I have found that all of my Canon bodies have exhibited exposure offsets to some degree or another due to the light that's coming in through the viewfinder. With the 1d bodies you can just flip the VF shutter lever to reduce or eliminate this problem (I still don't find it to be a 100% cure). The 5d and I'd guess other bodies have that little plastic "shoe" that can be slipped over the eyepiece. Pretty awkward unless you're on a tripod though. You could also try to cram your head/eye/cheek closer to the back of the lens and see if that makes a difference.
John Black wrote:
I should qualified "petite" --- something about the size & weight of a Canon 50mm F1.4 is petite. I've been thinking the Leica 28mm Elmarit (current version) because it could pull double duty on the 1Ds3.
I believe I've found my perfect solution in the Leica 28mm Elmarit on XSi. The FF equivalent 46mm focal length is perfect for me. So far, I find it a challenge to fill the frame sometimes and therefore feel a wider normal lens isn't needed. I use it for product shots, as it focuses down to about a foot. I have a rig to take 3 vertical pan shots for stitching scenics and get back that FF 28mm view. Or, as was mentioned, it would be a natural fit to a 5D. The lens quality is excellent and optimal at f/4, so I keep it wide open most of the time. The lens is a bit heavy at a pound, and I wonder how the lighter Oly 28mm f/2 would compare...
Conner999 wrote:
Anyone tried the Xsi/450D with some nice alt glass? Comparing some sample pics, the sensor looks like a smoker. Nice color and gorgeous detail - looks like a VERY thin AA filter.
At first I thought dpreviews rather blunt comments (I paraphrase) about the image detail from the XSi 'blowing the doors off' the 40D as hyperbole, but looking at comparable shots from various sites like DPR and imaging-resource.com, they may be on to something. Comparing shots, the XSi is the clear winner in detail capture and clarity - for app. $800 out the door.
Rob, I got the 450D when it was released, and I've been quite impressed with it. It has of course the highest pixel density of all of Canons DSLRs so it is a prime candidate for alt.glass. Actually I haven't used it that much with non-Canon optics because the 2,8/17-55 zoom has proven satisfactory beyond expectation. At the moment this combination plus the 4/70-200 IS zoom is my preferred light traveling kit.
Some 6 weeks ago I posted (on the Alt Img Thread) a shot taken with the 450D and (your previous!) Apo-Summicron 2/180. I think both the camera and the lens acquitted themselves very well.
brainiac wrote:
I currently shoot with 1Ds3 and 5D. I see absolutely no difference in required sharpening between these two cameras when each is used with my best lenses. I do see a difference in required sharpening when each is used with a lesser lens. This suggests that their AA filters are in proportion to their pixel pitches. My guess is that people are blaming the camera for the fact that it is exposing the resolution limits of their lenses. The 1Ds3 has a pitch of 6.4 microns, whereas the 5D's is 8.2. The 450D, at 5.7 micron is going to be slightly more demanding on a lens's crop area than the 1Ds3....Show more →
This is by and large my experience too. When I started to read the reviews of the 1DsIII that appeared on the web, I soon realized that the reviewers were really only testing their lenses and not the camera. Thus I suppose arose the myth of the unusually strong AA-filter on the 1DsIII. Having used this camera for some months and made a great number of prints including several A2 and A2+ (17x25) I find hardly any difference in the work flow vs. my 1DsII, *provided* the best technique and optics are used.
I have an XSi, I can say the E-420 is definitely smaller and better in the hands. However, Manual focusing on the XSi is definitely better since the viewfinder is nice and big.
My E-420 has found a new owner, I will keep the high iso performance and big viewfinder in exchange for size and stay with my XSi.
Here is an image sample with the oly 28mm f/3.5 iso800 and the XSi. It's definitely a keeper, I think my 24mm f/2.8 is as sharp however...maybe I struck lucky on my copy who knows Both lenses are in my "everyday" bag.
Somewhat OT, but since we're discussing the 450D, has anyone found a good hand strap solution for this camera? It makes such a big difference when carrying the camera all day.
photoArne wrote:
Somewhat OT, but since we're discussing the 450D, has anyone found a good hand strap solution for this camera? It makes such a big difference when carrying the camera all day.
I actually use the strap from a G9. Small and perfect. You're correct....the strap makes a BIG difference
photoArne wrote:
Somewhat OT, but since we're discussing the 450D, has anyone found a good hand strap solution for this camera? It makes such a big difference when carrying the camera all day.
Check out the Camdapter plate. Attach any hand strap to it. Camdapter sells one... I use a Canon E-1 strap. Works great on all three of my Canon bodies (350D, 40D, 5D). Very solid fitting, and makes the camera very secure in your hand. The Arca-Swiss plate is handy, too, if you use them.
You might want to email before ordering to make sure the "XT" plate fits on a 450D.
Also, Image Tooling makes a similar product. I haven't used theirs.
