After a couple weeks there of some touch-and-go blogging, rest assured, things are back into high gear this week. Today the trusty hardware review returns, and regular content is on the horizons for sure. Thanks for all the patience of those who have stuck around during some down time. Today, we’ll be taking at the Sigma 50mm lens, f1.4. Continue reading “Hardware Review: The Nifty 50 from Sigma”
Category: hardware
The 1D Mark Huh?
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!)
Hardware Review: XRite Colorimeter
Eventually you knew it was coming – the subject of color management. Now before you mosey along, or your eyes glaze over, rest assured, this is not going to be the typical discussion of color management. I am not going to talk about LAB color vs CMYK, vs RGB, or anything like that. And even though the term “colorimeter” may sound like something Marvin the Martian was going to use to destroy Earth in the classic Bugs Bunny cartoon (that was the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator), there is nothing overly scientific in today’s post.
Well, that’s not entirely true – it is scientific, but I certainly will not portray to understand any of that. Instead, I am going to show you how easy it is to calibrate your monitor using this device. Now I am looking specifically at the one from X-Rite (I own the Gretag Macbeth version from before X-Rite bought them), but color management has become as easy as a couple of mouse-clicks these days. So, you don’t have to know anything about color gamuts, RGB, CMYK, LAB, or anything like that to know you are getting color accurate images. Check it out…
After installing the software from the CD, simply connect the device and start the software. The device is the colorimeter (also known as a calibrator in some circles), and it is shaped like a computer mouse or a hockey puck. It has a cable that connects it to your computer via USB, and is good for either CRT, LCD, or laptop displays. Additional software components also enable you to calibrate things like projectors, scanners, and much more. Here though, I’ll be showing you how it works with a computer monitor.
Once the puck is connected and placed on the monitor, simply go through the wizard to calibrate everything from Contrast, to Brightness, and your RGB colors. It’s pretty straightforward…just open the display settings for your particular monitor type, and increase or decrease the values until the indicator is as close to center as you can get it. You’ll notice that I am calibrating a Dell computer monitor, and it is a Windows-based computer, but the process is just as simple on a Mac. (I just got my Windows notification though, so figured it’d be easier to kill 2 birds with one stone there.)
Here’s a couple of screen shots to give you an idea of the process. The first step when launching the software is to specify your white point and monitor type (if you are calibrating a laptop, pick the LCD). Next up, decide whether you want to go the easy route or the advanced route. I would recommend the advanced route, as even that is very easily accomplished, and these are the screen captures I am using here:
Next up is the screen capture of the contrast display. In the upper left, the software shows the current contrast setting compared to the desired setting. On the left is the colorimeter. The Brightness (or Luminance) window is pretty much the same layout, so I am not going to repeat the screen capture here.
Here’s a screen capture of the first stage in setting the color values for my Dell 19″ LCD. The software readout is on the upper right, the colorimeter is on the left, and dead center is the display menu for the Dell monitor.
Once your contrast, brightness, and color settings are defined for the monitor you are using, the software will run through and configure the graphics card, monitor, and display output settings.
Once all the settings are complete, a profile is creating in your system folder. For Windows, that is in the system32 folder. You can give it a specific name, and set the schedule on which you will be reminded for a new profile to be built anywhere between 1-4 weeks…more on this in a minute.
As you can see, it is as straightforward and simple as can be – even on the advanced settings where I defined the color (RGB) settings. So, why doesn’t everyone do this? Good question! This device cost me roughly $200, which is likely not cheap by average standards for equipment (especially that which cannot be attached to your camera!), but if you really want to get quality results, the price is minimal. I have mine set to update every 2 weeks (my LCD display has a tendency to shift colors easily, and LCD’s in general are known for color shift especially as they get warm and cool down when turned on and off.) The benefits are huge though as your prints will be more accurate whether you print at a lab or print at home. In the case of the former, no color correction is needed (and if you use MPIX Pro, there is no color correction done), and in the case of the latter, you will use less ink and paper in test runs before getting the results you want.
Keep in mind that this is just the procedure using the X-Rite, and I am sure others could just as easily recommend the Spyder Pro series, or some other colorimeter. With that in mind, if you have an inkling one way or another, feel free to share your own experiences in the comments. Which colorimeter do you use? Do you like it? Not so much? What do you like/dislike about the process?
Whether you like the X-Rite method though, or some other model – calibrating your monitor is an important part of working with a color managed work flow if you want to produce accurate and quality prints. After all, it is still about the print. Don’t forget to share your thoughts in the comments! Until tomorrow, happy shooting and we’ll see you then!
The Rumored 7D is finally announced! Specs and photos!
