24 October, 2006

Canon EOS 400D Reviews

Darren wrote this at 1:21 am:

I’ve added a new page to collect reviews of the Canon EOS 400D / Digital Rebel XTi digital SLR.

As always, feel free to email me any link recommendations.

* Filed under: Canon, Equipment
No Comments

6 July, 2006

Canon EOS 5D / EOS 1D II N Firmware 1.1.0

Darren wrote this at 2:28 am:

Canon has released firmware version 1.1.0 for their EOS 5D and EOS 1D Mark II N digital SLRs.

Canon EOS 5D Firmware 1.1.0

  • Enhancement of direct printing with specific printers.
  • Correction of the communication errors that occurred when shooting with EOS 5D and EOS Capture software after shooting about 138 shots.
  • Correction of the phenomenon in which the flash mode settings are changed from E-TTL to M (Manual) when EOS 5D is used in combination with Speedlite Transmitter ST-E2 and Speedlite 580EX.

Canon EOS 1D Mark II N Firmware 1.1.0

  • Enhancement of direct printing with specific printers.

* Filed under: Canon, Firmware Updates
No Comments

24 April, 2006

Speeding Up Canon Digital Photo Professional

Darren wrote this at 10:08 am:

digLloyd has discovered a great way to speed up batch processing in Canon Digital Photo Professional on computers (Mac or Windows) with more than one CPU: DPP Batch Processing Performance Tip.

Looking at the CPU utilization graph when batch converting RAW files with DPP, digLloyd could see that not all of his available processing power was being used. They then figured out that starting more than one batch process at a time would make better use of the CPUs, processing the same total number of RAW files in less time.

This is a great trick for getting more done in less time, but it’s disappointing that Canon’s software doesn’t automatically make better use of multiple CPUs and/or cores. A little bit of software engineering would go a long way!

* Filed under: Canon, RAW Files, Software
No Comments

22 April, 2006

Camera Firmware Updates

Darren wrote this at 10:08 am:

Several firmware updates for various cameras have been released recently:

* Filed under: Canon, Firmware Updates, Leica, Olympus
No Comments

19 April, 2006

Phase One Capture One 3.7.4

Darren wrote this at 1:40 am:

Phase One has recently updated its Capture One RAW workflow software to version 3.7.4: see Capture One for Mac OS X and/or Capture One for Windows.

Features of this update include:

  • support for additional cameras, including the Phase One P45, P30 and P21, Canon EOS 30D, Pentax *ist series DSLRs, and Sony DSC-R1
  • Universal Binary on Mac OS X, running natively on both Intel and PowerPC processors
  • 15% faster RAW processing on OS X
  • 10% faster RAW processing on Windows
  • up to 200% faster capture rate

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , ,

* Filed under: Canon, Pentax, Phase One, RAW Files, Software, Sony, Workflow
No Comments

26 February, 2006

PMA 2006 Announcements

Darren wrote this at 7:39 pm:

There have been a lot of interesting announcements coming out of this year’s Photo Marketing Association (PMA) trade show. Rather than clog up this blog with dozens of individual posts, I’ll do one of these catch-all posts every few days.

A good related article is Michael Reichmann’s state-of-the-industry summary A View of the Photographic Industry From 30,000 Feet.

Pentax

  • Pentaxhas confirmed that the company will unveil a yet to be named Pentax 10 megapixel digital SLR camera body, tentatively scheduled for a formal launch in Autumn 2006.
  • The smc Pentax-DA 21mm F3.2AL Limited is an interchangeable uni-focal wide-angle lens for exclusive use with Pentaxdigital SLR camera bodies. Offering wide-perspective coverage with a 68-degree angle of view (equivalent in focal length to 32mm in the 35mm format, when mounted on a Pentax *ist D series digital SLR camera body), the lens features a Pentax-original KAF lens mount. Pentax has tentatively scheduled the lens launch for June 2006.
  • Pentax also will preview the Pentax 645 medium format digital SLR camera for the first time in the United States. Offering professional-quality digital image reproduction with 18 effective megapixels, a Kodak-developed extra-large CCD image sensor with 18.6 total megapixels (tentative), a Pentax-original 645AF lens mount, the 645 Digital will maintain compatibility with existing smc Pentax 645 interchangeable lenses.
  • Press release at the Pentax site.
  • Photos at DP Review.

Panasonic/Leica

Samsung

Canon

Sigma

  • 30mm F1.4 EX DC HSM for Four Thirds Mount
  • 18-50mm F2.8 EX DC for Four Thirds Mount
  • MACRO 105mm F2.8 EX DG for Four Thirds Mount
  • APO MACRO 150mm F2.8 EX DG HSM for Four Thirds Mount
  • APO 50-500mm F4-6.3 EX DG HSM for Four Thirds Mount
  • details of above lenses at DP Review
  • 70-200 mm F2.8 EX DG Macro – details at DP Review
  • 17-70 mm F2.8 – F4.5 DC Macro – details at DP Review

Sandisk

Lexar

  • 8.0 GB Professional 90X Compact Flash card

More comprehensive coverage of and commentary on the PMA 2006 announcements can be found at The Luminous Landscape.

* Filed under: Canon, Equipment, Leica, Panasonic, Pentax, Samsung, Sigma
No Comments

22 February, 2006

New Canon 17-55mm and 85mm Lenses

Darren wrote this at 7:46 pm:

Canon has just announced two new lenses – an EF-S 17-55mm F2.8 IS and an EF 85mm f/1.2 L II Mark II.

You can read about them at DP Review – 17-55mm and 85mm.

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

* Filed under: Canon
No Comments

Canon EOS 30D Announced

Darren wrote this at 7:41 pm:

Following recent rumors, Canon has announced the release of the EOS 30D digital SLR.

The EOS 30D seems to be an incremental improvement to the EOS 20D, adding in many of the improvements introduced with the EOS 5D. It’s got the same 8.2 megapixel imaging chip, but with a larger 2.5″ rear LCD, larger buffer, spot metering, and more. It also apparently has a 3-second self-timer mode, with mirror lockup.

You can read more at The Luminous Landscape, DP Review and Rob Galbraith DPI.

Technorati Tags: , , , , , ,

* Filed under: Canon
No Comments

21 January, 2006

Carl Zeiss Making Nikon F Mount Lenses

Darren wrote this at 10:26 pm:

Carl Zeiss has announced they will be releasing a new line of ZF lenses in the Nikon F mount.

The first lenses to be made available will be the Planar T* 50mm f/1.4 and the Planar T* 85mm f/1.4, with more to follow throughout 2006. These are manual focus lenses.

They will also be making a ZS range of lenses, with the same optics as the ZF lineup, but using a 42mm screw mount. There are already M-42 adapters for a variety of lens mounts, so they will be able to be used on Canon EOS and FD cameras as well as many others.

More information is available at the Zeiss web site.

* Filed under: Canon, Equipment, Nikon
No Comments

18 January, 2006

Canon EOS 30D Rumors

Darren wrote this at 9:20 am:

It looks like the rumor mills are running hot again, this time speculating about Canon’s next DSLR. Camera-News.com has posted an alleged photo of the new EOS 30D, which is thought by some to be designed to compete head-to-head with the Nikon D200.

The same site has previously posted speculation about the Canon EOS 30D, as well as the cheaper consumer-level Canon EOS 3000D.

Other sources of speculation include:

* Filed under: Canon
No Comments

« Earlier entries     Next Page »