Mannequins gone fishin', Columbia, Mo. | Canon 5D Mk. II and 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS lens @ 115mm; exposed 1/160 sec. @ f/5, ISO ISO 250.

This past weekend, my parents came to visit me in Columbia and my dad brought with him his new 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS zoom lens.  It’s the only other “diffractive optics” lens made by Canon–the other being the 400mm f/4 DO IS super telephoto that he and I co-own with Dad.  I’ve been curious about this lens for a while now, which is an obvious interest given that I have been more than impressed with the 400mm DO.

It’s an impressive zoom range: sure, there’s the 70-200mm f/4L IS lens that I already own, and combined with a teleconverter you would get the same zoom range, but that combination weighs 2.3 pounds (1.05 kilograms), whereas the 70-300mm DO weighs 1.6 pounds.  Add to that the cosmetic appearance of the lenses: the 70-200 is a white lens, and stands out in a crowd, but the 70-300mm’s only distinguishing mark is the green line around its barrel.  And why not the other 70-300mm lens?  The DO should be sharper, although I cannot do a side-by-side as I would need a 70-300 f/4-5.6 IS lens to test, but one thing is certain: it is more compact.

Gannett Hall reflections, University of Missouri School of Journalism, Columbia, Mo. | Canon 5D Mk. II and 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS lens @ 275mm; exposed 1/200 sec. @ f/8, ISO 400.

My time with this lens was relatively short, and the photographic opportunities somewhat limited, but I was pleased with the results that came from the lens.  Was it tack sharp every time?  Nope.  But it’s difficult to say how much of that was the 5D Mark II”s somewhat haphazard focusing abilities and how much was the lens?

The exception to my personal "no photos of people eating" rule: Flat Branch Pub and Brewery, Columbia, Mo. | Canon 5D Mk. II and 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS lens @ 70mm; exposed 1/30 sec. @ f/4.5, ISO 1000.

What I can say is that, while this lens could never replace a dedicated 70-200 mm lens, I could easily see using this lens in lieu of its more “professional” cousin for travel photography because it’s smaller, lighter, and makes images that I would still be more than happy to frame or to sell.  Go to Europe and take this lens and the 35mm f/1.4L and you’d be set for street photography!

Tags: Canon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS, EOS 5D Mark II, equipment, pictorial
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While I was “officially” finished with my contribution to the class’ Broadway project on Wednesday when I turned into my professor, David Rees, a disc with my “second draft” of the video, I was still not quite satisfied with it. The timing of a few things was still off.

On Thursday, I posted a third version of the video, and received some more feedback from it both in person and through a comment on the post, and took those into consideration. I was also unhappy with the color of certain clips in the video, and adjusted those within Adobe Premiere. Finally, I went back to Stephens Lake Park for one more “walk around,” which was also my last opportunity to experiment with the Canon 35mm f/1.4L lens. The result is a little tighter, with better matching between audio and visual components.

I consider this a finished piece, but am still more than happy to hear comments and suggestions.

Tags: Broadway Project, Canon 35mm 1.4L, EOS 5D Mark II, EOS 7D, Stephens Lake Park, video
Posted in Broadway Project, Picture Story | 4 Comments »

In late March, I posted a “draft” of my contribution to my Picture Story class’ project on Broadway, one of the main arteries of Columbia, Mo., which was a “think piece” about Stephens Lake Park.

This Monday, I had the opportunity to sit down with Steve Saitta, Parks Development Superintendent for the city of Columbia, and ask his thoughts about the relevance of Stephens Lake Park for the community, and the significance of the park’s location on Broadway.

I believe this to be a significant improvement upon my original idea, and I hope you’ll agree. Comments and criticism always welcome!

Tags: Broadway Project, EOS 5D Mark II, EOS 7D, photojournalism, Stephens Lake Park, video
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DPReview just posted a link to a conversation on PetaPixel in regards to the filming of the season finale of Fox television’s House program using a Canon 5D Mark II DSLR.

Generally speaking, making video with the 5D Mark II is kind of a pain in the butt: it’s hard to focus, the clips tend to be relatively short because of a file size limit of 4gb, manual audio control was only recently made possible, hand-holding the thing is a nightmare, and yet people make the sacrifices to use this tool because the resulting video is stunningly beautiful.

While it might not seem of much consequence to independent storytellers, like photojournalists, that major production companies are using “our” tool for commercial video, it is, in fact, extremely significant: it ensures that Canon will be “forced” to develop the video functionality on its cameras more so than if mere hobbyists and photojournalists were using their DSLR’s.  Why?  Well, who strikes you as a bigger client: Fox Television, or the Columbia Daily Tribune?  The best part?  We’ll all benefit.

