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Zeiss quality on the cheap: Baby Primes!

June 5, 2011 By

Just receive this press release from kelvinkamera.com about their new product.

Baby Primes

My career of digital cinematographer started long time ago (1983) and my first ambition was to have serious and creative optics on my analog video cameras.

I convert so many lens to work with Betacam’s SP in tha way I was working before with my Bolexs and Arriflexs.

My experience in mechanical and optical rehousing has thirty years of experiments and creative shooting.

With the arrival of the Canon 5D for me was a real dream to go Full-Frame and enjoy the magic bokeh of the wideangles in the 24X36mm motion-frames, and this is why I decided to go ahead with this complicated and enthusiastic project.

I arrange an agreement with Carl Zeiss AG (was envolved with them in the past with the project of the DigiPrimes) and started the production of a great optical tool for filmmakers looking to purchase and own a set of Carl Zeiss babyPrimes in a real interesting price range.

What does that mean? Put simply:

  • Zeiss optics (= very good image quality)
  • Integrated follow focus gear ring
  • Constant filter size (95mm)
  • Clear marking
  • Cheap…ish..

Basically, these are all the same features as the Zeiss CP.2 line but at a cheaper price point. How cheap? I have not been given any hard number but it should be at around 40% rebate off the similar Zeiss price. This low price will be achieved by selling the lens directly, without any intermediates.

The first batch should be ready by the end of July.

While their website is pretty dull right now, expect updates soon on BabyPrimes.com.

 

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Filed Under: Video Tagged With: ,

SnapSort and LensHero to the rescue!

December 21, 2010 By

Being known as the camera guy, wherever I go, people ask me the same question:

Which camera should I buy?

Of course, they saw some of my pictures and don’t understand why theirs are not as good as mine. Their natural reaction is to blame the camera (of course), so they want to know more about my camera. Once they know the price tag, their next question is how they can get one as good for a fraction of the price (of course…). At this precise moment, I know I lost them. They are not going to understand or remember whatever I am going to say and only want me to tell them what they should get. More often than not, I end up suggesting the Sony NEX5KB since it is IMHO the best camera for average Joe and you can’t go wrong with it. But now I have an even better solution: I point them toward the SnapSort website. The site works like an adviser, either telling you which camera you should get based on your criteria or compare camera side to side, highlighting the strength of each one (5DMrkII vs 7D below). Having all camera specs in a single place is a great time saver.

What about lenses?

The guys form SnapSort did it again and extended their reach to lenses with LensHero . The site is not as mature and SnapSort (it is only a month old) and while I don’t agree with some of the design choices, it still has what made me love SnapSort in the first place: complete specs sheets and broad coverage. The poor guys must have missed a few nights of sleep doing data entry! While I think the decision process in the purchase of a lens is more complex than what the current site AI is currently offering, I think it is a good place to either start or end your buying process.

Finally, they are running a small contest for their launch so you may want to check it out.

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Filed Under: On the web Tagged With: , ,

From the readers: Should I sell my Canon 24-105L4IS?

April 8, 2010 By

From the readers is a new category of articles I am working on. As a blogger, I get daily emails about what gear one should buy or how to do X thing. Since the answer to these questions is generally of public interest, I have decided to turn them into articles. If you have any questions you would like answered, feel free to contact me.

Of all the lenses related question touching the 5DmrkII, one that keeps coming up is What should I do with the kit 24-105L4IS? I receive questions about this lens at least once a week and it is a popular topic in forums as well. While I cant provide a straight answer that will hold true for all readers, I think I can give you some interesting pointers.

First, lets see why people have this lens in the first place. Most of the time, it is because it is a popular kit lens. After doing some maths, a lot of prospective buyers saw that if they bought the 5DMrkII kit and sold the lens, they could save some money over the body only box. Proud of their calculation, these fine accountants rush to the store and get the kit then realize how hard it is to sell the 20-104L4IS at their expected price.

Why? Supply and demand. While the 24-105LIS is a great lens (more on this later), too many people did the 5D kit thing and now want to sell theirs too, pushing the price down. While this lens used to worth about the same as the 24-70L, it is now advertised on Craigslist at around 900$ or lower.

But, why people want to sell the lens? Is there something wrong with it? Is there something better for the price? Actually, for its price, the 24-105LIS is an incredible lens. While the f4 aperture might be a bit small for photography work, it is perfect for video. The image quality is very good for still and even better for video and the huge zoom range means that it is a great do it all lens. Add IS to the list and you get a very decent lens for photo and near perfect for all around video. I have shot a few clips with a 24-105 hand held and it worked way better than I expected thanks to its IS. If you dont remember how useful IS can be for video, check this old clip.

So, if it is so great, why so many for sale? From my personal experience, I can see three reasons:

  1. As mentioned above, they think they can turn a quick profit.
  2. They realize (a bit too late) they need a wider aperture lens for their shooting style.
  3. They follow the herd and forum trolls without even giving the lens a real try.

