Last minute travel gear question....
Looks like I"ll be taking a very unexpected (although welcome!) trip to France, leaving next week. This is a neat opportunity, but a slightly complicated one where many parameters are entirely outside my control......!
I have my s95 which will go with me for sure.
I can take any combination of my other stuff BUT I seriously need to keep it lightweight; will be on the move and do NOT want to lug a bunch of heavy (and expensive) gear around. Of course, wouldn't you know I sold my 70-200 f4 in March (to fund the 2.8is behemoth, which I do NOT want to take!). I will have the opportunity to shoot some performances in cathedral environments (assuming they allow it, of course).
I'm thinking 7d+standard zoom + 135? Leaves me a little under-tele'd, but it's what I have on hand and there won't really be time (or $) to rent.
Thoughts?
I have my s95 which will go with me for sure.
I can take any combination of my other stuff BUT I seriously need to keep it lightweight; will be on the move and do NOT want to lug a bunch of heavy (and expensive) gear around. Of course, wouldn't you know I sold my 70-200 f4 in March (to fund the 2.8is behemoth, which I do NOT want to take!). I will have the opportunity to shoot some performances in cathedral environments (assuming they allow it, of course).
I'm thinking 7d+standard zoom + 135? Leaves me a little under-tele'd, but it's what I have on hand and there won't really be time (or $) to rent.
Thoughts?
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How many days overseas?
How important is photograpy to the trip?
If you know "anyone" with an EF 1.4x teleconverter, it works nicely with the EF 135mm, f2L USM. Very nice extra reach for not too much extra weight.
Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
pp
Flickr
I think that sounds just fine. Unless it's your children performing in the cathedral, you won't need any more tele than that. I recommend shooting pj style, such that your photos will tell the story of the trip. That means including context, which means shooting wider. We went to Disney in April and I brought nothing but my X100S and never wished for more. Brought home about 125 keepers.
An "accurate" reproduction of a scene and a good photograph are often two different things.
Jack, it is indeed my own daughter who will be performing, but I gather one of the adults is also acting as archivist/photographer, so I won't need to do more than capture things for myself.
Which leads me to your questions, Ziggy: personal photography only, important to me, but not "sole purpose of visit" - I'm jumping in as a last-minute replacement for one of the trip's chaperones who had to withdraw due to an injury. It will be HARD work... but it's also a really neat trip to France taking in Paris, Chartres, Tours, Caen and Normandie. Sightseeing of sorts, although while looking after a group of kids, so photography will have to play second-fiddle on this occasion
No problem ... so idea I had is irrelevant.
pp
Flickr
I presume by "standard zoom" that means you'll have the Tamron 17-50mm, 2.8 plus the EF 135mm, f2L. Lots you can do with that.
Using the concept of "rotating the camera/lens around the nodal point of the lens" can yield super-wide-angle and vista panoramics, without having a super-wide-angle lens. Practice just a bit beforehand (I know, time is the enemy) using the 17-50mm and shooting overlapping multiple images to stitch together in post. Outdoors and where there are no foreground elements you can be pretty sloppy with technique and still stitch believably.
Indoors or when there are foreground elements a simple technique can help a lot:
You will need to know the Non Parallax Point (NPP) (also commonly called the Nodal Point and/or Entrance Pupil position). For the Tamron 17-50mm, 2.8 the measurements are displayed here (although your own tests should be used to validate the data):
http://wiki.panotools.org/Entrance_Pupil_Database
I'll save you a little searching and post the pertinent data:
Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 XR DI II LD ASP 17mm 56.5mm
Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 XR DI II LD ASP 24mm 48mm
Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 XR DI II LD ASP 35mm 40.5mm
Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 XR DI II LD ASP 50mm 31.5mm
When the lens is set at 17mm, the NPP is 56.5mm in front of the camera's lens flange (where the camera and lens meet.) When the lens is set at 50mm, the NPP is 31.5mm from the flange, and so forth. These are the pivot points around which the camera/lens should rotate in order to reduce parallax error in image stitching.
Now all you need is a mechanism to help identify a position on the ground upon which to rotate. A string and a weight, attached to the lens at the NPP will suffice for the pivot "stem", and any convenient point on the ground will work as the "base" for the pivot. A coin or a bright button or small rock can all work as the base point. **(See below link for the link to a simple explanation.)
The string should be a convenient length, with a loop at the lens end* and then tied to the weight at the other end. The weight can be anything; a plumb bob, a metal nut, even a key. Pretty much anything of mass that can be attached to the string can be used.
*(The string loop can be further secured to the lens barrel using a large rubber band. The rubber band also makes it convenient to "store" the string on the lens when not in use.)
Now you can just rotate the camera/lens around the ground base point using the string and weight as the pivot reference to the camera/lens.
Portrait orientation is often preferable for stitched panoramas or even just stitched wide-angle. Be sure to keep the camera body as level as possible. A bubble level helps a lot.
Manual exposure saves a lot of time in post-production. Photoshop can be used for stitching as can dedicated panoramic software (some of it freeware). One of the better software for Windows 7 OS users is Microsoft "Image Composite Editor" (ICE).
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/groups/ivm/ice/
**The string/weight thing is all explained more simply at the inventor's site:
http://www.philohome.com/tripod/shooting.htm
Image examples of what you can do with this technique (or a similar technique) (You don't have to use a fisheye lens and you don't have to do 360 degrees.):
heiwa4126:
http://www.360cities.net/profile/heiwa4126
Jeffrey Martin:
http://www.360cities.net/image/a-tree-can-grow-out-of-anything/?from=map,23.13602,-82.36047,15#363.12,2.05,70.0
http://www.360cities.net/image/tree-lined-cobblestones#101.61,4.44,70.0
Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
I find that Photoshop's merge tool does a remarkable job stitching hand-held images together for great panoramas.
An "accurate" reproduction of a scene and a good photograph are often two different things.
These taken with Sigma 10-20 HSM EX
cmason, no time or $ for a new lens - have to make do with what I have.
I could take the 5dII, but the 24-70 is WAY heavier than the 17-50, and then no built-in flash (and lose more reach). However I have the s95 for flash if needed and the 5dII would give me more detail for dark places....
Thinking, thinking...
http://www.borrowlenses.com/category/canon_wide_angle
That would be cool. Yeah you'd miss some shots, but you'd still come home with more keepers than you can use. Primes are fun the way they force you to put on your photographer's hat and not just use your DSLR like a point-n-shoot.
An "accurate" reproduction of a scene and a good photograph are often two different things.
I think that the Tamron 17-50mm, 2.8 will safely fit the 5D MKII and yield around 8 MPix worth of detail in a 6x4 landscape aspect ratio, maybe a little more with some anti-vignetting in post. In 5x4 aspect it would be more like almost 10MPix.
So you could take the 5D MKII plus Tamron 17-50mm, plus the EF 50mm, f1.4 and EF 135mm, f2L for glass, and then pack a flash in the luggage. That wouldn't be too bad for weight in a small camera bag on the plane and around town.
Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
Yes, I believe so. I have safely mounted both a Sigma 18-50mm, f2.8 and a Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM on my 5D MKII, with no problems other than severe vignetting.
Remember that the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 AT-X116 Pro DX has been fully tested on FF bodies and actually works well on the 5D MKII at 16mm (to nearly cover the FF).
Finally, here is someone who used the same combination body/lens that you have:
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showpost.php?p=6906939&postcount=13
Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
safe but not sure about the wider angle (unless you pano)
But you've already left -- Bon voyage !
A bientot, mes amis! See you in July ..............