Mirrorless vs DSLR, 70-200mm test, Focusing on moving subjects, Large format photography and more.

[Music] coming up on this episode of photography online we show you how to get the sharpest wildlife shots we decide once and for all if a mirrorless is better than a dslr and we go old school with large format photography [Music] welcome to part two of this month's photography online which is sponsored by surfsharkvpn if you don't know what a vpn is then stick around as we'll be telling you how they can benefit you a little later on in addition to everything you just saw coming up we'll also be giving away these kite optic binoculars worth 250 pounds so you don't want to miss that but first let's get things underway if you were watching part one of the show then you'll have seen marcus getting kitted out with a large format film camera we asked him to film his first attempt at using it so let's see how he got on with this mirrorless camera like many who got into photography in the 1980s and 1990s i started out shooting 35 millimeter film this is or was a great medium for learning one's trade and honing one skills it's convenient and cheap it does however have one disadvantage in that it's limiting on how big you can enlarge an image before it starts to suffer from lack of detail a good 35 millimeter frame can easily print to a4 without any problems and possibly to a3 but beyond this it starts to fall apart a little especially if viewed at close distance for me the switch from 35 millimeter to medium format was a pivotal moment as well as giving me a larger area of film to work with and therefore the ability to make far bigger prints medium format was entirely manual at first i saw this as a bit of a pain but it wasn't long before i realized that by doing everything manually and no longer being able to rely on the camera's automation my knowledge of photography was expanding exponentially this is why i still urge anyone with a digital camera to shoot in manual mode as quite simply it will make you a better photographer it forces you to learn how to analyze the light and notice any tiny alterations in it something you'll never learn if the camera is doing all the thinking for you as i explained in part one of this feature i've always been happy shooting on medium format film but the curiosity of large format has always been there in the background however to this day i've never taken a large format photo accepting that it was time to change this i took a visit to my local camera shop to see if i could borrow a camera to put my 20 large format sheets of film through i liken it to getting from a to b in a car or getting from a to b on a bike in a car you just zoom along and that's digital world with a bike you get to see lots of things and this just slows you down there are two distinct advantages in shooting on large format firstly the image area which we've already discussed but secondly all the lens movements that are available and also the film back movements as well which give unrivaled control over the final image and this is something that's rarely seen in any other format so having attended the large format crash course for dummies the first task was to load my film sheets into the holders i think that's not good it was then just a case of getting out with the camera which i did on a few occasions over the following days [Music] so here now this is called the needle behind it you've got the prism behind that pile of sky i don't know if you can see that but i've got the live view on common light higher that's lovely there right there [Music] and i'm spent i've heard many people say many times that they don't understand why anybody would want to shoot film these days now while i understand that philosophy let me tell you why i love to shoot film if seeing me go through this long-winded preparation for taking a photo is making you ask why bother then i think we can agree that large format photography is not for you and it's best that you stick with what you have but for me this is what excites me about photography i love to use cooking analogies as most people can relate to cooking and the one which comes to mind at the moment is that this here is like cooking a gourmet meal from scratch at the moment i'm prepping the ingredients chopping the onions dicing the carrots and marinading the lobster this is part of the cooking experience and is why so many cooks love the process of being in the kitchen the alternative is this the ready meal you just bung it in the microwave for 40 seconds and bosh there's your dinner now i'm not for one minute suggesting that this is better than this or vice versa there's a time for this and there's a time for this just like there's a time for cooking from scratch and there's a time when you want to throw a frozen pizza in the oven however if you say you love photography and you've never tried this it's the same as saying that you love cooking and have only ever eaten instant noodles [Music] so [Music] although i take most of my photos with a digital camera this is because they're taken for convenience usually because the end use is for digital media but i take those photos for a purpose it's work i really pick up a digital camera for pleasure so when i want to have some fun i need that challenge and i need that sense of jeopardy and for me that's the attraction of film photography i guess it's the same as