Tag: 40D

Monday Muscle Failure

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Muscles

This was quite the weekend!  Two of three bedrooms have been cleaned up, packaged, and taken to an off-site storage so we can “stage” the house.  Apparently staging a house is very important when selling.  It helps “define the space” for the prospective buyer.  Anyway, as a result of all the lifting, bending, pushing, pulling, hauling, and shoving (oh yeah, we packed some boxes too!), we are very much in a state of “muscle failure”.  For the more athletically inclined, you know what I am talking about.  For the rest, when you push your muscles to the brink of not being able to work, they quiver visibly, and that is called muscle failure.  Suffice to say, our normally light-hearted fare transitioned very quickly to a Whopper with fries and an ice cold beer afterwards.

Anyway, no glory shots from the new 40D to share…sorry.  Although I am stopping by the storage unit later on today, so will likely have the camera with me.  Whilst organizing that, I did notice a few “photo opportunities” (whenever I hear that phrase, I think of Ron White and a  bit he did – see reference link from the 4:30 mark to 6:00 mark) , so may have some better post material tomorrow or later on today.  Tomorrow will be another fun video too…so a little teaser there just to keep you interested.  Until then though, take a moment and stop over at ProPhotoLife.  They put out a great video on how to light tabletop stills wit just one light and mirrors as your other light sources.  Very cool – especially for the DIYer (I am going to go retrieve a mirror I was going to throw out in the move now!)

Happy shooting, watch those apertures, and we’ll see you tomorrow!

Friday Feel-goods

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Canon 40D

Found a couple neat resources around the web over the last few days. But, I am not gonna share them today. That’s right, the old bait-and-switch! I say something then switch gears once you’re hooked and talk about something else entirely. But, rest assured weary reader, I am not selling anything…yet! Quite simply – I got my 40D!!! That’s right, pulled the trigger, but the bullet, took the plunge, and every other metaphor you can think of. So, now with not one but 2 SLR’s in hand, I feel a little better knowing I have a backup.

That means my trusty Canon XT is now a backup camera! The funniest thing about it is that when I got my XT about 3 years ago, I paid more for that than I just paid for the Canon 40D (body only)! Back in 2005, the XT was hot off the presses and I was chomping at the bit to get it. The market started with it around $1000, and when I found one at Beach Camera for $850, I thought – “This is a good deal!” So I took the plunge.

Fast forward to 2007, the Canon 40D debuts for $1140 retail for the body. Within a year, rebates start kicking in – the struggling economy starts impacting camera manufacturers, so the rebates are big. The Canon 40D now has a $200 rebate, and it’s not the mail in kind! That’s right, an instant in-store rebate knocks the 40D down to $940 bones. This is a pretty darn good deal considering where the 40D stands in the Canon lineup. (3rd in line as I see it: 1D Mark II, 5D, and then the 40D)

But wait, hold the phones, that deal gets sweeter! If you are a current XT, XTi, or XSi owner, an additional $50 mail in rebate is offered too. So, now after all rebates, you can get the pristine new 40D for under $900…a mere $890! What a steal! But, here’s the thing – that means the aftermarket is starting to feel a pinch. This means the 40D that many bought a mere 6 months ago for $1200 could concievably drop to half that in the aftermarket since the XS is coming out, and a likely successor to the 5D which will push it down further. No one wants to see their gear depreciate to the tune of 50% in a mere 12 months. Heck, the XT new was around $100, and it still can be found for $450-$500 after being in the market place for about 4 years! (Although I suspect not for much longer – it’s not even in the current lineup anymore…)

So, anyway, the aftermarket starts picking up. By keeping up with the market via 1001 Noisy Cameras I can see that Canon is taking the majority of the top ten deals for a good 3 months. Now, with the standard for after market stuff typically running around 10-15% less than retail, 40D owners start pushing their bodies for $900, then $875, and most recently I saw one for $850. Well, last week I posted in the Buy/Sell forums of one particular community that I wanted to buy (WTB) a 40D at the 10% off retail rate…after rebates! That meant $800. Within an hour I had a taker, so – for less than the price of my XT, I upgraded to the 40D a year after its release.

Ironic, because it was about a year after the XT was released that I got it for about just as the retail price dropped 10%. In the aftermath, I learned a valuable lesson about camera gear: bodies depreciate, lenses retain value. If you want to spend money wisely, don’t upgrade your body every year, upgrade your glass. Hopefully this upgrade will have been worthwhile – 3 years in the making, and for $100 less than my previous body – I think it was probably a good investment. The only reason I did it was because I really did feel as though I was starting to bump up against the limitations of the XT body. Frame rate was not where I wanted it, the image counter was becoming more of a hindrance as I take more, the images were harder to see, and it was just starting to show signs of wear and tear. A bit of the plastic casing had peeled off in my sweaty mitts. It was just time to upgrade. To the forum guy (you know who you are) that hooked me up…thanks so much!

In looking at the counter, it seems the actuations are even lower than I thought with the count in the 500’s! I simply just re-set it back to 0 and I am rockin’ and rollin’! So, in case you hadn’t guessed it – this is just a “Feel Good” post today – nothing insightful, informational, or even useful – just a gleeful post of what was formerly an adult and what is now a 5-year old kid at Christmas! Have fun all, go out and shoot some (I know I will be…)

Oh yeah, here’s your WTD for the week:

What the Duck - June 26th 2008

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

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.

