Your Canon Photos No. 21: 24th to 30th September 2023

Dig,

What got me started was that I like side-light, or low-key portraiture set against a black background a lot. Still life would work too.

Steve Thomas

Hi Dig
(In reply to your VW post)

As a (mostly) nature photographer, I do love those bugs! They are so alive!
Your photos really captured that wonderfully.
It's such an iconic classic car and it's great to see what people have done with them.
👏

Cheers
Paul

Nice set Mocha.
Really like Blue Tit and the Heron and those colours of the Dragonfly.

Cheers
Paul

Captured a series of the Willy Wagtail consuming a Dragonfly.
Apologies for the graphic nature but it is nature.
It did quite a bit of work before swallowing it. Ensuring that it was dead, removing legs and I think the wings as well.
As I was a little distant, it was hard to tell what was going on, couldn't even see what the insect was.
I took quite a lot of photos in short bursts.
I've posted only a few from the series.

Cheers
Paul

Paul,

Thanks. I'm glad you liked the bugs. Since I like all types of photography, you all should see quite a variety from me. I do like taking pictures wildlife a lot also. I typically do that more in the colder part of the year.

Paul,

I enjoyed seeing your photos. As a part of nature, birds consume a huge amount of insects. When my trees grew taller in Colorado (when I lived there), the birds would eat the hundreds of grasshoppers we had. At least that it was I was told, although I only saw a bird with an insect once in its mouth. I liked birds for that reason. The grasshoppers would eat my plants.

Paul,

Now that I got you here, previously I thought I saw that you used the Canon R8 for those bird pictures (but the EXIF data now disappeared). That's a newer full frame model. I was thinking about getting a Canon RP camera some day, which is considered to be an entry level full frame camera (from what I read). I saw a comparison between the R8 and RP, and the R8 was better overall but it's also has the latest technology. So, that's understandable. But the RP is also a lot less expensive. I was thinking about starting with a Canon RP. What would you think about that, compared to the crop sensor cameras I'm using now? I was thinking as we approach the darker days of winter, that it might be advantageous. Would I have to be concerned too much about rolling shutter? What's your experience with rolling shutter? I saw a video on it, where it's noticeable when there's a lot of motion. Would the R8 have less rolling shutter or any rolling shutter? I'm still a newbie when it comes to understanding that. I appreciate your knowledge about the subject, since you have lots of experience with those cameras.

Hi Dig,
I do have the RP as well as the R8 which made purchasing the R8 a no-brainer for me.
I like my cameras small where possible so the RP was a good fit.
I bought it back in 2019 with the included ef-rf adapter. I traded my old Sony A7 for it (it had seen better days) as I also had an eos M5 and 2 ef lenses (and an ef-s lens) and the batteries were the same lp17.

The bad is that canon is adding IBIS to many of its cameras these days but the RP/R8 don't have it, so for some that is a deal breaker.
The battery doesn't last forever but I always had a spare or 3.
The RP sensor was said to be old tech but I found it quite good with lovely colours.
There is no real silent shutter mode (or fully electronic shutter mode) apart from a single shot scene mode, so you have to use the mechanical shutter (like the R8 it is an EFCS shutter).
The fastest frame-rate with servo is 4fps so it is no speed demon.
Single card slot.

Otherwise,
The face/eye detect is decent.
The feel in hand for me is great but I bought the grip extender which made it perfect in hand.
It's extremely reliable, never had an issue with it and it will be going to South Africa shortly.

Back in 2019 (pre-covid, remember those days?) I took the RP on a trip to Cancun (for my wife's nephew's wedding) and got plenty of great shots there (with a small godox flash attached). We did a bit of travel in the U.S. and after the wedding went to Cuba, which was amazing.

If you are after speed you may be better off with the R7 or maybe the R10 (I think).

