Started taking pictures at CPPS this year and wondered what lens other people where using and why?
DSLR Lens used for taking paintball
- Thread starter mcheshire
- Start date
Using a canon 5d mark II, with a 100-400mm zoom. I was wondering if any one was using wider lens and what sort of shots they were going for.
The 100 - 400mm is a versatile lens but personally I don't like the variable apperture, and it can be a bit of a dust pump, though that should be less of an issue with self cleaning sensors. It was a real pain with my old 30D, but that always seemed to be a dust magnet.
When I supplemeted mine with a 70 - 200 f2.8 that soon became my go to lens, so much so that the 100 - 400mm soon got sold. Add a 1.4x teleconverter when a bit of extra reach is needed and it covers pretty much everywhere on field. The advantage of a full frame sensor is that you can crop pretty hard when you want to.
If I'm concentrating on a tape player I might switch to the 24-105mm for the closer minimum focus distance if the sideline is tight, or my 17-40mm for wide shots, pit crew etc.
That's the basic kit, I may use a prime sometimes, the 135mm makes an excellent candid portrait, I love my 40mm pancake as a walk around and for composite images. I also have used the 8-15mm and there is a hole in my bag for that and a 300mm prime.
When I supplemeted mine with a 70 - 200 f2.8 that soon became my go to lens, so much so that the 100 - 400mm soon got sold. Add a 1.4x teleconverter when a bit of extra reach is needed and it covers pretty much everywhere on field. The advantage of a full frame sensor is that you can crop pretty hard when you want to.
If I'm concentrating on a tape player I might switch to the 24-105mm for the closer minimum focus distance if the sideline is tight, or my 17-40mm for wide shots, pit crew etc.
That's the basic kit, I may use a prime sometimes, the 135mm makes an excellent candid portrait, I love my 40mm pancake as a walk around and for composite images. I also have used the 8-15mm and there is a hole in my bag for that and a 300mm prime.
Thanks for the advice. I will have to look into getting something around the 200mm mark with bigger aperture the 100-400mm f4 tends to make me push up the ISO to get the depth of field I am looking for. The 5D mark II auto focus is a little pedestrian, I tend to get a fair few failures.
Have you tried using a polariser on brightish days the blow up features tend to overexpose for me and I was considering trying it out to get more exposure balance in the shots. Used it alot when i was taking skiing shots but then snow is a much brighter back ground.
I have a 85mm f1.4 prime that is a great portrait lens will have to give that a go. I was worried that it would be too inflexible.
Have to try a few new ideas at CPPS round 4
thanks again for the feedback.
Have you tried using a polariser on brightish days the blow up features tend to overexpose for me and I was considering trying it out to get more exposure balance in the shots. Used it alot when i was taking skiing shots but then snow is a much brighter back ground.
I have a 85mm f1.4 prime that is a great portrait lens will have to give that a go. I was worried that it would be too inflexible.
Have to try a few new ideas at CPPS round 4
thanks again for the feedback.
I do have a CPL filter, the bunkers are a real pain in the **** at times, the solution is normally to tweak the highlights and shadows in Lightroom. Most of the time I shoot in manual, picking my shutter speed and aperture settings, letting the camera choose the ISO and use an ND4 on really bright days if I want to keep a shallow depth of field. Generally I don't use filters, I have seen what a broken filter does when it goes through a front element and the negative effect on image quality is increased as the coatings errode with exposure to paint.
5D MkIII has a much improved focusing set-up, but mishaps still happen, plenty ends up on the darkroom floor.
5D MkIII has a much improved focusing set-up, but mishaps still happen, plenty ends up on the darkroom floor.
I have tended to shoot in shutter priority as i have been interested in minimising blur and then tuning the aperture with the ISO to get the depth of field I want. Interesting about the filters, I got hit on the lens recently and it didn't break the skylight filter, must have been lucky. The lens rang like a bell frightened my half to death, nearly dropped the camera lol. Heard suggestions of using 2 filters together to protect the lens but the reduction in quality and the vignetting effect puts me off.
Yes, the mark III. Going to have to do some serious saving
Yes, the mark III. Going to have to do some serious saving
This is what a 100-400mm looks like when the filter has been punched into the front element:
Even without that kind of damage, if the filter goes it is likely to leave tiny shards of glass all over the front element, which will damage the lens coatings. I used the Hoya HD filters, but they are expensive but when they get paint on them they seem to degrade quite quickly.
Even without that kind of damage, if the filter goes it is likely to leave tiny shards of glass all over the front element, which will damage the lens coatings. I used the Hoya HD filters, but they are expensive but when they get paint on them they seem to degrade quite quickly.
It went straight to Fixation UK on the Monday, parts came from Canon on the Wednesday, collected the lens on the Friday (having also bought myself a 70-200mm) and I flew out to the U.S.A on the Saturday. After the repair it was a better lens than new as it had been stripped, cleaned, lubricated and calibrated properly. Having dealt with Canon/their authorised repair network before, I cannot recommend Fixation highly enough!
http://www.fixationuk.com/
http://www.fixationuk.com/
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