Category: Canon

Canon Canada Rebates announced!

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As kind of an unannounced PSA, it seems that a mere two weeks after the news hit the airwaves that Canon was adjusting their gear prices by about 5% due to “increased fuel costs” and “unfavorable exchange rates”, Thursday they announced their Canada rebate program.  Since I missed this in my Friday post, I figured a weekend post would be in order.

For the newcomers to the world of photography and Canon and rebate programs, Canon typically does start rebates in Canada every year.  This rebate program will then migrate to US retailers and e-tailers about two weeks after Canada, so the price increases will now be offset back to around their original rates.  The Canada pricing info can be found here:  Canon Canada Rebate Information.

I did take the liberty of downloading the PDF and am making it available here for those that don’t want to make the extra click.  Of specific interest to me is the $100 rebate on the 40D.  With the current pricing at B&H showing up as $1140 (direct link), then the out of pocket will be only a shade over $1000.  Look for the used pricing on various forum communities to drop below $900 (10% less than new pricing is typically what to expect.)    So…shop smartly and save! 🙂  Happy shooting all, more to come on Monday!

Canon Full Rebate Pricing Info

Wednesday Web Gems

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Getting back to the basics, my original plan was to feature some unique links I’ve found from around the web on Wednesday, so the theme would revolve around “Wednesday Web Gems”. That theme returns today…here’s what’s goin’ on:

  • 1001 Noisy Cameras does a price check for the Canon bodies at various online retailers – very good info!
  • Canon themselves announced that they have surpassed the 40K mark for EF lenses. Interestingly, the first 30K took about 19 years, but the last 10K only took 2 years…says something about digital photography, eh?
  • My favorite Lighting resource, David Hobby’s Strobist site did a feature on how to sync a Canon G9 at 1/2500th of a second. Very much for the lighting enthusiast, but since it’s Canon, it fits my theme for the day, thanks David!

I’d do more, but it’s rather late and the pillow is loudly calling my name.  Happy shooting, watch those apertures, and we’ll see you tomorrow!

Photo Tuesday (to take your mind off taxes)

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Since I devoted Monday’s post to the Photography and Photoshop Blogroll report for Jason D. Moore, my other announcement got shifted back a day, so this week things will be a tad more compressed. I’ll try not to bore you with excessive links and heavy-handed material where you have to read a lot. That means – it’s Photo Tuesday! (The tutorial will be released Wednesday…since there’s no “Wednesday Web Gems” for the theme.) Besides, since it is a blog that I am pretty much writing single-handedly, I can change things up if I want, right? 🙂

So…for Photo Tuesday I thought I’d announce that I have a new gallery of photos put together on my dedicated photo site. The site portal is here: www.jasons-photography.com and the latest gallery addition is here. Please take a moment to stop over and then share your thoughts with me here (or via email) on the shots. Too many? Not enough? Layout? Treatment? Etc.? I’ve collected these images over the past 3-4 years and finally have enough (I think) for a dedicated gallery of wildlife. As a teaser, here’s a few thumbnails…all taken from my Canon XT and processed through Adobe Lightroom 2.0 (Beta)

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As a final reminder, it is tax day here in the U.S., so if you haven’t done your taxes yet, today’s your last chance to get them in legally.  If you’re a last minute kind of person, this is pretty much it!  Well, that’s it for Tuesday – happy shooting and watch those apertures! 😉

Wow – Wednesday went fast!

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Wow…a long day at work, a short dinner, and a few diversions, now it’s 9:30 and the only “news” that I know of is that Canon released a firmware update for 2 cameras in the line – the 5D and the 30D.  News hit the wire yesterday, and there’s a pretty good synopsis of it at the Adorama site, along with links to grab the updates.  Check it out here:  Canon Firmware Updates

In other news, today it seems Macworld got the bead on a new X-Rite product, called the Colormunki Photo

I am sure other news is out there to be had, but I’ve still got a frog in my throat, so will have to assume y’all know the news reels for the day.  Since it’s kind of a skimpy web gem Wednesday, here’s a POTD I contributed to a thread over at the NAPP forums, theme of the thread:  BOATS

Cypress Gardens, SC

Enjoy the break from the weekly post-news.  We’ll catch up more tomorrow.  As always, happy shooting and watch those apertures!

The Canon ST-E2

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As a follow-up to my post from yesterday, let me back up a little and set the stage for a multi-faceted question, in the hope that perhaps someone will know some of (or ideally all of) the answers. Recently I purchased an ST-E2 from Canon which allows you to trigger a flash without cables or wires. It uses a radio signal an infra-red signal and when mounted on your camera, pressing the shutter, trips the sensor in the ST-E2 which in turn fires the flash. This ST-E2 uses a fairly common battery type, the 2CR5, and is readily available through any number of vendors. Continue reading “The Canon ST-E2” →

Thursday Thoughts

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Well, I am still not back to 100% but am heading to bead early tonight.  Just a short thought on rechargeable batteries.  I bought some Energizer 2500 NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride) AA’s for my 550 EX last fall when I bought the flash.  Having recently acquired an ST-E2, I was excited to put it to use.  It worked for a while, and then died rather quickly.  Thinking it was the batteries, I recharged them last night and tried again this evening with very little success (one flash then kaput.) Continue reading “Thursday Thoughts” →

Monday Morning Travel Recap

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Well, the weekend was a cornucopa of Denver tourism. We left SC at the not-so-bright hour of 5am and arrived in Denver by 10. That gave us time to make the last tour of Invesco Field. As a dyed-in-the-wool Bronco fan since pretty much as long as I can remember, this was the epitome of the entire 7 day trip. Needless to say, my camera pretty much clicked non-stop for the entire visit. I’ll share some shots later this week when I can get some time to work a few up.

