Yesterday we looked at things to consider when getting a new camera body…while the idea is all well and good, lenses are another story, and since we are likely to invest more in glass than in cameras (Have you seen the costs of some of the really good glass lately?), the life of a lens is something worth considering.
In all things technology-related, there is a principle called Moore’s Law which states that technology will advance at a rate of re-doubling roughly every two years. While this principle was developed primarily for computers, we can draw similar analogies for digital photography too, with the sensor being analogous to the transistor. The rate of increase has not quite been on par with re-doubling every 2 years, but the increases can be noted pretty impressively going from a mere 4 in 2001 to a current rate of 21 MP per frame for DSLR cameras (I am only looking at the Canon line-up here:
Canon 1Ds Mark III = 21MP (2007), Retail
Canon 1Ds Mark II = 16 MP (2004)
Canon 1Ds = 11MP (2002)
Canon 1D = 4 (2001)
Lenses aren’t like that though – focal lengths don’t change that much. Instead, technology has allowed lenses to become faster at the longer end of the given focal lengths. We’ve also seen the introduction of image-stabilization technologies. The addition of new technologies in lenses does not necessarily deprecate previous generations – it merely antiquates them! This means your lens may not have the bells and whistles of future generations, but it should work indefinitely if treated properly.
Keep in mind though that there is a distinction between full frame and crop sensor cameras here though, because Canon has two lens lines, the EF line and the EF-S line. The EF-S line is intended for the crop sensor cameras and cannot be used on the full frame mounts – if you try to use an EF-S lens on a full frame body, the mirror could slap down and shatter the back element of the glass, so avoid this scenario if at all possible! (There are some converters on the market that will extend the gap between the mirror and the element to avoid this, but I’ve not used them.)
Lenses are also different from camera bodies because there are no moving parts that can fail. Well, that’s not entirely true because zooms do have moving parts when you rotate the lens, and these can fail. * However, because the lens is always a closed item, the susceptibility of a lens to parts failure is not as high as it is for camera components. Shutters, for instance, have a certain lifespan for which they are rated, (usually somewhere between 50,000-150,000 actuations). Lenses don’t fail after a certain number of focal adjustments (assuming you are handling the lens correctly), and in the case of fixed focal length lenses (primes), this is even less the case.
So, a lens can literally last for as long as the vendor makes a body that will accept the mounting mechanism, and in the case of most vendors, I don’t see that changing any time soon. I’ve had my kit lens from Canon when I got my first Rebel XT back in 2004 and it still works great on my 40D – it may not be in the lineup anymore (neither is my 40D either, but I digress…), but any EOS body will accept this lens and the image quality has not deteriorated at all over time! Lenses can last forever!
How long have you kept your lenses? Do you have any “go-to” lenses in your bag that you anticipate will always be there? Let me know your favorites!
On a blog administrative note, don’t forget that there’s still a little time left in the Flickr Giveaway thread for December, so if you have any shots (the holidays are good times to capture those “Giving” themed photos), make sure to get one in for a chance to win that $400= prize package! Happy Shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!
*ETA: Special thanks to Marco for pointing out in the comments that there are quite a few moving parts in even fixed focal length lenses. In addition to the focusing ring, there is also the diaphragm that moves which closes down the aperture to the correct setting for every actuation of the shutter, so there are moving parts in any lens, including fixed focal lengths.)
You knew it was gonna happen. A new camera body has hit the market from Canon. It was only a matter of time. The latest? The Canon 1D Mark IV! (That’s four in Roman numerals…) What’s it got going for it? Lots of features and functions. Everything is being discussed ad infinitum from Megapixels to frame rates, to video, to shutter speeds to ISO’s, and everything in between. In the end, I’ve come to one conclusion: the camera market is always changing, always advancing, and new gear is coming out all the time – from all the vendors. Want some proof? The Canon line-up of Digital SLR’s in its entirety is little more than 2 years old – with the oldest being the 1D Mark III which was introduced in early 2007. Take a look at the current active line-up of Canon DSLR’s and their dates of introduction (from Wikipedia):
EOS 1Ds mark III – Mid 2007
EOS 1D Mark IV – Two days ago
EOS 1D Mark III – Early 2007
EOS 5D Mark II – Mid 2008
EOS 7D – 2009
EOS 50D – Mid 2008
EOS Rebel T1i – 2009
EOS Rebel XSi – 2008
EOS Rebel XS – 2008
That’s a lot of cameras! And that’s only their active lineup! Others that have been “deprecated” (taken out of production) include the 40D, 30D, 20D, 10D, Rebel XT and probably more. It’s funny actually that the two SLR’s I have owned are the XT and the 40D – neither of which is in production anymore. And both of these cameras were absolute cutting edge on their release roughly 2 years ago and 5 years ago respectively. The XT marked a new era of consumer grade SLR’s and the 40D marked a significant advancement to the 20D which was the most popular camera for serious enthusiast shooters for many years. (Apparently, the 30D was only an incremental upgrade…)
A lot of people have been asking me: “Are you going to upgrade?” What does the new MP count mean? What about the video? Do we need to be concerned about this? Is it priced fairly? What about this? What about that?” Lots of techno-babble is going around, and to be honest, I can’t keep up anymore. For me it’s about one thing and one thing only: Does it take good pictures? In both the active and the deprecated line-up, the answer is a solid yes!
