Regardless of the model version Jimmie, nice shots! Sorry your day at the show was marred with an accident. Keep up the good work and enjoy your new lens, That's a great one for portraiture too, especially if you shoot it wide open at longer focal lengths. Don't be a stranger to our thread.
Thanks for the comments Jim and Tim. I was not aware of the F2G variant, although I should be after admiring that plane every year at Airventure. I had a great time with the 70-200. I am excited to have that one in my bag!
That one white blade gives a strange effect doesn't it? That's a great aircraft for sure. There's a half dozen variants of the T-6, I don't have enough memory left to keep all that stuff straight, I just know ours is a "G". I leave all the rest of that stuff to historians and keepers of odd knowledge, the great majority of whom, sadly, will never know what it's actually like to push the throttle forward on one of them.
For those of you following the MKIII controversy, Canon has a firmware update that addresses focus and several other little issues. I downloaded it today and shot a little with the camera. I think it made a difference in focus tracking speed, but I'll put it through some more challenging paces over the next few days and let you know what I find.
I shot a sequence of this Citation's take-off roll and it did a pretty good job of keeping up with it.
Ok you fancy guys and gals! Let's toss things up a bit. Get out your thinking caps, and guess the type of airplane! Double bonus points if you can give the "Name" of the airplane too!
As one who was waiting and saving my pennies for a Mark IIn when the Mark III was announced and now waiting for 1) availability and 2) issues to be resolved as with anything new.... may I ask if you would recommend buying the Mark III now or waiting a while and let them work out the issues.
I'm ready to upgrade from the 20D and hate to waste money on an interm stop gap body if there is a better alternative.
That Citation pict looks tack sharp - is there no post-production sharpening - thats right out of the camera? That is impressive if so! Nice shot!!!
That's a difficult question. The camera is really an outstanding piece of technology. Let me qualify my answer with a couple of salient points. If this was going to be my one and only camera body, I probably wouldn't do it at this point. Having the luxury of my 1Ds MKII for a main body while the MKIII and I become friends is really a plus. Another question I would ask myself is, do I really need the speed that the MKIII offers? In my situation the answer is yes. I shoot RAW+L on every assignment and even with the magnificent buffer in the III, that gives me a burst of 22 shots, at an incredible rate. It's surprising what you can capture in a sequence that size, that you might miss with anything slower. Aviation is of course the most demanding subject, because of the speed involved, but the MKIII's buffer is a big advancement in any sports type shooting. I didn't make the move from my MKII to the IIN, so I can't comment on that one specifically. I loved my MKIIs though.
I hope I haven't muddied the water too much. Basically I think I'd wait just a little bit if you can to see how these quirks are going to pan out. If I had known what I know at this point, I would have kept my MKII bodies another few months, I suppose. On the other hand, I am sure I've already captured shots with the MKIII that I would have missed with my MKIIs.
The main reason I bought the MKIII was for air to air, the great majority of which I'm manually focusing, so it will do exactly what I need it to do there. I just wanted the faster buffer and improved noise characteristics, I think they might save a couple of 360's on each assignment.
The citation shot was sharpened using my standard parameter in CS3, most every RAW image needs a little tweaking regardless of the body it's shot with. I think that image was sharpened at 100/1.2/1.
I'll keep you posted on my learning curve with this camera. I think you'd love it, but if it's going to be your only body you want to be able to trust it in every situation and I don't think it's quite there yet.
JW, i've read that 1.1.0 still doesn't fix AF issues. Might just be that one body that has problems. Waiting for other reports.
Still think 1Ds mk II is dream cam for some if Canon will come out with 1Ds mkIII that will work it will be an amazing beast.
As things stand now with mk III i would use the cam. for anything important, rather do the job with tool i trust - mk II.
I think your approach is right on the money. I love the III's potential, but I wouldn't trust it for an assignment without being able to intermix shots with my 1Ds MKII. The 1Ds MKIII will be an amazing camera and I'll order 2 the minute they are available. I just sold two cases of Hasselblad gear and have two more to go. The only film I shoot now is 4x5 and my Fuji GX617 medium format panoramic camera. True architectural photography still calls for a 4x5. I have all the TS Canon lenses, but there's nothing like shooting architecture with a 4x5 and then laying those beautiful transparencies on a light box. Landscape with a 4x5, while tedious, forces you to really analyze your composition rather than blowing through a bunch of perspectives, there's something very satisfying about it.
You are right, about 4X5, it does make you think and not "shot-gun" it I was brought up with a 4X5 and I still only take a couple of exposures, of a subject and then it's just to insure all the eyes are open. You pretty much know when you have the image you are looking for... But this is just my 2 Cents.
You don't do too bad on the ground either.
Tom
I had a great time with the 70-200. I am excited to have that one in my bag!
