Is the recession really biting?

It seems everywhere you look these days there's doom and gloom about the recession. I'm sure everyone reading this knows someone who has been made redundant, had their hours cut or otherwise suffered due to economic down-turn. However, while everything else seems to be heading ever more downwards, the photo industry seems to be carrying on regardless.

A couple of months back we had the launch of the Canon EOS 500D and Nikon D5000 and now Sony have released a raft of THREE new consumer level models. Not only that but Pentax are in on the act too with the announcement of the K-7. It all adds up to a time when you'd be forgiven for thinking there was a global recession going on. At the very least I'd expect companies to hold off a little. Maybe keep products 'live' for a little longer before replacing them. Or maybe it's a concerted effort to drive sales upwards and so stave off poor economic results. Sony for example posted their first net loss in 14years just the other week - and it was big too - $1.03billion. Nikon too have seen a drop. While they're still in profit, they've seen their profits fall 63% for the year ended 31st March '09 - down to 28.06 billion yen from 75.48 billion yen the year before.

So what's going on? We've got cameras being launched when you'd think the market was in a downturn and at the same time, prices from the major manufacturers going UP. It's like giving with one hand and taking away with the other.

What do you think? Are you likely to buy a new camera in the near future or are you taking the squirrel approach of saving for a harsh winter?

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Holiday camera options; decisions, decisions.....

It's the time of year when the holidays start to be a key event in many family lives, it's half term holidays for many schools. So what camera would you take on a family holiday?

Whilst photo centric holidays almost pack themselves in terms of camera kit - everything you own plus a new accessory or lens or two, the family holiday is often a case for lightweight reduced camera kit. Maybe it's time for the 'day off' camera to earn it's keep. Holidays involving flights and children (yours plus a plane full) often mean a compromise. Do you take just a Digital IXUS and give the serious photography a break - will the family care if you take simple pictures of them on holiday?

Right now I'm considering exactly this, and the options are EOS 500D + EF-S10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM lens, PowerShot G10, Digital IXUS or just a video camera shooting stills and video to flash memory, which would you choose? I'll let you know in a week or two what I took and how it was to be restricted in photographic hardware, liberating or constraining.

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Back button focus

Back button focus is one of the functions on EOS digital SLR cameras that gives a new layer of control over the picture taking process. In simple terms it places the shutter release, exposure lock and focus lock or activation on up to three separate buttons. If you have only ever used the 'out of the box' configuration with the AF activated with the half press on the shutter and the AE lock occuring with the focus lock in evaluative metering and this is not suiting you then it may be something to experiment with - though it's an acquired skill.

Probably one of the best articles on the topic is actually on the Canon USA website in their digital learning center. The article highlights five often quoted advantages of back button focus;

1. Easier to lock focus
2. Easier timing of shots
3. Less risk of focus errors with moving subjects
4. Easier over-riding of AF with full-time manual focus
5. Easier macro and close up focussing

With the latest EOS cameras from the mid-range up providing separate buttons for AF-ON and AE lock '*' then there's also a function to switch round the operation of the two buttons. Great if you plan on using back button focus on an EOS 450D and an EOS 50D, as the EOS 450D doesn't have the separate AF-ON button and then the placement of the buttons may be out of sync with the two cameras.

Some photographers find that the use of back button focus eliminates the need to switch between AI Servo and One-shot AF modes. They simply use AI Servo all the time and switch the AF off when they have the right focus for their picture.

You might also find the previous article on blabpictures about AE lock and the metering pattern valuable further reading.

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You call the shots with ShutterVoice

I was sent the link to the site www.shuttervoice.com by Chris Neill, our featured 'tog on Tuesday. ShutterVoice's author Scott Forman has written a great application that combines the speech recognition function of the Windows Vista and XP operating systems with camera control - yep that means you can tell the camera what to do for real!

What's next camera activated photographer?

The ShutterVoice application would be great for self portraits as you can call out the commands from your position in the scene. According to the website you can even control the AF while in Live View mode on the EOS 50D and EOS 5D Mark II. Maybe this is a cool thing for the flickr self portrait artists to bring to prominence. I'm sure Microsoft would love to have Miss Aniela on their booth telling her camera to take pictures this way.

ShutterVoice is available to download in a 30 day trial edition, if you'd like to try it for yourself. It only costs 30 US dollars to buy a copy.

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Stop taking pictures without 'film' in your camera

Canon DSLR cameras ship from the factory setup for simple demonstration at the photo retailer. Probably a carry over from when the internet photo dealer didn't exist and touch and try before buying cameras in store was popular!

