MagicLight Technical

Current 35mm Equipment

Zeiss ZE 21mm f2.8 Distagon (01/2010)

Received the replacement lens from B&H. The replacement lens doesn't appear to have the same issues as the lens I purchased 11/2009.

With new lens there is a small weakness on the left hand side when shooting around f4 and shooting inside infinity focus. The extreme left side is sharper than the right when viewing at 100%. This could be sensor alignment or the lens or both. If I focus at infinity the field flattens out nicely. Tack sharp all the way across the field.

Zeiss ZE 21mm f2.8 Distagon (11/2009)

This is a lens that I had been waiting for several years. The Contax mount version had become almost legendary.

Until the recent addition of the new TS-E lens and the new 24mm f1.4 II, Canon wide angles struggled on the 21mp cameras

The new ZE version doesn't disappoint when compared to my 16-35mm f2.8 II.

The lens is sharper at all apertures and has higher contrast and is sharper all over. However my sample is slightly soft at infinity in the top left corner. By f11 the softness almost disappears.

The Zeiss has less CA at wide aperture (almost none )and performs exceptionally well wide open. I have no hesitation shooting at f2.8 with the 1DSmrk3.

At f2.8 vignetting is rather high and is more noticeable than the Canon.

Overall the look of the lens and the way it 'draws' is rather impressive. The so called 'Zeiss 3D effect' is noticeable on fine detail. Blades of grass seem to standout individually rather than looking like green mush. The resolution is so high it makes focusing difficult. Any small focus errors really stand out. And you can't just stop down to f11 and hope for the best.

The build quality is wonderful as is the silky manual focus. You need a good quality bright viewfinder to focus if you are not using live view.

I was still rather impressed with the Canon 16-35mm @ 21mm. It performed better than I thought it would against the Zeiss especially in centre field. The Canon was slightly sharper in the top left corner. Perhaps I should get the 21mm checked?

The Canon zoom suffers from field curvature even when stopped down to f11. The Zeiss does not. The Zeiss field is flatter in comparison.

After further testing I decided the left handside had a blur issue and I sent the lens back for a replacement. The rest of the field was so sharp and really made the blur obvious and annoying.

Canon EOSDS Mark III ,thoughts so far (2008)...

The 1DS Mrk III is a large step up in resolution from my 1D Mrk II. (8.5 vs 21.1 MP.) Full frame really makes a difference especially at the wide end. I must admit I was never really happy with the cropped sensor when using wide angle lenses.

The first thing I noticed was the brightness of the viewfinder. Amazing! And I only had an f4 lens on at the time.

The high resolution sensor certainly pushes all of my Canon L lenses to the limit, especially the wide angles. It would take a brave person to shoot with a Canon wide angle wide open when large prints are the aim. I tend to shoot between f5.6 and f11 to get the best image quality also to get the best results from this camera the photographer must use best practice for high res shooting.

Noise levels are similar to the 1D Mrk II. I would say perhaps ½ a stop better but certainly not worse.

The frame rate is reduced to 5 frames a second due to the large files.

Handling is much improved. Considerably better menu system. The silly two-step menu system has been thrown out and been replace with a similar, more intuitive system. I like the "My Menu", dedicated ISO button (about time) and the funny little joystick button which now can be used to select the focus point using the lastest firmware.

Mirror lockup still hasn't been given a dedicated button which is madness in my opinion, especially with a camera with this resolution. Yes, you can do the live preview mirror lockup thing but this can cook the sensor after a while.

Live preview! I tend to use it to lock up the mirror and also check the effects of neutral grad. filters. You can also stop the lens down and preview the depth of field which is rather useful. Live preview is great for checking the focus and for macro work. When zoomed in to X10 any wind vibration is immediately visable.

The AA filter definitely blurs faint detail which is annoying when viewing some images at 1:1. It appears to be more pronounced on distant landscapes where the sensor can't quite resolve the smallest details however prints appear great and this blurring isn't evident on the prints I've made so far @ A2

All in all the camera is about as good as it currently gets in the Canon range. If you want better images quality you will need to go to a MF digital back.

Canon 16-35mm f2.8L II (updated 05/09)
Nice wide angle zoom. This is the best Canon wide angle zoom lens currently available. Very little CA and very good centre sharpness. Performs satisfactorily when wide open but it ain't no Zeiss 21mm. Edge sharpness is still rather dissapointing when making A2 prints and larger.

I can focus on the edge of the field which then becomes reasonably sharp only to become soft in other areas of the image. I notice that the right top corner at infinity is sharper than the left top corner at infinity and this at f8. This seems to be a combination of field curvature and astigmatism which doesn't go away even when stopped down. Unfortunately it's not in the same league as the Nikon 14-24mm f2.8.

