I’ve been using the Canon 5D Mark II since 2010 and since the Mark III was released in Spring 2012, I wondered if it’s worth upgrading.

Background

I’m an amateur with no pretensions, I don’t travel for photography and merely take pictures for the joy of it. My main field of interest is landscape. As I don’t travel to outstanding places, taking pictures is a slow process.

I have to remain very innocent all the time, and feel rather than think, like each moment is the first and last one.

As far as the material is concerned, I wanted a full frame camera for the bokeh (the blur, out-of-focus areas of an image) and luminosity range. A couple of years ago, I was using HDR techniques to compensate the relatively poor luminosity range, but since the Mark II, the luminosity range is enough.

Bokeh example, taken with a 85mm at 1.2.

Then, is upgrading to the Mark III worth the price?

Mark II vs Mark III

Let put it bluntly, 3000USD for a camera is theft. Specially as the 5D is on the market since 2006 and offered no significant improvements. Yes, the sensor quality improved, the image quality improved, the Mark II was the first DSLR to offer video shooting – and like the full frame, it was like a little tsunami in the video world, but asides the expected hardwares improvements, nothing revolutionary came with the various versions.

So, one could have expected that the prices would have dropped. But no, it’s like; as long as there are idiots willing to pay 3000USD for something worth 500USD, let’s do it.

Count me in the idiots. I resold a bike and the Mark II to pay the Mark III, knowing that in less than 12 months, I will barely be able to resell it 1000USD.
Anyway, I take full responsibility for having fallen to the marketing sirens. Now, this ranting apart, I won’t say that I wasted my money.

The plus

The first point that quenched my regrets, was the speed. The Mark III is definitely more faster than its predecessor. For handled HDR shooting, it’s definitely an improvement as I rely less on the tripod.

The second point is the ergonomic. For example, it’s now impossible the move the program wheel accidentally, as you have to push a button while turning the wheel. There is a dedicated button for the video and mirror which operates like switcher instead of a button.

The third point is the possibility to mount a GPS unit, even if this one is not the best one could have expected, as I have reviewed here.

The fourth point, which is actually the one which made me hesitate to upgrade, is the image quality. The Mark II and III are very close and unless you’re looking at the 100% crop, it’s hard to see differences. Yet, as I worked with the images in Lightroom, I noticed a better luminosity range. The other point is the noise reduction at high iso. When I recover an underexposed image, there is far less noise than with the Mark II.

Below is a series of images taken without HDR.

All images have been taken with a 16-35mm lens at 16mm, which has a big distortion and chromatic aberration.

The fifth point, on the Mark II the luminosity range went from -2EV to +2EV, which most of the time were not enough. The Mark III offers now -3EV to +3EV. Even if the HDR shooting mode of the Mark III left me unimpressed, the extra EV is very welcomed, because where I had to use a tripod with the Mark II, I can shoot handled, now.

Conclusion

Depending on one’s priorities, upgrading to the Mark III might be a good idea if: you need more quality in high iso, a faster camera, more EV and a silent mode (precious for wedding, children, churches, animals, etc).

Geotagging with the Canon 5D Mark II was a discouraging process, as the Mark II had no built-in GPS, neither easy and affordable solution for geotagging. I had written an article a while ago about a low-cost solution. You can read it here.

Geotagging and Canon 5D Mark II

The set up I was using was a Qstarz external GPS and Geosetter software. The process was tedious for the following reasons:

• I had to remember to take the GPS with me and actually turn it on..
• The GPS clock and camera clock had to be synchronized, if we had changed from summer to winter time or if I hadn’t use the GPS for a while, I had to start all over again
• I had to use a third-party program (Geosetter) to add the Geotagging in the metadata before importing and editing the pictures

I gave up pretty quickly this process, unless I was traveling.

Geotagging and Canon 5D Mark III

The Mark III doesn’t come with a built-in GPS. At first glance, one might think it’s a lack, but on second thought, it’s a good idea that the GPS isn’t included. Here are the reasons:

• Not everyone needs geotagging
• The GPS consumes more battery
• Easier to upgrade the material

I have used point and shoot camera with built-in GPS and these didn’t impress me. Mostly because of the battery consumption (yes, it can be turn off, but most often I forgot) and the rather long time to find a signal.

The GP-E2

Canon provided then an external GPS for the Mark III and 7D, though on the 7D the camera has to be hardwired to the GPS device. The images are immediately tagged with the geolocatisation and the clocks are synchronized. As the device is external, it has its own AA batteries and doesn’t rely on the Mark III’s.

