Tag: lenses Posts

This was one of the things I was afraid of. About six months ago I decided to sell off most of my camera gear. Part of that decision was due to the fact that if I was going to go on this trip I would need more money, and my camera gear represented a significant investment ($5,000+) that I could tap into. I could always buy another camera, but I may not always be able to do a trip like this. The second was that I was originally planning on traveling with just a backpack, and there really wouldn’t be any room for a big SLR or lenses. About a month before I left for Buenos Aires, I decided it would probably be smart to bring along a little suitcase of stuff as well. Since I’m in Buenos Aires for three months, and I have a full apartment, there was […]

Canon has just announced a brand new EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens – the 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II. This is one of Canon’s most popular L-series lenses, and is pretty much a must-have for most serious wedding and event photographers. I have the non-IS (image stabilized) version, which works fairly well in most scenarios, but I’ve heard the IS version allows you to hand-hold shots in scenarios where the non-IS version would fail. Here’s some information on it: Canon has improved the optical performance by redesigning the internal elements, incorporating a fluorite element and a fifth UD element to help minimize secondary chromatic aberrations and produce better image quality with improved contrast and resolution through the entire zoom range. The new lens design features improved auto focus speed due to a new focusing algorithm and a shorter minimum focusing distance of 3.9 feet (1.2 meters). It also features improved image […]

Most compact cameras that you pick up from Future Shop only have one built in lens. In most cases, it’s a zoom lens, capable of giving you moderate wideangle coverage upwards to a decent telephoto lens. Most people probably don’t know the difference between those two, so I thought I’ll give a brief tutorial. The most well known lens is probably the 50mm prime. 50mm refers to the focal length of the lens, and prime refers to the fact that it’s a fixed focal length lens (i.e. not a zoom lens). In photography, the 50mm lens is also called a “standard” lens because it almost exactly matches the field of view of human eye. That is, if you were to look at a scene and then photograph it using a 50mm lens, it would closely match what you saw. Some people call a 50mm lens boring because it doesn’t really […]

I got a call from Canon today about my lens with water vapour in it. They verdict: completely unfixable. To be honest, I’m a bit pissed off. When I shipped it out to them, I followed it up with a call telling them it was rather urgent, and they needed to get to it first since it concerned water damage. The lady on the phone told me they were 5 days behind, and there was nothing she could do. Anyways, when they finally get to it, it was corroded inside and not worth fixing. The replacement cost of the new lens is around $1600, so I’m going to be submitting my first ever insurance claim. The shitty part is that I have special insurance on all my camera equipment, except of course that lens since it’s rather recent. Had anything else bit the dust, I would have been able to […]

I told myself before the upcoming wedding that I have to shoot that I would buy what will probably be my last lens for a while, Canon’s EF 24-70 f/2.8L lens. I have a wide angle in my kit, and a medium telephoto (although mine is currently being repaired, it is absolutely great for flattering portraits), and a fixed 50mm prime lens. However, everything in my kit is fairly special purpose, which means I sort of have to know what I am shooting before hand and make sure I have the right lens on. Canon’s best all-purpose zoom lens is the 24-70 f/2.8L. It’s from their professional series line, and it has overlap with both the wide angle and telephoto ends. It’s not cheap, running around $1500, but it’s the kind of lens you can leave on your camera body almost all the time. It’s fairly flexible range is perfect […]