Canon Speedlite 580EX II — A Review

I know this Speedlite is capable of better results than the disappointing series of photos I took at a Thanksgiving gathering. If not for Photoshop, half of them would have been unusable. I decided I had to do some serious testing to find settings that would yield consistent exposures in a variety of situations before my annual Christmas photo spree.

My camera is a Canon EOS 5D Mark II with a 24-105mm lens. The Speedlite allegedly can be used in point-and-shoot mode by setting the unit on ETTL and the camera on full auto. With this method I discovered the camera actually uses one setting regardless of distance: f4, ISO 400 at 1/60 second and the Speedlite adjusts automatically for distance. A lens aperture of f4 yields a very narrow depth of field; i.e.: only a small area of the picture will be in focus. I prefer to set the camera manually at f8 or f11, smaller apertures which result in greater depth of field. Allegedly, you can do this and the Speedlite will compensate, but in reality exposures are inconsistent, and maximum range is no more than 10 feet, a ridiculously short distance for a unit that's rated for up to 60 feet! Increasing lens aperture and ISO seems to have no effect beyond 10 feet.

I did a series of tests with the Speedlite and camera both set on manual and worked out a table of f-stop and ISO settings at 3, 6, 10, 15, 18 and 20 feet. This is the table:

3 ft. f22 200
6 ft. f16 200 or f22 400
10 ft. f11 200 or f16 400
15 ft. f8 200 or f11 400
18-20 ft. f5.6 200 or f8 400

I printed my table on a small reference card. Twenty feet is the greatest distance available in my house where I was doing all the testing, but these results indicate I could reach 40, 50, maybe even 60 feet with no problem. I took 11 pictures and all were near perfect. You can see the results at this link:

http://www.linwoodstreet.com/speedlite/manual/

The problem with this method is that it takes all the spontaneity out of my photography. My subjects will get impatient waiting for me to check the distance, look it up on my card and transfer it to the camera. They'll be yelling at me, "Will you hurry up and take the picture? We want to eat!" or "We want to start opening gifts!" I realized I had to find a means of getting accurate exposures with as little manual intervention as possible.

Next, I set the Speedlite up for external metering as described in the manual. You have to change a custom setting in the Speedlite, then set f-stop and ISO on the Speedlite to match the camera. The Speedlite will then achieve the correct exposure by varying the duration of the flash, longer for distant subjects, shorter for closeups. But it didn't work out that way. All photos taken with this method were considerably underexposed, much too dark. So it occurred to me that if I set the ISO on the Speedlite lower than on the camera, that should fool the Speedlite into extending the duration of the flash. This theory proved to be correct. After experimenting with several combinations, I settled on ISO 160 f8 on the Speedlite and ISO 400 f8 on the camera. I took 10 photos. One closeup was slightly underexposed and one mid-range shot slightly over-exposed, all others near perfect. This is acceptable and I'll go with this method for the time being. I don't object to making minor corrections now and then with Photoshop. You can see the uncorrected results of my final test at this link:

http://www.linwoodstreet.com/speedlite/external/

I was never satisfied with flash photos taken with my Nikon D70s with built-in flash. Colors were flat and lifeless, sometimes muddy. The Canon Speedlite produces more brilliant colors, but sometimes harsh and contrasty. More pleasing results can be obtained by bouncing the flash off a white or light-colored ceiling, which I do whenever possible. The ability to rotate the Speedlite head upward at an angle is a valuable feature. It can also be rotated sideways to bounce off walls. Summing up, it's a versatile and powerful flash, a very good performer if you have the patience to experiment exhaustively until you find the right combination to yield consistently accurate exposures.

A review of my camera can be seen at this link:

http://linwoodstreet.blogspot.com/2009/09/first-impressions-of-5d.html

First Impressions of the 5D

My lens was delivered about 3 p.m. yesterday and I spent the rest of the day and most of today trying out and experimenting with all the Canon EOS 5D Mark II's functions. The stabilization works extremely well. I took several shots of a car yesterday afternoon, and I don't know whether it was nervousness with the new camera or the unaccustomed weight (it's heavy), but I was shaking badly. I know I would have blurred the pictures with my Nikon, but the Canon overcame my trembling and yielded perfect, sharp, stable images without a trace of blur. Pictures are lighter than I'm used to. The Nikon took consistently dark pictures. I used exposure compensation on the Nikon to lighten them somewhat, and then lightened them further with Photoshop after transfer to my computer, and even after all that they were still on the dark side. However, it's not a problem. The 5D also has exposure compensation so I can darken them if I wish. I'll wait to see more photos in a variety of settings before making a decision. At its maximum resolution, 21.1 megapixels, the 5D produces a file size that averages 8 megabytes! I think I'm going to settle for medium resolution, about 11 megapixels, still higher than the Nikon's maximum resolution. I'll only use the 5D's maximum size if I know in advance I'm going to have an 8x10 or larger print made.

