I’m pretty sure I touched on this a while back, but in a way Lonely Planet was sort of the reason I got into photography, so being able to work for them and get some publications with them gives me a lot of satisfaction.

14 years ago, when I was 20 years old I took my first photographs. I was in my third year of university, studying psychology at the University of St-Andrews and during the summer holidays I went off to Thailand for a month and then Malaysia, Singapore and Borneo for a month. I’d never taken any photos up until then and I’d realized I’d had nothing solid to remind me of all the good times I’d spent with people, so I wanted something to help me record my memories of my first big trip and I bought a little point and shoot canon camera and figured I’d use a roll of film a day and took one roll for each day I traveled. I headed off South East Asia with a ruck sack, my new camera, some rolls of film, enough cash to allow me to stay in the cheapest places and get the local buses everywhere and a few Lonely Planet guidebooks from which I would choose places to visit. I’d choose mainly on the basis of the photos I saw and when I arrived places I saw in my guidebook, I’d try to figure out where the photo was taken from and I’d try to go to the same spot to try and get the photos like I saw in my guidebooks and from then on I was hooked on photography and I remember thinking “how cool would it be to take photos for a guidebook!” That thought always stayed with me and I really become hooked on travel and photography from then on. I remember returning to university and being so disappointed that my travels were over, I sat in the library studying for tests but my head was way off somewhere else, exploring the rainforests in Borneo where I hiked and hitched lifts on logging ships, the temples of Thailand and the weird and wonderful people I met. Study just didn’t seem so interesting any more after I’d seen a bit more of the world. I knuckled down and studied hard, graduated, was offered a Wellcome prize scholarship to got to the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at U.C.L in London to study for a Ph.D whilst doing research on human memory using fMRI and E.R.P technology. It was one of these things that sounded more difficult than it was. I was spending sometimes up to 18 hours a day at my computer or in the labs, running massive statistics (computers were slow back then) to find which areas of the brain had increased blood/electrical activity when subjects encountered in a test phase, a word of picture they had seen in a study phase and then I had to compare it to the brain activity seen when subjects encountered new words or pictures they hadn’t seen during a study phase. For the first 3 months I felt very lucky to have been given such a good scholarship to study somewhere so good and I genuinely felt honoured, but after 6 months I began wondering “is this really what I want to be doing in life?” After a year I told my supervisor I wanted to quit, but seeing as how I’d already done a lot of the work needed for my Ph.D I was persuaded to stay on for another year to complete things. I stayed, but each day in the lab just made me more and more frustrated, I took a trip to Peru for a month I told my supervisor I was going away for a few days and sent an email from Peru saying I’d be back in a month….didn’t go down too well) with my best friend to try and sort my head out whilst trekking the Inca trail and even climbing some 6000 m + peaks. Once again, I had my Lonely Planet guidebook with me and it helped take me to different places and I tried to take photos like I saw there. However, this trip just made me yearn for more adventures and I came back to London even more down about my life and I really remember each day struggling to get out of bed and go to the lab. I wanted to quit, but everyone told me I’d be stupid to do so, I’d soon get my Ph.D, I had a glittering career ahead of me, I was already getting a lot of publications in respected journals, so if I just hung on a little bit more…anyway, here are some screen shots from my old publications:

Two years into my Ph.D and I felt I couldn’t hand on anymore, I really felt like I was going crazy, working in an office with the same guys for 2 years and other than saying “hello” in the morning and “see you tomorrow” when we left, we barely talked. It was all about work. When we had tea break and I met other researchers, they talked about work. I just felt like I didn’t fit in, I didn’t have the drive they did to be scientists, I had kind of fallen into it as it was an easy option for me and I felt guilty as my supervisor kept reminding me a lot of people would have given anything to be in my position, and if I just stuck at it a little bit longer…….

So, a few months after coming back from Peru, I went home via a bookstore and picked up a book of short stories by Leo Tolstoy, I believe there were 4 stories, but two of them I remember clearly, “The death of Ivan Illyic” and “How much land does a man need.?” Both stories about how we lead our lives before we die. Both of the main characters have lives they enjoy, but in the pursuit of money, or land they change how they live and the outcome wasn’t happy. These stories had a huge impact on me, I felt like I was the characters, pursuing a life I wasn’t happy with and not leaving as I was being paid well, I was about to become a Dr. (I did like the idea of calling myself Dr. I must admit), but most of all it just made me realize that there was a lot of things in life I wanted to do but was basically too scared to go and do it and I could imagine myself being 40 years old, stuck in a lab and being thoroughly miserable and being full of regrets. so they next day I went straight to my supervisor, quit my Ph.D with less than a year remaining and a few months later I landed in Japan. I only planned on coming for a year and I started working as a teacher in a language school, but then I soon began teaching in university which gave me long holidays where I could travel more in Japan and around Asia and take photos as I did it, so I decided to stay a bit longer and with all the time off I had I started taking more and more photos and learning whatever I could, mostly from friends who were already photographers. I started having small exhibitions of photos, getting some publications here and there and over time my hobby started to became a job, first just little things here and there, but over time things grew and grew. Ten years on I am getting ready to leave Japan, I am leaving with a wonderful wife, a lot of good memories, a different outlook on life and a job I am really in love with as well, so it’s kind of nice to have one of my final publications in Japan being on the cover of a book by a company who in some way played a part in me getting here in the first place. I’ve made a lot of mistakes down the years, but now I don’t have any regrets about my life is now.

Soon Sue and I are starting over again and there are no guarantees it will all work out for us, but now we are satisfied with what we have achieved in Japan and life here is going well for us, it’s time to move on again and pursue new challenges, because we know if we didn’t, ten years from now we may well just be looking back and thinking “what if we just tried those things we dreamed of?” A new journey is about to start, it’s scarey, there are no guarantees, but there won’t be any regrets about not trying.

Anyway, back to the original topic of the post, our first publication of the year. I only meant to write about the shoot itself, but it just turned into something completely different as I’m sitting in our living room enjoying my Saturday morning coffee….I think I am getting nostalgic these days. So, it was almost exactly a year ago I got an email from Lonely Planet asking me if I’d be interested in shooting the cover of their next “Tokyo Encounters” book and I was more than happy to say yes. The deadline for getting it done was pretty tight, but a couple of phone calls, a fax and an email later and everything was fixed for us to do an early morning shoot of an artwork in the lobby of the Peninsula Hotel in the Ginza area of Tokyo. We had to do early morning to minimize and inconvenience to guests, so we were up at 4am to get the first train from our place just after 5am on a cold January morning with our camera bag, tripod bag and a change of clothes for Sue as she was going to be an addition to the shot:

We arrived at the Peninsula about 5.50am. Our scheduled time to shoot was pretty generous, from 6am-6.30am, but we already had our goal in mind, a shot of the artwork in the lobby, focus on it, with Sue admiring it and having her dark to keep the focus on the art, so to be honest we didn’t really need that much time. Sue got changed, I set up the tripod with my 5DmkII and 24-70mm f2.8L and 580EX speedlite, I did some test shots to check the ambient light and see if I needed any fill light (just a little, so I powered down the flash quite a bit) and I were ready to shoot.