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	'don't get mad, get even - make sure that camera can't fool you again and set it to only take pictures when it's got a memory card in'

The trouble is that the cameras are designed by default for taking pictures without a memory card being fitted. So you take the new camera home - or the delivery driver finally brings it to you - and the camera is still in shop demo mode. So batteries charged and loaded off you go for a shoot; forty** pictures later you realise that it would be really nice to review your first shots so you can post your - my first shots with my new EOS gallery. Now you find that you didn't load a memory card so you have no shots.

Press the MENU button, scroll or move down the first menu to find the Shoot without CF/SD or memory card option and set it to OFF. Now you will see messages on the camera that there's no card in the camera a lot, but you cannot take pictures without having loaded some digital 'film'.

** Traditionally in the days of film camera you would get around 40 shots before you realised the no film or mis-loaded film issue as you tended to get used to around 36 shots on a roll and if the film hadn't run out then usually it wasn't loaded.

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Back to basics, A-DEP mode

Continuing the the series of articles on the different shooting modes available on many EOS cameras it's time to look at one of the modes in the creative shooting section of the mode dial; A-DEP. 

Canon divides the mode dial on the EOS xxD, EOS xxxD and EOS xxxxD series models in to the basic zone and the creative zone. Modes in the creative zone are typically P, Tv, Av, M, A-DEP, Bulb and also the C modes. Choosing a creative zone mode gets you the full range of options, and you will even find that more menu tabs display than when using the basic zone modes.

A-DEP mode is designed to automatically choose the optimum settings to deliver an image with all the subjects covered by the AF points being in focus. A-DEP is one of the most automated and clever modes. First thing you notice is that the camera will always select all the AF points, you can't choose your preferred centre AF point for example. Then the camera looks at each focus point in turn to determine the closest subject and the furthest. Factoring in information about the lens then the camera calculates the required focus distance and the aperture to give sufficient depth of field to allow the closest subject and furthest to be in focus. Often the calculation throws up some surprises as to how little you need to close the aperture for a given depth of field and also that the lens never seems to need to be set to infinity. Remember the camera knows about the 1/3 in front of the AF point and 2/3 behind that is the usual for depth of field calculations.

Some photographers think of A-DEP as a kind of aperture priority mode, though in fact it's not just choosing the aperture and hoping (or knowing) the end result, it's using knowledge of the lens and the focus points to give you the precise results. Often used for landscape work with subjects in the foreground and the scene stretching in to the background A-DEP is equally useful for taking frame-filling portraits ensuring that only the main subject covered by the AF points is sharply focussed.

Like many of the creative modes you get to choose from a wide range of settings including:

• Metering pattern
  
• Picture Style
  
• Colour profile
  
• White balance including white balance shift & bracketing
  
• Auto exposure bracketing
• Exposure compensation
• Flash exposure compensation
• Drive mode selection
• Flash usage - though if you use flash the camera works like it's in Program (P) mode
• Image quality / image type
• ISO speed setting
• AE lock / FE lock
• AF lock

AF mode is set to one-shot with all the AF points active. So the key here is to make sure the AF points cover the correct parts of the scene you want in focus. 

Blinking aperture or shutter speed settings in the viewfinder indicate troubles

If the shutter speed in the viewfinder shows a blinking 30s then the subject is took dark and you need to change the ISO to a higher setting - to avoid an underexposed shot. Similarly if it shows 8000 blinking then you have too bright a scene and need to drop the ISO or use a neutral density [ND] filter to avoid an overexposed shot. 

If the aperture blinks this indicates that the exposure level is correct but that the camera couldn't achieve the needed depth of field, usually you need to use a wider angle lens or move further back from the closest subject.

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Exposure metering lock – what the manual doesn’t tell you

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	Only the evaluative metering pattern locks the exposure when focus is achieved

Canon EOS cameras have a choice of ambient light metering patterns available when you shoot in the creative zone modes; P, Tv, Av, M, A-DEP. Most cameras feature Evaluative, Center-weighted, Partial and Spot metering choices. One of the hidden gems in the Canon engineers’ wisdom is that there are two different approaches to automatic exposure lock that depend on the metering pattern employed. If you use the focus lock and recompose technique in your photography you need to read this.

With evaluative metering and one-shot AF the camera will lock the exposure reading at the same time as the AF locks. You can prove this yourself, put your camera in one-shot AF and evaluative metering pattern. Then half press the shutter and once the focus is found keep your finger on the shutter and recompose your scene with a significant change of brightness, point the camera skyward for example. You should see that the shutter speed and aperture don’t change. To prove this we set up a test scene and pointed the centre AF point at the 7 in 70-200 on the lens and took a picture, then we repeated the shot and once focus lock was acheived moved the camera to put the centre AF point over the black strap on the edge of the camera. Surprise - or not - both shots have the same exposure settings.

