RSS
 

Posts Tagged ‘Experience’

Intel unveils Core i9 laptop CPU, promises ‘ultimate’ content creation experience

04 Apr

Intel just revealed its 8th Generation laptop CPUs, and sitting at the top of the heap is a behemoth. Behold the Core i9-8950HK, a chip the company is calling “the highest-performance laptop processor Intel has ever built.” Equipped with 6 cores/12 threads, this unlocked chip boasts single-core Turbo Boost speeds of up to 4.8 GHz and promises “the ultimate content creation experience.”

Of course, that’s just marketing speak, which is why Intel came to this press release armed with some benchmarks. According to the company, the 8th Generation Core i9-8950HK can edit 4K video up to 59 percent faster than a machine sporting the 7th Generation Core i7 with same discrete graphics (in Adobe Premiere Pro).

It’s also 29 percent faster in general performance, and 41 percent faster for gaming.

Of course, you don’t have to go all the way up to the Core i9 to get great photo and video editing performance out of your laptop. All of the 8th Gen Intel Core mobile processors revealed today pack some punch, with 6 cores and 12 threads available in both the 2.6GHz Core i7-8750H and 2.2GHz Core i7-8850H. According to Dell, these deliver 68 percent faster photo editing compared to a 3-year-old system.

This 8th Gen Core i9 CPU has already made an appearance in the Dell and MSI laptops revealed this week, and more high-performance and gaming laptops will surely follow suit. To learn more about the new 8th generation mobile chips, check out the full press release below or check out this product overview presentation.

Press Release

Intel Core i9 Processor Comes to Mobile: The Best Gaming and Creation Laptop Processor Intel Has Ever Built

Today at a global event in Beijing, Intel unveiled the first ever Intel® Core™ i9 processor for laptops. Part of the new lineup of high-performance mobile products unveiled, the powerful 8th Gen Intel Core i9 processor is the highest-performance laptop processor Intel has ever built to deliver the best gaming and content creation experience on the go.

Building on the arrival of the new Intel Core i9 processor for mobile, Intel also announced a new Intel Core platform extension that brings together the benefits of 8th Gen Intel Core processors with Intel® Optane™ memory, rounded out its family of high-performance desktop CPUs and chipsets that deliver modern standby and ambient computing capabilities, and shared new details on the 8th Gen Intel® Core™ vPro™ platform.

Delivering the ultimate gaming and content creation experience

The new 8th Gen Intel Core i9, i7 and i5 processors for laptops are based on the Coffee Lake platform and leverage the 14nm++ process technology enabling them to deliver up to 41 percent more frames per second in gameplay1 or edit 4K video up to 59 percent faster than the previous generation with same discrete graphics.2

At the top of the stack, the 8th Gen Intel Core i9-8950HK processor is optimized to push the limits of performance. It is the first mobile Intel processor with six cores and 12 threads. It comes fully unlocked and features the new Intel Thermal Velocity Boost (TVB), which opportunistically and automatically increases clock frequency up to 200 MHz if the processor temperature is low enough and turbo power budget is available. This translates to a turbo frequency of up to 4.8 GHz.

As the PC gaming industry rapidly grows, Intel has seen increasing demand for incredibly fast laptops that can provide desktop-like performance for an immersive and responsive experience, including the ability to stream and record without compromising gameplay while still enabling portability.

But, performance goes beyond gaming. Thanks to the rapid pace of technology innovation, the industry has broadened the access to all types of content and how people create it. It has radically redefined what creativity means, and as content has become richer and more immersive, the level of performance needed to both consume and create that content has also increased. This 8th Gen Intel Core processor family provides a powerful mobile platform for creators. In addition, the new highest-performance 8th Gen Intel Core mobile processors’ single- and multi-threaded performance allows users to enjoy the smoothest and highest-quality mobile VR and new Windows* Mixed Reality Ultra experiences.

The highest-performance 8th Gen Intel Core mobile processor family also adds a new Intel® 300 Series Chipset, which adds integrated Gigabit Wi-Fi for a blazing-fast connection that is capable of being up to 2 times faster than standard 2×2 802.11AC 80 MHz (867 Mbps).3

Intel Optane memory: now on 8th Gen Intel Core mobile and desktop platforms

Intel Optane memory is a smart and adaptable system accelerator for desktop and mobile platforms, increasing the performance and responsiveness of SATA-based storage technology without compromising storage capacity.

Now, Intel Optane memory is available across both 8th Gen Intel Core mobile and desktop platforms. Additionally, Intel has released a new Data Drive Acceleration feature that delivers a boost to a large secondary HDD data drive. This powerful combination provides up to 4.7 times the game loading4 and 1.7 times faster media loading.5 See more on Data Drive Acceleration.

Consumers will also begin to see a new platform extension with Intel Core i5+, i7+ and i9+ badges on select systems, starting with today’s high-performance 8th Gen Intel Core mobile processors and desktop processors. This indicates they are purchasing a device that has the combination of Intel Core performance with the acceleration of Intel Optane memory.

1As measured by Total War: WARHAMMER II Workload comparing 8th Gen Intel® Core™ i9-8950HK vs. 8th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-7820HK

2As measured by Adobe Premiere Pro Video Editing Workload comparing 8th Gen Intel® Core™ i9-8950HK vs. 8thGen Intel® Core™ i7-7820HK

3802.11ac 2×2 160 MHz enables 1733 Mbps maximum theoretical data rates, 2x faster than standard 802.11ac 2×2 80 MHz (867 Mbps) and nearly 12x faster than baseline 1×1 BGN (150 Mbps) Wi-Fi as documented in IEEE 802.11 wireless standard specifications, and requires the use of similarly configured 802.11ac wireless network routers or better. To achieve Gigabit wireless speeds, the network requires a wireless router/access point that supports 160 MHz channels.

4As measured by Game Level Load Workload comparing 8th Gen Intel® Core™ i7+ 8750H (32GB Intel® Optane™ memory module) + 256GB PCIe SSD + 1TB HDD vs. 8th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-8750H + 256GB PCIe SSD + 1TB HDD

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Intel unveils Core i9 laptop CPU, promises ‘ultimate’ content creation experience

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Learning to shoot video with a gimbal: a frustrating, yet highly rewarding experience

14 Feb

A new Panasonic GH-series camera always seems to mean having to learn more about video, but that also tends to mean getting experience behind a video camera. I’d like to think I’m getting better as a videographer. Hell, I even remember to record some background audio most of the time, but the GH5S review meant having to learn about a whole new piece of kit.

The GH5S’s oversized sensor means there’s little scope for any kind of sensor-shift stabilization, which means it’s best suited to shooting with external forms of stabilization*. This meant that, in addition to borrowing a nice video lens, I needed to rent (and learn to use) a gimbal.

Gimbaling around

In just a few years, external stabilization has gone from being the preserve of Hollywood movies (most famously by Steadicam) to something that can be provided by sub-$ 1000 equipment. It probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that DJI, best known as a maker of drones, also sells the technology required to mount and control aerial cameras as stand-alone stabilization rigs.

The DJI Ronin M is essentially a scaled-up version of the gimbals DJI mounts its drone cameras on. It provides a cradle that can move in all three axes, with motors to correct for (or provide) movement in each of these directions. At its most simple, it provides a platform that tries to keep the camera steady, regardless of the movements you make while holding the handles. This is both its fundamental role and the thing that makes it tricky to get used to.

The GH5S with Metabones Speedboost Ultra and Sigma 18-35mm T2.0, mounted in a DJI Ronin M: a powerful combination but one that’s not particularly easy to hold at shoulder-height for any length of time.