I mastered the Speedlight flash attachment rather quickly. (NOTE: These early impressions of the Speedlite are incomplete. I later ran into problems with it. A full review appears in a November 29, 2009 posting.) After a little experimenting, I was getting consistently perfect exposures, at least around the house. I found I get the best results by setting shutter speed and aperture manually, just as I did on the Nikon. The flash has its own exposure compensation, and I set it to a minus-1/3 f-stop to slightly darken flash photos which were lighter than I preferred.

The 5D is a fairly complicated camera and not as intuitive as the Nikon. The manual is not easy to understand on some of the more complex functions. The camera can shoot a video, but setting up for it was so cumbersome and awkward I almost gave up. However, once the setup is complete, from then on you only have to press three buttons to shoot a video. Another complaint about videos is that it produces a Quicktime movie, a proprietary Apple file type. That was a bad decision. Why not MPEG?

As I mentioned before, it's a heavy camera. I've been getting wrist and hand cramps just shooting around the house and yard the past two days. I don't know how it's going to be in four or five hours of shooting at a car show.

Waiting...

I bought my Canon EOS 5D Mark II last Saturday, lens not included. Along with it I purchased a Canon 580EX II Speedlite, a SanDisk 16GB flash card, a UV filter and a polarizing filter. Obviously, with no lens, there's nothing I can do with all this equipment but admire it. I ordered the Canon 25-105 zoom lens separately from an internet supplier. I got a call from UPS yesterday informing me the lens would be shipped today. It will require a signature. It will be delivered between the hours of 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. Arrrrrrghhhh! Here I am sitting on pins and needles, starting to read the camera manual for the second time, looking out the window every 15 minutes or so for the UPS truck. What suspense! I've got a feeling it will arrive about 6:59 p.m. That's usually the way it goes. I'll keep you posted.

"Copenhagen"

September 3, 2009 — It was back to The Peterborough Players this evening for a performance of Michael Frayne's "Copenhagen." A bare circular stage tilted toward the audience and three chairs are the only props used by three actors in this two-hour play which is a fictionalized account of conversations between scientists Nils Bohr and Werner Heisenberg and Bohr's wife, Margarethe. An enormous amount of dialog is spoken, some scientific, some philosphical, some mundane. I don't know how actors do it. I can't memorize a phone number more than 30 seconds.

The play jumps around in time, but central to everything is a visit by Heisenberg to Bohr's Copenhagen home during the German occupation in 1941. During the visit, the two left the house for a 10-minute walk. What they discusssed is unknown, and both men's memories of the conversation were hazy. During the play, one of the men will often pace around the periphery of the circular stage, possibly a metaphor for electrons orbiting the nucleus of an atom. Heisenberg's famous Uncertainty Principle becomes a metaphor for the uncertainty of memory.

In the end, the two scientists ponder who suffers the greatest burden of guilt. Heisenberg remained in Germany and became a key player in Hitler's race to build the first atomic bomb. But Heisenberg failed, and was never responsible for a single death. Bohr went to America where he contributed to the successful development of the bomb which killed many millions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but forced the Japanese surrender and, for better or worse, launched the nuclear age.

"Curtains"

August 27, 2009 — It was back to the Weathervane Theatre in Whitefield, New Hampshire this evening for a performance of Kander and Ebb's "Curtains," a musical murder mystery. In sharp contrast to the stiflingly hot theatre last week, this evening it was uncomfortably cold. This was a somewhat uneven show, with varying singing talents. The three female leads were excellent, but some of the male singers weren't quite ready for prime time. Several actors who I have admired in previous shows stumbled over their non-singing dialogue so frequently it became annoying. Maybe it's partly due to the fact the Weathervane is a repertory theatre where several different plays alternate. For instance, "Curtains" might be followed tomorrow night by "Sweeney Todd" followed by "Ain't Misbehavin'," then back to "Curtains," all with the same cast. Switching gears like this has to be difficult for actors and directors alike. The nearly three-hour "Curtains" seemed to drag at times, unlike the equally long "Heartbreak House" which seemed to move quickly.

When I left the theatre a little after 10 p.m., it was 47 degrees. I headed up to Lancaster where I had reserved a motel room where I was spending the night prior to driving up to Colebrook for the annual moose festival in the morning.