  

Both shots, 1/30s at f/5.6 - autofocus lock while framing with the 70 on lens at the centre AF point, exposure locks with the focus.

If you are using Spot, Partial or Center-weighted metering, then the camera doesn’t lock the exposure until the shutter is pressed to take the picture. This means if you use focus lock and recompose then once the AF is complete and locked the metering isn’t. If your recomposed shot is significantly different in brightness then you will have the exposure for the recomposed scene not the focus locked scene. This can be a significant difference with spot or partial metering. Imagine you thought you took a spot meter reading from a persons face, focussed and locked the focus on the eyes then recomposed to put the person off centre for composition, except the person is in front of a black background. You just got over exposed skin tones in your picture.

Back to the test scene and partial metering, though spot, partial and center-weighted all exhibit the same behaviour.

  

left image: focus lock on the lens, exposure 1/40s at f/5.6

right image: focus lock on the lens, recompose on the strap, exposure 1/13s at f/5.6

So how to overcome this? The answer is right under your thumb actually, the button marked with the * symbol is the exposure lock. You may need to make use of this when you use Spot, Partial or Center-weighted metering.

Got an EOS-1D series camera? On these models you can choose to have the spot meter reading point linked to the active AF point. If you use this AF point linked spot metering with automatic AF point selection then you may have less problems since the spot meter is most likely on the main subject of your pictures.

This post all applies to one-shot AF, if you use AI servo AF then there’s no automatic focus lock in any metering mode. Also in Manual exposure mode there's also no exposure lock at any time. Check the function availability table towards the back of your camera instruction book.

In another article we’ll cover custom functions for ‘back button focus’ which also has a bearing on when and how the AF and AE settings are locked; don’t you just love interdependencies.

If you follow our twitter feed you may be expecting flash posts, this is laying the ground for those.

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Multi-controller

The EOS cameras that feature a multi-controller (that's the small joystick on the back of the camera) also feature a Custom Function to allow you to use the multi-controller to select an AF point. On the EOS-1D/1Ds Mark III it's available in the latest firmware version and can be accessed using CFn III-09 and then either option 3, 4 or 5. On the EOS 50D and 5D Mark II, it's found in CFn III-3 option 1.

This is a very useful Custom Function to play with as it allows you to quickly select a different focusing point without having to first press the focus point selection button. However, it has a drawback - most notably if you're shooting a lot of shot in portrait orientation. Unless you have abnormally long thumbs, reaching the multi-controller button from the vertical shooting grip is all but impossible and you need to resort to the 'normal' method of AF point selection with the AF point selection button and the main and quick command dial.

It's not a major issue, but is something to be aware of, and for that reason, it might be worth putting that custom function into the My Menu settings on the camera so you can quickly change it as you need to.

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Back to basics, Portrait mode

Moving the mode dial just one click round from green square to Portrait (the head symbol) mode changes your pictures quite significantly.

In short the camera changes the main program to try and give you less depth of field so that your perfect portrait stands out from the background; out of focus background, sharp subject. It does this by opening the aperture more than the green square mode, which also helps you by increasing shutter speed and reducing camera shake and subject movement.

Second big change is to continuous shooting, you hold the shutter button down and the camera keeps on taking pictures until the buffer fills. The idea is that a portrait picture capture the fleeting expressions of people, continuous shooting gives you more chance to capture a good expression by taking more pictures. However the expectation of the Canon engineers is that people are stationary when you take their portrait so the AF mode is set to one shot. You get focus lock with one of the AF points and then all the rest of the sequence of pictures you take whilst mashing down the shutter button will be focussed at the same point. Get the focus wrong for the first shot and you get a set of nicely out of focus shots. Also if your target is hyper active children and pets then this is not the mode for you.

The camera will also select the AUTO ISO setting, but lock it to ISO 100 in daylight to give you the maximum noise free picture quality. When the flash is popped up then the ISO will be ISO 400 to help the little on board flash reach a bit further.

As the light levels drop you will find the camera will pop up the built in flash when needed and it does a good job to try and fill-in shadows on the face as long as the person in your portrait is around 3 meters away. 10 meters and you will run out of flash range. You can't manually pop-up the flash in this mode.

