Oooooh, rolling luggage and a back-pack...
The appropriately named Airport Takeoff from ThinkTank, another entry from in their newest line-up, serves double duty as your rolling luggage and hanging on your back like the three-thirty coffee itch. It’s suited for holding two professional sized DSLRs (You know, D3, 1D/s I-III) with or without lenses attached and a decent slab of glass in the order of a 300mm 2.8.
First announced in September last year, the Leica S-System redefines the professional DSLR class with a custom 37.5-megapixel, 30 x 45 mm sensor built into a 35mm-sized body.
So quoth DPReview concerning Leica’s new S2, the first body in their unique S system line-up. Announced formally this week, with pricing and everything, the S system is poised to slot in above top-end DSLRs like Nikon’s D3x and Canon’s 1Ds Mk III, and somewhere under the likes of Mamiya and Hasselblad (more in using the familiar operations of 35mm over the nature of medium format than anything to do with expected and promised quality.) In short, it aims to redefine what a studio camera is and should be.
It’s also well in keeping the Leica tradition of making premium products with the price to match, with the body coming in at $23,000. Also announced at launch are four focal lengths of lens: 70mm f2.5 (which seems to be the ‘standard’ focal length for this new platform), 120mm f2.5, 180mm f3.5, and 35mm f2.5. All four are available in standard flavor, and optionally with a central shutter for a spot more. They start at around $4,500 and weave their way up from there.
Other sundry accessories like a battery grip and a charger have been announced. If the S System piques your interest, give us a ring at 1-800-726-5544 and ask for mail-order to get on our list for it.
Attention all you Canon pros out there, this update is for you:
Canon today announced service repairs for 1D Mk III users experiencing problems with either AF of with the ERR 99 error code. Looks like you send them a form concerning the service of your choice and then they contact you and it goes from there.
AF people, click here
ERR 99 people, click here
Also, not to be missed on the AF service page is a link to a mini-site Canon has made to document how its AI Servo mode works. I haven’t made it through yet, but I was just reading some scuttlebut on how AF works in general on Canon digital SLR cameras yesterday, so this’ll be a nice follow up for me as well.
AI Servo Auto Focus Manual (via Canon)
Also, new firmware for the 1D Mk III (here) and the bigger bro, the 1Ds Mk III (here)
I feel sorry for the pop-up flash. This appears to easily be the most hated of all camera features, and I just don’t know why.
For those not in the know, the pop-up flash is generally not considered a ‘pro’ feature, and therefore finds its inclusion on high-end cameras such as the D700 Nikon digital SLR camera highly criticized. I’ve also seen countless forum threads begging manufacturer X not to “mess the camera up” by including a pop-up flash.
But, no matter how you approach this, it just seems irrational to hate the pop-up flash.
Let’s start with the most common critcism: it’s not “pro.” IE, the highest end Canon digital SLR cameras and Nikon digital SLR cameras (like the EOS 1Ds Mk III and the D3) don’t have pop-up flashes. But, who’s to say that the no pop-up flash, integrated grip design is what makes the camera pro? Shutter life and body construction seem like better markers, and companies like Sony and Olympus and now Nikon (with the D700) are releasing pro models without integrated grips. So, it seems kind of picky to not like them just because they’re not pro.
Cost: Given that a $400 E-410 Olympus digital camera has a pop-up flash and the $5,000 D3 does not, I think we can safely say including a pop-up flash isn’t increasing cost.
Durability: Another popuar complaint is that they’re a weak point for durability, but I’ve ad a 17″ CRT monitor call over onto my E-3′s pop-up flash without it taking any damage (and, the E-3 also manahes to be water-sealed with the flash up, ruining the argument that it affects weather-sealing.)
So, where’s the harm in the pop-up flash? If you prefer a more powerful, less harsh light, using something like the SB-900 (in Nikon flashes) or 580EX II (for Canon flashes) is always an option and will over-ride the pop-up, but for users who don’t want the weight of a flashgun for some quick fill light or snapshots, the pop-up is useful to have around.
There’s so much in photography we could be focusing on, how about we stop complaining about the pop-up flash and see it for the value-added feature it is?
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