The Most Tragic Bargain Canon Full-Frame Zoom Lens

Canon EOS shooters will note that until very recently there was only one full-frame zoom lens in the current lineup outside of the L collection and that lens was the venerable Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM. 

To the uninitiated this seems like an incredible value in a lens, especially given the current used prices which at time of writing hover around $200-$250 for a clean copy. It pulls together a very attractive list of features, discussed here in brief:

• The relatively large zoom ratio is extremely useful and unusual for a full-frame lens. Wide on the wide end and long at the tele end, it makes for a spectacular walk around all-purpose lens. 28mm can pull in vast landscapes from the correct vantage point and show rich environments for portraits. 135mm offers a lot of compression for manipulating backgrounds and perspective for portraiture. 
• Image stabilization partially offsets the slower aperture and cuts the shake in video capture. Despite being the first generation system it works very well.
• The USM focus motor offers fast full time manual focusing which was rare for a lens in this class until the recent proliferation of focus-by-wire STM lenses. The large rubberized zoom ring feels excellent during use and the focal leng increments are more evenly distributed than those in comparable models. 
• One aspherical element is present in the optical design which, again, was rare for an lens in this class until recently. It's not the sharpest lens, especially in the corners, but it's not a total dog either. Stopped down a little it can do the business, which is impressive considering the age of the optical design which dates back to 1998. 
• The unit is lightweight compared to many of the other available full-frame zooms. 

It's not hard to understand why many new full frame Canon shooters give this lens a try. I've seen many copies mounted to cameras on the streets and at events at home and abroad. This was the second lens I purchased to use on my 5DII and it spent a lot of time mounted to my camera. It was usually the first lens in my bag and the one that usually stayed on in case I needed to pull out the camera at a moments notice to capture an image or a video. I loved this lens. It had a few nagging issues such as comparatively flat colour and incredibly noisy IS (it sounded like I had a lawnmower in the lens barrel) but they didn't bother me much at that point in my photography and it bore me many beautiful images and videos. As in many love stories, fate awaited me just around the corner to show me the depths of my own ignorance.

In the summer of 2014 I found myself packing my bags for a much needed trip to Europe and the EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM secured a spot in my camera bag along with my EF 50mm f/1.8 II and my recently acquired EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM Macro. Now let me just say that when I'm on vacation I tend to walk a lot. I mean A LOT. Eight to twelve hours a day isn't unusual, and my camera is hanging from my sling strap for a good portion of that time. My partner has impressed on me the value of walking the streets to get where I want to go in order to really get to know a city. I've whole-heartedly embraced this philosophy as it bears fruit in both the enjoyment of my travels and in photographic opportunities. Considering I spend the the balance of my time eating and drinking, it's also a good way to offset the calorie intake. Walking up and down the steep hillside that sketches the Pest side of the Hungarian capital, I first began to notice the zoom creep that plagues this lens. My copy had never given me much trouble before then but the jarring of each step seemed to loosen the inner barrel a little more. Hunting for shots up and down the mountainside it quickly became apparent to me that the tension was now completely gone in the zoom mechanism and the inner barrel fell to full extension each time the camera tilted downward, pulled earthbound by the heavy front element. 

Let me preface the following by stating that the build quality of this lens had never before seemed problematic to me. The sturdy plastics and smooth mechanism felt much more rhobust than many of the later consumer lenses in the Canon range. There was some wobble in the inner barrel but nothing that I considered a cause for concern. The new found zoom creep, while unsettling, didn't imediatly raise alarm bells. It is an older lens after all, and was purchased second hand from an older gentleman who had loved it well for several years. I continued to treck on with the occasional knock of the lens bottoming out, searching for the perfect vantage point to shoot Buda set against the Danube.  

At one point I raised my camera to my eye to frame a shot and I was alarmed by the sound of a distinct and frantic rattle within the lens that I can only liken to that of a spray paint can. My shock turned to horror when I turned the zoom ring and perceived no change to the focal length in the viewfinder. After a deluge of oaths and a brief inspection I had surmised that the mechanism connecting the different segments of the inner barrel to the zoom ring had somehow failed and left me with an impromptu challenge to shoot the rest of my travels with the 50mm and 100mm focal length (hmmm...sounds like another blog post.) 

