Canon Professional Services – Silverstone event

Soldato
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Today I was playing with some very high end Canon Gear at the CPS event at Silverstone - It was one of the best days I have ever experienced.

I started the day by testing a Canon 1DMKIIn with a 300mm F2.8 & Canon 500mm F4 and both with a 1.4x extender. It goes without saying that these are amazing lenses; the ability to isolate a subject at distance is stunning.

These are not the best photos in the world but they demonstrate the depth of field and sharpness.

500mm L IS F4
500mm-1.jpg


500mm-2.jpg



I also tested a Canon 1Ds MKII with an 85mm L F1.2 MKII and a 14mm L F2.8. These lenses combined with the full frame high resolution of the 1Ds were awesome. It took a while to get used to the 14mm on the 1Ds; it's the first time when looking through a viewfinder that I felt I'd taken 5 steps back. I would be standing directly in front of a subject but through the viewfinder it was around 3 meters away from me.
They both had bullet proof build quality and felt perfectly balanced on the 1 Series.


The super wide 14mm L F2.8 taken on a Canon 1Ds MKII

14mm-image.jpg



Photo taken on a 1Ds MKII and an 85mm F1.2 MKII, the sharpness of the eyes is stunning !

85mm-1.jpg



I wanted to test a Tilt & Shift lens and a Canon Macro flash but time ran out of time.
Take your pick from the whole Canon lens lineup.

canon-lenses.jpg



The only problem now is I really want a 1Ds and 1D MKII with a 500mm F4, 85mm F1.2 and 14mm F2.8 - Anyone got a spare £12k they want to give me :(
 
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If I could take a photo of my face right now It would show how easily a 6ft persons mouth can touch his feet!

This thread is really what you dont want to see when you want a 1 series!!!

I really am glad you enjoyed your day. Your pictures are amamzing and well im gonna cry !

Great work SDK.. Look at all those lens on the table !!
 
Soldato
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the iq of those shots looks superb, sounds like you were like a kid in a sweet shop :)

can you do a 100% crop of that girls eyes ?

they were doing a canon day at a local cam shop a few weeks ago, and i didnt have time to go, it would have been nice to play with some high end gear :(
 
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The really anoying thing for me is that I have spent the last 3 hours photographing girls for a prom party and in editing I am unpleased with the sharpness of the eyes. I was unable to fully use my catchlight techquie due to tricky situations and that stock image on the eyes is just wow factor!

Some could say a picture is worth a million pounds but I would say that shot is worth £4,500 :p
 
Soldato
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Matt said:
So, how did you go about getting to play with all those toys then?
Canon Professional Services (CPS) are holding three 1 day events in May, it's the first time they have done this type of thing but after chatting to some of the organisers today their view was it had been a success so they will schedule more in the future.
To be a CPS member you need to own 2x Pro Canon bodies (10D & 20D also qualify) and 3 Canon L lenses.
Canon posted me an invite to one of the events.
 
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Soldato
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This is a better example, it was taken under superior lighting.

Again - 100% crop, RAW, no processing.

eye-100_percent_2.jpg
 
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hoodmeister said:
All incredible, but just loving that portrait..
wow just doesn't describe it!

Irregardless of the fact I couldn't afford it, shame Nikon don't make an 85mm F/1.2 :(

85mm F1.4 still good enough! F1.2 or F1.4 I can't afford any of it :(
 
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JBuk said:
im impressed, what one item would you most like to have took home?
p.s is that your sillhouette in the iris?

Apart from the girl :p She was very hot !!
Probably the 85mm F1.2

Yup - That's me in the iris
 
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Was also lucky enough to be there too...although missed you sdk...my first time ever doing motorsports (apart from an indoor karting event i did last year)

Started off with a 1D MKII N with a 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS and a 300mm f/4L IS Prime. To be honest I wasnt too impressed. Coming from a 5D the 1 series' controls seemed very alien - all of the 2 touch button stuff. great handling camera just hard to get used to. The 100-400 also didnt give great results - although this is probably me (definately me!)

Then had a play with a 85 F1.2 IIL, and a 16-35 F2.8L, which I tried on my 5D. The 85 was awesome, the 16-35 was just average.

Then I managed to borrow the 2 flagships. The IDs MK2 and a 600mm 4.0L IS. All I can say is awesome. Nearly £11,000 worth of gear. As I say I am an absolute newcomer to motorsports so I felt well out of my depth. I have zero knowledge of techniques and composition in the motorsports arena but I had a go. I got a few tips off the other guys....its certainly a black art!

All shot below are straight from bridge, only cropped. I am staggered by the clarity. Bear in mind of most shots I would guess that I wa snearly 200M+ (see sdk's 3rd shot of the layout) away from the subjects, on top of a roof terrace. The image detail the 1Ds MK2 gives is staggering. The fact that it gives 16.7 MP shots means that cropping the image (sometimes heavily) still gives a increadibly high res output.

In the hands of someone who knows what they are doing this combo would be mindblowing!

Will do some fiddling in photoshop to clean up the images at a later date, but heres the straight jpegs for now:

VO8H6652.jpg


VO8H6711.jpg


VO8H6731.jpg


VO8H6743.jpg
 
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Soldato
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The 1D series is certainly not a camera that you can just pickup and start shooting with. It took me a while to figure the control interface. I already knew that ISO and AF mode, required two button presses but didn't realise it was the same for changing settings in the menu, deleting images and even navigating them on the LCD.

Towards the end of the day it was becoming easier but the amount of customised settings both on the camera and lenses is mind blowing.

Even the telephoto primes have settings no other lenses have
- A focus preset which can be set by a button and activated by a metal ring located at the end of the lens.
- Manual focus override buttons located on the end grip of the lens.


There is still so much to learn
 

Deleted member 11679

D

Deleted member 11679

Its good to see Canon taking care of the customers :) Glad you both had a good day and I think it just shows how much everyone still has to learn about these things.

Tom
 
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:eek:

I'd absolutely love to do something like that, but my age + lack of money means i'll not be joining the CPS any time soon :(

One non-pro body + one L glass... I'm on my way!
 
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