Hi Everyone. You wont believe this but for my China trip I wanted to bring a video camera. I don’t own one except perhaps my DP1 / 2. So I called Canons rep here in Sweden and asked if I could borrow the Canon 5D2 for video documentary (With the latest upgrade it’s very useful for video) – he said yes but he don’t have any lenses for me. They’re all out of stock or used.
Any suggestions how to get one useful not too clumsy FF Canon lens for the trip? Anyone know any Canon shooter in Beijing or hehe, Kunming? Most people I know have Nikon or Sigma.. I’m thinking 50 1.4 or something.. Don’t have to be extreme in any way but good. Wide is OK too.
I normally don’t link to reviews like this, but in times like these when it’s sooo warm outside that I can’t really post anything useful I better post something and this is pretty nice reading and for those of you that don’t know about Sigmas three layer sensor concept it might be educational reading too. They like these cameras very much and write:
“The Sigma DP1 and DP2 produce the most outstanding low ISO (100 to 400) images of any compact camera I have ever used. Their image quality is truly on the same scale as entry-level SLRs. You get sharp, accurate colors, wonderful tonality, and the ability to isolate your subject with shallow depth of field—all in a package that resembles a rangefinder and slips into a jacket pocket when turned off.”
As I said, it’s good reading. :) Oh and btw – If you think ISO800 and above is too noisy (which often is the case in bad lit situations) then turning to monochrome white balance using RAW gives you so much more. Black and white IS cool!
Last week before my Quadra lost it’s way I took this picture (Getting it fixed tomorrow). I played with SD14 and the DP2 and with the Quadra I could really make this really sunny day sing by staying in the shadows. But without it (as it stopped working) I really lost inspiration. I didn’t bring any reflectors and well.. The Quadra has within a week started to become important! A bit too important I think. Oh Well.. :)
Also, this shot I developed using Raw Developer, I did try with SPP and ACR but RD did bring that detail to the fullest.
Back in 2005 when I still lived in China I had the opportunity to meet the Swedish crown Princess Victoria. She came to the Nordic Gallery that I often used as my work place back then. Linn talked to her more than me, I thought her body guards was more fun.
Anyways I was asked to take a group shot – and it really isn’t much to see. I used the SD9 and it was a quick and dirty setup – I wasn’t prepared (no one was) and I more or less asked them to stand as a group and find a spot where they could see my lens with both eyes. :) But it’s a cool memory that comes to life now when preparing for the third trip. Jaij!
I’m going to visit friends in Kunming and Dali, and if you’re Chinese and would like to meet please send me an email. Linn has already gone and she’s there right now (they almost stopped her from enter the country too, they took her temp three times before deciding she was ok. I better be healthy when I go (perhaps start running some?!). I think they’re afraid of all these flu things going around.
Oh well. I’ll return back to Sweden the 18th of Aug and to China I’ll bring DP1 and DP2. Perhaps my SD14 too, but I’m not sure. Anyone willing to lend me a Canon 500D or 5D Mark 2 for filming then I’d be willing to take that offer. :P Even a Red would do (with some nice primes and the whole steady cam thingi kit).
…Right now. Or was, now it’s time for bed. These images are screen dumps taken from within Sigma Photo Pro, will deal with them later in Photoshop I think. Or play some using ACR too just in case. ;) I already tried some of these in RD with good result. Especially for BW’s. Oh well. These are all SD14 images, with the cokin on (as you see on some) and the lens is my wide 10-20mm. It’s really a sharp nice lens. I do want a 12mm f1.2 that is sharp from corner to corner and very perfect in all ways including beautiful bokeh.. oo aaaa I want that!
btw, I used ISO50 with both SD14 and DP2 – only – not my smartest move to date. Highlight did clip a little to often. Sun was really in and out a bit to often. Oh well. I got myself lots of keepers too, more than enough so I’m happy. Elinchrom ranger quadra used on all these shots.
