Evaluating the 60D and Various Lenses

I haven't been out and around in a few days but was using the EOS 60D with the 60mm f/2.8 macro lens and the 24mm f/2.8 pancake lens. I ended up not finding a use for the 60mm lens this morning but the 24mm pancake came in handy.

I'm now thinking that I may sell the 60mm USM macro lens and use the 24mm and 40mm, and maybe the 50mm, STM lenses with the 60D. One possibility if I remain happy with the 60D is, after I sell the 60mm lens, to pick up the new EF-S 35mm f/2.8 IS macro STM lens. It might be the only lens I'd need for the 60D.

That's assuming I don't decide to sell the 60D.

Here are some shots from this morning at Waterford Harbor, all with the 60D and 24mm STM lens, all three file HDR composites. Today was the last day of hot and humid weather which saw many records broken, hence the haze early on.

An Old Crop Sensor Body Comes Back

I bought a refurbished Canon EOS 60D back in the Spring of 2013.  My daughter has had the camera along with some EF-S lenses since 2014. The camera has now come back, no match, apparently, for an iPhone, and I decided to play with it for a while before I decide whether to sell it or not.

Lenses with the camera are the EF-S 24mm f/2.8 pancake, the EF-S 60mm f/2.8 macro and the 18-55mm kit lens. The 24mm pancake lens was not released yet when I previously had the camera so I wanted to try that out first.

The 60D, like my 7D, will only bracket three files, not the five I usually bracket with my 5D Mark III. To compensate, I generally bracket 1 1/2 EV darker and lighter rather than a single EV.

Exposure information in the caption is for the normally exposed file.

EOS 60D, EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM, f/5.6, 1/250 sec., ISO 100

EOS 60D, EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM, f/2.8, 1/60 sec., ISO 200

EOS 60D, EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM, f/5.6, 1/250 sec., ISO 100

EOS 60D, EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM, f/5.6, 1/125 sec., ISO 200

A Variety Over the Past Week

I've been out and about a lot the past week with my 5D Mark III and various lenses. I'm getting used to having fewer lenses and learning the best way to use the ones I have.

Here are some photos using my 40mm pancake lens, 24-105mm zoom and 70-300mm zoom.

5D Mark III, EF 40mm f/2.8 STM, f/8, ISO 200

5D Mark III, EF 24-105mm f/4L USM at 35mm, f/5.6, ISO 400 

5D Mark III, EF 24-105mm f/4L USM at 47mm, f/8, ISO 400

5D Mark III, EF 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO USM at 300mm, f/8, ISO 1600

5D Mark III, EF 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO USM at 300mm, f/8, ISO 400

Tugboat Roundup Bonus

I stopped in at the parking lot at the bottom of Lock 2 to check out what might be remaining of the Tugboat Roundup and was fortunate to catch the Cheyenne, 2015 tugboat of the year (I have a hat, which I was actually wearing), leaving the harbor and, surprisingly, heading up through lock E2 rather than down the Hudson.

Initially, I had the 70-300mm DO on my 5DIII then changed to the 24-105mm when the Cheyenne headed into the lock. So, the first shots are with the DO zoom and the rest with the L zoom.

Notice that they couldn't decide whether to leave the wheelhouse up or down.

Tugboat Roundup 2017

The annual Tugboat Roundup in Waterford is an event I have enjoyed shooting every year since 2013. You can read blog entries from 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016.

Equipment I've used in the past has been a 5D Mark II and 70-200mm f/2.8 zoom in 2013, two 7D bodies with Sigma 17-50 and 50-150mm f/2.8 zoom lenses in 2014, my 5D Mark III with a 24-70mm f/2.8 zoom and 7D with 70-200mm f/2.8 zoom in 2015 and 5D Mark III with my 24-105mm f/4 zoom and the same 7D setup in 2016. This year I used my 5D Mark III and the 70-300mm DO zoom I've been mentioning recently.

While the early arrivals came into Waterford Harbor under cloudy skies, it was bright and sunny by the time the stragglers showed up. Here are some samples. You can view the entire 48 image gallery here.

The DO Zoom at 70mm

This morning I decided to take the 70-300mm DO out on the 5D Mark III and leave it at 70mm for testing. Since the lens has a zoom lock at 70mm to keep the lens from extending when being carried, this is convenient and easy. The main purpose for the test was to evaluate this rather strange lens at its smallest size and shortest focal length on a full frame body, pretending it is a prime lens.

While at 70mm this lens has a maximum aperture of f/4.5, I shot at f/8 both for depth of field and image quality. I bracketed for HDR on all these scenes except for the barge, which was moving. I processed that single file in the HDR software anyway and cropped it to 16:9, thus removing water at the bottom of the image.

More With the Two Body Setup

I've made some more shots with the 5D Mark III/24-105mm and 7D/70-300mm setups. These are at canal Lock E4 looking at E5. These are single image photos processed from RAW with Canon's DPP software.

EOS 5D Mark III and EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM at 24mm

EOS 5D Mark III and EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM at 105mm

EOS 7D and EF 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS USM at 70mm

EOS 7D and EF 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS USM at 300mm

And here is the wide composition reshot as a five file bracketed sequence.

And here's a different composition of the scene at 45mm.

Doubling Up On Peebles Island

For the first time in quite a while I was on Peebles with two bodies and lenses. I carried my full frame body with my 24-105mm lens and my crop sensor body with a 70-300mm lens. With the crop factor, the 70-300mm lens has the field of view of a 112-480mm lens on a full frame (or 35mm film) body.

After having no luck selling my 200mm L lens, the proceeds from which I was intending to buy the 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS II USM lens, I instead traded the lens for a used 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS USM lens at Ray Supply in Glens Falls. The DO stands for Diffractive Optics and it is one of only two DO lenses Canon makes.

Diffractive Optics lenses are smaller than regular lenses and have some interesting characteristics like a bit (or more) of softness and a lot of flair. This DO zoom was introduced by Canon in 2004 and still is listed as a current lens although I doubt they make very many. The lens retails new for $1,399 although the used value is just a fraction of that, usually around $500. I've only had the lens for a few days although so far I'm happy with the trade.

It was a foggy morning early on as I was on Peebles Island around 7:15 AM. By the time I left the fog had burned off and the sun was out.

I'll start with some shots from the full frame body. These are HDR composites with exposure information for the normally exposed file.

32mm, f/8, 1/125 sec., ISO 200

40mm, f/8, 1/350 sec., ISO 200

105mm, f/8, 1/125 sec., ISO 200

And now for the shots with the crop sensor EOS 7D and the new to me 70-300mm lens. None of these images are cropped and all are single files.

275mm, f/5.6, 1/30 sec., ISO 800

300mm, f/5.6, 1/1500 sec., ISO 800

300mm, f/5.6, 1/20 sec., ISO 800

300mm, f/5.6, 1/350 sec., ISO 800