My New Canon Camera

Awesome deals on Canon cameras on Amazon

2013-10-31T03:02:00.000-07:00

When I bought my Canon 5D Mark III I paid a pretty penny for it.

That's ofc the "curse" of buying something when it hits the market, but I'm still extremely pleased with my decision to buy it and still love using it.

Today I noticed that Amazon is having a few special deals on Canon bodies, so if you've been thinking about getting a 5D mark III, then now would be a good time to do so.

If you go to this page you can add a bunch of accessories for free to your order (and on some of the other bodies also get special deals on select lenses)

For the body only you can add these to your shopping cart for free (directly from that page):

So that's $200 worth of very useful accessories - I mean, have you ever heard someone refusing to receive a free SanDisk memory card or an additional battery pack?

If you go for the kit with the Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM Lens then you can *also* add the Dolica WT-1003 67-Inch Lightweight Monopod to your order for free

Additionally there's also a 2% back Reward running at the moment (and the 5D mark III is one of the qualifying bodies)

Mark III is in Da House

2012-07-26T08:52:00.000-07:00

I've just started unboxing this lot:

Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS II USM
Canon E2 Hand Strap
SanDisk Extreme Pro 16GB UDMA7 CF card
Lowepro Urban Photo Sling 250

Battery is charging and I've begun chewing my way through the 401 page manual that comes with the camera.

Camera felt nicely heavy so I put it on the kitchen scale - and then did the same with my Nikon D70s with the 70-300mm lens attached. The Mark III body alone is just 200gr shy of the complete Nikon setup.

Time to attach the hand strap and the neck strap and get the sling bag set up as I want it.

I've lost my patience

2012-07-26T00:09:00.000-07:00

I've been hanging on to the shop where I ordered my Canon 5D Mark III for quite some time now - partly because the shop came recommended from a few friends and largely because the camera was $200 cheaper than the other shops.

This shop isn't the only one that have been changing their delivery dates - other shops have had identical patterns in their promised delivery dates.

Until recently where some shops started listing the body as "in store" while other stores still have it backordered.

On the 18th they changed the promised date from July 20 to July 30 and this morning they changed it once again - this time it's August 8th.

And today it pushed me over the edge.

It's not that I don't care about the $200 difference, but it has gotten to a point where I care more about getting my camera than saving some money.

So today I'm setting out to find a shop that have both the Canon 5D Mark III and the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS II USM available.

Will I end up paying more for my gear than originally planned? - sure, but there's a point where wanting the camera trumps wanting the discount - and I'm at that point now.

Preparing for the worst

2012-07-17T23:49:00.000-07:00

The latest ~~promise~~ ~~estimate~~ ~~guess~~ wishful thinking about the delivery date of the Canon 5D Mark III I ordered on May 15 is two days from now.

And if today is anything like the other promised delivery dates, then the shop will receive too few units from Canon today to empty their queue of anxiously awaiting customers.

After that Canon will probably promise to have the units delivered on July 25 and the shop where I ordered my camera will set the date to July 27.

Win a Canon 5D Mark III, a Nikon D800 or some of the bonus prizes

2012-06-26T14:22:00.000-07:00

Like to win a 5D Mark III?

BorrowLenses is celebrating their 5th anniversary with a contest for a brand new Nikon D800 or a Canon 5D Mark III.

Given my history of having the delivery date of my 5D Mark III postponed over and over again I might stand a better chance of winning one instead :-)

Very cheap Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 IS II USM

2012-06-22T05:23:00.000-07:00

(Too) cheap Canon zoom lens

Too good to be true - and it didn't last more than a few minutes.

I have a price agent monitoring when this 70-200mm lens drops below a certain threshold.

And this morning I got an email that the price had dropped below my threshold.

So I went to check it out, and was very surprised to see the lens for the extremely low (and obviously wrong) price of DKK 77 - the equivalent of $13.

It only lasted for a few minutes before they corrected their price.

The price at this store is now back to DKK 19462 - or $3285.

