Canon EOS 6D

This is the Canon EOS 6D which I purchased recently. As some of you may know, I have been surviving with an EOS 1000D for several years now and a replacement was necessary. Now I don't want to get into too much technical details about camera specs as it has been covered in an extensively detailed review by Bryan at The Digital Picture. 

The following is a list of key features as seen at The Digital Picture. 

• Full-frame 20.2 Megapixel sensor 
• Tough, lightweight construction 
• Max ISO 25600 (expandable to ISO 102400) 
• 11-point AF sensitive down to -3 EV 
• GPS records your location 
• Wi-Fi file transfer/remote control 
• Full-HD video

 The rear layout of the camera closely resembles the design of the Canon EOS 60D

Of course when switching over to a different button layout, you tend to hit buttons wrongly due to muscle memory from previous body designs. The 6D utilizes a different image zooming method when reviewing photos on the LCD than on the 1000D which kept me hitting the top right buttons on the first couple of days but I was pleasantly surprised how quickly I got accustomed to the new method afterwards.

A new feature which I feel is very useful is the ability to connect to the camera via WiFi from a smartphone or by wirelessly tethering to a laptop on a WiFi network which provides options to download images directly or remotely triggering the camera shutter. I haven't tried the GPS feature yet so I cant say much about it for now.

Side view of the camera and lens

EF 24-105mm F/4 L IS USM with an EW-83J lens hood attached

I purchased the 6D as a kit with the EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM lens. As you can see in the photo above, I use the lens with a third party EW-83J lens hood that I had been using with my EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS lens. Of course the 24-105 does come with the smaller EW-83H hood but I prefer using the larger EW-83J on it. You might wonder if using a larger hood for this lens on a full frame body causes vignetting on images but even if it does, it probably only has minimal impact. View the image comparison below.

24mm 1/1250 f/4 ISO 100

The 6D produces excellent image quality. High ISO performance is brilliant up to ISO 6400. Higher ISO settings are best kept for emergencies. Of course, moving up from an APS-C sensor, the difference in Image quality and ISO performance was an eye opener. I knew it was going to be great but it didn't truly sink in till I saw it.

In terms of AF performance, The center AF point is outstanding in low light, being able to lock focus in very dark situations equivalent to -3 EV. This is a plus as I cover events and weddings which mostly takes place in dimly lit venues. The outer AF points don't perform as well as the center, but I do not need to utilize them as much anyway.

The following are a few image samples from the 6D;

105mm 1/60 f/4 ISO 500

105mm 1/125 f/4 ISO 1000

85mm 1/60 f/4 ISO 1000

.  

Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM

This is the Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM lens. I had my eye on this lens for a very long time and now it's mine. I needed a better performing lens than the basic kit lens I have which is the Canon EF-S 18-55mm 3.5-5.6 IS. It now serves as a backup lens.

The Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM lens has a fantastic review and to be honest after only a few hours of testing, I could see the amazing quality that this lens produces and it completely performs up to the expectation.

The second image with the lady bug is actually a 56% crop from the original. This was shot at 55mm f/2.8 and clearly shows that this lens is sharp wide open.

This lens features FTM full time manual focusing and is capable of very fast and very quiet focusing thanks to the USM ultrasonic motor.

I cant say more actually since I haven't found anything wrong with it. This is a brilliant lens and I'm hoping to shoot great photos with it in the future.

Click Here for the review at the Digital Picture. 

Repaired

I got my kit lens back from Vision Camera shop in City Mall and the auto focus is repaired. The flex cable wore out and it only took the guy one day to get it done :D

Kit Lens to Macro

These shots of an Ant moving around a Mulberry Plant were taken with the Canon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Kit Lens. Some of you may or may not know that when you hold any SLR lens back-to-front against the camera mount, It shortens the minimum focus distance between your subject and lens. This means you can go much closer to the subject that you are trying to photograph. Unless you already have a macro lens then you really don't need to do this.

But for those who are on a tight budget and want to experiment with macro, then try this out [at your own risk]. Make sure you get the hang of using Manual control on your camera so that you don't underexpose or overexpose.

The problem with doing this is that you're going to risk dust flying into your lens and camera body [so be careful]. You also can't auto focus because obviously you're just holding it in front of the camera mount. The only way to focus onto your subject is to move the lens closer or further.

Which also brings about the need to shoot under bright light to be able to increase shutter speed to avoid blurring from your hand movements. That is why the second shot has a slight blur to it.

Another problem is aperture control. Unless you are using a lens with manual aperture control, you are stuck with the wide aperture of the lens. This means that your area of focus is incredibly thin and you have to be quick to press the shutter when the subject goes into focus.

Having said all that, the shots that you get will really be worth the try :D

Canon Advertisement

[original shot]

Lighting setup:
main light to the left and reflector on the right.

Just to be clear, I wasn't hired to make an ad for Canon. :P
It started out as a plain update photo for an earlier post.

But then, as ideas seemed to flow along in photoshop, I continued to add more to the photo, slowly morphing it into some sort of advertisement.
I dunno, it seemed like a fun idea to create one :)

And then I thought it looked a bit plain...
So I added a little something...

[Final Image]

I hope Canon won't mind... :D

Lens Hood

Bought a new lens hood today :) I got it for rm 50 at a shop called Investline in front of Center Point. A lens hood is a device used on the end of a lens to block the sun or other light source in order to prevent glare and lens flare. And it looks cool too ;p

I used my sister's 2.1mp Nikon Coolpix 775 to take this photo, which came out pretty good even though its quite an old camera ;p

Update: Turns out, I cant use it with my Kit Lens [Pictured Above] because the hood rotates with the front element of the lens as the lens focuses [rendering the hood useless]. So then I bought a 52mm to 58mm step up adapter so that my 50mm lens can use the hood instead :)

New Lens :D prime 50mm f/1.8

Another Sample 1/100 sec f/1.8 @ iso 400

Okay so I just got my first lens other than my kit lens and it just arrived in the mail today. Its the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 and it costs about rm299 [its the cheapest lens canon makes]. I havent got the chance to take too many photos but here's one of a chinese figurine in my living room at 1/25sec f/1.8 @ iso 100. Image quality is pretty sharp provided your hand be steady thoughout the exposure. The non-zoom aspect of the lens would mean that I could learn to take better compositions without relying on zoom and a whole new way to experiment with wide apertures :)