BTW, does anyone else think that this shot with the 50L is something very special (spacial)? It's just an in-camera jpeg, but check out the 3D. Beautiful. http://cyberphotographer.com/450d/paul_lowrez.jpg
The trick was getting it to focus right. The odds are stacked against you: small viewfinder with standard lying screen, 50L with demonstrable front focus issues on a number of bodies, f2 so focus shift likely etc. etc.. I used Liveview 10x magnification, _and_ I held down the d.o.f. preview button so the lens was really at f2. How did I focus while holding down d.o.f. preview? I moved the camera back and forth until the eye glints were nice and crisp. Easy!! Oh for an AF system that actually works, and by that I mean has a selecteable focus point anywhere in the picture, and is perfectly accurate and reliable. Better still, invent not just face detection, but eyeball detection and tracking.
For face/eyeball detection we'd need a totally different kind of focus sensor. Simple contrast sensors couldn't do the job. We'd need an imaging sensor, to detect shapes and brightness levels.
I don't see an imaging sensor replacing traditional SLR focus sensors anytime soon, but Olympus has already added face detection to the E-420's Live View-based AF. So what you want is already available... you just have to live with slow off-the-sensor AF.
I felt the 50L showed a 3D effect at times, but the focus shift resulted in an abysmal keeper rate. Using DOF preview and manually tweaking focus was not a feasible solution IMO. I wish Canon would find a solution because it's a lens I would like to own (again).
The 450D arrived today and it does over-expose with both brands of AF confirmation adapters. By F8 it's over-exposing 2 to 3 stops. This makes no sense me because they meter just fine wide open. I tried all metering modes and made sure I had NOT exposure locked somehow. Same adapters and lenses expose properly on the 1Ds3 - even with evaluative.
I do not want this to come across as an anti-450D post. It's nice little camera for $700. Frankly, I'm in awe of how much technology goodness they can pack into these camera's today. I'm using the 35L on it for now - which feels like a 24-70L on a 5D. The first thing that came to mind was "buy the grip... NOW!" But that defeats the spirit of having a compact camera.
John
I just tried my 450D with a cameraquest adapter + Contax 35-70 and what do you reckon over exposure by at least 2 stops
To be quite honest, it`s the first time I`ve used Alt lenses on it because the viewfinder doesn`t really lend itself to MF like my 1dsmk3 with split screen but it is strange.
Set the camera to manual, metered the scene with hand held meter and incident, transferred readings to camera and almost on the button. Now that`s funny, I`ll look for my recent thread regarding not being able to use the hand held meter on my 1dsmk3 because the readings were way way out.
If you have used the 5D, you would have had exactly the same problem. In the Canon arsenal, only the 1D series can give you accurate exposures stopped down. This has been discussed previously in several threads.
Bottom line is: The more you stop down, the more the overexposure. And it seems to differ with lenses.
John Black wrote:
The 450D arrived today and it does over-expose with both brands of AF confirmation adapters. By F8 it's over-exposing 2 to 3 stops. This makes no sense me because they meter just fine wide open. I tried all metering modes and made sure I had NOT exposure locked somehow. Same adapters and lenses expose properly on the 1Ds3 - even with evaluative.
I do not want this to come across as an anti-450D post. It's nice little camera for $700. Frankly, I'm in awe of how much technology goodness they can pack into these camera's today. I'm using the 35L on it for now - which feels like a 24-70L on a 5D. The first thing that came to mind was "buy the grip... NOW!" But that defeats the spirit of having a compact camera. ...Show more →
edwardkaraa wrote:
Bottom line is: The more you stop down, the more the overexposure. And it seems to differ with lenses.
I'm not sure it's that simple. With focus confirm adaptors I get little discrepancy. With CY lenses adapted without focus confirmation I get about a stop of overexposure around f5.6 - 11, but more accurate as aperture is opened up.
With which camera? If I remember well, you use the 1Ds3.
brainiac wrote:
I'm not sure it's that simple. With focus confirm adaptors I get little discrepancy. With CY lenses adapted without focus confirmation I get about a stop of overexposure around f5.6 - 11, but more accurate as aperture is opened up.
If you have used the 5D, you would have had exactly the same problem. In the Canon arsenal, only the 1D series can give you accurate exposures stopped down. This has been discussed previously in several threads. Bottom line is: The more you stop down, the more the overexposure. And it seems to differ with lenses.
I started a thread on this a couple of months back, but nobody was interested. Happypage now updates the exif data on adapters you have bought from him, so I had the exif data on a CY adapter I had been using on a 50 1.4 from 28 2.8 to 60 2.8. When I got the adapter back, the lens, which had hitherto been fine, started to overexpose exponentially, as you describe. So it seems that the exif data determines exposure in some way. As it happens, I now have adapters which are all coded for the lenses I use them on, and exposure is always accurate (enough) on a 5D - never over exposes more than is reasonable. In fact, I think the key advantage of focus confirm adapters is that they regulate exposure. For instance the rokkor 58 1.2 and takumar 50 1.4 both overexposed badly until I used them with chips, after which they were accurate.
Both lenses are in my "everyday" bag.
over exposure by at least 2 stops 