Thomas is a professional fine art photographer and writer specialising in photography related instructional books as well as travel writing and street photography.
All tagged Canon
I just wanted to share a quick few thoughts on the new APSC RF mount cameras that Canon announced yesterday. It had long been rumoured that Canon would expand the RF range to include APS-C cameras and now that they have, the transition to mirrorless is nearing completion for Canon. But there are a few interesting things about these cameras specifically, and the expansion of the range, and I wanted to say a few quick words on the subject.
Of all the things - photography related - that I’ve done over the years, I’ve had plenty of missed opportunities, and made plenty of mistakes. However, there’s only really one thing that I truly regret. And that’s selling my Canon 5D Mark II and 24-105mm lens. There isn’t a year that goes by that I don’t regret that decision.
I’m not sure how I missed this, but there was an issue with Lightroom and Camera Raw for Canon shooters that I had been reporting on for some time, that has finally been resolved. For some reason, Adobe hadn’t been adding camera matching profiles for newer Canon cameras. Specifically they hadn’t been adding profiles for cameras that used the .CR3 file format. Thankfully, Adobe has started addressing this.
There’s something going on with Adobe and Canon regarding Lightroom and Camera RAW that I am a bit confused about. So, basically, over the past little while, Adobe has stopped supporting camera matching profiles for Canon cameras. There have now been around 10 models that Adobe hasn’t released camera matching profiles for. I did some research on this, and apparently, a post (now deleted) on an Adobe forum over a year ago (from an Adobe rep), claimed that they were having issues with the CR3 format, but frankly, I don’t buy this, especially as over a year has passed.
Adobe has just released a whole bunch of updates across its creative cloud lineup, including updates to Lightroom and Lightroom Classic and the corresponding release of Camera Raw. These are mostly bug fixes and new camera support, but they do add support for the recent releases from Canon, namely the Eos R5 and Eos R6.
If you’re looking at getting Capture One, you may be confused by all of the different versions. There is Capture One Pro, Capture One Express, Capture One, Fuji, Sony and so on. On top of that, there are subscription options and perpetual licences. I get a lot of questions about some of these versions, and so, in this post, I will attempt to break down the differences and offer advice on which version you should get.
A little while ago I wrote a post about the Canon EOS RP and how the RAW files were looking in Lightroom compared to Capture One. I had noted that RAW images from the camera looked pretty flat in Lightroom and that for some bizarre reason, Adobe had not supplied camera matching profiles for the camera (or a number of recent Canon models) and if you opened the same image in Capture One they had much more impact before even doing any editing. At the time I was working with RAW files I downloaded from DP Review, and so couldn’t share my results. Since then a reader has kindly sent me some raw files that I can use, and so now I can show you what I mean.
Every now and then I like to download camera samples from DP Review to see how various cameras look, and how they perform in different software. (Because I’m a bit of a nerd for such things). I was recently having a look at raw files from the Canon Eos RP and I was looking at them in Lightroom and I though, these are kind of “meh”. Then I opened them in Capture One, and the difference was night and day. It was so significant that I though to myself, “what’s going on here?”
A little while ago I wrote a post on how I couldn’t understand Canon’s decision to remove 24p from their newest cameras. 24p is considered a standard around the world, and many of Canon’s cameras became so popular for video precisely because they allowed users to shoot in 24p, so it was inexplicable to me that the company had chosen to remove such a key feature. I wasn’t the only one, and there was a wide and loud backlash from users. Well, Canon listened, and has announced that it would be adding 24p to several recently released cameras via firmware.
Last week Canon launched the latest iteration of its popular G7X series of compact cameras. The Mark III looks to be a really great camera for vloggers in particular, adding a microphone input and 4K recording to a camera already popular with the vlogging community. Except for reasons that escape me, Canon has inexplicably removed the ability of the G7X III to record in 24p. This isn't the first time either. Canon seems to be systematically removing 24p from it’s lower end lineup, and I really can’t understand why.
Last week Canon released a new version of its entry level DSLR (Previously the Eos 200D in Europe) and for the most part it flew under the radar, with the exception of the obligatory round of Canon bashing from the usual suspects. The thing is though, it’s actually a pretty capable little camera for the price, and if you’re starting out, especially if you want to get into Vlogging, it’s worth considering.
I love reading about the photography industry, whether it’s about the market, new gear or so on, it’s as much an interest for me as taking photos itself. In the industry, there is a lot of well-known pundits, whether they are from magazines, blogs or YouTube. As with everything, there are those I like and respect, and those that I don’t have much time for. But even taking that into account, over the past few months especially, I’ve noticed some real credibility issues for industry observers. Why? Let me explain...
Having repaired the detached mirror on my original Canon 5D I headed out onto the streets of Dublin city to do some street photography and test out the newly repaired camera.
While there’s no doubt that working with photo workflow software such as Lightroom or Capture One has changed the way most people work with photos, there are still people who prefer the old fashioned way of doing most of their processing in Photoshop. For some, the Bridge/Photoshop workflow is still their preferred method of work. Another method that is sometimes used is to work with the software supplied with your camera as a starting point, and then finish in Photoshop. For those used to working in Lightroom, this approach may appear clunky, but it does have some advantages. Lately I’ve been giving this workflow a try, and here are my thoughts.
I’m busy working on a project at the moment, so I don’t have a lot of time to do a full write-up, but I did want to offer a few thoughts on the latest releases from Canon and Fuji. Canon launched its full-frame mirrorless system at an event in Hawaii yesterday, and today, Fuji announced the latest in its X-Series lineup, the X-T3.
I recently came across a set of negatives that I took about a year ago, and I realised that I had never properly scanned them. This gave me the opportunity to record the process, something I had wanted to do for a while, but had never gotten around to it. So, in this video I show you the process of scanning film using a dedicated, if somewhat old, film scanner.
A few weeks ago I wanted to photograph something a little different, so we headed out to a place in North County Dublin where you can see Dublin Port from the far side, as well as watch the boats come and go. We timed the trip so that we would arrive as the sun begins to set, and I was only travelling light camera wise. I went equipped with the Sony A6000, with the only lens being the kit lens. I also had the Canon G7XII with me, which I had initially brought just to shoot video, but I ended up shooting stills with it too.
White Balance is one of those controls that I think a lot of photographers don’t think about or don’t make use of enough. Many just leave it on automatic and don’t worry about it. Yet a poorly chosen white balance can probably affect your photos as much as an improper exposure, and when many people complain about certain cameras having “bad colour” in many cases this can be attributed to the white balance.
