Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 USM Review

Monday, July 5th, 2010

About Reviews

One thing to note about these reviews is this: I only put reviews on this site of products I use on a regular basis. I may try out a new product from time to time, but I won’t put a review up unless it makes it to my camera bag. I’m also never paid to do these reviews. They are only products that I genuinely love and recommend to you. So you know I’m not just saying something because someone asked me to.

Buy it or try it

Purchase from B&H Photo Video | Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM
Borrow from Borrow Lens | Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM Review

Canon’s 24-70 lens spends a lot of time on my camera. I use it a lot and I’ve put it through a lot of tests and harsh conditions. It’s one of my favorite lenses I own and I can tell you with complete confidence that it won’t disappoint if you purchase one.

The model name explained

Some people hate jargon. I find that every industry and every interest has it. So you might as well learn it! I think companies like Canon and Nikon could probably do a better job at making their lens names easier to understand, but what can you do? For those that aren’t sure what everything means when I say Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM, let me explain.

  • Canon – the company that makes the lens obviously
  • EF – stands for “electrofocus” which means “autofocus.” However Canon also uses this term to let you know that any lens with EF on it will fit with any EOS Camera. You don’t have to worry about this unless you have an older camera.
  • 24-70mm – This is the zoom of the lens. The lower the number, the wider angle your shot will be. Most lenses will range from around 12mm all the up to 1200mm.
  • f/2.8 – The widest aperture the lens is capable. Anything f/2.8 or lower will start costing a lot of money, but will give you shallow depth of field if needed and low light performance.
  • L – Canon’s superior line of lenses. The best quality materials, the best weather proofing, the best performance, the sharpest images.
  • USM – stands for “ultrasonic motor” and tell you there is a built in focusing motor inside of the lens. Ultrasonic is Canon’s focusing motor.

And there you have it. Each of those bullet points could be there own blog posts as there is an endless amount of information and physics and jargon associated with each one. I won’t go into that here.

Why I use it

The Canon 24-70 lens is what I use for probably 90% of my landscape and travel work, and about 30% of my wedding and lifestyle work. It’s a solid, high quality, heavy, and large sized lens that will set you back around $1,300. Attach a 1Ds Mark III or 5D Mark II w/battery grip and it becomes VERY heavy. It can get very tiring shooting with a lens like this at a wedding for 14 hours so I suggest using something else most of the time, like a 50mm 1.2 or 1.4. For travel images I attach the set up to a tripod and carry it over my shoulder. Why do I love this lens? A lot of landscape photographers go as wide as they can, opting for a 16-35 lens for example. I use the 24-70 more often than not because of it’s slightly higher compression. The 16-35 basically has none, the 70-200 has a ton (which I use sometimes as well), but the 24-70 is just right. I don’t run into too many occasions where it just isn’t wide enough. And when I do, I stick another lens on the body. Compression is kind of hard to describe, but basically the more compression you have, the closer an object in the background appears to the foreground. Now obviously there are times when you don’t want this, just as with anything else, but I like it most of the time.

As a portrait lens it’s not always the best choice. While it has more compression than a 16-35 lens, it still distorts objects a lot if you frame them wrong. That’s why I only use it about 30% of the time at weddings and such (besides the weight issue). The lens is capable of impeccably sharp images, but also capable of soft images from time to time. I’ve found that shooting wide open at f/2.8 will render slightly soft images and it’s not until f/4 or so that you really start getting tack sharp frames.

Here are a few shots of the 24-70 on my 1Ds

And here are some images created with this lens…



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CANON EOS 5D MARK II REVIEW

Saturday, July 3rd, 2010

Kristin’s First Post!