Last night, I was discussing with a few other cinephotographers about how people (mostly converted photographers) want to shoot video wide open while they would get much better results by using a small aperture. Unless your storytelling requires strong subject isolation, an aperture of f4-5.6 is fine for most CU and medium shots.

Let say that you really need a lens with wider aperture. What could one get for selling the lens? While the choice is quite easy for most photographer, since they will pull some more cash out of their wallet and go with the 24-70L2.8, for videographers there are a lot of other options. A popular choice is to go with a Canon 50mm f1.4 and a Canon 85mm f1.8 . These are both excellent lens. If 85 is too long, one could go toward Sigma 20mm f/1.8 (we talked about it before) and the same 50. There are other options and even more if one wants to look at alternative lenses coming from Nikon, Zeiss, etc.

What ever you do, make sure you dont overlap the focal range and that you are getting at least two stops of light in exchange. Also think about the complication involved in a multi-lens kit. Switching lens in the middle of a shoot is not practical, even more so when shooting in a dusty environment.

I just finished reading this post and I am not sure if I managed to clear the situation of just put more confusion into the mix. If I did so, sorry! The general idea behind this post was to show how great the 24-105 is and how hard it is to replace such a versatile tool.

Post publication edit: as stated in the comments, I screwed up and invented 2 lenses… lens models corrected now to reflect current Canon offering!

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Filed Under: Review Tagged With: ,

Going wide: Wide angle for the 5DMrkII

March 8, 2010 By

After reading Dan post (a while ago) about wide angle lenses  with wide aperture, it got me thinking. While I have been happy with my 17-40L4, as it is wide enough for pretty much everything I do, going wider would open the door for more creative shots. Ex: having an even better separation of foreground and background objects. Also, Dan reviewed lenses from a 1DMrkIV perspective so I wanted to see what was out there for full frame owners.

Before going into the list of available options, I think it is worth looking at the effect of wide aperture on wide lenses. After all, the goal of this exercise is to find a wide angle lens that will give us some control over DoF. As we all know, a wide aperture allows more light into the camera which allow us to shoot in lower light which is always good. The other result of aperture is too control the depth of field (DoF), which is another familiar concept. The thing you might not be aware of is how hard it is to get a shallow DoF when shooting ultra wide.

For most of us, this is a good thing because it allows us to shoot in low light without having to worry about keeping the subject in focus. But what happen when you need to shoot wide and want a shallow DoF? Lets look at some numbers.

[Read more...]

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Filed Under: Review, The Basics, Video Tagged With: , , , ,

Tips: buy camera gear with your credit card

August 19, 2009 By

This one might be obvious to many but it just saved me about 100$ so I thought it would be a good idea to share my experience.

Two weeks ago, my 50mm f1.4 broke, the camera LCD displayed the dreaded ERR 1 message. I bought the lens about 15 months ago so it was out of Canon warranty (12 months). A bit frustrated, I went to the camera shop where I got it and paid the 20$ to assess how much the actual repair would cost me. I got the bill back today and the total was around 80$.

Lucky for me, I remembered that I bought the lens with my credit card (VISA) and it had an extended warranty feature which doubles any warranty up to another year. I quickly called the insurance company to confirm and it  seems like everything is fine! Only have a #$%#$ form to fill.

Of course it is going to take forever to repair but at least it will be free. I suggest  you check if your cards provide the same coverage, it was free and worth it!

The sad part of the story is that I will have to use the 50mmf1.8 for filming for the next few weeks which I already foresee as a real pain.

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Filed Under: News Tagged With: , ,

70-200f4 vs 70-200f4IS vs 70-200f2.8 vs 70-200f2.8IS

July 15, 2009 By

Tired of always answering the same question in every forum I go to, I have decided to make a blog post about it…

70-200

So you want to get a 70-200 lens but dont know which one to buy? Should it be the 70-200Lf4, the 70-200Lf4 IS, the 70-200f2.8L or the 70-200f2.8L IS ?

To answer these questions, I would ask two others. [Read more...]

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Filed Under: Photo, Review, Video Tagged With: , , , ,

Focal length and perspective

July 2, 2009 By

This is a repost from my old blog. It was one of the most visited page and since I keep seeing people asking the same question over and over again, I think it would be a good idea to forward them here. I have a few more of these posts that I will file under ‘learning the basics’.

Using tools in new ways is an essential skill for the photographer who wants to develop his creativity. In this post, I am going to do a quick exploration of the link between focal length and perspective.

To better appreciate the differences between wide and long lenses, it is important to understand two key principles:

  • The focal length of a lens determines the field of view. This number, expressed as an angle, determines the amount of information that is available in the viewfinder / sensor.
  • Sensor/negative size is constant. This means that if you get more information in the frame (using a wider lens), all of these elements will take less space on the sensor to make them fit.

Knowing that, if you take two shots of a subject at different lens range (let say 24mm and 70mm) and you want the subject to be the same size in both picture, you will have to be closer to the subject when using the short lens.