For what it’s worth, for me, I will continue to use my current camera until one of two things happens:
It breaks
My needs exceed its ability
Having said that, I am always interested in hearing what others think about the latest developments in the camera and photography industry. It’s always fun to talk gear talk, and prognosticate, and “oooh” and “ahhh” over the latest gagedtry. If I had a million bucks, then sure, I might look at all the stuff and buy every time a new one comes out, but until then…the above criteria fit the bill for me just fine. What about everyone else though? Does this make sense? Am I being curmudgeonly? Am I burying my head in the sand? Is there something I am missing? What are your thoughts on the “latest and greatest” in the camera world? I’d love to hear, so sound off in the comments and via email – who knows, you may get your name featured on a podcast! LOL
In the meantime, as always, Happy Shooting! 🙂 (We’ll see you back here on Friday with hopefully the latest podcast and some weekend nuggets (like a winner for the Flickr Monthly Giveaway!)
With the October Contest underway where the winner will walk away with a fully licensed copy of Noise Ninja, courtesy of the folks at PictureCode, today is a great day to give everyone an idea of what makes this program one of the industry leaders. Since I have talked about the presence of noise in your images before (read that post here), re-hashing the principles of what introduces noise and the artistic benefits and image quality downsides of it in your images isn’t really needed.
Instead, here I will simply share some of the interface, and a few before and after shots here so you can get an idea of how well this software handles noise in your images. So, enjoy!
First up (after entering your license code), you’ll have a screen that looks like this:
Noise Ninja
You can see the yellow squares in the image on the right that shows the sections scanned to determine the noise profile for the image selected. On the right, a closer view of what the image will look like (or at least a close approximation) after the noise reduction is run. You see how you can make certain adjustments on one of several tabs. On this main tab, you can see the options for Image Profile, Profile Chart and radio buttons for luminance and color values, along with the reset option. I actually leave these alone most of the time.
On the second tab is where I vary my noise reduction adjustments (and I would venture to guess most people make their valuation adjustments based on the image used). Here’s the options available to you:
Noise Ninja
You can see here that many more detailed adjustments can be made to the strength, smoothness, contrast, USM amount, radius, color noise, and then checking whether you want the processing done quickly (turbo) and applying the settings to coarse noise situations. I made my adjustments to 12 for the strength, smoothness and contrast (and typically use these ones for most images with noise).
In the next tab, as shown below, you can see the noise brush, where you can apply the noise on a paint mask or an erase mask, specify the channel (luminance, chroma, or all) ad the quality of the brush trail by not only the type of edge, but also by radius and strength. (This is very handy if you want the noise reduction faded across the image so as to leave some noise behind for artistic effect! Normally I don’t make adjustments here either – but it is fun to play!) Take a look at the interface:
Noise Brush
The Actions tab, as shown next, defines how Noise Ninja operates when it’s loaded. Specifically, here is where you can tell NN wither the profile is by default configured based on EXIF data or to create a profile from the image, or to use a specific profile. This can be very handy as well if you are batch processing a lot of photos that were shot under the same or similar circumstances so that a profile doesn’t have to be loaded each and every time. The fallback, and filter policies can also be defined here as well. Here typically I leave the default settings alone as I prefer not to batch profess since my type of work is more geared toward fine art and individual edits rather than massive quantities. To each their own I guess – take a look at the interface:
Noise Ninja Actions
The next tab is the annotations tab. I almost never use this, as this is a place where you can add additional EXIF and metadata. Since I prefer to take the values from camera rather than adding my own specific notations, this tab doesn’t get any use from me – but it can be handy if you want to vary settings based on things like manufacturer, Model, FIlm type Megapixel count, ISO level, etc. A second tab lets you add even more…see the interface captures below for reference. Noise Ninja to me is isn’t about editing exif data though – it’s about noise reduction, so I skip these tabs. Take your pick:
I do occasionally reference the Image Info tab though, because some useful information can be obtained there as well. Things like the manufacturer, model, and more specifically, the ISO setting at which the image was taken. ISO settings can be an indication on the amount of noise that was introduced due to camera settings and thus, how much can be reasonably applied.
Noise Ninja Image Info
You can see that my first image, shot at ISO 3200, was subject to some pretty intense noise on the 40D. So, I ran the process, and take a look at the before and after results:
Before
Before Noise Ninja processing
Some pretty heavy noise, as expected, so let’s just look at the image after processing:
After
After Noise Ninja processing
See the difference in grain? Yeah, I was impressed too. But is it always the case? I ran another couple images through NN and got the same or similar results on other objects in my print box. (Which, by the way, is a great resource for test shots when looking into lens and gear performance on a wide variety of things like noise, white balance, macro, depth of field, and much more.) Here’s another sample crop just to show you for comparison sake:
Before NN Processing 2
and after…
After NN Processing 2
Again, some impressive results. When push comes to shove, results is where it counts in my book and PictureCode delivers at a superb value.
Now granted, there are other noise handling programs out there, and if you ask a dozen people what they use, 5 will say one, 5 will say another, and 2 will offer up another alternative. When push comes to shove, it really is up to personal preference on which one “works best”. For me, it doesn’t really matter as long as you are aware of what noise is, what it can do to an image, and how to fix it. The tool you use is up to you. I think Noise Ninja is probably recognized well enough for a reason, and the results here seem to suggest why.
The rest I’ll leave up to personal preferences, and if you would like to contribute your own thoughts, by all means, share them here in the comments or with me via email. If you want to try it – you can download a free copy from the folks at PictureCode here – or simply participate in the October Contest over at Flickr and win a copy from them for free!
That’s it for today – happy shooting all, and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!
That’s right – Canon has announced the 7D along with a couple other new lenses. Amazing specs on it are here
Here’s a few shots from the Press Room:
Canon 7D front ViewCanon 7D Side ViewCanon 7D Back
Lots of specs, but most impressive to me:
Spot AF mode reduces the size of a single AF point to focus on small subjects like an animal in a cage.
AF Point Expansion mode uses a cluster of AF points adjacent to the selected AF point to automatically assist focusing on moving subjects, such as an athlete on the run.
Zone AF divides the 19 AF points into five selectable focusing zones and makes it easier to achieve focus with subjects that are difficult to track with Single Point AF or AF point expansion, such as birds in flight.
Fully manual exposure control on the video
The built in flash has a speedlight transmitter for controlling EOS flashes like the 580 EX II that I just bought!
Live view for both video and still frame work (per request in comments)
AND THE PRICE: $1700 RETAIL! OH MY GOD! Definitely counting pennies now!
You can also get it with a kit lens (the 28-135 is hardly “kit”) for only $200 more at $1900
CONS:
Retains the full frame sensor of its predecessor 5D series (per request in comments)
Correction: This has TWO crop sensors: THIS IS NOT FULL FRAME
So, what do you think? Lots of pros, but is it a real step forward when the sensors are the APS-C sized ones? What do you think? Would you pay this price for another crop sensor camera? Sound off in the comments…
Lots to cover today on the blog so I am going to get right to it. First up, I’m trying to maintain the schedule of hardware reviews, so rather than go into detailed analysis, I am just sharing an abbreviated review here today on the Canon 28-135mm lens. Also up on todays blog, the OnOne Software giveaway finalists have been announced! Last up, a few administrative things to address. So, without further ado, let’s get started:
The 28-135mm Review
The luck of this review is due to the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk. I had been hearing good things about this lens for a while, and finally bit the bullet and rented it from a local camera store to try it out. I tried to keep in mind that the gear is a little more worn than usual, but did see some pros and cons on the lens, so let’s get started:
The 28-135 is an excellent walk-around lens. The focal range is perfect for going fairly wide and also zooming in to a certain degree. It offers some of the best features of both worlds, and does so at a pretty reasonable price considering what it has to offer:
Pros
Focal Range: As mentioned it has a nice range for use while moving from one environment to another. Not quite a wide angle, and also not a zoom, but a nice combination of the both.
Weight: For an IS lens, this is amazingly light. I was expecting it to be a lot heavier, so a definite positive (and happy surprise here).
Image Quality: I couldn’t believe how wide the sweet spot of this was. I got crystal clear tack sharp shots from probably 30mm to 130mm. To get that kind of range in a “sweet spot” is significantly impressive
Price: The price for this lens is a shade under $400 from B&H and for an IS lens, that’s pretty darn good – about as cheap as you can get given the feature.
Cons
Battery drain: Although it’s related to the positive of Image Stabilization, the battery did seem to go rather quickly.
Weight: I know, it was listed as a pro, but I am also listing it as a negative, because with many of the newer SLR’s the weight doesn’t balance as well as it might have on the 20D or even the 350D. Don’t get me wrong, I like light, but I also like balanced, and here I think the weight of the dated design has an impact on balance.
There’s a lot more I could go into here, but on the whole, the lens is a great one, and with the pros definitely outweighing the cons, it’s definitely one to consider adding to your gear bag – if you like to photo walk! If you’d like to see samples of the 28-135 in action, feel free to check out this montage of shots I compiled from the Scott Kelby Photowalk:
The OnOne Giveaway Finalists!
I know, the moment you’ve all been waiting for – the finalists. I am pushing forward here partly because my counterpart at OnOne, Mike Wong, has been on vacation, and is getting back soon, and secondly, because I understand OnOne is having an excellent promo sale going on right now for the suite, so I’d like to get this wrapped up so that those who have been waiting to hear can still take advantage of the opportunity to save a little $$$! Lastly, also because the anticipation over the OnOne giveaway is a primary focus for many listeners, and other contests are both underway and coming up! So, without further ado, here are the finalists I’ve chosen.
The quality of entries made it super hard to pick, because there were so many that were deserving of moving forward into the finals – but decisions had to be made. Thanks to all for entering, and best of luck to the finalists – Mike and I will talk this week and hopefully have someone get a great email by Friday with the news that they are the proud winner of the OnOne Software Plugin Suite Giveaway!
Blog Notes
A couple updates are coming soon to the blog, and a couple have already been made. Some things you may or may not have noticed that have already taken place:
The links in the sidebar have been broken out into categories from one another so you can find things easier
A paypal link has been added to the sidebar – I had mentioned this once before, and try not to push it, but donations are always welcome to help offset the costs of running this blog (bandwidth, time, and storage on my hosting provider)
The picture has been updated in the header. I try to change this out periodically, and in the next incarnation that will randomize on each visit through an entire gallery of photos, but a new one is in place, so if you are picking up the content from a feeder – stop on over to see the changes!
Last but not least, thanks to Terry Reinert, I’ve added a plugin for fellow bloggers – when you post a comment here, your last post from your own blog is happily linked to your comment! Enjoy!
So, that’s it for today? Like the review and the changes? How about those OnOne finalists? Kudos to everyone who submitted images too. Don’t forget to jump into the latest and greatest giveaway – the winner will get Wacom Bamboo Fun valued at $100! Be sure to throw your best “Fun” themed images into the contest thread here: Giveaway Thread
Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!
Ah, how I loved thee, the Canon 550 EX, with your 3 flash modes, ETTL, Manual and Multi mode. You were especially wonderful because of how well the ETTL worked in conjunction with the Canon bodies. Your typical standard hotshoe fit every Canon SLR from the first days of DSLR’s (I think)), and you worked beautifully both as a slave and as a master via the toggle just below the button panel.
Another especially nice feature you had was the variable power settings when in manual, where I was able to adjust you from full power down to 1/128th power. YOu also were very kind in allowing me to adjust your zoom range from 24mm to 105mm for the range of output too. Compatability with the ST-E2 and the infra-red line of sight was another added benefit, although the infra-red technology has dated you beyond use in the current spectrum of choices.
When it comes to working in master-slave modes, you were pretty rockin’ though. The ability to adjust ratios from 1:1 all the way to +/- 1:8 was pretty sweet, as was the ability to assign you to one of three different groups, A, B, or C. Although I’ve never used you in the multi-mode, the options there seem quite nice as well.
The Flash exposure bracketing, and High Speed sync with later EOS models has been a nice feature for me too, which is why I’ve hung on to you as long as I have – provided I’ve got the batteries and power to support it!
However, it was your time to go as you did not have a full-360 degree rotation on the head (without a hack), and your vertical tilt only had 3 adjustments at 60, 75, and 90 degrees. You also went through your 4 AA batteries like a hot knife through butter without the accessory battery pack (pricey in its own right).
Additionally, at a smidge over 14 ounces without batteries, and your large size (3.1 x 5.4 x 4.4) you’ve taken up a lot of space in the gear bag. YOur remote limitations also had their downside since I could only fire you with the ST-E2 or Canon proprietary cable. Don’t get me wrong, I love Canon gear, but sometimes others had flashes that I would like to have been able to use or borrow and could have if only you had a PC-sync plug. Sure, workarounds and jerry-rigged devices are out there (which I have ended up using), but the endless testing, mis-fires, and other tangential effects of a home-made brew had some less than desirable outputs.
Ahhh…550EX, I loved thee well – you shall work well as a secondary with your newer cousin, the 580 EX II when she arrives in another month or so! But when she arrives, I shall bid thee farewell, relegating you to the dust mites of my camera bag. Good thing your owner kept your vitals intact here
Until that day, I’ll shoot again tomorrow! (Happy shooting everyone!)
After a couple diversion-driven weeks of postings, hardware reviews are back in full swing, and this week the 18-55mm lens from Canon undergoes analysis. Since the lens has already seen a great deal of feedback and reviews in the community, a discussion of the technical features of the lens is somewhat meaningless. Instead, here are a couple great resources that talk about the quality of the lens in great detail:
So, why talk about the lens if it’s already been covered so well? For two reasons…first because the lens really offers a great range of focus and image quality for its size and cost (it’s light and cheap), and because it really has become more of an historical note as it’s been replaced. It’s new cousin is the 18-55mm IS lens with improved optics and the Image Stabilization feature that has become popular among photographers and aficionados. So, since this is a lens that will probably not be around much longer, other than auction sites like eBay, not only is this a review post, consider it also a eulogy.
This really is a great lens given it’s relatively low cost. It allows you to go fairly wide, yet also zoom in nice and tight for close-ups. Granted it’s not going to zoom very far as it’s not intended to be more than a standard range lens. On a crop sensor camera (it won’t fit on a full-frame due to design) the range adjusts from the design range of 18-55 to a broader 29-88. This actually means this lens is good for anything from architecture to portraiture and landscape subjects. Sure, there are other lenses that will produce better results, primarily because their optics are more refined and the “sweet spot” is wider, but if you want to go light and mobile, the 18-55mm is definitely one to consider if you can still find it. Lucky me, I kept mine from the XT days when I first entered into Digital Photography!
Here are some sample shots from this lens that I took recently for this review/eulogy:
Wide Open
Zomed to 55mm
An Abstract Perspective (at 18mm)
The same abstract from 55mm
A few sunflowers
And if you like the sunflower shot, then take a look at the small gallery I put together here (all with the 18-55)! Sure, I had some lighting help and it was a controlled indoor environment, but it just goes to show that just because it’s dated, doesn’t mean it’s bad. Coming up next week, another product review/eulogy from the Canon arsenal that is no longer made: The Canon 550EX (the light used in the gallery above). In the meantime, don’t forget that this is the last week fr contributing shots to the OnOne Software Plugin Suite 4.5 Giveaway. The Flickr thread is here and links to all the contest details. Good luck, and until tomorrow, happy shooting everyone!
For the second week in a row, there will be no software review this Tuesday. The 2nd Annual Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk is the reason for eschewing the format again this week, so for those that miss the software reviews – go bug Mr. Kelby, it’s all his fault! 🙂 (Just kidding, don’t go bugging him, but if you don’t have his site in your RSS feed for daily reading, then you are missing out…)
Truth be told, the reason for the deferment again is to admit to the charges – and I may as well come clean, since my “friend” Gregg Lowrimore was kind enough to capture me with the evidence in hand. So, before the rumor mill starts blowing things out of proportion, let me just post the evidence myself and be done with it:
Busted with a Nikon!
So, there it is – the “Canon Blogger” – holding a Nikon!