Fast forward almost a month, 1400 images and almost 60 minutes of video later, I was home and eager to tear down the lens and find out why my lens love had so tragically ended her life on our European getaway. I took to the Internet to try and find a tear down guide and was quickly confronted with the disconcerting reality that I was far from being one of the few unlucky owners of this lens who experienced this failure. Indeed, the prevailing discussions online  seemed to suggest that this is an inherent design flaw in the lens and that this failure is extremely common. Being someone who meticulously researches my purchases online for hours before buying anything I was shocked that this little tidbit of information had not surfaced in any of my research.

Luckily I was able to find an exploded parts diagram of the lens and a few tear down posts that helped me open up the lens. Now is a good time to mention that I had never taken apart a lens before and doing so is not for the faint of heart. The only reasons I did was because I had already written off the lens as the cost of sending it for repair would be nearly more than the current value of the lens. After carefully taking apart the lens my suspicions were confirmed; the guide pin (YA2-3139, if anyone is curious) that runs in the channels at the rear of the inner lens barrels to coordinate their movements had rattled loose and eventually fallen off from the repeated impacts of the lens bottoming out. It is secured in place by two microscopic screws (XA1-3170-259.) I'm not sure who thought that was a good idea but I'm sure they probably no longer work at Canon for exactly that reason. At that moment I also realized I no longer had in my possession those two screws which I needed to reinstall the pin and set my lens to right. I quick call to Canon secured me 4 of them, but I must warn the hopeful reader that even those 4 screws had to come from japan and the parts rep informed me that the part was discontinued and I was lucky to be able to even get them. I doubt they will be available for much longer, if at all. My lens now sits on my shelf beside a bag of rare screws, waiting for its next turn on the operating table.

Now seems like a good time to resume some of the negative aspects of the EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM, minor as they may be:

• The lens produces noticeable distortion at both ends. This is easily corrected in post, but results in some loss of critical sharpness. If you were worried about critical sharpness however, you would not be using this lens. 
• The colours and contrast are not as nice as many other lenses. Not a huge issue but still noticeable. 
• The IS is not as sophisticated and noisier than some of the newer systems. On start up it jumps, shifting the frame momentarily before settling back into its place of origin. This is so brief and predictable that I never found it to be much of a problem but some find it distracting. 
• The variable aperture is fairly slow, particularly at the tele end. Inconsistent aperture is also a problem if you plan to zoom the lens during video capture, where you will experience a change in the exposure of the video.

In my eyes the benefits of this lens, design flaw aside, far outweigh the drawbacks at the given price point. However, due to this lens' propensity for mechanical failure I cannot recommend that anyone buy it. The failure of this lens hamstrung me in such a vulnerable situation which, while not statistically relevant, left a terrible taste in my mouth.

A beautiful redhead has now taken the place of my old EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM and I couldn't be happier. The optical and mechanical performance is superior in every way and I picked up a used copy for less than double what I paid for the old lens. It's worth noting that since the EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM and the EF 24-70mm f/4L IS USM are bundled in kits with Canon's full frame cameras there is an abundance of copies in the secondhand market and you can negotiate very aggressively (i.e. low ball) the multitude of sellers until one cracks. I've seen both go for as low as $600. The new Tamron SP 24-70 f/2.8 DI VC USD and the celebrated Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM can be picked up used for $800-$900 at the time of writing.


Here is a collection of further reading on this lens if you want to learn more about it:

• The-Digital-Picture.com
• Photozone
• SLRGear
• Lenstip.com
• Luminous-Landscape.com 

If you would like to see some images taken with this lens please head over to my Flickr page.

Images

Here are some images of the shoot I did for this post. If you read my previous post about evolving product photography at home, you may have noticed that I've put into practice some of the ideas I derived from my last product shoot. Upon reviewing my images from this shoot I noticed my challenge was controlling reflections on the many shiny surfaces of the camera which I believe I can attribute to the lights being to close to the subject and having such prevalent hot spots despite the umbrellas and the diffusion flaps on the speedlites being down. Something to work on for next time.

