IT IS ON THE WAY! - RANGERS APPRENTICE #8 - THE KINGS OF CLONMEL

First if you like a good story let me recommend Our History Project website and podcast. Real adventures of the little known sagas of American History- Action, Drama, War, sports and more. It is a great site with some fantastic stories.

Now!

The eighth book in the Rangers Apprentice Series by John Flanagan was published November third and after some delay (not sure why) is now on its way to my waiting hands.

Right now in the United States we are on book #4 so if you want more of the series you need to order from Australia, which is adventure in its self. Expect the delivery to be somewhere around four weeks and by the way don't even bother with Amazon.au they don't have it and is not really in the country.

This is a series that follows a young lad named Will, his training and adventures while growing up in the Ranger Corps. I would really spoil it to give you the entire run down of the series. Let me just say read it. You will not be disappointed. It is a story for the ages, truly. I am enjoying reading with my kids these adventures and my 10 year old has already re-read the series multiple times. She is trying hard to finish them again before the new one gets here. Which means every day we have a battle of wills, me saying - When is going to get here? and her - "It didn't come today did it?

The nice things about these books are that they are (books 1-4) available by most Libraries as a free download audio books through NetLibrary. If you want to discuss this book or others you can head over to the Rangers Apprentice Forum. There are currently 2 websites that I know of for the Rangers Apprentice Books - one is the .com site - http://www.rangersapprentice.com/ and the other is the Australian version of the .com - http://www.rangersapprentice.com.au/index.asp where you can play games, do puzzles and get downloads.

Needless to say I recommend the books and if you have not picked them up, do! They are that good.

To see the very cool and updated cover art see my new post at http://wcandersonreviews.blogspot.com/2010/09/rangers-apprentice-by-john-flanagan-new.html

BOOK REVIEW - THE YOUNGEST TEMPLAR - KEEPER OF THE GRAIL

The new book by Michael P. Spradlin, "THE YOUNGEST TEMPLAR - KEEPER OF THE GRAIL" is a story of Tristan, who was not only an orphan but also now a squire to the Templar Order.



The book is fairly fast paced and intriguing with enough twists to keep you interested. It is written somewhere between first and third person. I generally loath the first person written style and usually can not make it through one without giving up. However, while this is written in a first person fashion it flows very well and will drag you into the story easily. Many writers could take lessons from Spradlin on this style.

The history of the Templar's was well researched and the book contains a nice supply of history to accompany the story. Michael P. Spradlin did a great job with this book and it is the first of his stories that I have read. Which begs me to think I will check out his other writing as well.

Highly recommended - pre-teen to teen for the most part, but anyone with knowledge or is fascinated by this period of time will like the story.

CANON EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM

Let me introduce you to the lens that brought to light my understanding of what “L” quality means, “The Canon 200mm F/2.8 Prime”. What a beauty this is. It is fast, accurate, light and sharp as a laser.

I was contracted to shoot a Major League Baseball Game and I needed a lens that would do the job. I had recently been on vacation and was shooting a Minor League Game from the stands for fun about a month before this life changing meeting. Their photographer was there to shoot as well. Well, me not being a stranger to anybody, introduced myself and asked a few questions. The lights here were not great but he gave me some pointers and advised me that to shoot the game at night I would have to have a 2.8 lens and I would probably have to shoot at 800ISO as well. The whole meeting and Q&A session lasted probably no more than 10 minutes tops.

OK, I needed a 2.8 lens on a shoe string budget to get the job done. After looking at them all I settled on the Canon 200mm f/2.8 prime. Mainly it was because of the price. I really had no idea what I was in for. After the first game was shot I was left with my jaw almost dragging the ground. I could not believe I took those images. I kept calling to my wife, “Hey come here and look at this!”

Was it the perfect lens for this type of shooting? Not really. On some shots it was more lens than I needed while on other shots it was more. Bottom line was I got the shots I wanted. Over the next month or so I played with it endlessly.

Although this is a long range at 320mm on the 1.6 crop body you can find quite a lot of surprising shots at this range: Candid’s, head shots, half body and full body from a distance. It is a great secret lens that will let you take pictures of hard to photo subjects from a distance and just let them be themselves.

As far as sharpness goes this is one of the best I’ve seen and on course with the famed 135mm f/2. I knew I was in trouble when I started to analyze each shot and I found I could tell you what time their watch says. Every line wrinkle and detail explodes with this lens.

“Highly Recommended.”

But, beware if this is your first “L” quality lens you will never be happy with less as far as sharpness and detail are concerned.

RESEARCHING A LENS TO PURCHASE

A while back I was asked about where I look for reviews when deciding to purchase a lens. I thought I would add the list here so it would be readily available should the need arise for you.

