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The Canon 5D Mark II.

A camera that completely changed the digital SLR game.

When I first wrote about it around a year and half ago, I would’ve given up everything I owned for it. Today, I would still do the same. However, Canon decided that they would lend me the camera without me having to give up my possessions.

After my Round Table Meeting with Canon in December, I was lent the Canon 5D Mark II for 3 whole weeks, most of which would be spent at home in India. I got the camera literally 12 hours before my plane left and the moment I held it in my hands, I fell in love with it.

Every photograph looked stunning, every video looked brilliant, I could sing praises about it for hours at end. One thing is for certain, this is not going to be a technical review of the camera. If you want a technical review, head over to DPReview’s 40 page review. This is going to be a summary of a personal experience with the camera, a brief narrative of what I loved about the camera, what I didnt like and how it fit into my life.

The camera didnt handle particularly different from my 40D except for the fact that it was considerably heavier. The button layout felt very similar as did the menu. The viewfinder was absolutely fantastic, the joy of full frame is really something else. The high-res screen was a much needed upgrade and was gorgeous to look at, although it was a battery drainer. The High ISO capability was outstanding, and being able to take photos lit with nothing but a LED from a crappy phone and make it look like strobes was definitely fun. We shot plenty of videos at dusk, making full use of the sensor and the bokeh with a 50mm f/1.8.

One of my minor complaints with the camera was the autofocusing which didnt seem to have much improvement over my 40D. It proved quite annoying when trying to autofocus in the dark since ultimately it wasnt the ISO that prevented me from taking a photo but rather the focusing. Hopefully Canon are working to sort this out soon, and I’ve heard the 7D has a better autofocus system.

It wasnt only I who fell in love with the camera, it was pretty much everyone who laid their eyes on it. A couple of my friends in India were considering not letting me leave for England so that we wouldn’t have to return the camera. We made the most of it in the 3 weeks I had it and secretly hoped that Canon would let me keep it forever.

During my last day with the camera, I made a small project titled ‘A Day in my Life’ wherein I took photos of my daily activities right from the time I woke up till I went to bed over the course of 16 hours. It was great fun, especially while trying to find an artistic angle for things that would normally be deemed as boring and then attempting to use the tripod and setting the camera to the perfect position. You can see all the 30 photos here.

I got quite attached to the camera and was gutted when I had to return it. I’m back to my loyal 40D now but n eedless to say, the Canon 5D Mark II will definitely be my next investment.

Update – Canon Camera Buzz has been kind of enough to link to my project, check out their post here!

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The Line Up

My relationship with Canon can be likened to that of a lion and his cubs. Hatred one moment and pure love the next second.

Some may recall few of my earlier posts directed at Canon, asking them to get their game into order and appreciating their efforts. If you havent guessed already, this one falls into the latter category.

Earlier this month, I received an email from 1000Heads, a company who I’ve worked with before on BBC Blast, asking me if I’d like to attend a round table discussion with Canon. Being the massive Canon fanboy that I am, it would taken a pack of hunting wolves to make me say no. After confirming my attendance, I got more details about the event and it was finally D-Day yesterday.

After getting to the 1000Heads office in London, I was introduced to the other photographers who had been invited to this session and the Canon Rep, Mark Burnhill. There were 7 photographers in all and as I’ve got used to now, I was the youngest one there. We kicked off on time with the Canon Rep explaining why we were here and we’re going to do during the next couple of hours.

After some brief ‘rambling’ about Canon, he started off by introducing the Canon dSLR line up from the beginner 1000D, working his way up to the flagship 1Ds Mk-III. He had a few lines to say about each camera and patiently answered all of our questions. I’ll mention some of the highlights below.

The Canon 1000D was designed as a beginner/starter camera for students who cannot afford a fully fledged dSLR but would still a reasonable number of features. It does the job perfectly, and is very compact and even used by some professionals as a casual backup camera.

The Canon 450D was initially planned to be phased out with the introduction of the Canon 500D but due to high demand and popularity, they decided to keep it in their line up. It is still very popular and considered as a benchmark camera for the low end of dSLRs.

The Canon 500D received a bit of negative feedback on launch due to its high price but it has gained some support with its high-res screen and video mode.

