I just received word that the price on the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS II has been reduced significantly for a limited time by the combination of a sale price, a rebate offer, and a “4% reward” program at site sponsor B&H. These factors reduce your final cost for this $2500 list price lens to $1899 – before the “4% reward” kicks in, and that should be worth another $75+ or so.
Since this is a “hidden” deal, there are a few instructions to follow:
Add it to your cart and the price at checkout will be $2199.
A $300 cash-back rebate offer reduces your cost to $1899 – be sure to get the rebate form from the order page.
B&H offers and additional “4% reward” that you can use for other purchases at B&H.
If this is a lens that you have been considering, this might be a great time to pick one up! (Update: B&H sent me an email on the morning of Thursday, 11/14 to say that this is a limited offer and that it ends very soon… so don’t wait too long!)
(In another forum someone asked a question – actually, more like posed a challenge – related to how much usable detail and quality could be extracted from a raw file that contained areas of very low luminosity, as could happen with a badly underexposed image or with an image of a scene with a very large dynamic range. Since I went to the work of responding and illustrating my response, I figured that I might as well share it here, too. With minor revisions, here it is.)
First, I actually have a “real” version of this photograph in which highlights were slightly blown, but which I preferred to use since I could bring them back in post and get a bit more shadow detail to start with. (It looks a bit bright to me as an on-screen jpg, but it makes a fine print.) That photograph ended up looking like this:
Morning light slants over the top of sandstone cliffs above early autumn foliage in Kolob Canyon, Zion National Park
This photograph and the other I’ll move to below were both shot from a tripod with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II at ISO 100 using the Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS at f/16. While the “keeper” used for the photograph above had a 1/4 second exposure, the example I’ll use below was shot at 1/30 second.
The exposure challenge in this scene was the very large dynamic range between the bright spot of sky at the head of the canyon and the much darker colorful foliage in relatively deep shadow in the foreground. Exposing for optimal quality in the foreground would completely blow out the sky, while exposing for the sky would necessarily grossly underexpose the foreground.
I originally thought that I might like to have four bracketed exposures in case that would let me produce a better final image via layer blending, but it turned out to be unnecessary and the final image (as shown above) has a single source file with no blending. However, this means that I still happen to have one very badly underexposed (by three stops) version at 1/30 second which I’ll use here as the starting point for what I plan to illustrate in this post. Follow along with me and see what I can do with the very underexposed version of the file… Continue reading Post-Processing: A Shadow Recovery Example→
See the Deals Page for updates on the following and more:
Today is the last day to order from B&H with “guaranteed” holiday delivery via standard shipping. (You can still procrastinate a bit and pay more for expedited shipping if you want! ;-)
The special price in the Canon 5D Mark II body is still available.
I have added an updated listing of this weeks holiday specials at B&H – they include a wide range of camera bodies, lenses, and more from Canon, Nikon, and other manufacturers.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more. Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email
UPDATE: – Canon 5D Mark II bundle for $1599, and very low price on Canon Powershot S100.
Canon 5D Mark II Body for $1599.00 – (click to add to your cart to see the discount price) – bundle also includes Pearstone LP-E6 Lithium-Ion Battery Pack (7.4V 1450mAh), Vello BG-C2 Battery Grip for Canon EOS 5D Mark II, SanDisk 16GB CompactFlash Memory Card Extreme 400x UDMA. A word about this camera: I shoot the Canon EOS 5D Mark II. Although there is a newer Canon EOS 5D Mark III now, for many photographers the 5D2 will perform extremely well and at barely half the cost. Although I could upgrade to the new 5DIII, I have chosen to stick with the 5DII since it performs so well for me. If you have been waiting to get a full frame Canon camera, this may well be what you have been waiting for!
Canon S100 – $249.00 (add to cart to see this price)– this is a fine little “pocketable” camera that has a number of serious camera features. I sometimes use one for informal shooting when I don’t want to take out the full DSLR rig.
A quick note this morning about limited time discounts on four popular Canon L zooms at site-affiliate B&H – including the new 24-70mm f/2.8 L II zoom and the popular 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS and 16-35mm f/2.8 L lenses.
“In cart” means that you need to click the link and then add the item to your cart in order to see the reduced pricing.
As always, see the Deals Page for this and other recent special prices. (Please check the links for full and accurate details from B&H.)
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more. Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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