Seeing as how we already had the image in mind we wanted to get, there wasn’t a lot of options other than having Sue in different places for each shot, so I did some of her standing and some of her walking past the art work. I put on my 50mm f1.2L lens for a couple of shots, but within a couple of minutes I had enough material I was happy with and we wrapped it up, no fuss whatsoever much to the pleasure of the hotel’s PR manager who was quite happy we were done so quickly and without any fuss. I think he was quite surprised, but there was no point in flogging a dead horse and doing much more than we needed. Sue got changed, I packed up and we headed to the world’s biggest fish market, Tsukiji, which was nearby, so we could have a nice fresh sushi breakfast. Then we went home, I edited up and sent 10 different cuts to Lonely Planet, here are some examples:

Finally, the editors chose this image to become the cover shot:

And here’s how it finally looked, not too bad at all:

I ordered a couple of copies online and sent them to my parent’s place in Scotland, so we’ll see finally see it when we get there…only another 73 days.

Usually I like to end the year with a review of that year in photos of some of the work we have done, but a combination of working up until the 29th and having my best friend from Scotland and his fiancee over to visit has slightly delayed things a bit this time round. As with most years, 2011 came and went in what seems like no time, but in the last few years it was probably 2011 that impacted our lives most. The events of March 11th gave us a lot to think about and after a years of good times and bad, am really grateful that my friends and family are all happy and healthy, you can’t really ask for anything else.

2011 got off to a good start. In January Sue quit her job working for an architects firm and started helping me more, I had landed a job as chief photographer at Whisky Mag Japan, work was flowing in nicely, I did my first product shoots and the year was off to a good start:

In February, things continued to go well. Lots of assignments for Whisky Mag Japan, once again we were chief photographers for Asia’s biggest Whisky event, Whisky Live Tokyo 2011, we had some great fun private hires, work from one of our UK trend forecasting clients was regular, things were really going well and the cold of Spring wasn’t getting us down:

March changed our lives. It started off wonderfully, we covered Tokyo Girls Collection for Tokyofashion.com, had our first wedding anniversary, had a great assignment to Hokkaido, we were supposed to be there from March 8th-12th, with the 11th being a day for us out at sea photographing ice-bergs, but unfortunately (I thought at the time) we couldn’t get a boat to take us near the ice-bergs and we returned home early on March 10th. The next day March 11th and huge earthquake and tsunami killed more than 20′000 people. In a year which had started off so well for so many people changed in an instant. We were in a shopping center when the quake struck, it felt like the place was going to fall down around us and the ground shook so much it felt like we were running drunk when we tried to get out. Once outside and safe we could barely stand for the temors.The trains had stopped and there were no buses or taxis so we had to walk home. I remember getting in expecting the worst, but our place was thankfully barely damaged. I remember backing up my photos from Hokkaido as the TV showed images of the tsunami damaged areas burning. With the nuclear power plant in Fukushima exploding and the threat of radiation it was a very scary time, trains stopped running, phones didn’t work, panic buying emptied the stores and despite some very financially tempting offers to get up north as soon as possible from some newspapers, I stayed put with Sue as I didn’t want to leave her alone. Family comes first, always. Since March 11th there have been a total of 6757 aftershocks as of today, still not an ideal situation and the fear remains. When the situation in Japan just seemed to get worse and all our work for the next two months got cancelled, so we left for a month and went to the UK where luckily we managed to pick up work:

We returned to Japan mid April. We had already decided that we were going to move back to Scotland. It had been on our mind for a few years, but the events of March and a lot of soul searching led us to decide that our best option for the future was to leave Japan. A day after we got back to Japan we had a decent work offer for the UK. Had it been 2 days earlier, we may not have come back. It was a hard time, in April and May we only had one small assignment and at times I really did wonder if we had made the right decision in coming back. However, the one assignment, a store review for Tokyofashion.com was interesting in that the owner of the store really was the kind of person who had come up with a concept she loved for her store, she designed it around the theme of the “Wizard of Oz” and offered “English, Japanese and Furbish” (Furbies are animal/aline things…I think?) language services on her website, perhaps 99% of people wouldn’t think it was a good idea, but she stuck to her guns, opened a business and kept it going with her passion and for me that struck a chord. Also, we’d started to arrange plenty of work from June, so our spirits were good from May despite lack of actual hands on work:

June saw the work load come back and we were much more relieved. We traveled to Kanazawa on assignment for Whisky Magazine Japan and I had lots of assignments for them in and around Tokyo. It felt really good to be working again and as always, we got to meet lots of great people whilst on assignment. There was even a wedding thrown in for good measure:

July saw things continue to go well, there wasn’t a whole pile of work to do as we were getting ready to go to Korea near the end of the month and I was also spending time sorting out a Lonely Planet submission. Still, we had some show reviews which were nice:

Whilst in Korea in August I did some work for various clients and I got a nice offer to cover some corporate events for the biggest Casino’s in Asia and they flew me back to Japan earlier than I had planned, but I managed to double up the jobs in Tokyo and Osaka with other work, so it all worked out well. All the while Sue was still in Korea (for a further 5 weeks) to get her driving license so she can convert it to a British license once we get there:

September rolled around and there were more fashion shows to cover for Tokyofashion.com with Tokyo Girls Collection, some more exhibition reviews for Stylus, a really good live music gig with Rafven for Whisky Mag Japan and I continued to have fun with work. Luckily Sue got back as well, driving license in hands and the world is now a slightly less safe place to be:

October was a busy month, our first baby shoot, Mercedes Benz fashion week for Tokyofashion.com, work on a Living Japan Guide to Tokyo, so plenty to keep us busy:

November saw us busy again, more fashion shows and live acts to cover for Tokyofashion.com at the Tokyo Girls Award, a family portrait, more work on the Living Japan Guide and a trip to Kyoto for Sue’s work, for me a time to relax:

December was about winding down a bit and getting more and more ready for our move to Scotland (in 81 days from now), packing boxes, preparing Sue’s visa application, seeing friends, but we squeezed in a bit of work for the wonderful people at Tokyofashion.com who I am very grateful to for giving us so much work and so much fun for yet another year, the Grimoire Xmas party I previously blogged about and the Harajuku Kawaii fashion show:

So, 2011 was a big year for us, we did lots work wise, we were lucky to stay healthy despite all that happened in Japan and our thoughts really do go out to those who suffered in Japan and in other disasters and wars around the world. Every year brings hardship to the world and I feel truly lucky that Sue, myself and our friends and families managed to be happy and have fun doing what we do, we were lucky to have avoided hardships, we got to travel lots of amazing places, meet some great people we have become friends with through work and spend great times with our old friends as well.

