[The1]

Originally Posted by Chewy734

cya tomorrow Badger...

date night?

[Chewy734]

Originally Posted by The1

date night?

something like that... Timmayfest!

[UdubBadger]

Originally Posted by Chewy734

cya tomorrow Badger...

make sure you post those nudez later

[Chewy734]

don't worry, you know me... I don't disappoint.

[M_Six]

I love new toys. Makes it worth coming to work on Monday.

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by M_Six

I love new toys. Makes it worth coming to work on Monday.

Nice.

[M_Six]

I tossed the Kenko 2x converter on it and took a shot of some leaves outside. This is a 100% crop from the center of the image. Not tack sharp, but not bad for a cheapo converter. I wonder how much better IQ the Canon converter would yield.

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by M_Six

I tossed the Kenko 2x converter on it and took a shot of some leaves outside. This is a 100% crop from the center of the image. Not tack sharp, but not bad for a cheapo converter. I wonder how much better IQ the Canon converter would yield.

Mark, no offense, but I'd call that unuseable. Is that with your new lens? Was that MF with the view at 10x? With a 2X converter you've probably got really slow AF and it might not have caught up OR you need to set your camera's front/rear focus with a +- adjustment. I think your camera allows for AF fine tuning, including with a TC combination (so long as the camera recognizes your TC). If the camera doesn't recognize your Kenko, it'd be one reason to go with a Canon brand TC.

Dave

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by dcstep

Mark, no offense, but I'd call that unuseable. Is that with your new lens? Was that MF with the view at 10x? With a 2X converter you've probably got really slow AF and it might not have caught up OR you need to set your camera's front/rear focus with a +- adjustment. I think your camera allows for AF fine tuning, including with a TC combination (so long as the camera recognizes your TC). If the camera doesn't recognize your Kenko, it'd be one reason to go with a Canon brand TC.

Dave

No offense taken. I wouldn't expect to be able to use a 100% crop from an image taken with a Kenko 2x converter and maybe not even with a Canon version. Bryan Carnathan at The Digital Picture talks about using a the Canon 2x extender with the 135L.

The Canon 135 L is also compatible with the Canon Extender EF 2.0x, but you will probably not be thrilled with this 270mm combination wide open at f/4 as sharpness takes a bigger hit with this extender.

I figured if he saw sharpness issues with the Canon extender, I would surely see them with the Kenko. Still, the full image with those leaves looks much better at web posting size. I'll have to play with it more and try a tripod shot with 10x MF and see if it improves.

[dcstep]

The Canon TCs are quite sharp, but it's generally agreed that the Series II is not as good as the Series III.

I use my Series II a ton and it's incredibly sharp.

Here's a 100% crop from my 500mm/1.4x/7D combination (this is slightly reduced from pixel-level, but only a little to display it. Take your browser up to 200% and you will have overcompensated.):


Detail of broad-tailed hummingbird. by dcstep, on Flickr

BTW, I blew up your image to 400% and couldn't find the focus point. All those leaves and limbs with varying depths makes it hard to find focus. On my example, it's easy to find (on the eye). The DOF was deep enough to include the back feathers.

[M_Six]

Nice shot. I wouldn't be surprised if the Kenko TC throws AF off a bit. There's a reason it's so much cheaper than the Canon TC. I should also get around to MAF'ing the lenses now that I have the 7D. I should grab a used Canon 1.4x TC II. I went with the Kenko so I could use it with the 24-105 and my Roki 85.

The other issue there is my lack of ability to hold still enough to deal with 200mm+ range and no IS. I've always had problems doing that.

[M_Six]

The budget guru comes to me today and tells me if I am going to order new equipment to do it now before the fiscal year ends in a few weeks. She says we have money that needs to be spent.

Ergo....I have a new 15.4" MacBook Pro with an i7 Quad Core, 4GB RAM, and a 500GB hard drive on the way. I'll be visiting Crucial for the 16GB RAM package later.

I looked at the Retina Display version with the 512GB SS drive, but yikes!! Those things run over $3000 similarly configured. Nearly double what I paid for mine.

[Chewy734]

nice! First time Mac owner?

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by M_Six

The budget guru comes to me today and tells me if I am going to order new equipment to do it now before the fiscal year ends in a few weeks. She says we have money that needs to be spent.

Ergo....I have a new 15.4" MacBook Pro with an i7 Quad Core, 4GB RAM, and a 500GB hard drive on the way. I'll be visiting Crucial for the 16GB RAM package later.

I looked at the Retina Display version with the 512GB SS drive, but yikes!! Those things run over $3000 similarly configured. Nearly double what I paid for mine.

I'd compromise and go for a SS, but smaller HD and 8GB of RAM with a good graphics card. You want 64-bit OS also. Mine storms through images with only 8GB RAM.

Dave

[Chewy734]

Dave, Lion (the latest MacOS) is 64-bit only, so he's fine with that.

I agree with Dave... 16gb RAM is nice, but SSD makes everything run much faster.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by Chewy734

nice! First time Mac owner?

Yes and no. I haven't personally owned a Mac (and technically still won't), but I've been the sys admin for lots of Macs at work for years. I'll be bootcamping Windows7 on it anyways.

Originally Posted by dcstep

I'd compromise and go for a SS, but smaller HD and 8GB of RAM with a good graphics card. You want 64-bit OS also. Mine storms through images with only 8GB RAM.

Dave

Even with the smaller SS drive and less RAM, the Retina version is still over $2k. As this is a university owned machine, I do have to have some sort of justification for the expense. I'll be running Windows7 64-bit and we just got the Adobe Suite in 64-bit, so the 16GB of RAM should run that nicely. I may buy a SS drive for it in the future. The 16GB RAM package is $159 at Crucial. Easily affordable.

[Chewy734]

Originally Posted by M_Six

I'll be bootcamping Windows7 on it anyways.

and here I thought you were cool...

[UdubBadger]

damn chew wheres dem timmayfest photoz at?

[Chewy734]

excited to see nudez of yourself?

I finished editing them last night, but I haven't had a chance to export/upload them yet... I'll do that tonight.

[UdubBadger]

Originally Posted by Chewy734

excited to see nudez of yourself?

I finished editing them last night, but I haven't had a chance to export/upload them yet... I'll do that tonight.

always.... i can't get angles like that just looking in the mirror.

[Chewy734]

Originally Posted by UdubBadger

always.... i can't get angles like that just looking in the mirror.

[The1]

I'll never run a computer without a SS drive again, makes such a difference.

also, go all in at go at least 16gigs. My laptop is 16gigs, and my PC is 32gigs

I sort of over engineered my PC, it makes for cheap heating in my apartment.