The Old Man of Storr
converted with Capture One Pro
Horse Tail Falls, Yosemite National Park
converted with Lightroom
The Alabama Hills, Eastern Sierra
converted with Lightroom
I am currently trying to asses Capture One Pro to determine if it can replace Lightroom 6, pretty soon Lightroom will be a cloud based subscription model only and I don't want to go that route. I don't want another monthly bill and then end up with nothing to show for it if I stop. Thats where the difference is with Lightroom CC. So far I am liking what I see with Capture one Pro. It may even work better in some ways, I need a little more time with it to see if it would really work with my post flow.
Almost lost in today's announcement of the 5D Mk IV, are a redo of two of Canons L series lenses, the EF 16-35 f/2.8 L III and the EF 24-105 f/4 L IS II. The 16-35 being the more interesting lens of the two. This will be Canons third attempt at this super wide formula and I'm guessing they got it right this time.
I have been very happy with my EF 16-35 f/4 L IS, but it would be nice to have better, at twice the price? hard to justify, I will wait for a price drop. It would pair nicely with my 5D Mk IV.
The 24-105 has been the 5D kit lens for a while and an improved version will sell very well, priced at $1100, thats low for an L-series lens, this will sell by the thousands. A good starter lens for the 5D.
Interestingly the 24-105 has 10 rounded aperture blades (8 in version 1) compared to nine in the 16-35, both should supply very nice sun stars.
This will be Canons big seller for the next four years or so, I like what I see, I know a lot of people will be disappointed in the 4K video and the 30.4mp, but this will be just right for me, I wont have to upgrade my computer and cards and 30.4 mp (6720 x 4480) will make perfect 36 x 24 prints, that's what I have been looking for in my next camera. Once its out, everyone will forget the specs and start using what should be the best camera in its class. The 5DSR Mk II will bring the better sensor with 50mp in two years.
This version has regressed back to a stills camera, I am glad in a way, I'm not a video shooter, but occasional 4K video will be nice. The big one here for me is the extra dynamic range the Mk IV offers, now on par with Sony sensors, due to on chip analog to digital conversion, a big step for Canon and in the right direction. This will make bringing up shadows and doing black and white conversion a bit simpler.
Until then I will have thousands of images on the Mk IV and I'm sure I will be perfectly happy with it, I have owned all 3 previous versions. The one thing Canon does well is test their cameras, I have never had an issue with a Canon camera and Ive been using them since the EOS A2E. They are an extension of my hand now, I know the camera and once you know your camera, you can forget about it and make images. After all that's what this is all about.
5D Mk III, EF 24-70 f/2.8 L II, f/11, 1/100 sec at 44mm
Every once in a while I will go back to old images and re process them, over the years since I started using Lightroom (since V1), not only has the engine gotten better, but my technique has improved. I often find I can get a much more appealing image with a re process from an image I took maybe 2, 3 or 4 years ago.
I recently started using smoothing under color noise reduction on black and white images. I can get much smoother gradients using this functionality, this helps with on line viewing and printing to remove artifacts from processing in the sky.
RNI film presets for Adobe Lightroom and Adobe ACR - I am fond of using presets for Lightroom, I usually look at them as a good place to start. RNI has gone to a lot of trouble to create a massive database of presets that simulate various film styles, the Pro version, comes with an immense amount of presets. Fuji, Agfa, Ilford, Kodak, Polaroid, Rollei, from my old favorites in the film days.
RNI - Agford Scalia-200, plus, Vignette +5 and Slide Frame Black
5D Mk III, EF 16-35 f4 L IS, f/11 16mm and 35mm, 79 sec single exposure
I went to shoot the forbidden beach just south of Half Moon Bay for the first time and the clouds did not cooperate with me. So faced with a very boring beach shot with the Hay Stack, I thought I would try playing with zoom in a single exposure. I framed the shot at 35mm and let my camera expose for 40 sec and then zoomed all the way out to 16mm quickly to avoid shake and zoom trails and let it expose for another 39 sec, the result is the above image.
Martins Beach is in the mist of a land controversy, the land owner is denying people beach access and there is an ongoing dispute with San Mateo county, is it legal to visit this beach? the answer is currently yes, however I think this will be mired in legal BS for a while.
In the mean time I intend on returning here until I capture the image I'm interested in getting.
Today Fuji announces the very well leaked X-T2. Similarly specked to the X-Pro2. It has a uniquely moveable LCD, that will move in most directions to accommodate all kinds of angles.
Hasselblad, today announced the X1D-50c along with a new line of lenses, nice to see this finally happen, the only other camera close to this has been the Pentax 645z.
Some times using a long lens to pull detail from clouds can be more fun than shooting a landscape, these shots taken over Big Sur last year are a good example. See more here
