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But I was going to do that anyway…

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Water?

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http://analogy.cupofnoodles.com/100400test.JPG
http://analogy.cupofnoodles.com/100400test2.JPG

The first one is at 400mm, the second is 100mm. Sorry I couldn’t get the same framing, minimum focus distance is about 6 feet, which is coincidentally exactly how much room I had to do these tests. For comparison, here’s my 35-80 standard lens at 80mm:

http://analogy.cupofnoodles.com/3580test.jpg

After this test I’m reasonably sure that the softness I experienced at the baseball game was the result of a combination of AI servo not hitting focus, high ISO + noise reduction reducing detail, and the lens’ slight decrease in sharpness toward 400mm. The lens is noticeably softer at 400mm, but not enough so to be causing the softness I was seeing.

But anyway, if it looks good to you then let’s do some business. =D Drop me an email at stephan.ahonen@gmail.com.

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Beach Camera is selling the 70-200 for $999 until 7/16/2007.

Price is similar at B&H where I looked it up.

You state in another post that you feel the lens is still broken, do you still feel that way or do you think it is the lowlight situations you shoot in?

I’m just not sure anymore… I now have a feeling my softness issues at 400mm were from my camera not hitting focus very well in AI servo mode, since I’ve taken some sharp photos with it at 400mm in one shot mode and I’ve had the camera not hit focus with other lenses in servo. I think I’ll go out and take some test shots today and settle it once and for all. Meanwhile you can look at the photo gallery I posted and see what you think, you can click the magnifying glass icon at the top right corner of the pictures to see them bigger.

Also, how old is the lens? Is it USM?

It’s less than a year old, it does have USM and IS. I’ve gotten steady handheld shots with it at 400mm and 1/50, though in practice I’m usually using a monopod and a fast enough shutter to freeze action. Even if your shutter speed is high enough to not need IS, it still helps steady up your viewfinder picture.

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Ouch, sorry to hear that. =(

You still owe us pictures of a curvy redhead though.

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I have the 100-400. I’m actually looking to sell it if you’re interested, I could give it to you for about the same price as a new 70-200 f/4 IS.

Reason I’m looking to sell the 100-400 is because while it’s a good lens, there’s not enough aperture for all of the low-light shooting I do. You can see some photos I took with it here. If you click “more info” over on the right you’ll see as the sun went down how much I had to boost the ISO to get usable shutter speeds.

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I know they take more battery power because they have to spin a platter, but other than that I don’t have any experience with them.

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If your camera is clean enough at its lowest ISO you can underexposure the picture slightly to get your highlights back then bring the midtones back up in post.

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Nah, what astronomers do is more like lowering your ISO and taking a longer exposure.

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Claff: Yeah, it’s a closely-guarded secret that you can get good pictures out of just about any camera that has some decent manual exposure settings in it. A good DSLR just makes it easier.

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My first camera was a video camera. =D I didn’t get into still photography until I’d been doing video for about 6 years. My first still camera was/is my Canon 30D. Still trying to build my lens kit.

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Dynamic range means the ability of an imaging device to capture extreme differences in brightness within a scene. You may have already noticed that your camera sees a scene a lot differently than your eye. While your eye can perceive detail in both the bright areas and shadows within the same scene, your camera might end up blowing up the bright areas to get shadow detail or crushing the shadows to avoid overexposing the bright areas. We say that the human eye has a high dynamic range and the camera has a low dynamic range.

HDR is about trying to recreate the way your eye can perceive all the details even in a scene with large differences in brightness. We have to do this with cameras that can’t naturally capture all of the different levels of brightness in a single shot, so instead we take several shots at different levels of exposure. Some with faster shutter speeds to capture the highlights, and some with slower shutter speeds to capture the shadows. These shots then must be combined into a single HDR image (which preserves the brightness differences from the original scene) using special software. Now, your computer monitor and really anything that you’re likely to be viewing these pictures on will be a low-dynamic-range medium, so the HDR software must do something called “tone mapping” to produce an image that looks natural. The best tone mapping algorithms look just like you’re there. The worst ones look like crap.

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Yes, the posterboard is to bounce light into the shadows to make them less harsh.

For white balancing, I’d look at your manual, I’ve done some googling and I’ve seen a few references to manual white balance on the A560. The “sunlight” preset should work if you’re using direct sun as your key light, but if your subject is in the shade you’ll definitely need to manually white balance or color correct in post.

Ooh, a redhead, I’m jealous. =D Fair skin… Well, you’ll have a little higher chance of highlights on the skin blowing out, but if you set your exposure properly it shouldn’t be a problem.

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99% of photography is lighting it properly (trivia: Photography literally means “drawing with light”). The trick to shooting in sunlight is dealing with that harshly bright and direct sun, since shadows are too dark for the camera to capture detail in if you’re exposing for the sun.

Unfortunately your camera doesn’t have the ability to sync with off-camera flash, and the built-in flash isn’t nearly powerful enough to compete with the sun (not that you *ever* want to use direct on-camera flash in a serious shot). What you’ll want to do is either shoot with the sun behind the subject backlighting her hair (bonus: You get the wonderful colors of sunset behind her), or shoot with the sun behind you and slightly off to the side. Shooting with the sun at too much of an angle will cause problems because half your subject’s face will be in direct sunlight and the other half will be in deep shadow and it’s IMPOSSIBLE to expose a shot that will make both come out okay.

A large white sheet of posterboard or a mirror can bounce light back into the shadow, but you’ll need someone/thing to hold it in place. The posterboard/mirror approach will also be useful if you’re putting the sun behind her, since you’re exposing for her shadowed face and that can cause the background to be overexposed.

If you have the option, find someplace in the shade with good ambient lighting to shoot. Bounce some light at her to impose some directionality on the light so it’s not all diffuse ambient.

Last tip, since you’re not used to shooting in color, pay very close attention to the color of the light. Shadows tend to pick up the color of the sky, so if you use a sun white balance and try to shoot backlit, her face will come out blue. If your camera has manual white balance, put a white sheet of paper or grey card in front of your subject facing toward the camera and white balance on it before you take the shot. If you want the colors to come out “warmer,” use a slightly blue sheet of paper instead, but be warned that if you’re already somewhere with fairly blue lighting (like a shadow lit by the sky) using a blue card for white balance can cause sunlit areas to appear too orange.

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I got Canon gear because my friend I’m sharing gear with uses Canon. That, and all the pro photogs I see at sporting events are using Canon too so I figured I couldn’t go wrong. =D

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