However I have also noticed that field of curvature is a greater problem when shooting landscapes into the far distance. I shot a steam scene recently where the entires scene was at close range and the rocks and water seemed to match the field of curvature. The stream was in the middle and rocks at the edges but closer. The total image was very sharp, including extreme edges.

Previously I owned the 17-40mm f4 which I was never happy with and in fact avoided using it in preference to the the 24-105mm f4 whenever possible. The copy I purchased appears to be below the norm judging by the good reviews the lens receives.

I am currently looking at other options for wide angles as 16-35mm is not always a great match for 21mp FF. My current options are Nikon 14-24mm with adapter, Zeiss ZE/ZF with adapter and perhaps the new Canon 14mm tilt and shift.

Canon 24-105mm f4L IS
Sharp versatile lens with good contrast. Performs better at the wide angle end of it's range. This is a better match for Canon 1D Mark II than my previous 24-70mm f2.8 L. This is the lens that "lives" on the camera and is now my main landscape lens. However on my new 1Ds Mrk III this lens quality now looks "kind of average". Still very versitile with IS and a wide focal length range. If I need to shoot 70+ I will swap to the 70-200mm if I have time.

Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS (updated 05/09)
Very sharp well performing lens. The autofocus is very fast. IS is great and especially useful when using the light Gitzo G1227 in windy conditions. The lens still performs well on the 1DS Mark III. I do now notice that it is slightly sharper at 70mm than at 200mm.

Canon 400mm f4 DO IS
Good sharpness and high resolution. The contrast is not as high as non DO lenses. Works well with the 1.4 Extender. Very compact for a 400mm f4. The minimum focus distance of 3.5m is a little disappointing. NZ bush birds seem to know this and regularly sit within this distance. e.g.Tomtits, Robins and Fantails.

Canon Extender 1.4x II
The extender is used with the 400mm f4 generally for bird photography. There is some image quality loss as one would expect. One benefit is that the minimum focus distance for the 400mm f4 remains the same.

Canon Speedlite 550EX
Used mostly for fill in flash. I prefer to use natural lighting if possible.

Gitzo G1227 Mrk2 and an Acratech Ballhead (2007)
Light portable hiking combination. A series 3 Gitzo would be more stable but then less portable. Owning both would be the ideal.
The Acratech ballhead is very light and holds the 70-200mm very steady. However the design limits the full movement of the ballhead compared to a 'normal' ballhead design.
This takes some getting use to. The ballhead is very smooth, needs no lubrication and is easy to clean.

Gitzo G3530S and Really Right Stuff BH-55 (2009)
I recently upgraded to a 3 series Gitzo after finding that the Series 2 is too unstable for my 1DS Mrklll. Live Preview showed up movement with the series 2 in light wind where as the series 3 appears more stable in the same conditions. The G3530S weight almost the same as the G1227 as it has no centre column and is constructed from x6 CF.

mount for use with the 400Combined with a RRS BH-55 is almost a perfect match. The ballhead is in low profile and is very smooth with a large ball. I opted for a L-bracket as the 1DS3 can interfer with the top of the tripod legs if you shoot vertical. You need to place the camera between the tops of the legs when you flop the camera over in a vertical position.

I use the quick release clamp as first preference and the screw clamp with the Sidekick. The Sidekick's base is too narrow for the quick release.

the The panning nob and the the main nob are on oposite sides of the ballhead which means that you need two hands to operate the ballhead system. One hand needs to leave the camera.

I have tested the G1227 and Acratech combination against G3530S and RRS BH-55 to compare vibration dampening. The test was using live preview and tapping the camera with a 70-200mm f2.8 lens.

The G3530S and RRS BH-55 were vastly superior as expected. Vibrations were minimal and stopped within a fraction on a second. The G1227 and Acratech were not in the same league. The vibrations were rather scary.

Wimberley Sidekick (2007)
Converts the Acratech Ballhead into a gimbal mount for the 400mm f4 DO. Ballheads are not the best design for heavy lenses. The Sidekick is light, portable and can be in assembled for use in 30secs.

Adobe Photoshop CS and Adobe Lightroom (2007)
Noise Ninja - Standard noise reduction plugin. I use this with images 400 ISO and above.
FocalBlade - Sharpening plugin which allows edge sharpening separate from surface sharpening.

ColorEyes monitor profiler with Xrite DTP94 (2007)
You must profile your monitor before before performing image processing.
This device is a large improvement over my previous profiler ColorVision Colorplus, especially in the blacks and grey scale. Prints from the Lab now appear very close to my monitor.

Monitor: Eizo ColorEdge CG19(2007)
LCD Calibration Monitor.

Printer: Epson 3800 (2007)
Great for fine art printing on sheet paper. Does a good job on black and white images. The paper feeding can be slightly on the tricky side when using non Epson papers.

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