I really am grateful for all our good fortune in 2011 and we feel ready for the challenges of 2012. I know this is going to be a hard year, moving country will see a big drop in work for a while, but I am sure that over time we’ll build something better.

Anyway, rather than rambling on about the shoot too much, I just want to say I had a really good time covering the Grimoire Xmas party 2011 for Tokyofashion.com. Normally I don’t pull all nighters for work, but I’ve covered a Grimoire party before and all the people there are so nice and friendly I really didn’t want to pass up the chance to shoot this. My assignment was to photograph as many interesting people as possible, showing their fashion, full body, crops and details when possible. All 250+ photos from my assignment can be found here at Tokyofashion.com, but here are some of my favourites from a Dolly Kei Christmas party in Tokyo, almost all of which were shot with my 5DmkII and 24-70mm lens with an 580EX speedlite used off camera via my ST-E2 transmitter. A slightly belated Merry Xmas from me too:

Recently we had were hired to shoot a combo corporate/family portrait of the Kawashima family who are the owners of Japan’s biggest concrete firm.

It wasn’t a done deal from the word go. Sue had taken out an advertisment with our website on it and the company contacted us for an initial interview where the company’s CEO looked through our portfolio (which he was very happy with) and listened to our proposal of how we wanted to approach the shoot. Sitting in their boardroom surrounded by photos of everyone in suits behind desks it would have been easy to suggest a straight on nicer version of what we saw around us photo wise, but Sue had already figured it’d be nice to do something a bit different and wanted to incorporate the hobbies of the family members into the shoot. In the boardroom there was also some sport/hobby memorabilia which fitted in with her ideas. Sue suggested that we photograph each family member on/next to one of their concrete trucks in the grounds of their factory and then do a mainly documentary approach of them at work in their offices and make a book out of it all…Sue’s proposal went down well and we got hired on the spot and were asked to hire a hair and make up artist to help out. After being hired we walked about the factory and decided the best spots to shoot from and made notes for Sue and I to work over the finer details. With our ideas decided, all that remained was to pack up the night before and this is what we took with us, quite a lot but we used the most of it, for those things we didn’t use it’s better to have something you don’t need as opposed to needing something you didn’t bring:

We were hired to do a 3 hour shoot at their factory in early November. The day before the forecast was for heavy rain, the morning was pouring down but by afternoon the sun was out and everything dried up, however when we were on the way to the shoot we got a call to say that due to a heavy work load, our 3 hour shoot was now down to 90 mins, not a problem. Times often change, it’s something we are used to. Shooting was scheduled for a 3pm start, but we were there at 1.30pm with Junko the hair and make up artist, that gave her time to do her work and allow Sue and I to set up lights, make notes on ambient light, do test shots and our usual set up. Easier said than done in the factory as more than 400 trucks a day go in and out the gates (where we were shooting to get the factory in the background) and we were there at the busiest time of the day when there was 1-2 trucks a minute coming and going. There was also a bit of wind, the umbrellas and softbox on the light stands kept getting blown over, so we had to go for bare speedlites on stands and also have Sue holding a third speedlite when needed, all being triggered by the ST-E2 transmitter which mostly worked well, but sometimes it just didn’t kick in when the sun was really setting.

Anyway, the shoot started with each family member dressed up in hobby/work clothes in the factory yard. The sun was already going down, so to get the details in the colours of the clothes and make each family member “pop” we had to get the speedlites working all the time. First up, we shot the uncle.

For each family member, first up Sue would explain how she wanted them to pose:

Then I’d work out the ambient light to bring out the sky, but as you can see this made the subject a bit dark:

So with a speedlite (camera right for this one) we got the shots we went about getting the shots we needed:

The initial spot for shooting was a bit too dangerous as trucks were whizzing by and we were running to get stands out of the way every 30 seconds or so, so we moved on to shooting each family member more to the side of the yard where we could work undisturbed, for each member getting a wide shot with a truck in it as well as a close up shot. We shot the grandmother, father, mother and son all on their own:

Then after each individual shoot, we did a whole family shot. By this time the sun was fairly going down and it was getting pretty dark and there was very little details in the shadows. Also, being on the ground wasn’t so good for getting the whole family in and having the factory in the background, so I got up on our step ladder to get a better position. First up a test shot without the lights:

Then with the lights, a speedlite on a stand to left and right of the truck and Sue holding another over my shoulder:

With the fun portrait shoot over and the time being against us, we had to let the family get back to their office work and photograph them doing what they do on a daily basis:

With the shoot all done and dusted, all that remained was to edit the pics and then make a book, here’s the cover and first page:

All in all, a good fun day and a bit of an usual shoot, hope to have more of them in Scotland.

With that in mind, lets look at the 5DmkII and the 7D, both cameras I have owned and used a lot for work. Both cameras are for specific purposes, one isn’t really better than the other, so I don’t like the whole “versus” idea, instead I like to think they are for specific purposes and really compliment each other very well. Both are different cameras that are very good for what they are made for. Although the intended uses for each camera isn’t as clear cut as the car example above, the same principle applies.

Before looking more in depth at each of these cameras, lets think about the top end canon EOS cameras. At the top of the Canon EOS DSLR line you have 1D series, currently the full frame canon EOS 1Ds mk III and the crop sensor canon EOS 1D mkIV which will soon be merged into the canon EOS 1DX which is scheduled to be released March 2012. Next in line are the full frame canon EOS 5D mkII and the crop sensor 7D. Lets have a look at how the essentials specs compare (I’m just looking at still photos here, the video I’ll leave for someone else):

Canon EOS 1Ds mk III
*Released August 2007
*Full frame
*21.1 megapixels
*Dual DIGIC 3 processor.
*ISO 100-1600 (50-3200 with expansion)
*5 FPS
*Magnesium alloy very well weather sealed.
* Good to around 300′000 shutter releases.
*Priced about $8000 when released

Canon EOS 1D mk IV
*Released late 2009
*APS-H 1.3 crop frame
*16 megapixels
*Dual DIGIC 4 processor.
*ISO 100-12800 (50-102400 with expansion)
*10 FPS
*Magnesium alloy very well weather sealed body.
* Good to around 300′000 shutter releases.
*Priced about $6000 when released.