The Canon 50D is supposed to have much better weather resistance than originally advertised due to different standards of weather testing between Japan and Europe. In my hand, it felt very similar to my own 40D, albeit with a better screen.

The Canon 7D is an absolute beaut of a camera to use. Mark told us that it was one of the few Canon dSLRs to be redesigned from ground up with constant feedback throughout the design process. As the slogan says ‘Designed by you, made by Canon’, and after having used it, I must say it is very true. The handling is very different from the 50D and it fits my hand perfectly. Button placement is great, the screen is gorgeous, the viewfinder is much bigger, full weather sealing and the autofocus system has been completely reworked much to my pleasure. I can sing praises about the 7D all day long but we have to move along. (PS – Christmas present for me, anyone?)

The Canon 5D Mk II, much to noone’s surprise is a magnificent gadget. I think I still like the 7D more than it simply due to the fact that it fits better into my hands but the 5D Mk II does win when compared technically with its full frame sensor vs. the 7D’s 1.6x crop sensor. Every shot I took with the 5D Mk II looked perfect straight out of camera, without any post processing. We were also informed that a new firmware would be out soon to enable 24/25 & 30fps recording at 1080p & a few other surprises. However, 720p would still be missing.

The next camera was the pièce de résistance, the Canon 1D Mk IV. Built like a tank, it weighed like one as well and was a beast to use. The 102,400 ISO is ridiculously high and I cant say it has great quality but it definitely makes 6400 ISO virtually noiseless. Probably a bit too big for my hands, it was still a splendid camera to try out and the shutter click was very satisfying. We were told that sales would start this weekend.

The Canon 1Ds Mk III had quite possibly the most spectacular viewfinder I have ever used. Full frame was really something else and it also weighed a ton! The screen seemed relatively bland after having used all the other high-res screens but I suppose it still does its job. Mark remained tight lipped about its successor but I think we can expect one for mid next year.

Other information we discussed included the famed “Eye Control Focus” which was ditched after using it in very few cameras, and not because of the technology but rather because it violated some patents in America. I thought that was a shame because I really do like that feature in my EOS 5 and would have loved to see it move on dSLRs and be perfected. We talked in detail about the reason for pricing difference in the US and UK/Europe which we were told was due to translation costs for manuals and EU licensing and certification but I still doubt they make the same profit in both markets.

Mark briefly talked about how full frame edge-to-edge autofocusing is something that would a significant leap in innovation simply due to the technological constraints of today. He also mentioned that due to cultural differences between Japan and Europe, it takes a lot of time and effort to convey the requirements of the European customer to them. About new lenses, he said that there were plans to rehaul the full range of lenses over the course of the next few years since a majority of current line up was never designed to work with resolutions beyond 21Megapixels. However, due to technical limitations, they can only redesign a maximum of 8 lenses a year, given that no new lenses were being made.

He said that Canon had no immediate plans to venture into the Medium Format industry and would continue to innovate and excel in dSLRs.

The 2 hours had flown by faster than we thought and it was soon time to wrap up. We were taken to dinner afterwards to a fancy French restaurant, Chez Gerard where we got to know each other better. The food was delicious (I had the Salmon) but the portions were a bit small for my liking. Nevertheless, it was nice to meet other similar minded people, and we exchanged contact details before we departed at around 11pm after a great evening.

My sincere thanks to Nicola & Aaron at 1000Heads for organizing the evening, Mark Burnhill for personally interacting with his customers, Canon for being the best camera manufacturers in my books, and everyone who came along and made the evening pleasant and eventful!

See the full set of photos from the evening over here!

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My heart feels right at home in India. I cant really point out at one specific feature of this glorious country which fills the void in my otherwise great life, its a combination of its beautiful sights, sounds and atmosphere,

The plane journey was long and uneventful, which has its positives and negatives. On one hand, atleast we didnt have an Air France but on the other hand, I had absolutely nothing to do during the 10 hour journey. Although the selection of movies for the on flight entertainment was decent, the tiny screen was of horrible quality. The food was barely edible, and I tried to sleep for most of the journey but kept randomly waking up. Overall, hardly a journey I’d like to repeat, and I dont think I’ll fly British Airways next time unless they give me a massive discount.