My wife Kristin just came on board full time with the photography business. You can find out more about her at the “Meet Kristin” page at the top navigation bar. She is an incredible writer (way better than I am) and an very talented photographer. Photography is one interest we have always shared all the way back to when we were dating. I’m so glad to finally have her working with me so we can actually get things done! The Canon 5DMII is Kristin’s primary camera body when we are shooting wedding or any other event. She uses it a lot more than I do so I thought it would make sense for her to write the review from her perspective. Let her know what you think by leaving some comments at the bottom of the post. Thanks!

about reviews

One thing to note about these reviews is this: I only put reviews on this site of products I use on a regular basis. I may try out a new product from time to time, but I won’t put a review up unless it makes it to my camera bag. I’m also never paid to do these reviews. They are only products that I genuinely love and recommend to you. So you know I’m not just saying something because someone asked me to.

where to buy or try

B&H Photo Video | Canon 5D Mark II (body only)
Borrow Lenses | Canon 5D Mark II (body only)

Canon EOS 5d mark ii review

I absolutely LOVE my 5D – this camera is reliable, durable, and is the industry standard for wedding photographers. There are many benefits of the 5D Mark II, from it’s ability to shoot in low light to its fairly quick 3.9 fps shutter speed which is great for shooting weddings at night and for capturing sequenced moments. Here are a few of the specs:

  • 21.1  Megapixel Full-frame CMOS Sensor
  • DIGIC 4 Image Processor (faster processing for fine details, colors, and reduced noise)
  • 3.0-inch Clear View LCD monitor with Live View Function, anti-reflection, and scratch resistance
  • 3.9 frames per second and a durability of 150,000 frames with improved weather resistance
  • Wide range ISO of 100-6400 (expandable to 50 and 25600)
  • And one of my favorite features: Full HD Video with 1920×1080 resolution and manual exposure control
  • New firmware updates that include 24 frames per second, full manual audio control, and critical exposure info displayed on LCD

The 5DMII’s ability to capture vibrant colors with its 4 Image Processor is simply fantastic. The camera produces amazingly accurate and vibrant skin tones, spot on saturation and incredible detail. The ability to capture images in low light situations also really comes in handy for night time weddings and shoots at dusk. With an almost completely dark reception room, I can shoot away with confidence knowing I will get quality images. Of course, you have to remember that the higher ISO you use, the lower image quality you are going to get, with much more noise. This can be taken out to a degree in post processing, but the more noise reduction you use after the fact, the less detail you get in an image and a smaller print size. With that said, you can still take images at ISO 3200 with incredible details and have them printed with a great quality.

While the 5D does have the ability to shoot with different settings (aperture value, time value, etc) it does not have pre-set options like an entry level consumer DSLR. So, if you are thinking about purchasing a 5D Mark II (which I highly recommend!), you need to make sure you are comfortable with your camera and you know how to manually change your settings without relying on the dreaded green box “automatic” setting. One thing James preached to me over and over again when I was first learning about how to really USE my camera, not just point and shoot, is that we need to CREATE images, not just take them. When you use the camera’s automatic settings, you are letting the camera tell you what kind of shot you are going to get. Yes, you can set up the shot and have an eye for what picture you want, but beyond that the camera is doing all the work. To really create images that are captivating and truly your own, you really need to learn how to use your camera beyond the “portrait”, “automatic”, or “landscape” settings. This process takes time and practice, but once you learn about your camera and utilize it’s capabilities, you begin to move from “picture taker” to photographer.

One of my favorite features of my camera is the ability to shoot in full HD video! Even though I always had my camera by my side, I always wanted a video camera to capture the moments in between still shots. It always seems like the most hilarious or touching moments happen when you don’t have a video camera around. Well, problem solved! Now I have a camera and a video camera in one :) This feature really allows James and I to take our business to the next level. One of the greatest advantages of having two photographers at sessions and weddings is that we both have unique styles, but we also capture every moment of the event because we can be in two places at once. But, to add to the experience for our clients, I can take HD video while James is shooting, then we put them into these amazing slide shows that are like nothing our clients have ever seen. We can combine the video and the still images of a particular moment, so the bride and groom (for example) can watch the moment when they feed each other their wedding cake, and then they can also see the photographs we produce from that moment. It adds a personal touch to every session, but it also is great for personal use too! I take my camera on vacation, to events, and pretty much everywhere just in case I need to capture those moments with a photograph or a video. I’m pretty sure when James and I have kids, they will be the most photographed and videoed kids ever!