*****
The back story: I was holding the gear for a friend who had to use the facilities during the photo walk, when Greg happened to make note of the fact that “The Canon Blogger is holding a Nikon!” He snapped a picture of me (smiling happily for fellow photogs – and now you see why I prefer the other side of the lens than being the subject of the lens), and now is holding me ransom until I come clean.
He is, of course, kidding, but let me tell you that Gregg’s photography is far from a joke – you simply must visit his site as he’s got an incredible portfolio of work there, and is someone that I could definitely learn a thing or two from (including his skullduggery)! Please take a moment to visit his site here: http://www.lowrimore.com and get a taste of what I am talking about.
The other photo walk news I have is a short video of some of the results from the Worldwide Photowalk. Most of you have probably seen this by now, but I would be remiss if I did not share it here on the blog. Rather cool too that Scott also generously shared some of his blog space yesterday to the video as well. Regardless, here it is, and please, feel free to stop over to YouTube and share your own comments:
Since this was totally a “fun” post and not much depth or deep meaningful content here today, I promise to be back tomorrow with something that everyone enjoys – another podcast! (Episode #27 if my counting is correct…) Happy Shooting all, and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!
Lame teaser alert, but that’s the title for the podcast over at Learning Digital Photography. Make sure to stop over to the podcast and download the show today! Here’s the show notes (I may add to these as I remember link references – if any are missing, let me know in the comments so I can be sure to add them…)
The last day to enter your photos for the Lightroom giveaway is super close – so get your shots in the Flickr thread here pretty soon!
Adobe updated the ACR to 5.4 (still in beta), and is downloadable here
Canon announced some firmware updates and break/fix news on some of its SLR lines. Tune into the podcast for details.
Seriously folks, don’t miss out on your chance for a free copy of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom! Get your photos in today! A $30o retail value and free from the folks over at Adobe – in this economy we could all use a little help and Adobe is being very generous here.
Well, that’s about all for this week. Thanks for tuning in and we’ll see you back here on Monday – as we head out for the weekend, don’t forget to have fun out there. With that in mind, here’s my favorite WTD from this past week – so fitting for my job in IT!
Happy Shooting!
ETA: Thanks to reader Don for reminding me about the link to the PhotographyBB magazine article. You can download the full magazine here
I’ve not seen much coverage of how to shoot tethered using the Canon proprietary software, so for today’s post, I thought it might be useful to offer the Canon perspective here (since the blog bears the moniker of my camera vendor of choice). For those who are Nikon shooters, I would highly recommend reading the post Scott Kelby did a while back that shows how to shoot tethered into Lightroom. While he walks you through the Lightroom element, he then discusses the Nikon approach… the counterpoint here is to take a look at the Canon approach.
To start off – a little explanation of what tethered shooting is would be helpful. Tethered shooting means you have your camera connected to your computer or laptop (usually a laptop for portability purposes). This allows you to shoot straight into the computer with direct saves. There are a couple advantages to tethered shooting. First off, you don’t need any media cards, because the camera is transferring straight to the computer. Second, regardless of what size LCD you have on the back of your sensor, nothing will compare with a 15″ or 17″ monitor. You can see greater detail, see a broader tonal range, and get a much better handle on the finder points of composition when it comes to things like posing, lighting, and minimizing distractions that you could likely miss when using a 3″ LCD of your camera.
Okay, so now that we know when and why you would shoot tethered, and given an appropriate nod to Scott Kelby for his coverage of the Nikon version, here is a Canon-centric approach to tethered shooting. Since the Lightroom component is already pretty well covered, I will just be limiting the discussion to showcasing the settings, screens and considerations to take into account when configuring the EOS Capture Utility.
When you first start the EOS Capture Utility, you get a rather unassuming window that doesn’t look like much:
Startup Screen for EOS Capture
It’s pretty straightforward – the top button would be used to download images if you are importing from all your images off a CF card. The second button would enable you to select which images to import off a CF card. More relative to this content is the Camera Settings/Remote Shooting button and the Monitor Folder button. I’ll get to those in a minute. Lastly, it’s helpful to draw your attention to the Preferences button on the lower right – this is the one I’d like to take a closer look at now.
When you click on the Preferences button the window will change:
From here, you now have access to all the details of how you want to configure your tethered shooting options, starting out with the basic settings (see the drop down menu in the upper left). This first setting tells the EOS Utility what screen you want to show when you first start the software. This really is a matter of personal preference, but I would recommend the main window so that if you want to change your preferences, you can do so easily and quickly – often with software preference settings will require you to restart the program, so if that must happen, it’s always best to do that at start-up.