Canon EOS 1DX
*To be released March 2012
*Full frame
*18 megapixels
*Dual DIGIC 5+ processor (17 times faster than DIGIC 4.
*ISO 50-12800 (204800 with expansion)
*12 FPS
*Magnesium alloy very well weather sealed.
* Good to around 500′000 shutter releases.
*Priced about $7000 when released

Canon EOS 5D mk II
*Released late 2008
*Full frame
*21.1 megapixels
*DIGIC 4 processor.
*ISO 100-3200 (50-25600 with expansion)
*3.9 FPS
*Magnesium alloy somewhat weather sealed body.
* Good to around 150′000 shutter releases.
*Priced about $2500 when released

Canon 7D
*Released late 2009
*APS-C 1.6 crop body
*18 megapixels
*Dual DIGIC 4 processor.
*ISO 100-3200 (12800 with expansion)
*8 FPS
*Magnesium alloy somewhat weather sealed body.
* Good to around 150′000 shutter releases.
*Built in speedlite controller.
*Priced about $1700 when released.

Basically the currently available EOS 1D series cameras are the best canon EOS camera you can get, they are better built, will last longer, they outperform the 5DmkII and 7D in that respect, but when you look at the difference between them and the 5DmkII and 7D in terms of actual performance, the distance isn’t too far (many say the 5DmkII has better image quality than the 1Ds mkIII). when you look at price, the 5DmkII and 7D win hands down. Understandably, the release of the 5DmkII really cut into sales of the 1Ds mkIII. Think about it, you could get three 5DmkII bodies for the price of one 1Ds mkIII. I know what I’d prefer for that money. For the 1DmkIV versus the 7D it’s a similar situation, three 7D bodies or a 1D mkIV. All of these cameras are professional level gear, you look at any Sports competition and you see photographers with 1DmkIV’s and 7Ds, for advertising/portraits/weddings you see 1Ds mkIII and 5DmkII wielding photographers. Although the currentt 1D line up is the highest level of pro gear, the line between them and the lower end pro gear isn’t that blurred, hence the need for the 1DX to put the pro gear back on a higher level.

So, if you are looking at getting a 7D or a 5DmkII, you are looking at getting professional gear, whether you are looking at using these cameras for work or fun. For professional photographers or serious enthusiasts, two bodies are a must. Depending on what you are shooting dictates what you should get, although the difference isn’t cut and dry, each camera does very well in general for everything.

Weddings, photojournalism, portraits, products & travel. Anything where the best image quality is of most concern = Canon EOS 5D mkII

Sports, wildlife, fashion runway. Anything where being able to quickly and accurately focus on a moving object = Canon EOS 7D

Many photographers shoot over many of these fields, so in that respect it’s good to have both cameras. Up until August 2010 I was using two FF cameras, the 5DmkII and the 5D. Both great cameras, but as the 5D was getting old and I knew the prices were dropping I decided to sell and get a 7D body as I often shoot runway fashion and I thought the 7D would be a good option for me rather than just having two full frame cameras. So, for more than a year I was using my 5DmkII as my main camera, using it most of the time for portraits, event and wedding photography and the occasional product shoot. In all these shoots my 7D was in my bag “just in case” and for runway fashion it was my number one choice. However, last week I sold my 7D to get another 5DmkII, not because I think the 5DmkII is a much better camera, just that it’s much better for what I use it for. I’ve really enjoyed working with a 7D this last year and a bit, it served me very well and I was happy with what it did for me, but the time came for me to move on from it. Here’s what I learned from both the cameras though. Also, the example photos I give here are mostly photos I’ve used for work, whether it be in print, online or for private wedding/portrait clients. This isn’t a scientific approach using exactly the same lighting and lenses in a controlled environment with coloured charts, but in reality no-one really does this. We don’t spend our lives photographing under lab conditions, so this is a perhaps a bit more realistic.

Plus points of the 7D # 1: The 8 FPS and very quick autofocus of the 7D is essential for anyone regularly shooting sports/wildlife.

8 FPS isn’t something I often use. The fast autofocus was great for runway fashion as well, but seeing as how the models are mostly just walking directly towards me it wasn’t essential for me to have such good autofocus, so in that respect the 5DmkII was good enough for my needs. For sports though, where athletes are running in all directions on a pitch and you really need fast FPS, the 7D would be essential. I only ever actually used the 8FPS of the 7D once whilst testing it out. Here’s what it’s like:

Plus points of the 7D # 2. If you own a full frame already, the 7D makes all your lenses longer, a big advantage for primes and telephoto lenses.

For anything wide where I am using my 17-40mm F4L or 24-70mm f2.8L lenses, the 5DmkII is the best camera I have. It’s also great with the 50mm f1.2L, 100mm macro 2.8L HIS and the 70-200mm f2.8L, but the 7D added a whole new dimension to the set up. To be honest, I wasn’t a fan of using my two widest zooms with the 7D (wide with a full frame works better) but it’s 1.6 crop factor meant my 50mm lens became a 80mm lens, my 100mm lens became a 160mm lens and my 70-200mm became a 112-320mm lens. That’s like a whole pile of different lenses without buying them, just getting a new body. I recently used a 2X III extender with the 5DmkIII on the 70-200mm lens and I do think the image quality of the 70-200mm on the 7D body without an extender was better. The extra reach of theses lenses came in use for runway fashion with the 70-200mm and portraits with my 50mm lens:

Plus points of the 5DmkII, it’s great for travel.

For travel photos, the 5DmkII is my go to camera. It’s light weight (I use the battery grip most of the time but take it off for travel work). The full frame sensor makes for better image quality and seeings as how the wide L series zoom lenses work best for full frame, the 5D mark II wins hands down for me on that one.

Plus points of the 5D mkII # 2, it’s amazing for portraits and weddings.

As I said before, I used the 7D to get more reach out of my lenses, but this was perhaps only 15% of the time on portrait/wedding shoots. Personally I like to get lots of wide shots in these situations, so usually I have my 5DmkII with a 24-70mm f2.8L lens when I don’t have much time to mess around, but when time constraints aren’t so bad I love to have my 50mm f1.2L lens on as much as possible.

