Category: Uncategorized

Size doesn’t always matter…

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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…

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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. 

The First “Official” Post – 40D and 1DsMark III

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As my first “official” post, I should probably give a nod to the recent release of the latest EOS gear from Canon.  This was a much anticipated release of the new EOS 40D and 1Ds Mark III bodies.  The hype that led to these news releases was palpable.  Various photo communities and technical repositories have been monitoring sites like Amazon and Canon 24/7 for the last few months in hopes of being “the first” to uncover the release of any good information on new product lines.  Just a brief look at some of the more popular venues like Photo.net, P.O.T.N, Fred Miranda, and DPReview, as well as the authors own regional site, SC Photogs show at least some curiosity, if not an almost perpetual buzz of thread postings on the anticipated release date.  Subjects have ranged from specs we want to see, speculation over what will be included in the gear, who the gear is marketed for, what the fallout will be on the rest of the market, and what Nikon will do in response.  Heck, there was even one report that came from someone with a cell phone shot of an in-store best Buy screen showing the ship date, and estimated retail pricing.  All in all, there was a lot of speculation leading up to this release.  Now that the news is there, we can expect to see them in online stores within a month.  Brick-and-mortar stores may take a while longer as pre-ordered online sales will likely drain initial stock quickly.  

While each of these camera bodies and the added features they will offer is quite exciting in its own right, largely due to the feature enhancements in both grades, extensive coverage of both would bore some, lose others, and just make for a really long post.  So, in the interests of brevity, I will take a more direct look at the one that I will likely be throwing my wallet at (unless of course Canon happens to be viewing this blog and would like to send me an advance model for testing and review, I would be happy to accept the responsibility of testing this equipment in “real world” situations for them.  (Canon, are you listening? 🙂 ). 

So, look for the first podcast later this afternoon or tomorrow morning , where I pour over all the nitty gritty details of one of the latest gear releases from Canon…the EOS 40D! 

Until then, I leave you with a few bits and pieces of general photography news and links to check out during the day (as if you don’t have enough from the inline references above!):

  • Photoshop TV has released its latest weekly episode for viewing on their website.   

  • The Digital Photography Show has their latest podcast up for listening, as well as a post about the 40D too.

  • The Strobist is a great blog/resource for those interested in lighting gear and techniques.  Great stuff here!

Until I post again (likely this afternoon)…happy shooting!

Ta da!!!

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As I move forward on getting the administrative features under control, a few posts are necessary to set up the blog and get the look and feel down to where I like it.  As a one-man operation, this may take some time so please be patient.  First, an introduction and a little background on who I am, what the blog is, and where it may go…

My name is Jason Anderson and I am an IT professional working in the (currently) very hot and humid state of South Carolina.  With Charleston as the largest recognizable community nearby, you could call me a “Lowcountry Resident.”  Since the IT industry is not prone to a lot of creative expression, I have endeavored to find creative venues to express myself, and to find others like me that share a passion for both logic, and…well, passion!

This web log is the conclusion of the realization that I needed a venue to express and share personal thoughts, ideas, and experiences with the online community.  Most often, this will be photographic in nature.  However, I may occasionally wax philosophic, plug sites I find interesting, and sometimes simply offer viewers and readers the mumblings and ramblings of an IT pro as I weave my way through a decidedly creative and sometimes less-than-logical world of artistic expression!