The next and most striking change to pictures is how the camera processes them. Skin tones are a little more subtle, dayglo clothing tends to look a bit muted as the camera selects portrait Picture Style [much more to come on Picture Style in a future article]. This tries to give a good skin tone and softens the skin a little so that you don't get super sharp wrinkles on the models face; in camera botox lite!

As with many of these basic zone modes, selecting the appropriate mode gives the camera more information about what you want to acheive, the more you tell it what you want to acheive the better it can take photos to match your intentions.

Most digital EOS cameras have the portrait mode, though if you're using an EOS-1D or EOS 5D series model then you have to make all the settings yourself.

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Back to basics, flash off mode

In the first article of this series the full auto or green square mode was covered, so to keep it light here's the next simplest one - flash off mode. The flash off mode icon is the square with the lightning bolt in it that's crossed through. On most cameras is the last one of the basic zone modes.

Flash off mode can be simply thought of as green square but the built-in or pop-up flash won't be activated. If you happen to be a guest at a wedding then often the officials state that no flash photography is allowed during the wedding ceremony; now you know to move the dial to flash off mode.

If you're new to this photography thing, then select flash off and the camera will not switch on or use the flash. The only downside is that if it's dark then the camera will need to increase the ISO to make it more sensitive to light and most likely also lower the shutter speed.

Increasing the ISO will give you pictures that have more visible noise on them. Though usually noise is not noticeable in prints up to A4 or letter sizes. (All the purists will complain about this statement I'm sure). However you only have a limited range of ISO speeds depending on your camera model.

Slower shutter speeds is the next thing that will happen. This is not helpful as you will shake during the exposure and more than likely your subjects will move too. Camera shake and subject movement in the same picture makes for some pretty terrible images, thoug hit appeals as art to some. If the shutter speed shown in the viewfinder of the camera is less than one over the focal length of the lens you may get shake. So if you've zoomed in with your EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens to 55mm then you need to be looking for 1/60 as the shutter speed. Sure Image Stabilizer (IS) will help a lot; maybe down to 1/8 but you're pushing your luck. Best is to brace you and the camera steady against the wall or put it on a solid surface.

The big thing with all these basic zone modes is that all the camera autofocus points are active, so you can't really control which subject the camera thinks is the right one. Its programming says that the closest thing to the camera is the subject! The lady in two rows in front of you is the subject not the couple getting married four rows in front of her.

Not sure - find a dark room or wait for nightfall and then shoot a picture of someone or something in both green square and flash off mode. This will help commit this one to memory.

Seems strange that the post following the one about the visit of the Strobist is all about stopping the flash firing.

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Canon cameras need f/5.6 or faster lenses

If you have a Canon EOS digital SLR camera that's not an EOS-1D or EOS-1Ds model you really should make sure your lenses have a maximum aperture of f/5.6 or faster. Canon doesn't write this in big enough letters in their specifications and instruction books but for the AF to work as Canon intended it needs a certain amount of light, the amount being the same amount as you get through a lens with an f/5.6 or faster aperture.

I've heard a number of photographers in camera clubs saying that they have focus trouble with their Canon cameras and their third party lenses. I also hear that it gets worse the more they zoom in with their lenses. The usual culprit is the Sigma or Tamron 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 lens, though sometimes it's the Tamron 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3. The key being the f/6.3 aperture at the longer end of the zoom range. Last time I checked in a camera store the Sigma 18-200mm goes to f/6.3 around 120mm.

For a long time there's been no Canon 18-200mm solution but the new Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM is getting some nice comments [dpreview.com forums] [ Digital Pro Talk], and note that it's f/5.6 at the long end so your EOS will do it's best to AF properly, and we're not just talking in low light but in all kinds of light.

Check the current line-up of Canon lenses there's not a single lens with a maximum aperture slower than f/5.6 - says something doesn't it.

EOS-1D guys don't worry your center AF point can focus at f/8 so if you want to put a 1.4x extender on the EF 800mm f/5.6L IS USM lens you can still get AF.


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EOS 5D Mark II on a helicopter

Well, we knew it would only be a matter of time before videos from the EOS 5D  II started to surface. this though, is much sooner than we thought we'd se something like it! That is a brave man...or rich! I have tried to fly radio controlled helis and while I had some success, it take a LOT of practice to be good enough to willingly strap an expensive camera to the bottom. The possibilities are endless though - how many cool shots and different angles can you achieve now?!

 

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Canon riding the recession quite well

A key of buying any DSLR camera is the system behind it. The system is what gives DSLRs the huge range of capabilities, the adding of longer, wider, faster lenses a selection of flashes is all part of the buying process. Often new photographers buy the camera and then check out the system that goes with it. It should be the other way round, the system should decide the camera. However what if the compnay is facing difficult times, there's a recession on don't ya know.

