Because I shoot with a Canon 5D, I was intensely interested in it’s recently announced, and soon to be available successor, the 5D Mark II.  Canon states that the image quality is better than their flagship 1Ds Mark III, which is just astounding considering the price point for the 5D Mark II is around $2,700 and the 1Ds Mark III is priced at $7,000.

Canon has added a lot of new features for the 5D Mark II, including excellent high-iso capabilities, rivaling the Nikon D3, as well as the ability to shoot 1080p High Definition video. The pixel count is also equal to the 1Ds Mark III at 21.1 megapixel.

With the higher resolution sensor, and the ability to capture up to 4 GB of video in one take, you have to take a serious look at your supporting computer system to make sure it’s ready.

Are You HD Ready

I downloaded the unedited 1080p video clips that other photographers have created with the 5D Mark II and my computers can’t play them without the video skipping.  I don’t even have a monitor that is high enough resolution to display a single full-size frame grab from the 1080p video without shrinking it down.

My hard drive system, while well suited for image editing, isn’t ready for video.  Not just in terms of the size of the files that can be generated, but also in terms of storage and playback.

Here’s my short list of upgrades needed when moving to the 5D Mark II:

• Monitor
• Graphics Card
• Larger Compact Flash Cards (UDMA)
• UDMA Compact Flash Reader
• Raid 5 Hard Drive System
• Larger Backup Drives

So, while I love to be at the forefront of new technology when I can, I’m going to be postponing an upgrade to the 5D Mark II until I can get my back end updated as well.

Digital Photography 5D Mark II, canon, dslr, upgrade

If you haven’t been to an event or function that is geared around kids recently, it’s pretty dramatic how many digital SLR’s are being carried around by mom and dad. I was at Remlinger Farm on a recent beautiful Saturday (one of the few in October) and was struck by how many black-bodied digital SLR cameras people had.

I already know that when you are dealing with taking pictures of children a D-SLR is the way to go.  The P&S market is saturated with so many models available and most consumers already own one. Now that prices on the D-SLR’s are coming down it makes more sense to move up to one.

Here is an article from PCWorld Magazine that details the current market conditions.

Benefits Of A DSLR

The benefits are many:

• Fast focusing
• Short shutter lag
• Many lenses to choose from
• Extended flash capabilities

Throwing Hay

The image to the right utilizes three of the four advantages. With fast focusing I’m not having to wait to capture the scene. With the short shutter lag I can anticipate the moment I want and press the shutter and don’t have to wait.  My lens was selected for it’s nice zoom range allowing me to not have to be in the kids face to get a decent close up (and keeps the hay out of the camera).

What About The Lens

With those benefit comes many questions, mostly around lenses. Nikon, Canon and Sony all have a huge array of lenses that can be put on their cameras. Knowing which one(s) to buy can largely be a matter of price. Since most people aren’t professionals the higher end lenses are out of reach financially (normally) and don’t make a lot of sense unless you just want the best equipment.

When I am photographing my kids I almost always use my 28-70mm zoom. It provides a nice range for being able to come in a bit closer to the subject when necessary, but still has a decent wide angle. Since my camera is a full-frame sensor Canon 5D, I don’t have to worry about the smaller imaging sensor size.

Don’t Forget The Crop Factor

Most consumer level D-SLR’s have an imaging sensor that isn’t quite the same size as a full-frame of 35mm film. This means that when using a lens made for a full-frame camera the image will be cropped. All cameras with a smaller sensor size will give you a “crop factor” or “multiplier” to give you an idea of how a lens will function. Most are in the 1.4x to 1.6x range.

If we do the math on my 28mm-70mm zoom, the low end on a 1.5x crop factor camera would be 28mm * 1.5 = 42mm. This means a 28mm lens on the camera would look like a 42mm lens. On the higher end we get 70mm * 1.5 = 105mm. This is most critical in the wider angle lenses because you don’t get the full benefit of the lens. To get an equivalent of a 28mm lens on a 1.5x crop factor camera you would have to find an 18mm lens.

Selecting the right lens, or lenses, is the most difficult part of a DSLR decision.  It pays to really figure out what kind of photographs you will be taking, and to figure out which lens is going to be the best fit.

Digital Photography 5D, canon, children, Digital Photography, dslr, kids

I guess the title says it all. We have bunnies in our backyard. And I don’t mean the proverbial backyard, I mean our fenced in backyard. The one our golden retriever calls home.

Now we have always known that bunnies come and visit us and munch on the clover in our grass. We see them quite often. Shala (the golden, pronounced with a long ‘a’) loves to chase them out of the yard, and does so frequently. Most of the time they live across the street in a small green belt.

This is different. One of the mother bunnies decided that our backyard was a good place to raise her babies. Maybe it was the week of vacation we took and lack of canine activity that lured her to our yard.

