Olympus, maker of tough, waterproof point-and-shoots and DSLR’s that I’ve been famously known to run under a sink and stand-on at parties, only to then photograph the onlookers, and co-pioneers of the mirror-less compact interchangeable lens camera frontier, sent us an email today telling us about their new YouTube video spots about their E-PL1.
These 11 short videos are aimed to help you all through the various highlights of the E-PL1, and to help explain what it offers over regular compacts (‘point and shoots”), or the full-blown DSLR boat anchors like I carry. So, if you’ve got a few minutes and an interest in one of the hottest new camera types in decades, why not hop over and watch a few?
So, Canon has announced the production of its 50 millionth EF lens. I was surprised at this—Nikon did celebrate 50 million first, despite Canon being a larger company—until I remembered that Nikon was celebrating the F mount, which they’ve never abandoned, but Canon’s only been running on the EOS/EF mount for some 20ish years, having used the wildly different FD mount before. So, congrats, Canon, on this your newest milestone, and hopefully many more to come.
EOS 1D Mark IV is available for download from Canon immediately.
What’s the update do you ask?
This firmware update (Version 1.0.6) incorporates the
following enhancement:
Firmware Version 1.0.6 enhances the AF tracking performance.*
*AF performance has been enhances[sic] for receding subjects and for subjects that are approaching at a low speed.
So, if you own both a computer and a camera, there’s a better than average chance you’ve encountered one of the many online gear forums, where people discuss camera equipment. And, while a lot of useful information can be learned from these forums, they also rival the Mos Eisley cantina for biggest dens of inequity going, and I’ve lurked on them long enough to notice there are several popular fallacies that seem to never go out of style, which is sad because they frequently stand in the way of better customer satisfaction.
So, we’re going to start addressing a few of these as a respected dealer of equipment, with all our insider knowledge and decades and decades of experience with camera equipment over the ages.
And first up is AF-S. AF-S is Nikon’s designation for lenses with an integral ultrasonic motor for focusing, introduced in 1996. Now, if you’re new to equipment, you may not know that auto-focus cameras used to use a body-based focus motor and screw drive system. Nikon’s AF-S comes under fire because starting with the D40, they started leaving a body-based motor out of their cameras, forcing users to buy AF-S lenses if they wanted autofocus. This gets decried a lot as a shameless attempt on Nikon’s part to force new lens sales and cut-off the used market. AF-S gets a lot of hate.
Of course, never mind that Canon switched entirely to in-lens focus motors when it created its EOS system and EF mount in 1987, making it’s entire FD line-up completely unusable with new cameras. Or that Olympus and Sony’s DSLR systems also use only in-lens AF systems. Or that in lens AF systems are faster, quieter, and more accurate. Obviously such technological improvements must be bad, right?
Simple answer: if you’re a new DSLR customer and can afford it, go AF-S. Even though the more expensive bodies still support the body-motor, in-lens focus motors have been the future for the past twenty years. They might cost you more than the old used ones, but they’ll continue to work going forward on all Nikon bodies. Plus, don’t forget that focus motors aren’t all that’s improved in the past twenty years: lens coatings, exotic lens elements like aspherical elements, and even basic lens formulas have all continued improving and the newer AF-S lenses will yield more than just a focus motor for your money.
I bought the special edition 2-disc edition of Robert Rodriguez’ cinematic adaption of Frank Miller’s Sin City when it was released in 2005. Among my favorite features (before even watching it all in Green Screen or Bruce Willis and the Accelerators performing “Gypsy Woman”) is Robert Rodriguez’ 10-minute cooking school, a brilliant tutorial in making Sin City Breakfast Burritos complete with his grandmother’s tortilla recipe. Rodriguez does another cooking school on the Once Upon a Time In Mexico DVD, where he shows you how to make the puerco Johnny Depp enjoys with homicidal intensity.
Now Tamron will broadcast 1-minute tips, tricks, and tutorials each week starting on the 18th of January and running for 12 weeks not on a special edition dvd, but on YouTube.
“In just one minute per week you can learn the basics of successful photography at no cost,” ~John VanSteenberg, Tamron’s Senior Education Manager.
Tamron has indicated the “101″ series will be followed by more advanced courses as the project continues. You can find them at http://www.youtube.com/user/TamronVids
or embedded here:
Anybody who knows me knows that I’m not a professional sports photographer and that putting a 1D Mark IV in my hands would be about as useful as putting me behind the wheel of any car that’s won a NASCAR race in the last decade. Can I figure things on the exposure triangle? Sure. Much past that, things get iffy.
Fortunately, Canon puts samples in the hands of guys like Brad Mangin, who is a professional sports photographer. You can see his first hand use of the EOS 1D Mark IV with the 400 f/2.8 (on and off the 1.4x tele-converter) in the Detroit Lions vs San Francisco 49ers game here, complete with a RAW file downloadable from his server.
Jeff Keller at DCResource has his hands-on, average-joe review of the newest available Canon body up on his site. For those who’ve forgotten or not encountered it yet, the Canon EOS 7D is a new tier of APS-C sensor (1.6x crop) body from Canon, designed to sit above the 50D and below the 1D series, and sit in parallel to the full-frame EOS 5D series. To that end it has quite a few high-end features, including a robust weather-sealed body, 18 megapixels, an all new AF module, a 100% viewfinder, and 3 raw modes.
Does it live up to its billing? The DCResource article is typically hard statement free, leaving you to call your own judgments, but he has no shortage of good things to say for it at the end of the review…
So, who’s willing to exercise their credulity muscles this morning in favor of a change from the usual? I know I get tired of the usual stream of product recalls, firmware upgrades, and general nay-saying you’ll find about any camera made ever on your average online forum. So, I’m willing to shoot this story the benefit of belief until proven otherwise because I want to.
FM member Calin Leucuta has a story posted about his skydiver friend who’s helmet mounted video camera and Rebel XT came loose during a dive and plummeted to the earthy-face of ol’ Gaia in their own freefall. From approximately 3,000 feet. The video camera is apparently scrap, but reportedly the Canon, banged up and ugly, still, well, works.
Video evidence might be coming. Or this might be a hoax. But right now, let’s just give it the benefit of a doubt and declare that Rebel XT the proven toughest camera in the world.
Been looking to see some Canon 7D footage shot by a talented, competent working pro before choosing a side in the use of HD video in DSLRs? Yeah, we figured you’d already picked a side too. But, if you haven’t, why not take a look at Mr. Murphy-Racey’s little video here?
All footage shot with Canon 7D camera bodies at 1/125th and 1/160th shutter-speed at 60P (720). I used three lenses: Canon EF400mm f/2.8L IS, EF200mm f/2L IS, EF15mm f/2.8. I also used two Cavision viewfinders to ease focusing on the LCD… Hope you enjoy it as much as I did shooting it!!!! pm-r
Olympus, maker of tough, waterproof point-and-shoots and DSLR’s that I’ve been famously known to run under a sink and stand-on at parties, only to then photograph the onlookers, and co-pioneers of the mirror-less compact interchangeable lens camera frontier, sent us an email today telling us about their new YouTube video spots about their E-PL1.
EOS 1D Mark IV is available for download from Canon immediately.
