The EF135mm f/2L USM – everybody should own one!

We’ve written in the past about the brilliance of the EF135mm f/2L USM lens and how many people overlook it in favour of more ‘techy’ lenses. But to do so is a travesty. Pretty much everytime I use this lens I’m blown away by how good it is.It just seems to create images that otherwise wouldn’t be there.

I’m especially a fan of putting it on an EOS-1D Mark IV or EOS-1D Mark III – the 1.3x crop gives it a little more apparent length and the Field of View is just beautiful. You can even shoot full length portraits with it!

Shooting with a prime lens is also a good way to get you moving your feet to find images. Without the versatility of a zoom, you’re forced to move around more and find different angles. It also makes you more aware of your surroundings. This isn’t just true of the 135mm lens, but of any prime lens. If you’ve never tried shooting with a prime, you really should.

Here’s a couple of images from a recent wedding I was a guest at, and also from a World Press Photo event I photographed a while ago. All of these were taken with the EF135mm f/2L USM lens, and all on a 1.3x crop camera.

Canon Pro Photo Solutions 2011

Looking for your next fix of Canon kit to get your hands on and drool over? Then don’t fear, because Canon Pro Photo Solutions 2011 is fast approaching!

Scheduled for the 25/26th October at the Business Design Centre in Islington, London, the show is Canon’s own trade show where you get to see the complete range of Canon kit, talk to Canon staff and also look around solutions from other manufacturers that compliment the Canon system. This means that if you’re interested in cameras, printers, projectors, video, software, and accessories, there will be something there for you to get your teeth into.

As if that isn’t enough, there will be a range of talks and presentations from a wide range of professionals to help you better understand your kit and improve your results. Last year both Brian and I presented seminars, Brian covering software in one of the seminar rooms while I took the main stage to run through Canon workflow from capture to output.

To register, visit the following link and click “Register” http://www.canon.co.uk/prosolutions2011/

See you there

New lens from Canon – EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II

From out of left field, throwing a bit of a curve ball came an announcement from Canon about a new lens yesterday. Totally out of step with the usual raft of Canon announcements and not a lens that was in any way expected, the new lens is simply an update to an existing model.

The EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS lens has been one of those quiet lenses in the range. No-one shouts about it, but no-one really complains about it either. It’s not expensive, offers a good focal range and for those that don’t want to lug a lot of weight around, it does the job admirably.

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Automatic Speedlite zoom might catch you out

Several of Canon’s Speedlite’s have a great feature designed to help you get more range out of your flash, the flash head reflector changes position to tailor the beam of flash to match the lens fitted to your camera. So if you have an EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens on your EOS 5D Mark II then it will be a pretty handy thing. It’s great with other cameras and lenses, but the zoom range of the Speedlite 580EX II is from 24mm to 105mm in automatic mode. By moving the flash reflector and narrowing the beam of light it enables the flash to fire further, often handy with longer focal lengths and greater subject distances. If you like you can still manually change the zoom of the flash either from the flash or your cameras flash menu. The ‘wrinkle’ in the system is that the zoom setting changes when switching between single and multiple Speedlites operation.

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Avoiding camera shake with APS-C and APS-H cameras

A useful tip today for all you users of APS-C and APS-H sensored cameras (so the likes of EOS 7D, EOS 60D and EOS-1D Mark IV).

The rule of thumb to avoiding camera shake is to shoot at a shutter speed no slower than the reciprocal of the focal length of the lens. This means take the focal length of the lens, say 200mm, and then put a 1 over it so it looks like a fraction = 1/200. This now looks a lot like a shutter speed and gives you the steer that you should not use a shutter speed any slower than 1/200sec when hand-holding a 200mm lens that does not feature an Image Stabiliser.

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The Mk III EF Extenders: Just how good are they?

Over the last few months, I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been asked about the quality of the new Mark III Extender versions and whether they were worth the upgrade. Indeed there seems to be a) a lot of scepticism out there and b) worry that you’ll need the new lenses due for release later this year to really make the most of them.

Certainly the new Extenders are more expensive than the older versions, but having used them, the price in my mind is justified. I’d heard from a few people that have used them they were impressed, but it was only recently I really got to try them out and see for myself just what they were like.

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