Roberts Raw!

› archive for July, 2009

Raw Regains Ads, Attempts to Not Be Awful

Roberts Raw, trusted font of camera information and reliable source of questionable writing, isn’t entirely the altruistic endeavor it might superficially appear to be. Brace yourself, dear readers, this might come as a shock: part of its performance is evaluated on how it helps us survive as a company. There, I said it. Roberts Raw’s ongoing existence is dependent on Roberts Imaging continuing to be a successful online retailer.

I will give you all a moment to recover from your shock.

…

We good? Anyway, to help keep Raw running as the font of information and not the marketing sham we prefer it to be, we had to make a concession and we have brought advertising back. But, we have try to keep it responsible, you will now find two (rather stylish, if I have any say in it, and I do) banner ads embedded on the mainpage of the blog. And that’s it. We’re trying to be as chill about things as we can, obnoxious ads are not our way. So, if you loves you the Roberts Raw, or even if it’s just a strong like, show us the occasional support and click an ad, or go up there at the top of the page and click “shop online” and throw us some bones.



PowerShot SD880: spent, PowerShot SD780: fresh

sd780instock

All of you with the rich, metallic taste of Canon’s PowerShot SD880 stuck in your happy, compact camera loving mouths, please make your peace. It looks to be replaced by the PowerShot SD780, and unlike the 880, we have this one in stock for the low price of 279.97, which qualifies for the free UPS Ground shipping if you order through our online shopping cart.



photoGooru Mock-Ups Getting Finalized

Hey all, photoGooru’s been delayed a bit by a few small fires, but it’s still coming and coming in a ‘sooner-than-later’ sorta way. Again, if you missed the press release, photoGooru is going to be our compliment to the Online Help Department, focusing on technical columns in friendly language to help people better understand the world of digital imaging. If you hadn’t noticed or haven’t voted yet, check the poll on the right to cast your vote for what content we need to prioritize.

In the meanwhile, here’re the mockups for what you can expect. Mind you, they’re tiny, but it’s something to show, right?



Cooliris implemented to massage your eyeballs with our Flickr

Did I say it was easy to embed Cooliris in a page? I did. Guess what, it’s not beneath our fearless webmaster use something sexy and free. Check our monthly photo contest page and our Flickr feed to see this slickery goodness.

If you want in-depth knowledge of how to do this head on over to the Cooliris developer forums or pester us (Derek) in the comments below.

You should also keep an eye on the Robert’s Raw footage videos on our Youtube channel. I hear rumblings from the webmaster implying that he’ll be feeding them into Cooliris as well. Ba-da-BING!



Your New Career Path: Midnight Paparazzi

astroscopeFor those of you in the rough right now, here’s a wonderful, if somewhat ridiculous, idea: midnight paparazzi. Thanks to the availability of products like Electrophysic’s “AstroScope” DSLR-mounted night vision intensifiers, quibbling little details like “lack of light” are no longer concerns for the discerning night photographer.

Oh, sure, as pointed out in Electrophysic’s catalog, it probably has quite a few legitimate uses in fields such as “military tactical imaging,” “law enforcement,” “government surveillance,” “low-light photography,” and “photojournalism.” But we all know my solution is far better, right?

For those who are now curious, it sits between lens and body, so you can use all your current glass to get great, green night pictures. It’s available for full-frame Canon and Nikon bodies.



Olympus m.Zuiko 17mm f2.8 Reviewed

Olympus’ new prime lens, the m.Zuiko 17mm f2.8 “pancake”, is the subject of recent review over at SLR Gear. Their conclusions? Certainly not the highest praise ever for a lens, but keeping in mind this is a consumer-grade optic (from an optics giant who likes to keep three carefully dilineated quality tiers going at once, with this representing their ‘standard’ quality branch), using highly compacted optics in a veritably tiny package, it’s not so darn bad. And, it is, at any rate, the smallest thing going if you’re buying into micro Four-Thirds. It is, like so many Olympus lenses, very strangely calibrated to perform better wide open. Not complaining, I love wide open, but it’s still a bit weird to see on the test charts.



Olympus Updates Master, Shows No Love for E-3

Olympus has updated its Master software to include the new e-Portrait and Art Filter controls in the software. Except you still have to have a camera that could use these in the first place, in a bit of software lockdown all too familiar after their deal with pano-stitching only working on certain xD cards. So, if you don’t own an E-P1 yet, this is a pretty unexciting update. There might be something in it for you E-P1, E-30,E-620, and E-450 owners, though.

To get the update, make sure you have Master installed (it comes with all Olympus cameras), then make sure you’re connected to the internet, go to Help-> Update Software and follow the instructions.



Business Slow? Keep Busy Elsewise.

For all you working pros or semi-pros out there who’re finding the economic slump still affecting you, and therefore with more times on your hands than you would prefer, Don over at Lighting Essentials has a list of 10 things you could be doing other than twiddling your thumbs.

Obviously we at Roberts have a vested interest in keeping you in work, so there’s that. His tips seem pretty solid, and I second his sentiment about starting a blog on your server if you haven’t yey. We’ve been working on our SEO (search engine optimization, for those of you not in the hip), and it’s well worth spending the time and occasional frustration to look into right now if everything else is slow.

Don’s 10 Tips Here.



Canon Rebel T1i Review

Continuing this apparent ‘Review Friday,’ DCResource’s newest review is Canon’s second video-enabled body, the Rebel T1i. Sporting most of the same guts as the Canon 50D, at a lower price point and with video, the T1i is an attractive product on paper. Hop over to DCResource and you’ll experience their reviewer’s very paractical, every-man-every-day approach to reviewing equipment.



Panasonic DMC-GH1 Survives DPReview

DPReview is definitely the predominant reviewing site, and the do a very admirably and un-enviable job of trying to do very objective, rational reviews in the face of bias and rabid fans. And they do a pretty good job. I, personally, think they place too much emphasis on a few areas because it makes measuring easier (noise performance, for one), but that’s the name of the game.

All of this is lead-up is to say “Hey, DPReview has their massive 31 page review of Panasonic’s GH1 up!”

The GH1, of course, is sitting in an interesting spot, with a sensor half the size of the 5D Mark II’s, but with an interface and lens designed from the ground up to handle video better. And so far, it sounds like it wins the video battle. But, hey, read that long review for yourself and make your own decisions. Then come back to us and order yours with free ground shipping to the lower 48..




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