The camera of the future August 30, 2008
Posted by tcbp in : Rants & Raves , 2 commentsA lot of us mouthy photo bloggers have our opinions about what the camera of the future should be, or what features we’d like to see in our dream cameras. Since I haven’t posted anything like that yet, I figured it was time to waste everyone’s time and make my own insignificant addition to this already saturated topic.
The mid-range full frame war - where are we now? August 27, 2008
Posted by tcbp in : News & Rumors , add a comment
Since the last post on this a lot has happened:
- Nikon announced the D700 (beating Canon to the punch on the full frame updates) and it is pretty darn nice for $3000
- SLRs now shoot video (in HD!) thanks to the Nikon D90
- Canon announced two new cameras… but neither are full frame
- Rumors have changed on the new full frame model
The 5D Mark II/3D/6D/7D will now most likely have a DIGIC IV processor since the just annonuced 50D has this new electronic brain. There are also rumors of it sporting 21 megapixels. That’s a lot of pixels… more than I really want or need. Hopefully it will have some improvements in the high ISO area over the 40D (a 21 megapixel full frame sensor is the same pixel density as an 8 megapixel APS-C sensor like in the 30D or 40D). Some people even seem to think the 5D Mark II will have full weather sealing, HD video capabilities and a 100% viewfinder. We’ll see…
Your SLR is now a camcorder
Posted by tcbp in : News & Rumors , 1 comment so far
Nikon has again pushed the boundaries of what features an SLR can and should have by adding HD movie recording capabilities (up to 1280×720 at 24fps) to an SLR. This successor to the D80 sits in between Canon’s XSi, 40D and 50D in some ways, but as mentioned offers up one feature none of them can match in any capacity. The D90 will sell for $1000 or $1300 with the newly announced 18-105 VR kit lens.
I’ll let DPreview carry the load of telling you the gory details on this new body and lens:
The kit lens sounds like quite a nice range for the starting photographer, and is a great sounding kit with the D90.
I’m very curious to see the performance of the movie mode in this camera. I personally don’t find movie mode a very big selling point or differentiating feature for myself, but I still suspect it could come in handy at times. Interesting quirks of the D90’s HD mode include a 5 minute max recording time for a clip 720p (20 minutes in other modes) and no AF during movie mode.
Walking the abandoned Rochester subway (photo gallery) August 24, 2008
Posted by tcbp in : Photography , 1 comment so far
Yesterday I finally walked the length of the abandoned subway in Rochester from the west end all the way to the exit under Dinosaur BBQ. It was a pretty warm day but other than the dusty and sometimes smelly air, the subway was cooler and more comfortable than walking along above the streets.
From the west entrance to the east entrance the subway is over a mile long, and runs under Broad Street for a good deal of the distance but also passes under the Gannett building and the Library. Much of the subway is completely pitch black and the only light is from what we brought with us. By the time we reached the Broad Street bridge we had been in the subway for a little over an hour and were surprised to come upon a pretty big group of people. They were a group of martial artists and they were filming scenes for some martial arts movie.
Check after the jump to read more about the trip and see the photos (more…)
Canon learned a Nikon trick (it’s real now and the specs were spot on)
Posted by tcbp in : News & Rumors , 2 comments
In a truly Nikon-esque move, seemingly concrete (yeah right) information on the 50D has appeared on the world wide interwebs.
Supposed specs include 15.1 megapixels, a high res VGA LCD screen, ISO up to 12,800 and a DIGIC IV processor. It actually all sounds rather impressive so hopefully it’s a sign of good things for a 5D Mark II (although I still hope that comes in a fancier body).
There also seem to be a lot of rumors of an 18-200 IS on the way, which makes sense since that’s a popular range Nikon and Sigma are covering.
Update: I had a link to the Canon site containing the information but it is now password protected. If I see a copy of it elsewhere I’ll put up a link to that but I won’t be actively looking for it.
Another update: Bob Atkin’s has a “preview” based on the specs and images which were leaked
Wordpress updated & database restored. August 23, 2008
Posted by tcbp in : Blog Admin , add a commentYes, I already posted about the Wordpress update to 2.6.1 but then I deleted something by accident and had to restore the database. Oops.
The only thing really lost in the process was a post I was editing. It can be rewritten and thankfully nothing important was lost!
Lenovo crams everything in to ThinkPad W700 laptop August 12, 2008
Posted by tcbp in : News & Rumors , add a comment
I’m in the market for a new laptop, and while this won’t be it (too big, too expensive) it certainly is impressive enough, unique enough and photo related enough to be worth mentioning here. I am pretty sure my next laptop will be a ThinkPad, just like I have now, however I’m looking for something in the 14″ size. There is no way I want to lug around a 17″ beast, no matter who makes it or how good it is.
This thing is sporting some nice specs. The keyboard will probably be excellent in typical ThinkPad fashion and for number crunchers the dedicated num pad on the right end will probably be very appreciated. Of course like most bigger ThinkPads it includes a touchpad but most importantly this retains the excellent TrackPoint input device. Adding to that however is the Wacom tablet built right in to the palm rest, which would be a really nice feature for some people who travel with a small Wacom for doing their work on the go. On top of that this sports a high quality display with a built in calibrator which automatically keeps the display in check. Neato.
It’s also loaded with some serious hardware like a quad core processor and a video card with a gigabyte of video memory.
I expect many wallets and backs to bust once this is for sale. I for one am curious to see how well this sells, but since the price seems competitive against other high end 17″ laptops it may pull over quite a few users who wouldn’t normally think of the more rugged and typically business minded ThinkPads.
Lenovo’s press release after the jump (more…)
Olympasonic to confuse 4/3 system buyers August 5, 2008
Posted by tcbp in : News & Rumors , add a comment
Olympus seems to have been the primary supporter of the 4/3 system since it was announced. They have offered a full line of cameras and lenses which take advantage of the specification. However the system has always failed to come through in my opinion on what was one of the early promises: cheaper glass. For example, Olympus offers a 300mm f/2.8 which on their system is over $5000 but there is no 600mm f/2.8 available for regular . That’s quite impressive then! However that’s not really a fair comparison either. The Canon and Nikon 300mm f/2.8 lenses are both over $1500 less than the Olympus 300 f/2.8! And they must cover a much larger sensor. Certainly there’s an issue of scale, the Olympus 300 f/2.8 won’t be as widely used just like the 600 f/4 lenses available for 35mm/full frame, but it still seems like too much.
I can’t complain about the pricing of some of their cameras though, like the E-420. I do like the idea of the 4/3 system, but I think the price of some of the lenses is a big obstacle for them.
This new Micro Four Thirds specification from Olympus and Panasonic may not change that however there is a good chance it will confuse some consumers. It also obviously won’t usher in a new collection of “proper” SLRs (no mirror) but I’m sure there will be electronic viewfinder based cameras *cue cringing*.
A more interesting prospect is the opportunity for an interchangeable lens digital rangefinder system that is more flexible, affordable and probably feature-full than the Leica M8 (in spite of having a smaller sensor than the Leica). I am very curious to see where this new modification to the 4/3 system will go and how much the different manufacturers will take advantage of it. Given how Panasonic is in bed with Leica it would be really interesting to see a lower level Leica system pop up based on this spec and to see what lenses Leica could produce to support this Micro Four Thirds system.
Now if only someone could tell Olympus a thing or two about why putting too many pixels in to a small sensor is not such a great idea.