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The Photography Thread


mr ailsbury

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I’m parting ways with my Canon 50mm F/1.2 if anyone here happens to be interested. I have access to a sigma 50mm art so no point having both anymore.

I was interested in considering the New Eos R mirrorless then saw the price of the lenses for it. Not anymore.

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  • 1 month later...

Dudes.

I'm thinking of upgrading one of my camera bodies so I've got something a bit handier for shooting photos with, whilst also being able to use it for filming.  Not looking to spend loads at the mo so it's second hand.  I've basically narrowed it down to the 7D or the 60D.

I've shot with a 7D for TartyBikes a lot so I'm familiar with it and it seems like a good camera, but there are certain plus points of the 60D that are tempting me.  For a start, the fold out LCD is a major win for me as I'm going to be primarily filming so ching ching.  Secondly, I've got a bunch of good quality SDHC cards now so I have plenty of coverage as far as that goes.

However, I'm potentially going to be doing more 'normal' photography - do any of you guys have much experience between the two, and know if there's a particular big difference between them performance-wise?  If anyone's got any tips that'd be cool, please.  I've read a few reviews online but I don't trust the outside world of the internet as much as I do our cosy little corner here ;) 

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I ended up picking between these two earlier this year and plumbed for the 60D (flick back to page 49 in here and have a speedread) Given I wanted the full set up (body, lens, batteries, bag, yada yada) as a 1st DSLR a 7D was a bit pricey at that point; a body only on sniped on auction at sparrows fart o'clock might now be a different story. 

The 7d sounds like it would be a better photo taker but I too wanted the fold out screen of the 600D that was handed to me back when and I use the live mode loads when on a 3ft tall tripod instead of kneeling and craning my neck, setting up the bike/car/other and taking the shot hands off on remote 2sec timer with an ebay IR remote, meaning my rickety Asda tripod still has some life left in it yet. I find Live mode also means in other applications I can kneel instead if sitting, sit instead of lying down and so on.

Another instance would be the batch of shots I did for my mate's daughter's christening by hiding slumped down in the back row of pews and sneakily holding the cam overhead looking at the tilted screen in live view and the drive mode on low key dugga dugga. Doing skateboard vid tracking shots ont end of a handle or inverted tripod is guesswork with a fixed screen too.

 

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If my memory is correct you’ve been using a 550d as your workhorse? From experience I’ve had using a 550d and 7d the sensor is the same so produces pretty much the same image quality, just that the 7d has slightly better build quality, was a bit faster FPS and a few more settings/buttons available for use. 

 

In in terms of image quality though I can’t see it being a significant upgrade over your 550d? Although I’m out of touch with 7d prices now I can imagine them being pretty good value.

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From my research at the time I was under the impression that my 60D was a merge of the gubbins from 7D & 600D/T3i with some concessions to fit a 600D case, with the 70D that followed being a significant step forward from that thanks to a raft of trickle down tech & then the 80D's advancements' had diminishing returns (price vs. gain). Don't hold me as gospel on that, but I'd swear black is white I read that somewhere.

If true I'd say the 70D may be the better 2nd hand buy - I'd have had one but as I said I was buying the package, and my purchase filled the criteria i'd set myself. 

Edited by CC12345678910
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Unfortunately in the places I've been looking the 70D is more than double the price of the 60D so it's a bit much for me at the moment unfortunately.

Thanks for the comments from both of you though.  It's confirmed what I thought before, so looks like the 60D is going to be the one.  Might head into the shop in town and see what they've got in as they sometimes have some decent deals on second hand bodies - gives me a chance to get a feel of the 60D in any case.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have a sort of photography/tech question. 

Its more photography related than anything else so thought in here was the best option. 


Basically, I'm moving in with my Mrs and no longer have room for a desktop computer set up which means my mac mini has to go and I need a laptop so i can edit photos. 

I have been looking at Mac Book pros, i know there is a significant apple tax applied to the hardware and I would possibly get a better machine in a PC but i like the OSX and they seem a popular choice among photographers. 