Evolving Product Photography at Home

I buy and sell a lot second hand through the use of online classified sites such as Kijiji and Craigslist. It's a great way to save money on a variety of goods and this is especially true of photographic equipment. Photographers are constantly buying and selling equipment which creates excellent opportunities to acquire this expensive gear at lower prices. Selling your own equipment is also a great way of financing future purchases or downsizing your equipment collection when it become overwhelming. Part of being successful in selling your possessions online is taking good pictures of the items you are selling. Good pictures allow the potential buyer to asses the item more clearly thereby creating confidence in him or her. Done right, good pictures can also make the item look more appealing and create a sense of desire in the buyer. There is of course a natural overlap with my love of photography in creating images of items I wish to sell so I approached photographing my latest batch of sale items as an exercise in product photography, my experience of which I will share with you.


Concept and Setup

The latest batch of unwanted possessions I planned to photograph was a collection of old watches and a ball head, all of which were small items that I could photograph on a tabletop or similar surface. Still buzzing off the high of my recent high-key photo shoot I decided that a white backdrop would make my photos look simple and elegant while enabling me to apply some of the same approaches and technique I developed at my recent shoot. I recalled a few sheets of flexible poster paper I had used in a previous attempt at product photography and decided that would be the backdrop I would build my setup around, curving it to create the seamless effect between the surface I was shooting on and the background. I used a foldable workbench as a table and deployed it up against a shelf I could tape the backdrop to in order to keep it in place. For this I used masking tape so that it wouldn't damage the paper when removed.

To light the shoot I set up a speedlite on ball head style bracket fitted with a shoot-through umbrella on either side of the set to provide even soft light from all around for both the backdrop and the subject. To fill in any shadows I hung a third speedite above the set from my Gorillapod Focus with a 12" softbox attached. Two speedlites were set as optical slaves and one was triggered using an inexpensive Cactus V2 radio slave. Being the first time using strobes for product photography, this setup seemed like it would light the subject evenly while overexposing the highly reflective glossy white background.

My camera and lens combo of choice for this shoot was my 100mm f/2.8L IS Macro mounted on my EOS 7D. I chose the macro lens for its close focusing ability and biting sharpness, both ideal for bringing out the fine detail in the sale items. I chose to use my 7D over my other DSLRs because it has more autofocus points and can select a smaller sub-sampling of a given autofocus point on which to focus, allowing for even finer control when focusing on fine detail. Besides the autofocus capabilities I also chose the 7D to leverage the crop factor in order to get in closer to the subject from a greater working distance, giving my 100mm macro lens an effective focal length of 160mm. The camera sat on top of my tripod and was triggered by a generic remote trigger I picked up from Amazon for about $10. The setup looked like like this:

The umbrella on the left side was removed to better display the setup.

The Gorillapod Focus doubles as a very versatile speedlite mount using the foot stand that comes with the flash and the small QR plate supplied with the Ballhead X. 

Shoot and Refinement

As I might have easily foreseen, my first strobe setup for product photography didn't work out. I found out after this shoot that achieving that high-key look on a white backdrop requires you to overexpose your background by +2 to +3 EVs over your subject (1). That is simply not possible using the same lights to illuminate the subject and the background. With the setup described above, the subject was slightly overexposed and I was getting shadows around and behind the item where the surface curled into the backdrop. I also failed to account for the fact that the items I was shooting were mostly metal and glass, both highly reflective, and I could see my light sources reflected on several surfaces as specular highlights. Suffice to say my initial results were not ideal.

Don't forget to use sandbags on your light stands. 

