Steveston

The sun was shining. In Vancouver, in December you take what you can get and you run with it. We wanted to do something outside, especially as it is predicted to be rainy through the holiday period....and, we wanted to do something close-by so we were not spending our day in a car.

Steveston it was.

This was the first time J has been out with her 5DmkII during the day. All of our photographs have been either indoors or at dusk. So it was a chance for her to play a little. Its a very nice camera, and the lens (24-105mm) is very sharp. There is one thing which is challenging. It has issues with vignetting. At 24mm the vignetting is very noticeable, even at f22. We are going to talk to the store about that, normally you get some vignetting when wide open (in this case f4) at 24mm...but not through the f-stops, especially when stopped down. There may be something wrong with our version of the lens, so we are going to see what we can find out.

Otherwise, the camera is fantastic and I am pleased that J is enjoying it.

There are differences between the consumer, pro-sumer and professional-grade cameras. I noted it quite quickly when I went from my D90 to the D700. the controls, their layout were much better and the way the camera operated was significantly better. Not sure why that is, but I think it is probably that what I am looking for in the camera, or how the controls are laid out is different than what I consumer wants. Most people buy a prosumer camera, the D90 for example, and leave it on auto-focus, auto-exposure. They may use some of the built-in modes, portrait for example, but rarely do they use Aperature or Manual mode. Maybe I am overstating this, but the way the camera is organized focuses on these facilities..it wears two hats and has to compromise. With the professional camera, the D700 the focus is different. It does not have these creative modes, not even a fully-auto (program mode is as close as it gets). I noticed it right away and I think J will notice the same thing as she uses her 5DmkII more and more.

Ok, I digress. There was little wind which allowed us to take photos of boats, with great reflections.

Later in the day I managed a few dusk shots, as the sun was going down. Steveston always has great sunset pictures because you can work with the boats in the background.

I find that, with sunsets, switching to fully manual and ignoring the meter seems to be the best for me. I just guess at the exposure. Digital helps as I can take a number of photos to explore the effect, and go with the one which works best.

All in all...a good day.