Canon

Canon 5D MKIII a bit of a disapointment

The  extra 1mp resolution is not going to be visible, (its a 22mp camera).
http://www.dpreview.com/news/2012/03/02/Canon-5D-Mark-III

Improvements to focusing etc are welcome and it will no doubt be a slightly better camera than the Mark II but it wont be significantly better. If you have lots of Canon lenses then its an option, if you can start from scratch then Nikon are where things are at these days.

Update: Canon are pricing the camera at £3,000 in the UK some £600 more expensive than the new Nikon D800 with its leading edge 36mp sensor. Even without the sales tax the camera is still far more expensive than in the US market.

Canon have also release a wifi transmitter for the camera at £790, yes, £790 for a box of electronics that cost at most $40 to produce, clearly Canon are not planning on selling too much kit in the UK from now on.

Backup Compact Camera (updated)

I know several clients who use Canon G10/11/12 cameras as a lightweight addition to their dSLRs. Very handy for capturing pictures adhoc when taking the usual kit out would be a pain or draw unwanted attention.

It has been possible to get the best of these images through Getty quality control but a lot of the time image quality can be an issue.

Canon have announced a possible solution. Its a little larger than the older G series (only a bit), but the sensor inside is 6x bigger. This will mean less noise on the 14MP sensor. Its on pre order at the moment and will cost approx £700 inc VAT.

DP have a review here

No sample images as yet but if your about to buy a G12 you may want to wait and see.

Update
Things are looking good, early pre production sample images are available here:
http://www.dpreview.com/galleries/reviewsamples/albums/canon-powershot-g1-x-preview-samples

Not quite Canon 1Ds MkIII / 5D MkII quality but pretty impressive for a small 14mp compact, particularly at high iso. Nice.

The HD video samples look very fragile with quite bad moire, lets hope this improves on the production model,  less important than the stills quality though…

Advice: 2.0.9 Firmware update for Canon 5D Mk II

Canon have just released this update which when applied to the camera will improve performance with UDMA 7 type cards. There are other bug fixes too so its worth doing.

You can download the new firmware from here:
(select the firmware button then click on either the OSX or Windows link that shows up)
Be sure to follow the advice given to the letter to install this, if in doubt add it to the list of items to do when I’m next onsite with you.
Stephen

Improved video on Canon 5D MKII

Canon have said that they will release an update for the 5D MKII next year so that it can be switched to 24 and 25 frames per second as well as the current 30 fps. This will make it easier to convert to different system standards and is good news, their statement can be seen here:

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0910/09102003eos5dfirmware.asp

However, dont wait for the new firmware, if you are in the field and think there may be a salable sequence in front of you then go ahead and capture it.

Stephen

New firmware update for Canon 5d MKII

I have just updated my camera to the latest version of the firmware available from Canon (as of yesterday).

Its version 1.1.0 and the main improvements are in the movie mode, basicaly you now have control over asa, aperture and shutter speed.

This was a much requested feature (the camera was auto everything before this – with no easy way to control any variable).

Previously the popular way to control aperture in movie mode was to use Nikon lenses on an adapter, this may have been noticed by Canon…..

If you do shoot short movie clips when on location (a good idea) then consider the upgrade, if not then read about the changes first then decide if you want to update, you can read and download from here:

http://web.canon.jp/imaging/eosd/firm-e/eos5dmk2/firmware.html

Image investment

One of the main problems in delivering high technical quality images to the market has been the cost of suitable digital cameras.

Affordability has been pretty poor in the last few years but with the resourgence of competition between Nikon and Canon nobody should be very far away from at least 12megapixel bodies which I consider to be the minimum requirement for high end stock.

Canon today released details of the 5D MKII which with 21mp and a price of £2300 means that anyone earning a reasonable amount from stock can up the quality of their shots and potentially get sales from bigger (and better) repro uses.

It goes without saying that technical quality isnt the end of the story, but I have retouched too many fantastic images that were too small for even full page use….

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0809/08091705canon_5dmarkII.asp