7D @ ISO 100

5DmkII @ ISO 100

Same image @ 100%

7D @ ISO 400

Same image @ 100%

5DmkII @ ISO 400

Same image @ 100%

7D @ ISO 640

Same image @ 100%

5DmkII @ ISO 640

Same image @ 100%

7D @ ISO 1600

Same image @ 100%

5D mkII @ ISO 1600

Same image @ 100%

7D @ ISO 3200

Same image @ 100%

5D mkII @ ISO 3200

Same image @ 100%

At ISO 100-640, the difference is minimal. The 5DmkII does give sharper images, but from ISO 640-3200 the differences do become much bigger.

Conclusions:

Above are general examples of the quality I get, I’m happy with the 7D up to ISO 640, but with my work I am often shooting over 1600 ISO and in those circumstances the 5DmkII outperforms. Once in the past, whilst shooting a wedding with both my 5D and 5DmkII the shutter on my 5D froze up. No problem, I had my 5DmkII and I used it alone and it covered all my bases with every lens. I would have preferred two cameras on the go, but as long as you have one camera working you can get the job done. I sometimes think “What if my 5DmkII stopped working and I was left with only the 7D during a wedding?” To be honest, I would probably get good photos, I’d shoot mostly with primes as they give better images, but for I would have less options open to me, especially at high ISO and at the end of the day it’s about giving the client the best I can with what I have and for me that means the 5DmkII, hence I went for the option of having two 5DmkII bodies. I don’t shoot sports, so the benefits of a 7D don’t apply to me there. Although I shoot a lot of runway, I find models don’t move so fast that I really need the mega fast autofocus of the 7D. More to the point, many of the shows are pretty dark and I end up shooting with the 5DmkII anyway, so other than 4 shows a year where the runway is super far away, the extra reach of the 7D doesn’t come into play that much (plus I just bought a 2XIII extender which will be used there). If however I was doing sports or wildlife photography, I’d definitely have a 7D in my line up. So overall I think both cameras are really great, the have raised the possibilities of what both professional and enthusiast photographers can achieve for a much cheaper price than the top of the range 1D series without the cost and minimal difference in quality. Moreover, the 5DmkII with a 7D is a pretty mean combination that any photographer would be lucky to have. However, for what I do, two 5DmkII bodies are of much more use so that’s what I now use and it gives me more peace of mind. In a year or two though once I am doing mostly weddings, I may be tempted to get a 1DX and keep my latest 5DmkII as a back up though

So, as the title suggests, this blog is about the recent Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo 2012 S/S which I was once again very happy to be covering for Tokyofashion.com. As the site continues to grow at a massive rate, they had another photographer, my good friend and colleague Michael Steinebach cover a lot of the shows. Between the two of us we covered most of the shows and got the images off pretty quick, I think we were definitely the fastest English language site to have the images online after each show. All of the shows Michael and I covered can be seen over at Tokyofashion.com, but I’ll post up some here I liked as well.

So, how do you go about shooting fashion shows? First up, apply, prove you are actually a photographer working for someone (which didn’t work very well considering some people were taking up valuable spots in the press pit whilst shooting video on hand held iPhones). So you apply, usually online, then if you get approved you get one of these passes which gets you into all the shows:

After that, you have to work out a schedule of who’s shooting which shows over the week. I ended up doing 24 shows, taking about 15′000 photos and sending about 1500 edited photos to Tokyofashion.com. On the first day I only had one show, Paul Smith, but after that averaged on about 3 shows a day but ended up doing 6 on my last day. The shows were held in different venues over Tokyo, so I traveled light, my 5DmkII, 7D, 24-70mm lens (which I only used for one show) and my 70-200mm f2.8L lens. In the back of my bag was my old Macbook and I always had a monopod (old school image stabilisation) and my step ladder. The step ladder was the cheapest bit of kit, but in some ways the most important. When running between shows you sometimes arrived to an already crammed press pit, having the best camera and lens in the world won’t let you shoot through a pit 5 people deep and tiered, however a cheap step ladder lets you climb up above everyone else and shoot

I guess I mentioned it on a previous blog about fashion week, but this is basically how the workflow for shooting shows goes:
1. Arrive as early as possible to get the best spot in the press pit.
2. Guard your spot with you life, but also try to make sure everyone else isn’t going to be inconvenienced. If I was at the front, I would sit on my ladder and be down low. In the middle, I would stand and shoot over the people in front, at the back I stand on my ladder and shoot over.
3. Work out the White Balance. This is essential as it saves lots of time editing. Autowhite balance is pretty good, but it’s just a bit of software. Fashion shows don’t have uniform lighting, some have tungsten light mixed with fluorescent light, some even have natural light coming in. You need to work out how many Kelvins you need to get the correct exposure on the clothes. Canon 1D series cameras can take readings off a grey card which helps, but most shows have a rehearsal and someone walks out with a grey card, you shoot it and adjust the settings on your camera until the card looks white, Usually a tungsten setting (around 3200 kelvin) was spot on. After each show I had 50-80 pics to edit and send, I don’t want to adjust the WB of each.
4. The shows starts, ideally you want two-three crops of each model; full body, 3/4 body and then if the back of the costume is interesting, put one of them in too. Also, at the end of each show try to get a good shot of all the models coming out again as the crowd (hopefully) applauds.
5. Pick a spot on the runway and shoot only there. Usually the light on a runway changes a lot along it’s length, where the model comes out is darkest and at the end of the runway it’s the brightest. I usually go for shots near the end, it’s easiest. People with a 400 mm f2.8L prime often shoot at the far end, so no-one but the model is in the frame.
6. The money shot for full body is when the models front foot is placed firmly on the ground and their back foot is rising. When I first started shooting fashion I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, but some of my friends who knew what they were doing pointed this out to me and I learned quick that this is what makes a shot look good. Front feet rising get cut straight away. Saying that though, I have seen a few big fashion mags ignore this recently…times a changing perhaps? To get the money shot, I usually shoot around 10-15 frames per model, usually on rapid burst (or as rapid as my camera will go, 3.8fps for the 5DmkII and 8fps for my 7D).
7. Make sure the model is in focus. Sounds obvious, but a lot of people mess this one up. You need a high shutter speed, all my images were a minimum of 1/250th of a second, for very bright shows I would do 1/500th or more. I let the aperture set itself, usually it was between 2.8-5.6. For tracking, I used AI focus as my drive.
8. After the show, get the images of as quick as possible. After each show I would literally run to the nearest press room ad start downloading and editing, sometimes the downloading to my Macbook would be in a taxi between venues. As soon as my images started to download I scan for the best images from each model, edit where need be (usually only cropping and straightening). As soon as I had edited and I had net access (usually in the press room) the images are sent. Sometimes within 30 mins of the show finishing, at most 1-2 hours. Every night after the last show I downloaded and edited on my train home and sent the images as soon as I got it.
9. Drink lots of espresso to keep you lively, eat when you have time.
10. Celebrate the sending of the last images by having a nice beer and a fine whisky. Then catch up on sleep.