someone saying why would i want to do a 5 000 piece jigsaw puzzle when i can do a 50 piece one in a fraction of the time only someone who doesn't enjoy doing jigsaw puzzles would ask that question so if you really love photography don't knock this until you've given it a go and i'm not just talking about large format because if you've never shot film before then this is pretty full on i'm just talking about using a camera that doesn't do all the thinking for you and where maybe you can't see your results immediately you never know it may propel you to the next level just like it did for me when i switched to medium format all those years ago but there's one thing that i can guarantee and that is if you master one of these you're certainly going to be the master of one of these ultimately it doesn't really matter if i end up with a photo or not this is the enjoyment the photography with digital it's all about the end result the destination with this it's all about the journey who cares when we arrive or even where we arrive it's irrelevant so that is a mighty fine composition [Music] [Applause] [Music] this is pointless isn't it if in doubt i have a few more crisps if that doesn't inspire you to go out and try film photography let alone large format photography then i think we can agree you're maybe destined to be a digital shooter of course there's nothing wrong with that but as was mentioned most skills from shooting film can be applied to enhance and improve your digital work too so you can only benefit from giving it a go we'll be following a couple more of marcus's adventures with large formats over the coming months plus we've got loads of other analog features in the pipeline as well so if you're new to photography since the digital revolution then hopefully these will help to give you more of an idea of what shooting film is all about all right well in just a moment we're going to be sharing some of the more amusing subtitle fails that we've had to correct in previous shows but before that here's harry to quickly tell us how surfsharkvpn can help protect us online here at photographyonline we're always on the go but unfortunately work doesn't stop when we leave the office we often have to hook into public wi-fi to ensure we stay in touch with our customers fortunately sur shark's data encryption means we're always kept safe the clean web feature means we can forget about being targeted by potential malware while using public internet connections the ability to change our virtual location means that when we get back to running our workshops abroad we can still use the internet like we're in the uk and because a single membership covers multiple devices we know we're protected whether we're working at home or if we're traveling light while out on location surf shark vpn is a great value service and crucially is dead simple to set up if you want to get the same benefits we do then use the code photography to get 83 off and three months for free the 30-day money-back guarantee means you really have nothing to lose use the links in the description below to get yourself protected now thanks harry now if you're watching from overseas and english may not be your first language or if you struggle to fully understand me with my fine scottish accent then you can watch our shows with subtitles just enable the cc or closed captions icon at the bottom of your screen to see what we're really seeing these are also generated by youtube but we check and correct them before the show goes out as even google has trouble understanding us sometimes for example here we actually said lovely curve of the viaduct here i said that james brew was our resident isle of man expert and here james was talking about the importance of tides but i have to say the most embarrassing one was for people watching the end of one of our shows where i signed off with the usual phrase take good care and don't forget to take good photos and they saw this poor ernie who's hard of hearing thought we were doing a naked modeling feature sorry ernie for the shock well moving on it's time for our monthly dose of wildlife photography and this month the guys wanted to show you how they get consistently sharp shots even on backlit moving subjects the ultimate test for any autofocus [Music] system welcome now previously both myself and harry have mentioned how we can use predictable behavior to our photographic advantages to get better shots of wildlife the main benefit being knowing where something is going to be to help with both exposure and in particular focus [Music] i'm going to expand upon the focus theme today by showing you three simple tricks that i've employed in various ways for decades now and these will for sure improve your hit rate of pin sharp images regardless of the equipment that you use these tips are completely transferable to all genres of photography but particularly applicable to subject matter that is greatly magnified in frame has a very shallow depth of field or like me has a big nose the first thing to say is that modern autofocus is absolutely awesome and some of the new mirrorless systems with their dual pixels and their eye tracking technology etc etc are even more awesome they have menus galore and lots of things can be configured and calibrated but however clever these systems are they and us can still make mistakes i will now demonstrate and to do this i