Here is a video of Lauren and Daniel’s engagement session that we shot at the Fort Worth Stock Yards and Sundance Square. It is a great example of the fusion between still images and video:

Conclusion

So, to sum up, the Canon 5D Mark II is a great addition to your camera set up – it is a versatile, durable, and amazing camera. As a photographer, you have to have a wide range of knowledge and your equipment really does assist you in the creative process. Having the 5D in your arsenal will help to expand your ability as you continually grow as an artist and photographer. There are plenty of other photographers at the top of their field who choose to use the 5D Mark II as their primary camera of choice. This is an incredible piece of technology at an extremely affordable price for the features it offers. Want to shoot HDR with the 5D Mark II or any other Canon camera that won’t bracket more that 3 images? Not a problem! There is a great HDR photographer named Brian Matiash who shoots exclusively with the 5DMII. He uses the Promote Control to take more than 3 brackets and has a great review of it over at his blog. Check it out if you’re interested.

Here are some images taken with the Canon 5D Mark II:

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Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III Review

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

About Reviews

One thing to note about these reviews is this: I only put reviews on this site of products I use on a regular basis. I may try out a new product from time to time, but I won’t put a review up unless it makes it to my camera bag. I’m also never paid to do these reviews. They are only products that I genuinely love and recommend to you. So you know I’m not just saying something because someone asked me to.

Where to Buy or Try

Purchase from B&H Photo Video – 1Ds Mark III (body only)
Rent from Borrow Lenses – 1Ds Mark III (body only)

The Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III Review

This camera is my baby. My bread and butter. I am borderline in love with it. I couldn’t imagine doing what I do with anything else. The 1Ds Mark III is currently Canon’s flagship model SLR (until the much anticipated release of the 1Ds Mark IV). This is the highest up the line you can go with Canon and the performance definitely lives up to the price tag. The body alone will set you back around $6,000-$7,000, but you get amazing quality, performance and features you won’t find anywhere else in Canon’s lineup. Here are the main specs for this beast:

  • 21.1 Megapixel Full-Frame Canon CMOS Sensor
  • Dual “DIGIC III” Image Processors
  • Large 3.0-inch LCD monitor with Live View Function
  • Extremely fast, precise 45-point AF system
  • 5 frames per second, burst rates up to 12 consecutive RAW images or 56 full-res JPEGS
  • Compatible with the newest UDMA high-speed CF Cards
  • Ability to shoot 2, 3, 5 or 7 bracketed exposures
  • Incredible durability: Tested to 300,000 cycles, dust and water resistant
  • Two memory card slots (CF and SD) with RAW+JPEG simultaneous recording possible
  • Integrated vertical grip for portrait shooting
  • ISO range of 100-1600 (expandable to 50 and 3200)

Okay, there are more features but that’s all I will list for now. The main reasons I decided on this camera body were; the ability to shoot 3-7 bracketed exposures for HDR (this is the only full frame camera that Canon produces with this ability and I shoot HDR about 50-60% of the time), its durability and weather proofing (it can get rained on, snowed on, go through a dust storm – no problem), and its impeccable sharpness and image quality.

  • So does this mean you can’t shoot HDR if you don’t have Canon’s flagship camera? Of course not! Before I got around to this camera I shot with a 5D Mark II (still a beast of a camera and still my backup when shooting travel images). The only problem with everything else Canon offers short of the 1D Mark IV is that they only shot up to 3 bracketed exposures. Nikon definitely has an advantage here. However, you can still shoot great HDR’s with this limitation. Take fore example photographer Brian Matiash. He is an incredibly talented HDR photographer who shoots a 5D Mark II. He gets around this problem by using the Promote Control – a wired shutter release controller. I won’t get into the details of this incredible piece of technology, but if you want more information I urge you to check out Brian’s review of the Promote Control.

I’m not kidding when I say it’s durable and weather resistant. My 1Ds has literally been in snow storms, downpours, intense heat and extreme cold. I went on a recent photo walk with a friend in Miami who had a Canon 20D. He warned me that because of the extreme heat and ridiculous amount of humidity there, I needed to put my camera in a plastic bag and let it get used to the weather before taking it out. I have never had to worry about that with this camera body. On a trip to Cancun for a wedding, I was across the street from the hotel a few hundred yards away from the entrance when it started pouring down rain. I mean a downpour! By the time I got back to the hotel with my camera and tripod over my shoulder, I was completely drenched from head to toe. Several people commented how much it must suck to have ruined that nice of a camera. I just grinned :-) . I knew it was no biggie. I even showed an image on the LCD screen to one guy in the elevator after brushing all the water off the screen with my hands.