I used my 7D for a couple of shows, I prefer it for runway as my 70-200mm lens becomes a 112-320mm lens. Also it has great fps. However, after ISO 640 I personally find the high noise levels in images a bit too much for my personal tastes. Some people ramp it up to 3200 and use it. For me, I find that I won’t put it over ISO 640, if I have it there and the shutter speed can’t be 1/250th of a second or more won’t use it. This time around there were a lot of dark shows, more than half the time I was needing ISO 3200 and for that the 5DmkII really is great, the photos look as good at 3200 on it as photos at ISO 400 on my 7D…actually, even then my 5DmkII has better. After a while I just used the 5DmkII straight off the bat. To be honest though, all the best runway images come from Nikon users. Nikon really kicks canon’s ass for low light photography. Can produces high end cotton to Nikon’s silk in that respect.

So much for the not writing much, I’m pretty bad at keeping these blogs brief. Enough of my waffling on, here’s some of the photos I like. Mostly of the models, but from the Paul Smith show my favourite was the man himself jumping about at the end of the runway. The shows were all very different, some had regular everyday clothes, some were conceptual, each venue was different, but once again I really loved being there and getting to shoot. It’s a tough gig, I was on the go all day, usually in bed at 2am and up at 8am to go start again, sitting in the dark waiting for shows to start, shooting, editing, repeating several times whilst running around Tokyo. By the end of each day my eyes wouldn’t work properly, but I really had a great time once again. Here are some shots from some of my favourite shows:

Shiroma
EOS 7D + 70-200mm f2.8L, ISO 640, TV 1/250:

Paul Smith
EOS 7D + 70-200mm f2.8L, ISO 640, TV 1/250:

Ato
EOS 5DmkII + 70-200mm f2.8L, ISO 400, TV 1/250:

A degree fahreneheit
EOS 7D + 70-200mm f2.8L, ISO 640, TV 1/250:

Banal Chic Bizarre
EOS 5DmkII + 70-200mm f2.8L, ISO 1600, TV 1/320:

Christian Dada (my favourite, the clothes were wild and the light was so subtle it shimmered over the designs….beautiful)
EOS 5DmkII + 70-200mm f2.8L, ISO 3200, TV 1/250:

G.V.G.V
EOS 5DmkII + 70-200mm f2.8L, ISO 400, TV 1/250:

Junya tashiro x Sachika
EOS 5DmkII + 70-200mm f2.8L, ISO 160, TV 1/250:

SASQUATCHfabrix (a “pop up” show)
EOS 5DmkII + 24-70mm f2.8L and off camera flash

Motonari Ono
EOS 5DmkII + 70-200mm f2.8L, ISO 3200, TV 1/250:

Roll on Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo 2012 A/W collection in March. Shortly after that we move to Scotland….

I could easily pitch some ideas to different people to get an assignment when we’re down there so we could make some more money from the trip, but to be honest I want to just enjoy the trip. We’ve already been to Sapporo, Osaka and Kanazawa on assignment/holiday this year and that has meant traveling with lighting gear, back up cameras, most of our lenses…..this time I just want to enjoy the trip as it’s probably going to be the last time we visit Kyoto. Last year we went to Kyoto for 4 days, had a bit of a holiday but probably spent a bit too time taking stock photos, this time I just want to enjoy the trip and not think of any of it as being about work. To that end, we’re packing lightly and quite differently from usual. At the moment it contains the 5DmkII, 50mm f1.2L, 100mm macro 2.8L, the Mamiya 7II and 65mm f4 lens(which I think I haven’t used in 3 years), Sue’s old lomo LCA and a canon S95 which we borrowed from our friend as we recently sold our S90 (we are going to get an S100 when it comes out) and some film. As I’m writing this though I think I may even just take the macro lens out:

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot of what I am as a photographer. The last few years it’s mostly been about photos for work, either I’m on assignment, or when we book a holiday I then try to find a client to give us work, or take lots of stock images that can be used in guidebooks etc. I’ve really loved doing it all, I’m really happy about all that I’ve accomplished, but these days I don’t carry a camera unless I am thinking about work. 10 years ago I had a camera with me everyday, taking photos of really random stuff just for myself and I got as much pleasure from that as I do now when I’m doing it for a pay check. I kind of want to feel like I’m going to take more photos for me before I leave Japan, some images in film as well as digital which will be solely for our memories of our time in Japan. I’m planning to have some days when I just go out wandering again, camera in hand taking photos of whatever catches my eye. That’s what I did when I first arrived here and I want to have a little bit more of that in my life again before I leave.

Anyway, for those who haven’t seen many photos of Kyoto, here are some I took last year to give you an idea:

Since I started writing Sue’s decided she doesn’t need her LCA, so a bit less in the bag now as well…wonder if I’ll take something out as well.

As far as we can tell, the majority of photographers doing baby shoots in Scotland are doing somewhat sterile studio shoots. Studio shoots are great, you can do a lot with them, but a family dressed up in their Sunday best sitting on seats with a pure white background isn’t really a true representation of how a family is in my book. We want to use a a more elaborate studio setting and also get something more natural, either around the family house and garden, in a park or on a beach. Getting dressed up is great, but we’d like to have the balance with more casual clothes as well.

For our first shoot with a baby the other week, we got to try out some of what we wanted to do. We did a shoot for a couple and their 100 day old baby, in a park near their house and also in their house. Ideally I would have went for shooting in and around their house using furniture, windows etc as props, but the family asked for a more simple studio like session. Although it wasn’t particularly what we we would like to do, the customer always gets what they want and we get to add a little something in of our own.

A few days before our scheduled shoot there was constant heavy rain so it looked as if we weren’t going to get our outside shoot done, we were supposed to start at 9am and the forecast was for heavy showers until noon, luckily our clients were willing to put the time back until afternoon to see if the weather would clear, if not an extended session at their house, one with us doing the studio style set up they requested and then doing the shoot using their house and it’s props as the studio. As it turned out, the rain stopped about 25 mins before we arrived, the sun came out and it was decided we would do a session in their local park and then move onto their house and use the backdrops and materials we brought to do the studio set up.

