Test shots from the 5D Mark II

Yes my 5D Mark II is afflicted with the dreaded black dots! I went out to my neighbor’s yards to shoot some of their Christmas lights at ISO 6400 and cropped 300% to see if I had black dots. I do. They are not very visible at regular viewing, but you can see them as specs. But magnified you can definitely see them.

I am not a pixel peeper, however, now I know that my camera has that situation and now will wait for Canon to send out a firmware fix. Other than the black dots, I am loving this camera! The shutter sound is so much different than my 30D’s! And it is not as heavy as I thought it would be!! I have played with the video, my favorite video that I have made was my macro video testing. It’s a little awkward at first, but I am sure I will get the hand of it soon!

Well check out these photos from the camera!

These were mostly shot at ISO 6400! I am loving the bokeh that comes with the 5D Mk II, maybe my 30D would produce those results too.. maybe.. hehehehe!

The 5D Mk II is home!

A friend of mine recently got into photography. I think that is great! He recently purchased a 40D , 70-200 f2.8, and a 16-35 Lens. Why he went with all L lenses is well up to him since he has money. But what was important was the inquiries that developed. A lot of the questions were questions many starters have, what sort of gear do I need. The most consistent answer I gave him was, buy gear that is consistent with his shooting style and shooting habits. For example, here is absolutely no use for me to buy a 100-400 L lens if I do not shoot wildlife. But it is absolutely necessary for me to buy a 70-200 f/2.8 to shoot portraits and some distance shooting. He hasn’t done that much shooting since, but I told him to shoot a lot when he goes to France next week. Once he gets a handle of what he enjoys shooting, he will get a clue of what kind of photography he loves to do and new information he needs to ask for what sort of gear to get next.

As for myself, I picked up the 5D MK II from Best Buy last night! YAY! My first impressions is an empty wallet. Well it has a much larger and brighter viewfinder, feels solid but light, and very capable. Of course the file sizes per Raw are just immense, I only have 4 gig compact flash cards right now, four or five of them. I can only shoot 136 photos on RAW. I can shoot in the smaller Raws, but… still.. haha!! Looks like I need to purchase more high capacity compact flash cards and more hard drives for my laptop and PC to be able to store those huge files!

Test shots will come eventually!

Decisions decisions!

I need to decide to either travel in June or buy the Canon 5D Mark II. I know in a previous post I gave my reasons for the 5D mk II and how travel photography will be much better. But I need to live within my means. Therefore I can only choose one. Travel and wait to be able to afford the 5D MK II which also would make sure that if there are any bugs be worked out or buy now and possibly not travel till Fall. The string with the latter is that my vacation days, all 26, must be used by June.

So I think I will go travel instead, that is, unless I hit the jackpot, get tons of paying clients to pay for it and travel. I am sure that it is going to be very difficult to not want to buy it till I set onto an airplane to go anywhere. But I must be patient! Especially since I have recently bought a 100mm macro lens, a bludomain site, which I will talk about shortly, and some other items.

I decided to get a bludomain site. Yeah yeah those flash sites you see a lot of people with. But I chose one that not a lot use, Ayala. It has a more portfolio, freelance, and non wedding look. A lot of people use the ones that are geared mainly for wedding photographers. I do like them as they give more options than Ayala’s three gallaries and three text sections. But I really like the layout that Ayala gives and that it doesn’t look entirely like the others. I am hoping to launch it soon as my font change occurs. Then I will post its link for anyone curious to go and check it out! I am still going to retain my smugmug. I cannot depart from it as it is a great service! And I need a site for my fine art and stock photography.

I haven’t shot macro since my days in college with my photography classes! So this macro lens is going to be a very welcomed inclusion to my camera gear! It comes in today… but I am at work right now. ;_;

Why I want the Canon 5D Mark II

Just look on the net about the new Canon 5D Mark II and you will be amazed at what it can do and its price. It is going to be a phenomenal camera! I am sure the Red’s camera will be fantastic, but for 2600$ the 5D mark II will be hard to beat for a full frame camera that also shoots 1080p video! It has more than that, real good ISO sensitivity just like the original 5D, general shape and size. Sure I wish it had more than 9 AF points and assist points and that it had a different AF system from the older 5D, but this camera is going to be phenomenal.

As a travel photographer, mainly, and a dabbler in wedding and portrait photographer, this camera is really going to change the game! Not only does it shoot video, but it will utilize any and all Canon mounted lens! So you can do some pretty standard to crazy ass videos along with amazing stills at 21 mp! (Megapixels at this point in time are pretty redundant in any serious camera discussion.) I don’t have to look to get a video camera or use point and shoots on travels, I can take high end video footage and stills from the 5D MK II! Of course the file sizes will be extraordinary, but for this camera and what possibilities there are? It is worth it!

Think about all those travels that you have gone on? Ever question your gear and weight? Well with this, you can forget about a video camera, but worry about everything else! Hey one less item you need to pack! Of course you will have to add in more memory and storage options… but that is slightly lighter than a video camera, or at least a decent one!

Or at a wedding, you can shoot a high definition artistic video for the bride and groom to see every single detail, with stills in between!

The possibilities for this camera is boundless! When will I obtain one? I think next year before I head to Ireland, I will make my purchase. Of course by then it may have a better price and be in stock!

One more week!

One more week till I head to Seattle!  WOOOO HOOOOO!

Not much else to update… haha!

Well I guess a photograph I recently shot: