Tip: Canon Lens Aging - How Old Is This Lens?

A surprising element when buying anew lens is always old are they.

When you buy them through Canon distributors or even when you get a great second hand bargain.

But would it be really a bargain?

Find out more by knowing how old your lens are by just following my tips.

Beside the rear lens element of many (but not all) Canon lenses is a date code (as seen above) in the form of "UV0913". This code is also present on many other Canon products including camera bodies.

The first letter, "U", indicates that the lens was made in Canon's Utsunomiya, Japan factory. Prior to 1986, this letter is moved to the last position of the date code.

U = Utsunomiya, Japan
F = Fukushima, Japan
O = Oita, Japan

The second letter, "V", is a year code that indicates the year of manufacture. Canon increments this letter each year starting with A in 1986 and prior to that, A in 1960 without the leading factory code.

Here is a table to make things simple:

A = 1986, 1960
B = 1987, 1961
C = 1988, 1962
D = 1989, 1963
E = 1990, 1964
F = 1991, 1965
G = 1992, 1966
H = 1993, 1967
I = 1994, 1968
J = 1995, 1969
K = 1996, 1970
L = 1997, 1971
M = 1998, 1972
N = 1999, 1973
O = 2000, 1974
P = 2001, 1975
Q = 2002, 1976
R = 2003, 1977
S = 2004, 1978
T = 2005, 1979
U = 2006, 1980
V = 2007, 1981
W = 2008, 1982
X = *2009, 1983
Y = *2010, 1984
Z = *2011, 1985

* assumption of continuation being made for future years.

The first two numbers, "09", is the month number the lens was manufactured in. Month 02 is February, month 11 = November. The leading zero of the month code is sometimes omitted.

The next two numbers, "13", are meaningless in determining how old a Canon lens is because this is a Canon internal code (that is occasionally omitted).

You now know the manufacture date for your lens - But - You cannot know how long the lens was in inventory, in shipping transit and on a shelf until it was originally purchased (without having the original receipt or a reputable person accurately informing you which in most cases you will never get access to it).

The Canon lens date code in the sample picture indicates that this Canon EF 400mm f/4.0 DO Lens was made in Utsunomiya, Japan in September 2007.

So as you can see I bought it this month June 2008 but the lens was manufactured last year in September. Now you just have to check this on your lenses and see how old are they.

This is also very helpful when buying items on second hand at dealer shops or even over Ebay transactions.

Last but not least this is a good way of telling if the lens came out on a period that people complain about focus issues and canon replace them for new ones, etc, etc, etc.

DIY: Inexpensive Strap Mod

Today I want to share with all of you an easy solution for you to start carrying your Tripods, Monopods and even the Strobist Stands.

For quite sometime I was trying to find a good and inexpensive way to add a strap to my stands, tripods and monopods that would help me to carry them on my back without the effort of also carrying the pouch bag that comes with them.

This pouch bag was always a big pain in the a.. since that when you wanted to take a picture with your tripod during those night photography scenes you always had to first remove it from the bag and then put the bag on the floor or put it back on your shoulders and then set the tripod...

oh well this is a normal and regular procedure when you are out on the filed doing some great night shot, but after doing this 30 or 40 times a night you will eventually become a little frustrating and start asking yourself why in the hell did I brought the bag with me? - I better leave the bag on my shoulders and carry the tripod always at hand.

So if you ever think about this and your pouch bag has been pissing you out just check this out...

First things first, let's take a look at what you will need to make this.



Here is the inexpensive list:

- A bag of metal rings 18mm diam. (or you can use some rings from old key chains) 0,80 Euro cents
- Strap from and bag or carrying case that you can have in the attic
- Some nylon cable ties or braces (100 pieces pack 4,8x188mm) 3,20 Euro
- Scissors (not included in the picture) ;)

And you're done.



My tripod has a place to put a key chain on the top part near the head, but if yours do not have it do not be afraid since you can always make a loop with the plastic brace to the head just below the screw part or anywhere you feel it's good to have it. Just take a look at your tripod or monopd and see where it best fits.

So just loop the plastic brace around it (I choose the 4,8x188mm plastic braces because they are a little bit more thick and strong to hold the weight of this tripod but you can always choose the less thicker ones) and while doing so, and before closing it, grab one metal ring and put it through it or inside, call it what you want but as long as it stay inside before you close it then you are in the good way.



Tight it well and now cut the plastic brace and this part is done.



Next I made the same thing on the legs of the tripod. I choose the opposite leg to the front part I have chosen to put the first plastic brace since this will allow me to have a more balanced tripod when I put it on my back.



Hey and you are done!!! Take a look at this baby.

Now you can carry the tripod on your back or sling it through your arm anywhere you go without the inconvenient pouch bag :)



Here is a closer look of the Nylon Brace, the ring and the strap attached to it.



I first took approach to my carrying stands at the Strobist blod Lighting 101 where David Hobby shows how you can make them as portable as possible, in case you have missed it take a look here.

And as you can see on the picture above this was what I was using to carry my stands around. I drill 2 holes on the stand legs and just attached the strap to it.

On this image you can see the bottom hole on the stand leg.



Here I'm pointing at the top hole on the stand.



Let me show you where I drilled those holes.



But... if you do not like to make holes on your stands or they are not like the Manfrotto Nano 001 then you can always use this DIY tip I'm showing you today to use them the same way.

Let's take a look how to make it, and as you can see from the above picture it will be positioned at the same place as the holes and will not interfere with the way you will normally use your stand.



On the top part of the stand you can loop the plastic strap around the first part of the stand right above the umbrella adapter swivel. This is a good way to put it since it will not interfere with the extension of the stand.

And as you can see it will be position almost on the same place has the previous hole I made on the stand leg.



Next you will make a look around the center part block of the stand and almost near the edge (as showed in the above photo). This is a good place and as you can see it will stay further down the stand than the hole I made previously making it more stable while on your back or shoulder.

This is also a great place to make because even if you open the stand legs all the way up they will not touch the plastic braces.



Here is the final shot and as you can see this will be very easy to carry around and you can also loop 2 umbrellas to it with some ball bungees and you're done to the assignment.

Hope this helps you out as it's helping me carrying my Stands, Monopd and Tripods more easily.

DIY: Depth Of Field Calculator

Since I did not had much time during the weekend to write these week Monday Tip I decided to leave you with a Depth Of Field Calculator and Hyperfocal Distance for your camera.

You can use it on your computer or you can print it out and use it on a lens cap, your Ipod, Iphone or even in your Palm OS.

Take a look ate the following link, download it and see how you can make yourself a very nice one.
Depth of field scales are elegant tools for quickly and easily calculating depth of field and hyperfocal distance. Unfortunately, lens manufacturers don't engrave scales on lenses anymore. Now you can use DOFMaster to make your own scales.

Use DOFMaster to make depth of field scales for use in the field. Just set the focus distance, and read the near and far focus distances. Easily calculate the hyperfocal distance for your lens at any aperture.

Customize the scale for your needs:

* Use feet or meters on the distance scale
* Stretch or shrink the distance scale as necessary for focal lengths from 3 mm to 1200 mm
* Print a scale for any format, digital to 8x10
* Put as many as 4 focal lengths on a scale
* Select apertures as small as f/64
* Choose any circle of confusion

Instructions for calculator assembly are included in the DOFMaster help file.

You may be asking what is Depth of Field?

Depth of field is the distance between the nearest and furthest parts of a subject that can be imaged with acceptably sharp detail at one focus setting of the lens.

When an object is in focus, everything from a certain distance in front of the object to a certain distance behind the object will also be in reasonably sharp focus. This distance from front to back that will be in reasonably sharp focus is called the depth of field.

Depth of field refers to the section of a photograph that appears to be in sharp focus.

And what is the Hyperfocal Distance?
The hyperfocal distance is the point you focus on when you want to maximize the amount of depth of field in a photograph.

Hyperfocal distance is the point of focus at which subjects from half that distance to infinity are in focus.

With this tool it will help you calculate this on the field.

Depth of Field calculator glued to a lens cap.

Enjoy

DIY: Disposable Camera Ring Flash

A lot has been said and a lot has been made concerning Ring Flash.

I've been seeing a lot of DIY Ring Flashes with great results but all had a single flash in them except for the attempt on creating a ring flash with 6 strobes and some Tape and let me tell you that was a heavy one, but if you think that was HEAVY just take a look at this one here.

I came into this model (Disposable Camera Ring Flash by Divet) a couple of days ago at the Instructables.com and found it quite appealing except the fact that you will have to get your hands on a couple of disposable cameras and some electronic stuff but I do think this would give a pretty good Ring Flash.