I began to rethink my setup and stripped the umbrellas off the backdrop lights and put on some home-made flags with the intent of lighting the backdrop with direct blasts of the speedlites. I moved both very close to the subject, angled in such a was as the flag would block the subject from direct exposure from the flashes. I then set up two white foam core boards on either side of the setup to reflect diffuse light back on subject from either side. The boards acted as large light sources and wrapped the light spilling off the flash and the inside of the flag (intentionally made of white cardboard) back on the subject in a nice wrap. I then changed the orientation of the overhead softbox to come in from a lower angle and provide more lighting to the foreground. It took a considerable amount of trial and error to position all the flashes and the angles of the reflectors in such a way as to get good even lighting with minimal reflections but I learned a lot through 'working the shot' and eventually got some shots I was happy with. Here are some shots of the setup so you can get an idea of how it came together:

I love the ball head style umbrella swivels because they allow me to tip my speedlites into a vertical orientation.   

Check out my high-tech flags!

Conclusion

Overall I was very pleased with my results and my learning experience from this shoot. Throughout the process I made notes on some of the limitations of my setup as well as some different techniques I might try next time, listed here so you can learn along with me:

• Perhaps the biggest mistake I made was in not setting up the background far enough from my subject. This has  proven to be a recurring lesson in all of my high-key shoots. Because the subject was so close to the background I was managing a complex relationship of interdependent background and subject lighting that proved to be very ineffective. When the background is far behind the subject I can blast the crap out of it with the strobes on high power without affecting the subject substantially. Next time I'll either use  along table or separate the product table and background entirely so I can work the lighting for each independently. 
• Next time I'm going to do a product shoot where the camera sits on a tripod and seldom moves I'm going to shoot tethered so I can compose and review the photos on my Macbook instead of the LCD on the camera. The camera's LCD, though excellent for what it is, is very limited in being able to display fine detail unless zoomed in to inspect the image section by section. In this case the old axiom rights true; everything looks good on the back LCD. After uploading my photos I saw many things that I might have corrected had I been able to see them, which leads me to my next point:
• When shooting macro for Pete's sake wash, polish, clean, lint-roll and otherwise tidy up the items as much as possible before the shoot. To the naked eye the products seemed pretty good but the macro lens sees all and I was surprised when reviewing my images at how rough some of the items looked.

I hope you enjoyed my run-though of this photo shoot. Please post your own ideas and suggestions in the comments so we can all evolve our product shots. Below you will find some of the images from the shoot. Enjoy!


Images

Sources:

1. Cleghorn, M. (2004). Portrait photography: Secrets of posing and lighting. New York: Lark Books.

An Overview of My First Studio-Style Photoshoot

Better grab something to drink and use the washroom before you sit down since this is a long one.

In an alternate reality I work in the entertainment business in Toronto and I have a lot of friends who are DJs and producers. Since most are egotistical photo-whores in need of images for promotional material, I found myself with a bevy of willing subjects when I decided  I had learned enough about lighting to attempt a studio-style photo shoot. I often toss around photography ideas with another friend and entertainment industry colleague I call Dylan, who happens to also be a photographer, and not long ago, we decided to put in together and plan a shoot. Though Toronto has a multitude of surprisingly cheap photo studios for rent (search on your favourite local classified site or Vistek's website if you're in Canada) I managed to convince an organization I work with to allow me to use their warehouse as an impromptu photo studio. I chose to go this route because it didn't cost me anything and it, being an audio/visual production warehouse, is full cool goodies I could use for our shoot. So it was that with much excitement we planned and executed our photo shoot, my experience of which I will share with you in the hopes it will inspire you to attempt something similar while avoiding some of the mistakes I made. It was an excellent learning experience and tons of fun in the doing. Many people might not be so lucky as to have access to such an ideal space but, as the Internet will tell you, the same results can be replicated with a modest space and a trip to the local hardware store and fabric store.

I built the confidence to attempt such a shoot by watching videos on flash photography on Lynda.com and reading the (you guessed it) Strobist blog. I found the course Fundamentals of Flash Photography with Ben Long as well as David Hobby's videos on Lynda.com exceptional in clarifying key concepts and demonstrating basic technique and how to 'work the shot' with strobes. If you have access to Lynda.com I would highly suggest both resources if you're interested in learning how to use strobes in your photography. The Strobist blog is also and excellent resource and David Hobby is both funny and pragmatic in his writing. Convinced of my new found strobe-God powers I decided that the only option at this point was to endeavour a high key style shoot so as to put as much of my learning as possible to use.


