C&P Random Thread -
#5481
That could be a curse, I love my wife, but I enjoy photography because it gets me, my me time, and time with friends.
#5482
Senior Moderator
Thread Starter
I wonder what version they are talking about - I have a 'newer' one, I am not sure when it was released but the way to tell is - their new models no longer have what used to be the Sigma-hallmark matte-type finish. The new ones are a 'regular' looking black metal.
#5483
Senior Moderator
Thread Starter
also - I was stunned by how sharp this lens was at 1.4 -
here are a couple examples at f/1.4:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/delobbo...n/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/delobbo...n/photostream/
here is one at f/14:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/delobbo...n/photostream/
all with the 5Dc
here are a couple examples at f/1.4:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/delobbo...n/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/delobbo...n/photostream/
here is one at f/14:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/delobbo...n/photostream/
all with the 5Dc
#5484
Senior Moderator
iTrader: (1)
Re: Sigma 50 1.4
this is a tough lens to use - for me at least - I have noticed focusing issues - I am not sure whether it's something I'm doing wrong or the lens - more importantly though - it's much sharper than the Canon 50 1.4 I had. That lens only started to get usably sharp around 2.2 or so. Anything wider than that and I'd have to sharpen the hell out of it to get any semblance of sharpness (which was kind of ridiculous).
I've got some shots with the Sigma that are on the high end of the work I've done, quality-wise. And that says a lot to me, about this lens. I would have to say that despite it's learning curve and possible focusing issues, it was a worthwhile investment. And, I'd have to recommend it over the Canon 50 1.4
Also - regarding build quality - there is no comparison - the Sigma blows away the Canon. the Canon feels like a toy compared to the Sigma. I do think it is worth the price difference.
this is a tough lens to use - for me at least - I have noticed focusing issues - I am not sure whether it's something I'm doing wrong or the lens - more importantly though - it's much sharper than the Canon 50 1.4 I had. That lens only started to get usably sharp around 2.2 or so. Anything wider than that and I'd have to sharpen the hell out of it to get any semblance of sharpness (which was kind of ridiculous).
I've got some shots with the Sigma that are on the high end of the work I've done, quality-wise. And that says a lot to me, about this lens. I would have to say that despite it's learning curve and possible focusing issues, it was a worthwhile investment. And, I'd have to recommend it over the Canon 50 1.4
Also - regarding build quality - there is no comparison - the Sigma blows away the Canon. the Canon feels like a toy compared to the Sigma. I do think it is worth the price difference.
#5485
I shoot people
What about micro adjustments?
#5486
Senior Moderator
Thread Starter
#5487
all work and no play
They are hit and miss, and resell sucks because it's a thrid party lens. Just read the blog about the new 35 1.4 Sigma on borrowlenses or lensrental about them stepping it up.
That could be a curse, I love my wife, but I enjoy photography because it gets me, my me time, and time with friends.
That could be a curse, I love my wife, but I enjoy photography because it gets me, my me time, and time with friends.
As for the wife, I always shoot by myself....so if she gets into this, it could actually get me some me time with her, which I seldom get.
It could help with my lack of motivation to get out and shoot too
#5489
Senior Moderator
Thread Starter
oh.
#5490
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#5492
I shoot people
as for lenses with issues... from what I've read... It happens, 3rd party or not... But yes, I have also heard that Sigma has had QC issues in the past... not sure about now.
Last edited by is300eater; 11-26-2012 at 11:41 PM.
#5493
Senior Moderator
Thread Starter
ok so basically, avoid Sigma.
glad I didn't get that memo, I would have missed out on some really good shots.
glad I didn't get that memo, I would have missed out on some really good shots.
#5494
I shoot people
But I LOVE my Sigma 50mm f1.4 and 85mm f1.4
no focusing issues with them at all (other than the incompatible issue with the 85mm)
no focusing issues with them at all (other than the incompatible issue with the 85mm)
#5495
Senior Moderator
Thread Starter
so what exactly are we arriving at here?
#5496
I shoot people
IMO... it's one of those things that if enough people say so... therefore, it is. People tend to remember reading about the negative things more than the positives.
I currently have 5 Sigma lenses, and I'm fairly happy with them... The 70-200mm f2.8 HSM does have some issues, but then again... I dropped that lens once. It was kinda ugly... I think I mentioned it once here in this thread.