The R8 is on another level though, with a better sensor, with much faster readout, so less rolling shutter (same as R6ii) and can do super fast fully electronic shutter which is what I use for my birdies. I am happy with the results with my Tamron lens, it was way better than I hoped. I even bought a used 1.4 Tamron TC (lucky to pick up a demo model for half price). It can be a bit slow with the tc but a twist of the focus ring puts it back on track,
Everything is interchangeable with the RP too. The mechanical shutter is only about 1fps faster than the RP but I can just use the electronic shutter for most stuff.
The advantage of the larger sensor is that you can get a shallower depth of field with the 1.8/2.0 lenses without need to go to f1.4 as you might to achieve the same depth of field on aps-c (crop sensor).
The disadvantage when using it for telephoto over aps-c is that you don't get as much reach.

I have attached many of my RP photos from the Cancun/Cubs/U.S. trip so I hope it's not too overwhelming.

Cheers
Paul

Paul,

Your photos show that although the RP is an older model, it has nothing to be ashamed of. I always buy a reserve battery, but havent need it much with the RP that I still have, One thing about it that does concern me is that the sensor is exposed when changing lenses, but (unlike the EOS 5D) I never actually had any problems arising from that feature.

If the "disadvantages" mentioned by you dont matter, I think the price difference merits giving the RP serious consideration.

David

This is the Votivkirche, which has recently been cleaned. I see that they havent completely finished the exercise, and I will return later in the year. The church was completed in 1879, in thanksgiving for the emperor's survival of an assassination attempt. Lots of interesting info on Wikipedia.

The tree on the right prevented me from taking a square on shot. The lens was the Laowa 15mm shift lens, shifted up by the fullest extent. Aperture was f/8, fwiw!

David

Hi fotoword, Thank You.

Hi fotoword,

Some cracking photos with your RP, the first, photo 4 and the last one stand out for me.

Today's bigger challenge was taking a photo of the Schottenkirche, just down the road and inside the city walls from the Votivkirche shown above. A view of it was painted by Canaletto in 1758, and is usually entitled The Freyung in Vienna, from the North-West. The people in front seem to be part of a Corpus Christi procession, which would have taken place on 25th May that year.

The first problem is to find the position from which Canaletto saw it. Clearly he was not on the ground, which is all I can manage. I also had to contend with crowds of tourists, in order to take a photo that shows the top of the towers. Note also, it also includes directions to the nearest public convenience...

In order to avoid the street sign, I moved closer -- to the other side of the pedestrian crossing -- and used my 15mm lens. While changing to this a van parked in front of the church. I waited, and eventually the driver reappeared, and after lighting a cigarette, drove off. At that point, the tourists invaded in droves, and just stood there... Eventually I got a shot, but it had two people in it, that I managed to clone out in Photoshop. You will notice that the top of the church has been modified since the 18th century, and also that Canaletto had the sun in the opposite direction from me. Unless he faked it, this must have been very late in the day. I will check next May!

David

David,

The Votivkirche church is impressive. I read a little about it on Wikipedia. That altar is beautiful.

Really fantastic shots! Love the light in many of them and your compositions are really effective!

Paul,

Thanks for the fine set of pictures from the Canon RP. I'm still thinking about it. I already have so many cameras, but a full frame camera would be nice to play around with, especially in low light. With full frame the depth of field will be different, so I would have to keep the focal lengths shorter and stop the lenses down more with the equivalent set of conditions (to keep the DOF that I achieved with the crop cameras). But I found that no matter how much a person reads, the best experience begins when you use it. Like for example, I find that sensor near the viewfinder on the Canon M50 Mark II annoying when it shuts off the LCD monitor. I can't disable that feature in the menu. So what I do, is pull the LCD screen out and then I found I can change the shutter speed and F-stop (on the LCD screen) with the hand that does not pass by that sensor. So we have to work around those things that I don't know if anyone writes about. I also pull out the LCD screen so I can "chimp" the images real close (so I avoid that sensor). That way with "chimping", I reduce post processing later on the computer.

Great shot of this beautiful church!

David,

That's neat that you took a picture of the same building that you found in a painting...wow...I don't know if I've ever seen anyone do that on these forums. I'm sure someone must have, but I don't recall something like that. Where you live is filled with wonderful architecture. Thanks for sharing with us that.