Planning

Those who know me might tell you I'm well prepared. If so, they're being very moderate because I'm a bit of a planning nut. I have a list, chart, spreadsheet or similar tool organizing almost every aspect of my life and I find great pleasure and calm in creating and maintaining those lists. That trait served me very well when it came to organizing a shoot since I had zero experience to reply on. In order to put together my plan I read several dozen online articles on the subject and noted the following functional areas I judged important to prepare for:

• A look and concept
• The models, their appearance, clothing and accessories 
• The space, equipment, and setup
• Posing and direction
• Post production, delivery and use of the photos

My first order of business was booking some models. As I mentioned earlier I was flush with volunteers and easily able to book a full day's worth of talent to shoot. This was my first mistake. Inspired and overconfident from watching all these pros work in online videos I booked myself a few hours with each model which proved to be insufficient. Being an utter newb I was making everything up on the fly and didn't have the skill building a rapport with or directing the model that is necessary to get good shots in a timely fashion. By the time I had got into a groove with one model my time was over with him and I had to move on. The full day of shooting I had arranged proved to be very taxing and I found myself a little worn out and getting frustrated near the end. Next time I'll limit myself to a single model and a shorter session.

After securing some models I began to contemplate what look I was going for and for what purpose the images will be used. I had mostly DJs coming, for which I envisioned dramatic lighting styles to evoke their outrageous musical styles and personalities in promotional material. I also had one professional coming for whom I wanted to do flat beauty-style lighting for a LinkedIn profile picture. Conventional wisdom would have that one should plan a look and concept and then find models to suit the look but when you are trying to shoot people volunteering their time you work with what you have.

With models secured and a loose concept in mind I began to bend my thoughts on how to prepare my models for the shoot. I use the terms 'model' and 'talent' loosely as none of these folks had any experience in front of the camera and would, I knew, require substantial preparation and direction. After spending considerable time thinking and reading on how to prepare them, I devised and sent to each the following checklist:

• Bring a few outfits, hopefully somewhat dissimilar.
• Iron, steam, lint brush and otherwise prep your cloths.
• Bring lots of different accessories (hat, sunglasses, necklaces, rings, etc...)
• Bring a few props that are demonstrative of or iconic in reference to your work. 
• Bring a few pairs of shoes and clean/shine them up.
• Do your hair and bring extra product and brushes or combs in case you need to redo or touch it up.
• Don't forget to shave, trim, or otherwise tame your facial hair. 

I thought I had covered most of my bases but in fact I had forgotten some critical items that became quite obvious to me during the shoot and later during post processing. In light of what I consider my second mistake I added the following to my checklist:

• Apply quality chapstick starting the night before. Trying to retouch heavily chapped lips in post isn't very easy.
• Wash the bottom of the shoes you plan to wear for the shoot and don't wear them to the shoot. Dirty shoes mark up the white seamless very fast (more on this later). 

Having no experience and only some knowledge on posing, I watched many videos and downloaded many posing cheat-sheets on my iPad which I intended to reference during the shoot. This was a great idea as I found myself looking at the guide periodically for ideas. I only wish that I would have studied them in depth beforehand and perhaps pre-selected some poses so as not to have to break my report with the talent so often to look in the guide. Every time I stopped to look something up I found it interrupted the cooperative development of the concept between the talent and I. Something to be aware of.

Being friends with my models I wasn't overly concerned with formalizing the terms of the shoot. I knew how they intended to use the images and I made it clear they were getting the free photo shoot with the understanding that: a) it was a learning process so they had to keep their expectations in check and, b) I was going to use the images in my portfolio, blogs, social media and other outlets to promote myself and them. All concerned were very happy with the arrangement. From all my readings on the matter I would highly recommend not going about it that way and having more formal agreements. Something else to think about since your mileage may vary. I also made it very clear that I will be dragging my butt considerably with respect to the post processing since I am generally very short on time and I am also learning how to post-process in LR and PS so the going will be extra slow. Given the price they were paying and considering our friendship, again, they were more than happy.

