off with a bean bag? is there any point in keeping the better bean bag to fill up with lentils/rice/whatever on the way to play with the animals? anything else anyone can think of that i did wrong? i did even use the cable release sometimes, but not the mirror lockup as i really did want to look through the view finder to see the animal behaviour (less important for the tree, of course!)
so, thoughts would be much appreciated.
looking forward to meeting you/seeing you all again. YAYYY!
cheers, sarah
ps. c'mon charlie - if you need a kick start, africa will certainly fire the adrenaline!!!!!!:ivar
Sarah A Wager, MB BS
+39 075 878 0642 or on the web at
www.photoempt.com
photoempt.smugmug.com
www.rjslade.com
and if you are interested in our italian cooking school here in Monte Castello di Vibio check out www.umbriacucina.com
Next time you guys plan a trip do let us know..... I would be interested in joining..
Canon Lens 55-250mm
Canon Lens 18-55mm
Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 EX Macro
Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 Wide angle
What were your shutter speeds, Sarah? Show a couple links to pics. I'll help.
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hi andy - thanks very much for your noble offer!!
here are some images, retrieved from the garbage!
this image was one of a series that i took to do a massive pano -used the tripod, first with is on (my mistake -realised and reshot, in a bit of a hurry because we weren't supposed to be outside the jeep, so i skipped mirror lockup and cable release. i manually focused each image to be sure, as the angle of the camera, to animals was changing as i panned round:1/250sec, aperture 9.0, iso 640, 300mm plus 1.4 tc. Crikey!!!! and they're all like that, with and without the IS, and no, i had not been drinking!!
so after the pano debacle, this is 1/400 sec f/10 iso 640, 300mm plus 1.4 tc. i must have shot about 100 images - all same quality. the flamingoes were moving but i would have thought that 1/400 would have quelled them into submission,
same for the next image which is 1/400 sec, f/8, iso dropped to 400 in the hopes of less noise as it was getting lighter with sunrise
just to prove that i can manage something in focus, here is a heffalump:
i did shoot throughout on a1 focus in the hope that if something stationary started to move, it would track, and what i discovered on setting up some testing this afternoon was that the IS was set to 2, which it was noted to be on first day in africa (after shooting of course!) i am beginning to wonder if the fairly random disasters were because sometimes the switch would get moved on packing/unpacking. i must confess that i did not check it every time.
it would seem from playtime at home here, that the IS is not required for bean bag use as long as it is stable, but AI focus is still better than "one shot". i was indoors and need to do some serious stuff outdoors. i had done this before i went, but obviously another round is required
anyway, i would really appreciate your thoughts, and everyone will benefit from the do's and don't's of nailing these shots on the first trip!! i dread to think how i'll get anything in focus from the plane......
many thanks, sarah
Sarah A Wager, MB BS
+39 075 878 0642 or on the web at
www.photoempt.com
photoempt.smugmug.com
www.rjslade.com
and if you are interested in our italian cooking school here in Monte Castello di Vibio check out www.umbriacucina.com
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hi david,
yes, it was.: 300 plus 1.4. 1/320 sec, f10, iso 640. sorry , should have given that info. there are plenty of images that are well focused with just the 300 or the 300/1.4 combo, and plenty that were a disaster. one thing that i did notice is that the 5d mark 2 is hard to focus on AF, unless the centre point is used, which is hard when trying to compose a decent image as well as grab the shot. i quite often tried to use a peripheral point, and when it refused to focus, switched to centre point, and 'targeted it'. i don't think that that was an issue in the images that i've shown though!
thanks for looking, and all the best,
sarah
Sarah A Wager, MB BS
+39 075 878 0642 or on the web at
www.photoempt.com
photoempt.smugmug.com
www.rjslade.com
and if you are interested in our italian cooking school here in Monte Castello di Vibio check out www.umbriacucina.com
The 7d has a MUCH better auto focus! Though, it looks to me like those Flamingos are in focus? just a shallow depth of field is knocking out the back ground and foreground.
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I usually keep the IS turned off unless my shutter speed goes lower than I can safely handhold.
http://behret.smugmug.com/ NANPA member
How many photographers does it take to change a light bulb? 50. One to change the bulb, and forty-nine to say, "I could have done that better!"
hi marc - thanks for looking. yes, i figured that that was a good excuse to be getting the 7d
ciao, sarah
Sarah A Wager, MB BS
+39 075 878 0642 or on the web at
www.photoempt.com
photoempt.smugmug.com
www.rjslade.com
and if you are interested in our italian cooking school here in Monte Castello di Vibio check out www.umbriacucina.com
Muench Workshops
MW on Facebook
This image I suspect mis-focusing, or shake of the camera. Or your TC is just really bad
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This why I was asking about the lens. The bokeh on those first shots just looks weird, like the lens or the TC are bad. I had a problem with my 70-200 that Canon fixed, and it looked a lot like that.
