J!m
Veteran and General Yakker
I'm a Canon guy (or was, when I was a photographer). Still have a Pelican case full of expensive stuff rotting...
I started out with an AE-1 Program in high school, and later got one of my own from a pawn shop. Graduated to a "New" F-1 (to avoid confusion, Canon went from F-1 to F-1n, to "new" F-1, so, the last generation of the F-1) a few years later. I think I went through eight or 10 New F-1's. I usually had two bodies in my bag, and a spare at home. The the task of finding and collecting the FD-L lenses I needed...
Anyway, later I got (and still have) an EOS-1v, which is the film body. Finally ending with the EOS-1d digital body.
My subjects were often moving (cars and trucks) and I always had to rely on available light. I was not happy to realize exactly zero of my FD-L lenses would work on the new EF Canon lens format. BUT, I came to appreciate the engineers did this to allow a larger final lens element diameter, thereby allowing more light. (Some of you may remember the EF 50:1.0L lens) Light gathering and sharpness "at the corners" is not much of a problem.
I slowly sold off my FD-L lenses and replaced them with EF-L lenses (except the fisheye).
Anyway, where was I... Oh, yeah. I always, since the film days, run about 1 stop of over-exposure, and let the camera decide on aperture (usually) in my case. I set shutter speed based on speed of my subject and security of myself holding the thing. I have a nice monopod I used on occasion (and a tripod of course, but rarely used that), but usually I was relying on whatever I could find- rocks, trees, other people (not ideal) vehicles... And bracketing every shot. the EOS does it via a setting and the shutter speed is so high (with enough light) there is no apparent change from frame one to frame three. The space of the bracketing and number of frames are both selectable I think. Pretty sure I ran + and - 1 stop all the time, so my -1 would be "correct" exposure.
All those parameters are set ahead of time, but it s a powerful tool.
Another neat one is you can lock focus on say a slow moving freight train coming up the line, and the camera will adjust focus constantly to keep the same feature you have highlighted in focus as it moves. Then you can concentrate on your composition, and trip the shutter with impunity.
Another one, which I used for a published photo, is the automatic depth of field option. Yes, I can sit down and figure it out long hand, but it's easier to focus on the furthest, and closest, item you want in focus in your composition, and then fire away. The camera will automatically set f-stop and shutter speed to keep everything between those two points in focus.
Fun toy. Magazine decided it wasn't going to pay me any longer for no apparent reason, so that ended that.
I started out with an AE-1 Program in high school, and later got one of my own from a pawn shop. Graduated to a "New" F-1 (to avoid confusion, Canon went from F-1 to F-1n, to "new" F-1, so, the last generation of the F-1) a few years later. I think I went through eight or 10 New F-1's. I usually had two bodies in my bag, and a spare at home. The the task of finding and collecting the FD-L lenses I needed...
Anyway, later I got (and still have) an EOS-1v, which is the film body. Finally ending with the EOS-1d digital body.
My subjects were often moving (cars and trucks) and I always had to rely on available light. I was not happy to realize exactly zero of my FD-L lenses would work on the new EF Canon lens format. BUT, I came to appreciate the engineers did this to allow a larger final lens element diameter, thereby allowing more light. (Some of you may remember the EF 50:1.0L lens) Light gathering and sharpness "at the corners" is not much of a problem.
I slowly sold off my FD-L lenses and replaced them with EF-L lenses (except the fisheye).
Anyway, where was I... Oh, yeah. I always, since the film days, run about 1 stop of over-exposure, and let the camera decide on aperture (usually) in my case. I set shutter speed based on speed of my subject and security of myself holding the thing. I have a nice monopod I used on occasion (and a tripod of course, but rarely used that), but usually I was relying on whatever I could find- rocks, trees, other people (not ideal) vehicles... And bracketing every shot. the EOS does it via a setting and the shutter speed is so high (with enough light) there is no apparent change from frame one to frame three. The space of the bracketing and number of frames are both selectable I think. Pretty sure I ran + and - 1 stop all the time, so my -1 would be "correct" exposure.
All those parameters are set ahead of time, but it s a powerful tool.
Another neat one is you can lock focus on say a slow moving freight train coming up the line, and the camera will adjust focus constantly to keep the same feature you have highlighted in focus as it moves. Then you can concentrate on your composition, and trip the shutter with impunity.
Another one, which I used for a published photo, is the automatic depth of field option. Yes, I can sit down and figure it out long hand, but it's easier to focus on the furthest, and closest, item you want in focus in your composition, and then fire away. The camera will automatically set f-stop and shutter speed to keep everything between those two points in focus.
Fun toy. Magazine decided it wasn't going to pay me any longer for no apparent reason, so that ended that.
