Rapidbox 26 Octa with Fuji x-pro1 35mm iso200 f2.8 125th

Rapidbox 26 Octa with Fuji x-pro1 35mm iso200 f2.8 125th, a photo by Wes Head on Flickr.

Canon 60d Studio Review

The Canon 60d in Studio

There are numerous reviews of the Canon 60d on the web but apparently very few sources for info on the 60d in studio. I won’t attempt to make this a full on review as that would be redundant but at the request of a few people I will share my thoughts on the 60d for studio work in brief.

LCD
We have a huge advantage today over the film days, even an aged lcd like the one on my Canon 5d is a blessing. Cheaper than burning through polaroids and even including a histogram these things give us invaluable feedback. Now I’m not a fan of chimping after every shot as it totally breaks any connection you have with the subject but I also am not about to wrap a shoot without confirming we have nailed it.
While any LCD is nice this one is flat out amazing. Crisp detail solid color reproduction and its bright. Not to mention that despite thinking I’d never use the flip out feature, I find myself loving that it is there every time I have it on a tripod. I rarely show the subject the back of the camera (never on the old 5d) but with this LCD I couldn’t help but show one of the final images.
With it I don’t feel the need to tether at all and that is huge for me as I’ve often had to deal with lugging a laptop on location and that can get tricky.
On this particular shoot the LCD was even more handy as I happened to be teaching lighting to another photographer and I was able to clearly demonstrate why we added a fill light to lift the eyes and give them sparkle, without the delay of pulling the card, or the trouble of tethering.

Feel
Ok this isn’t a studio specific feature (truthfully everything here applys to any form of use) but to my hand this is the most comfortable Canon camera I’ve held. I often pick up Nikons and feel a tinge of jealousy for their overall ergonomics. This camera sits well has a good wrap to the fingers and feels totally manageable with the featherweight 50mm or with my 70-200.

SD Slot
Get over it, I know people bemoan it being a lesser media but their are advantages and most of us already have or lust after a compact that will use them also (hello x100). I love that it can utilize the Eye-Fi cards to wireless tether. Yes I know I just said you don’t need to tether with the 60d but imagine how excited a mom would be watching proof’s pop up on an iPad sitting on the table in front of her. This also means you can put something in their hands and keep them off your shoulder allowing you to get more natural expressions from the subject and avoid the dreaded repetition of “SAY CHEESE”. Sorry rant over.

Remote
Works flawlessly with the inexpensive Canon wireless remote, allowing you to get out from behind the camera and engage with your client.

ISO
Noise is so well controlled on modern cameras that we can start considering ISO to be the third exposure dial. In the studio your shutter won’t effect the exposure you are getting from your strobes but the ability to subtly make minor adjustments to ISO settings can. This means you can keep your aperture locked for creative purposes or supplement for a smaller aperture and pull in more light when needed. You will have a hard time seeing the difference between the relative noise at ISO 100 and 400 and honestly you could go much higher if needed and it still wouldn’t negatively impact the final print.
**please note the 60d looks great at 1600-3200 and I regularly use it as such but I’m commenting on studio usage where the lowest possible ISO is typically the norm**

Resolution
Ok this one is a bit of a blessing and a curse. The 60d is packing 18Mp which is a lot, probably more than we really need especially in a crop sensor camera. This means two things in studio.
First the positive, more mega-pixels means we can crop more without concern for loss of resolution. This is helpful because studio prints are traditionally in 4x5 ratios as we have with 8x10’s however most digital cameras shoot in a 4x6 ratio which would deliver 8x12. Maybe I’m grabbing at straws a bit here but I like big prints and the ability to use either ratio on a 20+ inch print matters a lot to me. Now the negative, the higher the resolution the better your glass needs to be to keep up. I won’t get too technical here, you can find that elsewhere but the 60d, as with the 7d, or even t2i (they all share the same sensor) screams for good sharp glass.

We are blessed to be photographers in an era in which its honestly difficult to buy a camera that does not make good images. In a studio setting no camera is going to compensate for bad lighting design, and almost any camera will make good images with good light. All I wanted to do here was point out a few advantages the 60d offers and maybe highlight something you may not have considered. This is not an exhaustive review, nor did I try and cover every possible aspect so please feel free to chime in in the comments section if there is something you would like to add.

Thanks for reading.

Canon Wireless Remote Control RC1 for Canon XT/XTi, XSi, and T1i Digital SLR Cameras

Coming out of the dark

Ok so I'm doing the typical artist thing and I'm unhappy with all kinds of art related stuff. One of the biggest things is the tone of some of my recent images. I love black and white, I love shadows and I'm ok with pure black but I need a change for a while. So I'm going to experiment with light, lots of light and see what happens. I want my images to take on a more airy and welcoming quality rather than the dramatic. It may be a phase but once mastered it will be something I can turn to to give any shoot more range.