Category Archives: Photography

Mirror slap in the 5D revisited

Canon 5D

The Custom setting on the mode dial fixes things

In my little experiment to determine the seriousness of mirror slap-induced blur, I concluded that locking up the mirror before taking long exposures on a tripod made sense. Sharpness was improved – not something that would make any diffference for regular prints or web images, but clearly an improvement with big prints.

At the same time I grumbled about the difficulty of finding the right setting on the LCD panel on the rear of the 5D when it came to actually locking up the mirror, a problem compounded by the poor visibility of the LCD screen outdoors. Well, until someone comes up with a neat software fix to reprogram the little used ‘Print’ button on the back of the camera to lock up the mirror, here’s the next best thing.

Set up your camera for your preferred mode of use, go the the LCD screen and set the mirror to lock-up on the first pressure on the shutter release, using Custom Function 12. Now set the mode dial to ‘C’ (the dial to the left of the prism atop the body), go back to the LCD screen and click on ‘Register Camera Settings’. In this way, anytime you set the mode dial to ‘C’ you will have mirror lock-up available.

In my case, the preferred settings are Aperture Priority (meaning I set the camera up with the Mode Dial at ‘Av’), ISO at 250, center area average metering and the RAW file format.

So next time the camera goes on a tripod I will simply move the mode dial to ‘C’ and off we go.


The 5D’s Mode Dial set to ‘C’

Mirror slap in the Canon 5D

Canon 5D

Does it matter

Hot on the tail of yesterday’s gripping piece extolling the virtues of camera supports, whether monopods or tripods, it ocurred to me to make one more experiment to see if the slapping rise of the mirror in the 5D has any effects at longer shutter speeds. To magnify things further, I placed the 200mm f/2.8 Canon L lens on the camera and mounted the latter on my super sturdy Linhop S168 tripod. You can see the cantilever braces between the legs and center column here – note the latter is retracted for maximum stability.

My mechanics professor would be pleased with those cantilevers and I, as a photographer, think it’s the only way to make a tripod sturdy without excessive weight. He used to lecture extensively on Euler struts and how light and strong could live together with proper design – someone at Linhof was listening. Leonhard Euler, who died in 1783, got it right first time around and his math is taught to all budding mechanical and civil engineers to this day.

I chose a different picture in the book, just for fun, as no benefit accrues from using the same one. To take human shake out of the equation I released the shutter using Canon’s plug-in and wildly overpriced RS-80N3 wired remote control. Cable Release to you and me.

All pictures of the target were processed in Aperture.

I once more used 1/8th at f/5.6; 1/8th is very slow (like 1/2 second with a 50mm lens) but not so slow that any vibration from mirror slap becomes too low a percentage of the exposure time, if you get my drift. In other words, any camera vibration will be a significant component of the total exposure time.

Here’s the full frame snap – once focus was set I switched to manual focus to prevent any changes:

The enlargement ratio in the following snaps would yield a 40″ x 27″ print. No sharpening has been added.

Here’s the result with normal mirror operation:

While the difference is not great, the picture taken with mirror lock-up is a tad sharper – look at the contrast of the lettering.

And here’s the one with the mirror locked up using Custom Function #12 in the Canon’s menu system:

By the way, the anti-aliasing of the image in the 5D dictates that sharpening be used for best results. In the following rendition of the ‘no mirror’ snap, above, I have used Aperture’s Edge Sharpen with the variables for Intensity/Edges/Falloff at 0.70/0.22/0.57 – slightly more modest than the defaults of 0.81/0.22/0.69 suggested by Apple’s settings. As you can see, the absence of grain (at ISO 160, as before) and high resolution from the superb Canon 200mm lens makes 40″ prints from the 5D a piece of cake. You are looking at a JPG conversion from Aperture. In reality, a print from the RAW file will be sharper with no artifacts.

Maybe a ‘Medium Format is Dead’ piece is required to go along with ‘Black and White is Dead’ and ‘Film is Dead’?

