p.2 #1 · Lens suggestions for 1D Mark III & low light?
I've heard pros & cons in regards to the Sigma's. Some people love them, some people seem to get bad copies and hate them, but then send them to Sigma and get them back and they're fine. Which is why I'm torn when it comes to that, because I could easily sell my 70-200 f/4 and get the Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 and probably then get a Sigma 24-70mm as well.
Budget, I'd like to stay around $600, if possible.
I do have a flash, although it's older (it was given to me) and I rarely use it. I do most of my photography using natural light. That and, you aren't allowed to use a flash at dogs shows :/
p.2 #4 · Lens suggestions for 1D Mark III & low light?
jojosung wrote:
the sigma 30 f/1.4 will have some vignette problem with the 1D sensor.. just be prepare for it..
it's designed for 1.6 crop
The 30mm only vignettes when it's stopped down, past f/4 or so. From there to wide open, it's very minimal, and very easily corrected in post, in a batch.
Get one that has been calibrated, and you'll never look back. Sigma makes some terrific lenses, and this is one of them.
p.2 #6 · Lens suggestions for 1D Mark III & low light?
If you decide on a non-Canon f/2.8 lens, make sure you can either return it after testing or can otherwise verify that that the high-precision cross sensors work on the 1D Mark III.
The problem is that the body doesn't just look at the lens's aperture to decide whether to disable some AF, it actually has an internal table of "blacklisted" lenses which cause it to do that. It turned out two Tamron f/2.8 lenses were not activating the cross sensors in some bodies because of this and Tamron had to reflash the lens firmware. Most of the information on this is in German, but here's a link in English:
Because of this sort of thing, *I* would never buy a non-Canon AF lens. But *you* are in a different situation, because you're buying for a particular purpose and will probably never need or want to update the body.
p.2 #10 · Lens suggestions for 1D Mark III & low light?
Depending on how close you are/can get to your dog at the shows, I would consider the 135L or the 70-200 f/2.8. Obviously the 70-200 will give you more flexibility, but the 135L is stellar in low light.
p.2 #11 · Lens suggestions for 1D Mark III & low light?
1DIII do have good high ISO. .have you consider shooting with the 70-200/4 that you currently have, and bump up the ISO..
if properly exposed, you should be good.. with the lens you have.
I say before you look for more option.. learned the 1DIII and its ability first.
p.2 #12 · Lens suggestions for 1D Mark III & low light?
jojosung wrote:
1DIII do have good high ISO. .have you consider shooting with the 70-200/4 that you currently have, and bump up the ISO..
if properly exposed, you should be good.. with the lens you have.
I say before you look for more option.. learned the 1DIII and its ability first.
I won't have the chance til the end of November, that's when my next show is. But I can certainly bring my current lenses along and try!
p.2 #13 · Lens suggestions for 1D Mark III & low light?
kady05 wrote:
I won't have the chance til the end of November, that's when my next show is. But I can certainly bring my current lenses along and try!
Honestly I would not mess around and just get a 70-200 f2.8L. If you can afford the IS version (either I or II) by all means get it. It is basically THE standard lens for event photography outdoors or indoors. The zoom will allow you great framing options from even limited shooting positions. Even with the 2.8 you will have to bump up ISO to about 1600.
p.2 #14 · Lens suggestions for 1D Mark III & low light?
Sneakyracer wrote:
Honestly I would not mess around and just get a 70-200 f2.8L. If you can afford the IS version (either I or II) by all means get it. It is basically THE standard lens for event photography outdoors or indoors. The zoom will allow you great framing options from even limited shooting positions. Even with the 2.8 you will have to bump up ISO to about 1600.
That's what pretty much everyone has told me to do. My friend got this one of my dog & I at our last show (just so you guys can see what I'm going for):
That was in one of our better lit show locations, most of the time I show in worse lighting.
Aug 01, 2012 at 11:11 AM
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p.2 #15 · Lens suggestions for 1D Mark III & low light?
kady05 wrote:
I'd be looking at used lenses, FWIW So that helps price wise.
I'll look in to the 30mm, although I've heard about the vignette problem as well.
I tried the 30/1.4 on my APS-H body (1D Mark II N) and the vignetting is "passable" to "artistic" up to about f/5. From f/5.6 on, it becomes "ugly". For the intended use as a wide aperture lens, it'll probably be negligible, especially since in low light environments the corners blend into the shadows anyways.
