Crutchfield Staff Reviews : Zak

Canon takes it up a notch with the 7D

ZakB — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:01:00 GMT

With the 7D, Canon has taken the crop-sensor camera to new heights. Photographers using Canon's "prosumer" xxD line of cameras are trained to expect sequential upgrades with each new model. In some cases, photographers were passing on the...(read more)

Video: Alpine IXA-W404 Digital Media Receiver

Crutchfield Video — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:35:00 GMT

In our Crutchfield Alpine IXA-W404 Digital Media Receiver video , Zak outlines the key features of this remarkable in-dash unit. The Alpine IXA-W404 fits in a double-sized dashboard opening, and features a USB input for an MP3 player or thumb drive. Zak...(read more)

Travel light with Canon's 18-200mm lens

ZakB — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:55:00 GMT

Canon shooters have been clamoring for an 18-200mm lens for years now. Nikon's 18-200mm VR lens is one of the most popular choices among Nikon shooters, and it's in the nature of every Canonite to want what the other guy's got. Canon jockeys, your wait...(read more)

Two Tamron zooms that could replace your kit lens

ZakB — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 13:08:00 GMT

I was thrilled to see that Crutchfield was starting to carry a couple of great kit-lens alternatives, Tamron's 17-50mm f/2.8 and 28-75mm f/2.8 zooms. Actually, they're remarkably similar lenses, so I thought I'd share my experience with both in this post...(read more)

Tamron's 70-200mm f/2.8 helps you see the light

ZakB — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:56:00 GMT

Tamron's 70-200mm f/2.8 telephoto zoom lens has been a long time coming — rumors of its arrival started popping up a couple of years ago. Now it's finally here, and I snagged one for a weekend to put it through its paces.

The lens comes with a petal-shaped hood, a removable tripod mount, and a padded case. One small detail is worth noting: the Tamron lens cap is the "pinch style" cap where you grab its tabs in the middle of the cap, rather than on the outside. This means you can leave the hood on all day and still get the cap on and off easily. The normal style of lens cap makes that impossible because there is no clearance between your fingers and the sides of the lens hood. Smooth move, Tamron!.

The lens is a big one, much bigger (and better built) than entry-level zooms. Focusing is done internally, so the lens does not extend while zooming or focusing. The large front element does not rotate — good if you're using filters.

The Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 zoom lens with its included hood.

The main thing (other than the size and build) that distinguishes the Tamron from its entry-level brethren is its large maximum aperture. Most "beginner" zoom lenses in the 70-200mm ballpark can open up only to f/4-5.6 or so, meaning they let in less light than the Tamron's constant f/2.8.

Where this can hurt you is at 200mm when you're shooting without a tripod or a monopod — less light hitting the sensor means the shutter has to stay open longer, and at 200mm camera shake is visible through the viewfinder. So in order to get a sharp picture, you'd have to pump up the ISO setting to achieve a faster shutter speed and minimize blur. But doing so comes at the expense of picture quality, since the appearance of grain increases with your ISO setting.

Since the lens has a wide max aperture of f/2.8 across the entire
zoom range, it is possible to use it indoors using available light.

The Tamron opens up to f/2.8 across the zoom range, so you can get some great hand-held shots that are impossible with slower zooms, including lower-light or indoor shots. I found myself shooting without my monopod more and more as the weekend progressed. It's a workout to shoot with this lens hand-held for an entire afternoon, but the results are worth it.

Focusing on my Canon 40D was accurate and reasonably fast. I was able to get some good action shots at a youth baseball game where nobody's ever standing still.

Safe at third! The throw went into left field, but this handheld sports shot is nice & crisp.

It's worth noting a couple of mechanical differences between Tamron zoom lenses and Canon zoom lenses. I find that there is no perfect piece of camera gear, that any piece of equipment requires some user adjustment. So that's why these differences seem pretty minor. But here they are:

First, Tamron uses a "clutch mechanism" to change from auto to manual focus. You just grab the focus ring and pull it toward you. You can feel it slide into place, much like changing gears in a car, and you're free to focus manually. Manual focus on the 70-200mm is touchy — a quarter turn covers the whole range, so when you're honing in on a flower or something, very slight twists are required to achieve perfect focus. It's no big deal to me, because I use autofocus 99% of the time, anyway.

Second, the zoom ring twists in the opposite direction as Canon zooms. I got used to this in 20 seconds.

The lens is sharp, too. Stopping down (or closing) the aperture makes it even sharper — by f/4 it's extremely sharp. But the reason I like an f/2.8 zoom is because I can shoot it wide open without a tripod in fading light, and it's plenty sharp enough at f/2.8. Sharpness has more to do with your technique than your lens, anyway.

The lens' large maximum aperture is great at the end of the day when light begins to fade. Out
in bright sunlight you wouldn't shoot at f/2.8.

Another nice thing about f/2.8 on a zoom lens is that you can achieve a shallower depth of field, blurring out distracting background elements and making your subject stand out. The Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 is well-constructed, and renders the bokeh (blurry background) very well.

Blurring the background lets you bring your subject into focus.

This is an excellent step-up for the photographer who is looking for sharper telephoto shots, and it's great for someone interested in shooting sports or wildlife. It works well, is built with durability in mind, and most importantly, will help you take great photographs.

A tripod was necessary for this tightly-cropped moon shot.

Good thing I was able to step back from this one.

Image-stabilized lenses stop the shake

ZakB — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:14:00 GMT

I shot a wedding recently with my Canon 40D and the Canon 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens. I was hoping to be able to use the zoom lens rather than my faster prime lens (meaning a fixed focal length with a wider max aperture) for versatility's sake, but I was worried because it's a pretty slow (smaller max aperture, so less light gets to the sensor) for indoor work.