Gratuitous camera porn. Notice my highly professional duct tape snoot. 

As for equipment, I resolved that I needed a backdrop, lighting and of course cameras and lenses. The cameras and lenses were the easy part. I charged up all my cameras' cells, cleaned my equipment and placed it in carry bags so as to be ready to go. I won't tire you with a complete list but Dylan and I together brought a few zooms and a variety of primes to cover focal lengths between 24 and 300mm and since we both shoot Canon we could share lenses on the shoot. Dylan was kind enough to bring a tripod.

To light the shoot Dylan and I brought a collection of five strobes, two 430EXIIs and three manual flashes of different brands that I have bought second hand on the cheap. The three manual flashes contained optical triggers which I consider absolutely essential for off camera flash so as to cut down on the requirement for triggering devices. I had a few sets of cheap Cactus V2 triggers and transmitters so that Dylan and I could both fire the Canons which would in turn fire the other strobes. To hoist the flashes I brought three stands with ball head umbrella swivels, an old cheapo tripod and my Gorillapod Focus along with tripod adapter feet to mate flashes to the tripods. Four saddlebag style sandbag came along to anchor the stands down. To diffuse and shape the light I had a few shoot-through umbrellas of different sizes and some snoots and other shaping devices I fashioned from cardboard for the price of some duct tape and some old boxes. The night before I charged up all my rechargeable NiMH AAAs and AAs. For Pete's sake don't use disposables save for backup unless you have to. They wear out faster, provide slower cycle times for the flashes and most importantly they're bad for the environment. Don't do it!

The backdrop we settled on was a roll of white seamless paper 10 feet wide. This width turned out to be ideal since we wanted to get some wider angle shots which the size did allowed. This was probably the most expensive part of the shoot at around $75 and, sad to say, there's no way to get around the expense.  I do  consider the purchase a good value since the roll is 36' and we will only need to consume about 6 feet so we will be able to use it a few times. If you go this route don't forget to bring scissors to trim the paper. To hold the backdrop in place and anchor it when it wasn't on the floor I purchased half a dozen A clamps on sale from the Home Depot. These particular ones are well weighted and almost completely rubberized and so worked splendidly for our purpose and didn't mark the paper at all. It's also worth mentioning we had a sturdy ladder to get up over our models for high angle shots.


Not knowing exactly what to expect I envisioned setting it all up according to the following diagram:

The Setup

An audiovisual production warehouse makes for an exceptional studio with high ceilings and a flat concrete floor. As I mentioned, our backdrop was a roll of seamless paper so we were going to need a backdrop stand which was a problem because neither Dylan or I owned a backdrop stand. We ended up rigging one up from some heavy duty production lighting stands and drape piping that was lying around. We set up black drape runs on either side perpendicular to the backdrop in order to block stray reflections from the orange shelves and metallic cases stacked along the walls. To illuminate the backdrop two of the strobes were mounted and turned 90 degrees, one on a ball head swivel and another on the cheap tripod with a three-way head, and aimed towards the opposite side of the paper. Doing so allowed for better coverage of the backdrop since the strobes output a rectangular beam. Each was also outfitted with one of my home-brew flags to block the light from the backdrop strobes from illuminating the model.

X marks the spot.

Our key and fill lights consisted of two strobes on stands with white shoot-through umbrellas. I planned to use a fifth strobe as a rim light or to illuminate the portion of the paper on the floor for shots in which it was to be pictured but one of our strobes, an old Vivitar H285HV,  didn't work with our cheap triggers. After trying to troubleshoot it for a short while we judged that the cheap triggers didn't output enough trigger voltage to set it off. Word to the wise for anyone planning to use this strobe for off camera flash setups. Needless to say it was up for sale on Kijiji the following day. I also brought two white foam-core boards to serve as reflectors. I didn't use them at all during the shoot but that because not only did I not know what to do with them but also I had put them down in a corner and forgot about them. While we were setting up and testing as well as for part of the shoot we had the paper only rolled down partially and weighted down with some of the A clamps so as to avoid the model walking on it when before it was necessary. We test fired the lights many times in order to set our exposure correctly and then taped an 'X' on the floor where we found was the furthest point where there was no light spill on the the model from the backdrop lights. One mistake we made was not using our camera's highlight warning to asses the blowout of the background. We sort of eyeballed it until it looked good on the camera LCD but, as you may have guessed, that wasn't the way it worked out when we review the images for editing. We had different tones across the background and shadows in some places where the flashes didn't cover as well. Satisfied with our test shots, we began to get down to business.