Now Canon, when the 5D Mark II is released, can you please assign the mirror lock-up feature to a mechanical button, the sort humans like, rather than to a blasted choice in the myriad selection of Custom Functions on that silly little LCD screen? The fact that the latter is unreadable by landscape photographers outdoors does little to help, in addition to the insane complexity of actually finding the function.

Shake a Leg

Technique

The monopod wins for cost-benefit every time

A recent discussion with a friend somehow made its way around to monopods.

“My dear chap”, quoth I, “the single greatest bargain in the photographic world is the Manfrotto/Bogen Monopod. $30 and it’s yours.”

My buddy, a technical sort, felt it necessary to check my ramblings, and came up with this on the estimable B&H web site:

OK, so the price has gone up since I bought mine 15 years ago (a modest annual inflation rate of 2.3%), but the device remains unchanged. It has only three sections, cam locks and a screw top head. You provide the ball and socket head of your choice. It always rides in the trunk of my car, outfitted with a Leitz head and a Manfrotto QR plate – the easier it is to use the more likely it is to be used. If the cam locks loosen, as happened with mine, a metric socket and a few seconds of work allows the lock nuts to be snugged up and function restored.

So does it make a difference?

Nothing like an academic test. Here’s the target I used – a charming book titled “Cakes and Ale – The Golden Age of English Feasting”; just the thing for one who denies the bad reputation of English cooking and likes nothing so much as a good Shepherd’s Pie. Or Fish and Chips.

To make things fair I used manual exposure – ISO 160 resulted in 1/8th (good for blur!) at f/5.6 (good for definition). The lens was a non-IS 50mm Canon EF f/1.4, which I know to be superb. In each case – hand held, monopod, tripod – I took three snaps.

The enlargement is 15.8x, meaning a (rounded) 120″ x 80″ (yes, you read that right) print from a 1″ x 1.5″ original.

Here’s an enlargement of the hand held one, best of three:

Not so good, and really not usable.

Here’s the best of three on the monopod:

A whole lot better – marginaly usable in an 18″ x 24″ big print – one sixth the size of what you see here for the full frame.

Now here’s the tripod version – any one of three is the same:

So I learned a couple of lessons from this quick experiment:

  • A monopod makes a huge difference (though I already knew that)
  • A tripod – a really good one with a braced column – is the only way to go (I got my dream Linhof 20 years ago)
  • You can’t hold a 50mm lens steady at 1/8 second
  • Taking three pictures with a monopod rather than one makes a significant difference to your chances of success – the best was way better than the worst. Now that was a real surprise.

The tripod used was a braced center column, alloy Linhof model from the 1970s going by the moniker of S168 (the maximum height, column retracted, in centimetres, or 5′ 6″). I used a Novoflex magic ball head with a Manfrotto QR plate and released the shutter by hand. Delayed action, mirror lock-up and a cable release would all likely help matters.

Those lusting after a Canon 5D should note the absence of grain above ….

And here’s what that Manfrotto monopod delivers in the real world:


Hearst Castle from one mile away, Canon 5D, Leitz Telyt 400 mm, Manfrotto 3016 monopod and QR plate, Leitz B&S head

Go where the money is

Software

Economics 101 and Photoshop CS3

Well, the glowing reviews are coming in from the big magazines extolling the genius of Photoshop CS3.

So, what are you going to do? Trash your biggest advertiser? I don’t think so.

Heads up, class, for Dr. Pindelski’s Three Rules of Economics:

  • All control drives up price
  • A fool and his money are easily parted
  • When wondering about decision making, always go where the money is

I have been using Photoshop CS3 in beta form for some four months now so let me write in clear, unconflicted language.

This remains the hardest to use, worst user interface, clunkiest photography software available. Rather than improve on previous versions it just gets worse. The menu structure is so poorly organized we now have new options like “Show all menu items” in drop down lists of umpteen selections! Just try to find something basic like Image->Contrast/Brightness without this option.

Increasingly, real world photographers – those who prefer to take pictures rather than process them – are adopting user friendly products like Aperture and Lightroom. For the average person who does not need a zillion variables applied to his snaps, CS3 is simply God’s way of telling you that you have too much money, time or both.