"Heartbreak House"

August 25, 2009 — The Peterborough Players in Peterborough, New Hampshire, off the beaten path in the former Hadley farm, has maintained a consistently high level of talent, production, direction and stagecraft. Well-known actor James Whitmore, who passed away earlier this year at age 87, was a mainstay at Peterborough, appearing as recently as last year as the stage manager in Thornton Wilder's "Our Town." His son, James Whitmore, Jr., an equally excellent actor, appeared in this evening's performance of "Heartbreak House" by George Bernard Shaw. The entire cast was superb in this long play, three hours with two intermissions. But the time flew in this excellent production of Shaw's witty, sometimes hilarious, sometimes poignant story of Britain's affluent but shallow society at the beginning of World War I. I thorooughly enjoyed it, and while there I made a reservation for the Players' next production, "Copenhagen."

"Hello, Dolly"

August 20, 2009 — After a delicious breakfast of brook trout fried in bacon fat, we sat outside and enjoyed more coffee and conversation with a beautiful view of the mountains of the Connecticut Lakes region. It was cool enough for jackets, a welcome change from the sweltering weather of recent days. We set out on another excursion into the wilds of northern New Hampshire. This time we got totally skunked fishing and once again there were no moose sightings, but the company of good friends and the unspoiled wilderness made it all worthwhile. The morning coolness gave way to heat once again as the sun moved higher. Around mid-afternoon, I bid a fond good-bye to my friends and began the 2 1/2-hour drive to North Conway where I had a reservation for "Hello, Dolly" at the Eastern Slope Inn Playhouse. The Playhouse was nearly but not quite as warm as the Weathervane a couple of days earlier, but A/C is rare in New England summer stock theatres. The performance was good, not quite as fast-moving and energetic as "Ain't Misbehavin'." Some of the singing talent left a bit to be desired, but there were some pretty good dance numbers.

"Ain't Misbehavin' "

August 18, 2009 — After dinner at busy, unpretentious Grandma's Kitchen in Whitefield, New Hampshire, I drove up the road to the Weathervane Theater to see "Ain't Misbehavin'." Just five performers carried this lively production of Murray Horwitz and Richard Maltby Jr.'s 1978 Tony Award-winning musical set in 1930s Harlem. In the cavernous, un-air-conditioned Weathervane, the audience happily sat sweltering through the two-hour, high-energy revue as the talented cast, two male and three female, soaked their costumes in sweat as they maintained a high level of energy under the lights on the even hotter stage. Normally, I would make the 2 1/2-hour drive home after a Weathervane show, but this time I had been invited to visit friends the next day at their camp in Pittsburg, so I drove 10 minutes north to Lancaster where I spent the night at the Lancaster Motor Inn.

Theatre Under the Stars

On a warm summer evening in the mountains, I attended an outdoor performance of Shakespeare's "The Merry Wives of Windsor" at Theatre Under the Stars in Waterville Valley, New Hampshire.

http://www.shakespeareinthevalley.com/

Many in the audience bring picnic baskets and spread out a lunch on the lawn. Wine bottles and goblets are everywhere. I attend at least a couple of performances a year here and have become acquainted with the founder and artistic director, the executive manager and several actors. The company values a friendly atmosphere and circulates among the patrons before and after the shows, getting to know as many as possible. The theatre is a New Hampshire treasure you might not know about unless you follow the performing arts.

An Evening at the New London Barn

Traveled to New London, New Hampshire, today to see a performance of Cole Porter's "Anything Goes" at the New London Barn Playhouse. The Barn is New Hampshire's oldest continuously operating summer stock theatre, and it's on the New Hampshire registry of historic sites. As usual, I arrived early enough so I had time to stroll around the town and snap some pictures. New London, home of Colby-Sawyer College, is a pretty town with a picturesque college campus, lots of old homes, well manicured yards, and flowers everywhere.

The play was a pleasant surprise. After a summer of disappointing shows up to now, the Barn's production of "Anything Goes" was lively and entertaining, with great song and dance numbers and sparkling talent — a real audience-pleaser. The cramped coziness of the barn-like theatre made it all the more fun.

Nice touch: Near the end of the intermission, actors picked audience members and brought them on stage for a dance. I wasn't among those selected. Too bad. It was a slow waltz. I could have handled it.

The Weir

Stopped in Meredith yesterday on the way to The Barnstormers summer theatre in Tamworth. Spent an hour strolling around Meredith on the shore of Lake Winnipesaukee, one of my favorite New Hampshire spots. The day was beautiful, sunny in the low 80s. Took a few pictures. Had dinner at Hart's Turkey Farm.

Drove on to Tamworth where I attended a live performance of "The Weir" by Conor McPherson. The play takes place in an Irish pub. There are four actors, three men and a woman. In a long evening of drinking and conversation, each tells a story of ghostly experiences, personal fears and loss.