1Ds Performance as a portrait camera

When I’m not traveling and shooting landscapes and travel images, I’m shooting weddings and doing commercial work, portrait sessions for families, couples, seniors, etc. This is also my primary camera for this type of work. The 5fps is the fastest I know of for any full frame sensor. That means I can capture 5 unique images for every second that a bride and groom are kissing each other on the alter. When I am shooting a family with 16 members, I can hold down the shutter for a second and get five frames to ensure everyone’s eye are opened.

The 1Ds Mark III also performs extremely well in low light. While the 5D Mark II and the 1D Mark IV (the cropped sensor version of the 1Ds) perform better, the 1Ds still holds it’s own. I get comments all the time at weddings from guests who can’t figure out how I’m getting certain shots, while their point and shoots are rendering blurry images of the first dance. While you do run into noticeable noise around ISO 800 and up, it’s nothing I can’t fix in post if I need to. Some people say it’s not about the gear, I tend to disagree. While the best camera and lens set up won’t make a horrible photographer good, it sure makes it easier for a good photographer to get the shots he/she has in their mind. But that’s a whole other post!

If you are still an amateur photographer, this is a nice camera to add to your wish list one day. This camera has no automatic settings: No green boxes, no running stick figures, no flower or mountain icons, and no pop-up flash. I wouldn’t suggest even thinking about a camera like this unless you are a seasoned pro and can shoot fully manual without thinking about. If you are the latter, this camera may be the one for you.

Here is a collection of various images I’ve created with the help of the 1Ds Mark III:



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Topaz Labs Review

Sunday, June 27th, 2010

Coupon Code

Before we get started, go to the Topaz Labs website and download a trial version to run along with this post. That way you can try it out for yourself before you buy it. If you plan on purchasing the Topaz Labs Photoshop Bundle or any other software from Topaz Labs, be sure to use the coupon code “jamesbrandon” to receive a 15% discount off your purchase.

Download Trial Version

Purchase Topaz Labs Software (must use coupon code “jamesbrandon” to receive discount).

The Topaz Labs Review

Topaz Labs is a company that distills the latest in imaging technology through the use of a wide variety of software programs and plug-ins. In layman’s terms, it’s a collection of Photoshop filters that really make your photos pop with detail and quality. They have a wide variety of options available (including options for videographers), but I strongly suggest purchasing the “Photoshop Bundle” because of it’s value and ease of use. If you’re using CS5, they now have an update available to make the plug-ins 64-bit compatible. The Photoshop bundle includes the three sets of filters that I use in probably 80% of my images: Topaz Adjust, Topaz Detail and Topaz DeNoise.

Topaz Adjust

Topaz Adjust is really the flagship set of filters offered by Topaz Labs in my opinion, especially if you’re into HDR photography and post processing. Adjust has a wide array of filters that vary from soft and subtle,  to psychedelic and far out (probably want to stay away from those ;-) ). Below is a recent image from Miami shot at sunset, right after combining 5 exposures in Photomatix (Photomatix Review):

Here lies the main problem with Photomatix; loss of detail. Photomatix is an amazing program and the only one I suggest when combining exposures for HD., Unfortunately the complex algorithms, combining of pixels from different images, and adjustments to color and tone can really take a tole on the overall image. Topaz Adjust is a great way to bring that detail back into the image. If you have the Photoshop Bundle, place the image you want to “adjust” is on the top layer. Navigate to your filters menu and select Topaz Adjust. If you don’t have Photoshop, you can still save the image from Photomatix and then open it in any Topaz filter program. You can also use any RAW file or JPG in Topaz, it doesn’t just have to be for HDR. If you’re going to run Topaz on a single image, I suggest using a RAW file. Here’s a look inside Adjust when you send an image to it…

Going over some of the options above, the small thumbnail on the left will give you a preview of the selected filter as you hover your mouse over each one in the list. If you want to see a large preview, simply click once on any filter and the large image in the middle will reflect that filter. After using these filter packages for a while, you’ll find which ones work well, and which ones to stay away from. For this image, I used the “Portrait Drama” filter. This one adds a good bit of contrast and vibrance without overdoing it. Here’s the same image after a run through Topaz Adjust…

Pretty amazing difference huh!? This set of filters is really great, and I can’t speak highly enough of its capability. If your using Topaz for HDR, you’ll notice that running an image through Adjust brings out a big flaw that is already prevalent with HDR images; noise.