This price is roughly $985 higher than the current prices at both Amazon and Adorama - it absolutely sucks that the prices of camera gear is so high in Denmark.

I've jinxed myself...again

2012-06-19T07:18:00.001-07:00

Smiley nospeak (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Talking about how close I am to getting my 5D Mark III delivered is a sure way to have the delivery date postponed - again.

When I checked my order a few hours ago the date had changed from June 22 to July 7.

So naturally I contact the store again to get some info on the believability of this new date.

First reply I get is that they expect it to arrive on June 22.

So I call them on the fact that my order page was changed from June 22 to July7.

Not really fair because the changes had been visible for a few minutes when I contacted them and the poor guy in customer support had no way of knowing this.

Anyway, the reply now is that they will receive a limited number of units on the 22. and that they will go to the first people in the queue.

Obviously I don't understand this - if the date on my order in June 22 how come I'm not one of those people who are first on the list?

And more importantly, how can I now put any trust in the new delivery date? I have no idea how many people are ahead of me in the queue so any number of units could go to someone else.

So I ask for his best estimate (not a guarantee) based on his experience with how Canon delivers on their promises and adheres to promised delivery dates.

And this is where it starts to get really interesting.

He says that if they start delivering (which they haven't so far), then there's a good chance. And then he adds that they are behind because of the big demand and that they've only delivered to their official partners so far.

So now I'm pissed at both the store and Canon Denmark.

The store could have told me the first time I contacted them that they are not official Canon partners and that they don't really expect to receive any unit from Canon before their official partners have been served first.

And Canon Denmark could have told me when I contacted them that they are only shipping to their official partners so far.

Since when have keeping important information from your paying customers been a good way to run your business and improve your reputation as a trustworthy company?

4 days left...again

2012-06-18T13:24:00.001-07:00

frustration (Photo credit: Sean MacEntee)

I'm driving people crazy.

My 5D Mark III should arrive in 4 days, but it wouldn't be the first time they pushed the delivery date - and sadly, I'm beginning to expect them to postpone it...again

It's so frustrating that nobody can give me solid and permanent delivery date - it's more like a Letter of Intent than a true promise.

Is this the usual way Canon launch new cameras?

I think they made this video just for me

2012-06-14T14:45:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago Peter Kent pointed me in the direction of a video by The Camera Store

And one would have thought that they shot this video - a battle between Canon 5D Mark III and the Nikon D800 - just for me.

The "battleground" was an indoor riding arena and they were shooting a cutting competition.

Indoor arenas usually have horrible lighting conditions.

The lights are usually placed high up in the air and are far from sufficient to light up the arena properly
The lights are not one type of light but several different types
The light is far from uniform across the arena
Sometimes you have streaks of daylight coming in through the roof
And once in a while the port isn't closed so you'll have streaks coming in there as well

I don't shoot cutting competitions, but I do shoot dressage and show jumping competitions, so I needed a camera with high ISO/low noise capabilities because I will be shooting at high shutter speeds.

So having Mike and Drew test the two cameras I had been considering, and name the 5D Mark III (which I had settled on) the winner was very nice indeed.

I'm a bit scared about how Mike use the lenses as armrests, but when you look at his own "old" camera, the Mark II, you can see that he doesn't spare his equipment - it has been used...heavily used.

This is not A Few Good Men you know - I actually CAN handle the truth

2012-06-14T03:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I contacted the shop where I've ordered my 5D mark III to find out some more about this continous postponing of the delivery date.

Historically they have postponed it 1 week exactly - every time they got near their previously promised date.

So I wanted to know if these dates where actual dates where they genuinely expected to have the body delivered by Canon or if they just added one more week when they got close to the deadline.

The answer I got was that these are the dates set by Canon, but that Canon have been extending the shipping dates every week and that Canon wont make any 100% promises.

So, armed with this info I contacted Canon Denmark to hear if they just set arbitrary dates or if they actually believed that they would ship a unit to the store on the promised date.