However, the journey was precisely that. Just a journey towards a destination, and I’m glad to be home. I do have the occasional pangs of Essex now and then but over the next few weeks, things should settle. However, one thing I think I will always miss from Essex, apart from the people of course, would be the fast broadband internet. It is painfully slow here and it will be awhile before I accept the fact that I cant stream music/videos anymore.

The next couple of weeks will involved catching up with friends and the likes, I hope to travel for a bit after that otherwise boredom may overwhelm me.

In other news, Olympus have announced a digital version of their famous ‘Pen’, the E-P1 which has resulted in me updating my Wishlist after a long time, you can take a look at the new camera here and my wishlist here.

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I’ve been spending more and more time in the darkroom making prints and also more and more time in computer labs trying to get some academic work done. While both places are equally fun to be in, the darkroom since there is no greater thrill than seeing a perfect print form in the developer and the computer labs since I’m always there with atleast a couple of friends fooling around and having fun instead of doing work. However, we do know when its time to study and I’ve churned out about 1500 words in one day for an essay, and they are actually not that bad!

I’ve been slowly processing my rolls of film from my holiday around Barcelona, Nancy, Metz and Paris. I’ve got all the colour negs and slides done by labs and I’m doing the B&W ones by hand. While it is really nice to process and print your own film, it is also quite time consuming and with my final exams exactly a month away, I really do need to strike a balance between photography and studying.

And the phrase ‘practice makes perfect’ does come into action quite effectively in the darkroom, the more time you spend in there, the better and better you get, which means you want to spend more time in there, so on and so forth. Its the vicious circle of photography. But I must say that I have come a remarkable way in the art of making prints which is tougher than it sounds. My initial prints were, bluntly put, pretty shit. You can see the improvement quite dramatically between my first few prints and the latest ones I made last night. And while I know I’m still a long way from perfection, it is still satisfying to know that I’m getting better at it, and getting better with film photography as well.

And speaking of which, I havent been able to share any of film photography works with my online buddies since I didnt have a scanner. But not to fear, I got the delivery of my new scanner today, a CanoScan 8800F capable of scanning slides, negs, medium format, pretty much anything you throw at it at a resolution of upto 6400 by 9600dpi. I havent had much time to play around with it yet but here are some initial scans from it to whet your appetite, more definitely coming soon!

And even though I have been embracing film photography so much, the world apparently still likes my digital photos, two of which were selected for an exhibition in London next weekend. The exhibition ‘Dont Shoot the Photographer!’ is being held by BedroomGenius.com on the 25th and 26th of April at Keylight Studios, 330a, Kennington Lane, Vauxhall, London, SE11 5HY. The theme is ‘Life in Motion’ and I believe entry is only £5 so if you are in the vicinity during those days, please do go and take a look at them. It is my first exhibition ever and I’m really pleased about it!

In the world of digital photography, the same competition between the big two, i.e Canon and Nikon has been continuing. Canon has recently released the Canon 500D, just about a year after its previous model, the 400D. While I see that there are some significant changes, including full HD recording, I dont think there is a need to release a new dSLR every half year (the Canon 1000D, a lower level model was relelased about 8 months ago). And its not just Canon doing this, Nikon has announced a new dSLR as well, the Nikon D5000, which apart from having a new naming system, sits below the D90 but still most of its features like 720p video recording. The new and innovative part of it is the tilt-swivel screen which is a first for dSLRs. While this move will definitely ensure that tilt-swivel screens will eventually become a standard for mid-range dSLRs, I still feel that all this heated competition is affecting the average consumer in the end who simply ends up wanting the latest camera just because its new and doesnt really see that he or she doesnt need it.

I also realise innovation is important but maybe it would be more advantageous to accumulate a decent number of new features and release them in one camera every, say two or three years, instead of having small updates every six months. I know of several people, who dont really take great photos, but keep looking for the latest camera all the time, finding out exchange deals for their old one, and in the end, spend all their time on this and forget the main purpose of having bought the camera – to take photos. Taking a couple of thousand on each camera before getting a new one hardly justifies its use. This is obviously what the companies want, to make as much money as possible, but at the cost of having only 25% of your consumers actually learn photography?