First up, we arrived in the park. It was very damp under foot, so we had to keep the family up right most of the time (would have been nice to roll about on the grass). We used large 185cm reflectors to catch the light next to and below the family as we Sue blew bubbles in the air, made lots of “goo goo” noises to keep the baby’s attention, and when we were shooting only one parent with the baby, we got the other parent to stand where we wanted to the baby to look and got them to call the baby to make our job easier. I’d heard a few full time baby photographers suggest this and it really did help, so thanks to all those who shared knowledge. Here are some images from the first session in the park. I used my 5DmkII and 7D, mostly with the 50mm f1.2L, 100mm f2.8L macro (which is a good portrait lens, subject for a future blog I think) and my 70-200mm f2.8L which I mostly kept mounted on the 7D:

After that, we moved to a bench under some trees, the lighting was OK, but I wanted to add a little fill light to the scene so Sue stood off to the side camera right and held a 580EXII speedlite high up pointing down at the family on the bench. I shot a lot with my 50mm f1.2L and 100mm, but I wanted some really wide shots from this session as well and I finished off by getting up really close with the 17-40mm f4L lens fully wide open at 17mm and only about 30cm for the baby:

Throughout the session I kept showing the family the photos so they knew what things were looking like and they seemed very happy and wanted to head to their home which was fine by us as we were happy to have gotten a break in the weather and things were clouding over again. However, when we were heading back to their car we passed a little swing which was made for babies and it seemed like a shame to waste such a good prop, so we did a quick 5 minute shoot there, Sue holding the reflector camera left for the shots of baby and dad, then behind mum with the speedlite when she was pushing baby. For em it was amazing to see how much a baby’s face can change in a matter of seconds as I was taking some shots:

So after maybe 45 mins in the park wandering about different spots and getting some different looks we headed off to the family house with a pile of gear in tow (camera bag, 2 light stands, umbrella, softboz, large backdrop, white background, baby hats and glasses, white hairy rug, veils and even adult clothes and hair pins etc…all Sue’s planning) and set up for the second part of the shoot that was to be the “studio at home.” For this part of the shoot, fore planning is essential. Sue had already talked with the mother at length in advance about what kind of looks she wanted and she wanted a mix of classic and elegant as well as casual. We’d already done a casual park shoot, so we wanted something a bit classy and the mum in question had really liked our maternity shoot feel from a previous blog from earlier this year and we were very happy to oblige. After a classy shoot with mum and baby we wanted to go for a casual dad and baby look, some baby on his own and then the whole family together with the focus on baby. Forward planning isn’t just about talking about it and having a rough idea, we like to story board our ideas and seeing as how my ability to draw hasn’t progressed since the age of 8, Sue came up with ideas, drew them out and then I added rough notes with coloured pens about how I wanted to light the scene. We use these ideas to build on a concept and it’s also useful to explain to clients what we are going to do with visuals. In this family situation, the mother was Korean, the father Japanese, Sue was using both languages ith each person, I used Japanese with both and Sue and I used English between us, so visuals help to keep confusion down to a minimum when several languages are getting used. Anyway, I really get a lot of energy from Sue’s ideas, her concepts are great, I know what I am doing lighting/photo wise, so we make a good combination for this type of work and we are really only just scratching the surface of our potential. Sue’s actually made plans for years down the line with a full studio set up which is blowing my mind in a good way…that’s a blog for a few years from now (still planning ahead you see). So, here’s some of the story boarding:

Once the back drop was set up and the lights in place, it was just a case of getting everyone in position, using the story board as a guide to the family and for each photo, I tried to get to the same level as the baby, so if mum was holding him, I was level with them, if baby was on the ground on his belly, so was I. There wasn’t much room in their living room where we set up the studio, so I used the 24-70mm lens a lot on my 5DmkII as it allowed me to get wide and close up shots.Here are some of the final images from the end of the day:

Although we didn’t have time to use every concept we wanted to, we got a lot done and we were pretty happy with the results for our first baby shoot. Hopefully we’ll do a few more before we leave Japan and when we arrive in Scotland it’s be great to have a few more shoots set up already.

In the summer when we were off to Seoul I had a few assignments on in Seoul. Compared to the usual work life here, there were actually fairly simple. We were going to Korea anyway, so I pitched some ideas to a client in the UK and they asked me to do a couple of assignments, one on visual inspiration in Seoul (basically anything to do with architecture, lighting, materials, display, art) and one on urban regeneration. I’d already picked out the areas best suited for these assignments and spent two days wandering around the ultra modern center of Seoul as well as some more outlying areas to visit the Naksan Art Project (an old run down area of Seoul where local art students have literally put their art works on houses, walls and streets to encourage people to visit and bring money into the local economy) and the Dream Forest. They were really nice assignments, basically I just had to be a tourist, follow a route I’d set myself and photograph whatever I saw. I really like the contrasts in Seoul, you have beautiful old palaces along the street from modern city halls and shopping malls, some of the most fashion conscious teens in Asia standing in stark contrast to the traditionally dressed palace guards. The technology there is mind blowing, some friends who move to Tokyo this year and visited Seoul last month remarked to me that their image of what Tokyo would be like didn’t really match life in Tokyo, they found the technology, transport and life in Seoul to be much better and more like the image they had. Seoul is definitely going places, it’s pushing to get more tourists in and it’s working. Good for them.

Here are some of the pics, click for larger images:

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Last month was Tokyo Girls Collection A/W collection 2011 and once again, I was very happy to be there once again for Tokyofashion.com. If you are interested in seeing all the photos from the different brands and are sad that you’ve somehow ended up in a geeky photo blog talking about lenses, best hot tail it over to the great report with all the photos and brand info here at Tokyofashion.com

Tokyo Girls Collection (TGC) is the biggest regular fashion in Japan, possibly even Asia or the world. Basically it’s held in stadiums used for major sporting events or concerts by some of the biggest bands in the world. A/W collection this year was held in Saitama Super Arena and I believe around 35′000 fans were there, so a pretty big deal compared to most runway shows where there are a few hundred invited guests. The runway for this event always forms a big “T” shape as per the photo below:

As you can probably guess from the photo, between the end of the runway and the press stands you have an area filled with the crowd, so I have to shoot over them to the models on the runway. Usually it’s about 20-25m away, so a long zoom is needed and up until now I’ve always shot on my canon EF 70-200mm f2.8L which has always done a sterling job, but I have found that with the distance of 25m or so to the runway, unless the models are actually at the very end of the runway, I have to do a lot of cropping in the image to make the model fill the frame. For fashion shows I rarely shoot with my 5D mkII as the full frame sensor keeps my lens 70-200mm, so I usually use my 7D which turns my 70-200m lens into a 112-320mm lens due to the 1.6 crop factor. However, this time I had another option at my disposal as one of my good friends and fellow Tokyofashion.com photographer Michael Steinebach loaned me his canon EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS lens for the day to try out. Always nice to test gear without having to pay large sums of money, being a good friend a couple of beers was the price for the loan, much appreciation to Michael for that Here’s a grainy shot of it mounted on my camera during the show, as always I am at the very back as close to the center as I could get (the press box was very dark, so an ISO 6400 shot):