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:
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…
Post #501: Hardware Review – Thinktank Photo Multimedia Bag
As you may recall from the video announcement on Friday’s post #500 – the giveaway product for September includes the newest bag system from Thinktank Photo. You read that right, it’s a bag system! Totaling $320 in value retail the bags include the following: Continue reading “Post #501: Hardware Review – Thinktank Photo Multimedia Bag”
Post #498: A few shots from the Photo Walk
You’d think these would be shots from the Scott Kelby Photo Walk, but that’s only half right. Ever since the first photo walk last year in Golden, CO…several of us kept the concept cooking with regular meet-ups (through www.meetup.com, a great place to organize get-togethers for any type of group, not just photography). Anyway, this meetup group has been getting together on a regular basis (monthly to semi-monthly depending on season)…and we had our August photo walk back at historic Golden CO (in honor of last years Scott Kelby photowalk that was held there).
Since I am on the subject of photo walks, before the pics, it helps to say a few words about these gatherings. They are probably one of the most enjoyable things about photography, because you get together with people that share the same passion you do for the craft. You get to trade shots and techniques, talk shop, and gear, post processing – the works. I have made some great friends from both photo walks, so kudos to Scott Kelby and the NAPP organization for hatching the idea for these types of get-togethers. While the activity has always been around to a degree – the awareness and energy that they’ve brought to it are astounding!
Okay, enough fan-dom for the day – here’s my photo gallery shots I’ve worked on thus far. Got a few regular shots and an HDR using the trial version of Photomatix (I still haven’t ponied up to buy this…I need to do that soon!):
I know these are all pretty much snapshot material, but it’s part of what makes photo walks so much fun – just random pics, and socializing! Unless of course you take your photowalking more serious… On that note, share your thoughts on photo walks in the comments. Do you find them useful? If so, for what? If not, share those thoughts as well. Chime in, as comments are always appreciated! (Oh yeah, can anyone tell which one is the HDR? No peeking for the “photomatix” stamp!)
One final note – we are in the final days of the August contest over in the Flickr threads. This month, the prize is a Wacom Bamboo Fun! (I reviewed this last month on the blog, and you can check out the review here.) The retail value of this is $100, and the submission count is a little lighter this go around, so your odds of winning are even better – for now! Anyway, like the Lotto, if you don’t play, you can’t win – and this one is free! So, share your “fun” themed shots today in the Flickr group – see the thread for more details here: Bamboo Fun Giveaway
Okay, that’s all the photos, news, and contest info I have for this 498th post. We’re closing in on magical #500 – only a couple days to go, so stay tuned as the posts will likely get more and more multimedia filled. And, if you tune in to #500 – a great giveaway exclusive to that day will also be announced! So, as we count down the days remaining, keep on shooting. Until tomorrow, hope all your shots are great ones!
How to build a star tracker!
Rather than go through another hardware review today, I thought I would share a different kind of hardware with you – the DIY kind! Over the weekend I embarked on a little project on building a device to track stars as they move across the sky (even though it’s really the earth that’s moving and not the sky). Now granted, there are better ways to build star trackers, but many involve electronic motors, are more complex (in my mind anyway), and can get kind of costly (at least from what I’ve read). So, I figured I’d start simple, and go from there. Join me in this adventure in building my first star tracker for under $20!
It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot in doing it, both about other methods, some of the short comings of this approach, but for the cost, figured it’d be a good entry into doing these kinds of things for comparison sake. Check out the main YouTube video that gives a narrative on the process and my finished result:
The reference material I used for building this leaf-style star tracker came from a professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology (sounds impressive enough to me!), so figured I should give credit here as well: http://people.rit.edu/andpph/text-star-tracker.html
If you have thoughts, comments, feedback, or suggestions to either improve this one, on how you’ve made your own (or plan on making one), and even if you have shots to share made from DIY star tracker kits, please feel free to et me know via either the comments or email! I will start a photo gallery for all shots shared and plan on updating that monthly with all the photos received, either via links in the comments or via email!
Happy (star) shooting, and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!
P.S. Don’t forget, we’ve still got the Wacom Bamboo Fun Giveaway going on all this month! Share your shots in the Flickr thread and you’re entered to win this prize worth $100 retail! Thanks go out to the folks at Wacom for contributing this awesome tool for blog readers and podcast listeners!
Reviews, Contests, and Blog Notes
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.
OnOne Software Giveaway Finalists
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!
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Canon 550EX Review/Eulogy
Hardware Review/Eulogy – The Canon 550 EX
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!)
Hardware Review: The Canon EF-S 18-55mm
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:
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!