I currently have 5 Sigma lenses, and I'm fairly happy with them... The 70-200mm f2.8 HSM does have some issues, but then again... I dropped that lens once. It was kinda ugly... I think I mentioned it once here in this thread.
#5498
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#5499
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Thread Starter
another friend had a glance at the RX1 discussion on my FB page..... now I think he is getting one too.
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is300eater (11-27-2012)
#5500
#5501
Senior Moderator
Thread Starter
it's a question I make sure to ask and clarify... RX1
#5502
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So you said "he is getting one too".
Too as in you just got one?
Too as in you just got one?
#5503
Senior Moderator
Thread Starter
#5504
Senior Moderator
Thread Starter
btw I feel like clarifying, I don't post about any of this kind of stuff to impress anyone, I post about it because it's interesting.
#5506
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Glad to see I wasn't the only One
#5507
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Mizouse (11-27-2012)
#5509
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#5510
Senior Moderator
Thread Starter
Flickr EXPLORE tips - Explore isn't everything but I still thought this was curious to read and think about.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ironrodart/6144091654/
Flickr EXPLORE and how to get Explored on Flickr
Explore is Flickr's way of showcasing the most interesting photos within a given point in time -- usually over a 24 hour period.
Flickr receives about 6,000 uploads every minute -- That's about 8.6 million photos a day! From this huge group of images, the Flickr Interestingness algorithm chooses only 500 images to showcase for each 24-hour period. That's only one image in every 17,000!
How to find out if your photo was Explored by Flickr: Big Huge Labs has a web-based app for that, called "Scout": bighugelabs.com/scout.php
How to get explored on Flickr: Flickr says, "There are lots of elements that make something 'interesting' (or not) on Flickr. Where the clickthroughs are coming from; who comments on it and when; who marks it as a favorite; its tags and many more things which are constantly changing. Interestingness changes over time, as more and more fantastic content and stories are added to Flickr."
The flickr group, Secrets of Explore has discussions on what are the measurements of Flickr's "interestingness". They have also included a link to Flickr's Patent Application that explains how Explore chooses images (if you want to be totally bored and confused ;o) .
Fellow Flickrite, Thomas Hawk, has several suggestions from his Digital Connection blog about gaining popularity on Flickr (much of which applies to Interestingness): "1) Take great pictures. ...quality does matter. If you want people to look at your stuff, make your stuff worth looking at. 2) You get one shot a day...that matters. Choose it wisely. Make sure that the last shot you upload is your best. ...If you upload more than 5 at a time make sure your last five are your best and your last one is the best of the best. 3) Despite the top secretness formula of interestingness, it is really not that complicated to understand in broad terms. Your photos are deemed interesting when they have activity. When people tag your photos, comment on your photos, view your photos, leave notes on your photos, and especially when they favorite your photos you increase your interestingness rank. 4) Fav lots of photos. Be very liberal with your favs. ...If you see a photo you like on Flickr, fav it. Don’t be shy. It’s as easy as clicking on the little star above someone’s photo. Favs mean more to other Flickr users than comments or tags or notes or anything. 5) Post your photo to lots of groups and participate ...Don’t spam the groups, but if you have a photo of a bridge, put it in the bridge group. 7) Tag your photos religiously. Flickr allows users to search by tags (and especially to then rank their search by interestingness). 8) Above all, have fun on Flickr. Never take it too seriously." [Note: Numbers used are mine, not Thomas'.]
From the Good 'ish Explore Missed group comes this quick advice:
1. Choose your uploads wisely. Uploading 5 images a day won't help that 1 amazing shot.
2. Tags! Tag your images and let search do it's thing! SEO sucks!
3. Don't put your image in more than 5 groups, the more groups you are in, the less chance your photo will be explored. [Make note that Thomas Hawk's advice of posting to "lots" of groups is more about gaining "popularity" on Flickr and not about getting Explored.]
4. Love people in hopes that they will return the favor and love you back. Generosity is key.
[Most of this mirrors what Hawk has said, but in fewer words. They just forgot the most important ingredient: Take great photos!]
Explore Don'ts:
1. Do not re-post your image over and over again on the same day (moving it up in time so that more of your contacts will see it and comment on it). It's okay to delete an image and re-post it the same day, or to take an old image and re-post it under a new title, to see if you think you can develop more interest in that image. What Interestingness will ban you on is using the Actions > View EXIF info > edit "Posted to Flickr" time to re-post your image on Flickr to the current time in order to have it reappear to your Contact over and over again throughout the day. This is a form of spamming. I do this occasionally on old photos that I want to revive (if I think it never received the exposure it deserved), but don't do on new photos or Interestingness will ban you.