Topaz DeNoise
While you may not be able to tell from the screen shots, HDR images bring in a LOT of noise. It’s one of the biggest problems with HDR processing. Here’s a close up of what the noise looks like after running a series of exposures through Photomatix and then Topaz Adjust after that (at ISO 125!)…

Topaz DeNoise has three main options for JPG’s and RAW files: Light noise, Moderate Noise, Strong Noise, and Strongest Noise. The goal is to use the lowest setting possible in order to maintain as much detail as possible. The latest version of DeNoise is version 4, and it has a LOT of improvements over the previous version 3. Version three had a lot of issues with not fully processing the noise filter over the image, leaving spots of patchy noise here and there. I haven’t seen this in version 4 so it seems like they fixed it. For this image, I ran it through the “Strong Noise” filter. Here is a screen shot of the program in action, followed by the same screen shot from above after the noise reduction.

Now that you’ve run the image through DeNoise, you’ll want to make sure you only include the filter on the sky. Because this is a noise reduction filter, there is a definite loss of detail in the image. You’ll want to create a mask in photoshop on the DeNoise layer and only include the sky in the mask. That way the buildings are still crystal clear since the noise doesn’t show up as much on them (sometimes).

Conclusion

Topaz Labs is a very powerful set of filters to add to your post processing arsenal. It’s a great way to make your images stand out amongst other photographers, and a really great way to wow your clients. Don’t forget to buy your copy of Topaz Labs by visiting their purchase page and be sure to use the coupon “jamesbrandon” to receive a discount of 15% at checkout. If you found this tutorial helpful and used Topaz Labs to process an image, be sure to send me a link in the comments section to your flickr stream, facebook or website. I’ll do my best to have a look and critique your work if you’d like.

The Final Image (after Photomatix, Topaz Adjust, Topaz DeNoise, and a lot of layering and brush work!)

And finally, a group of images I’ve done recently using Topaz Labs groups of filters. Enjoy!



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Photomatix Pro Review and Tutorial | HDR Photography

Monday, June 21st, 2010

Coupon Code

Before we get started, go to the HDRsoft (the company that makes Photomatix) and download a trial version to run along with this post. That way you can try it out for yourself before you buy it. If you plan on purchasing Photomatix Pro or any other software from HDRsoft, be sure to use the coupon code “JamesBrandon” to receive a 15% discount off your purchase. You can go directly to their purchase page or their home page if you want to find out more.

Photomatix Pro Review and Tutorial (Current Version 3 and BETA Version 4)

Photomatix Pro is a stand alone software program that takes bracketed exposures from your camera and combines them to create an HDR (high dynamic range) image. The main reason you would want to create an HDR image is when there is too much contrast in a scene to capture all the light that can be realized by the human eye. Take for example the image below:

If you simply took a picture of this plane, with a normal camera, in broad daylight, it would look like this:

You see how it’s not about the camera? Anybody could take this picture. I didn’t have special access to this plane, I was a tourist with a camera. I walked up to the plane, set up my tripod, and fired off three shots of this jet.

Now, this is where Photomatix comes in. Photomatix Pro will take my three exposures and run a complex algorithm on them to pull out the best light from each image. When you set up for an HDR image you take anywhere from 3-7 images of the same subject at different light levels. When I took this image, all I needed was three. There wasn’t enough contrast to warrant any more than that.

The first image is properly exposed, the second is two stops under exposed (to gather detail from the sky), and the third image is two stops over exposed (to gather light in the shadows). Take these three images from Lightroom, Aperture, or whatever program you might be using, and open them up in Photomatix Pro. No matter what program you use to send your images over, you will get a pop-up window that is going to ask a few questions.

If you’re a beginner, some of these options might be useful to you. I don’t use any of them because I can fix any faults of the image later in Photoshop.

Align Images – If you aren’t using a tripod while you take your 3-7 images, you will have to click this box. The best way to align is by correcting horizontal and vertical shifts in the images. Having Photomatix crop the resulting image is probably a good idea too if you took the shots hand held.