Alright so here comes two shots from yesterday. Not only is it two shots – They’re taken with different cameras – SD14 and DP2. Now, not only are they taken with different cameras they’re developed using different softwares too – jaij! ACR for the SD14 image (came out better) and SPP for the DP2 image (came out more thick).. I used my Elinchrom quadra for this and well, it was so easy to use and setup – weather was really tricky but for these staying in the shadows helped. :)
Memory from years ago. Found the RAW in a folder – Redeveloped using RD (perhaps I did first time too?) It’s a pretty cool image taken using the SD14 and the 30mm lens set at F2.2. It was cold and rainy. So this would probably look a bit the same using the DP2. :D
Alright, I just got my umbrella replaced (got a one that didn’t fit and HAD to buy Elinchrom’s own – which is four times more expensive). grrr. Alright so I took some test pictures in my kitchen today – to see how good it could do with low power (there is two connections and the second one will give 8W to 135W – and that’s very cool for indoor use) – so here’s a before and after shot:
And below you see the setup (you don’t see the power pack but you have it on the first picture in this post) – And power is not very high, remember I’m shooting wide open here at 2.8 just the way I like it and that’s not easy with any flash really. I guess it’s set at 2.2 – 60W output or something.. Not sure, not recorded in the exif. ;) All images taken with the Sigma DP2. Oh, you’re all so surprised! All pictures developed using ACR. ;)
With a little shorter shutter speed you get a slightly more flashy look, but still nice I think – perhaps because Linn is who she is! (she’s a bit flashy too you know).. Also I use the same technique with this flash as I did back with the “club photos” - without a meeter you do need to take more shots to get good light. It does take time. Think I will get myself a little light meeter too. hmm..
Oh, and a last one of Linn posing like a movie star! (or kungfu panda or whatever) :D – Oh and here you also see the flash in action without umbrella or anything. It’s tiny!
I bought myself a new toy yesterday – Always been a “natural” light fan and using reflectors if light wasn’t to my liking. Now I decided to become more pro and at least give a flash system a try. I waited for the “right” weight for quite some time and finally Elinchrom made what I needed. A battery packed – light weight – two guns – small – asymmetric (25 – 400W on one and 8 – 135W on the other with an impressive 1/6000s) and it also have this 20w LED help light that works well. It’s sooo tiny. The batt pack itself weight only about 3.4KG and it’s good for 150 full power flashes. Oh well.. I tried it yesterday and will use it on thursday for the first real assignment where I need it.
I’m thinking now that I might wanna get one of those light meters. I never became friend with one before, I tried several times but somethings missing in my way of handling it. My own method does take some time and it’s not very pro. Test, test, test, look at histogram, test, done.
This should come up as a new post on Twitter. Needed? nha, cool, nha, why? don’t know. Okey. I’ll try to be serious about this twitter and find ways to make it work. Perhaps connect my flickr to twitter as well? If it works automaticly then I can live with it. But for now, my “updates” of personal life goes to Facebook. Maybe connect Facebook to twitter too? and Vimeo and youtube too? .. jaij
Looks like we had a terrible evening, even the dog seams to be sad. SD14 was bad boy and captured all those interesting moments instead of the happy 98% ones. Well, that’s life. I used a SD14 plus a 10-20mm lens and a cokin natural density graduated p121 filter (if you wanna know) and it really didn’t do much but I felt cool having it on the camera (makes it look bigger, I also attached the battery grip for the same reason). oh well..
Oh and the first shot is a extremely heavy crop. Original shot is like four times the size or more. Last note. I used Raw Developer 1.82 to make these. Nothing done using photoshop but that wasn’t too hard to see. :) Some more after the break.
I got emails from users asking me to show what to do to get images from SPP look the same on the web. So here’s the public answer. Note that I use gamma 2.2 on my Mac – I’ll make a another movie soon with a guide to better colors (info about Gamma and calibration). Tip! Select HD and click full screen for best viewing experience. Enjoy!
Get the latest Safari web browser for PC/Mac here.
Raw Developer has always giving me a very natural look (as with these) to things and I have no idea of how much processing is done by Adobe – perhaps Brian Griffith at Iridient Digital can give an answer to that one. Anyways, I like the result. :) But I want “real” support with RD doing ALL the computing like with my beloved SD14 raw’s.
DP2 - DNG - Raw Developer" width="500" height="500" />
Experimenting with converting a DP2 file to DNG and then continue development using Raw Developer (a developer that I really like with my SD14 images). RD don’t support the DP2 files as they do with SD14′s – it’s handicapped some by the initial DNG conversion but you have very nice colors and I’ll continue to see what I’m able to archive with this combo.
Quadra
Quadra test" width="500" height="333" />
DP2
DP2
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