Take a look at what you will need to make the disposable one:
Materials:
10" Cookie tin
6" Metal dog bowl (Dollar Store)
Disposable cameras
Radio Shack AA battery pack (with built in switch)
RD616 wireless flash trigger ($20 Ebay - search: "flash trigger 16 channel wireless")
Surgical tubing
Old tripod plate
Broken door cloths hanger
3.5mm phone jack
Packing Tape
Velcro
Wire
Bolts
Carl Vogt's $5 Photo Slave
SCR 400 Volts 4 Amps (NTE5457 or Phillips C106D)
1 meg ohm 1/4 watt resistor
.05uF 400 Volt capacitor
Perf board
Solar cell from a dollar store calculator (WARNING: Dollar stores often sell calculators with fake solar cells)

Tools:
Nibbler (Radio Shack)
Punch (or nail)
Drill
File
Screwdriver
Soldering iron
Solder sucker
Wire stripper
Hot glue gun
Multimeter
Alligator clips

Then you just have to follow the steps in here and voilá you got yourself a DIY: Disposable Camera Ring Flash.

If you do not have such electronic skills you can always attempt one of the above Ring Lights links and make yourself one.

But how did this craziness about Ring Flashes started to spread into the Strobist community anyway?

Well, it all started out when David aka Strobist put a week challenge design on his blog so people could create this accessory and experiment this kind of lighting without having to pay lot's of money for a Professional Ring Flash... hey ain't that photography all about? Experimenting, testing, shooting, lighting, lighting, lighting did I forget lighting? ;)

There is a pool on Flickr for RingFlash/RingLight photos here.

Take a look at some of the models available out there in case you wanna build one yourself:

- Ready Made Ring Flash (I got mine but lack the time for the moment for the review, soon you will see)
- David Hobby aka Strobist
- Tanya Shields
- David X. Tejada
- Jedrek
- Aki Korhonen
- Dennison Bertram
- Jason Lee
- Doug R.
- Sebastian Kubatz
- Samuel Potter
- Nick Wheeler
- Kyle Gerstner
- Ladytrae
- Mike Osborne
- James Hamilton
- Bankara
- Richard
- Jack

And I leave you with Geoff Johnson on this great video where he makes a Ring Light of a ring fluorescent light and a pan that you can get on a local hardware store.

Just see for yourself how he did it and if you have already made one and have pictures please leave a link on the comments so we can all check them out.

DIY: Soft Light Panel - Small Improvements (Part 2 of 3)

A lot has been said about Light Panels and the use of them.

This simple home made panel can make a huge difference on how your light will fall into the subject. You can use it as a reflecting surface as a shot through or simply as a fill.

The light is very soft and will wrap around your subjects in such a way that after you test it you will not want another thing.

If you have already build yours with the guidance I explained at DIY: Soft Light Panel - Basics (Part 1 of 3) now it's time to improve or tweak it a little with some small features.

The small improvements, you can make them yourself, and you will see that they will not cost you too much money and time to put together.



First let's start by cutting our sheet of white or black fabric (1,25 m (L) x 2,10 m (H)) to the measures of our tube structure in this case 1m long x 2m tall.

Many of you were mailing me advising that you can get inexpensive pieces of Ripstop fabric (this stuff is used to make Hot Air Balloons and Parachutes). You can find them at Fabrics-n-Stuff in the UK (I've made a link on the "Stores in Europe" at the right side panel for future references).

Anyway, since I couldn't find the Ripstop fabric here and by the time I'm writing this I couldn't have any available I just made mine with a normal white fabric.
Pay attention not to get the silky shiny ones since they will block more light than the normal white fabric.

My advice is: when you're buying the fabric take your strobe with you and test it on the store to see how much light will come through it and by doing this you can choose what best fabric will serve your purpose.



I put the assembled frame on the floor over the fabric so I can better see what I'm cutting. Choose one the corners of the fabric and align it.



This is how much fabric space I'm leaving after cutting it out. By doing this you will have some spare tissue to adjust and stretch the panel later on.



Now get the scissors and start cutting. Remember that with the measures of the fabric you will only be cutting 2 parts of the fabric. One on the tallest and another on the widest side.



Here is the final shot after all cutting. See the small amount of fabric out of the frame?
I left mine 6cm all around from the edges since this is more than enough.

Now let's move into a part that many of you were asking about.

How to make this thing stand up?

Well, I use my panel with no legs because because I attach it to another panel with some collars joints. This will give me some more flexibility on where I can use it and even to transport it.

Anyway I will put here some photo options that you can make yourself and decide what best suits you.



Here is the joints or collars (Colliers in French) bought this at LeRoy Merlin in France and they are part of the water tube section on the hardware store.
They are used to joint tubes together and be fixed on a wall as you can see by the center screw it has. They come in a pack of 5 and the pack costs 2.20 euros.

I also bought a screw and a nut so I can join 2 together so this will make a jointing section.



Here is the picture of what I mean earlier when I said join them together.
You simply have to remove the inner nut, that comes already with the collar, because the one that comes won't let you screw completely.