Initial setup is pretty easy: you connect the camera cradle to a top handle, screw some lateral arms and handles on, then clip a large rechargeable battery pack on the back. You then have to carefully adjust the position of the cradle so that the camera and lens are neutrally balanced (that way the gimbal isn’t having to constantly fight against the camera’s weight to keep the it level).

To make the most of the GH5S I borrowed a couple of nice pieces of kit: a Sigma 18-35mm T2.0 CINE lens and a Speedbooster Ultra 0.71. The problem is that this is a pretty substantial combination, something that would come back to haunt me later.

Lens choice

A Speedbooster is essentially an equivalence machine, condensing the lens’s projected light down onto a smaller sensor, shortening the focal length and lowering the F-number (since you have the same entrance pupil but with a shorter focal length lens). The upshot is that the 18-35mm T2.0 ends up giving essentially the same angle of view and depth-of-field it was designed to provide on APS-C/Super 35 format.

The result is something along the lines of a constant F1.4 lens. And, while it’s not really sensible to start mixing F and T-stops**, it quickly becomes irrelevant. Because, to shoot in daylight, the camera’s base ISO setting (320 in Log mode) meant I had to use a variable ND filter to prevent over-exposure, which meant I could use the aperture primarily to control depth-of-field, without necessarily having an impact on exposure.

Only the realization that I really can’t think in Imperial took the shine off one of my favorite lenses

Coming from a photography background it still feels somehow wrong to throw away light like this, but if your minimum ISO is 320 and you need to keep the shutter speed somewhere around 1/50th of a second, you’re going to have to do something to prevent constant overexposure. Sacrificing it to an ND filter is preferable to stopping down, since you then lose control over depth-of-field and smooth your footage with the power of diffraction.

It was a lovely combination to shoot with, though, offering a really useful zoom range, more than enough control over depth-of-field and beautifully damped controls for everything. Only the realization that this version had its distance scale in feet, and that I really can’t think in Imperial, took the shine off this version of one of my favorite lenses.

In practice

There’s a difference, of course, between knowing the theory and putting it into practice. I knew in principle what 10-bit capture should mean and I knew how a gimbal was supposed to work, but that’s not the same as seeing it out in the field. Or, in this case, in one of Seattle’s public parks.

I’d tested the gimbal the night before. Checked it was level and, via an app on my phone, configured it to move the way I wanted it to. Because while the basic function of a gimbal is to correct for the operator’s movement, the Ronin can also be configured so that a large movement of the handles is treated as an instruction to move the camera. You can configure which axes it’ll move in, how sensitive the system is to your inputs and how quickly it moves the camera in response. It’s all really clever.

It’s also a bit of a handful, at first. I quickly found myself trying to operate the focus and exposure on a camera that was constantly trying to move away from my attempts to grab it. Between this, the sheer weight of the setup and the inability to see the camera’s screen, it was incredibly difficult to make or assess any changes on the camera: a deeply frustrating experience. Then the rain we’d timed our shoot to avoid started. And then turned to hail.

1’9? So that’s, what, about 1/6th my height, plus about one and a half of those 15cm rulers we used at school? I’m not very good at thinking in Imperial measurements.

I was feeling pretty defeated. I’d shot maybe 10 seconds of footage, couldn’t work out how to operate the camera and was beginning to think I was wasting everyone’s time. The rain hammered down and I desperately cast around for a Plan B.

But you know what they say about silver linings? Mine was that the enforced rain break gave me more time to learn to handle the gimbal. In the end I developed a technique that involved powering it down, reaching for the camera with my right hand and letting the carrying frame collapse into the crook of my arms. I could then hold and operate the camera comparatively normally before finally making a grab for the carry handle with my left hand, letting the camera hang, then powering it all back up again.

The Ronin M went from nearly bringing me to tears to being one of the most fun pieces of equipment I’ve ever used

It also became apparent that some of the difficulty I was having was the result of the combined weight of the camera and lens, rather than just user error. The quick-release lever that locked the cameras fore/aft movement wasn’t tightened quite enough to withstand the weight of my setup. So as soon as I let the camera hang on the gimbal to change settings, it was slipping forwards or backwards on its plate, throwing off the balance I’d so carefully set up. Hence its refusal to then work properly afterwards.

With these problems overcome and the sun starting to strike out from behind the clouds, I found myself getting more and more confident with every shot I took. And in a matter of hours, the Ronin M went from nearly bringing me to tears to being one of the most fun pieces of equipment I’ve ever used.

Back at the computer

Even after dragging all the camera gear back up the hill from the beach, the emotional peaks and troughs weren’t complete, though. As with every other video project I’ve undertaken, there’s a moment back at the editing machine where I wished I’d done almost everything differently, if given the chance to do it again. Obviously I was missing the necessary audio for a key part of the video (again) but I also found myself wishing I’d shot using a different color mode.

The moment I applied Nick Driftwood’s LUT to my sole HLG clip, I wish I’d shot the whole thing that way

As I wrote up my review, I speculated whether it’d be better to shoot using the HDR-video-made-easy ‘Hybrid Log Gamma’ (HLG) mode, rather than the V-Log L workflow designed for professionals. I had reason to believe the simpler mode might make better use of the GH5S’s 10-bit video capability. However, the knowledge that I already had the look-up table (LUT) to convert V-Log L footage into something that more usable was enough to tip the balance in that direction, so I shot everything but the closing shot that way.

The moment I applied Nick Driftwood’s LUT (found via Google) to my solitary HLG clip, I wish I’d shot the whole thing that way. It may not prove to be the professional choice but it immediately got me closer to the end point I was hoping for.

I’m acutely aware of the risks of over-using the effect that that gimbal gives

That said, for all that I’d do the whole thing differently, I’m pretty pleased by the way the video turned out. No, my gimbal work isn’t particularly polished and there are a thousand little tweaks and changes I wish I’d made (including, as always, the need to shoot more little ‘B-roll’ clips to cut away to), but I think the results look better than my previous efforts, and that’s how learning works.

I’m also acutely aware of the risks of over-using the effect that that gimbal gives. But I’m itching to get a chance to use one again, hone my skills and bring a little bit of drifty magic to my next project. Once my shoulders have stopped aching.

*Panasonic would say I’ve got cause and effect confused. The outcome is similar though: I needed a gimbal.

**Since these same optics sold for stills use as an F1.8, you could argue that, with a 0.71x focal length reducer it ends up being an F1.3 lens. Certainly it can’t be said to be a T1.4, since the additional glass in the SpeedBooster will inevitably reduce the light transmission a smidge. But, as I say, the numbers don’t matter so much as the effect.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Learning to shoot video with a gimbal: a frustrating, yet highly rewarding experience

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Panasonic Lumix DC-G9 Shooting Experience

04 Jan

The Panasonic Lumix DC-G9 is the brand’s highest-end stills-oriented camera, sitting beside the video-oriented Lumix DC-GH5 at the top of the product lineup. The GH-series has long held a positive reputation with pro-video shooters but Panasonic hasn’t seen the likes of the GH5 resonate as well with the stills crowd. With the G9 Panasonic hopes to mimic the success the GH series has had in the video realm, and gain a greater foothold in the stills world.

There’s a good bit of crossover between the two cameras, but the G9 has some juicy offerings to whet the appetite of still photographers – specifically advanced amateurs and professionals – as well as those seeking a stills/video hybrid.