Shoot

Shooting with two photographers was a great experience for a first time shoot since neither of us felt the sole pressure of running the shoot and keeping the flow going. It's always nice to have someone to turn to and say 'what do you think' or to take over the attention of the model. Sometimes I really enjoyed an idea Dylan explored and sometimes I didn't see what he saw in which case I stepped back and he took the lead which gave me time to regroup and think of my next move. I do wish I had more poses and variations in mind. It's much harder to find info on posing man than on posing women. I've checked our many books and online articles and I could really use some suggestions if someone can send them my way.

We were able to experiment with many different angles with the lighting, raising and lowering the key light and moving it from side to side. Moving the stands with the lights raised and the umbrella out was very awkward and slightly unstable, causing the light to wiggle around on top of the stand. This wouldn't be a problem if the lights were installed tightly but the shoes on the cheap triggers are not well suited to the Canon locking mechanism and so the flash sits loosely on the shoe. At one point in the shoot I was moving an umbrella and the stand shook enough to pop one of the flashes off the shoe and drop it  to the floor. My reflexes were almost fast enough to catch it and I got a piece of it on the way down which slowed it considerably but my 430EXII hit the deck pretty hard. I was shocked when I picked it back up only to find that it was working perfectly after falling from about nine feet. My opinion of the build quality of the unit went up considerably to say the least. In the future I will be applying a bit of gaffer tape to the shoes to firm it up. I felt I should have also lowered the light when I was moving it but since I didn't know what I was doing I was moving the lights around a lot experimenting and that would have slowed me down too much.

Taking a little break from the shoot to take some fun snapshots.

 Our models were very cooperative and did their best to give us a variety of looks. We took breaks every so often to chit chat and discuss poses and looks which gave us a much needed break from the physical strain. Between each break Dylan and I loaded our images on to our respective computers so we each had copies which served as backup as well. We discussed shooting tethered so we could more clearly see the results but we decided it would be too cumbersome and perhaps even dangerous with two shooters constantly criss-crossing each other.


One thing that quickly became apparent to me as I was shooting was that I had spent a lot of time focusing on my models' cloths and little on mine. I would highly suggest taking some time to consider comfortable cloths when shooting. The jeans I wore were not the most comfortable and my sweater was a little too hot, each frustrating and distracting me.

When I was working close up with some of my primes I was focusing with the centre AF point and then recomposing. Later when I checked my images some were noticeably softer in the face than I would have liked. I've used this technique with good success before but I will try and do so with the closest AF point available to minimize this potential error.


Conclusions

Though I didn't walk away with as many keepers as I would have liked, I learned a lot and gained some much needed experience on the shoot. My friends were happy and I continue to slowly trickle images to them as I get the time to develop them. Perhaps more import is that I got a sense of some of the things I really need to work on in order to be more effective in both planning and execution my next shoot.

Below I've posted some of my favourites from the shoot. Let me know what you think. If you would like to see high resolutions versions with the EXIF data and setting used please check out my Flickr page where all of the images are hosted.


Images

Thoughts on My New (to Me) GRAF Studioball

Just recently I was given the chance to film an interview for my employer which, to me, meant eight hours of playing with my camera and video editing software on company time. Naturally, I jumped at the chance. Thinking through how I was going to shoot in the given location, it became clear that my Gorillapod Focus was not going to be sufficient and I was in need of a traditional tripod. By this point I was already well past all the stages of tripod denial and I needed an excuse to get one so out I went and picked up a used Manfrotto 055PROB. Legs in hand, I began to scour the classified ads for a ballhead and the only serious contenders that came up were an Arca Swiss B1 and a GRAF Studioball.

