Thanks to Canon and Great Wall Photo, I had a chance to try out on the much anticipated EOS monster. Will be sharing my experience on the brief encounter.
In case you missed out on the previous demo/try out session, there is another session scheduled on July 31, 1:30pm — 6:00pm, at Great Wall Photo.
My brief encounter with EOS 1DX. A self shot to the mirror in the display cabinet, while Edwin Lay looked on.
It’s been in the rumor mill for quite sometime, and rumor no more. Canon has launched its very own mirrorless camera, taking a dip into the mirrorless market, which has seen the likes of Olympus and Panasonic excel in this segment with their Micro Four Thirds.
This is exciting, as I am looking forward to see a smaller form factor from Canon. There are many functions where I am dreaded to bring my DSLRs, or pulled out the bulky bodies and lenses even if I had them in bag. I long for something compact for vacations, casual functions, family gathering, or even some food tasting/review. I foresee this to fit my need perfectly! Also, with the 22mm lens mounted, it has focal length equivalent of 35mm, perfect to hit the street for some shutter therapy! Exciting!
I was surprised to see this mirrorless to come in a form closer to the S100 range, instead of a retro look in form of AE-1, or maybe even the rangefinders. Nonetheless, it’s still awesome. Can’t wait for the reviews to come on line. If possible, I would love to have a test unit to play with, and share my experience out.
Below are some images I got from the circulation on the Internet.
Canon’s first mirrorless — EOS M: 18 megapixel APS-C Camera.
Back view of the EOS M, pretty much like a compact, but comes with a APS-C quality images. I hope the touch screen is as good as the one that comes with EOS 650D. Let’s wait for the reviews online.
The 18-55mm lens looks so much nicer for EOS M, much more solid than the one for EF-S.
The adapter made it possible to use EF lenses on the EOS M body. In this case, it looks like the camera body is mounted to the lens instead. With that, mounting the recently launched 40mm pancake STM lens should be still compact even on this tiny EOS M.
At this point of time, there is no official pricing listed in Malaysia. However, Canon EOS M w/22 f/2 STM is listed at $799, at both B&H and Amazon.
Canon EOS 5D Mark III has been talk of the town, of late. No doubt, it is one out the best offering by Canon to date. At the same time, there are a lot comparison with the counterpart by Nikon, the D800. We have seen many news about this model, from how good it is, to the light leak issue it has. There are plenty of reviews carried out by plenty of photographers, if not photography site around the world. Here, however, is where I will share what I personally think of the latest offering by Canon.
I had a couple of chances to handle EOS 5D Mark III (5DM3 hereon). I was pretty impressed with the performance overall, of which I shall detail out in a bit later.
The talk of the town Canon EOS 5D Mark III, with EF 70-200mm f/2.8 IS II mounted on.
One of the strength which is often highlighted on 5DM3 is the ISO performance. Canon has improved, if not revamped the whole ISO performance on 5D M3. The other notable improvement over Mark II was the focusing points.
During one of my recent assignment, I thought it was a good opportunity to test out how good the ISO can really go. My friend, Kelvin was generous enough to allow me to snap a few shots with his new camera. I mounted EF 50mm f/1.4 USM to test out high I can go with the ISO in such low light setting.
ISO: 6400 f/1.6, straight to JPEG
5Dm3 didn’t disappoint at all. When I checked back the image on the screen panel, the image was really clean. Initially, I played safe, only toying the ISO between 3200 and 8000. then later, I convinced myself to go all the way
ISO 800 f/1.8 JPEG
ISO 6400 f/1.4
The joker at the pathway. f/1.4 ISO6400
f/1.4 ISO 8000
Joker card tricks, f/1.4 ISO8000
The in-camera RAW processing for 5Dm3 is superb. For shooters who need to get the images right away (with no time to do post processing), 5Dm3 could be the right answer. For example, if I were covering an event, and my editor needs my images to reach his email right at the end of the event, I could grab the JPEGs out from the CF, and straight away work it to the email without worrying the post. The AWB functions pretty accurate in most condition.
f/2.5 ISO 12,800
ISO 8000
f/1.6 ISO10,000 (photo by Kelvin Bong)
Some other new features introduced to this camera includes the HDR processing within the camera, multiple exposure functions, and etc. On movie recording part, it also gives more control over the video recording. Videographers will be thrilled to have those add ons.