However, I'd recommend something like a Tokina 16-28 or used 16-35 because there seem to be no real wides in your inventory and the 24-something lenses aren't a real substitute for that.
p.2 #16 · Lens suggestions for 1D Mark III & low light?
I would avoid any lens that had a lot of vignetting for this. It becomes harder to bring the corners up satisfactorily, due to the reduced dynamic range at high ISO. You want a lens with consistent performance.
You should try your 1D Mark III out indoors with your dog to see how high an ISO you will be happy with, and also try out different noise reduction settings in your software. Motion blur doesn't matter for this test - you will be able to tell the difference on the screen. Nor does focal length or distance. Once you know the highest ISO you would shoot (probably 1600) you will then know how fast a lens you need.
In your above example, the dog doesn't look like it's moving fast at all, so with longer focal lengths IS or a monopod might be useful.
p.2 #18 · Lens suggestions for 1D Mark III & low light?
The 16-35 was something I had seen, but aren't those more than the 24-70? I would like an "actual" wide angle.
The dogs aren't moving too fast, you're correct. A trotting pace is what we do
I think it's between a 24-70 or a 70-200 2.8 right now. My current 70-200 is the non IS and works great for what I use it for, so I'm thinking I could do the non IS on the 2.8 version as well.
p.2 #19 · Lens suggestions for 1D Mark III & low light?
When I made my first post I had in mind something like our kelpie trials. For your shows, having an f/2.8 lens might not be so important for autofocus.
You might still want an f/2.8 lens for exposure reasons. I don't think, though, that with backgrounds as busy and colourful as in your example it's going to be very effective in deemphasising them at the focal lengths you'll be using.
You should probably get some practice in with this camera and your 70-200 f/4 before your next show. There are several settings which make a difference:
- Generally I have found it easier to track moving animals with my f/4 lens by choosing a specific AF point and also setting "AF expansion" (CFn III-8, which has settings for off, horizontal panning and all surrounding). I don't know whether letting the camera choose the AF point would be better with an f/2.8 lens, because I don't have a long lens that fast. That would be easier for your operator, but risks the camera locking on those busy backgrounds with their straight man-made lines.
- There is a cryptic setting to control whether the camera always chooses the *closest* subject or the one it has already been tracking. For some reason the camera is shipped with it set to "closest", which Canon calls "main" (!). This is CFn III-4 and I have it set to 1="continuous".
- Tracking speed sensitivity. This controls how quickly the camera hands off focus to another point when it is choosing the point.
- There is a setting to limit the number of shots in a burst. Do set this!
Since it's a used camera, make sure to reset everything to the default first so you don't inherit the previous owner's settings.
If you can say exactly what distance you'd be shooting at and how much of the frame you want the dog to fill, it's possible to *calculate* the focal length you need. This will be cheaper and less disappointing than buying the wrong lens. Having now seen the arena, I'd be surprised if a 16-35mm was useful. I am a little concerned that you can't decide between 24-70 and 70-200, unless you mean to carry both. It's an expensive mistake to make.
IS will be useful if your shutter speed is between what will freeze movement (probably 1/125 for leading the dog like that) and what is needed because of the focal length. That is, it's no use to you at all below 100mm. I use it a lot for animals, but it does cause a delay when acquiring focus. It's better (and cheaper) if you can do it by shutter speed alone.
The Canon 24-70mmm f/2.8 is about to be replaced by a newer model with much higher resolution (that your camera won't use anyway) so if you want this lens it may pay to hold off a few weeks until the current model appears used at a good price.
p.2 #20 · Lens suggestions for 1D Mark III & low light?
Well see, the distance is the "problem". Ring sizes vary, and the dogs are moving around. The picture I posted was at an AKC show, and their rings tend to be larger than UKC shows. Here are a couple shots my husband took at a UKC show (same location of the show in November I've been referring to):
Those were both taken with the 50mm 1.8 on my T1i.
16-35mm probably won't be enough for the shows, now that I think about it. 24-70mm would more than likely do just fine. 70-200mm 2.8 would just be a nice addition (I'd sell my f4 version) since that's what most of my show friends who are photographers use.
So that helps price wise.