As the owner of a 5D I found this whole response very interesting. But
after thinking about it I guess the architectural shots are mostly just
web images. For that even the E-1 has gobs of pixels available for
discard from perspective correction. Since I originally thought I was
going to buy a 20D I sold my 24mm shift lens so don't even have that
anymore. I do have an OM mount 17mm Tokina RMC but have yet to try it
on any interiors. Actually, I haven't tried any interiors yet with the 5D.
As to flash triggering I vote for radio. Inside a house the cheap oboy
units should work just fine. I have four of them to trigger my four
Alien Bee B800's. I have four of these, the most recent two purchased
from this seller. I think they're basically garage door opener
technology. Range (by unit) varies from 60 to 150 feet to the front and
45-60 feet to the rear with intermediate distances to the sides.
<http://cgi.ebay.com/Wireless-Radio-Slave-Flashlight-4-Channel-battery_W0QQitemZ270007227405QQihZ017QQcategoryZ30086QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem>
Nothing really meets the specs so you need to test each unit to
understand what you've got. I think there's enough range indoors to
fire Jeff's remote flash at the entrance. But if you buy a bunch as I
did you may find one that exceeds the 30 meter spec. As I said, one of
my units reaches to 150 feet outdoors.
I've heard elsewhere but not tested it myself that range is dependent on
battery voltage. These units have low current draw and no on/off
switches. Could be the batteries I was using for testing weren't at
full snuff on all the units. Someday I'll have to redo those tests all
at the same time and with fresh batteries.
If I had it to do over again I'd try these 16 channel units from the
same seller. The 16 channels aren't important but these units have a
built-in PC connector as well as the normal 1/4" phone plug. What this
one lacks, however, is the 1/4" to 1/8" miniplug adapter to fit the
Alien Bees. That can easily be picked up at Radio Shack, however,
whereas it's a little harder and more expensive to rig something else if
you want to go to a PC connection for a portable flash unit.
<http://cgi.ebay.com/Wireless-Digital-Radio-Slave-Flash-Trigger-16-Channels_W0QQitemZ270007227414QQihZ017QQcategoryZ30086QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting>
And yes. I'm never without my flash/incident meter. Since I got it I
can count the number of times I've used the camera's built-in meter on
one hand. The 5D RGB histograms are nice double checks.
The E-1 is cheap enough these days that I might be tempted to go out and
get one as a second camera but I don't think I could bring myself to pay
the price of the 7-14 which would be the main reason for getting an E-1.
Chuck Norcutt
Jeff Keller wrote:
> Rob, I think you're after higher resolution than I am for my real estate
> purposes... However, I find the E-1 with the 7-14 lens doesn't have much
> competition. When working inside a home, super-wide angle seems to be more
> important than shift lens functionality. With enough megapixels to throw
> away, digital image perspective correction works well for interiors. The E-1
> so far for me is more enjoyable & effective to use than the 5D. Even the
> "now free" ability to get higher resolution from the E-300 vs. the E-1 is
> seldom useful enough to _me_ that I would make the trade off of swapping the
> ergonomics of the E-1 for the higher resolution of the E-300.
>
> I believe you've regularly used strobe/continuous lighting for your
> architecture shots. If you use strobe lights, you'll probably want wireless
> (not optical) flash slave triggers. Mike pointed out to me that C*non uses
> optical while N*kon uses RF. I wanted to use my Zuikos so I went with a full
> frame C*non digital and the rather expensive route of used Quantum flash.
> Quantum doesn't seem to have very good compatability with Olympus but that
> isn't too important for architecture since most of the flash setup I do is
> manual anyway. Chuck seems to use a flash meter to set his shots up with
> excellent results. The instant preview of digital for lighting could
> justify getting an E-camera just for setting up lights.
>
> Using a digital camera eliminates most of the time spent removing dust from
> scans. More time can be spent on other more interesting aspects of image
> adjustments.
>
> Even the Zuiko 18mm on the 5D doesn't seem wide enough. I suspect that the
> Sigma 12-24 could replace the D.Zuiko 7-14 but it would probably limit the
> resolution of the full frame digital down to that of the E-System ... but
> the weight and size of the C*non wouldn't be reduced :( I haven't been
> able to find a mid range zoom for the 5D that I'm confident wouldn't have
> too much of a compromise. I've yet to get an autofocus lens for my 5D, but I
> got the camera mainly to use with my Zuikos (high ISO digital film).
>
> My rather vague imression is that I can manually focus an E-system camera
> easier than I can focus the 5D.
>
> Although I don't consider these great shots, they provide a sample of what I
> recently kept.
> http://www.julianalee.com/homes/2006/albacore_ln_126/index.htm
> I used both the 5D and E-1. The 18mm on the 5D just couldn't quite get the
> kitchen. The somewhat dark interior, with some black furniture, and bright
> light from a west facing sliding door, forced the use of flash and some very
> minimal correction in photoshop. The wireless trigger was necessary to light
> up the inside of the house when shooting the entrance.
>
> Good luck sorting out what is most important to yourself.
> -jeff
>
> ----Original Message Follows----
> From: ScottGee1 <scottgee1@xxxxxxxxx>
>
>
> --snip
>
> Of course you may be able to justify a dSLR purchase just to offset
> film, processing and scanning costs. BTW, I'd definitely go with
> Walt's deal over the one offered by your other friend. He has to find
> some way to offset the $$ spent on that SSR. ;o)
>
> Given that you're an architect and architecture is one of your main
> subjects, a 5D with a 24mm T/S lens (though it's not AF) could be very
> useful, especially if you get good at stitching.
>
> my two lux worth/ScottGee1
>
>
> On 7/18/06, Rob Harrison <robhar@xxxxxx> wrote:
>
> >
> > I'm trying to print up a 8.5 x 11 portfolio of photos for the local
> chapter
> > of the AIA, for prospective clients to view in the AIA office.
> >
> -- snip
> >
> > I could get a film scanner--the 5000ED with roll film adapter for
> > example--and scan the film myself. Or I can hire my friend to do the
> > scanning on his 900ED at about $15/scan for a 24MB+ scan, if I agree to
> do
> > 150 scans over the next couple years. That is, if I pay him $2,000 up
> front
> > he'll do 150 scans for me. In terms of actually getting the work done
> this
> > seems liike a pretty good deal, since the major investment for me is not
> the
> > hardware, but the time it will take to do the scanning--especially if I
> have
> > one of my employees do it. I may want to invest in a film scanner as
> well,
> > for my own personal explorations, but that's kind of a different issue.
> >
> --snip
> >
> > So anyway, Cameta has an E-1 kit with 14-54 lens and battery grip for
> $949,
> > counting the $50 rebate on the lens.... I am sorely tempted..... But does
> it
> > make any sense at all to invest in an E-1 at this point? I'm really
> liking
> > the look of the Panas*nic L1, which seems to be basically an E-330 with a
> > Le*ca lens. And the 5D is down to about $2500 for the body.... But I know
> > I'm going to want AF lenses, so it's looking like a new system could be
> on
> > the horizon.
> >
> > Rob in Seattle
>
>
>
> ==============================================
> List usage info: http://www.zuikoholic.com
> List nannies: olympusadmin@xxxxxxxxxx
> ==============================================
>
>
==============================================
List usage info: http://www.zuikoholic.com
List nannies: olympusadmin@xxxxxxxxxx
==============================================
|