Tag Archives: lens

Deals and Sales

Canon, Nikon, Sony Deals Ending

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Since this is timely, I’m interrupting the “usual stuff” on the blog to share…

Site sponsor B&H reports that a number of Canon, Nikon, and Sony promotion/rebate offers are ending*… and that they will not be extended. There are also rumors floating about that Canon is going to try to return to enforcing MAP (minimum advertised pricing) on their photography equipment in April, and that this could make it more difficult to find bargains for a while.

*IMPORTANT: The B&H website will NOT accept orders between Friday March 28 at 7:15 PM EDT and Saturday, March 19 at 8:45PM EDT. For many of you, this may make TODAY the final day to order!

Follow these links for full details.

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.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Deals and Sales

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II – Special Pricing

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Right now B&H has a special that can get you the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II zoom lens for a total cost of only $1799. According to B&H there are a few steps you need to follow in order to get the special pricing:

  1. On the B&H website, to go the page for this lens. You will see a higher “MAP” price.
  2. Add the lens to your cart to see a lower $1999 price.
  3. After purchase, use the $200 mail-in rebate (form available here) to bring your total cost down to $1799.

The lens is also eligible for free shipping and a “2% reward” from B&H.

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II Lens

I’ve been using this lens during the past year for everything from landscape photography to photographing musicians and rehearsals and concerts, and I’m very happy with it.

Note: I made a mistake in the initial post of this offer and included the letters “IS” in the name of the lens. I have corrected the mistake—this is NOT an image-stabilized (IS) lens!

© Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

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

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Deals and Sales, Equipment

Canon 6D DSLR and 24-105mm Lens Bundle Deal

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I just got an email from B&H Photo about a special bundle pricing on the Canon EOS 6D DSLR bundled with the EF 24-105mm f/4L IS lens – $500 off at $1999. (The initial price on the landing page will appear to be $2499—the discounted price appears after you add the product to your shopping cart.)

The 6D is Canon’s excellent full frame DSLR which produces photographic quality essentially equivalent to that of the more expensive 5DIII. The 24-105mmm f/4L IS lens (which I own) is a fine and versatile lens for a wide range of types of photography. The combination is the core of a fine system for many photographers. If you have been considering moving the the full-frame 6D, this sounds like a great deal.

By the way, a few years back I wrote that it would not be all that long before high quality full frame DSLRs would be available in the price range of what were then the high end crop sensor bodies – like today’s 7D. Well, considering what the list price is of this lens alone, we are now there and more!

Canon 6D DSLR with Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS
Canon 6D DSLR with Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS

(Purchasing via the affiliate link in this post—and by using similar links elsewhere on this blog—helps support the website… and won’t change your purchase price at all. Thanks!)

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

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Technique

Camera Stability and Long Lenses

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I responded to a question somewhere else and thought that it might be useful to share the response here, too. A photographer asked some questions about using long focal length telephoto lenses for landscape photography and how to deal with the issue of camera/lens stability, bringing up related questions about things like live view modes, mirror lockup, image-stabilization, and so forth. Here is what I wrote in response…

Rocky Creek Bridge, Surf and Fog
Black and white photograph of Rocky Creek Bridge with winter storm surf and fog. Big Sur coastline, California.

If you are shooting landscapes from the tripod…

  • Do use live view – it is the mode that introduces the least amount of shutter vibration.
  • Either mode 1 or 2 will perform essentially equally well when it comes to shutter vibration. (In both cases, there really isn’t any shutter motion vibration before the exposure since it is initiated electronically.
  • If you use a remote release (and you do, right?!) then there is no reason to use any delay setting on the camera to avoid vibration. (Many cameras have settings for 2 second or 10 second delays – mostly there so you can run and get in the photo, too!)
  • Mirror lockup is irrelevant in live view. The mirror is up by default in live view.  To be even more explicit, live view and MLU are mutually exclusive modes – they cannot be used at the same time.
  • After touching the camera, moving the tripod, etc., wait a few seconds for vibrations to dissipate before making your exposure. I  think that 2-3 seconds is sufficient, though some folks will claim that even longer might help.
  • Speaking of this, I would tend to avoid using either auto-focus (AF) mode when making landscape photographs with such a long lens. Either can introduce some amount of vibration to the system, but especially the mode that momentarily flips the mirror down, auto-focuses in the usual manner, then flips the mirror up to make the shot in live view. I prefer to manually focus at 10x magnification. If you must autofocus, do so before switching to live view mode, and then turn AF off before making the exposure.
  • Realize that the large area of these big lenses, combined with their very long focal lengths and great magnification, make the system far more susceptible to vibration from air movement. Even relatively weak breezes can create enough vibration to create a bit of blur and soften the image. Continue reading Camera Stability and Long Lenses →