Is Canon All It’s Cracked Up To Be?

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I know. I know. Canon is awesome. My EOS-5D Mark II is one of the best cameras I’ve ever owned and my EOS-7D is spiffy.

But…… I’ve purchased and used over $50,000 worth of Canon gear in the last ten years, including every 1D model made and here’s why I think Canon isn’t the bee’s knees anymore.

1- Innovation- Professional DSLR’s have remained in photo limbo. The bodies are essentially EOS -1 film bodies. Still lots of buttons to push. Sometimes you have to hold two buttons at once! Inside they’re full of Willy Wonka firmware (can you give me an error 99?) and awkward menu systems. Innovation has been limited to  making the display screens bigger, zooming the ISO speed to 1,278,560 or something like that, and oh ya…video.

2- 1D build quality- Has gone down….down….down. Starting with the infamous EOS–1D Mark III, the “camera that couldn’t focus.” The EOS–1D Mark IV  the paper bought recently had the lens release button fall off. That’s right….fall off. But that’s okay. The horizontal shutter button stopped working the next day. Kind of funny because we have 6 DCS 520’s. They ALL still work perfectly.

3- CPS- I used to be a CPS (Canon Pro Service) member. It was free if you were a “real” pro. And  you could get stuff fixed cheaply and fast. A year ago Canon cancelled this program (ironically it’s still called CPS) deciding to allow every Tom, Dick to Harry with a couple of 40D’s to join. For an annual fee.

4- The lenses- Are almost exactly the same as they were ten years ago. Especially the glass. Very little innovation there. And the lenses are stuck to the archaic DSLR template. Especially if your lens release button fell off. Although the build quality on the lenses stills seems okay.

5- Software- Canon has no useable software. If you can’t write code….. how can you innovate inside the hardware?

6- Price- Computers, HDTV’s and most electronics have plummeted in price over the past 10 years. 1D’s? Not really. They’ve been priced at $4500-$5500 all decade. The upcoming 1DX is going to come in at $6800!!!!! Compare that to your baseline 2001 Powerbook G3 $3500 and a new Macbook Pro $1400.

Well….. that was kind of a rant. I should subtitle this into a Hitler video on YouTube.

To be fair, Canon has lots going for it, but it certainly isn’t Apple. Apple figures out what we want. Then they keep making it lighter, simpler,cheaper and faster. That’s why Apple is cornering the point and shoot market with the iPhone. And oh ya, Apple has amazing customer service.

If Apple uses some of it’s billions in cash to develop an iCamera…… I’m afraid Canon will be in danger of going the way of Kodak.

Avedon’s Secret

Paige~Darren Stone (2012)

Richard Avedon is widely regarded as one of the greatest photographers ever. In his early photographer/model studio work he used one strobe light. I never worked with Avedon or met the man, but I’ve studied his images and looked at his studio set ups. If one strobe worked for Avedon, is it good enough for us? I think so.

Here’s why:

•  Over-lighting looks cheesy. There are gazillions of examples out there.
•  Less is more. Great design and style come from simplicity.
•  One light is natural. How many suns are there? That’s the light we see every day.
• The Dutch Masters used one light source. Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals …… they were pretty good.
• Quality not quantity. There is plenty of quantity in one high-powered flash unit. Quality comes from light modifiers.

Here’s how:

• You can make hair highlights look exactly like you want in post-production. Easily. But not if you’ve over-lit the image.
• Use the money you saved on multiple strobes to buy light modifiers. Change the quality of light with beauty dishes, octaboxes, softboxes. etc.
• Reflectors do a masterful job of softening shadows if you get proper exposures.
• Pay attention to the direction of the light. Learn Butterfly or Rembrandt lighting.
• You know how you get to Carnegie Hall, don’t ya? Practice. Use one light for 10,000 hours.  You’ll be a master.

In later years Avedon went from one strobe………to none. There is genius in minimalism.

                                                                                                                                                      Avedon in studio-1964

David Lennam

I decided to branch out a bit from straight fashion and use what I have learned in the studio with portraiture. I take hundreds of portraits for the newspaper  every year, but mostly environmental portraits without the studio setup. I made a lighting set up when I had a few people over the other night for a party. I instructed the subjects to give me  a “badass or crazy” look. My friend David Lennam, a Canadian writer,  was one of the guests who posed. This is Dave’s “badass” look. It was great and weird that Dave showed up to the party in his blue bathrobe for the “Blue Theme” party. So I guess Dave kind of covered “badass and crazy” all in one look. I set up a quick backdrop with paper and used a White Lighting X1600 shot through a  beauty dish directly in front and above the sunbject. You can see the lighting diagram below. I used the Alien Skin Exposure  CS5 plug-in Polapan film emulation to add some grain and the blue/pink tones.  Camera was the Canon 5D Mark 2 with a Canon  EF 16-35mm f/2.8 L  lens.

Brooke

Had a great shoot with model Brooke in the studio. I’m still working through lighting techniques and playing with effects in post- production. Right now I seem to be in a “polapan mode” I really love the effect from Alien Skin Exposure.  I started photography in the film age and I’m probably influenced by the “film” look so popular in iPhone pics. But when used on a beautiful 5DM2  image I think it really works well. The lighting for this one is  one White Lightning X1600 and a beauty dish directly in front of Brooke with a silver reflector under the chin.

Natasha

Natasha, a photo by The Real Darren Stone on Flickr.

Canon 5D Mark 2
Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM
1/100 sec
f/6.3
White lightning 1600x Large softbox
Flash Exp f/9.0