Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - TS-E 24mm 1:3.5 L - iso100 - f/4.5 - HDR exposure blending of 7 bracketed shots

First shot with the recently acquired Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5 shift and tilt lens. Tilted to the right, the focal plane rotates away from the image plane, the power pole in the middle is in focus, while the ones to the left and right are out of focus. That Scheimpflug Principle opens some fascinating possibilities.

Tags: usa, hdr, night, shift + tilt

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - Leica APO-Macro-Elmarit-R 1:2.8/100- iso100 - f/2.8


Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - Leica APO-Macro-Elmarit-R 1:2.8/100- iso100 - f/4.0


Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - Leica APO-Macro-Elmarit-R 1:2.8/100- iso100 - f/5.6

A few months back there was the tough decision, whether to stay with Canon or switch to Nikon, as the D3 was released. I decided to buy the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III as it fits my professional needs best with its 21 megapixels. It is a great advantage to have that resolution for visual effects photography on a movie set. And Canon allows to adapt a variety of lenses from different manufacturers like ZEISS, LEICA, MAMIYA, PENTAX and others. So you can choose among the finest lenses available.
The 1Ds Mark III being very demanding with lenses to deliver the full resolution, that it is capable of, I started to look for lenses with outstanding performance. After reading a few reviews, especially Diglloyd´s ZEISS ZF lenses and his insights on the Leica APO-Summicron-R 90/2 ASPH, I bought a Contax ZEISS AE 35/2.8 Distagon and recently a LEICA APO-Macro-Elmarit-R 1:2.8/100, both used, but optically in perfect condition. LEICA lenses don´t come cheap, when new, so it is a good idea to look on ebay. As long as you buy from an ebay shop, you have the right to give it back here in Germany, if it doesn´t meet your expectations. Something you can´t do, if bought from private party.
I choose the APO-Macro-Elmarit-R 1:2.8/100 over the APO-Summicron-R 90/2 ASPH, as they ought to offer quite similar performance (the Summicron leading by a bit), but the Macro-Elmarit offering the welcome close range up to 1:2 magnification. Read Erwin Put´s columns on Leica lenses for details.
I won´t get into deep technical reviews of lenses with all their characteristics and performance (see Diglloyd and Puts for that), I will evaluate just the rendering of a lens under my personal shooting conditions and what they bring to the table for my requirements.
That said, today I took the first shots with the APO-Macro-Elmarit and if deeper exploration over the next few weeks doesn´t prove me wrong, I have to say, that this a truly outstanding lens. Just the one you need on a 1DS Mark III. Have a look at the beautiful bokeh (the look of out-of-focus areas) in the shots above, while the lens renders amazing detail and sharpness even wide open at f/2.8. It seems stopping down isn´t necessary to improve performance. The following 100% crops show the actual pixels: dust and a hair on a synthesizer´s keyboard.
I can´t wait to shoot more with that lens...


Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - Leica APO-Macro-Elmarit-R 1:2.8/100- iso100 - f/2.8 - actual pixels


Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - Leica APO-Macro-Elmarit-R 1:2.8/100- iso100 - f/4.0- actual pixels


Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - Leica APO-Macro-Elmarit-R 1:2.8/100- iso100 - f/5.6- actual pixels

Tags: leica

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 24-105mm 1:4L IS USM - iso200 - f6.3 - 1/160


Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - EF 24-105mm 1:4L IS USM -
iso200 - f5.6 - 1/100

Caught some of the monkeys on Elephanta Island in Mumbai harbor with the 24-105mm, a great walk-around-lens for all occasions, where you just want to carry a single lens with your camera. But the EF 70-200mm 1:2.8L IS USM feeds the demanding 21MP of the 1Ds with better quality in terms of detail, sharpness and the bokeh is also much more pleasing and “alive”.
To explore the real capabilities of the 1Ds mk III there are a few special lenses beyond the best Canon L glasses: the ZEISS ZF lens line, some medium format lenses or the legendary LEICA 90mm f/2 APO-Summicron-R ASPH, which all can be used manually with adapters on an EOS body. For my professional work, where I demand high resolution, I use a Contax ZEISS AE 35/2,8 DISTAGON. Manual focus is anyway the way to go with live view from a tripod for perfect focus and manual stop down is a burden to take for that extra quality.
Go and get a review of the ZEISS ZF lenses from Diglloyd, worth every dollar, as the author provides one of the most comprehensive and detailed reviews to be found on the net.
If you are a Nikon shooter, the ZEISS ZF line is a no brainer, as you get it with Nikon lens mount originally, so it is manual focus, but no manual stop down. The author of this blog has been called “young enough to wait for a Canon EF mount version of the ZEISS lenses” by a ZEISS executive during a photo trade show in Mumbai, India in early 2008... whatever that means, a few months or a few years?
The LEICA 90/2 APO is very high on the wish list, if just the price of that good-old-german glass was a tad more on the casual side...

Tags: india, beast, mumbai, zeiss, leica