For starters, its faster than its video-centric sibling, capable of an impressive 20 fps with continuous autofocus for about 50 frames using the electronic shutter. It can also shoot at 9 fps with AF-C for 600+ frames using the mechanical shutter, which is equally as impressive.

Panasonic’s taken a page out of Olympus’ book – as other manufacturers with stabilized sensors recently have – and added a High-Resolution mode that shifts the sensor to build an 80MP file – this should be hugely appealing to still life and landscape shooters occasionally requiring resolution greater than that of a Micro Four Thirds camera.

Key Features

  • 20.3MP Live MOS sensor with no AA filter (same as GH5)
  • 3.68M-dot electronic viewfinder w/ 0.83x equivalent magnification
  • 1.04M-dot 3″ articulating touchscreen display
  • 5-axis in-body image stabilization with Dual I.S. 2 (CIPA rated 6.5 stops)
  • 20 fps burst w/continuous AF using the e-shutter (for ~50 frames)
  • 9 fps burst w/continuous AF using mechanical shutter (for 600+ frames)
  • 80MP Raw and/or JPEG files using High-Resolution mode
  • 4K/60p UHD video capture
  • Magnesium body designed to be dust/weather-sealed
  • Dual UHS-II card slots supporting new high-speed ‘V’-rated cards
  • Assortment of 4K and 6K Photo modes and in-camera focus stacking
  • USB charge and power capability
  • Top plate LCD
  • AF joystick
  • Wi-Fi + Bluetooth

Physical standouts include a top plate LCD – a true rarity in mirrorless-land – and one of the largest electronic viewfinders on a Micro Four Thirds cameras. It has an equivalent magnification of 0.83x and an eyepoint of 21mm. The G9 also features dual UHS-II card slots and can support V-rated SD cards – the industry’s fastest to date.

Don’t take these mostly-stills oriented improvements to mean the G9 is not a capable video camera, because it surely is. Like the GH5 it can shoot 4K/60p video and offers both headphone and microphone jacks, but it lacks the high bitrate options and extensive video tool set of its sibling. Dual I.S. 2 has also been improved and when using compatible lenses, the G9 offers the highest CIPA-rated level of stabilization – 6.5-stops – of any camera currently on the market. This is great news for both stills and video shooters.

Specs Compared

The Panasonic G9 has some stiff competition from similarly-priced high-end models from both Nikon and Olympus. Have a look at our comparison table below for a detailed breakdown:

MSRP $ 1700 $ 2000 $ 2000 $ 2000
Panasonic DC-G9 Panasonic DC-GH5 Olympus
OM-D E-M1 II		 Nikon D500
Sensor size Micro Four Thirds Micro Four Thirds Micro Four Thirds APS-C
Sensor Resolution 20.3MP 20.3MP 20MP 21MP
ISO sensitivity
(expanded)		 100-25600 100-25600 64 – 25600 50 – 1640000
AF system 225-point Contrast Detect AF system with DFD 225-point Contrast Detect AF system with DFD 121-point hybrid AF system 153-point Phase Detect AF system
Max frame rate w/C-AF 20 fps 9 fps 18 fps 10 fps
In-body stabilization Yes Yes Yes No
Viewfinder 3.68M-dot EVF (0.83X equiv. mag) 3.68M-dot EVF (0.76X equiv. mag)

2.36M-dot EVF (0.74x equiv. mag)

 Optical (0.67x equiv. mag)
Top plate LCD Yes No No Yes
Rear screen 1.04M-dot 3″ articulating touch-sensitive 1.62M-dot 3.2″ articulating touch-sensitive 1.04M- dot 3″ articulating touch-sensitive

2.36M-dot 3.2″, tilting touch-sensitive
Video Resolution
  • UHD/60p
  • 1080/60p
  • UHD/60p
  • 1080/60p
  • UHD/30p
  • 1080/60p
  • UHD/30p
  • 1080/60p
Mic/Headphone Yes/Yes Yes/Yes Yes/Yes Yes/Yes
Battery Life (CIPA) 400 shots 410 shots 440 shots 1240 shots
Dimensions 137 x 97 x 92mm 139 x 98 x 87mm 134 x 91 x 69mm 147 x 115 x 81mm
Weight 658g 725 g 574g 760g

The Nikon D500, Panasonic Lumix DC-GH5 and Olympus OM-D E-M1 II are all DPReview Gold award winning cameras that, at the time of testing, we felt revolutionized their respective class of camera, upping the ante for what we’ve come to expect from a flagship Micro Four Thirds or APS-C body. That’s some big competition to go up against, but the G9 seems to hold its own. In spec terms, at least.

Note: 15mm F1.7 is not included in any kit, but we wish it were.

Availability

The Panasonic Lumix DC-G9 will be available, body-only, from mid-January with an MSRP of around $ 1700.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Panasonic Lumix DC-G9 Shooting Experience

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Canon EOS M100 shooting experience and gallery

30 Oct

Washington State is known as the Evergreen State, a slogan that is emblazoned on automotive license plates from Seattle to Spokane. New York is the Empire State. Montana is Big Sky Country, and Florida is the Sunshine State.

What about Idaho? Famous Potatoes.

Seems to me there’s a lot more to Idaho than just potatoes. Processed and cropped to taste in Adobe Camera Raw using the Camera Landscape color profile. Great exposure in full automatic mode.
ISO 200 | 1/250 sec | F2.8

While on a recent road trip through Idaho, this topic of state slogans came up with a few traveling companions who happen to live in the state capital, Boise. In all fairness, it does look like there is an updated slogan. “Great Potatoes. Tasty Destinations.” Eh. Somehow, it still fails to capture any sense of the awesome beauty that I experienced on my first trip through the north-western part of the state, along the Snake River and Hells Canyon and through the Clearwater Mountains.

The primary reason for this trip was to get some more shooting time in with the Canon EOS 6D Mark II. But I also threw the new, beginner-friendly Canon EOS M100 with the 22mm F2 pancake prime into my jacket pocket for capturing some of the lighter moments on the trip.

And given just how much of a thing I have for large-sensor compact cameras with prime lenses, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that I really, really enjoyed it.

What Canon got right

Not a bad parking spot. Processed to taste in Adobe Camera Raw using the Camera Neutral profile.
ISO 100 | 1/250 sec | F5.6

The most important thing that Canon got right with this camera is that it’s just fun to use. With a good full Auto mode, and an easy switch over to Program Auto or Aperture Priority, it was easy to just yank the M100 out of my pocket, take a quick shot, and put it back in at a moment’s notice. This was especially handy on, say, the top of a mountain with failing post-sunset light.

Despite the fairly serious guts in the M100, which include Canon’s newest 24MP APS-C sensor and Digic 7 processor, the M100 doesn’t feel like too ‘serious’ a camera to use. While it sometimes seemed overkill to take out the 6D II for some photos of late-night photo editing or a trip to the pool hall, the EOS M100 just seems made for such photographic opportunities.

Image processed to taste in-camera using tuned monochrome settings, with increased sharpening and contrast – still another good exposure from full Auto mode.
ISO 6400 | 1/40 sec | F2.8

It’s also true that default sharpening and noise reduction values aren’t really our favorites on Canon’s recent cameras, but if your main purpose is getting better photos than what your cellphone can capture and then uploading to Instagram, it doesn’t seem to be too much of a problem. Speaking of cellphones, the built-in NFC on the M100 (which the older M10 also has) makes pairing with Android phones an absolute breeze.

And if you find yourself needing to tweak your images, the M100 is one of the few entry-level Canon cameras that allows for in-camera Raw processing, which is a really nice touch. It also makes it easier to find your preferred settings.