I'm open to windows laptops but i wouldn't even know where to start looking for a decent spec machine that isn't gaming orientated with loads of RGB. 

My main concern with a laptop is the lack of internal storage, for example, the MBP i am looking has 256gb SSD. Which is no way near big enough for my Lightroom catalogue. 

Has anyone had any experience running lightroom of an external drive, either HDD or SSD?

Another idea i had was to import onto the SSD edit that set and then move the files onto an HDD to be accessed later? a longer workflow i know but something that cant be avoided. 

 

Also as this is the photography forum here are some snaps from a couple of recent trips. 

IMG_6767-Pano.thumb.jpg.398e36e07a4e2a4ef09e06141825681c.jpg

 

IMG_8636-Pano.thumb.jpg.22cbb7b8de2bcb8c90c987966b946eae.jpg

 

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Disk space is an issue (I have used MacBook Pro laptops for the last 4 years, and no longer have a desktop) but I can't say I've tried Lightroom running off an external drive. I'm sure you could use it though. I tend to edit just the pictures from a given day/trip and then back them up to external drives and also Dropbox/Google Drive.

One very important feature to consider is the screen. Laptop screens are far far better than they used to be, colours are better, contrast ratios are good, but they are far from all being equal. The screen on the MacBook is great for a laptop, as was the one on my old Sony Vaio. I think some of the later Asus ZenBooks had good screens to but if buying a PC one then you really want to get in a shop and try them first.

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I've been using a Macbook Pro for quite a while now for similar scenario, mine's from 2013 and was the most basic Pro Retina at the time, I think it has 128gb and 8gb ram. I'm sure they're probably a step up from that now. 

I really like my Macbook it has been great for what I do and the screen quality is great, it copes fine with Lightroom and has managed Photoshop before but I don't really use that anymore. Most of my software usage is through Lightroom. I have my catalog on external hard drives. Usually having a day or twos worth of photos before moving them over to the external hard drive. It's a bit of a pain but I think realistically no matter what size your laptop hard drive it's going to end up being a similar scenario having to move it to external hard drive. 

I don't have much experience with any other laptops so can't advise on that front but if you go down the Macbook route I would go for something a few specs up from what I have now if I was to purchase again anytime soon just so I know it would definitely be capable for whatever I could throw at it in future.

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Can't offer any advice on suitable laptops but I set up my photographer mother in law with a new machine (windows desktop) with a 250gb SSD and a 2tb HDD which was sufficient for her needs at the time.  I set her up with both drives as locations in lightroom, imported and edited on the SSD then moved the location to the HDD once the job was finished.

Unfortunately she got all in a fluster because she read somewhere on the internet that she needed to make backups (ignoring the external drives she was already backing up to) and randomly made multiple duplicate copies of everything.  Suddenly realised that she was out of space and found a local computer expert to put some more drives in. Cue a 4.5ghz machine running windows on an SSD trying to edit data saved on stupendously slow, 4tb 5400rpm low power drives and she consequently starts complaining that the machine is slow broken....

Cleared the machine out, deleted over 6tb of duplicate files and relinked the whole lightroom catalogue to the right files. Ripped the two drives out of the box, got her a 2 bay synology NAS drive and set that to mirror the data across both drives.  She is now back to the original machine design of working on the SSD and dumping the files to the NAS for storage.  When the NAS drives are full she takes them out, puts them into storage and plugs a new pair in, that way she has duplicates and can go back to old catalogues by putting the drives back in.

I reckon a 250gb SSD will fine when used in conjunction with the NAS, the beauty of the system is you can set up a VPN to the NAS so you can remotely access and work on your files as long as your network is good enough.

Edited by forteh
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Anyone here had experience with Metabones adapters, like this one? https://www.wexphotovideo.com/metabones-adapter-nikon-f-to-fuji-x-1591247/

I want to take my Fuji XT2 on a trip, but might need a tele lens. Thinking about taking my Nikon 70-200. Don't want to take a Nikon DSLR and don't want to buy a Fuji tele as I won't use it enough!

