Monday's mail bag contains my two Sima L Brackets referencing this article I posted not long ago http://cheesycam.com/double-l-bracket-configuration-alzo-t-pod/. I went with the Sima as it was cheaper than the Alzo L Bracket. It feels real solid and has the dual shoe mount. I'll have more information on what I plan on doing with these when I get my aluminum flat bar cut out.
Here's an image of the Canon T2i with Sima L Bracket next to my Zoom H1 Portable Audio recorder.
Sima Video Bracket with Handle + 2 Accessory Mounts
Next up, received the package from bhphotovideo.com . No it's not my Zoom H1 Portable Digital Audio Recorder, that's coming in the mail tomorrow. This box contains some very special lenses. I recently shot at the Craigslist Foundation Boot camp, and was requested to shoot the conference event speeches with DSLR's. Normally I would have opted for a Sony EX1, or Panasonic HVX for longer running video clips, but we were able to shoot with the Canon 5D Mark II using multiple camera angles and overlapped recording. The only problem we ran into was the range of the lenses. Shooting off to the side and wanting the closest possible headshot, my Canon 70-200mm F/2.8 on the full frame just didn't cut it. With the Canon 2x Teleconverter on, we got closer, but the aperture minimum now up F/5.6 (the converter does this) plus the dim lit theater combination had us up to ISO 1600 at the least.
So after every shoot I think about what lenses could make this so much easier and provide better quality, still keeping in mind it has to be at an affordable price. Having a telephoto lens is important for this type of coverage, so prime lenses would be out of the question. I needed to zoom in and zoom out for wider shots as they traveled the stage. For low light, I needed something that had at least a comparable aperture of F/5.6. So I narrowed down cost + functionality to two lenses. The Canon 100-400mm F/4.5-5.6L with IS & the new Sigma 50-500mm F/4.5-6.3 with optical stabilization. Yes the Sigma stops down to 6.3 at the longest 500mm, but as a comparison i'll see if I can get 5.6 at 400mm with the Sigma. Both priced roughly around $1600 US Dollars i'll have the lens vs. lens comparison up this week......
Canon Zoom Telephoto EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS (Image Stabilizer) USM Autofocus Lens