need a model luckily waiting patiently behind the camera is a lovely young lady who is raring to go so let me introduce you to her come here as you can see she is a right fidget not easy to photograph but unlike me she is at least cute and so perfect for this modeling assignment to keep things simple i will always use a single focus point we're also going to assume that this young lady's eyes are the key focal point the bit we want pin sharp let's firstly look at three scenarios where trusting af alone can fail like my colleague harry this puppy here is hairy and this can cause real trouble when trying to now focus on eyes as the hair simply can obstruct the critical point the autofocus may well lock on but because the distance is so small between hair and eye and the depth of field so shallow it's blooming hard to tell if it's locked onto the right place this is imperceptible at the time of shooting and will only become apparent when viewing the image on a large monitor by which time it's just too late to do anything about it both this young lady and myself have protruding brow lines and big noses and again this can cause problems cameras focused on contrast they look for it and often they will be thrown by something bright and very often by the nearest thing which is in the case of wildlife often the nose this is regardless of how accurate one is when lining up a focus point when shooting great need magnified subject matter something that's common in wildlife photography even if the focus is locked in the perfect position this still doesn't guarantee pin sharp images because if you or your subject are moving even by only a few millimeters if your depth of field is only a few millimeters then you're scuppered again so what of these tips some solutions obviously you need to ensure you have enough shutter speed to freeze both yourself and your subject also ensure that you have enough depth of field so that what you wish to appear sharp can actually appear to be so tip number one rocking focus set your camera to burst shooting and to one shot af not continuous line up the focus point on the eye and as you press and hold the shutter move very slightly back and forth with a rocking motion providing you don't take your finger totally off the shutter the camera will lock focus and maintain this point as you move you are in effect bracketing ever so slightly the distance between you and the subject what you will find is that one of the images in the sequence is sharper than the rest tip number two pumping focus this applies when using either one shot or continuous af keep refreshing the focus by completely releasing the shutter and re-engaging it what this does is it forces the camera to refocus each time the worst thing to do is assume that the camera is focused in the right place and keep shooting as it may well have missed critical focus and you will end up with a whole batch of pictures that are all just out of focus this is for sure the best tip of the three tip number three manual override your camera will need to be in one shot af not continuous so once the camera has locked focus you can then make minor adjustments by manually overriding using the focus ring another additional tip is to actually take a burst of shots at the same time as continually manually overriding this will require very minor adjustments but it can be invaluable in summary autofocus gets better as time goes on but it can never know what you wish to be the true point of focus plus it may struggle to not only lock on but to actually be accurate if there is indeed low light on your chosen point of focus or indeed bright light either in front or behind your chosen point of focus [Music] autofocus it's a big old topic but with some practice and by employing the odd tipple two i've spoken about today your hit rate will go up regardless of the equipment you use in fact i used to employ most of these techniques one way or the other using this old camera the only real difference was i didn't have autofocus to get me halfway there i did however have slightly younger eyes though as you can see no animals were harmed in the making of this episode of wild diaries now from one adorable hairy creature to another harry who will no doubt be employing some of the techniques i've spoken about this month himself to the subjects he has in his own viewfinder this month thank you james those are some invaluable tips for nailing focus in your wildlife imagery spring is a great time to get out and practice some of those tips as all the birds and animals go into baby making mode now over the past couple of weeks and today i've been out catching up with some local dippers which after eagles have to be my favorite birds in britain dippers are a small songbird they're fast moving and typically favor low light environments on small streams sitting against complicated backgrounds with little contrast this presents quite a few problems for a camera's autofocus and obtaining pin sharp shots whenever i work with auto focus in cameras no matter the budget spec or brand i always assume it is going to make mistakes autofocus is not infallible the best bet then in overcoming this problem is to continually pump the focus ie continually force the camera to focus and refocus making it work this is going to increase your chances of nailing a pin sharp shot if you think professional wildlife photographers nail