Canon DSLR Black Friday Sales
/Black Friday 2017 Deal List Live - Photorec.tv/BF2017
Canon has dropped prices for the next week (ends Nov 28th) on several popular cameras! These are the lowest prices seen for these cameras and they will very likely not cheaper before the holidays.Your use of my links for all your holiday shopping supports this site and the work we do here. Shop Amazon | B&H | see all the link you can use
CANON 7D Mark II SALE
Phenomenal powerhouse of a camera with blazing fast focus and ridiculous fps that lets you capture the action/wildlife you are looking to photograph.Canon EOS 7D Mark II DSLR Camera (Body Only)
The most powerful camera in its class- Just $1299! (I paid $1799 for mine!)BODY $1299 + 2% rewards & Free EXTRA battery and bag (on B&H) Amazon also offers free accessories, click on through both links for a complete list of included freebies. Shop B&H | Shop AmazonCanon EOS 7D Mark II DSLR Camera with 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 STM Lens $1649 + 2% rewards 
BODY $1649 + 2% rewards & Amazon is offering free accessories, click on through both links for a complete list of included freebies.Shop B&H | Shop Amazon
CANON 70D SALE
Best value for pickup and go photography and videography with room to grow as a serious photographer. (all include freebies include spare battery, SD card and DSLR Shoulder bag from B&H Photo 
Canon EOS 70D DSLR Camera (Body Only) - Just $899 Shop B&H | Shop Amazon
Canon EOS 70D DSLR Camera with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 STM Lens - Just $999.00 Shop B&H | Shop Amazon
Canon EOS 70D DSLR Camera with 18-135mm Lens Video Creator Kit - Just $1249.00 Shop B&H | Shop Amazon Bonus Deal from B&H - Tamrac Jazz 76 Photo Sling Pack (Black/Multi) - just $29.95- shop B&H 
Dust on the sensor typically doesn’t show up unless you are shooting at smaller apertures. Bigger bits might show up starting around f/8, but it is really above f/14 and up to f/22 where you see the dust. If you are shooting lots of landscapes, this can be an issue. If you are shooting lots of portraits, with apertures below f/5.6 you can stop reading and go back to enjoying life. It is unlikely you will see any dust impact your image.
The first step in cleaning is to determine how dirty your sensor is. A quick way to test is to take a picture of a clean white piece of paper at f/8, f/14 and f/22 - don’t worry about your shutter speed - the dust spots will be sharp even if you shoot at slow shutter speeds, but you do want to keep your ISO fairly low to avoid noise confusing the issue. You could also photograph the sky on a clear day.Now pop that image in Lightroom and in the develop module there is a nifty option to Visual Spots located under the Spot removal tool. 
Rollover the image below to see the before and after Visual Spots with my Sony a7RII sensor at f/22[himage]
[/himage]If your sensor looks like Sony a7RII sensor does after just a few weeks of use - you probably want to clean it.Many DSLRS and Mirrorless cameras have a sensor cleaning mode - some run every time you turn the camera on or off and some run when selected. This is the first option you should try. With many of the systems, it is recommended to either hold the camera normally or facedown with the lens off so that the dust falls out. The Sony A7RII I have violently vibrates the sensor for a second or two and did absolutely nothing to reduce the amount of dust on the sensor. Hopefully you will have better results. Test again after using the in camera method.
