photography gear – Page 6

New video tutorial is available!

September 12, 2007 JasonLeave a comment

What with all the work I’ve been putting in to my new dedicated photography site, and keeping up with web activities, I’ve not had a chance to look into the issue of embedding flash in the blog yet, so links to the videos will have to suffice for the time being. As I get more vids put together, I may generate a static page where all of them can be viewed in a myriad flash/html format, depending on how much feedback I get. For the time being here is my first video attempt, attached as a flash file:

Clearly, this week I was re-visiting the horizon leveling subject, but in a more intermediate role. Last week, this subject was one of a few tips were touched on in a light fashion, so this week, largely in response to feedback from fellow photogs, I am re-visiting this one to address some questions that arose. Primarily, how should you level on multiple axes? It was something of a learning experience for me, as my initial thought would have been the warp tool under Free Transform. As it turns out, in the image supplied, perspective transform worked a lot better. I suppose there are multiple ways to skin a cat, but here I look at both the ruler and the transform tools for leveling purposes, depending on the number of axes, and effects you are going for. Check it out in the link at the end of the post.

I also wanted to take a moment to give shout outs to Scott Sherman and Michael Stein of The Digital Photography Show. Scott had a series of snafu’s last weekend that reminded me of some useful advice I learned a year or so ago in similar fashion. Basically, he reminded me that if you are serious about photography and your pictures, the planning begins long before tripping the shutter. After my episode, I devised a checklist of “to dos” both in packing for a shoot, and in wrapping up. This ensures you have all the gear you need going in, it all works, and you leave with all your gear as well. The post came from the photo clubs’ blog, last year, so forgive the outdated link, but it still has use and is relevant today. Anyway, the story can be seen at the link at the end of this post.

Thanks all for tuning in again, and I see the poll count has jumped another couple notches so keep the votes coming – I don’t want to say the goal for fear of jinxing it, but the more the merrier in voting for content! 🙂

Oh, and I almost forgot, shout outs to Dave from Fred Miranda for supplying the image for this weeks tutorial!

Developing a checklist

Leveling multiple axes (horizons) in Photoshop

ETA: As I eventually figured out the flash problems, I have been able to go back to previous posts and incorporate the embedded flash videos. As this was the first video podcast (I wasn’t keeping count until I realized that I’d better, just to keep track of content and quality), so backdated shout outs for the first video podcast. I am also attaching a Quicktime version of the movie for downloading and iTunes purposes so, check for that at the top of this post.

Western Digital steps up to the plate

September 8, 2007 JasonLeave a comment

Having recently been through the ringer on some rather questionable customer service policies, I felt compelled to also give a glowing review of a recent experience I had with another company – Western Digital.

Let’s set the stage: About a week ago, my antiquated desktop computer started exhibiting its age with the recognizable whirring of a hard drive about to fail….it still whirs consistently throughout the day. Since I knew it was past the return policy for Best Buy (30 days), I started backing everything up to my secondary slave drive. With all that copied, I started the search for a replacement…then it dawned on me – this should still be under manufacturer warranty!

So, I broke open the box (not broke, but you get the idea), pulled out the affected drive and started making notations of P/N’s S/N’s and all that gobbledygook. Then at Western Digitals website I entered the S/N as requested to find it was purchased less than a year ago and is still covered. Yay! I can get a replacement! Now, here’s the best part – they will send me the replacement in advance. Meaning? I can install the replacement, copy files over and stay up and running without any downtime to speak of. Yes, a credit card is needed to ensure I return the defective drive, but that’s to be expected in todays day and age.

Anyway, kudos to Western Digital for a great RMA policy – others could learn from you! 😉

Top Five Reasons I am getting the Canon 40D

August 28, 2007 JasonLeave a comment

It wouldn’t be a year in photography without at least one of the Big Boys of photography world (those boys being Canon, Nikon, Olympus and Pentax) announcing some new piece of equipment that sets everyone off, racing to give their money away so they can have the “latest and greatest” that money can buy. As a technology buff, I am particularly susceptible to this tendency, so I always have to take a step back and look at my current setup, as well as the rest of the options available before I can pull the trigger (or trip the shutter, since we’re using “photo speak” right now).

So…I set out to look at the major features in the EOS line since that’s where my lenses are. Within my price range (under $1500) are the XTi, 30D, and 40D. I also included the 20D in my comparison because even though it’s been discontinued, it still is available through online auctions and various community forums for sale, and the spec sheet is readily available online (I used the specs from B&H). Given the number of options, even within the Canon line, I had to set some minimum. So, I told myself that in order to make it worth the expense, I would need to see at least 5 major features/reasons in order to justify the purchase. I defined a “major” feature/reason as something that either represented more than a 15% increase in numerical value, or a feature that was completely lacking in my current setup.

