BTW, someone locally is offering me good trade, as far as dollar amount, for his Canon 28-300mm F/3.5-5.6L lens. What's the word on this zoom? I know it's very heavy and has relatively slow aperture, but I figure I could sell it if it's too much..

Keep in mind that thing will have equivalent fov of 45-480mm on your T2i, so it's not all that wide on the wide end which means you'll need to carry another lens if you want something wider. But damn, that thing is heavy (looked up the weight).

It's an all-in-wonder lens, which means it's full of optical compromises. It's also a push-pull zoom, which most people hate. Make sure you try it out before you commit to anything. My one experience with it left me more annoyed than anything else. It has a tension ring to keep the lens from telescoping out when the camera is pointing down. I could find no "right" amount of tension and ended up having to constantly adjust it. It was a major pain in the ass. YMMV.

It's by far the worst L glass that Canon makes.

Got a package from Amazon with some photo related gear.

I picked up a Sanyo eneloop rechargeable battery kit after reading all the raves. These are seriously good batteries for the flash. Recycle is so much faster than with standard batteries.

Got this funky Lensalign tool. Not a lot of description of how to do anything but the most basic MA calibration. I am not sure what all the other graphics, outside of the numeric scale, are even for.

Used it to test the 85 and the 70-200. The Canon needed nothing on any of the bodies but the 85 needed a bit on the 7D.

After calibrating, tested the Micro Adjusted lens on the new weird lens I picked up. I had the Bower/Samyang/Rokinon 85 for a bit and thought it was a really nicely built MF lens for the price. I picked up the 14 to try out as a landscape lens as I have seen some fantastic shots taken with this relatively cheap lens.

Sanyo Eneloop rocks. Speaking of which, I need to get more.

I had the Bower/Samyang/Rokinon 85 for a bit and thought it was a really nicely built MF lens for the price. I picked up the 14 to try out as a landscape lens as I have seen some fantastic shots taken with this relatively cheap lens.

I look forward to your Rokinon 14mm shots. Do you plan to use software for the well-known distortions?

I shoot with Tokina 11-16mm, which is a great wide-angle, but I do find I dislike the too-obvious wide-angleness of many shots, esp internal architectural, at the widest focal lengths. In fact I pretty much stay 15-16mm even on my 1.6x body..

I am trying to find a lens correction profile for Lightroom but the only thing I have found is all in German and I am not sure what to do with it.

Tried MF on a distant object at night. Not very easy.

Argh, I wish I had a spare $600 lying around right now.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=GT3541LS&N=0

Edited January 20, 201115 yr by Salt Peanuts

I would recommend if you do find the 600 dollars under a couch cushion that you get another brand's head as I really do not like my Gitzo head. The legs are excellent.

I've found 3 quarters thus far under my couch cushions. Only $599.25 to go.

Maybe a little bit closer to this one.

Gitzo

I look forward to your Rokinon 14mm shots. Do you plan to use software for the well-known distortions?

I shoot with Tokina 11-16mm, which is a great wide-angle, but I do find I dislike the too-obvious wide-angleness of many shots, esp internal architectural, at the widest focal lengths. In fact I pretty much stay 15-16mm even on my 1.6x body..

Shooting much wider than 28mm equivalent really becomes about contrasting a strong foreground element within its' environment. Too much flat ground or water in the foreground, and you get a dull looking shot that usually ends up being cropped tighter anyway. Composing with an ultra-wide lens is definitely a challenge, I find that restraint and only using really short focal lengths when called for is the key. As much as I love what the 14-24 Nikkor can do, I don't force myself to use it when I know the scene is better suited to something less wide (which is most of the time).

Tried MF on a distant object at night. Not very easy.

Shouldn't it just be set it at infinity and forget it, for such a short focal length, and objects so far away?

Argh, I wish I had a spare $600 lying around right now.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=GT3541LS&N=0

Look into Benro/Induro or Velbon for tripod legs, and Photoclam for a ballhead if Gitzo and RRS give you sticker shock.

I do most of my tripod shots with a Bogen I inherited from my father. It's probably older than I am.

Shouldn't it just be set it at infinity and forget it, for such a short focal length, and objects so far away?

It should be but the scoop on the lens seems to be that in many cases setting it for 1-2 meters accomplishes better infinity focus than setting it to infinity so I spent a lot of time trying to find that sweet spot and gave up before I got it. Set to Infinity I could see in magnified live view that focus was off. If it wasn't such a cheap lens, reportedly capable of proving outstanding results, I would not have bothered but it will be fun to try to figure out I guess.

Here's the lens profile:

http://www.photo-worx.de/privat/

Thanks. I actually ended up downloading PTLens and it works perfectly.

Took a pair of UWA with me to work today. Not all that useful as a lens type but they can be fun.

15mm fisheye?

The bottom two are the fisheye. You would think the top one was, but it is the Rokinon. Certainly not distortion free.

Edited January 21, 201115 yr by VPI

I was going to ask you about the first one since the EXIF shows 50mm as its focal length.

Edited January 21, 201115 yr by Salt Peanuts

That is because the lens no speakee to the camera.

Ah, that makes sense. I really gotta go out and use my 10-22 more, or shoot more in general for that matter - damn busy months (and friggin' blizzards).

Edited January 21, 201115 yr by Salt Peanuts

I just received the Canon 35mm F/1.4L, and unfortunately it's already 8 PM. I have read about 35L's problems shooting into harsh lighting, but there's some terrible reflections (see the purple/blue brights spots in the middle of the frame) and horrible purple fringing, which was so bad unless I "defocused," which is why the rest of the buildings are not sharply-focused.

The purple/bright reflections are the first time I've seen that with ANY lens, except when cheap UV filter, etc was attached to the front at night. The front glass of the the 35L basically is a flat, thin glass element similar to a filter, actually! I sure hope this lens lives up to the hype in the daytime

Edited January 21, 201115 yr by Jon L