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Digital Photography Let me start with a disclaimer: Having been in the world of digital photography for a few years now, I have met some great photographers. These are people that treat their camera brand like a religion and no one is going to tell them they are wrong. I can certainly appreciate when one manufacturer does something cool vs. I'm not paid by Nikon, it's just the camera brand I picked at the time based on the models that were out at the time. Once you buy a camera body and start buying lenses, it's very hard (financially) to just up and switch because another manufacturer comes out with something that is tempting. So if this is your religion, that's great for you, but I really don't care. So spare me with the comments on how one is so much better than the other (I am glad that you feel so passionately about it). Now that I got that out of the way, let me go on with my post: Canon's New EOS 5D Mark II SLR Kicks Butt Yes, I said it! I'm a Nikon shooter, but I can certainly appreciate when I see a camera that has outstanding specs and that's exactly what I woke up to this morning.
I've been watching the rumors as many of my friends are Canon shooters (yes I associate with both Nikon and Canon users, call me crazy). However, when I saw the specs this morning, all I could say was WOW! Based on the specs and price point, this camera is going sell WELL! My take on DSLRs shooting video One of my blog readers asked if I would perhaps do a post on the Nikon D90? I thought about it at the time and I didn't really feel comfortable doing a review of a camera that I didn't have or plan to get. However, now that both Nikon (with the D90) and Canon (with the 5D Mark II) have released models that shoot video, I thought I would at least weigh in on this topic. I haven't actually used either model yet, so this is only my opinion/feeling at this point. I think that having an DSLR that can shoot video is an interesting concept. It will certainly appeal to the "dads" and "moms" out there. Think about it, you're at the little league game and you can capture your kid as either high res great quality digital stills or as a video, when they slide into home base. I also think it's going to open up a whole new world for seeing "different" kinds of video because now you have a camera shooting video using the dozens of different lenses available to DSLR cameras. What I'm not sure of is how well this will appeal to professional photographers. Most professional photographers that I talk to, never show any interest in doing video. So I'm not sure if they will care about having a DSLR that can shoot video. However, on the other hand most professional videographers I know DO SHOOT STILLS more and more now. Usually when you have a multi-function device, it tends to be really good at one thing and suck at the rest, or worse, it's not really good at any one thing. I think these new cameras are probably going to be much stronger at taking stills than they will be at taking video. So therefore it won't be the "only" camera that a video professional could carry. There are all kinds of things that we don't think about when it comes to video. The first thing that comes to mind is, "what kind of microphone do these cameras have?" People will forgive you for having crappy video with great sound, but they will not forgive you for having great video with crappy sound! Here's a Sample Video my buddy Bruce found on the web, that was shot with the 5D.
So the bottom line is that I think it's an interesting idea that will appeal to the hobbyists out there. I don't think the pros will latch on just yet or at least not to this first round of cameras, for their video needs. Sorry to disappoint the fanatics (actually I'm not sorry - dude, you need to get over it.
NEW Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers. Over 200 cities from around the world were included and I've seen some AMAZING photos already from various places.
Everyone was in good spirits and we just had a good time hanging out on Detroit's International Riverfront and walking up and down the Riverwalk. It's always interesting to see what 40-50 different photographers shooting the same location come up with. Every one's "eye" is different and therefore you get different perspectives. I saw photos of things that I said "wow, I wish I had thought to shoot that that way!" So it was a learning experience for me and I can't wait to do more of these. What was even more amazing was that there were no Canon vs. Some of the other photographers got some award winning shots of these two. Here's a shot of my buddy Housain who has that kind of face that just begs to be photographed.
Software I had been hearing a nasty rumor from my colleagues and photographer buddies that shooting tethered on a PC running Windows was faster than shooting tethered on a Mac This was due largely in part to the native USB 20 drivers for each operating system.
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 99% of the time when I'm in the studio. Having to wait 6-8 seconds for the image to pop up on the display doesn't sound like a long time until you're sitting there waiting. The advantage of shooting tethered is that you can see your results on a nice large display and make adjustments along the way. So I put it to the test Sorry guys I don't have a tech lab with guys walking around in lab coats. My testing setup was simple: I have a MacBook Pro running the latest version of Mac OS X and Windows XP SP2 via Boot Camp.
Camera Control Pro 2 to automate the process of bringing the image in from the camera to a folder. Since Camera Control Pro 2 ships with both the Mac and the Windows version on the same disc, I didn't have to buy anything else. Once the image is in the folder I have Lightroom (LR) setup to Auto Import and display the image in loupe view which means it has to build a preview on the fly as well. I didn't have any other apps running in either environment. I also ran multiple captures to make sure the timing was consistent. I'm sure the times would be much faster since JPEG files are much smaller. Since I don't plan on switching to shooting in JPEG, the faster times would be irrelevant to me. So I just ran Camera Control Pro 2 (CCP2) with nothing else open and fired off some exposures. The PC dumped the image into the folder in 32 seconds from pressing the shutter, while the Mac took 72 seconds. At this point I was starting to think that I'll be shooting tethered in Windows under Boot Camp from now on. However, it dawned upon me that this is only half the story. The other half of the story is after the image is in the folder, how long it takes the image to get into LR and show on screen. I then ran tests of the complete process from the time I press the shutter until the image is on the screen in loupe view. It seems that either LR is either really efficient with Auto Import and building previews on the Mac or sucks really bad at it on the PC (glass half full or empty depending upon how you look at it). Windows Mac CCP2 import 32 seconds 72 seconds LR import (complete process) 82 seconds 89 seconds The Bottom Line If all you need to do is shoot tethered and get the images into a folder, then it would seem that Windows would be the way to go. However, if you shoot tethered into LR, then there isn't enough of a speed advantage to switch from the Mac OS! Since Canon provides an app to automatically bring the images from the camera into a folder, you may see different results depending upon how their software is optimized for each platform. Also if you use other apps to shoot tethered and display your images (such as the software by the camera manufacturer), your mileage my vary. I ran the only tests that mattered to my workflow which is Nikon D300 to CCP2 to LR.
Fantasea Underwater Housing for my older Nikon D70 DSLR camera. Sure I've got newer better cameras like my D300, but none that I was willing risk taking underwater for the first time (even with the included flood insurance). If I lost my D70 it wouldn't be the end of the world, but if I lost my D300 I'd cry real tears. Like everything else, you can spend a little or you can spend a LOT!...
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