a crisp perfectly sharp image every time then don't worry their memory cards are full of soft and completely out of focus shots that no one else ever gets to see pumping the focus and shooting a lot of images gives you a better chance of camera getting at least one or two images spot on after all you only need one this section of river has only just thawed after what was quite an unusually cold period for sky but it did give me some really unique conditions i've always wanted to capture dippers in seeing them dive in and out of really icy what must be freezing cold water was amazing and the snow and the ice contrasts beautifully with their plumage just dipping a toe in water like that makes me hyperventilate but dippers are hardy birds and well adapted to life in and out of the water the characteristic dipping movement of these charismatic little birds can be difficult for autofocus to lock onto but with a little patience persistence and knowing how to make the most of my autofocus i've managed to add some really nice images to my collection of dipper shots if you find these tips useful for perfecting your autofocus then do let us know and you can tag your pictures over on instagram [Music] and there you were thinking this photography lark is easy if you've got any tips of your own that you want to share then feel free to pop them in the comments now last month's show we give you a chance to win this pair of kite optics binoculars worth 250 pounds all you had to do to begin with a chance of winning them was to keep an eye out for their unexpected appearance during the show now i emphasize unexpected because many of you gave the answer as 12 minutes which was actually when we were talking about the binoculars which wasn't exactly what we would call an unexpected appearance the more eagle-eyed among you though did spot them unexpectedly on the windowsill just before 24 minutes so congratulations to everybody who got this correct we've picked out a winner at random so if your name is on the screen right now then congratulations as you are now the proud owner of these and if you really wanted them but weren't lucky enough to win the prize then we've put a link to the best place to buy kite optics products both james and harry are experienced users of high quality binoculars and scopes and have been singing the praises of the various kite binoculars that they've been using for the past year so we can highly recommend them if you're looking to add some to your photography kit all right well we ended our previous show with nick pitching his latest canon flagship mirrorless camera against what marcus regards as the best full-frame dslr ever made at least in terms of the detail it can capture the results are now in so let's find out which one came out on top [Music] in our previous show we pitched the latest canon full-frame mirrorless camera against what i've always considered to be the best dslr ever made certainly in terms of the detail it can capture the canon 5d sr using the same lens to photograph the same scene in the same light this test was going to reveal if newer really does mean better so we've got the shots that we can use to compare the quality of the output of the two cameras but while we're here it's just occurred to me that you've got the new 70-200 yeah i have i've got the mark seventy to two hundred four and we've also got the mark one here so why don't we just do a test of all three lenses to see what the difference is with your camera yeah [Music] okay so that's the rf done so i've got the uh the mark one seventy two two hundred ef and also the mark ii okay i've never done a comparison with you so it'll be interesting to find out so let's try the mark one first okay just go switch the camera off and get the adapter why you gotta switch the camera well when the camera is on the uh the the sensor is exposed okay to the elements so the the shutter blinds come down let's just get a mirrored camera i don't know and i also have to wait two seconds after i switch the camera off for it to actually happen so yeah i know right come on and get your adapter out turn your camera off go for all this pallava yeah i could have had the shot done and been back home having my dinner by now [Music] with the results in the computer it was time to see how the cameras and lenses fared all these images are exactly as they were outputted by the cameras no editing or sharpness has been applied here's the full image taken on the sigma 50 millimeter art lens on the r5 now here's the 5dsr version using exactly the same lens and exactly the same settings which was f4 at iso 100 at this resolution there would need to be significant differences for us to notice it so let's zoom in at 100 in the center of the frame on the left we have the r5 and on the right we have the 5dsr the first thing to notice is the slightly larger image of the 5dsr due to it having 5 million more pixels than the r5 in terms of detail there really isn't much in it but you might just about make out a little bit more texture in the stone wall the pink wall and the roof tiles of the 5dsr version but this may not be apparent by the time this has been compressed by youtube so let's go further in to 400 and look at a couple of key areas firstly notice the increased detail in the roof tiles on the 5dsr but where the difference is most obvious is in the wire of the fence the 5dsr is able to