Photos by Dlee

It’s been an exciting few weeks for me with saying goodbye to a lens, getting some new gear and learning an interesting new technique.

To start off, the featured image at the top of the page was taken a few weeks ago at a place called Mann Point which has been on my list of places to visit all year. I originally wanted to shoot here with my 100-400mm but I had already sold the Tamron and hadn’t received the RF version yet so the 85mm was all I had.

Lighting was a bit bland on that day but I really enjoyed the location and plan to go back when we get some clearer weather with my new lens.

Canon RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 IS USM Lens

I’ve finally received my Canon RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 IS USM Lens and I have to say I’m really impressed. Below are a few photos I took of the new lens with the Canon RF 35mm f/1.8 STM IS.

As you can see from the above photo, it’s quite a small lens for a 100-400mm. It’s definitely much lighter than my old Tamron and feels very nice in the hand. I remember when I went to the zoo for the day with the Tamron I was exhausted after. I’ve only carried this for a short walk but it felt much lighter in comparison and it’s not surprising since the lens weighs like an average zoom.

I haven’t got to use the lens due to pretty much non stop rain since I got it but here’s a few sample images below.

Please note I have done some noise reduction using Topaz DeNoise AI to clean the images up a bit. Although these aren’t SOOC and have been edited, the colors were really nice and I like the rendering on this lens. That last image of the noisy miner was actually at ISO 10,000 but had very minimal noise considering how high it was.

The AF is honestly so fast and accurate, it’s really silent too. This makes me wish Canon had put this Nano USM motor in the RF 35mm and 85mm f/2 lenses. Otherwise I’m really loving the RF 100-400mm and can’t wait to use it even more. I would say when it comes to using this lens for wildlife, the lenses AF far exceeded my abilities and for someone who knows what they’re doing they’d really enjoy using it.

I’ll be sure to update my impressions as I use the lens more.

Discovering the World of Textures

As you know I’m really into my still life photography and I had always been fascinated by certain images on Flickr. They always had a certain look to them which I thought was due to the lenses they used e.g. Lensbaby. One day I found out this look is due to texture overlays which I didn’t put much interest into then just moved on.

I decided to give them a proper look this time and even purchased some off Etsy to use and I couldn’t be happier that I did. Two of the images higher up in the post (the casual product ones of my new lens) and the two below are using texture overlays which I personally feel add so much character to the images.

It’s something I want to experiment with more and have quite a few ideas of future shots I want to take. For the image directly above you can see what the image looks like with and without the overlay. You’ll notice it adds a more moody character to the image which I REALLY love.

I’ll definitely be using this technique going forward for my still life and macro photography but I’ll try my best not to overdo it.

Trying Macro

A long time ago I bought a macro focus rail to try a certain technique but never actually used it. I’ve also been trying to do macro photography for the Flickr group Macro Monday‘s which I am enjoying. Although not a proper macro image, the first one you’ll see below of the small Christmas tree is actually a panorama consisting of 20 something images. I took them all at near MFD to increase the magnification and make those sweet bokeh balls as large as possible for an f/2 lens.

The image above was for the Macro Monday challenge of everyday carry. I take mints with me everywhere I go so I thought it would be the most appropriate subject for that weeks challenge. I think I’ll be uploading these on their own separate post going forward though.

I will say that now that I’m doing these images, I wish I had something of a longer focal length that is true 1:1 macro. The RF 100L is around $2000 AUD so quite pricey. Assuming Sigma enter the RF and Z Mount markets next year, I think I plan to get the Sigma 105mm f/2.8 DN Art Macro. The price of this lens and the Sigma 85mm f/1.4 would be roughly the same as the 100L although I would be selling my RF 85mm f/2 to fund it so it would work out even cheaper.

The Rest

Here’s a bunch of images I’ve been taking over the past few weeks that don’t really fit into any category. I actually took these 3 on the same day when we went to Chatswood for lunch and shopping. All the Christmas decorations are up now hence the first photo.

Although the RF 50mm review is done, I still love how compact and light this lens is so decided to take it out with me. 50mm works really well for food photography if you’re focusing on one dish, although if I was doing one of the more typical flat lay pics then I’d probably like 35mm more.

The Canon RF 50mm f/1.8 STM Review

As mentioned above I’ve finally finished my review of the Canon RF 50mm f/1.8 STM. The image below I took as a the cover/featured image for the review and I was really happy with it. I believe I used my Yongnuo light stick for this but I can’t quite remember now as it may have been the Godox.

You can find the review here.

This concludes my post and I hope you enjoyed all the images. Make sure to subscribe at the bottom of the page if you’d like to be notified of future posts.