The GPS is pretty bulky, compared to other and modern GPS. It is mounted on the Mark III flash socket, which means you cannot use a flash and GPS.

The GP-E2 can also be used as a standalone device, it has a special mode “recording” for this purpose.

On the field

There are two points that are important for me on a GPS, the first is the time to get a signal and the other is accuracy.

So far, the time to catch a signal is rather descent on GP-E2, less than 3 minutes. Actually, unless in a rush, it doesn’t really matter because while the GPS gets the signal, I’m preparing the camera.

The accuracy is terrible, though. Not that it’s 2000miles away, but it records moves when there are none.

Here is an example on the picture below.

The camera was on a tripod and didn’t move during all the shooting. I had similar results in open field (not in a forest), despite a strong signal a no move for a while.

Conclusion

For about 250USD, I’m not impressed by the GP-E2. Of course, the geotagging process is simplified and the device does a descent job. But for this price, we could have expected a smaller and more accurate GPS.

I love the way each one of us has a different view on the world.

When I noticed this beautiful natural lake after heavy rains, I immediately thought about taking pictures. I took the children with me for a walk.

We shared a complete different view on the scenery, though.

I was concerned about composition and light.

They were concerned about how deep the water was.

Do you guess what happened? They walked as far as they could, went as deep as they could and once there: “Moooooom, I can’t move!!!”. The boots remained in place..stuck in the mud.
Well, I suppose you get the picture; mud bath.

My favorite place of waterscapes during winter. Only 10 minutes by car from home. When my genius ego doesn’t have the bright idea to park the car in the middle of an inclined snow field. Which means that I usually get stuck without being able to move forward or backward..follows a sheepy self knocking at a farmer’s house on a Sunday to ask for help.

Well, almost. I got out of this mess by myself. But the later did happen quite a few time.

I wonder if I learn anything.

Enjoy the pictures! I’m finally unlashing the power of Photoshop. Thanks to all the photographers out there who wrote countless tutorials and paved the way!

For those who are interested in cycling, Lance Armstrong is a very popular figure, as he won 7 Tour de France, among other things.

During his career, he was never officially tested positive for doping. Lance denied fiercely all involvement in doping.

Yet, in 2012, the Usada (US anti doping agency) released a consequent rapport on Armstrong’s sophisticated doping program. This file left little room for denial. And at first, Lance didn’t comment anything. His seven Tour de France wins were removed and the man stayed silent.

Interview

In January 2013, Armstrong gave an interview to Oprah Winfrey, were he publicly admitted doping during all his cycling career.

Behind the scene

For those who watched the interview, which was pre-recorded, with an attentive eye, the behind the scene elements are quite obvious.
Oprah on one side is clearly benefiting from such an audience, as here own channel that launched in 2011 didn’t have the expected success. So, one can safely assumed, that the interview was carefully designed by both parts.

Armstrong, on the other side, is playing “damage control”. He tells part of the truth and carefully leaves anyone out of the equation (“It’s all my fault”). One can also safely assume here that his lawyers are currently and probably since months, negotiating. Negotiating with those who want their money back, negotiating with those who want to put Lance in jail and so on.

That is why, the only “real” truth that has been said during the 1h30 interview is that Armstrong did dope. Even the kind of dope he took – which he said was nothing more than what was available on the market – is a lie. If you listen with you heart, you will know the truth. You will know when Lance (or anybody) lies.

And this is were is article is leading to. I’m not interested in Lance Armstrong particular story, nor I am interesting in writing another paper about sorting out what is right or wrong.

My aim here is to shed another light on this particular case. Because, if you look closely, it’s about you.

We are all one

This can be a living truth for you, it can be something that is gradually downing on you or it may be a new age concept. Whatever is your truth of the moment, I’m not here to convince you of anything. I’m suggesting, just for a moment, to your mind to consider the possibility that indeed we are all one. “What you do to other, you do to yourself.”, as Jesus stated.

Telling the truth

If you have children, you will be amazed by their natural ability to tell the truth no matter what. Then how do we start to lie, anyway? Out of fear. We fear judgment and rejection. We are afraid that if we tell the truth about ourselves, we will face rejection. And indeed, that happened to all of us! How many times have we been hurt when we were too open? We thus learned to lie.

Gradually, we created a self-image about who we think we are and that image is very comforting.

In the case of Lance, the main image he was maintaining is those of a top athlete; dutiful, perfect, clean and a winner. As he told himself during the interview, the 7 Tour de France winner, a happy marriage, a cancer survivor, all of it made a perfect story. And he was living up to that story, but as he said: “I knew the truth”.