But while it is slow indoors, the 28-135mm zoom has an ace up its sleeve — image stabilization. The concept is hardly new, and this particular lens is one of the oldest in Canon's IS line, but it's the first time I've used image stabilization extensively. Let's just say I was "cautiously optimistic" how it would perform. Seemed almost too good to be true.

The very first thing I did when I got to the wedding site was go straight into the sanctuary for some test shots. Luckily for me, I was able to shoot at 1/30 to 1/80 second at ISO 800 — plenty fast enough for the image stabilizer, and at ISO 800 the 40D shows very little noise. Normally, shutter speeds as slow as 1/30 second are tough when you're shooting handheld; I have a very steady hand, but I only get well-focused shots about 50% of the time at 1/30 second. I was excited because I would now be able to shoot the ceremony, without a flash, using my zoom lens.

Now, one thing to remember here is that even though the image stabilization does its job and lets you get crisp shots at slow shutter speeds, it doesn't freeze time. The lens is still — but the world is still moving. It was something I kept in my mind as I snapped away. And later, I noticed I got some lucky "motion blur" shots of bodies moving around, thanks to the slow shutter speeds I was able to use. And the critical shots all came out the way I wanted.

Here's an example of what image stabilization can do for you — this is a shot that would require a tripod with a non-image-stabilized lens due to the slow shutter speed. With the stabilizer engaged, however, I was able to hold just still enough at 1/6 of a second.

Normally you'd need a tripod to take a "silky water" shot like this — but I was able to hold the camera still enough to hand-hold this shot at a slow 1/6 of a second, thanks to the image stabilizer on my lens.

Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 gets you up close and personal with your subject

ZakB — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:10:00 GMT

I got in a little time recently with the Canon 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 super-wide zoom lens. The "EF-S" in its name tells you that it's designed for Canon's 1.6x crop factor cameras (also called "APS-C" in yet another nod to the film days). Therefore, it works on the Rebels and my 40D, but not on a full-frame camera like the 5D or one of Canon's 1.3x cameras they make for journalists and serious hobbyists. On those cameras, the image would look like a circle in the middle of a black frame. On the Rebels and the 40D, the lens is meant to behave like a 16-35mm lens would on a full-frame camera.

The Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 super-wide zoom lens.

With a lens this wide, you can expect some distortion at the edges. It's particularly noticeable with vertical elements; they'll look like they're being drawn to the center by an unseen force. The picture below illustrates this — just look at the buildings on the sides.

Taken at 10mm, f/8, 1/60 at ISO 200. The buildings look almost
like they're coming toward us.

What's fun about a lens like this is that you can be right smack in front of your subject and get the entire scene in frame. I'm lucky my toes weren't showing!

This lens worked like a dream. It uses Canon's Ultrasonic (USM) focusing, so it's silent and lightning-fast. Movement while zooming is internal, and the front element does not rotate while focusing or zooming, helpful when you're using a polarizer. It's a fun lens, and it'll help you get some unique shots.

The Bellevue arch in Richmond, VA. 10mm at f/5.6, 1/200, ISO 400.

The Canon 40D - cool under fire

ZakB — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:55:00 GMT

The Canon 40D (shown with the 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 image-
stabilized lens) is the latest in Canon's mid-level line of DSLRs.

I shot a wedding recently using my new Canon 40D digital SLR. Working in tandem with a friend of mine, I snapped away for 8 straight hours, amassing almost 9GB of RAW files (probably 850-900 pictures). It proved to be a true test of the camera's performance. The 40D was almost constantly in use, in varying conditions ranging from a well-lit church sanctuary, through bright outdoor sunlight and shade, to a dimly-lit reception hall.

Indoor lighting varies — good thing the 40D let me save settings
right on the dial, so I can just give it a twist when I change locations.

Working quickly was mandatory. The 40D's dial had three programmable settings that allowed me to program my camera for the three different areas. For example, outside I used ISO 200 and f/8 in aperture-priority mode (meaning I choose the aperture, and the camera chooses a shutter speed appropriate to my choice of ISO and aperture). In the sanctuary, I was at ISO 800, f/3.5-5.6 (a limitation of my lens) with a custom white balance. In the reception hall, I had to fine-tune even further because I was using a flash. Without the programmable settings on the dial, I'd have been fumbling around with the settings constantly. Instead, I simply turned the dial each time I switched locations.

The camera's 3" LCD screen was easily viewable in the sunlight. I primarily use the LCD screen to confirm I have the exposure right, and it did this very well. I left on the "highlight alert" (I call 'em "blinkies," because when the highlights are blown out, the white areas will blink to warn you) to help with this.

I always set my cameras to turn themselves off after a minute of idle time, so I don't have to think about flipping the on/off switch. When the moment arises, I can tap the shutter button, wake it up, and be ready to shoot. In a wedding, this is important. The moments you anticipate, and those you don't, happen in an instant.

The 40D was fast and smooth. It went from "sleep mode" to "ready to shoot" almost instantly. Navigating from screen to screen, flipping through shots I'd taken, and general operation of the camera was pretty quick, too. Critical controls were generally accessible with one hand, and I could easily find them — without looking at the camera, another feature that comes in handy when a unique photo opportunity arises. After all, they weren't about to pause the wedding to wait for me to get my camera settings right.

Shooting in available light is usually preferable. Your shots will
benefit from the shallow depth of field of the wide aperture.

At the wedding, the 40D did for me what any good camera would do — it stayed out of my way, did what I told it to, and never let me down. It's a real workhorse that is plenty capable in a tough setting, like a wedding day, that can push your equipment to the brink.