With my benchmarks set, and my expectations in place, I put together the following chart for the consumer/entry pro level EOS bodies that Canon offers:

The benchmarks indicated the following results:
• XTi – 2 features/reasons: Discarded
• 20D – 3 features/reasons: Discarded
• 30D – 5 features/reasons: Candidate
• 40D – 8 features/reasons: Candidate

With two pretty clear favorites, I looked at the differences between the two, and the 40D does seem to have enough of a distinction (3 features) from the 30D to justify the increased expense (Mega Pixels, screen size, and Frames/sec). What also tipped the scales for me in my decision was that since I don’t buy new bodies as regularly as some, as there have been 3 new releases since my last purchase. That being the case, I will probably be better served by getting the newest one so that it can last as long as my XT has (3 years).

For those with other Canon bodies, a similar system could be used to determine whether an upgrade is justified, depending on what you are looking for. For those with Nikon bodies looking to upgrade, the decision-making process should likely be weighed within your own DSLR system, but the principles used above could be applied equally there as well. As for Olympus, Pentax, and Sony – what are you guys smiling at? (Something tells me they will be following the lead of Canon and Nikon but at lower price points down the road…)

Size doesn’t always matter…

August 25, 2007 JasonLeave a comment

As I bide my time for the Canon EOS 40D to come to a B&H store near me (online), I have been slowly find flaws with my current body – the Canon EOS 350D (a.k.a. the XT). When invited to a high school football game last night, one of my Canon camera buddies lent me a second body so I could have a wide angle and a zoom at the ready for changing situations without having to swap out lenses on a single body. As it turned out, I pretty much stayed on the zoom the entire night, but that’s not the interesting part.

What was interesting was the performance results. The body I was lent was the EOS 10D, which has much more of a heft to it. Since it was incompatible with the EF-S lenses, I had to put the kit 18-55 on my XT, and my 70-200 (f4.0) went on the 10D. After adding a 550EX flash, the setup was quite heavy.

For the first half I noticed that the buffer in the 10D took about the same time to fill up as the XT, which seemed odd, as I knew that the 10D had a smaller pixel count (6.3 versus 8.1) and both are rated at about 3.0 fps. What amazed me though, was the write speed once the buffer was filled. The 10D took as many as 30 seconds to write all images to the card, where if I was on the XT, I would have been shooting again in 10 seconds. By the second half I had switched back to the baby XT (size wise) for its superior Megapixel count and write speeds. Turns out, the size doesn’t always matter…

Canon’s Competition…

August 23, 2007 JasonLeave a comment

Although this is primarily a venue for discussing Canon gear, since it is also about photography news, in the interests of full disclosure, it only seems fair to at least acknowledge the competition. Apparently, Nikon has responded to the Canon release with their own new DSLR cameras. Whereas Canon has the 1Ds Mark III and the 40D, the Nikon has announced the release of their competitive bodies, the D3 and the D300. The Online Photographer and DPReview have reviews and information on the new product lines. For those interested in more info, each venue is hyperlinked for your convenience.

From a personal perspective on the matter – it seems more and more the two largest market share holders are losing something of their signature and recognition by having the confluence of naming conventions. While I understand that the “D” is for digital, and there is no getting around the English language in that regard, one can easily see how the average consumer could become very confused very quickly. Sure, one has the “d” before the numbering system, and the other has the “d” after, but when both vendors have a “40” series, the possibilities for confusion between a 40D and a D40 seem just obvious to me.

While I realize it’s an exercise in futility as both product lines were established well before my entry into the field, and will likely continue long after my ashes are scattered – I can’t help but wonder how much easier it would be to identify Canon and Nikon brands with a naming convention along the lines of CD and ND respectively. Of course some might confuse this with the abbreviations for the Congo Democratic Republic and New Delhi or something like that – the odds are minimal at best. Okay, that’s enough for my Thursday rant. Now for the Thursday apologies: Due entirely to laziness factors that were totally within my control, the previously promised podcast that looks at the Canon EOS 40D was not recorded for release yesterday as my initial post had suggested. Boy, I’m off to a great start here, eh? Okay, well, that’s the joy of being a one-man operation (again): no one to blame but yourself. I accept full responsibility and will forewarn any of the probably three or four people that have discovered the blog thus far that I have several previously scheduled obligations today, tomorrow, and Saturday that will require my presence, so it looks like the promised podcast will not be delivered until Sunday. So…look for the podcast on your feeds Sunday night, and download to your music player for Monday morning enjoyment… I will likely stop in with random bits of news between now and Sunday, but that’s the latest on the elusive podcast front.