The answer I got back from Canon Denmark wasn't really helpful.

They started by saying that they don't have access to the stores selling their gear - duh, please tell me something new.

Then they ask me to contact the store for a delivery date - and this is after I told Canon that the dates the store gave me was supposed to come from Canon themselves.

The followup paragraph is a useless - "we deliver on a first come, first served basis"

Yeah, but you still haven't answered my question: Are you promising the stores that are selling your gear a specific date on when they can expect to receive the gear from you(Canon)?

Wouldn't it just have been nice if Canon had said "no, we never supply delivery dates to any store - it must have been something they made up" - then I would have known it was the store making up the dates. Then I could cancel my order and find another store.

Or better yet "We expected to receive X number of unit on Date Y, and based on this we notified each store with an expected delivery date. On date Y-3 we unfortunately got news that the units got delayed; we now expect to receive them on Date Z and we've notified the stores about this delay"

Also, if the delay is because the first units had to be sent straight back to the factory to have the light leak issue fixed, then please tell the stores that this is the cause for the delay, so they can notify their customers.

And please put a big fat sign up on your website if you have delivery problems - or at least put it on the support page for the 5D Mark III.

This is not A Few Good Men you know - I actually CAN handle the truth.

T-3 - Can you sense I'm getting a bit impatient?

2012-06-11T23:57:00.001-07:00

Some would call it being impatient - others would say obsessed or compulsive.

Whatever you call it I'm checking the delivery date of my new camera every morning right after getting out of bed.

Today is a good day because the estimated delivery date of the Mark III is still June 15 :-)

T-4: Just 4 days from expected delivery of my new camera

2012-06-11T04:57:00.001-07:00

I just checked the order on my Canon 5D Mark III today and the estimated delivery date still says June 15.

If I'm really lucky the estimated date will be correct, and the camera will be at the shop on the 15th ready to be shipped to me.

If the luck continues then I can pick it up at the post office Saturday the 16th.

If the "usual" pattern repeats itself, then they'll change the delivery date to June 22 within the next day or two.

I don't mind waiting (that much), but if they don't have a confirmed date from Canon for the delivery, then I'd rather not see any date at all - be upfront and I'm one happy camper.

Another camera bag recommendation: Tamrac 5788 Evolution 8

2012-06-06T22:48:00.000-07:00

When I asked for camera bag recommendations over at dpreview.com I was first recommended the DH 50 V2.0 holster type bag from Think Tank.

Next next suggested bag was the Sling-O-Matic 20 - also from Think Tank.

The third recommendation I got was for the Tamrac 5788 Evolution 8.

While the Sling-O-Matic is a sling bag that can also work as a backpack the Tamrac is the other way around - it's a backpack with side access which means it can be used as a sling bag.

It doesn't look like it will hold my 70-200mm with the hood attached, so I wouldn't be able to use it as a sling bag, but it looks like a very rugged bag that I would feel comfortable keeping my gear in.

I've added the Tamrac to a page with the other camera bag recommendations

Delivery date... postponed... again...

2012-06-04T23:37:00.000-07:00

It's beginning to be a little bit tedious.

When I ordered my 5D Mark III on the 15th of May the estimated delivery date was May 23.

On May 22 the estimated delivery date was changed to June 8.

On June 4 this date was once again postponed - this time they claim June 15.

I know I've said I'm not in a hurry, but now I'm also beginning to see other camera shops in Denmark list the camera as being in stock - and that annoys me.

It puzzles me that they can have the Mark III in stock while the one I ordered 3 weeks ago looks like it won't even arrive at the store until sometime next week.

Another great recommendation for a large sling bag

2012-05-31T13:28:00.000-07:00

Just as I hadn't really thought about holster bags I had kinda given up on the idea of a sling bag that would fit a 70-200mm lens with the hood extended - in shooting position, and ready to be used the second it's out of the bag.

But then I had another recommendation from the dpreview.com forum. This time also for a Think Tank bag - a Sling-O-Matic 20.