Yesterday we visited the Celestial Seasonings tea factory. After Invesco I owed my wife that, but I have to say it turned out to be much more interesting than I would have thought. No cameras allowed in there, and just as well – the powder from the herbs and roots and spices in the air sometimes made my eyes water. If you’re ever near the Boulder area, I would highly recommend a tour – it was free and well worth the time.

Back to the real world of photography Continue reading “Monday Morning Travel Recap” →

Weekly Web Walk

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As promised, here’s my weekly walk around the web…although I must admit the tune “Window on the World” as sung by Jimmy Buffet is running through my head now. Anyway, to get things started, the PMA show for 2008 was this last weekend. We’ve all heard the big news events, including the Canon XSi, the Nikon D60 and the new lenses each is adding to their market. But, what might be nice is a complete rundown of the new bodies released, and reviews of those new additions to the marketplace. Well, no fear, I found one such resource here: PMA Reviews

In related news, Scott Sherman and Michael Stein report back from their hotel room at PMA to bring us recent and exciting news from PMA, including an interview with Rudy Winston. Who’s Rudy you ask? One word should suffice – Canon! So, in keeping with the Canonite tradition of stopping to listen when Canon speaks, I encourage you all to tune in to their podcast over at The Digital Photography Show.

As always, Scott Kelby has some good resources listed over at his blog, The Photoshop Insider, so stop over there, although he’s taking the day off today. I guess even the best get sick from time to time. Of special interest was his recent reference and link to the annual contest that Popular Photography runs for Photoshop enthusiasts, but CB wasn’t around last year to report on it, so I’m adding my proverbial “report” to the fray.: the contest is underway! Be sure to visit the contest site for additional information and to download the images here. Download and start getting creative! 🙂

A really cool video was published just yesterday over at Strobist, about 7 minutes long that gives a short intro on the nuts and bolts of flash and camera lighting. Thanks to David Hobby for letting us know about it and to Paul Duncan for putting it together in the first place.

In other news (for me anyway), I came across a site called Red Bubble. This place is apparently quite well known for artwork, including photography. If you need a picture of a pencil or a frog, then yes, stock sites like iStock may be your answer. However, Red Bubble seems to fill a void for those looking to find some fine art imagery to cover a wall. Stop over and see what each artist has to offer – some of the work is quite inspiring and moving. Fair warning though, some of the work is definitely “out there” and even NSFW, so surf responsibly.

Also of note in the last week were Sigma’s announcements of their latest releases to accommodate the increasing interest in 3rd party lenses. Of particular interest may be the new 200-500! This could be the new “Bigma”! Stop over to their site to read all about it. Granted, it’s no Canon 800mm, but sufficiently impressive nonetheless. Thanks to 1001 Noisy Cameras for the heads up on their latest contributions.

Other fun video stuff is a Swedish journalist interviewing Canon’s Chuck Westfall on a range of subjects including the 5D, how Canon will respond to the Nikon D3 and other body and gear news. Definitely worth the snippets of Swedish that intersperse the interview , conducted in English (thankfully). My sister spent a year in Sweden, and I am not sure how much she can remember, but I have an email in to her to translate the Swedish portion of the broadcast.

Finally, as an admitted Canon-loyalist, here’s a rundown of the gear they introduced at PMA:

That should be enough to tide you over for the day. Happy shooting, and as always, watch your apertures!

Walking Wounded on Wednesday

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Well, it seems my wife’s illness was a little more contagious than anticipated. Suffice to say the bug bit me and with this lethargy the already belated Tuesday tutorial will have to wait another day. In the meantime, the usual Wednesday rounds seem appropriate. So, here’s my wounded walk around the web from Wednesday:

  • Check out The Online Photographer for a unique opportunity. It’s a call for photos on his companion site, www.photoborg.org
  • The Digital Photography show has their latest podcast available for download as they head out for the PMA show.
  • And of course, Photoshop User TV has their weekly video podcast up for viewing – and the ultimate question: “Who’s the Greatest Poobah?”

With PMA into full swing, Canon has announced it’s latest generation of camera bodies, the 450D, and Nikon has answered with its own D60. Other gear announcements are also filling the currents, but these are the two biggies for the last week. There’s a decent comparison analysis done on another blog, so feel free to read it here For the rest of the Photo Marketing Associations news, visit their news line online

Hopefully I’ll be back on my feet tomorrow (Thursday), or shall I say later today – since it’s almost midnight, to get out the tutorial. Until then, happy shooting and, as always, watch those apertures!

Canon in the News – XSi body to be released

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Well, since I am an admitted Canonite, and the blog name has Canon as part of the identity, I guess I should also chime in with a report on the announcement that Canon is adding a new body to it’s SLR lineup. The XSi was announced last Thursday by Canon, and this is apparently an incremental upgrade to the XTi that now serves as the baseline consumer grade SLR. Designed to compete with the Nikon D40, it offers a slightly larger pixel count, and makes the transition from CF cards to SD cards. I’m not sure if existing Canon shooters would be compelled to go out and purchase this, as I own the XT, and cannot see a need to own this. The camera instead seems as an attempt by Canon to recapture the lead market share for entry level SLR cameras from Nikon.

The reason I call this an incremental upgrade is because not much changes. The only things to change really are pixel count and screen size. I did a quick comparison chart of the bodies in the same range, so you can see where the “upgrades” are. Really, it seems more like they took this part of one body, that part of another body, and left other parts unchanged across the board (shutter speed, fps, ISO, etc…) Kind of a non-news item for me, but for those interested in entering the market, I can see where it’d be a decent option. Anyway, here’s my comparison chart to other Canon bodies:

canon-bodies1.JPG

For those interested in it’s specs, here’s a link to Canon’s official page for the new XSi.