My wife did see a bunny digging in our yard before we left, and I had seen evidence of digging just outside our fence. We didn’t think much of it.

Two days ago I let Shala out back to take care of business and she walked around the side of the house. I followed thinking she was going to bark at our neighbors again and I would have to try to keep her quiet. Strangely she started pawing at the ground near our fence. When I pulled back the dead grass laying near where she was pawing I found two baby bunnies and their eyes weren’t even opened yet.

Yesterday and today the mother bunny has been hanging around the yard or just outside the fence. We see her at times sitting directly over her babies, apparently feeding them.

We have since put up a barrier so that Shala can no longer get to the part of the yard with the babies. It should be fun to watch them start hopping around, which I can only guess will be very soon. My two kids (4 and 2) want to see the bunnies every chance they can. My wife and I limit the viewings to once or maybe twice a day.

In the second picture you can just see the nose and eye of one of the babies coming out of the ground just in front of the mother. Click on the small versions to see larger images.

The picture of the mother rabbit above was taken from a second story window. I removed the screen and stuck the camera out the window. The camera was a Canon 5D with a 70-200 2.8 L IS USM with a EF 2x II extender. I set the camera to 400 ISO to keep the shutter speed at 1/25 second with the aperture at f5.6. With the Extender I lose two stops of aperture (2.8 - 5.6). The Image Stabilization (IS) helped keep the image sharp even though I was hand holding at 1/25.

The picture of the babies was with the 5D and a 24-70mm 2.8L USM at 63mm. 1/125 at f5.6. I cropped the picture to highlight the babies. I like this lens because it has macro focusing capabilities which came in handy in this case.

Digital Photography bunnies, dslr, rabbit

It’s all over the news again. Now Microsoft and Google among others are contesting copyright warnings issued by major league sports broadcasts.

I have links to articles on this and other copyright issues on the Photography News page of my website.

Fair Use

What these issues boil down to is “fair use”. What am I allowed to do with someone else’s copyrighted works? These issues come up frequently when new methods of copying movies and/or music become available. When videotapes came around the movie industry was worried that their business would crumble because people could make copies of their movies. Same worries with DVD’s and now the internet. Of course there has been, and probably always will be, some amount of bootlegging. That’s not really what these articles are talking about as the reproduction and sale for profit of other people’s copyrighted works is obviously against the law.

What if I’m not selling a copy? Can I record a TV show from my local cable broadcast? Of course I can ever since the VCR came out. Can I record that show to a DVD and play it for my kids on a car trip? I’m sure makers of DVD’s for kids would hope I don’t so they can sell me a DVD of the same program. But what if the programs aren’t available on DVD or tape for that matter? DVR’s have now given me the ability to record shows and watch them when I have time, and Slingbox gives me the ability to send those same shows to my cell phone if I want. Is that a fair use of copyrighted content?

Using Images

What can you do with one of my pictures? If you pay me to take pictures for you we will have a licensing agreement on how you can use those images. It may be very broad, or it may be very narrow. If you don’t get an agreement what does that mean? Good question and one that probably has to be handled on a case-by-case basis.

I got a question from a real estate agent about this very question. A previous real estate agent had paid for images to be taken of a property. It had been listed and then taken off the market. The original agent did not get any license agreement with the images. The new real estate agent wondered if it was OK to use the images in a new listing for the property. I referred him back to the original photographer, but without a licensing agreement it was probably OK to use the images in another listing. They aren’t reselling the images and they are being used for the same purpose they were originally purchased.

Now what if that client wanted to submit those images to a micro-stock photography agency and see if anyone would license them for money? As he is not the original copyright holder this is probably not advisable. The original photographer has the exclusive right to license or sell the images.

Money, Money, Money

I feel the line is drawn when money starts changing hands. This can get a bit tricky. With music sharing sites, no money changed hands, but each person who downloaded a copy of a song didn’t go buy it on a CD, basically keeping the recording artist from gaining revenue from his work. Now we have DRM software (Digital Rights Managment) that attempts to keep copying to a minimum.

Personally, I don’t mind if you use a copy of one of my images as a background on your computer. Using an image on a personal (non-commercial) website with a link to my website would be fine too.

Now if you start selling advertising space on your site and make money from people visiting your site, that’s a different story. You are now choosing content for your website that will bring you income. If you choose one of my images because you think it will help draw visitors and gain you revenue, then my image is valuable. You think it will attract more visitors than other images. That value should be paid for.

What Do You Think

Copyright is a huge and complicated issue for photographers, the music and movie industries, and anyone else who creates copyrighted works. What are your thoughts on the matter?

Copyright Links

Copyright Basics from the United States Copyright Office
U.S. Copyright Office

Digital Photography

My four year old son likes to take pictures.

Digital Photography backlighting, children, Digital Photography, dslr, fill flash, kids