Well buying a Canon just got a lot more comfortable, this article Cut-free zone: a company to copy in a slump in the Independent explains that Canon is riding the recession better than many of it's Japanese peers. Having a cash pile of 737 billion Japanese yen is quite a comfort zone, that's 5 billion pounds in English money! I wonder if some of that cash is earmarked for Canon's SED TV ambitions now that the patent issues seem to have cleared?

So it's a fair guess that they will still be in business when you've finally saved up the money to buy that last bit of your EOS system.

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Sharpen your EOS-1D and EOS-1Ds response

The EOS-1D models have the distinction of being Canon’s fastest reacting cameras. By this I mean they have the shortest shutter release time lag of any model; but did you know that with some tweaking of the settings you can make the camera even faster?

When you press the shutter release there are several mechanical things that need to happen; the camera needs to lift the mirror, set the aperture on the lens and then release the shutter to start the exposure. In the camera instruction manual for the EOS-1D and EOS-1Ds Mark III cameras the text says that if the aperture of the lens only has to stop down 3 stops or less then with the custom function C.Fn IV-13 set to 1 the release time lag drops by 20%. Normally it’s 55 milliseconds. So why is this not the default?

Canon chose to prioritise stable release time lag and so the default is to have the function deactivated and the sedate 55ms lag is what you get regardless of the aperture you choose. In 55ms the camera has time to close the aperture of any lens to its selected value. But if you tend to shoot mostly at or near to the maximum aperture of your lenses then setting this custom function will speed up the camera response by 20%.
Say you shoot football with a 400mm f/2.8L IS USM lens and only ever shoot wide open or at f./4 or f/5.6 then you’ll always get the faster release lag if you use this custom function.

If you have an older camera then you’ll be glad to know EOS-1Ds Mark II, EOS-1D Mark IIN and EOS-1D Mark II also have this feature available through personal function Pfn-26. You need to set personal functions using the EOS Utility software and a firewire cable.

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WiFi grips gotcha

If you are thinking to get one of the WiFi 'grips' for your Canon EOS camera don't get caught out with this supremely annoying gotcha.

Canon Wireless File Transmitters WFT-E1, WFT-E3 and WFT-E4 need to have a battery installed to work and the battery is not supplied in the box with the WiFi grip.

Yes you read that right, you spend all that money on a WiFi grip only to find you need to put a battery in it. Even better is that the battery in the WiFi grip cannot power the camera and the grip. So if you plan on getting a WFT-E1, WFT-E2 or WFT-E3 don't forget to get the additional battery or else you can have camera operation and no WiFi - OR - WiFi operation and no camera.

WFT-E1 for the older EOS-1D Mark II, EOS-1Ds Mark II, EOS-1D Mark II N, EOS 5D, EOS 20D, EOS 30D needs a BP-511A battery (and charger if you're using an EOS-1D model; double doh!)

WFT-E3
for the EOS 40D and EOS 50D (firmware update to v2.0 needed) needs a BP-511A battery. You can use the charger that comes with the camera to charge this battery

WFT-E4 for the EOS 5D Mark II needs an LP-E6 battery. You can use the charger that comes with the camera to charge this battery. Though since the LP-E6 is new and exclusive to the EOS 5D Mark II they could be in pretty short supply now that EOS 5D Mark IIs seem to be hitting the stores.

Lucky people with an EOS-1D Mark III or EOS-1Ds Mark III and the WFT-E2 sleep safe since the camera does provide power to this one.

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EOS 5D Mark II Video sample

So production EOS 5D Mark II cameras have finally appeared. Hooray! Now we await the flood of videos and sample images to arrive on the web.

First out the blocks is Guardian photographer, Dan Chung. Dan is usually at the forefront of any technology and likes to get his hands on kit as soon as possible. Needless to say, he bought his EOS 5D Mark II as soon as humanly possible in China.

Now, he is well known for using Nikon cameras of late since defecting from Canon last year. However, Dan doesn't just shoot stills. More and more, he's been using video. Here is his first efforts with the EOS 5D Mark II in Beijing where he's been living for almost a year.

Canon EOS5DmkII, One night in Beijing. from Dan Chung on Vimeo.

On a side note, this is a Tuesday post and we are treating Dan as a featured photographer. We intend to make this a regular Tuesday outing, so if you would like to be featured on the blabpictures site, leave a message in the comments and let us know!

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