After too many years of hauling too much heavy equipment around in pursuit of this thing called photography, I’ve decided to lighten the load.
I’ve sold off my 400mm f:2.8 and 300mm f:2.8 lenses along with the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III. Why? Because the new Canon 5D Mark II has the same 21.1 mp sensor as the MK III and is lighter and uses a later-model processing chip that, in my opinion, produces better images.
I can get 400mm out of my 70-200mm f:2.8 zoom with a 2x tele-extender and 300mm with a 1.4x extender. With the extended ISO range of the 5D MKII I can make up for the loss of f-stop sensitivity and also save my shoulders and damaged rotator cuffs by no carrying such a heavy lens.
I still use the 1D MKIII for high-speed sports photography but more and more of my work is close in photography of music and other events and I no longer need the long, fast glass.
Sold my favorite sports lens this week: The Canon 400mm f/2.8 telephoto. No, I’m not switching camera brands and I didn’t do it for the money. I simply had to accept the fact that at 61, old age and old injuries have caught up with me and I can’t lug 30 or more pounds of camera equipment around any more.
I bought the lens in 2007, primarily to shoot high school football. As soon as I started using it, I started having problems with my right shoulder. After a game, my right arm would be numb. Doctors first diagnosed tendonitis, then said it could be a pinched nerve. An MRI found town rotator cuff muscles. A surgeon wanted to cut but that meant six-to-eight weeks of down time, which I can’t afford. We tried cortizone shots instead.
The arm improved over the summer but I wasn’t using the 400mm lens to shoot softball, track, soccer and baseball. When football season arrived last fall, I tried the lens again and the arm got worse. The docs delivered the bad news: Lighten the load or face loss of use of the arm.
A spill on my motorcycle over the weekend sent me crashing to the ground on that same right shoulder and I woke up Monday morning with enough stiffness to limit my movement. So I made the decision to go through my camera equipment and look for places where I could take out some of the bulk. The 400mm was the first to go.
An ad on Sportsshooter.com brought a buyer within 30 minutes. UPS took the lens later in the day and my PayPal account is decidedly healthier.
Over the next few weeks, I will be looking at other ways to reduce the load of the equipment I carry on a particular assignment. Fewer bodies, smaller lenses, a carbon fiber tripod, etc. — anything that can help.
Professional photographers who shoot with Canon and Nikon gear have longed enjoyed special privileges through both camera makers’ “professional services.” As a member of both Canon Professional Services (CPS) and Nikon Professional Services (CPS) I’ve enjoyed fast turnaround on repairs, loaner equipment, services at special events and other perks.
Admission into the programs wasn’t easy. You have to prove your made your living with their brands of cameras by providing tear sheets, serial numbers and other information. Up until recently, membership in both programs was free.
Canon, however, changed its CPS program this year and now has three levels of membership: Basic (still free but with limited services), Gold ($100 a year with better services) and Premier ($500 a year with more services). To qualify, you have to have what Canon considers an acceptable number of their “pro” cameras and lenses.
It wasn’t hard for me to switch over. I own a bunch of Canon equipment and, fortunately, most of it is up to date. But shooters who depend on older camera bodies (like the original EOS 1D MK I) or older lenses can’t qualify for the new program, even if they made their living with Canon equipment.
This changes of the rules of who qualifies as a “pro.” It no longer means making a living with your equipment. It simply means affording the latest and greatest equipment and whether or not you make your living with that equipment is secondary.
I work with aspiring photojournalists through the mentoring program of the National Press Photographer’s Association (NPPA) and enjoy working with a number of talented young people who could bring a lot to the profession.
But more and more, many of these young shooters question the wisdom of going into the business.
Last week, one of my mentorees — a bright student at Hollins University — announced she was switching her major and is no longer planning photography — and particularly photojournalism — as a career.
“I don’t see a future there,” she said.
There was a time when I would have tried to talk her out of such a decision. Not now. She’s right to question whether or not a career that combines photography and journalism. With newspapers laying off thousands of staff and many closing their doors for good, the profession that has been such a part of my life for the past four decades appears doomed. As the economy worsens, so does the outlook for those who make their living reporting the news.
