Jon Roemer - Photographer - Blog

The Search for the Holy Grail - Wide Angle Lenses for the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III

It's no secret that the Canon 1Ds Mark III with its 21mp sensor challenges wide angle lenses.  It's no secret too that Canon does not have the best reputation when it comes to wide angle lenses.  I don't know how deserved that rep is.  I shot with Nikon for close to 15 years ending the run with the D1 and then the D1x.  I ran into some of the same issues with Nikon wides that I see now with some of the Canon wides.  

When I switched to Canon it was to the 1Ds and then the 1Ds Mark II.  With both cameras, I used the Canon 16-35 f2.8 L lens and it worked very well.  On architecture assignments I would use all three of Canon's tilt/shift lenses and if I had to go wider than 24mm the 16-35 was used.  Stopped down, it worked fine even on the widest end of the zoom range.  Then the 1Ds Mark III came along... With it I found my 16-35 was very soft and mushy, almost smeared looking, in the corners, an effect that never completely dissipated as I stopped down or zoomed in. What to do?

Options within Canon include the 16-35 Mark II lens (a new version of the lens mentioned above) and the Canon 14mm Mark II lens.  Outside of Canon people rave about the vintage Contax 21mm lens, the Nikon 14-24 zoom lens and Zeiss has just announced a new 18mm lens (Nikon Mount).  The non-Canon lenses would all require adapters to be mated to the Canon body.

I did my research and quickly came to the conclusion that the vintage Contax 21mm and the Nikon 14-24 were not options I wanted to pursue.  The Contax 21mm is no longer made and it runs close to $3000 used. Samples I've seen from it are promising but it suffers from mustache shaped distortion along the top of the frame.  While this might be acceptable in landscape photography it would be an issue in architecture photography.  It's also prone to significant flare. Given that the only way to test it would be buy it used and then have to re-sell it if I didn't like it - it was too risky.  

The new Nikon 14-24 I viewed as too risky as well.  It's a Nikon "G" lens so it has no aperture ring. There is one web site that reviews and compares many of these lenses, 16-9.net, and they make a Nikon G to Canon adapter.  Many buyers have waited months to get the adapters from 16-9 and I've seen no independent review as to the build quality of the adapter.  It may be fine and the adapters may be shipping now but again, in my view, too risky for professional use.  Looking at the Nikon 14-24, which has garnered praise across the board, it's a very different beast from the Canon 16-35 Mark II and the Canon 14 Mark II lenses.  It's large and has a bulbous front element typical of fish-eye lenses from days gone by. Lastly, I didn't see a big difference between the Nikon 14-24 and the Canon 14 Mark II in 16-9.net's tests when both lenses are stopped down.

The Canon 14mm f2.8 Mark II Lens

In use the Canon lens has proven to be a stellar performer.  It's extremely sharp, has very little distortion and little chromatic aberration.  In use I find that I rarely need to correct for chromatic aberration.  The lens is also small, compact and solid. It's a very nice lens to shoot with.  In testing the focus accuracy, I found that it needed no microadjustment in the Canon 1Ds Mark III body. In a way, its only problem is that it's a 14mm lens. Useful when you need very very wide but the gap between 14mm and 24mm is huge.  At first I thought I might use the 14mm and crop in to equal 18mm-21mm but I just don't shoot that way.

The Canon 16-35 f2.8 Mark II Lens

This lens is interesting.  It is better than the Mark I version but I've found that it does have its limits on the 1Ds Mark III.  You need to test and then stay within those limits.  I determined the lens did need a microadjustment in the Canon 1Ds Mark III body of +7.  This was the case on both my camera bodies. The adjustment helped noticeably with the overall sharpness of the lens.  I also found that the lens was still wanting from 16mm~19mm especially when shooting architecture. It improves as you zoom in and from 20mm on it performs quite nicely.

So, when shooting architecture and needing to use a lens wider than 24mm the 16-35 Mark II is now my 20mm lens and if I need to go even wider I use the 14mm Mark II lens.

My hope is that Canon will come out with a new prime lens in the 18mm-21mm range of the same quality as the 14mm Mark II lens.  It's a gap in their line up they need to fill.  It would also be great to see an updated version of the 24mm Tilt/shift lens.  The current lens is an older design, it does just fine even on the 1Ds Mark III, but it's never been the sharpest lens in the world.  It's got room for improvement.

Mentioned above, Zeiss has announced a new 18mm lens in the Nikon mount. It's not a Nikon G type lens.  If this lens proves to be worthy then it could easily be mounted on a Canon body and it could fill the gap between 14mm and 24mm, especially if Canon offers no new prime in that range.