Anyways, while everyone continues to bicker, I can go back to my film world, where my 30 year old £50 German camera can outperform all of the dSLRs of today……

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We got the results of the General Elections last week, I won my post as Social Sciences Convenor getting more votes than both my opponents put together. And its finally the end of any major elections for this academic year, some people won, some people lost but we all move on in life having learnt some valuable lessons.

I got the Magazine Limited Edition of U2’s newest album ‘No Line on the Horizon’ last week. I quite like the album, it is an interesting mix of all the different genres of music that U2 have experimented with over the years. This means that all the fans will have find atleast a few songs they love and die hard fans will most probably love the whole album. I liked a majority of the album, some songs have the same charm of ‘The Joshua Tree’, some have the same excitement like ‘Achtung Baby’ and some have the rhythm of ‘How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb’, an album which I quite liked even though the it didnt seem to go down well with the critics. I’ve been slowly listening to more and more of it everyday, it isnt my favourite U2 album yet, The Joshua Tree still retains that honour but it may well become my 2nd favourite.

And after all the thought, contemplation and denial, I finally ended up getting a smartphone for myself, a G1 Android, also known as the Google Phone. I got it over the weekend and have pretty much gotten quite used to it now. I love having a physical keyboard, a virtual one is simply not the same and trying to get a virtual keyboard which can fully replace a physical one is going to take a decent bit of R&D. But for now, I can enjoy having the freedom of a physical keyboard to type out my texts, emails, and so on. The Android OS is pretty fast, I’m yet to see a significant delay in any operation, and this is after installing about 10 apps from the Application Marketplace. Thats another thing I like, the ridiculous number of applications available to do literally anything with the phone. The GPS is scarily accurate to within 1 metre radius. Call quality is crisp and clear and the display looks great outdoors as well. So far, the only complaint I have is the poor battery life. With 3G enabled, its just about 24 hours but without 3G, it works for about 50 or so hours.

Yesterday was Derby Day, the yearly sports between University of Essex and University of East Anglia, it was good fun even though we lost. Photo story coming soon!

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Got home yesterday morning after a much celebrated journey. I spent most of Monday in London, and most of that time was spent at the Natural History Museum where I saw the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2008 Exhibition. It was spectacular, each image had its own unique story to tell and all of them inspired me to go and take more photos. After that, I saw the Charles Darwin Big Idea exhibition which was also superb. It portrayed Charles Darwin’s life and his ideas in an interesting manner. Each part of the exhibition had the original documents and letters along with some highly detailed sculptures to further enhance the experience. I believe both will be displayed for some more time so if you ever are in London in the next couple of weeks, you should definitely take some time to see both of them.

After the exhibitions, I went for the usual trip to Harrods to take a look at the latest fashions among the rich people. The highlight of the trip this time was that I got to handle some of the best lenses that I’ve ever seen. The gentleman at the camera area was quite happy to show me the Canon 85mm f/1.2L USM, Canon 50mm f/1.2L USM, Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS and several more. I would’ve given everything in my bank account for those lenses but unfortunately, my money was not even enough to cover the insurance for them. But they’ve definitely gone up a notch in my wishlist now that I know what they feel like.

And if I had a billion dollars, the lenses would be among the first things I’d get along with the 50 other things on this list.

Its good be back home, although I’m still in the UK timezone having woken up at 2 in the afternoon today. The weather in India is something I really missed, walking around in the breeze with just a t-shirt on seems more of a privilege now.

And my music taste has been undergoing lots of changes lately I’ve been listening to Spring by Vivaldi, Love is Noise by The Verve, Call me Call Me by Yoko Kanno, Hot’n'Cold by Katy Perry and Mr.Rock’n'Roll by Amy MacDonald.

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I bought a couple of cameras over the past week, both of them are older than me and use film but are absolutely gorgeous.

The first one is a Canon AE-1 Program, a 35mm Canon FD Mount SLR. You can read an elaborate review of it here. It came with the standard 50mm f/1.8 lens which is pretty decent. It was love at first sight with the camera, and even though I’ve only shot about one and a half rolls of film with it, I’ve already got quite attached to it. The meter on the camera is still quite accurate but I’m slowly training my eye to judge exposures without referring to the meter. Apart from the meter, the camera is completely mechanical and doesnt require power. I also got a nice big and bright red Canon neck strap with it which makes it properly retro. A Canon 133A flash was also thrown in for free and it works pretty well for my needs. I bought a cable release from Jessops so that I could experiment with star trails and long exposures.