Web gem for Wednesday – go buy some baggies!

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Starting the new year off with a bang, the Wall Street Journal reported this morning that the Transportation Safety Administration has implemented new policies regarding what battery types can be brought on airplanes. The new rule speaks to the Lithium batteries we’ve all come to know and love that charges everything from our cell phones to watches, cameras and laptops. That’s right, your Li-ion batteries are now a restricted item. What are the rules?

Well, it turns out you can have one in your device, so your camera, laptop, cell phone, and other such equipment is safe. You can also carry two spares, provided each is stored in its own sealed plastic bag or the original packaging. Loose batteries, whether in carry-on or checked baggage, are no longer permitted. Lithium content is also restricted now to less than 25 grams. For now, it’s safe to say that virtually all cell phone, laptop, camera, and watch batteries fall well under the limit, including standard AA and AAA batteries. Whether this is per battery or a total of all batteries is somewhat unclear, but from what I have been able to gather, the aggregate total is in reference to the total Lithium content per battery. This is not a definitive piece of information but is the best I can determine from the travel sites (referenced at the end of this post) and other resources.

For those that are curious, I have been able to determine that Lithium content is based on a factor of 0.3 per cell multiplied by the rated capacity in ampere hours. If you look at the back of your batteries, it will tell you certain key information that can be used to determine your total Lithium content. For example, on my Canon XT, the back panel shows that it has a rating of 7.4 volts, with 720 Milliamp Hours. It’s the mAh that we need to use for determining how much Lithium we have. So, if I take the rating of 720 mAh and convert that to regular Ampere Hours (remember your metric system?) I get a value of 0.72 (720/1000). Now, I would use that 0.72 and multiply it by 0.3 to get my total lithium content. So, the XT/XTi batteries have about 0.21 grams of Lithium. Here’s a chart of common Canon cameras, their battery models, and the total Lithium content:

Camera Model

 Battery Model mAh value Ah value Total Lithium content
Rebel XT (350d) NB-2LH 720 0.72 0.216 grams
Rebel XTi NB-2LH 720 0.72 0.216 grams
20D BP-511A 1390 1.39 0.417 grams
30D BP-511A 1390 1.39 0.417 grams
40D BP-511A 1390 1.39 0.417 grams
5D BP-511A 1390 1.39 0.417 grams
1D Mark II NP-E3 1650 1.65 0.495 grams
1D Mark III LP-E4 2300 2.3 0.69 grams
1Ds Mark III LP-E4 2300 2.3 0.69 grams

It should be noted here that the 1D Mark II series of the EOS family did not appear to be a Lithium battery, rather a Nicad battery, so it should be exempt from the new restriction. Regardless, at most, any EOS battery will yield considerably less than 1 gram, so with a total of 3 (one in the body and 2 spares), you are just a hair over 2 grams of Lithium (2.1 to be exact). When coupled with your laptop Lithium content, and cellular phone content, you should still be well within the parameters. As for other devices, I just checked my cell phone and laptop. The former (a Motorola v325i), and that has 880 mAh, so comes in at 0.264 grams ( 0.88×0.3). The laptop comes in a little closer as my Macbook Pro (15”) has an Li-ion battery that comes in at 60 Wh (no milliWatt hours here…), so the yield there is 18 grams of Lithium. I’d read elsewhere that the 17” MBP has a Wh capacity of 68 (or 20.4 grams of Lithium).

What it basically comes down to, is that you now must put your spare batteries in a plastic baggie, and can only tote those in your carry-on. (You cannot transport them in checked luggage.) Here’s my theoretical total Lithium content if I travelled with everything and the maximum number of spares:

Camera: 0.63 grams (0.21×3)

Cell phone: 0.78 grams (0.26×3)

Laptop: 54 grams (18×3)

For a grand total of 55.41

As a means of reference, here’s the links I visited in compiling this post:

Wall Street Journal Article

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119911051123859361.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Mac Owner’s Blog (for MBP 17” numbers):

http://stevenfettig.com/mythoughts/archives/000728.php

Safe Travel (note the <dot> GOV distinction)

http://safetravel.dot.gov/whats_new_batteries.html

Calculating Lithium Content

http://www.rosebatteries.com/pdfs/DOTshipping.pdf

 

 

When I get home this afternoon, I will set this up as a dedicated page so it won’t be archived and add it to the “blogroll” links on the side panel for easy reference. Happy Wednesday all, and go buy some baggies!

 

ETA: The dedicated page is now up and can be found here: Battery Lithium Content

Software updates for Canon 40D vis a vis Adobe

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Adobe has released raw converter updates for both Photoshop CS3 and Lightroom to incorporate more bodies and their algorithms, the 40D being one of the most noticeable (for me) among them.  For anyone using these software programs, the downloads are available at the Adobe website:

Photoshop:

Windows Download

Mac Download

Lightroom:

Windows Download

Mac Download 

Helpful note:  Owners of CS2 and earlier PS versions should not attempt to update with this raw converter – it’s meant for CS3 users only…

New video tutorial is available!

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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.

Top Five Reasons I am getting the Canon 40D

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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:

chart

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…

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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…