The Sling-O-Matic 20 will fit my gear nicely, the 10 seems too small and the 30 is just too big for the equipment I plan on using.

The bag doesn't really look like much - it's basically just a square box, so it won't win any design awards for its looks.

But, just like the DH 50 V2.0 I got a recommendation for yesterday, this one will, according to Think Tank themself, fit my body, my lens and the hood.

Check out this promo video from Think Tank to get a feeling for the size of gear that will fit inside.

I've added this Think Tank bag to the page with the other recommended camera bags

A holster bag might be the solution for me

2012-05-30T14:05:00.000-07:00

When I started looking for a camera bag for my still not delivered Canon 5D Mark III I didn't think of looking at holster bags - I simply thought they were too small to hold anything of the length I was looking for.

But it turns out that I was wrong, and there are indeed holster - or top loaders - that will fit a good sized DSLR with a 70-200mm zoom and the hood attached (extended)

I posted in the dpreview.com forum for suggestions to a bag and one user came back with a recommendation for a specific Think Tank bag - the DH 50 V2.0.

Unlike most other camera bag descriptions Think Tank didn't just provide the internal and external dimensions, but they mentioned specific lenses that would fit in the bag, on a Pro-size DSLR and with the hood extended.

Lowepro seems to make a similar bag - the Toploader Pro 75 AW - but I can't find any description or review that tells me exactly what I can expect to fit in the bag.

I've added the bag recommended in the forum to a page with some of the other suggested camera bags

Which camera bag should I buy?

2012-05-29T12:40:00.000-07:00

I'm looking for advice on a camera bag.

I've looked at the reviews of quite a lot of them, but I still can't point my finger at any bag that will be the best fit for my needs.

I've looked at a lot of different types of bags (shoulder, back and sling) but I just can't figure out which one will be the most useful for me.

What do I need it for?

I have a daughter that rides horses, so 95% of all pictures are of an equestrian nature from showjumping and dressage

competitions.

My old camera (or current until my Mark III arrives) is a Nikon D70s with a 70-300mm lens.

I usually have my kit lens with me in the car, but find that I rarely switch lenses.

My tripod is usually in the back of my car and I find that I don't use it very often.

My thoughts about the different types of camera bags

When I started getting more and more into photography and started "wearing" my camera everywhere I went I played with the idea of getting a sling bag. I liked the idea of having the camera safely tugged away, but with fast access.

But when I decided to get the 5D Mark III with the 70-200mm IS II USM I kinda left that idea behind thinking that I couldn't find a sling bag that would fit this combo.

Then I started looking at backpacks and shoulder bags - and I'm still torn between the two.

Backpacks are convenient to carry around and with plenty of room.

I don't see myself doing any trekking with my gear, but when we're out at competition I sometimes need to handle the horse and I'd rather not do that with my camera wedged between myself and a horse. So it would be nice with a bag nearby to safely tug my camera away for the next 10 minutes.

I will almost always be near my car, so that left me thinking about the type of bag that I never thought I would buy - one of those square shoulderbags.

90% of the time I'll be using the bag as a storage unit where all my gear can sit securely while it gets transported to and from competitions, but then I'll be missing out on the option to tug my camera away in a jiffy.

So I think the best bag for my needs will be a backpack.

And now the big question:

Which one should I get?

I don't have a lot of gear and don't really plan on carrying multiple bodies and multiple lenses with me.

In essence I just need something to safely transport my gear in the back of a car which I can also carry around for safekeeping my gear whenever I need to handle a horse.

The perfect bag would be large enough to hold a 5D Mark III and the 70-200mm with the hood attached

Any ideas?

Deciding on a lens for my Canon 5D Mark III

2012-05-22T15:05:00.000-07:00

Deciding on a lens for my new Canon 5D Mark III was no easy task - and yet in the end it seemed there was only one obvious choice.