Lastly, the tilting touchscreen combines with the excellent Dual Pixel AF to make shooting from the hip a really addictive experience.

Smartphone cameras are steadily improving, but there’s no way my phone could handle this sort of thing. Processed and cropped to taste in Adobe Camera Raw.
ISO 2000 | 1/60 sec | F2

Things to consider

Of course, there’s also a couple things Canon could improve. I mean, look at this USB port. Just look at it.

What’s wrong with this picture?

First off, that’s a mini USB port, not the far more common micro USB port, so good luck finding a cable should you need to transfer over USB. The bigger issue is that the USB port included on the M100 does not support USB charging – something that’s also true of Canon’s EOS M5 and M6.

These cameras, particularly the tiny M100, practically beg to be travel cameras, at least with the pancake prime. Even if I’m traveling ultra-light, I’ll need a charger for my phone, and being able to share that between the phone and camera means one less power brick to lose. Plus, if I do lose it, a generic USB charger is damned near ubiquitous compared with something that works specifically with Canon’s LP-E12 batteries. And if you already have a bigger Canon kit with its own chargers, do you really want to carry another dedicated charger?

Besides that, I do wish that the M100 came with the M6’s screen mechanism. The fact that the screen only flips up makes shooting top-down difficult, but it’s better than a screen that doesn’t tilt at all, particularly given the M100 lacks a viewfinder. Of course, a more complex screen mechanism would likely mean a bigger physical size, so there’s no free lunch here, I suppose.

Tilt-up screens – great for low angles with pets and kids, lousy for high angles of whatever it is you might be eating. Out-of-camera JPEG in auto mode, cropped to taste.
ISO 200 | 1/250 sec | F5

Lastly, there’s no getting around the limited native lens ecosystem for Canon’s EF-M mount. Seriously, I love the 22mm F2, but it’s the only compact, fast prime they’ve released in five years. The 35mm macro option is great to have, and the 11-22mm wide-angle is of high-quality, but is it too much to ask for a native fast 50mm equivalent? Given the system’s size, packing an extra lens or two isn’t going to be too much of a stretch for people who are into photography, but there just aren’t great options out there right now.

The wrap

This Idaho roadtrip got me thinking. We did, of course, do a lot of serious photography with the Canon EOS 6D Mark II, including some portraits with Canon’s gorgeous new 85mm F1.4L IS as well as some off-road action with something called an RZR. For the more serious stuff, the 6D Mark II was far and away the better tool.

But after a full day of shooting, when I’d stumble across some nice light or a casual moment I wanted to capture, I found that having the M100 in my pocket was a godsend, especially if it was my main option while the 6D II’s batteries were charging, or files were backing up, or I simply didn’t want to carry a full-frame DSLR with me out to dinner.

The EOS M100 was great for when I wanted to unwind from using a full-frame DSLR all day, but still have the capability to snag some nice photos. Out-of-camera JPEG.
ISO 4000 | 1/60 sec | F2

For the serious photographer, the M100 doesn’t make much of a case for itself as that user’s only camera. But for someone looking for a fun second camera, or a smartphone user looking to get into more serious photography with an excellent and easy-to-use touchscreen interface (i.e. the camera’s intended audience), the EOS M100, with its updated sensor, processor and autofocus system, is definitely worth a look. And sure, it’s just another ‘entry level’ model, but kind of like Idaho and it’s ‘famous potatoes,’ you may find there’s a lot to like in the M100 when you start exploring it – or better yet, exploring with it.

Sample gallery

$ (document).ready(function() { SampleGalleryV2({“containerId”:”embeddedSampleGallery_1754041899″,”galleryId”:”1754041899″,”isEmbeddedWidget”:true,”standalone”:false,”selectedImageIndex”:0,”startInCommentsView”:false,”isMobile”:false}) });
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Canon EOS M100 shooting experience and gallery

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Olympus OM-D E-M10 III Shooting Experience

31 Aug

The Olympus OM-D E-M10 III is a 16MP Micro Four Thirds mirrorless camera. It looks like a slightly prettier version of its predecessor and the main changes are to the user interface (UI) and menus, in an aim to make the camera more accessible to relative newcomers to photography.

From a hardware point of view, it’s a fairly minor update to the Mark II but the improved ergonomics and UI all have a part to play in making the camera nicer to shoot with and in making some of its smarter features easier to get at.

Beyond the attempts to make the E-M10 III and its more specialized photographic modes easier to use, a more powerful processor brings 4K video shooting. Impressively, the camera is able to offer a combination of mechanical and digital stabilization in 4K mode (most cameras can only digitally stabilize 1080), giving uncannily smooth footage, even when moving the camera around.

Beyond this, the camera’s Auto mode has also been reworked so that it attempts to detect movement in the scene, to help it better select the right settings for shooting. Overall it’s a subtle update, but calling it the OM-D E-M10 II Mark II would be silly, even for Olympus.

Rivals and Peers

Although the E-M10 III is the entry level to the OM-D series, it’s a distinctly mid-level camera. Its profusion of direct controls make it a camera with plenty of space to grow into and, even with the work done to ease access to its full set of features, it still feels like a camera aimed at people who want to do a lot more than just point and shoot.

As such, it falls somewhere between Sony’s a5100 and a6000 models (offering the touch-screen ease-of-use of the former with the hands-on control of the latter). Its pricing also puts it squarely into competition with Canon’s EOS T7i / 700D and Nikon’s D5600. Panasonic’s GX85 is its closest Micro Four Thirds peer, and the only other 4K-capable camera in this class.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Olympus OM-D E-M10 III Shooting Experience

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Exclusive: Nikon D850 high res samples and pro shooting experience

26 Aug

$ (document).ready(function() { SampleGalleryV2({“containerId”:”embeddedSampleGallery_2188671836″,”galleryId”:”2188671836″,”isEmbeddedWidget”:true,”standalone”:false,”selectedImageIndex”:0,”startInCommentsView”:false,”isMobile”:false}) });

For the past two weeks, sports photographer Andrew Hancock has been shooting with a pre-production model of the Nikon D850, putting it through its paces to see if there was anything Nikon’s new DSLR couldn’t do. Lucky for us, he and Nikon agreed to share some of his sample images with DPReview exclusively, as well answer a few shooting experience questions about the D850.

Our short phone interview with Andrew has been edited for clarity.

How many generations of Nikon DSLRs have you used?

I actually switched over in 2010. The first Nikon I owned was the D3, which at the time for me was absolutely remarkable camera.

I had one D3, two D3s’s and a D3x to start me off. Since then I’ve owned most of the DSLRs Nikon has released. I have one D800 left (I used to have multiple, but this the one my only cover for Time was shot with it, so I’ve kept it on the shelf), three D810s which, surprisingly, see more action than anything else in my kit, two D5, one D500, one D750, one D4s, two D4’s, and a D300s converted to infrared.

What features of a DSLR do you use/value the most?

I love shooting athletes in motion, so it’s really portrait work at its core. It’s why I love the D810: the files that camera produces are so fantastic. So resolution is really important for me more-so than framerate, even when shooting sports.

When I do basketball, for example, I usually have strobes up in the catwalk and so you’re limited to one frame at a time. As important as 12fps is with the D5 (and I do use it regularly), even then I find my best pictures are the first or second frame in any sequence because that’s my initial reaction.

