canon eos @ 20
and pre pma products pouring faster than ever
when canon in 1987 introduced the EOS system with new lens mounts and left the good old EF line in the rain it was more or less the pivotal event for me to exit press/ photography for good. the days of the beloved F1/ F1new were clearly over ... the switch did not seem attractive, the T90 was a joke - from the pro standpoint - and the days of mechanical or semi mechanical cameras from canon where over ....
anyway genetics and computing - mac yes, internet yes, no web back then - did provide more than enough interesting things to spent time on.
20 years later things look bright again. 1999 the D30 won me over, the EOS lenses evolved dramatically leaving nothing to wish for except for the money to buy them. Now a couple of days before PMA Canon announced lots of products from consumer to pro
must haves include the EOS 1D Mark III and the PowerShot TX1
http://web.canon.jp/Imaging/eos1dm3/html/top.html
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0702/07022208canoneos1dmarkiii.asp
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0702/07022203canontx1.asp
Regularly using a 1Ds, 1D, 1D Mark II the Mark III sounds too good to be true. Still 1.3 cropping which in praxis is really fine, I am not the wide angle guy anyway. a 28mm is a bit too long for some press work but then again the 16-35mm provides so much wide angle that one has to be careful not to overdo it. 10 MP are more than enough, 90% of the images press needs are downsampled to 13x19 anyway and image quality of the Mark II is that good, that I prefer it to the 1Ds for all but studio work ... and even then many times.
10 fps ... oh my! where are the time we counted frames to have 2 left for the once in the lifetime shot. 2 out of 36 frame in a film that is. the Mark III eats through that even in raw mode in 3 secs! Personally I never use the continues mode, I am conservative, from the mechanical camera times and don't do sports ...
Live Preview hmmmm.... I sort of use the LCD as a finder with the sony and canon s3 but for a 'real' camera. not sure yet, we will see.
Dust removeal build in, oh yes! Visible Dusk brushes work fine but still its a hassle. And NYC and London and so many other images are not online yet because of dust specs that need retouching ... well at least on advantage of film, after 36 frames the dust specs where gone, new film, clean slides ... mostly. But then the scratches in pre photoshop times ... don't ask.
expanded ISO! oh my! if the 5D is anything to judge by we are in event photographer heaven! ISO 6400 hmmm, I do remember pushing ilford hp5 up there - very funky results I can tell you. Same for the color process based XP1 ... no grain per se but also not a photo you want to buy. with the mark II ISO 800 is mostly good enough for press/ event work - at least if exposed within half ev too high or low. usable 1200 or a bit more would open up whole new dimensions of things we can shoot. we will see!
expensive but more or less a must have tool - no this is not a gadget at all!
so how about TX1? well, I saw it this morning and before reading the specs I know this is it. Maybe its the design, maybe its the Canon DNA that lets me know this is another essential tool. So the specs, 720p HD movie on SD, 7 Mp stills. very compact, good ISO range well, this could be the thing that makes me a 'movie-maker' after all those years. mini-dv was not for me - to lound, too big as an addition to still/ DSLR, too noisy images for events ... maybe I just don't know how to. the cybershot dcs-m2 did get a lot of things right. alas its a sony which means memory stick, no decent mac software, mpeg4 and still noisy images at low ISO.
so enter the TX1 ... affordable - relatively so - compact, standards based - well at least those I believe or invested in ... so the only thing missing is interchangeable lenses ala X1 et.al. but for the price ... I will test it when available and write about it ...
anyway genetics and computing - mac yes, internet yes, no web back then - did provide more than enough interesting things to spent time on.
20 years later things look bright again. 1999 the D30 won me over, the EOS lenses evolved dramatically leaving nothing to wish for except for the money to buy them. Now a couple of days before PMA Canon announced lots of products from consumer to pro
must haves include the EOS 1D Mark III and the PowerShot TX1
http://web.canon.jp/Imaging/eos1dm3/html/top.html
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0702/07022208canoneos1dmarkiii.asp
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0702/07022203canontx1.asp
Regularly using a 1Ds, 1D, 1D Mark II the Mark III sounds too good to be true. Still 1.3 cropping which in praxis is really fine, I am not the wide angle guy anyway. a 28mm is a bit too long for some press work but then again the 16-35mm provides so much wide angle that one has to be careful not to overdo it. 10 MP are more than enough, 90% of the images press needs are downsampled to 13x19 anyway and image quality of the Mark II is that good, that I prefer it to the 1Ds for all but studio work ... and even then many times.
10 fps ... oh my! where are the time we counted frames to have 2 left for the once in the lifetime shot. 2 out of 36 frame in a film that is. the Mark III eats through that even in raw mode in 3 secs! Personally I never use the continues mode, I am conservative, from the mechanical camera times and don't do sports ...
Live Preview hmmmm.... I sort of use the LCD as a finder with the sony and canon s3 but for a 'real' camera. not sure yet, we will see.
Dust removeal build in, oh yes! Visible Dusk brushes work fine but still its a hassle. And NYC and London and so many other images are not online yet because of dust specs that need retouching ... well at least on advantage of film, after 36 frames the dust specs where gone, new film, clean slides ... mostly. But then the scratches in pre photoshop times ... don't ask.
expanded ISO! oh my! if the 5D is anything to judge by we are in event photographer heaven! ISO 6400 hmmm, I do remember pushing ilford hp5 up there - very funky results I can tell you. Same for the color process based XP1 ... no grain per se but also not a photo you want to buy. with the mark II ISO 800 is mostly good enough for press/ event work - at least if exposed within half ev too high or low. usable 1200 or a bit more would open up whole new dimensions of things we can shoot. we will see!
expensive but more or less a must have tool - no this is not a gadget at all!
so how about TX1? well, I saw it this morning and before reading the specs I know this is it. Maybe its the design, maybe its the Canon DNA that lets me know this is another essential tool. So the specs, 720p HD movie on SD, 7 Mp stills. very compact, good ISO range well, this could be the thing that makes me a 'movie-maker' after all those years. mini-dv was not for me - to lound, too big as an addition to still/ DSLR, too noisy images for events ... maybe I just don't know how to. the cybershot dcs-m2 did get a lot of things right. alas its a sony which means memory stick, no decent mac software, mpeg4 and still noisy images at low ISO.
so enter the TX1 ... affordable - relatively so - compact, standards based - well at least those I believe or invested in ... so the only thing missing is interchangeable lenses ala X1 et.al. but for the price ... I will test it when available and write about it ...