render this but on the r5 probably due to the low pass filter this becomes almost non-existent now you might be thinking that this makes no difference because we would never look at an image at this magnification but now we know what we're looking for let's go back to the 100 versions and look at that fence again you can clearly see more detail captured by the 5dsr than the r5 the lattice windows also look slightly sharper on the 5dsr so although it's close the 5dsr is a winner in terms of detail capture where the r5 has a slight advantage is in the dynamic range this is as expected but the benefits can be seen in the shadow areas where the stone wall meets the water there's clearly more detail in the r5 than in the 5dsr version now as we saw when nick was changing lenses he had to turn off the r5 to allow the sensor blind to close this helps protect the sensor from dust doing the same job that a mirror and shutter do on the 5dsr however many mirrorless cameras do not have such a protector and the sensor is open to the elements every time you change a lens for this reason mirrorless cameras are far more prone to sensor dust than dslrs we can see this if we zoom into an area of sky at 400 percent the r5 is peppered with tiny dust and dirt marks but i couldn't find a single mark on the 5dsr file in fact it's no exaggeration to say that in five years of using this camera almost every day changing lenses thousands of times in a variety of atmospheres but i've only ever had to clean the sensor once basically it's just not a problem i'm familiar with and i would find having to clone out all those spots from every single image very laborious as expected the r5 shows less noise in areas of consistent tone and this will get more pronounced at higher iso settings too but at iso 100 there isn't a huge difference especially in the mid tone and highlight areas such as the sky for example look at this sign on the r5 file it wasn't possible for me to read the text but on the 5dsr file it was just about possible to make out that it says speed limit 3 knots so although the difference is minimal this shot shows how the tiniest of differences can make well a difference to quickly show you the 70 to 200 comparisons at 70 millimeters there really isn't that much difference in terms of sharpness but there is an obvious warmth to the newer rf lens this is neither a good or bad thing just unexpected so now on to the 200 millimeter end this now shows the older 70 to 200 mark 1 as being far softer with the word entrance above the door being the obvious indicator of this the mark ii version of the same lens shows a massive improvement at the long end the rf lens is even better although there isn't much in it there's still that noticeable warmth to the rf version which is clear to see in the white of the door frame the benefits of using the rf lens go far wider than just sharpness this is the f 2.8 version which will be useful for portraiture and low light situations but for landscape work when you take the price of these lenses into consideration there's an obvious winner in my book so going back to the camera bodies although the difference was only subtle it was noticeable and clear to see but probably only if you go looking for it there's no denying that the r5 is a much better all-round camera and we've already highlighted some of the ways it outperforms the 5dsr but for landscape work well you may not need those benefits but you do need the resolution and detail and certainly when you consider that the 5dsr is a fraction of the price this has to be crowned king of detail certainly in the canon lineup anyway so we've decided to have a champion camera by which all others can be compared for image quality obviously there are many ways to rate and compare cameras but we'll be looking solely at image quality and price as we think these two elements are probably at the top of most photographers lists so for now the 5d sr is on the throne but this is a new dynasty so let us know what your suggestions are for cameras to take the crown to make things as fair as possible but only been looking at full-frame cameras because to compare these to crop sensors or to medium format wouldn't be practical but who knows maybe we'll have another champion for those categories in the future so for now if you have a full-frame camera which you think can snatch the honor from this one let us know in the comments and we'll get hold of one to do a challenge to the throne now last year there was a brand new photo competition launch to celebrate everything that my home country has to offer at least in terms of photography scotland's photo of the year was an outstanding success with all profits going to local charities last year it raised almost 1 000 pounds and this year the hope is to beat that target but the only way to do this is for more of you guys to get involved the 2021 competition is now open for entries with over 3 000 pounds of cash up for grabs plus many extra prizes yet to be announced it's certainly well worth entering some of your images if you have any of scotland that is if not then you should come last year's competition was won by ben capur so i caught up with him for a quick online chat to see how he spent his two and a half thousand pounds of winnings and to see if he has any advice for you if you're thinking of entering this year hi ben i know you're a busy award-winning