My new (to me) GRAF Studioball.

Before I continue I would like to point out that most ballheads support two to ten kilograms. Both of the aforementioned units support north of twenty kilograms. Consider the weight of the following combination:

5D MarkII Body:                                    810g
BG-E6 Battery Grip                               315g
LP-E6 Battery  x 2                                 158g
Canon 70-200 f/2.8 IS II                       1490g
Canon 600EX-RT                                    425g
AA Batteries (4)                                      90g
Joby Ultraplate                                       47g
Blackrapid R-Strap                                 170g

TOTAL:                                               3505g

Outside fast super telephoto territory, that is about as heavy a system as I will be likely to shoot with. Since we're talking numbers, the ballhead itself weighs 1300g and the suggested maximum capacity of the legs is 7kg. The aforementioned camera rig is 17% of the load capacity of the ballhead. Together with the head the rig is is 4.8kg which represents 68.5% of the load capacity of the legs which sounds stable and secure to my ears.

Why then, you ask, do I need such a formidable ballhead? I probably don't. What I did want to ensure was that I was nowhere near the limit of the ballhead so the chance of slipping or developing a problem would be minimal. Additionally, if I ever did want to mount a super telephoto lens or a heavy video system I would have the option. Future-proofing makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Besides, I've always wanted to experience shooting wildlife with a giant off-white bazooka.

I had already done some reading on ballheads in this wonderful post on the LensRentals.com blog which I found extremely helpful. Information abounds about the quality of Arca Swiss ballheads but unfortunately not so for the GRAF Studioball. What little information that was available online seemed promising however, and the technical specs and sparse reviews suggested this was the droid I was looking for. The fact that it was $100 less expensive than the B1 closed the deal for me and I went out to pick it up. The seller even threw in a QR plate!

When I examined my new ballhead I was seriously impressed. The GRAF Studioball is tank. The online reviews suggested just as much but nothing prepared me for the substance of this unit. The construction is solid and the head can withstand a mind boggling amount of force without slipping. I tried to pull the head to one side while it was under tension and I could not get it to budge. The secondary tensioner provides very fine increments of adjustment and can hold the ballhead steady without the need of the main tensioner. The plate holder is generous in size and clamps with enough force to inspire confidence. The pitch of the jaws is such that most plates need to be slid out rather than pulled out of the top. Many consider this an additional safety feature and I agree with them.

My wonder quickly turned to frustration when I was turning the panning base and the top of the ballhead slid right off of it. As I examined the mechanism I noticed that the ballhead sits unattached on the panning base and the unit is unfit to be mounted horizontally or upside down. Nowhere in my reading was this design feature mentioned. I like to shoot a lot of macro and the fact that this ballhead can only be used upright was a bit of a disappointment for me. I'm not totally convinced that this is the way the units ships originally as the bearings for the panning base seem to have been replaced DIY by a low friction plastic ring. I have for weeks now been trying to contact the North American distributor for this ballhead but I have not been successful at reaching anyone who might be able to offer technical assistance or repair for this unit. Consider this in your purchase decision if you should chose to buy one of these units.

The panning base dissasembled. I didn't realize it at the time but that plastic ring should actually be a bearing cartridge and this unit has suffered some less than ideal DIY repair.

You will notice inside the pin receptacle there is a collar meant to tension the panning base, controlled but the adjacent knob. With the plastic ring serving as a bearing the fit isn't correct and there isn't enough tension on the base. 

Was this a total waste? Not really. A lot of what I use a tripod for is done upright. Aside from being unsuitable for horizontal or reverse mounting this is a great ballhead and I paid less than I would have for most equivalent rated units. Though I may eventually sell it off I have to say for the moment I am very pleased with the purchase since it, along with my new tripod legs, have opened up a whole new realm of photographic possibilities to me. Stay posted as I explore the capabilities of this ballhead with different lenses and rigs throughout the coming year.