I've already posted a few photos from the 14mm Mark II lens on the blog.  My web site now has bigger versions of two of those images:

http://www.jonroemer.com/arch_recent/arch_rec07.html

http://www.jonroemer.com/arch_recent/arch_rec13.html

An image shot with the 16-35 Mark II lens at 20mm on the 1Ds Mark III:

An image shot with the 16-35 Mark II lens at 21mm on the 1Ds Mark III:

Web Site Updates

Updates to my web site, www.jonroemer.com, add images to the recent work galleries in the People and Architecture sections.  Some of the images have been previewed here, others are new.

New Home Page Image

New home page image from the Maine 2007 portfolio.

2008 - New Architecture

Some images from architecture assignments this past spring:

2008 - New Portraits 2

Some more new portraits...

From the assignment shot outside the United Nations, referenced in a recent blog entry:

From an editorial assignment:

Here's a larger version.  The subjects, Trudi Schupbach and Eric Wieschaus, are married.  Both are biologists at Princeton University and both work with fruit flies.  Eric won the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physiology.  They were great subjects. 

When I scouted locations I was a bit at odds with what to do.  I needed to get a photo of them together, a more formal portrait.  Their labs, as are most university research labs, are very chaotic, more so than I wanted for the portrait.  Once I saw the double microscope that was it.  I knew it was perfect to use as a prop and a metaphor for their work.  We set up in a nearby seminar room. I made a faux ringflash using three small softboxes and Trudi and Eric were game to try many different poses.

Firefox 3 - Joins the 21st Century

Firefox 3 was released today.  From my web stats I know that more and more PC users are using Firefox instead of MS Explorer.  So, I thought I'd point out that under Firefox 3 you can now view images online correctly and *accurately. Unbeknownst to most users, Firefox 2 and earlier did not display images correctly.

Of course, getting FireFox 3 to handle images properly takes an extra step or two (Firefox neglected to make it simple by adding a check box in the preferences) but it's easy and painless to get it to fall into line.

You can edit the color management setting in Firefox by entering "about:config" in Firefox 3's address bar, agreeing to accept the risk of voiding the Firefox warranty (what risk?, Firefox is free and you can always re-download it) and then typing "gfx" in the filter field.  Last step is to double-click the gfx.color_management.enable line to change "False" to "True" and you are all set.

If you are not comfortable working under the hood then you can download a Color Management add-on.

*Following either of the above methods will enable Firefox 3 to present images as they were intended to be seen.  Ideally, you still need to calibrate your monitor but using a web browser that can display images correctly is the first step in seeing the true color and tone of image files when they are presented online.

Background Info

Web Browsers and Image Color

International Color Consortium (ICC) Web Browser Color Test

MozillaLinks Blog on Firefox 3 Color Management

What Earns $70 Billion and is as Large as an Army?

Answer:  Artists working in the United States.

The National Endowment for the Arts has compiled census data to give a picture of artists in the United States through 2005.  There are just shy of 2 million artists, 1.4% of the work force, and photographers total just under 150,000 (7.4% of all artists).  Overall, 60% of photographers are men but under age 35 60% of photographers are women.

The report debunks one major myth about artists, that artists are for the most part unemployed and marginal, as it found that only 13% of the people whose primary occupation is as an artist also have a second job.  Digging deeper though, just shy of half the photographers are full-year, full-time workers.

Additional Photographer Details:

-More than 80% of photographers are non-Hispanic white but the field is becoming more diverse.  The proportion for non-Hispanic white photographers under 35 is 73%.

-The median age in the field is 39 with the majority over 35.

-Over 40% of photographers are self-employed.

-The median income of photographers, $26,300, is lower than the median for artists and lower than the median for the US work force.  The median income for male photographers, $35,500, is more than the double the median income for female photographers, $16,300.

-If you only look at full-year, full-time photographers the median income is $37,600 which is more than than the national median income, $30,100.

-In New Jersey, my home state, the number of photographers dropped by 18% between 1990 and 2005.

In his preface to the report, NEA Chairman, Dana Gioia, writes:

Compared to other U.S. workers, American artists tend to be better educated and more entrepreneurial. Artists are twice as likely to have earned a college degree as other members of the U.S. labor force, though they receive relatively less financial compensation for their educational level. Artists are also 3.5 times more likely to be self-employed. American artists have learned to be creative not merely in their chosen fields but also in how they manage their lives.

He concludes with:

From global exports to local investments, the new American economy depends on imagination, innovation, and creativity, and those are the skills that artists develop, nurture, and promote. Isn’t it time that the nation notices?

New York Times Article on the Report

NEA "Artists in the Workforce, 1990-2005" Report

Hot Time, Spring(?) in the City

New York, NY
iPhone Photo, 06/10/08

Shot portraits in three locations in Manhattan yesterday.  First location was just outside the entrance to the UN.  Heat index was around 105^o.  Luckily, the first subject was cool as a cucumber. 