Moving right along, let’s take a look at the other preferences settings:
The Destination Folder Preferences
This should be pretty self-explanatory, but in the interests of covering each aspect, this is where you can specify what folder you want to save your images to on connecting your Canon camera to your computer. For the purposes of this demonstration, I created a folder called EOS Capture and put it on my desktop to use as the destination folder. To point the EOS Utility to your destination folder of choice, simply click the browse button, as shown:
Note that the EOS Utility does a nice little thing here – it creates a subfolder by date so helps to keep your images organized whether you are downloading images, doing remote shooting (tethered shooting), or set a monitored folder for some third party application (like Lightroom). If you are going to be doig remote shooting, here is where you would likely select the remote shooting option so that when the camera gets connected, that specific task will create a subfolder and get you ready that much quicker. Here, since I don’t have the full hardware connection, I am just going to leave it on the default setting and select the folder I created on my desktop:
File Name Preferences
If you want to change your image names from the default of _IMG_1234.jpg to another more descriptive naming convention (say JamesSmith.jpg this would be the place to do it. The options are shown below:
If you choose to modify your images, you can elect from many options, including the option to customize for your needs – just click the drop down menu to select your options. By default it’s set to Do Not Modify so I’l just leave that here to show your options for filename formats:
The next option here in your filename conventions is where you can define custom naming conventions, either by subject name (JamesSmith), event (SmithWeddding), or whatever convention works for you:
Feel free to customize these as you prefer for your own shooting conditions and, well….preferences! Moving right along now…
Download Images Preferences
Here is where you tell the EOS Utility what to do with images as they are generated. It’s pretty straightforward… the options are:
Remote Shooting Preferences
The remote shooting preferences here are also pretty straightforward: Do you want to save your images to a card or not? Do you want the software to rotate your images if needed to show the right orientation? Depending on your preferences, check or uncheck these boxes:
Linked Software Preferences
Last but not least, do you want to use another piece of the Canon Software family of products to work on your tethered images , whether it be Digital Photo Profesional (aka DPP) or ImageBrowser:
Since my work flow incorporates the Adobe product line (Lightroom, Photoshop, etc.), I would suggest choosing “None” here, but again, that’s why these are called preferences.
Once these Preferences are set, go ahead and return to the main window, then click the Monitor Folder option, because there is two last items that merit discussion here:
The Monitoring Folder
Note that the folder has been specified for me, but Canon has generously recommended that I take advantage of a specific Canon hardware connector to connect the camera and computer – the WFT-E1 Wireless Transmitter. These are available from most camera retailers and e-tailers, but I like B&H so that is the one linked (and the price is fairly reasonable at $999.99, so if you get one, let me borrow it to review here on the blog! 🙂 ). Basically what this allows you to do is shoot “tethered” to the computer, but without the tether…pretty cool stuff!
The Software Version
I created this post using the older version of the EOS Capture Utility, primarily because I had not used it since I owned my XT. As with any software though, as camera bodies are added to the vendor family of products, the software must update too. On capturing all the images for this post, I did not think the software would be what updated, only the camera drivers. Clearly, that was not the case as the software itself has undergone a colorful transformation since then, and is now at its most recent update as of just last month at 2.6.1 You can download it and update via the 40D web page here (where I got mine just earlier). The upshot though, and why I am keeping the original screen shots, is because functionally nothing has changed – there are just more camera drivers added to the library. To get your own drivers for other Canon cameras to use with the EOS capture, go to the main page here and select your camera…
Finally, I wanted to share a very short video from what the new interface looks like and how to use it when shooting in “tethered” mode:
So, there you have it! My down-n-dirty summary of the Canon EOS Capture Utility – with photos, text, and video! A virtual cornucopia of media to look at the feature set. Enjoy the material! I’d love to hear your thoughts, hear your feedback and get suggestions (other than checking the software for updates before I write the post! 😀 ) on future material that may be useful. Don’t forget too – that contest to win a copy of Adobe Lightroom (which you can use to edit shots taken in tethered mode!) is going on through the end of May, so don’t delay – get those contributions in today! One shot could be worth a free copy of Adobe Lightroom! That’s it for today – have a great one, Happy Shooting, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow for the latest in photography composition.