The first roll of film I shot with was one of those free rolls of film  which I was using it to test the camera but the prints came out surprisingly well. I was very pleased with the outcome and thought I may never shoot digital again. The thrill of getting the freshly developed prints from the lab and going over them with your friends is something that digital cant really offer. There is that element of surprise when you see them for the first time and when you know that its come out so well, you feel quite happy and satisfied with yourself. I’m shooting some Black and White Film now (Ilford HP5) and I plan to process it myself and I’m going to imagine that it will be even more exciting than getting it developed in a lab.

Digital does have its conveniences in several applications though, it does greatly aid in shooting sports where you can quickly check your photo and also shoot hundreds od frames without worrying about changing the film. Film is definitely more useful for casual photography when there is no pressure to get great photos everytime.

The second camera is a Mamiya C330 Twin Lens Reflex which I only received yesterday. I had been anticipating the arrival of this camera for quite awhile and my fingers were literally shaking with excitement as I opened the package. My first impression of the camera was that it was huge, it was much bigger than I expected it to be. As I lifted it carefully out of the bubble wrap packaging, I also realized that it was pretty heavy. Its built like a tank, very solid and has more knobs and dials that one can imagine. I didnt even know what to do with it until I pored over the manual for a good half an hour which introduced all the different parts of the camera. After playing around with it for a bit, I was in awe with the way it worked, everything so complex yet so smooth and perfect. It was a monster of a camera and for a second, we were wondering whether it would just get up and transform itself into something else.

Jokes apart, it is a masterpiece of a camera and another example of the great workmanship by the Japanese. They definitely dont make cameras like these today and I consider myself quite lucky to have handled it. I will most probably be buying some medium format rolls of film today to try with the Mamiya.

And as with tradition, we also had to name the cameras and after much thought and consideration, we christened the Canon AE-1 Program ‘Wally’ and the Mamiya ‘Chuck Norris’. You can see more photos of these cameras here and I shall try and upload some photos taken with them as soon as possible!

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Some of you may remember my previous post requesting Canon to come with something revolutionary in thei next dSLR. And they’ve done exactly that, killing the competition with the newly announced Canon 5D Mark II. With a resolution of 21.1 Megapixels, maximum ISO of 25,600 and full HD movie recording, Canon has just proved to everyone why they are the leader of the camera market with the 5D Mark II.

And the features mentioned above are just the start of the story. It sports the newly introduced Digic IV processor which can process the full 1080p HD video at 30fps and also allows one to shoot still images while the video is being taken without any interruption. It also has audio at a decent quality of 16-bit PCM at 44KHz along with a provision for an external stereo mic. The burst speed is probably a bit slow at 3.9 fps but it still can shoot 310 frames non stop.

It has the much touted 3.0″ Clear View LCD screen with a viewing angle of 170° which can automatically adjust brightness to suit viewing conditions and Live View with 3 different modes of autofocus, similar to the 50D.

In the area of ISO, Nikon was winning with its first full frame camera which had an ISO of 25,600, until today. Canon has trumped the D3 which only had 12 Megapixels with the 5D Mark II, which along with having 21.1 Megapixels of resolution, also has an ISO range of 50 – 25,600 which is the largest range of any dSLR to date.

The 5D Mark - II in all its glory.

It has a 9 point autofocus sensor which doesnt sound too fabulous when compared to the D3’s 51-point autofocus but it is also assisted by 6 additional invisible autofocus points present inside the spot-metering circle which, now, only covers 3.5% of the frame.

No surprises about the introduction of sensor cleaning, it has the standard EOS Integrated Sensor Cleaning System, but with an addition of a new Fluorine coating on the low-pass filter.

Additional improvements include a minor increase in viewfinder coverage from 96% to 98%, three levels of noise reduction which will kick in when shooting at ISOs higher than 800 and larger battery capacity.

Along with the camera, Canon has also announced a 24mm f/1.4 L II lens for wide angle shots in low light, featuring several new technologies.

The only reason one would buy a Canon 1Ds Mark – III is for the slightly faster burst rate, build quality, more autofocus points and its higher shutter durability.