If this were 40 years ago, I’d probably be thinking the same thing.
The more I work with the Canon 5D Mark II the more I find myself using it as my primary camera, leaving the EOS1-D MKIII and EOS 1-Ds MKIII in my camera bag or even at home.
For sports, the 1D MKIII, with its fast autofocus and 10 frames-per-second shooting rate, is still my preferred tool but the 5D MK II becomes the camera of choice for assignments that don’t require fast autofocus or a high-speed firing rate. The images, in my opinion, are superior to the 1DS MKIII even though both have the same 21.1 megapixel sensor. The 5D has better firmware and superior processing of images through the Digic IV processor. The 1Ds MKIII’s dual Digic III processors is faster in processing but the 5D has better detail and less noise at high ISOs.
The EOS 1 series cameras are sturdier, better weather sealing, have a higher life expectancy for shutters and can handle two memory cards (1 CF and 1SD) and viewfinders that show 100 percent of the image but the image quality of the 5D, plus the lower price, makes it a better value.
I wanted to test the Canon 5D MKII’s ability to record sound using just the on-camera microphone (a small mono mike in the front of the camera body) so I put it to the test recording a Bluegrass jam session at the County Store in Floyd, Virginia.
The sound, while not studio quality, works OK for a short web video. I recorded the banjo picker, guitar player and fiddler for one song and used that track to lay down the sound for the video and then filmed cutaways for the rest. It also gave me a change to push the camera’s low-light capability. These clips will be part of an updated documentary we are doing on the Country Store and the Fright Night Jamboree.
Shot with the 5DII (tripod mounted) and a 70-200 Canon f2.8 zoom.
A short clip featuring the bluegrass band “Statement” performing “A Man of Constant Sorrow” during the Friday Night Jamboree at the Country Store in Floyd, Va.
Shot primarily with a Sony V1U camcorder that shoots at 1080p, the clip also features insert shors from the Canon 5D MKII. This clip will be edited further and included in our upcoming documentary on the Jamboree.
A short video from last Friday night’s Jamboree at the Floyd Country Store in Floyd, Virginia. Filmed entirely on Canon’s 5D Mark II digital SLR that combines a 21.1 megapixel sensor for still photography with high definition video. (Click here for a full size HD version)
Both the video and sound were captured with the 5DII and edited on Final Cut Pro with no color correction or enhancement to the video from the camera. Sound was recorded via a Sony wireless video transmitter attached to a Shure microphone on stage. The receiver mounted on the hot shoe of the 5DII fed the sound directly into the camera. No supplemental lighting was used for the shoot.
It’s obvious after looking at this that I’m going to have to use my reading glasses to focus through the LCD on the rear of the camera. Or I may opt for for an external monitor.
These clips are part of an ongoing project to update the orginal Jamboree documentary we shot in standard definition video in 2002, using a Canon XL1s camcorder.
My Canon 5D Mark II arrived three days before Christmas and I haven’t had as much time as I would like to put it through its paces. Shot some test video to try and learn the camera’s capabilities and shortcomings. For someone used to shooting video with a standard videocam this will take some getting used to.
First impressions:
Focus is a bit tricky with the camera’s live view function. The quick focus feature is not all that quick, no compared to the focus on EOS pro bodies while shooting stills. I hadn’t played with Live View all that much on my 1D MKIII or 1Ds Mark III so this is a learning curve.
Low light capability is incredible. In low light, the detail blows away my Sony V1U HDV camcorder, which shoots 1080p at 24, 25 and 30p.
The H.264 Quicktime files produced by the 5DII will require some equipment upgrades on the editing in. My trusty Power Mac G5, duel 2.7ghz may need replacing even with 8gb of memory and 10TB of raid storage. I have to convert the footage to Apple’s Pro-Res 4.22 to edit the footage in Final Cut Pro.
I was able to capture good quality sound using a wireless mike setup (Sony UWP-V6).
I’m hoping to spend most of today editing some of the video and will post some when I’m done.