The lens I was looking for needed to have these 3 traits:

Image stabilization
Fast
Zoomable

Image stabilization

It's rare that there is room for a tripod where I shoot and I would be scared of somebody knocking it over when passing me, so it needed to be an IS lens.

I've never shot with a IS lens before, but the idea of being able to stop down multiple f-stops made this one a must-have.

Fast

Half the year I shoot indoors in poorly and unevenly lit riding arenas, so I knew a slow lens wouldn't cut it. Despite the camera itself having excellent low light performance I knew I wasn't going rely on high ISO capabilities saving pictures shot with a slow lens, so I opted for a f/2.8 lens

Zoom

I could have gone for a prime lens, but shooting horses at competitions means that they will sometimes pass a few meters in front of me only to ride to the far end of a 60m arena - so I couldn't live without a zoom lens.

The options

I had been using a Nikkor 70-300mm 4.0/5.6G zoom on my aging Nikon D70s. So, since I was going from a cropped sensor to a full-frame camera I initially looked at something that would go beyond 300mm to make up for the angle of view loss I would get from going full-frame.

So I went looking for a 400mm lens.

Looking for speed (f/2.8) and image stabilization (IS) I had the option of a neat looking Canon EF 400mm f/2.8L IS II USM Image Stabilizer Super Telephoto Lens. There were two downsides though - a) it wasn't a zoom lens and b) the price didn't have a very high WAF (Wife Approval Factor) - even the grey market version didn't make the price sufficiently less painfull.

Zoom lenses that could reach 400mm would be either the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM AutoFocus Image Stabilized Telephoto Zoom Lens or the Sigma 120-400mm f/4.5-5.6 DG APO OS (Optical Stabilizer) HSM AutoFocus Telephoto Zoom Lens.

Both these zoom lenses were affordable, but fully zoomed they were both f/5.6 aperture lenses so they were not an option either.

Looking at the 300mm range was the same - either I could get speed and image stabilization (from the Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM Image Stabilizer AutoFocus Telephoto Lens) - or I could get zoom and IS (from the Canon EF 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6L IS USM AutoFocus Wide Angle Telephoto Zoom Lens)

The 28-300mm does btw look like a very versatile lens - IS, great range and semi-fast when zoomed out.

Initially I didn't really want to look in the 200mm range because I felt I wasn't going to be able to capture the horses properly (as in roughly filling the picture) at the far end of the arena since I would go from 300mm to 200mm and from cropped sensor to full-frame.

I went through plenty of pages explaining the different differences between cropped and full-frame, the difference in image quality, the difference in effective focal lenght and the difference in angle of view - and everytime I read another page I was more confused than before.

I ended up using ther Focal Lenght Comparison Tools from Tamron and Nikon (the one from Canon was utterly useless for my purposes)

Playing with these tools I was able to visually compare the difference between 300mm on a cropped sensor and 200mm on a full-frame sensor - and there really is a big difference.

I would have needed somewhere around 475mm zoom on my Mark III to get the equivalent framing or angle of view as I get from 300mm on my D70s.

Or another way to look at it - zooming fully in (300mm) on my D70s I get an angle of view of 5.2 while I would get 12.2 with 200mm on my Canon.

Sadly I couldn't find any tool that would allow me to compare the image quality and pixel count from a picture taken on a 22.3 MP full-frame sensor at 200mm when it's cropped to match the same subject taken with a 6.0 MP cropped sensor at 300mm.

In the end I figured (or hoped) that the improved quality from the lens together with the higher pixel count and the better image quality from the sensor itself would make up for the lack of zoom.

The decision

And so I decided on the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM AutoFocus Telephoto Zoom Lens.

While researching the lens it also dawned on me that the downside of not being able to get the same narrow angle of view when fully zoomed in is at the same time an upside when fully zoomed out since both lenses start at 70mm - which on my new full-frame sensor means that I can capture horses closer to the barrier than before (with the angle of view going from 21.8 degree to 34.1 degree).

