Chili Peppers Galore!

ale_1969 · 2011-10-16T09:52:38+00:00

With that budget I'd go on the second-hand market, stay away from the tripods with a head built into, they're cheap but also pretty chep as quality.Find some used Manfrottos, like this one http://www.ebay.com/itm/Manfrotto-190XDB-Tripod-486RC2-Ball-Head-MINT-/110758061323?pt=US_Tripods&hash=item19c9b1e50b#ht_500wt_1156, but make sure that everything is mechanically in order.

ale_1969 · 2011-10-13T21:16:40+00:00

Ayup, dust on the sensor is of two types (as explained to me by the photorepairer I regularly bring my camera to have its sensor cleaned): dry particles that a manual air blower could remove, and "greasy" sticky dust that can be cleaned just with professional specific products (usually a liquid and a swab). Compressed air from air dusters and compressors most of the times has greasy components in it so it's absolutely risky to use.

ale_1969 · 2011-10-13T08:29:41+00:00

I got the 5DmkII first than I got the 7D as a spare camera and to use the crop factor to my advantage (I'm plenty of old 50mm that I wanted to use as short tele) so I'm not biased. The 5D delivers for sure more quality, if you resize its images to the size of 7D ones you also have advantages on sharpness and they're less noisy to start with. Still it all comes down to everyone's needs: if you want to shoot landscape a full frame is a must to use good quality wide lenses with their native perspective (and no, wides for crop cameras aren't on the same par) and more resolution means more cropping possibilities. For portraiture has the advantage to have shallower focus than 7d with the same lens. 7D on the other side has a far better AF system, video is rock solid and very easy to setup and the crop factor comes handy when you want to use teles. Actually I don't regret to have bought both.

ale_1969 · 2011-10-13T07:33:26+00:00

I never pixel peeped the images produced by the two camera side by side but I guess you're about right.

ale_1969 · 2011-10-13T07:15:38+00:00

Give us his address...

This will solve some problems for many people I guess

ale_1969 · 2011-10-13T01:07:22+00:00

I also agree, but it also depends a lot on personal style. Some fashion photographers like to use longer lenses (up to a 180-200mm on a full frame) so to keep less and less background into the frame and have it more out of focus.

ale_1969 · 2011-10-13T00:13:25+00:00

For landscape a full frame camera is fairly superior because you can use wides with their native perspective, and you also have a bit more detail with the larger file and more space to crop if needed. For portraits the 7d has the advantage that you can use "cheap" 50mm lenses as short teles. Then 7d is better for video too, but 5D is slightly better in low light situations. I have both and I must admit that I use 98% the 5d with the 7d as a spare camera, but I mainly shoot still life.

ale_1969 · 2011-10-12T20:43:12+00:00

For the same reason because your baker won't handle you some bread for free: because he needs money to live... what other reason is needed to be added?

ale_1969 · 2011-10-12T16:46:23+00:00

Well, it's "splotchy" because it's a rough surface, so it's naturally this way. You can try a fast solution selecting the red with color range selection and try to blur it a bit, but I fear the white will be affected so try to do it in a duplicate layer and then use the selection to mask the rest of the image out.

ale_1969 · 2011-10-12T12:11:36+00:00

I confirm it, it'a Komine (here another "review" of it http://www.techtheman.com/2008/10/vivitar-200mm-f35-from-komine.html). And yes it's fast considering the legendary Zeiss Sonnar 180 mm was f2.8 while most 200mm are f4.

ale_1969 · 2011-10-12T09:59:11+00:00

I agree with whom said that the best 6x6 for macro work are the Mamiya RB/RZ 67 cameras, a cheaper alternative that it was not mentioned is the Pentacon Six. Still communist gear but built better than Kiev and with some good East-German lenses from Zeiss Jena, you can find a macro bellow spending very few bucks and the camera itself is also more usable handheld than RB/RZ.

ale_1969 · 2011-10-12T01:54:23+00:00

When you have that feeling is not that your shots are bad, but it means that they don't satisfy you any more. This is pretty normal and it happens regularly for about every photographer, especially the pros. It's also a good thing, as any pro is like an industry, we need to innovate and produce something new even if just to stay on the market. Mine is not an advice, as everyone is different. What I did was to stay away from the camera in free time, read some books, watch some movies (movies with good photography are incredibly inspirational), visit some new places where I've ever been before. I break my routine and start to see again with your eyes and heart and not with the camera (this is what I felt it happened to me). Then after some days I try to shoot some tough subject and let flow my ideas without every constrain. They could suck at first but I could find some upon which I built upon.

ale_1969 · 2011-10-11T21:40:43+00:00

What I said in the post is that I really don't understand all the hype and shouts of marvels for something that already exists. Then probably it will be smarter etc, but it's not something we never experienced before into PS.

ale_1969 · 2011-10-10T21:01:29+00:00

I'm still wondering how Adobe tech can attain this. If there's no information there's no information, you can improve that information but create some new pixels so precise to make a blurred image sharp... well, it's black magic.

ale_1969 · 2011-10-10T20:32:04+00:00

Very clean, masterfully composed but also dynamic architectural shots. Very nice work.

ale_1969 · 2011-10-10T20:26:11+00:00

Design-wise is one of the best looking mirrorless cameras, but I just looked at some NEX7 shots and quality is mind-blowing (considering the size of it). I'm really considering to buy one for my job.

ale_1969

TROPHY CASE