Tags: EOS 5D Mark II, video
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Monday evening, while working on my editing shift at the Columbia Missourian, I found myself helping Erin Schwartz, a fellow graduate student in the photojournalism program at the University of Missouri, who was putting together a multimedia picture story about Darwin Hindman’s last day in office as mayor of Columbia, which is now online.

I am continuing to evaluate the Canon 35mm f/1.4L lens, provided to me by Canon Professional Services, and I am frequently reminded of just how versatile this focal length can be, especially given the minimum focusing distance of one foot.

Tags: Canon 35mm 1.4L, EOS 5D Mark II, equipment
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Shadows on the sidewalk, Columbia, Mo. | Canon 5D Mk. II and 35mm f/1.4L lens; exposed 1/8000 sec. @ f/1.6, ISO 100. Aperture Priority set at 0 EV.

The Problem

One of the issues that I have noticed before when using large-aperture lenses in broad daylight is that the perfect exposure can be difficult to achieve wide open.  While many of the people in the photo sequence at the Missouri School of Journalism set exposure manually, I have preferred working with aperture priority–coupled with evaluative (matrix) metering–for many years now.  It does require that you develop an idea of what the exposure for the scene should be relative to a “neutral” setting.  Generally, for outdoor photography, a neutral exposure on a sunny day (plus or minus one third of a stop) will yield an optimal histogram. Because I work in Aperture Priority, I am concerned more with the set aperture (preferably f/1.4 with this lens) and ISO.  This works well, unless the lighting conditions make the desired exposure compensation impossible with the selected aperture and ISO.

The Answer: Safety Shift

Today, I was keeping the ISO set to 100 because it was a bright, sunny day, and my shutter speeds were well above 1/1000 second.  Because of this, the importance of safety shift comes into play.  When this custom function is activated (C.Fn. I-6 on the 5D Mk. II) when the desired aperture and ISO would not yield the exposure compensation selected (in this case, neutral), the aperture is changed automatically to ensure that the exposure comp. set is the exposure that is yielded.  In the instance of the above photograph, the camera automatically switched the aperture to f/1.6 (a slight stopping down) because the shutter speed could not be any faster at the camera’s max. shutter speed of 1/8000 sec.

Note that while I am referring specifically to a Canon custom function, Nikon bodies have a similar feature.  Furthermore, the more professional bodies, such as the Nikon D3 and Canon 1D Mark III and Mark IV, are capable of safety shift by changing the ISO or the aperture.  In today’s case, that would have meant ISO 50, which is less than ideal as ISO 50 results in poor signal/noise response.  However, in some instances, it is better if the ISO is bumped or lowered instead of the aperture.

A few more images from the 35mm f/1.4L:

Tags: Canon 35mm 1.4L, EOS 5D Mark II, equipment
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Parking garage reflection, Hitt Street Parking Garage, Columbia, Mo. | Canon 5D Mk. II and 35mm f/1.4L lens; exposed 1/1000 sec. @ f/1.4, ISO 100.

On Wednesday, Canon Professional Services sent me a 35mm f/1.4L lens for evaluation.  I’ve become increasingly interested in three lenses: the 135mm f/2L, the 85mm f/1.2L, and the 35mm f/1.4L.  I had the opportunity to experiment with the 85mm last fall, and plan to try out the 135mm soon.  So far, I have been enormously impressed by the smooth bokeh.  One does not look at a lens such as this and stop it down to f/8 for landscape work–my 24-70mm f/2.8 does just fine for that purpose.  No, a lens like this is meant to be used wide open–or close to it–to isolate subject from background.  I’ll post more images in the coming days from this rather promising piece of glass.

Lilly reacts at the Jay Dickman talk | Canon 5D Mk. II and 35mm f/1.4L lens; exposed 1/250 sec. @ f/1.6, ISO 800.

Tags: Canon 35mm 1.4L, EOS 5D Mark II, equipment
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6:00am, Gate C9, Raleigh-Durham International Airport | Panasonic Lumix G1 and 45-200mm f/4-5.6 lens @ 45mm; exposed 1/15 sec. @ f/4, ISO 800.

Coffee in hand, Memphis International Airport, Memphis, Tenn. | Panasonic Lumix G1 and 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 lens @ 29mm; exposed 1/160 sec. @ f/5.2, ISO 200.

Tags: Lumix G1, photojournalism, pictorial
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