photographer so thanks so much for speaking with us hey thanks for having me so ben first of all how did it feel when you found out that your image had won scotland's photo of the year last year uh yeah it was um it took a long time for me to soak it all in but i was i was absolutely stoked and i still am to be honest um i still can't believe that my photo one um i can call myself an award-winning photographer is absolutely amazing and i remember the day i remember the morning because i was at work and i think it was my first time back at work for a long time because of lockdown and uh my boss wasn't there it was just me in the office and uh yeah i'm pretty sure as soon as i put the phone down i screamed the place down i called my boss and he let me have the day off and i went home cracked open a few beers and celebrated it was it was really really nice and it was yeah it was an awesome day and definitely something i'll remember for a long long time i love it ben you won 2 500 pounds in cash as well as some other prizes i know you just bought a house what did you spend your winnings on uh what did i spend my wins on i think yeah i've still got some of it in the bank in a savings account for a rainy day it's just nice to have a little bit of money there i gave my case filters to one of my best mates tim monahan because i i i'm associated with case filters anyway and i already used their filters and i knew that he'd been lusting after getting some for a while and i thought it was a perfect opportunity for me to uh yeah give them to one of my best mates so he was over the moon um i gave him to him one morning and we met up uh back in november uh down at durdle door and he was yeah it was a bit teary so it was really really nice for me to give him something as well so that was really nice we bought several little bits for the house i bought that lens that you guys are on now that's the 50mm 1.4 from sigma for my lumix camera um i do a bit of mountain biking so some of the money went towards that sort of stuff and parts and yeah that's about it really it's just it was really really nice and still again absolutely mind-blowing amount of money and the prize the all the prizes were just absolutely amazing it is it was absolutely awesome it was amazing brilliant ben just finally what advice would you give to anybody thinking of entering this year's competition um if you feel that you've got a shot that is a little bit special a little bit different um and that will stand out in amongst several other images then definitely definitely enter it into the competition i mean i remember being up there at the old manners store climbing down i was wearing my glasses and the snow is freezing to the front of my glasses i had to take my glasses off and i'm completely blind when i take my glasses off and i remember firing off this shot or hundreds of shots and i was just stood there firing off loads of shots just praying that focus was nailed on the old man of store and i could get some of this snow coming down i could really just get that whole experience come across in a photograph and fortunately i did and if you if you manage to have something like that that's very special and a unique moment in time that you've captured then 100 enter into competitions because it will stand out from the rest of the images and maybe one day you can you can win an award just like me and be just as stoked as i am because it is an amazing feeling and it's an amazing thing to call yourself an award-winning photographer and i am i am i am truly honored thank you ever so much well you're very welcome ben and a worthy winner so listen ben thank you so much this has been brilliant and uh yeah thanks very much for having me i won't be entering this year because i haven't been able to get up to scotland but hopefully it's on the cards for later this year so next year i will definitely be entering [Music] i hope listening to ben has inspired you to give it a go as always there's a link in the description to the competition website where you'll find all the details sadly though that brings us to the end of this month's show but next time i'll be bringing you photography online from a rather special location and with travel restrictions starting to be eased we thought that we would give you our top tips on packing your gear when you go on a photography trip marcus will be sharing over 10 years of travel photography knowledge by showing us how to take great holiday photos plus we'll be launching a new mission possible challenge for one of the team if you enjoyed the show please do give us a thumbs up and help spread the word by telling your friends all about photography online all right while my time is up i need to go so until next time take good care but most of all take good photos

Channel: Photography Online

Views: 34,357

Keywords: photography, isle of skye, camera tips, photography trips, landscape photography, photography show, photography online, scotland, photography tutorials, wildlife photography, photography news, digital photography, learn photography, how to take better photos, photography skills, camera skills, photography programme, Mirrorless, DSLR, Canon R5, Canon 5Dsr, Large Format Camera, Large format photography, film photography, Focusing techniques, How to focus, 70-200mm lenses

Id: SyDS9blK11M

Length: 35min 24sec (2124 seconds)

Published: Sun May 09 2021