Could I have gone for the IS instead of the IS II? - sure, but the reviews of the IS II (especially when compared to the 'old' IS) were so great that I convinced myself so much that I was also able to convince my wife that the pictures would get significantly sharper - even at low light - and who is she to resist better pictures of her horses :-)

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM

New delivery date for my Canon 5D Mark III: June 8

2012-05-16T23:56:00.000-07:00

New delivery date for my Canon 5D Mark III: June 8

Guess it shouldn't come as a surprise, but sad to see the estimated delivery date of my new Canon 5D Mark III jumping from the 23th this month to the 8th next month.

Still a long time until indoor season starts again, so plenty of time for the body to arrive and for the price of the lens I've got my eyes on to drop back to the plateau price it was at just a few weeks back.

I've ordered my Canon EOS 5D Mark III

2012-05-15T14:02:00.001-07:00

Canon EOS 5D Mark III (body only)

There's no turning back now - I've clicked the order button for my new Canon EOS 5D Mark III :-)

The availability of the 5D Mark III is more scarse than confirmed Yeti sightings, but there's a chance it willl ship on May 23th.

In reality I'm not that concerned with the shipping date since the outdoor showjumping and dressage season have started. The limitations of my old D70s were all related to poor lighting - and I won't need to shoot in those conditions until October when the indoor season starts.

This is by far the most expensive item I've ever purchased online, and I'm not even done shopping yet.

So far I've only ordered the body and a new Compact Flash (CF) card - The CF card I had in my Nikon D70s was only 1GB. It held 178 NEFs which was sufficient for a "normal" day shooting horses, but the size of the RAW images in the 5D Mark III is just so much bigger that I would run out of space very fast.

Next stop on my shopping spree will be a lens, a protective lens filter and a SDHC card for the other slot in the camera.

The final item, for now, will be a backpack large enough to hold the camera with the lens attached, and possibly with room for D70s with it's kit lens.

I've finally decided on my next new camera - the Canon EOS 5D Mark III

2012-05-15T05:15:00.001-07:00

I've finally decided on my next new camera - the Canon EOS 5D Mark III.

My first DSLR was a Nikon D70s which I have now outgrown. I'm not a professional photographer, I'm not even an expert photographer, I'm more of a happy amateur that have bumped his head against the limitations and constraints of his current camera.

Initially I looked at the reviews of the Nikon D800 and D800e, but somehow I ended up looking at the 5D Mark III as well.

I knew I couldn't justify getting a D4 or a 1D X, but both the D800 and the 5D Mark III was within budget.

Deciding on the new camera: Check
Getting the wife to think it's necessary and not just nice to have: Check
Getting it delivered: .....

The availability of the 5D Mark III at the moment is nothing to brag about, and very few shops will commit to a shipping date - I guess they are all just waiting for their ordered units to ship from Canon.

I'm placing my order today with the company I think has the new camera in store relatively shortly... and then I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

My New Canon Camera

Awesome deals on Canon cameras on Amazon

Mark III is in Da House

I've lost my patience

Preparing for the worst

Win a Canon 5D Mark III, a Nikon D800 or some of the bonus prizes

Like to win a 5D Mark III?

Very cheap Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 IS II USM

(Too) cheap Canon zoom lens

I've jinxed myself...again

4 days left...again

I think they made this video just for me

Related articles

This is not A Few Good Men you know - I actually CAN handle the truth

T-3 - Can you sense I'm getting a bit impatient?

T-4: Just 4 days from expected delivery of my new camera

Another camera bag recommendation: Tamrac 5788 Evolution 8

Delivery date... postponed... again...

Another great recommendation for a large sling bag

A holster bag might be the solution for me

Which camera bag should I buy?

What do I need it for?

My thoughts about the different types of camera bags

Which one should I get?

Deciding on a lens for my Canon 5D Mark III

Image stabilization

Fast

Zoom

The options

The decision

New delivery date for my Canon 5D Mark III: June 8

I've ordered my Canon EOS 5D Mark III

I've finally decided on my next new camera - the Canon EOS 5D Mark III