Now lets put this into practice! The shot bellow is done using a 24-70f2.8L at its shortest focal length (efl 24mm). Notice how much of the background is visible and the distance between the two pots.

24mm

[Read more...]

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Filed Under: The Basics Tagged With: , , ,

Custom Function: Autofocus Micro adjustment

June 26, 2009 By

Unless you are very lucky, you have probably noticed that not all your lenses focus perfectly every time. Some might focus a little bit in front of the subject, others a bit behind it. These issues appear mostly when using a long and wide aperture lens such as the 50mm 1.8 (or 1.4) where the depth of field is less than 1cm.

While there might be a few possible cause for this issue (ex: faulty AF on the lens, problem with the body, etc) the most common is a small discrepancy between the lens and its ‘perfect’ version that was supposed to come out of the factory. There is no need to return the lens, it is almost normal for lenses to be a little bit different from each others. This difference make them focus a bit differently while the body is set to work with the ‘standard and perfect’ version of the lens. This is why two copies of the same lens might focus differently from each others on the same body, and even differently from one body to the next.

Fortunately for us, manufacturers are aware of this and have taken care of  the issue in their pro and semi-pro bodies. This is where the custom function AF Micro adjustment comes into play. This function allows you to correct slight front or back focussing issues for each of your lenses. People generally refer to this operation as ‘lens calibration’. It used to be quite a chore because of the lack of tools to support the process but now it can be done in less than 2-3 minutes per lenses.

[Read more...]

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Filed Under: Photo Tagged With: , , , , ,

Features you should look for when buying a lens (for photography)

May 22, 2009 By

This article was first posted on my older photography blog. Since I am going to reuse the domain for something else, I will slowly move the most useful articles over here.

So you are at the store, you have the money in hand, you know what you want and even the spouse agreed that you need a new lens. Yet, you cannot make up your choice between the three lenses the guy has put on the counter. They all have the same aperture, same zoom range and about the same price. Which one should you pick?

Some times, the devil is in the details. In this article, we are going to look at all the small features that might swing your vote from one lens to the other.

Circular Aperture

Circular aperture means that when you are shooting at very small aperture (ex: f/22), the aperture remains circular instead of going hex/octa/decagonal. This is mostly visible on bright circular subjects like the sun or street lights when shooting at night. It is a very important feature for night and landscape photographers because it gives the light sources an unnatural shape.

Non rotating front element

This feature is only available on zoom lenses and it allows the front element to keep its orientation while zooming. This means that if you put a filter on your lens, it will stay in the same position no matter how much you zoom in or out. This is mandatory when using gradient filters so the dark part remains in the upper part of the frame.

Constant length / internal focusing

When zooming or focusing, the front element of some lenses moves back and forth. This might seem like a small thing but it can get down right annoying when you want to take macro shots and the bug fly away each time the front element gets too close. Also, as time passes by, the lens gets looser and the front element might start to slide in or out without you doing anything. Some people also see this as a way for dust to get inside the lens. Constant length lenses keep their size what ever is happening.

Weather sealing

You camera might not be weather sealed but it is still reassuring to know that your lens has some protection when it is accidentally splashed or when you really want to take a shot and there is a small rain. There are two levels of weather sealing for Canon lenses. Click here for a full list of all Canon weather sealed lenses.

Big fat zoom / focus ring

No mater the size of your fingers, having big rings means that you can make small adjustments without your eye having to leave the view finder or fearing that your finger will hit the front lens element.

Focus distance switch

The goal of these switches is to constrain the minimal focusing distance to a certain range. This can be useful to prevent the lens from focusing on objects close by, but it is mostly useful to speed up focusing when shooting at objects in the longer range.

Tripod collar ring

I always thought that all lenses that could be mounted on a tripod came with a tripod so I was quite surprised when I saw that my macro lens (100mm f/2.8 Macro) could have a tripod ring but did not come with one. Of course Canon sees this as a way to sell me another over priced accessory, but thanks to Chinese copy cats, there are now cheap alternatives on eBay.

Now that my rant is over, I find it very convenient that my lens could be mounted directly on the tripod instead of having to mount the camera. First it allows a better weight balance then it makes it easier to move from landscape to portrait mode.

Conclusion

None of the features above should be seen as a deal breaker, but if you are torn between two equivalent lenses from two manufacturers, it is a good idea to look at these features and see which lens has the ones you might need.

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Filed Under: Photo Tagged With: , ,

List of weather sealed lenses

April 11, 2009 By

This question has been asked to me so many times that I decided to make an ‘official’ list that I can refer people to the next time the question pops up in a forum.

Before going to the list, you have to know that the weather sealing of the Canon 5DMrkII is marginal. Unfortunately, it is not as good as the pro series, Nikon or Pentax. Still, it is better than nothing and if you are careful it should be enough for most situation. The first time I had to trust it, I was a bit scared but now I am not afraid to pull my camera out in light rain.

Lenses in italic are rumored to have some level of weather protection but this protection is not endorsed by Canon. So trust at your own risk!

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Filed Under: Review Tagged With: , , ,
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