Now that Sony has entered the 20 Megapixel camera race with the A900, we can only wait and see what Nikon has to offer.

The Canon 5D Mark – II will ship in November with a price tag of US: $2,699, EU: €2,499, UK: £2,299 for the body only. I cannot wait to see some sample videos and photos from this masterpiece.

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I’m going to kick off this post with some very sad news, one of the best violin players in India, Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan, passed away yesterday night due to a cardiac arrest. He was 75 years old and had been awarded a Padma Shri title. His classic style of music will be sorely missed. You can watch his work here.

I also have some good news, my last photo of the 365 Day Project, ‘Day 366‘ had appeared on the frontpage of Flickr Explore. It feels really nice to have the final photo of the project become popular, it give me the satisfaction that I’ve achieved a lot with the project. I’ve taken a screenshot of this memorable event which you can see below. My thanks to everyone who viewed, commented and favorited the photo.

Day 366 on Flickr Explore

And as I mentioned earlier, Sony has announced their newest dSLR, the A900 with a full frame sensor and a whopping resolution of 24 Megapixels and thus winning the megapixel race among dSLRs. It also features a 2.5-4 stop internal image stabilization feature, a 100% viewfinder and dual BIONZ processors. It has a bust rate of 5fps which might seem a bit low but then again, you’ll probably used such a highres camera only in studio situations which wont require high burst rates. The ISO range is decent, ranging from 100-6400. And the fact that it only costs $3,000 makes it a clear winner.

Sony has also announced two new lenses to accompany the A900. The first is a 16-35mm f/2.8 Carl Zeiss priced at $1,800 and the second is a 70-400mm f/4-5.6 costing $1,500. Both of them will ship in Jan 2009 and seem very impressive indeed.

This is obviously a problem for Canon who seems to be slightly going down in the market due to lack of innovation. It has everyone eagerly awaiting for the new 5D for which they have released a teaser saying “Destined Evolution’ which has only increased expectations. But the real problem here is not the A900 but since Sony manufactures the sensors for Nikon, there is a good chance that a D3x will be announced sporting a 24MP sensor and 25600 ISO which would make any loyal Canonian cry. But only time will tell so lets wait and see.

Apple has also announced the new generation of iPod Nanos. They dont have any spectacular improvements function wise but look better with a curved slim body and lot of fancy colors. Take a look at it here.

If you are Bulgarian, you should probably hang your head in shame since Slovakia beat Bulgaria in women’s ice hockey with a final score of 82-0. Read all about it here.

And thats all for now folks, but keep your eyes peeled for some wallpapers soon!

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Monday, 20th August 2007

Canon announced two brand new dSLRs, the Canon 40D with a 6.5fps burst and 3″ Live View LCD and the Canon 1Ds Mark III with a whopping 21 Megapixel Full Frame Sensor. The 40D is acknowledged by the photography world as the true successor to the 20D since the 30D wasnt very revolutionary. With a 10 Megapixel sensor, it was only a small leap from the 8 Megapixel sensor of the 30D but it included several additional features such as DIGIC III processor and 6.5fps burst capable of shooting 75jpgs, which earned it some nods of approval from the photography world.

The Canon 1Ds Mark - III

The 1Ds Mark III naturally stunned everyone with its large megapixel count, something only earlier achievable by medium format digital cameras and to this day, remains the dSLR with the highest megapixel count. It had a burst rate of 5fps, admittedly slower than the 40D but at capable of recording 56 21Megapixels RAW, one cant really complain. It also boasted of Dual DIGIC III processors to process the 185MB of data every second produced at full burst. It had a decent ISO range from ISO 50 to ISO 3200 and a 19 point autofocus sensor. A $8,000, it was expensive but there were probably a lot of people willing to spent that much of money for the megapixels.

Thursday, 23rd August 2007

Nikon retaliated with its two latest offerings, the Nikon D300 with a 51-point autofocus sensor and an impressive 922,000 pixel 3″ LCD with Live View and autofocus, and the Nikon D3 with a mindblowing ISO of 25,600 and a Full Frame 12 Megapixel sensor capable of 11fps burst. The D300 is probably not directly comparable with the 40D since it falls in a higher price bracket (the D300 cost $1,800 opposed to the $1,300 of the 40D) but the mind tends to compare things and since both of them were announced within 3 days of each other, people started saying how the D300 was so much more awesome than the 40D which was true.