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re sweet spot and teleconverter, yes marc, i think that that is a fair comment, and i need to go back do some more in depth testing, and also look at iso's and noise levels, so that once i can see just what is my aperture of choice, whether i can get it handheld with a high iso, and image stabiliser if required, or whether i need to rest on bean bag, in which case my suspicion is that image stabilisation is not required, judging by your comments. sounds like the bean bag i've got is perfectly fine, and the rest of the system needs more analysis.
also sounds like i'd be better off using the 7d with 300 (plus or hopefully minus the tc) for most of the 'grab the animal' shots. ie using the crop factor effect rather than the teleconverter, when distance allows, and put the 70-200 on the 5dmk2 for wider shots. that will give me faster focusing, less need for the teleconverter and still a good number of megapixels to compensate for any cropping loss. i didn't have that luxury with the 40d, so kept the 5d mark2 as the main wildlife camera. nice to be getting the set up organised 8 months and 18 days before we go!!! (not counting or anything!)
thanks for all your helpful comments,
sarah
Sarah A Wager, MB BS
+39 075 878 0642 or on the web at
www.photoempt.com
photoempt.smugmug.com
www.rjslade.com
and if you are interested in our italian cooking school here in Monte Castello di Vibio check out www.umbriacucina.com
Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
Wow. Wonder who #10 will be?
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By my reckoning, comparing ...
5Dm2 + 300mm +1.4x
7D + 300mm
You'll get nearly 12% more pixels (by area) on the subject with the 7D / 300mm combo.
Fwiw (prob not much, as am not a pro), when using a bean bag with my rig (1Dm3/500F4) I use IS mode 2 - on the times I've not checked and it's been on mode 1, I've not noticed much difference - but have when it's been off ... prob 'cos everything's always blurred whatever I do
Happened upon this thread as I worked in E and W Africa in the 70's.
Have fun
pp
Flickr
#10 just signed up
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Fantastic that it worked out like that!
Photos that don't suck / 365 / Film & Lomography
Check out the Todd-Pod here http://www.gustafsonphotosafari.net/?page_id=43 and on his video page you can see it in action. Looks very interesting. I'm checking with our guides to see if that'll work with our vehicles (see no reason why not)... love the idea of being able to use the Wimberley, eh?
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
http://africaddict.smugmug.com/Nature/KenyaTanzania/14274166_i4Wij#1058661764_4xv9R
are mostly all with a Nikko 500mm f/4 Shooting wildlife, my experience, and the general consensus seems to be, "you can never have enough reach" - so, options:
1- Rent a Nikon D3S (or D3X) and 200-400 VR and use a 1.4x when needed (Harry says this combination is awesome and there is little degradation with the 1.4 on the 200-400 VR)
2- Shoot with my Canon system and bring along a 500 f/4L.
The Canon 500 is only 1lb more in weight than the Nikon 200-400, so weight is not so much an issue. I suppose the tradeoff is the flexibility the zoom will give if we are too-close to our wild subjects
Decisions decisions.
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Link to my Smugmug site
Yeah, I think it'd either be ON or OFF the lens, for a long while - not messing around with changing things in the safari vehicles.
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Were you focusing with a single, chosen by you, AF point? If you were, why did you focus on the flamingo and trees in the foreground? You said you did focus manually. Focusing manually with the ground glass in a 5DMk2, I suspect ,is challenging. It certainly is for me.
Or did you allow the camera to choose your AF point or points? Have you micro adjusted the focus of your lens to your camera? That can make a real difference too.
Marc is correct that the AF system in the 7D allows much better and faster autofocus with more shooter control as well. I really learned to appreciate the 7D shooting wildlife from a pitching boat in Alaska.
I doubt one can focus more accurately manually, than with autofocus, unless you are using Live View with magnification too. It will be very hard to do that in sunlight inside a Jeep with passengers moving around.
Were you using a 300mm f2.8 IS L from Canon, or a 300mm f4 IS L? The difficulty with AF with the 5DMKii could be explained by a 300 f4 + 1.4 TC which brings you down to an actual f5.6 maximum aperture, where the center AF point is more sensitive.
The 300 f2.8 + TC should not have this difficulty with a real effective aperture of f4.
For wildlife, a 7D or 1DMK4 is going to be hard to beat in Canon land. Harry will lord it over us all with his black lenses in the African heat.
Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
I have been reviewing what to bring, in the space available, and it is really very hard to bring everything I would like. I thought I would bring a 100-400 and a 300f2.8 + 2x. but after seeing the links you sent out, I think I will bring my 500f4 L and I may look at the 70-300 IS L very closely. It is a bit slow, lots of the shooting in being done in low light, but modern cameras - 7D, 1DMk4 - offer pretty fair high ISO images.
Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
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Link to my Smugmug site
Yeah I plan on a Wimberly attached to this rig for the 500:
The tripod is just for small lens landscape shooting for the most part.
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Some of the safari companies use hard roofed vehicles with roof ports, and some are entirely open vehicles. In East Africa I wonder if they favor open roofed vehicle, in which case, the roof based tripod support Andy linked won't work.. I will take a Kinesis bean bag for sure, and I think I may lean towards RRS's ground pod
- a very short metal tripod that I could add a Wimberly Sidekick too. The ground pod splays out completely flat, so will work on a flat surface. If I do I will need a screw type Arca Clamp for my Sidekick, to keep it from sliding out unexpectedly.
A Sidekick is much lighter than my Wimberly head.
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