2. Do not place your photos in the groups that force you to comment on images within the group, i.e. the "Post 1, Comment on 5 - or get banned" groups. Groups like 1-2-3 are okay because they ask you to make three comments for every image you post, but they do not require you to make those comments.
3. Do not post your photo to more than five (5) groups. This has already been mentioned, but it is a good idea to post your image in at least two or three groups for Interestingness sake. BTW, posting to a few more than five groups will not completely ban you from Explore, but it will lower your Interestingness score. I often increase my number of groups after the image is no longer eligible for Explore, because placing the photo with the right group (look for group names using keywords that describe your image) can often increase it's search engine rankings.
Above image adapted from 'Stars, Milky Way, Jackson Lake, Grand Teton NP'.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ironrodart/6144091654/
Flickr EXPLORE and how to get Explored on Flickr
Explore is Flickr's way of showcasing the most interesting photos within a given point in time -- usually over a 24 hour period.
Flickr receives about 6,000 uploads every minute -- That's about 8.6 million photos a day! From this huge group of images, the Flickr Interestingness algorithm chooses only 500 images to showcase for each 24-hour period. That's only one image in every 17,000!
How to find out if your photo was Explored by Flickr: Big Huge Labs has a web-based app for that, called "Scout": bighugelabs.com/scout.php
How to get explored on Flickr: Flickr says, "There are lots of elements that make something 'interesting' (or not) on Flickr. Where the clickthroughs are coming from; who comments on it and when; who marks it as a favorite; its tags and many more things which are constantly changing. Interestingness changes over time, as more and more fantastic content and stories are added to Flickr."
The flickr group, Secrets of Explore has discussions on what are the measurements of Flickr's "interestingness". They have also included a link to Flickr's Patent Application that explains how Explore chooses images (if you want to be totally bored and confused ;o) .
Fellow Flickrite, Thomas Hawk, has several suggestions from his Digital Connection blog about gaining popularity on Flickr (much of which applies to Interestingness): "1) Take great pictures. ...quality does matter. If you want people to look at your stuff, make your stuff worth looking at. 2) You get one shot a day...that matters. Choose it wisely. Make sure that the last shot you upload is your best. ...If you upload more than 5 at a time make sure your last five are your best and your last one is the best of the best. 3) Despite the top secretness formula of interestingness, it is really not that complicated to understand in broad terms. Your photos are deemed interesting when they have activity. When people tag your photos, comment on your photos, view your photos, leave notes on your photos, and especially when they favorite your photos you increase your interestingness rank. 4) Fav lots of photos. Be very liberal with your favs. ...If you see a photo you like on Flickr, fav it. Don’t be shy. It’s as easy as clicking on the little star above someone’s photo. Favs mean more to other Flickr users than comments or tags or notes or anything. 5) Post your photo to lots of groups and participate ...Don’t spam the groups, but if you have a photo of a bridge, put it in the bridge group. 7) Tag your photos religiously. Flickr allows users to search by tags (and especially to then rank their search by interestingness). 8) Above all, have fun on Flickr. Never take it too seriously." [Note: Numbers used are mine, not Thomas'.]
From the Good 'ish Explore Missed group comes this quick advice:
1. Choose your uploads wisely. Uploading 5 images a day won't help that 1 amazing shot.
2. Tags! Tag your images and let search do it's thing! SEO sucks!
3. Don't put your image in more than 5 groups, the more groups you are in, the less chance your photo will be explored. [Make note that Thomas Hawk's advice of posting to "lots" of groups is more about gaining "popularity" on Flickr and not about getting Explored.]
4. Love people in hopes that they will return the favor and love you back. Generosity is key.
[Most of this mirrors what Hawk has said, but in fewer words. They just forgot the most important ingredient: Take great photos!]
Explore Don'ts:
1. Do not re-post your image over and over again on the same day (moving it up in time so that more of your contacts will see it and comment on it). It's okay to delete an image and re-post it the same day, or to take an old image and re-post it under a new title, to see if you think you can develop more interest in that image. What Interestingness will ban you on is using the Actions > View EXIF info > edit "Posted to Flickr" time to re-post your image on Flickr to the current time in order to have it reappear to your Contact over and over again throughout the day. This is a form of spamming. I do this occasionally on old photos that I want to revive (if I think it never received the exposure it deserved), but don't do on new photos or Interestingness will ban you.