The Nikon D3

As for the D3, it was a reason to rejoice for Nikonians all over the world since it was their first full frame dSLR and came with features that would make some Canonians burn with jealousy. Even though it only had a 12 Megapixel Sensor, the fact that it could shoot at 25,600 ISO, the highest in the world even today, was a huge selling point. It had a screen similar to the D300 and a Virtual Horizon feature and even HDMI output. At $5,000, it was also noticeably cheaper than the Canon equivalent.The 1Ds Mark III did have its advantage when it came to megapixels but the D3’s ISO and autofocus tempted several sports photographs to switch sides as was visible in the Beijing Olympics with a marked decrease in white lenses.

Tuesday, 1st July 2008

Nikon officially announced the much rumoured about Nikon D700, a camera with the guts of the D3 and the body of the D300. It was in direct competition with the Canon 5D which was a highly successful full frame camera. The D700 would also prove to be popular among the people since one could have the essential features of the D3 minus the fast burst rate and could carry around a much more portable camera. Costing $3,000, it was well worth it.

The Nikon D700

Tuesday, 20th August 2008

Canon announces the much anticipated successor to the 40D, the Canon 50D. With a remarkable 15Megapixels of resolution and 12,800 ISO, it sounds like a clear winner. In addition to that, it will be the first camera to sport the new DIGIC 4 processor. Learned from Nikon, it now boasts of a sparkling 3″ VGA LCD with Live View and 3 modes of autofocus and also HDMI output. The LCD is supposed to be superior to that of the Nikon D3 which is good news. Priced reasonably at $1,400, it almost looks like Canon is making a comeback against Nikon.

Wednesday, 21st August 2008

Nikon announces the successor to the hugely popular D80, the Nikon D90. With a 12Megapixel sensor and a maximum ISO of 6400, it doesnt sound like a worthy opposition to the Canon 50D. It also has the same screen as the D3 with Live View and a 4.5fps burst. But the magic feature of the D90 is its ability to record movies. Yes, Nikon has just released the world’s first dSLR with video recording capabilities. This is sure to create a lot of buzz among everyone and since its priced at $1,300, it’s going to be very tempting for some potential 50D buyers.

Canon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

Along the the 50D, Canon has also announced its newest superzoom lens, the Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.5 IS for use the with crop sensor cameras. It was about time that Canon annouced a superzoom lens since Nikon had already done so a long time ago. However, the leader in the world superzooms is Tamron with its newest offering having an impressive range of 15x with a focal length of 18-270mm with VC which is Tamron’s version of IS. Once again, consumers will have a choice of Canon’s higher priced lower focal length offering or Tamron’s lower priced higher focal length solution. The difference in quality can only be determined once they have been released and one has to see whether there will be remarkable differences which would make the Canon worth the money.

In the world of flashes, Nikon seems to be leading as well with the new Nikon SB-900 which is Nikon’s top of the line flash and definitely trumps Canon’s top of the line 580EX-II. The SB-900 comes with some world’s first features such as a flash zoom range of 17-200mm and three different illumination patterns. Sony is making a revolution in its own world with the first flash in the world with a vertical swivel. The HVL-F58AM from Sony has a very innovative “Quick Shift Bounce” system also makes it a must have for many photographers.

Sony will also be entering the Full Frame with the announcement of its much anticipated new Pro level dSLR which is touted to have a 24Megapixel sensor and will effectively become the dSLR with the highest megapixel count. And since Sony supplies the sensors for Nikon, it shouldnt be too much of a surprise if Nikon announces a D3X with a 24Megapixel sensor as well. This would be a huge blow to Canon which needs to get its show together at Photokina this year. Photokina starts on the 23rd of September at Germany and almost every photographer is eagerly awaiting the announcement of the Canon 5D’s successor. Several rumours have been all around the internet but we wont know for sure until Canon announces it officially. I sincerely do hope that Canon have something mindblowing and revolutionary in store for everyone because if they dont, Nikon is going to slowly start taking the lead…

Disclaimer – I own a Canon 40D which I bought around a year ago.

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