When researching a lens I will search the net and read countless posts and articles but these are the top sites I check.

http://www.fredmiranda.com/reviews/
http://bobatkins.com/photography/digital/10d300dlenses.html
http://www.eflens.com/
http://www.dpreview.com/
http://www.nikonlinks.com/~nicke/photo/lenstest/brand.html
http://www.photozone.de/active/survey/querylens.jsp
http://www.bruidsfotojournalist.nl/gear/photogear.html
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Canon-Lenses/
http://www.pbase.com/lightrules/lenstests
http://www.northrup.org/equipment/
http://www.camerareview.com/templates/compare_specs.cfm?Category=8
http://www.nobell.org/~gjm/photography/lenses.html
http://www.outbackphoto.com/the_bag/uwes_canon_lenses_2004/essay.html
http://www.photographyreview.com/reviewscrx.aspx

Some of these are well known, other may not be. They are listed in no particular order.

Good Luck

CANON 28-135mm IS REVIEW

This lens is one of the lenses I both love and hate. Finally the hate grew greater and I sold it.

It is a good lens and can produce some very fine images. It can also be a frustration and capture about as many stinkers. This is my take on the lens and why.

It is f/3.5-5.6 and does have image stabilization. It can be used for a wide range of situations from wide angle landscape to portrait work. It also has USM for supposed faster focusing.

What I have found that it will focus fast but only in heavy sun. When in the shadows it will tend to hunt. In low light it is unbearable. Can you shoot in any situation? Yes. Can you make this lens work for you? Yes. Is it sharp? Sometimes.

Popular Photography has done a review on this lens that can be found here. Unfortunately it was well after I had the lens. The summary chart pretty much tells the story of what I found. It was pretty good up to about an 8x10 print.

I had originally got an DSLR because the point and shoots could not compete with the instant focusing during school plays and performances. But, I also wanted a lens that would have versatile range and cover most situations I would be in. With the increased ISO I should be able to achieve a good image. There was my flaw. I soon realized that I was a pixel peeper. I had moved up to the DSLR because of preformance and quality. Little did I realize at the time the quality was held in the glass more than the camera it was attached to.

If you are looking for a walk around lens and are not a pixel peeper like me, I would suspect most people would be happy with this lens. However if you are considering this lens check out the new lines of Tamron's (3 Lenses) that range from 18-300, one has IS and the specs sheets and test that I have read confirms that they are equal to if not better on the IQ than the 28-135.

AF28-75mm F/2.8 XR Di LD Review

I for one understand that quality means “L” when shooting with a Canon Camera. Usually the image that is acquired by an “L” lens is head and shoulders above the pack in terms of sharpness, speed and build quality. I say usually because there are some standouts in the third party market and today I want to give you my opinion on one of those lenses.


The Tamron AF28-75mm F/2.8 XR Di LD.






I am an avid sports shooter and require the need for a f/2.8 or faster lens for most of my shooting. I have been happy with my 70-200 f/2.8 as well as my first L lens purchase the 200 f/2.8 prime. Speed, clarity, construction and results spoke for themselves in the images that were taken with them. So, when I needed a short lens for indoor use I turned to the Canon 24-70L. I purchased the lens for a photo shoot at a local gymnastics school. Due to the dimness of the lights and no windows the lens did not hold up to the stop action speed that was needed. I was able to adapt with the 70-200 and got the job done but it left me scratching my head at the $1300 purchase.

Back to the computer I went, searching all other 2.8 glass with the same relative focal length. I ran across the Tamron 28-75mm and it really had mixed reviews. Some loved it and theirs were tack sharp, while others claimed it was useless.

One review stuck out among the hundreds I had poured over, it stated that the owner was really happy with the lens. In fact like a lot of forums and reviews we read he stated that, “I must have got a good copy.” Ok, that’s not the part that stands out. It was the reply to his post which stated very lengthy that it is about 1 in 10 of these lenses that are stand outs and that they are tack sharp. The same person also stated that about 1-3 Canon lenses are “The One”.

Off I went with this new information to get my lens. To test the theory I shopped locally where I could test the lenses there. I drove around Atlanta for two days and was in at least 5 stores many of which had only one copy. I tested each one at 28, 50 and 75mm at 2.8. None of which were any sharper than the 28-135IS that I normally use and most were softer on at least one of those focal lengths.

Yes, I do understand that that you are going to give up some quality with a zoom, and I know that you are not going to have tack sharpness at all lengths most of the time. But, remember I am looking for that “1” lens that will knock my socks off.

I ended up at a store in Atlanta that had several copies of the lens available. After testing the first two I was getting really down. The store had 3 more left and I almost said, “just forget it” when the sales lady talked me into trying the others since I was there already. I place the third copy of the camera; which by the way was number 8 tried so far.

The heavens parted and the sun shown almost right on the counter itself. “A perfect copy.” I ran through the test twice more at different signage around the store. With a smile I bought it. While standing there I noticed the other two on the counter and suddenly remembered the 1 in 10 quote from the forum.

Most all of my studio work is done exclusively with this lens. It is also my walk around vacation lens as well. At $400 for the Tamron, I saved $900 and matched the speed and image quality of the 24-70L.

I’m happy

wcandersons.com