I had a couple of days to get to know the lens before the show which was nice. I messed around in my local neighbourhood taking some test shots and was impressed by how sharp the lens was. Unlike other zooms I have used, this had a push-pull zoom rather than a twist which took a bit of getting used to, but soon it became quite natural and the IS was great for hand held shots. For the fashion show though, I knew I’d be mounting the lens on a tripod, so no need for the IS there. Anyway, the show came around, I got there and registered and filled out all the paperwork a I described in a previous blog about being behind the scenes at TGC, I got out to the press stands and sat and waited for the show to start. The show started and for the first time I decided to shoot with my 5DmkII and Michaels 100-400mm to see what would happen and first up I actually wasn’t too happy, nothing to do with the equipment I was using, but the lighting for the first show was so low I actually had to shoot at ISO 2500-3200 and on the runway when the models were walking I couldn’t get a shutter speed of more than 1/60th of a second which just makes for blurry unusable photos, so I had to wait for each model to get to the end of the runway, stop and rattle off as many shots as I could in the 2-3 seconds they were striking a pose> Here are a couple of shots with the EXIF data above:

Camera: Canon EOS 5DmkII
Lens: EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS @ 310mm
F6.3
Shutter speed 1/200th
ISO 2500
Ev +1/3

Camera: Canon EOS 5DmkII
Lens: EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS @ 310mm
F5.6
Shutter speed 1/160th
ISO 3200
Ev +1/3

As you can see, despite the high ISO the images were really clear, very little grain and that’s down to the 5DmkII’s amazing high ISO capability and the really sharp L series glass of the lens. Still, I was worried about having to use such a high ISO and I got a bit spooked, I got to thinking, if I was shooting the images on my full frame camera at 310mm, I could be shooting the same with my 7D and 200mm becoming 320mm, but be able to let more light in via the F2.8 capabilities, so for the next show I changed to my old faithful combination of my 7D and 70-200mm f2.8L. The difference between F5.6 and F2.8 is a pretty huge 6 stops. For example, say I am shooting at ISO 1600 at F5.6 and I get a shutter speed of 1/50th of a second, I can’t get a usable shot from 25m away, I’m going to get blur from the movement of the model and the lens (although IS could help me here a lot), however if I can get my lens down to f2.8 in the same conditions I can now get a shutter speed of 1/200th of a second which is very usable for a fashion show. With IS, I think you can get the equivalent of another 3-4 stops on the lens, which in this case would give me a shutter speed of 1/100th or 1/125th which helps enormously, but given the chance I want an extra 3-4 stops to help me get my image sharper. So for the next show, here’s a shot and EXIF data:

Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Lens: EF 70-200 f2.8L @ 175mm (equivalent 280mm)
F3.2
Shutter speed 1/640
ISO 640
Ev 0

As you can see, even with an ISO of 640 I could get a shutter speed of 1/640 at f3.2 which allowed me to really capture the movement of what was going on. For this show, the light was much better and I know I could have actually used the 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L lens to get in even closer, so after the first two shows I would just start playing around with either lens, but always on my 7D. I found that after the first show, the light was always pretty good and no matter what lens I used, I was happy with the results. First up, some of the 70-200mm shots and then some 100-400mm shots followed by some thoughts on the uses for these lenses:

Canon EF 70-200mm f2.8L shots:

Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Lens: EF 70-200 f2.8L @ 155mm (equivalent 248mm)
F3.2
Shutter speed 1/125
ISO 640
Ev 0

Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Lens: EF 70-200 f2.8L @ 200mm (equivalent 320mm)
F3.2
Shutter speed 1/400
ISO 640
Ev 0

Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Lens: EF 70-200 f2.8L @ 165mm (equivalent 264mm)
F3.2
Shutter speed 1/500
ISO 640
Ev 0

Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Lens: EF 70-200 f2.8L @ 200mm (equivalent 320mm)
F3.2
Shutter speed 1/250
ISO 640
Ev 0

Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Lens: EF 70-200 f2.8L @ 200mm (equivalent 320mm)
F4
Shutter speed 1/1600
ISO 640
Ev 0

Canon EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS shots:

Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Lens: EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS @ 235mm (equivalent 376mm)
F5
Shutter speed 1/200
ISO 640
Ev 0

Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Lens: EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS @ 210mm (equivalent 336mm)
F5
Shutter speed 1/320
ISO 800
Ev 0

Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Lens: EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS @ 235mm (equivalent 376mm)
F5
Shutter speed 1/250
ISO 640
Ev -2/3

Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Lens: EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS @ 250mm (equivalent 400mm)
F5
Shutter speed 1/160
ISO 640
Ev 0

Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Lens: EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS @ 235mm (equivalent 376mm)
F5
Shutter speed 1/500
ISO 800
Ev 0

Summing up the shots from the lenses:

On the day, when the light was great, both lenses performed brilliantly, each delivered wonderfully sharp images that made sure I stayed in the good books of those who employ me.

Where the canon EF 70-200mm f2.8L excells

For the one show where the light was bad, the 5DmkII saved my bacon due to it’s high ISO sensitivity, if it hadn’t been for that the show would have been a write off using the 100-400mm lens on my 7D, so when the light is not good, I would much rather shoot with the f2.8L lens.

Where the canon EF-100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS stands out

Kind of obvious, but the extra distance offered by the extra 200mm, on the 7D this lens becomes a massive 160-640mm lens which although I didn’t get to fully test out this time, if the stage had been another 5-10m back this lens would have got used every time and my 70-200mm would have stayed in my bag.

Final thoughts

If you are going to be shooting sports/wildlife or anything at a distance outdoors, I’d go for the canon EF-100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS hands down, especially on a non full frame sensor camera where the lens becomes a massive 160-640mm lens. In daylight with IS, this lens would be an absolute killer, even inside it’s good if your camera has good ISO capabilities.

If however you do need to be nearer your subject, doing portraits, events, weddings and the likes the canon EF 70-20mm f2.8L lens is the one for you. You’ll use this lens indoors and outdoors no problem, if you go for the big bad boys with the f2.8L IS you will get greater low light capabilities, but I also think with a camera like the 5DmkII which is still great at ISO 3200, IS is a bit of a mute point for me.

Both lenses are great, whatever you’d need one for, I’m sure you wouldn’t be sorry. I do really find they work great with full frame as well as non full frame cameras, so they really are lenses for anyone to use.