We also got to experience first hand some of New York's recent spate of objects falling from the sky.  While we were scouting locations we stopped in a deli in Tudor City, moments later, directly outside the deli, a large section of detailing on the building fell crushing the front end of car and taking out a motorcycle.  No one was in or on either, nor standing at the corner where it occurred, so fortunately no one was hurt.

CD and DVD State of the Union

In the past few years delivering image files has shifted from CD's to one of three options:  DVD's, External Hard Drives or Internet Transfer.  Which of the three is most appropriate depends upon file sizes, overall job size, speed and convenience.  External Hard Drives are most appropriate for large jobs as Internet Transfer is when speed is the mitigating factor.  In the middle is delivery of the assignment on disc and a confluence of factors has brought DVD delivery to the forefront - DVD drives have become ubiquitous, the price of DVD discs have fallen, camera file sizes have grown bigger and the speed of DVD burning has increased.

DVD vs. CD

This is an easy choice.  A CD holds about 680mb and a DVD 4.4gb (both after formatting).  So, if you are delivering large or multiple files that exceed 680mb the DVD is a no brainer.  Beyond that though things get iffy...  Which media is more archival?

What's surprising is that a CD is more archival and more fragile.  It sounds counterintuitive.  High quality CD's stored under good conditions are estimated to last 100 years or more; that's great and beats DVD estimates by 3x.  CD's, though, have a backing layer (the top of the CD) adjacent to the data layer. So, a scratch or a mar to that backing layer can make the CD unreadable. DVD's have a layer in between the top and the data layer.  So, a scratch or a mar on the top surface is less likely to affect the readability of a DVD.  A stored CD is likely to last much longer than a DVD but a DVD is more likely to stand up to repeated handling.

Disc Delivery - Branding or Lack Thereof

In order to insure the least amount of issues when delivering images on disc I do the following:

-I do not use labels.  Labels can come off and destroy a CD/DVD drive, labels can come off rendering a CD unreadable.

-I don't print on my CD's or DVD's via a thermal or inkjet printer.  It's still not clear if printing on a disc will affect its longevity but given the time it takes to burn and verify a disc the possibility of messing up a disc by printing on it is just not worth it.

-Every disc is verified to make sure it burned properly.  This is a software process that compares the data on the just burned disc to the actual data on your hard drive.

-Every disc is burned to be compatible with Mac and Widows operating systems.

-I only write on the disc on the inner ring where no data is written.

-I use a solvent free pen to write on the disc.  While some people say any marker is fine the consensus is that solvent free ink is the most archival way to go.

-I burn a pdf of the disc cover (contains job information and contents) onto the disc.  This keeps the information about the disc with the disc even if the disc and its case part company.

Delivering discs with a nice label or printed top would certainly look better but in this case simplicity is best and providing a problem free disc makes the most sense.

What About Blu-Ray

I get asked this a lot but it's too early to ask the question.  It'll be a number of years before blu-ray is in wide enough use by computer manufacturers, photographers and their clients to make it viable.  It also presents its own problems.  Blu-ray will take at least twice as long as DVD to burn.  I'm sure even longer to verify.  It's already frustrating enough when a DVD doesn't pass verification and needs to burned again.  To have that happen with 25gb blu-ray discs when you are trying to make a FedEx deadline could be problematic. It may be better to stick with DVD's.

Some Background Information

NIST CD and DVD Care and Handling Guide

NIST Quick Reference Guide

CD and DVD Markers (Google product names to find vendors)

MAM Marker

Delkin Archival Gold Marker

Sharpie CD/DVD Permanent Marker

Update 6/14/08

Delkin has announced Archival Gold Blu-Ray BD-R discs.  They claim a service life of over 200 years.  The discs start at $27 each.  This is still more expensive than DVD's, gold DVD's are about $3 ea, and six dvd's are close in capacity to one BD-R.  Other factors, as mentioned above, are still to be determined as to whether this will work for client delivery and while it may eventually become a viable backup medium for photographers it's still a ways off.

Images That Stop You in Your Tracks

Every once in a while you come across an image that causes you to stop and take note. This just happened to me reading today's New York Times.  The photo is by Todd Heisler, shot when he worked for the Rocky Mountain News (he's now a NYT staffer):

Todd Heisler/Rocky Mountain News

I don't know how much impact it will have here in a blog format.  In today's paper it ran one half page, above the fold.  The photo shows passengers aboard a commercial jet at Reno-Tahoe International Airport, attempting to see what's going on as a Marine honor guard removes the coffin of Lt. James J. Cathey from the plane.  I suspect that you'll see different things in this image dependent upon your political leanings but I think there's no denying the image's power.

The photo accompanies a review of Jim Sheeler's book, "Final Salute, A Story of Unfinished Lives," by Janet Maslin.

The New York Times has a slide show of Heisler's photos which illustrate "Final Salute."

NPR's Terry Gross also has a Fresh Air interview with Jim Sheeler and Marine Colonel Beck whose work in the Marine honor guard is featured in the book.