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Thanks Guys. 

Having done a bit more reading into this on my boringly slow train to Scotland this morning, running the Lightroom catalogue off a high-speed external drive shouldn't be an issue with USB3. So I think this will probably be my best option. The screens on the new MBPs are gorgous so much nicer than any other laptop ive used. 
 

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its very different in terms of workflow. I love Lightroom, i have a CS subscription so have photoshop but very rarely do i need to open it up to edit anything, most of what i need to do i can do in LR. 

LR integrates neatly with photoshop if you do find you need to edit anything in PS. 

i would give it a go, it takes a bit of getting used to, but once you've gotten to grips with it its great. 

 

In other news, it looks like im going with the 2017 13" MBP. 

My mac 2012 mac mini will be for sale if anyone is interested? manages lightroom and photoshop fine with raw files from my 7D

Edited by Joe Aston
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On 31/10/2018 at 9:51 AM, Tony Harrison said:

I am an Adobe CS subscriber so I do have access to Lightroom. But I tend to edit shots one by one in Photoshop. Is Lightroom really that much better in terms of managing workflow etc? Is it worth my while having a committed go and getting to grips with it?

Nic used to use Photoshop to edit the weddings she'd shot, but has subsequently started working for an outsourcing editing company who primarily use Lightroom - she's a total convert now, and it seems that it really does help with improving workflow.  She's said she'll show me the ropes as and when I need it (at the moment I'm only dealing with a handful of images at a time so I'm happy to just smash them about in PS), so we shall see...

In related news, I bought a new body - wild carded it and went for the 70D.  Glad I did!  Really nice to use so far, even though over a decade of "Buttons are on the left" on the camera body is having to be trained out of me.  The touch screen massively wins, even if it feels a little weird to use at first.  I was changing the AF type yesterday when we were out on a walk and I was trying to remember what wheel/button I needed to press, then realised I could just touch the setting I wanted on the LCD.  Bueno.  The price for a 'Good' 70D wasn't much more than an 'Excellent' 60D, and as with everything I've got from MPB their 'Good' is more than good enough for me.

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Yes to Lightroom, doesn't matter if it's a couple of images or 1000's. Lightroom is a lifesaver.

If I'm culling 1000's of images, I'll use software called Photo mechanic due to it's speed. The chosen images then transfer to Lightroom where I'll apply my preset and tweak accordingly. A new catalog for every shoot.  Within the catalog you can create collections, so one for blogging, one for instagram posts, etc.

 

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Photomechanic shows you the jpeg file rather than the raw so it loads instantly, helps loads when zooming in to check sharpness. If I cull in lightroom you have a second or so for it to load or longer if you zoom in to check sharpness. If you're going through 4000 images, saving a second or so helps a lot.

I'll blast through photomechic, you can mark the images as red which then converts into lightroom red tagged. From Lightroom we'll add them to a collection so they can be re-arranged if needed, also creating another collection for blogs etc.

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On 03/11/2018 at 7:55 AM, Davetrials said:

Im interested in how this photo mechanic makes culling quicker? im guessing your shooting weddings? 

Joe what do you use i imagine you power though some memory cards?

As DrEvil said. I too use photomechanic. Quickest culling tool in the game. 

Lightroom and capture one are to slow to go through raws. Fine if you have the time but if your shooting editorial stuff like me (or you just like to use your time proactively) where stuff is being sent out to papers in a jiffy then it's photomechanic everytime. Worth every penny. 

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Got my hasselblad film back. Have 5 duff slides which is a shame. I use the hasselblad alongside my 1D, and it’s much more fun imo :D the 1D is my boi for shots that are needed quickly and on demand, but the ‘blad has so much more depth to it. My uni shop sells 120mm film too which is a bonus. Anyone else shoot with film still? 

02DA8FBD-E08A-493C-92EB-B52C2A7D68F7.jpeg

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