Reduce ghosting artifacts – This is an option that will attempt to fix issues with moving subjects. If you take a picture of a sky while birds are flying across it, you will find that Photomatix won’t be able to tell which image to blend in to the final product. All 3-7 images will have birds in 3-7 different locations so you will get these weird, blurry streaks across the image. This is especially a problem with long exposures.

Reduce Noise – If you don’t have any other means of reducing noise, you can check that box as well. I use Topaz DeNoise 4 to reduce noise at the final stage of my editing, so I don’t want any other noise reduction until then. Why? Because noise reduction removes details and I want to preserve as much detail as I can until the last step.

Reduce Chromatic Aberrations – This is a complicated one for most people. Chromatic Aberrations are these colored distortions that you get in your image when your cameras lens fails to focus all the colors at the same convergence point. If you take a picture of a sky and there are trees in the frame, the camera can’t compensate for the extreme contrast between the sky, and the tree. This is because there is too much dynamic range of light between the two subjects.

Show intermediary 32-bit HDR image – Don’t worry about this one.

Automatically re-import into Lightroom library – This is obviously if you are using Lightroom. I don’t use this option ever.

Now that you have checked or unchecked all the boxes, click “Export.” Now you just have to wait a minute. Photomatix Pro is working through a complex algorithm to decide which light from each image to include in the final version. Depending on your system and how many images are involved, this can take anywhere from 1-5 minutes, maybe even more. Once Photomatix is done processing your image, a box may pop up that doesn’t look like an HDR image at all. This is another confusing part to some people but just click tone mapping to get to the next part. When you do you will be taken here:

The image in the window above is the final result I got after moving the sliders around to the left. You may notice that this image doesn’t look the same as the final product I showed you at the beginning. Well, Photomatix isn’t the last step :-) . I like to say that Photomatix gives me a rough draft. It gets me about half way there, if that. A few tips on the sliders…

  • I keep strength at 100% almost all the time
  • Color saturation should be pretty high most of the time as well. It just depends.
  • Luminosity will control how bright the image looks. The further right you go, the more HDRish the image will become. This can be a bad thing.
  • Microcontrast will control contrast of the image but only in a subtle way.
  • Smoothing probably has the greatest effect over the image. The further left you go, the more psychedelic the image is going to look. Also, the further left you go, the more problems you will run into with haloing (I’ll get into that more in another tutorial).
  • Under “Tone Settings” there are sliders called White Point, Black Point, and Gamma. These sliders control the amount of light and shadows in the image and as you move these sliders around, you will see the histogram on the left being affecting by moving right or left. Histograms are a whole other blog post, so stay tuned! Just know that the histogram needs to look similar to the one above, with no data bunched up on the right or left side. It should look a bit like a mountain where the bottom of the mountain is on each side of the chart.

The rest of the sliders are either self explanatory, or make very minor changes to the image. You will have to go through each slider and play around with them to get a feel for what does what. I never leave the sliders in the same place for every image. They are all different and they all call for different tones, vibrance levels, saturation, etc. Once you are happy with the look of the image click “Process.” You’re done! After Photomatix processes the image it appear as a finished version and stay on the screen. To save it somewhere, go up to File>Save As and create a unique name for it and place it in a folder that you will be able to find.

Summary

Photomatix is a very powerful tool for creating HDR images. I have used a few other programs and this is the best in my opinion. You won’t be able to get into HDR photography without purchasing custom software that your computer doesn’t come with. Remember, if your going to purchase Photomatix, you can get 15% off by using the coupon code “JamesBrandon” at checkout. Here is a link again to their ordering page and website. If you aren’t sure yet, you can simply download the trial version and try it out. What do you have to lose!? If you have any further questions, tweet me at @jamesdbrandon and I will get to the question as soon as I can. You can also leave a comment in this post. Have fun!

Quick Overview of Photomatix 4.0 BETA

Photomatix has recently released a private version of their BETA 4.0 software to select Photographers. While this version isn’t public yet, if you purchase version 3 right now, HDRsoft will provide an upgrade when the final 4.0 is released. I can tell you that 4.0 is great! It has a lot of really good improvements and it is a LOT faster! There are also options for semi-manual ghosting correction, options for presets, and better noise reduction to name a few. I am using it exclusively right now but still used the previous version for this tutorial to avoid confusion (since the new version looks slightly different).



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