2. Do not place your photos in the groups that force you to comment on images within the group, i.e. the "Post 1, Comment on 5 - or get banned" groups. Groups like 1-2-3 are okay because they ask you to make three comments for every image you post, but they do not require you to make those comments.
3. Do not post your photo to more than five (5) groups. This has already been mentioned, but it is a good idea to post your image in at least two or three groups for Interestingness sake. BTW, posting to a few more than five groups will not completely ban you from Explore, but it will lower your Interestingness score. I often increase my number of groups after the image is no longer eligible for Explore, because placing the photo with the right group (look for group names using keywords that describe your image) can often increase it's search engine rankings.
Above image adapted from 'Stars, Milky Way, Jackson Lake, Grand Teton NP'.
#5511
I shoot people
hmmm it says: "3. Don't put your image in more than 5 groups, the more groups you are in, the less chance your photo will be explored. [Make note that Thomas Hawk's advice of posting to "lots" of groups is more about gaining "popularity" on Flickr and not about getting Explored.]"
but of all the photos I have that have been "Explored", they were in a lot more than 5 groups... maybe even 3-5 times more
but of all the photos I have that have been "Explored", they were in a lot more than 5 groups... maybe even 3-5 times more
#5512
Senior Moderator
Thread Starter
those are guidelines - it's not necessarily predictive
#5513
Senior Moderator
Thread Starter
here is #1 explore for today:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/76918520@N00/8219363533
have a look at more explores from today:
http://fiveprime.org/flickr_hvmnd.cg...nterestingness
http://www.flickr.com/photos/76918520@N00/8219363533
have a look at more explores from today:
http://fiveprime.org/flickr_hvmnd.cg...nterestingness
#5514
all work and no play
IMO... it's one of those things that if enough people say so... therefore, it is. People tend to remember reading about the negative things more than the positives.
I currently have 5 Sigma lenses, and I'm fairly happy with them... The 70-200mm f2.8 HSM does have some issues, but then again... I dropped that lens once. It was kinda ugly... I think I mentioned it once here in this thread.
I currently have 5 Sigma lenses, and I'm fairly happy with them... The 70-200mm f2.8 HSM does have some issues, but then again... I dropped that lens once. It was kinda ugly... I think I mentioned it once here in this thread.
If I ever decide to step up from my 70-200 F4L non IS it will likely be to the Sigma 2.8 OS which sells new for about half as much as the same Canon
doubtful that will happen though, Id rather spend the money elsewhere
#5516
Senior Moderator
Thread Starter
fun in the life of rasidel
i want u photographing my event
hey _____, how many hours do you want me taking photos
as long as you can stay bud
give me a minimum
its gonna be the event to be at that weekend so . . .
2?
3 i dont know man whatever you can do
ok. ill do it for $_ - ill stay a few hours - let me know how you would like to proceed
i want you to do it for charity lol
ive done my fill of charity events this year
sorry
let me talk to the guys and see if they want to pay for a photographer
eh - if its a charity event, I dont think id want to be paid
so - dont ask
its for cancer
sounds like a good cause - but unfortunately i cannot do it
its ok thanks though
hey _____, how many hours do you want me taking photos
as long as you can stay bud
give me a minimum
its gonna be the event to be at that weekend so . . .
2?
3 i dont know man whatever you can do
ok. ill do it for $_ - ill stay a few hours - let me know how you would like to proceed
i want you to do it for charity lol
ive done my fill of charity events this year
sorry
let me talk to the guys and see if they want to pay for a photographer
eh - if its a charity event, I dont think id want to be paid
so - dont ask
its for cancer
sounds like a good cause - but unfortunately i cannot do it
its ok thanks though
#5518
Senior Moderator
iTrader: (1)
trying out a very cheap Chinese lighting setup
If it breaks it breaks but need something to start with. Most going to be used indoor, outside might need somebody to hold it. after i feel comfortable with my light experience then ill get a better setup.
If it breaks it breaks but need something to start with. Most going to be used indoor, outside might need somebody to hold it. after i feel comfortable with my light experience then ill get a better setup.
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Mizouse (11-30-2012)
#5519
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thanks, for the link, didnt want to have to google it after you mentioned it.