It is kind of late for me to get this entry up, as 5Dm3 is out on the street for couple of months already. Nevertheless, I still wish to share my thought here. At the price of USD3,500 (or MYR10k+), in my opinion, it isn’t the affordable Full-frame like what 5D or 5D Mark 2 was made to be. With all the new features (the new AF system, the ISO performance etc), it has become one of the best performing camera in the professional range.
I shoot a lot of wedding, portrait, event and conferences, and some commercial jobs (products and interior/architecture), I don’t have the need to shoot beyond ISO6400 at most of the time. It would be rare for me to do so. Where as other features such as HDR processing, I almost never use those. And I don’t see myself using that just yet. I mean, for sure it’s handy, but I also can do without that function.
On the other hand, I somehow think it’s good that Canon doesn’t bump up the resolution beyond 30+ megapixel. It would be chaos if I were to cover event with such huge file size clogging my CF card. (I have made a habit to shoot in RAW for all occasion now)
So the bottom line is, I love the little things they have added onto this camera, but I feel that I can live without many of those. I really hope Canon can come up with another full frame, probably ‘entry leve’ full frame, maybe pricing around USD2000 -2500? (or MYR 6,000-MYR8,000). I do have strong reasons why they would, and they should. I am sure there are plenty like me who are on tighter budget, and would be thrilled to shoot with a full frame machine.
Canon, I do hope to hear some good news in your upcoming announcement in the coming quarter.
Canon has introduced EOS 50D replacement in the newly announced EOS60D, along with six new L-series lenses and accessories.
Click here for press-release by Canon USA for EOS 60D, and here for the L-series lenses and accessories.
Here are some of the images, taken from the press photos released by Canon USA.
Canon USA has announced the 50D replacement in EOS 60D, which comes with Full HD recording capability
Canon EF 8-15mm f/4L USM fisheye (L) & Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM (R)
Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM (L) & Canon EF 400mm f/2.8L IS II USM (R)
Canon EF Extender 1.4x III (L) & Canon EF Extender 2.0x III (R)
How do you like the new releases? What’s next? 5D Mark III?
We shall wait and see.
Allen Ang © 2009 www.allenang.com
I was asked to covered the backdrop shoot for the guests at the Blackberry event sometime last year. It was a different experience for me. As soon as I got the job, I realized what the challenges are for me. Nevertheless, I still take on the challenge positively.
My biggest constraint that night was lighting problem. They placed the event backdrop in an open space, with little available lighting. At the same time, I only have two flash guns available, one Canon Speedlite 580EX II, and a Nikon SB-900. I don’t have lightstand, I don’t have umbrella, so, it spells trouble for me. I had to make do with what I have available. I mounted my Canon 580EX II onto my tripod (My tripod was a faulty one, it can’t stand at full height), and then placed the tripod on top of a table. The Canon 580EX II was placed to the right of this photo on a higher level. It was naked, without any diffuser. I directed the flash diagonally towards the other side of the backdrop (to the left of the photo), and set the speedlite to M mode.
To light up the left side of the photo, I could only placed the Nikon SB-900 to a lower level (compared to the Canon flash), and enabled the SU-4 mode, also setting it to M mode. The output here is lesser than the one from Canon 580EX II. I put on the diffuser onto the SB-900.
I must say, I wasn’t really pleased with the outcome of the photo, but that’s the best I could do with what I have that time. Hence, it means that I gotta invest on lightstands and umbrella pretty soon.
Last but not the least, I must thank Andy Phe for taking the photo of me and the usherettes that night. Lovely ladies, and working crew.
Multi Exposure | Allen Ang © 2010 www.allenang.com
Captured multiple exposure in one single frame (NOT photoshop!). It’s a cool technique to play with, but it’s so hard to master. I’ve got a lot to find out about this technique. 