12-14fps is great, but I rarely ever pick any of the later frames. The D5 for me is killer for remote camera use (horseracing, basketball using available light, etc.) but the D850 was the perfect marriage of everything I needed. It’s hands down the most versatile camera I’ve ever handled. When I had the conference call with Nikon and they introduced it to me, telling me the specs, it was everything I had been hoping for and then some. When I had it in my hand for the first time, all those expectations were met… and when I saw the first RAW files, they were blown away.

What was your wishlist for a D810 replacement?

I was hoping to be in the range close to 50MP, which they did, and as far as frames per second I would have been happy with 6, so having 7 and the option of 9 with the grip was phenomenal.

More important than fps for me was going to be ISO performance though. I do so much work behind the scenes with teams and athletes, where you’re working with only available light. Having that high ISO performance I’m used to with the D5, I really wanted to see a camera that performed closer to that, definitely better than the D810. D850 definitely hit the mark.

Doing some testing in an alley with a bodybuilder, we shot portraits at ISO 5000 and they held up! It was really eye opening to see what we could do with that camera, and how well it was reading light and processing it. Every time I would try to push the camera to its limits, it kind of pushed me back. It’s a really fun situation to be in because up to this point in my career, I’ve made a habit of pushing my gear (cameras, lenses, lights) to their limits; this camera changed the equation for me because instead of me pushing it, the camera was pushing me.

We spent 2 weeks running around like crazy shooting whatever we wanted and having a blast.

What are the most significant upgrades in the D850 compared to previous Nikon DSLRs that you’ve used?

The things I was really impressed with (and wasn’t expecting) was the AF improvements for this compared to the D810. It’s dramatic. The fact that it could hold AF at 7-9fps… this camera is going to perform for you in any situation.

One of the most challenging situation I shoot is swimmers coming at me in butterfly. Since they’re constantly coming up and out of the water, it can be a real challenge for an AF system like you see on the D810. By comparison, the D850 performs incredibly well. In the past, the best focus was coming out of the flagship pro body; the D850 gets me that same system but at a pretty crazy price point.

Honestly, it’s tough to put into words. I was surprised by the frame rate they were able to get. And incredibly impressed by the high ISO performance. I was very happy to see the MP range they put it at. Every time I would look at a file I thought might be challenging, I came back with “wow.” It passed with flying colors. It was never, “it kind of let us down” here or there.

Is the D850’s AF performance on par with the D5? What’s your experience comparing the D850 to the Nikon flagship?

I’d put it on par. The D5 still has an edge, especially with how fast it can shoot, but I say that with the caveat that I haven’t used the D850 with the battery grip. So even shooting without the grip, it’s on par. I would have no reservations having it in my hand shooting a football or basketball game.

The real trade off between the two cameras is ISO. With the D5 you are going to be better at high ISOs because that’s what that camera was built for—you’ll sacrifice a little bit of that performance for the extra resolution. But that’s a sacrifice that I’m personally wiling to make. The D810 has been my workhorse for years, and now the D850 will be.

I think people are going to be really impressed by the dynamic range, the tonal range, the clarity… everything.

What kind of photographers do you think will most appreciate the D850/find it most useful?

I’m not really sure. I don’t think you can put this thing in just one segment because it’s kind of like a decathlete: itcan do anything. This is a camera that can perform well in any situation you put it in. From a sports perspective, I’ll use it like crazy without any reservations.

I’m most known for my sports work, but I shoot a lot of photojournalism and in that genre you have to be able to shoot and cover anything—from food photography, to landscape and portraiture. This camera can handle it all. I don’t see, like you do with some other bodies, that this is “geared” more towards this or that. This is geared towards photography.

You look for the weaknesses when you’re testing it, but with the experience I’ve had so far I have yet to find what application or genre it’s going to struggle with. It just keeps performing.

And that holds for the colleagues I’ve talked to who have used it. They all have great things to say about it. Photographers by nature complain about “X Y and Z “ on occasion and occasionally a lot, complaining about what we don’t have. But it’s hard to find something this camera doesn’t have, at least for me.

I put the D850 in as many situation as I could put it in and it performed… the real question is what can’t it do.

Is there anything you still want to see improved / added?

Not as far as performance, no, and I haven’t even shot with a grip yet. One of my favorite older bodies is the D3x, and I think having a camera with this kind of resolution in that package would be intriguing, but at the same time I like having a little more weight off my shoulders.

They’ve improved the ergonomics, it’s got a deeper grip which I really like, the new viewfinder is fantastic—there’s not a lot to complain about. Again, it would be interesting to see it in a full size body like the D5, but it’s not really necessary… I mean, there’s a reason why I’ve preordered three of these.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Exclusive: Nikon D850 high res samples and pro shooting experience

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Canon EOS Rebel SL2 / EOS 200D Shooting Experience

10 Aug

<lead image>

The EOS Rebel SL2 (known as the EOS 200D outside of North America) is Canon’s second-generation ultra-compact digital SLR. The SL2 is largely packed with Canon’s latest tech, including Dual Pixel AF, a DIGIC 7 processor, Wi-Fi with NFC and Bluetooth, and a new user interface for beginners.

While its small size may lead one to believe that it’s an entry-level model, similar to Nikon’s D3400, the SL2 actually sits above the bottom-end Rebel T6 (EOS 1300D), which costs $ 150 less.

The SL2’s main competitor is the aforementioned Nikon D3400, which is just a tad larger and heavier. The SL2s’ other peers are all mirrorless and include (in our opinion) the Canon EOS M5, Panasonic DMC-GX85 and the Sony a6000 which, after 3+ years on the market, is still competitive.

Key Features

  • 24.2MP APS-C CMOS sensor
  • Dual Pixel autofocus (for live view and video)
  • 9-point autofocus (through the viewfinder)
  • DIGIC 7 processor
  • 3″ fully articulating touchscreen LCD
  • 5 fps burst shooting
  • 1080/60p video
  • External mic input
  • Wi-Fi with NFC and Bluetooth
  • Available ‘Feature Assistant’ user interface

Just about everything in that list is Canon’s latest and greatest, and the external microphone input is a nice extra. The one feature that’s not new is the 9-point autofocus system that you’ll use when shooting through the viewfinder – it’s identical to what’s found the original SL1, which is over four years old. You’ll get a much better focusing experience by shooting in live view, which uses Canon’s excellent Dual Pixel AF technology.

Compared to…

Now let’s take a look at how the specs compare between the the SL2 and the peers mentioned a few paragraphs earlier.

Canon SL2 Nikon D3400 Canon M5 Panasonic GX85 Sony a6000
Resolution 24MP 24MP 24MP 16MP 24MP
Sensor size APS-C APS-C APS-C Four Thirds APS-C
Lens mount EF F EF-M Micro 4/3 E
Image stab. Lens-based Lens-based Lens-based In-camera Lens-based
AF system (live view) Dual Pixel Contrast-detect Hybrid
(Dual Pixel)		 Contrast-detect Hybrid
AF system (viewfinder) 9-point 11-point N/A N/A N/A
LCD 3″ fully articulating 3″ fixed 3.2″ tilting 3″ tilting 3″ tilting
Touchscreen Yes No Yes Yes No
Viewfinder type/mag. OVF / 0.54x OVF / 0.57x EVF / N/A EVF / 0.7x EVF / 0.7x
# control dials 1 1 2 2 2
Video 1080/60p 1080/60p 1080/60p UHD 4K/30p 1080/60p
Wireless1 Wi-Fi + NFC + BT BT Wi-Fi + NFC + BT Wi-Fi + NFC Wi-Fi + NFC
Battery life2 650 (OVF)
260 (LV)		 1200 (OVF)
N/A (LV)		 295 (LV) 290 (LV) 360 (LV)
Dimensions (mm) 122x93x70 124x98x76 116x89x61 122x71x44 120x67x45
Weight 453 g 445 g 427 g 426 g 344 g

Strictly comparing the SL2 and D3400 you’ll see that they each have their own strengths and weaknesses. While there are ‘little things’ like the type of LCD, viewfinder size and wireless functionality, live view autofocus is the main differentiator. It’s simply no contest there, with the SL2’s AF system blowing away the D3400 in live view and movie mode.