When you join them together they will look like this and they are ready to be used.



A close up of the collar joining 2 panels together.



I use 2 of these to assure that the panels stay firmly connected and standing straight.



Full panels joint together with 2 collars. This is practical because you can move the panels around until you get the position you like.

You can even put one white and the other black to prevent flare on the camera or background or put a white fabric on each and create a folded white panel for something you need.
I leave those options up to you.



You can use 45º joints to put in between the 1 meter tall tubes and get some feet for your panel.



Here is what it will look like after making this. In this picture the panel is not standing straight because the tube for the feet was too small I didn't have a longer one so I just used a 1m to show you what this will look like but you will need at least a tube of 1,5m or 1,75m long so it can be straight.



Another option is to use the previous made joint collars to put up 2 feet's.



This is what it will look like.



And another shot of it standing up. As you can see I left the 45º joints so you can compare both and decide.



Last option for the feet standing is to use one of your spare stands and lean it to it on one side. In this example I used a Nano01 from Manfrotto that I normally carry with the strobes.



Another view of the stand holding the Panel. I put the stand visible so you can see what I mean but normally I do not put it on the middle of the panel because this can cause a shadow on the subject. You just put it lean on one side and it will hold the panel. In case you want to keep it firm use just use a clamp to hold it better.

Now let's move to improve the quick assembly process so you won't stick your head on the ground when you need to put the panel up very fast.



First glue some joint parts to the tubes.



I glued like this, on the corner and in the middle part as you can see in the above photo.



This is a piece of elastic that I bought from Leroy Merlin at 0,65 euros a meter. You will need, more or less, 6,5 meters to put it through all the tubes.

When choosing the elastic make sure it's a thick one because I bought also another not so thick and it took me longer to put through the all tube system but it makes the same effect only takes longer to put it through.



Put the elastic through the tubes. You do not need to start by any specific point.



After putting it through all the parts it will look something like this.



Then you just have to pull , a little, both parts of the elastic so it will stay firm and after you cut it and make a knot with the both ends it will go and stay inside the tube.



Here is the final shot ready to transport it anywhere.



A closer look of what it will look like after running the elastic through all the tubes and bending it all together for transportation.



You can even use the part of the elastic that you cut and will not use to hold them together like this.



Let's bag this baby.



I can stiff 2 Panels with fabrics inside one Manfrotto stand bag and this is lightweight and easy to transport. Also with the elastic inside the tubes it will be much easier, and faster, to assemble and you will not loose any tube part along the way.

Now you are ready to go anywhere with them :)

For final on this improvements you can sew the fabric all around so it won't unweave.







I bought a white elastic band (25mm width) to sew it on the corners of the fabric so it will be much easier and faster to put the fabric on the structure tube.

I measure and cut 13cm long for the elastic band and from the corner to the interior of the fabric I measured about 20cm so that the elastic could be a stretched.

I made the sew myself and this was a not so well done job since I'm not a sew man but it got very good for the purpose I wanted. So don't come with any excuses when you need to sew it ;)



Here is the final shot. As you can see the sewing is not in a so good shape but it holds :) and I didn't make the all around sewing, blame me!!



This is what it will look like after sewing the elastic at the 4 corners of the fabric. You can notice that by doing this the fabric will stretch a little and this would make our light task more easy.



I decided to change my approach to attach the panel to the tubes by putting 3 collars at each 1m tube (Making a total of 18 collars for panel) instead of using the clamps.

First because the clamps are too big and clumsy and not so good at holding tight the fabric, second because it will not make possible to twist it to stretch the panel the way I want it and third the 18 pieces I needed they become very bulky to carry around in the bag.



You can see here what I mean by twist... You attach the collar to the front part of the panel with the fabric already on and twist it to the back until you get the right stretch.



Here is a shot of the back and front of the panel after all the Improvements were done.

See how small the collars are you can hardly notice them on the panel frame. This collars are almost like an adjustment feature that you can stretch the panel at the places you need.



Here is the panel in action with a SB26 at 18mm a 1,5 meters from the panel. The bottom part may need a little improvement but the space was not much to make this... oh well maybe on part 3 ;)



And if you move the light towards the panel you can get this halo effect that, eventually, could be useful in some cases.

Hope you enjoy the improvements and stay tuned for the last part of DIY: Soft Light Panel - Functionality (Part 3 of 3) where I put some examples of what light you can get with this Panels.

DIY: Soft Light Panel - Basics (Part 1 of 3)
DIY: Soft Light Panel - Functionality (Part 3 of 3) - Soon