Exciting news, Canon have just announced the 5D Mk2 at long last. Here is the press release on dpreview.
Also the Canon EF 24mm f1.4L II was announced.
Continue readingCanon 50D released
Posted on 27, Aug
And its a good’n too by the looks of it!
Canon today released the new EOS 50D, replacement to the 40D. Check out the preview on dpreview for all the details but to sum it up…
Almost exactly a year after the arrival of the EOS 40D, Canon has announced the 50D, which we’re assured will be a sister-model, rather than a replacement. Recent history has seen Canon release new models every 18 months-or-so but it’s been a busy year with newcomers such as the Nikon D300 getting a lot of attention in the 40D’s keen amateur/professional segment. The 50D puts essentially a 40D body wrapped around a newly-developed 15 megapixel sensor that finally rectifies the situation in which Canon’s x0D range trailed the company’s entry-level line, in pixel terms. Canon is claiming that the new sensor’s design (new manufacturing processes, redesigned photo diodes and micro lenses) mean that despite the higher resolution the noise is actually lower than the 40D, something we’ll obviously be putting to the test when we get our hands on a production model.
The other big change is the inclusion of a new, high-resolution LCD screen. 920,000 dots mean that it can convey 640 x 480 RGB pixels, making it effectively a VGA standard monitor. Three anti-reflection layers built into the screen do their best to keep it useable in bright conditions, too.
There are various other changes and added features, with many of them stemming from the first appearance of the Canon’s Digic 4 processor.
This looks great, and bodes well for the new full frame body, the 5D Mk2, 3D, 7D or whatever it will be called!
Continue readingLensbabies
Posted on 26, Aug
A recent acquisition of mine is a Lensbabies 3G kit, with macro adaptors, as well as telephoto and wideangle lenses. This is a great lens for creative portraiture, because it allows you to create “selective focus”, or a “sweet spot” in your picture which you can move around the frame to any position you want, leaving the rest of the image in a crazy looking almost radial blur. Special aperture inserts can be used to create special shaped specular highlights (the out of focus bright points in the background) in shapes like stars and hearts. This is fantastic for use in wedding and engagement photography for that special romantic look. Its not a lens you would use all the time (in part because its 100% manual and quite tricky to get a good focus with) but it does create a great effect when used. My best tip for Lensbaby use, is practice practice practice. A full frame camera body with a big bright viewfinder is also of great assistance.
I will be posting up a few images taken with this lens, but for now here is a shot of Zakk, who works for Alan Moyle at Photobat. We were messing about taking photos on Sunday night after the AIPP seminar, before dinner, and this photo gives a good indication of the Lensbaby effect. No photoshop filters here people!
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