With the exception of the Sony a6000, the SL2 is close in weight, and not far of in size, to the three mirrorless cameras in the group. All three of the mirrorless cameras have an additional control dial, making exposure adjustment quick, and their EVFs are larger than the optical viewfinders on both dSLRs. None of the mirrorless models can compare to the DSLRs in terms of battery life, but only when you’re using the latter with their optical viewfinder.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Canon EOS Rebel SL2 / EOS 200D Shooting Experience

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Panasonic Leica DG 15mm F1.7 shooting experience

22 Jul
The Panasonic Leica DG 15mm F1.7 is a sharp-looking lens that also happens to be very sharp optically as well.

Whenever I see a lens with the name ‘Leica’ stamped on the front, I assume two things; first, it will be at least ‘good’ optically. Second, it will be a little pricey. The Panasonic Leica DG 15mm F1.7 reinforces both of those assumptions.

This 15mm F1.7 prime lens is for the Micro Four Thirds system and offers a unique 30mm-equivalent field of view. This made it especially exciting to me, as I’m a fan of both the 28mm and 35mm focal lengths, but I can never really decide which I like better – so maybe something in the middle will be just right.

This is the only 30mm-equivalent focal length prime lens on the market today, and that makes it pretty special.

It features a dedicated aperture ring, and is very compact despite offering nine elements in seven groups – with three of those elements being aspherical. It has seven aperture blades, and the diameter of the lens barrel is among the smallest available for the m43 system, meaning it matches particularly well with Panasonic’s (discontinued, sadly) GM1 and GM5 ultra-compact cameras.

The diminutive Panasonic Leica 15mm F1.7 pairs magnificently with Panasonic’s equally diminutive, though discontinued GM5.

And compactness is something I value pretty highly when it comes to camera gear, despite having a general affinity for full-frame sensors. After all, a smaller kit means I’ll bring it along more often and take more pictures, and I do find that the Micro Four Thirds system comes with an excellent balance of portability, speed, features and image quality.

This lens launched at an MSRP of around $ 600, but it’s been on the market long enough that it’s quite likely you’ll get a better deal than that, especially if you’re buying used.

On the camera and in the hand

The build quality of the 15mm F1.7 is nothing short of superb. It feels dense without being heavy, and it offers that pleasant coolness-to-the-touch that indicates mostly metal construction. There’s a ring on the front of the lens that detaches to allow the use of an optional bayonet-mount hood.

Here’s all the controls you get: an AF/MF switch, aperture control, and a nicely damped manual focus ring.

Handling is fairly straightforward. There’s an aperture control ring near the front of the lens, which offers great ‘click feel’ when you change your settings. Unfortunately, it’s only functional when the lens is mounted on one of Panasonic’s Micro Four Thirds cameras, so you’ll need to use a command dial for aperture if you put it on an Olympus, for example. The AF / MF switch takes a good amount of effort to move, so you won’t likely bump it accidentally, and the manual focus ring is exceedingly smooth and well-damped.

While the build quality of the lens inspires some confidence, be aware that Panasonic makes no claims of weather sealing, and there are no signs of any either; not even a rubber gasket around the mount.

Time to start shooting

The Panasonic Leica 15mm F1.7 focused fast enough to grab a sharp shot of this adorable and potentially vicious creature. Processed to taste in Adobe Camera Raw.
Olympus PEN-F | ISO 2000 | 1/80 sec | F1.7

This lens is fast; not only in terms of maximum aperture, but in operation. All recent Panasonic lenses have been designed to support the company’s Depth-from-Defocus (DFD) technology, which results in the use of very lightweight and very fast-moving autofocus elements.

This lens is fantastic for environmental portraits and casual documentary photography.

You’ll still get good autofocus speeds on Olympus m43 cameras, but when you mount the 15mm F1.7 on any current Panasonic camera, the autofocus speeds are downright impressive under just about any lighting conditions (this contributed to my getting a huge number of keepers of furry and feathered critters over my weeks of shooting).

‘Please don’t bark at the other dogs. Please don’t bark at the other dogs. Please just sit there and be cute.’
Olympus PEN-F | ISO 200 | 1/80 sec | F1.7

Having shot many 28mm-equivalent and 35mm-equivalent lenses, I found the 30mm-equivalent focal length of the 15mm F1.7 was comfortable for me to use. I tend to find shooting 28mm a little more challenging than 35mm; I end up getting a little closer to my subjects to exaggerate perspective with the former, and I tend to layer compositional elements more with the latter. With this Panasonic, I was doing a bit of both, and I liked it.

But let’s move on to image quality; as I mentioned earlier, with that name stamped on the front of the lens, I had some high hopes for the 15mm F1.7, and I wasn’t disappointed.

The quality of blur, both in the foreground and background, was something I really enjoyed about the 15mm F1.7. And quality of blur is obviously of tantamount importance when shooting portraits of chickens. Processed to taste in Adobe Camera Raw.
Panasonic GX85 | ISO 200 | 1/125 sec | F1.7

With the Micro Four Thirds sensor size, this lens isn’t going to be an absolute bokeh machine at F1.7 – but that’s not the point. If you want to obliterate your backgrounds into blurry swaths of color, well, you’ll probably want both a longer lens and a larger sensor, and so this isn’t quite the setup for you. That said, I found the quality of the blur that you can get with this lens to be pleasing on both sides of the focal plane.

The Panasonic 15mm F1.7 is just plain fun.

You can shoot this lens close to wide open all the time and still find your images are sharp enough, with enough of your scene in focus to provide some context. It’s a fantastic option for environmental portraiture and casual documentary photography, where its small size will let you blend in a little more and keep your subjects from being too intimidated.

Processed to taste in Adobe Camera Raw. Panasonic Lumix GX85 | ISO 200 | 1/500 sec | F4

Stopping the lens down a bit gets you great sharpness across the frame, though for landscape photography enthusiasts, you may find the sunstars to be slightly lacking. I’ve also found some occasional weirdness with the flare this lens produces, but it didn’t happen often enough to be a major concern.

Sunstars look decent, but at F11 (F22 equiv) this is a little further stopped-down than I usually like to go on Micro Four Thirds. Funky flare. It’s a unique look I didn’t mind too much, but it won’t be to everyone’s personal taste.

Wrapping up

The Panasonic Leica 15mm F1.7 is a lens I can wholeheartedly recommend to just about anyone with the requisite cash. It may not be weather-sealed, but the build quality is still excellent, and the straightforward handling and lightning autofocus both do their parts to keep your kit from getting in the way of your photography. It’s also just plain fun to use.

Most importantly, this is (so far as I can find) the only 30mm-equivalent focal length prime lens on the market today,* and that makes it pretty special. For ‘walk around’ purposes, this lens slots right in the middle of my go-to focal lengths of 28mm and 35mm, and just feels right. If you enjoy this focal length range on the Micro Four Thirds system, the Panasonic 15mm F1.7 is definitely worth a look.