The next step is to use a rocket blower - NEVER use compressed air or air in a can dust off products. Again hold the camera in such a way that the dust will fall out and give a few puffs directed at different areas of the sensor. They do sell sensor loupes - little magnifiers with led lights that make it easier to judge your progress. I used a tiny LED bike light to help see the sensor but it is clear that a bit of magnification will help too as some of these dust specks are invisible to the naked eye.$17 
Price will be $599 each and available at the end of September. (Sony mount* available later this year) This sounds reasonable for lenses of this caliber and speed with VC. A few more specs worth detailing more-The close focusing capabilities are impressive. The 45mm can focus as close as 11.42" (.29m) and the 35mm can focus as close as 7.87" (.20m). That close with that wide an aperture will give you VERY shallow depth of field.9 aperture blades should provide smooth bokeh (the more blades the smoother the out of focus circles. The Old nifty-fifty had just 5 blades and you could often see pentagonal shapes of bokeh)Lens hood included!They are calling these lenses weather resistant. I will mention that Tamron has one of the best warranties in the bsiness with 6 years for US buyers and quick repair turn around time.Preorder at B&H Photo Video45mm f/1.8 for 
Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art Lens vs Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L II USM Lens - Leave a comment below with your pick. And don't forget APS- shooters, you have the very nice Sigma 18-35 f/1.8 as an option. Watch my 
[/himage]Rollover to see the longer shutter speeds possible with an ND filterThe filter is a glass and aluminum construction, very well made with smooth rotation and the optical quality is excellent. Clear markings on the filter ring indicate the strength of the filter. I have been using the 82mm size for my 24-70 f/2.8 lens. You can stack additional filters with the front threads accepting 86mm filter size - larger to avoid vignette. One downside to the larger size, your lens hoods and lens caps no longer fit. They do offer additional sizes down to 52mm. 
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[/himage]The alternative is a non-variable ND filter which comes in various strengths. I generally recommend 3 or 6 stop for photographers looking to use in a variety of situations. You can stack ND filters though if you really want the ability to stack you should consider something like the LEE system which has very versatile setups. I have a link below to recommended sizes and strengths and will be talking about the Lee system after my Iceland trip.Recommended 3-stop filters (also labeled ND8 and 0.9)These will allow you to block 3 stops of light i.e 1/250 of a second to 1/30Budget: 
Once you’ve got a sparkler in the ground setup the tripod to your lens’s minimum focus distance, or in other words as close as possible for your lens. Getting it as close to the subject and still in focus is the goal but watch out that it's not dangerously close in the case of a true macro lens. In the case of a partial macro shot just keep in mind that you will have to do a bit of cropping later (See 
You need to nail the focus perfectly. Use a flashlight or whatever light source you have available to light up the sparkler. You need to be exact as being a macro shot your depth of field is going to be about the same as the width of the sparkler. Since the focus is so shallow we want to catch sparks traveling parallel with our focus plane, the window of focus in front of the camera, so that everything lines up in focus as much as possible.
Decide your composition. I don’t think you're going to want a pole(the sparkler) in the center of your photo so adjust as needed to get it to the far left or right so its not in the way. You want to get the middle of the sparkler in frame as the top is a bit of a waste before it gets going. I prefer out of frame personally as it maximizes the amount of frame you have to work with to get the shot even though you lose one side of the sparkler.
For manual settings it’s a pretty simple shot to setup. Being it’s a light source we can use ISO 100 which conveniently blacks out the background if it's not completely dark yet. F/13 aperture to get the depth of field wide as possible. Speed is the tricky part, too slow and you’ve got a massive overexposed explosion, too fast and its dim with tiny lines. For a more chaotic busier photo go 0.3” Sec, to catch fewer straighter lines go 1/25” Sec, and 1/10" Sec for a happy medium.
If you have image stabilization turn it off. It’s not doing anything while attached to a tripod and actually induces a slight blur. The system can’t detect any movement and on occasion will inadvertently cause a shake. With the macro shots in this case the tiniest shake is going to blur the photo and you just wasted a sparkler. This isn't a constant effect and will only happen to a few rare photos but its better for this to be a habit now then learn the lesson while your on a expensive vacation.
For shooting your going to want a burst of photos without touching the camera. A remote is going to be very handy in this case as it can be held down to continuously take photos. Alternatively a self timer set to take multiple shots is your best option sans remote. At this point its the same process as shooting lightning, we want to capture a bunch of shots so we can sort through them later.
Close Focusing Abilities with 18-55 Kit Lenses on Auto