Lies

We all have been telling lies and still do, for the most part. Our stories might not be as perfect as Lance’s, but they are stories anyway. And we are lying to keep that story alive.

Have you ever noticed how much amount of energy it takes to maintain a lie? How much you are on guard? How much you build walls between you and the others? If that is not so obvious to you, then observe what you are thinking about when you are lying. Mostly the kind of thoughts would be: “What did I say the last time? To which point can I trust this person? This she/he should never know. How can I use him/her? If I say that, what would happen?” See how much on survival mode we are? See that it’s all about “Me, me and me”.

Looking at yourself

There come a point in our lives where we cannot live with our lies anymore. Deep down, we know the truth and like keeping playing the wrong note a piano, we don’t enjoy it.

Whether it’s a love affair or something seemingly more special like Lance’s story, in all cases, one day, we cannot bear anymore.

If you have walked this path, you will know that it is not an easy path. It’s not easy to look at yourself into the mirror. It’s not easy to let go of this image and I can bet that lance went through – and is still going – a rollercoaster of emotions.

In a sense, we are healing. Because all the energy that was used to maintain the lie is now available to something new to shine. You can see it at the beginning of the interview, despite Lance’s effort to control his feelings, there is a lot of tension. He didn’t let go all of it and is yet facing a difficult choice.

Repeat or not repeat?

If you look closely at your lives, you will – or more accurately, the people who know you well will – notice that some scenarios are repeating themselves. And that is the point were Armstrong is. He can go on telling more of the truth or try to build up another image. The choice is his entirely.

Judgment

As you look at what lies are, the reasons we lies, then it’s just impossible to judge. Because had you been in Lance’s shoes, with Lance’s level of consciousness, you will have done exactly the same.

An example is Novak Djokovic who said that Armstrong “is a shame for sport”. Actually, what Novak Djokovic is saying is something about himself, not Lance, which is “I’m currently living by the same lies as Armstrong did”. I’m not saying that Novak Djokovic is doping, more likely that he is still living up to the image of the perfect top athlete that Lance did. And this is what judgment is; it’s about you. When you judge, you say something about yourself. The energy of judgment is arising within you, not the other.

Forgiveness

It’s difficult to explain in words what one feels energetically. There are forces in motion that are impossible to convey in words. Yet, for the world to heal, forgiveness is necessary. I’m not saying by letting everything go and say “it’s ok”, but by being truthful to ourselves and wonder what we would like to experience if we were is such a situation. Would we want people to blame us? to reject us (which is the primary reason we lied at the first place)? to put us in jail? Or, maybe for the first time in our life, to love us. Not the candy Hollywood love, but inconditional love. Which means, you are loved no matter what. If you wonder what it feels like, you can watch your breath. In this moment.

You make no conscious effort to breath, yet it supports you alive. The moment you stop breathing for an extended period, the body dies. And you never know, you don’t know when it’s going to happen. All you know is that in this moment, you are breathing and life is flowing through you. No matter what you are doing, life never stop flowing. Did you heart ever stop beating when you did something nasty and told you “stop that or I stop beating”? Did life ever put conditions to your aliveness?

Have you ever thanks life for each breath?

Moving on

Back to cycling, many people are wondering where cycling (and sport) is going on. Well, it’s pretty obvious, the way sport is designed is crumbling down. The survival mode “I win you loose” is over.

Will sport disappear? Unlikely. But it would be transformed.

Sport is a beautiful experience to explore the relationship between body, mind and spirit. In that sense, Lance brought a lot to cycling as he stretched the so called limits of the human body and mind.

As far as rankings are concern, I guess they will disappear, as they mean nothing. Sport would more likely be a field of excellence where when someone pushes the limits, someone else is inspired to go further. Like the universe expanding.

This is something you can experience in snowparks and skateparks, where people perform for the fun and are inspiring each other to go further.

Closing words

First of all, thank you for reading this far.

Now, I wish you an inspiring inner journey, because, not only are we all one, but the only purpose of this illusion is to wake you up. The outside world you see, is your inner world. You have to find out who you really are. It doesn’t take time, as you already are. All you need is to stop. Just for a moment. And discover what has always been here, without form, name and concept.

Turn your mind inward.

It’s been ten years that I haven’t visited this place.

A lot of things changed during these years. Yet, as I reflected back, it was difficult to bring a clear memory of these days. A bit here, a bit there.

Who was I? who am I? What did change?

Then I turned to the mountain and got my answer. Stillness.