It may be a little pricey for some folks, but as a carry-everywhere walk-around lens, I found the Panasonic Leica 15mm F1.7 hard to beat. Processed to taste in Adobe Camera Raw.
Olympus PEN-F | ISO 200 | 1/1250 sec | F1.7

* There is, of course, the Pentax 31mm F1.8 Limited, but 31mm isn’t 30mm. That said, I definitely want to give the 31mm a go on the Pentax K-1.

Additional sample images

We’ve updated our earlier sample gallery with more images from the Panasonic Leica DG 15mm F1.7. Please do not reproduce any of these images on a website or any newsletter / magazine without prior permission (see our copyright page). We make the originals available for private users to download to their own machines for personal examination or printing (in conjunction with this review), we do so in good faith, please don’t abuse it.

Panasonic GX85 | ISO 1000 | 1/125 sec | F1.7

$ (document).ready(function() { SampleGalleryGridV2({“galleryId”:”2391036114″,”isMobile”:false}) })

Panasonic Lumix G Leica 15mm F1.7 sample gallery

55 images • Posted on Jun 23, 2017 • View album
Sample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photo

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Panasonic Leica DG 15mm F1.7 shooting experience

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Nokia is teaming up with Zeiss to deliver the “ultimate imaging experience”

10 Jul

Nokia’s 808 and Lumia 1020 are still regarded by some as the best camera smartphones ever made. The devices’ outstanding image quality was the result of a collaboration between the Finnish handset-maker and lens manufacturer Carl Zeiss. But things have changed a lot since the 808 was launched in 2012, and HMD Global now has the exclusive rights to Nokia’s brand name.

Fortunately, it seems we are going to see Nokia smartphones with a Zeiss badge once again in the near future.

HMD Global and Zeiss have announced a partnership to deliver the “ultimate imaging experience possible on a smartphone” and set “new imaging standards within the smartphone industry.”

“Collaborating with ZEISS is an important part of our commitment to always deliver the very best experience for our customers,” says Arto Nummela, CEO of HMD Global. “Our fans want more than a great smartphone camera, they want a complete imaging experience that doesn’t just set the standard but redefines it. Our fans expect it and, together with ZEISS, we’re delivering it—co-developed imaging excellence for all.”

This year HMD Global has already launched the Nokia 3, Nokia 5, and Nokia 6 smartphones, which are aimed at the entry-level and mid-range segments of the market—we have not seen a high-end model yet.

It appears the Zeiss lenses and imaging technologies will be reserved for the upcoming Nokia 9 flagship. If the rumors are true, we should see a 13MP dual-camera in the 9.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Nokia is teaming up with Zeiss to deliver the “ultimate imaging experience”

Posted in Uncategorized

 

The same but different: Canon EOS 6D Mark II shooting experience

29 Jun
Spot the difference: on the outside, the Canon EOS 6D Mark II looks a lot like its predecessor, but it’s a considerably more powerful camera.

The Canon EOS 6D is something of an oddity in digital camera terms, having been in continuous production for almost five years. But finally, the time has come for an update to one of Canon’s most popular models, and it has arrived in the shape of the EOS 6D Mark II.

Unusually for a new Canon product, we had the chance earlier this month to use a late pre-production EOS 6D Mark II ahead of its official announcement. What follows is a first take on how the camera performs, based on a two-day shooting excursion, organized by Canon, to the Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.

Detail is rendered well by the 6D Mark II’s new 26MP sensor, and Raw files sharpen up nicely.

EF 24-70mm F2.8 II | 1/400 sec | F8 | ISO 100

The first thing that struck me about the EOS 6D Mark II is how similar it feels to the original 6D. Ergonomically, Canon really hasn’t changed the basic recipe much. When the two cameras are compared side by side, it’s pretty hard to tell them apart from a moderate distance and even in use, there are more similarities between the models than there are differences.

Key specifications:

  • 26.2MP full-frame Dual Pixel CMOS sensor
  • 45-point PDAF autofocus system (all cross-type)
  • Dual Pixel live view / movie AF (80% coverage vertical / horizontal)
  • 7560-pixel RGB+IR metering sensor
  • ISO 100-40,000 (expandable between ISO 50-102,400)
  • 6.5fps continuous shooting
  • 1.04 million dot, 3″ fully-articulating touchscreen
  • 1080/60p video
  • Built in Wifi + NFC and GPS

The major operational difference is also the most obvious. The 6D Mark II’s rear LCD is fully articulating, and touch-sensitive, in line with recent Canon DSLRs like the EOS 80D. In fact, the 6D Mark II handles a lot like a slightly up-sized 80D in general. It also shares a lot of the same technology, in particular the same 45-point PDAF system and Dual Pixel autofocus in live view and movie modes.

The 6D Mark II handles a lot like a slightly up-sized EOS 80D

As such, for 80D users looking to make the jump into full-frame, the 6D Mark II would be a very sensible upgrade – aside from the lack of a built-in flash on the 6D, there’s virtually no learning curve.

From behind, you can see that the 6D Mark II offers almost exactly the same control layout as the original 6D. There’s no dedicated AF joystick, but the rear 8-way controller can be configured for direct control over AF point positioning via a custom function.

The 6D Mark II incorporates a latest-generation Digic 7 processor, which enables an impressively fast continuous shooting rate of 6.5 fps. I haven’t had a chance to shoot any action with the 6D II yet, but even during extended shooting of bracketed Raw images it didn’t keep me waiting. Canon claims a burst depth of 25 Raw + JPEG Fine shots at 6.5fps with a fast UHS-I card and this seems accurate, based on my experience.

The downside of adopting the 80D’s PDAF autofocus system is obvious when you put your eye to the viewfinder

The 6D Mark II’s viewfinder experience is pleasant, thanks to a magnification of 0.71x and 98% coverage vertically and laterally. Sub-100% viewfinder coverage is just one of several differentiators that Canon uses to distinguish its non-professional models (a single card slot being another) but the loss of that 2% is unlikely to cause any problems in normal photography.

Autofocus response in one-shot mode is fast and positive, but the downside of adopting the 80D’s PDAF autofocus system is obvious when you put your eye to the viewfinder. Because it is inherited from a cropped-sensor camera, the AF array occupies a comparatively small, central area of the 6D II’s frame. The relative lack of lateral AF coverage means that the 6D Mark II won’t be particularly versatile when it comes to off-center compositions or tracking, but to be quite honest, I suspect that most potential buyers won’t care.

If you really need super-accurate AF tracking from a Canon DSLR, you’ll need to save up for an EOS-1D X Mark II. But based on our experience of the closely-related 80D, the 6D II’s 45-point cross-type AF system, coupled with the 7560-pixel RGB+IR metering sensor is likely to be more than adequate for everyday shooting of mostly static subjects.

A handheld shot at the long end of Canon’s latest 100-400mm telezoom, straight out of the camera. At ISO 1250, some noise is visible, but it’s not problematic.

EF 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 II | 1/320 sec | F5.6 | ISO 1250

By contrast (no pun intended), autofocus in live view and movie modes is peerless, thanks to Canon’s Dual Pixel AF system. With 80% vertical and lateral coverage, and the option to set focus point by touch, the 6D II arguably offers better autofocus with the mirror locked up than it does in conventional viewfinder shooting mode.

Video: No 4K, and nothing flashy.

I didn’t shoot much video in Yellowstone (certainly nothing good enough to include in this article) but the 6D Mark II’s video mode is essentially the same as other recent non-professional Canon DSLRs. That means 1080/60p with a familiar, standard feature set. No 4K, and nothing flashy. Sorry, videographers – the 6D Mark II isn’t the low-cost 4K B-camera you might have been hoping for.

Some people will be largely ambivalent about this. After all, this isn’t 2009 anymore and following the arrival of Sony’s a7-series there are plenty of other options out there for enthusiast videographers that want to shoot 4K video with Canon EF lenses. It’s a shame though, because an affordable 4K-capable camera with Dual Pixel AF really would be a wonderful thing. Maybe one day…

At any rate, I have no doubt that several video-dedicated sites are typing furious blog posts about it even as we speak.

Despite the unexciting video specification, Dual Pixel AF does makes the 6D Mark II a very simple, relatively versatile movie-shooting camera, and certainly an enjoyable one, especially for casual hand-held shooting.

A big difference compared to the original 6D is the Mark II’s articulating screen. This is great for tripod-mounted shooting, and for grabbing low-angle stills. It’s useful in video mode, too, where setting focus by touch is especially handy. The 6D Mark II’s Dual Pixel AF system in live view and video is excellent.

Even for stills, the articulating touch-sensitive LCD is extremely handy. The majority of my dawn and dusk shooting in Yellowstone was conducted with the 6D Mark II on a tripod, in live view mode with exposure simulation turned on. Compared to a fixed screen, the 6D II’s articulating LCD is a lot more useful, as well as being a lot more comfortable to use from waist height. And while some people will always make the case for tilting, as opposed to side-articulating displays, I came to really appreciate the ability to pop the screen out for vertical compositions, too.

A tripod-mounted shot, taken at as long an exposure as I could manage without an ND filter. This image was composed vertically, in live view mode. Although the 6D Mark II doesn’t offer focus peaking, the magnification feature in live view mode provides a detailed enough on-screen image for accurate manual focus.

EF 24-70mm F2.8 II | 0.3 sec | F14 | ISO 100

Canon’s live view implementation is pretty mature at this point, and features like a real-time histogram, and powerful magnification for accurate manual focus are very useful. I wish the electronic horizon could be overlaid on the live view display, but it’s not hard to work around. I also wish the 6D Mark II offered focus peaking, but in practice the 10X magnified live view display offered enough contrast for accurate focus, even in pre-dawn light. And of course Dual Pixel AF is so good that there’s less need for manual focus anyway.

I don’t know what this insect is (perhaps a reader could tell me?)* but I think it enjoyed the 6D Mark II’s flip-out screen as much as I did.

The 1.04 million dot LCD features an anti-smudge coating, but not an anti-reflective coating. As such, dirt and fingerprints clean off the screen very easily, but I did find myself increasing screen brightness for live view work in bright conditions.

* UPDATE: A reader tells me that this is a Salmon Fly (Pteronarcys dorsata). That was quick!

While I wasn’t able to perform any controlled testing, the 6D Mark II’s newly developed 26MP sensor appears to deliver excellent results across its native ISO sensitivity span. In good light, at low / medium ISO sensitivities, images look exactly as I’d expect from a modern Canon DSLR. I don’t really care for Canon’s default JPEG rendition, which tends towards rather mushy detail at a pixel level, but the colors are great and there’s a lot of detail in Raw files.

Because of the current lack of 3rd-party Raw support (and to honor a request from Canon) my workflow up to now has been to perform a basic tonal conversion in Canon’s bundled DPP software, before outputting files as 16-bit TIFFs to Photoshop for sharpening. While I’d probably never find myself shooting in the ‘Landscape’ Picture Style except by accident, I did find that applying (and then modifying) this profile in DPP gave pleasantly bright, vibrant images of the Yellowstone springs.

The 6D Mark II is dust and weather-sealed (but only with a lens attached). This view shows the remote control port, to the lower right of the lens mount, covered with a rubber cap.

You’ll find plenty of images in our samples gallery, but I’m reserving judgement on exactly how well the files from the 6D Mark II compare to competitive cameras until we’ve received robust ACR support. According to Canon representatives, the 6D Mark II should outperform the original 6D (which it very evidently does) but may not offer the same kind of dynamic range and absolute resolution of the EOS 5D Mark IV.

When shadow areas are lifted by a couple of stops, there’s no obvious banding, but noise becomes prominent

I had the opportunity to accidentally run a kind of halfway test on the 6D Mark II’s shadow dynamic range when shooting bracketed images of a dawn eruption from Old Faithful, heavily backlit by the rising sun. When shadow areas are lifted by a couple of stops, there’s no obvious banding, but noise becomes prominent, suggesting that the 6D Mark II’s sensor probably isn’t ISO-invariant. This isn’t a surprise, but watch this space for confirmation from our lab testing once we receive a shipping sample.

This shot was deliberately exposed for the highlighted vapor cloud of Old Faithful’s eruption, lit from behind by the rising sun. I adjusted the exposure in Canon’s DPP software to recover midtones and shadows.

EF 24-70mm F2.8 II | 1/400 sec | F11 | ISO 100

Something that prospective 6D upgraders should be aware of is that the increase in resolution from 20MP to 26MP will show up flaws in cheaper lenses. I was mostly shooting with Canon’s excellent 16-35mm F4L and 24-70mm F2.8L II on the trip, both of which deliver very good edge-to-edge sharpness, but images from the cheaper 24-105mm F4L II don’t look great towards the edges. That said, I am probably more inclined towards pixel-peeping than the average 6D II buyer will be (certainly more than they should be) and at normal viewing distances, even a stickler like me wouldn’t know the difference.

In summary

Every new generation of cameras brings performance improvements, and after almost five years, it’s no surprise that the 6D Mark II is a considerably more powerful camera than its predecessor. It’s fast, very responsive, impressively easy to use, and offers a good balance of user-friendly ergonomics and customization options (28 in all), which should appeal to its intended user base.

Another tripod-mounted shot, taken at sunset. Although I rarely shoot in anything other than default JPEG Picture Style, I found that applying the Landscape style to Raw files in DPP and then modifying the tones gave a good starting point for sunrise and sunset shots.

EF 16-35mm F4 | 1/5 sec | F16 | ISO 100

Like the original 6D, the 6D Mark II is a solid, predictable, easy to use camera that appears to be capable of excellent image quality. It’s pretty compact, but impressively well built, too, including some degree of weather-sealing. As usual, we don’t know exactly what that means, but I can tell you that during the Yellowstone trip, my 6D II shrugged off a fairly good soaking in an unexpected downpour without any ill-effects.

The 6D Mark II makes an excellent lower-cost alternative for someone considering an EOS 5D Mark IV

The 6D II is unlikely to to be able to rival competitors like the venerable Nikon D750 when it comes to autofocus performance and Raw dynamic range, and I wish there was a dedicated AF positioning joystick, but for a lot of photographers these will count as minor complaints.

On the face of it then, the 6D Mark II makes an excellent lower-cost alternative for someone considering an EOS 5D Mark IV, and a sensible upgrade for 80D users looking to move up to full-frame.

Canon EOS 6D Mark II Samples (pre-production)

$ (document).ready(function() { SampleGalleryV2({“containerId”:”embeddedSampleGallery_1238315273″,”galleryId”:”1238315273″,”isEmbeddedWidget”:true,”standalone”:false,”selectedImageIndex”:0,”startInCommentsView”:false,”isMobile”:false}) });

Please note that the samples in this gallery were shot with a pre-production camera. As such, image quality may not be representative of final shipping cameras (although it is likely to be extremely close), and at Canon’s request, Raw files are not available for download.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on The same but different: Canon EOS 6D Mark II shooting experience

Posted in Uncategorized

 
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »