Did Midland score a win with the XTC300VP4? There is only one way to find out….put it to the test!

Features

There are not a whole ton of features, settings, dials, inputs, outputs or really much of anything to the XTC300VP4. The camera is what it is, and what it is, is a video camera. There are only three settings shooting modes:

• 1920×1080 High Definition @ 30 FPS (16:9 Aspect Ratio)
• 1280×720 High Definition @ 60FPS (16:9 Aspect Ratio)
• 848 x 480 Standard Definition @ 60FPS (16:9 Aspect Ratio)

There are only two controls on the entire camera, the on/off slide switch and the video resolution switch. There are no menus to dig through, cryptic codes to remember, just set the video resolution you want and turn it on to start filming.

Features

Before we get into the one feature I really bought the DS214 for (yes, I bought it, full price from B&H, this is how much I wanted it) let’s go through some of the other features that make this unit such a cool device:

• 2 mic channels via the stereo minijack input
• Audio Input Meters
• AGC Disable (to get better SNR from cameras without manual control)
• 30dB typ max gain
• Headphone Amplifier
• Low-noise preamp
• Enclosure fabricated from Aluminum, Approx 3.5″ x 3″ x 1.7″

If you are not an audio expert, you might not know what most of that means, fear not reader, I will do my best to explain it as I understand it.

Our current video DSLR cameras have a single stereo microphone input but usually our microphones only feed in the audio in a single channel (left or right, sometimes combined). Sometimes, we want to use two mics for real stereo input but the difficulty is getting the audio levels to be level between the two channels. With the DS214 (and a specific cable) you can feed two channels into the amp and adjust the input levels with dials on the front of the unit and use the audio level meters to help adjust the levels. Thanks to a headset jack, you can also monitor the audio stream to make sure it is sounding good as well. By integrating a low-noise pre-amp, you can boost the input levels to ensure a goof quality recording.

That is about as technical as I can get without risking the possibility of being completely wrong, so if someone wants to chime in in the comments to help clarify this, please do.

The final feature is the AGC disable (much more on this latter) which rather effectively disables the aforementioned AGC in the camera to allow the camera to record good clean audio.

AGC Disable

There are plenty of amps available with a plethora of features but the DS214 has a feature specific to what I wanted, and this is AGC disable. When you turn on the AGC Disable feature the DS214 mixes both of the left and right channels into a single track that is fed into the left channel while a tone generator feeds a signal into the right channel. The generated tone tricks the AGC system in the camera into thinking there is a lot of noise coming in which causes the AGC to essentially shut off.

While your camera ends up with a really clean audio track on one channel, you also get an unusable right channel that you need to delete in post production. If you are using Sony Vegas or Final Cut, JuicedLink has some instructions for removing the right channel. If you are using Adobe Premiere Pro 5.5, I have come up with the following instructions:

Right click on video clip in the timeline and select ‘Edit Clip in Adobe Audition’
In Audition, right click on sound file in file bin and select ‘Extract Channels to Mono Files’
This will create a file for each channel
Delete the original file and the <filename>_R file
Double-click on the <filename>_L file
Do any processing you want
Save file
Imported new sound file back into Premiere
Right click on video clip in timeline and select Unlink
Delete the audio track
Add new audio track into timeline and align with video track (should snap into position)

How Well Does It Work

To be sure that I was going to get the best results I actually read the DS214 Manual which includes a section on tuning the AGC Disable for the 7D. Once all setup, it was time to try out the new system. I connected an Audio-Technica ATR-3350 Lavalier Microphone ($21) and pinned it up near my collar like normal. The resulting audio was so good you could hear every breath I took. I actually ended up having to move the mic from my collar to about mid-chest and turn down the input gain a little. The result was crystal clear audio at a great volume.

Is It Worth It?

If you are planning on doing a good amount of video work and you really want to save time in post production by not having to sync audio that you recorded to a secondary audio device, the $144 may end up paying for itself in very short order. If I only did occasional video, I probably wouldn’t spend the money, but since I do a large amount of video for different client projects and have a huge amount of video work planned for next year, even saving a few minutes per project will pay for itself many times over.

Built-In Obsolescence?

For me, the DS214 was purchased to overcome a shortcoming in the Canon 7D audio system. That being said, the Canon 5D Mk II had the exact same limitation which was eventually overcome with both a firmware update as well as the Magic Lantern firmware mod. The current firmware on the 7D is not allowing the Magic Lantern team to create a package for the 7D. This could literally change overnight if Canon releases a firmware with the ability to disable AGC or allow a Magic Lantern modification. The question is, does the DS214 becoming nothing but an expensive paperweight when this day finally comes. The answer is….no.

Even when the AGC disable feature is no longer needed, I will still have a great pre-amp with separate audio input controls, visual audio indicator meters, and a headphone jack for live monitoring. With these extra features, the JuicedLink DS214 will continue to serve multiple purposes for my video recording purposes.

What Could Be Improved?

The only real issue I have is dealing with how to mount the DS214 to the camera. For me, almost all of my video work is done in a studio with the camera on a tripod. With a simple adapter, I can put the DS214 on the camera’s hot shoe making it very conveniently placed to plug into the camera’s mic port. What would be ideal (in my opinion) would be a way to mount it under the camera and then attach a tripod quick mount to the bottom of the DS214. This would be more convenient when using the camera off the tripod. If you are using some kind of cage for your camera than you probably have more flexibility in your mounting options.

If you are using the 7D and want to use in-camera audio then you really have no choice right now. Until the 7D has a means of disabling the AGC system, there simply isn’t a way to get really good quality audio into the camera.

Juicedlink: http://juicedlink.com/
B&H: juicedLink DS214 $144
Amazon: JuicedLink DS214 $144

The KCWtechnica Rigging System only uses major industry standard connection points.  5/16″, 3/8″, 1/4″, 5° incremental, 15mm & 19mm.  KCWtechnica’s exclusive innovative clamps/converters allows using 15mm rods to 19mm to imperial standard rods.

Kit Contents

• 2 – 15mm 12″ Extendable Aluminum Lens Support Rods
• 4 – 15mm 6″ Extendable Aluminum Lens Support Rods
• 2 – 7″ Aluminum Hex, knurling Rods
• 2 – 4″ Aluminum Hex, Knurling Rods
• 2 – Aluminum Handles/Weights
• 8 – 15° Locking Rod Clamps
• 2 – Rod to Camera Plate Holders
• 1 – Formed Padded Shoulder Plate
• 1 – Lens Support
• 1 – Camera Mount Plate
• 1 – 3/8″ Mount Screw
• 1 – 5/16″ Mount Screw
• 2 – 3/8″ Flat Head Screws
• 2 – 3/8″ Ball Head Screws
• 2 – T-Handle Wrenches
• 1 – Padded Mil-Spec Ballistic Nylon Organizer Case
• **Added are: 2 additional 6″ 15mm Rods + 1 Formed Padded Shoulder Plate + Nylon & Padding to Mil-Spec

The Stage 1 rigging kit is going on sale soon for $995 but until then they are taking pre-orders at only $845.75. While this may still sound like a lot of money, since it is a modular system, allowing you to build numerous configurations, the kit becomes very affordable instead of buying complete components for all of the different rigging designs.

Head over and check it out at http://kcwtechnica.com/shop/mrk-modular-rigging-kit-basic-stage-i

Features

GoPro Size Comparison

The GoPro HD Hero sports a 5 megapixel sensor mated to a super wide-angle lens with a fixed aperture of f/2.8. The lens also has a fixed focus so this isn’t really going to be a good replacement for a good point & shoot. The GoPro is designed to be used in situations that you wouldn’t put a regular camera. The camera body itself has no mounting points because it is generally used inside of the waterproof case that it comes with. There is also no viewfinder or LCD screen built-in as the camera is usually used unattended such as strapped to a motorcycle helmet or attached to the side of a car.

There are four still shooting settings that include:

• Single shot
• Three shot burst
• Countdown timer
• Timelapse mode

Camera Optics

• Lens Type: Fixed Focus (2ft/.6m – ∞), glass
• Aperture: f/2.8 (high performance in low-light situations)
• Angle of View: 170º ultra wide angle in WVGA, 720p, or 960p mode
• Angle of View: 127º wide angle in 1080p mode

GoPro Left Side View

GoPro Right Side View

GoPro Rear View

The first three options are pretty basic but the Timelapse feature requires a bit of explanation. In the settings you first set the time interval between each shot. When you press the shutter to take a picture, the camera will keep firing shots off, pausing between each shot based on your setting, until you stop the process, the SD card becomes full, or the battery dies.

As I mentioned earlier, the GoPro HD Hero comes with a waterproof case that is rated for up to 60 meters. With this much protection, there aren’t many places that you can’t find a use for the GoPro.

The Bad News

Keep in mind that the GoPro is a specialty camera so while it excels in some areas, there are some gotchas to be aware of. I already mentioned the lack of a viewfinder although an optional one is available for $79. I highly recommend the viewfinder for navigating through the GoPro’s menus and for setting up shots. There is also no flash as the primary use is for shooting video. Out of the box there also isn’t any way to mount the camera to a tripod, for this you need an $8 tripod mount adapter.

There are only two buttons on the camera and a small LCD, combined they are used to change the plethora of setting options. Once you get the hang of it, changing the settings isn’t too difficult, but adding the LCDBak really makes using the GoPro much easier.

If you decide to buy a GoPro HD Hero you should start with a package containing a selection of mounting hardware such as the GoPro Motocycle Hero. The GoPro Motorcycle Hero will start you off with suction mount, helmet mount, and a handful of other parts. Add a bicycle mount and the tripod adapter and you will have a good starter kit.

Why use the GoPro for stills?

No viewfinder, no flash, tricky settings menus, so why would you want to use a GoPro for shooting stills? The main reason is that it is small and unobtrusive. You can easily put the camera in obscure locations and just let it shoot away. Think about putting the GoPro in the arch above a wedding ceremony for some unique angles. Your imagination is your only limitation as to what you can do.

But how good are the images?

The single most noticeable thing you will notice about the images is that the lens is a super wide-angle. I don’t mean just wide-angle, this is seriously a wide-angle, so wide that you get a bit of barrel distortion. Sometimes you want a mega wide-angle shot, other times you may not and you may need to do some lens correction on the images.

In the specs I mentioned that the camera has a fixed focus f/2.8 lens. An interesting note here is that Adobe Lightroom reports it as f/3.4. This is a pretty trivial difference, but something I would point out. Also, if you are looking at the EXIF data you will see that the shutter speed and ISO change from shot to shot. It appears that the GoPro tries to maintain a good exposure by adjusting the shutter speed as needed and then adjusting the ISO to keep the shutter speed from falling too low. Hopefully I can get some clarification on this from GoPro. A few other interesting tidbits are that Lightroom reports the focal length as 5mm (I did mention it was a WIDE angle).

Is a GoPro HD Hero right for you?

The GoPro HD Hero at $269 (Amazon) is more expensive than a good point & shoot camera and may even seem lighter on features. The important advantages have to do with the protective cover that waterproofs and protects the camera body from damage. The versatility of the mounting system allows you to use the camera in all kinds of unique situations from scuba diving to sky diving and pretty much anything in between.

These days I don’t leave my house without a GoPro HD Hero. From a quick snapshot when needed to recording the Camera Dojo GoCast series, the GoPro HD Hero is just fun. Sure, a focusable lens, adjustable focal length, and more control over exposure settings would be nice, having these limitations forces you to think about what you are shooting and how work with what you have.

In this post we have only talked about using the GoPro as a still camera, next week we will look at using the GoPro as a video camera.

Be sure and check out more information about GoPro and enter their daily contest for a chance to win everything they make.

Isn’t “Suck” a little harsh?

Actually, to say that the audio recording sucks is an understatement. My two-year old $600 Vixia palm sized camcorder does better audio than my 7D. So no, the poor audio recording is a major failure on the camera manufacturers part and can actually be fixed via firmware if they chose to. One thing that may surprise many people is that they get better sound from the on-board microphone than they get with a high-end studio microphone. No way, the cheap, tiny, built-in mic works better…how is that possible? The answer is the one thing that makes the on-board mic work “so so” and higher end microphones almost unusable is Automatic Gain Control (AGC). What AGC does is to monitor the audio stream and then boosts the audio signal to make sure it is picking up the audio. The reason this sort-of works on the built-in microphone is because of the ambient noise in most situations. With any ambient noise, the AGC will “hear” some noise and the AGC won’t kick in. With a really good microphone, you can get such a clean audio signal that there is no ambient sound which will send the AGC into overdrive, thus filling the audio stream with tons of noise as it tries to boost the signal.

All the camera manufacturers have to do is to allow the ability to disable AGC in the firmware or preferably have a setting option such as High, Medium, Low, Off. This would allow for selectable gain control depending on the situation and the microphone used. That’s it, a simple firmware change and there would be no need for this post. However…none of the DSLR manufacturers have seen fit to include this obvious setting.

Creating Non-Sucky Audio

There are several ways to get really clean audio and we will look at some of these options so you can decide if one of them is more suited for how you want to work.

Secondary Recording Device

From the dawn of time (or at least since video recording started) high-end video production has consisted of using separate devices for video and audio recording. Have you ever seen a clap board and wondered what it was for? A clap board is used by the editor to sync the audio and video since they are recorded on different devices. For cinema production, this is a tried and true process so moving to DSLRs does not affect their workflow at all. For budget filmmakers who have used camcorders, moving to separate audio and video tracks can be frustrating and difficult to sync up properly. Add to this that even a slight variance between the two devices and a long film clip can actually drift out of sync. One  of the most common secondary audio devices is the Zoom H4N. I actually have the older Zoom H4 which isn’t available anymore.
Pros: Excellent Audio
Cons:  More work in post, additional expense

AGC Disabling Mixer

For post production speed it is definitely better to have the audio and video already mixed together. This prevents and audio drifting and issues with syncing (until you start using multiple cameras anyway). One solution I have found is the JuicedLink DS214 Amp which features AGC disabling. The way the AGC disabling works is that the DS214 feeds a generated tone through one of the stereo channels while sending the microphone audio through the other channel. This tone sound essentially shuts down the AGC because it becomes overwhelmed with noise thus lowering the gain to the minimum and letting the camera record very clean audio. With the DS214 costing $144, this isn’t a cheap solution but it does do the trick and as soon as the firmware allows for true disabling of the AGC control, then you can disable this feature.
Pros: Allows variety of microphone gear to work well, less work in post
Cons: Only allows for single channel audio recording, additional expense

Magic Lantern Firmware Hack

While we wait for Canon and Nikon to come to their senses, the folks over at Magic Lantern have created a firmware add-on for some Canon cameras that adds a nice set of features including audio meters and the ability to disable the AGC function. The downside here is that the Magic Lantern firmware is not available for the Canon 7D yet or for Nikon cameras.
Pros: FREE!, True AGC disabling, Auto Meters
Cons: No 7D support, No Nikon support

Summary

If you are getting started with DSLR video, it is only a matter of time before you get frustrated with trying to get good, clean audio. Hopefully you will find one of these options to suite your needs and budget to help you get exactly what you are trying to get.

The folks at Magic Lantern have released some videos showing that they have video recording working on the EOS 50D which has never had native video recording before. Of course, since the 50D doesn’t have a microphone you will need to use an external audio recorder such as a Zoom H4 or similar device and then syncing the audio and video in post production. While this may sound like a pain, dual-device recording is actually the industry standard for best quality audio.

While the Magic Lantern Firmware isn’t officially released for the 50D yet, it looks like it is almost ready so you 50D owners out there that have wanted to get into video, now is the perfect time to go find a good audio recorder and get ready for some DSLR Video love coming your way soon.

However, if you have a 5D Mk II, 550D, 600D, or 60D you might want to head over and check it out.

Magic Lantern Wiki: http://magiclantern.wikia.com/wiki/Magic_Lantern_Firmware_Wiki

Practical Uses of ND Filters

Some photographers, especially nature and landscape photographers have long been familiar with neutral density filters most notably for allowing you to shoot a scene with a longer shutter speed for scenes such as waterfalls to get that silky effect to the water.

If we go back to the basics and look at the Sunny 16 Rule, this tells us that is bright sunlight at ISO 100 and 1/100th shutter speed, we will need to be at f/16. If we adjust our shutter to our video setting of 1/50th, then we need to be shooting at f/22 for a proper exposure. While this may work in some situations, if you want any creative control over your aperture settings, you will need to cut down the lighting entering the camera, again this is a great use of ND filters. Instead of using a faster shutter, we can simply use darker ND filters to cut down the light to where we want it.

Choosing an ND Filter

Most neutral density filters are fixed at a particular setting and generally come in settings from 1/4 stop all the way to 10 stops. Buying a small selection of ND filters is certainly one option, although a much more versatile option would be a variable ND filter that lets you adjust the density across a wide range.

The Variable ND Filters from FADER are an excellent example of this type of functionality. With the FADER Filters you have a range of 2-8 stops which, if we go back to our Sunny 16 Rule, only needs four stops to allow us to shoot at f/2.8. This allows us a broad range of creative control with your aperture.

At a bit over $300, these filters don’t come cheap so if you are on a budget you might want to get a couple of less expensive ones to start off with.

Fader Variable ND Filter

Using an ND Filter

There is nothing special or magic about using an ND filter, once it is on your lens it’s just as if someone dimmed the lights and you continue to set your exposure using aperture and ISO adjustments (remember, not shutter speed because we are locking that down to 1/50th second).

The following video demonstrates this concept by shooting the same scene and adjusting the FADER filter to make the scene darker while opening the aperture to compensate.

Summary

I hope you are enjoying these articles on getting started with DSLR video. Even though shooting video with a camcorder or other dedicated video camera is so easy that even a kid can do it, shooting video with a DSLR is actually quite complicated and requires a very different skill set than shooting still and often requires specialized gear to get top-notch results. If you are doing any video work, please post in the comments and let everyone know what you are doing.

Not all of us have hundreds of dollars to spend on fancy gadgets like focus pullers but we can borrow from the concept and with a little ingenuity come up with a way to accomplish the same result.

Parts Needed

What you will need

I hope I don’t scare you off with this extensive list of components you will need to put together.  Ok, just kidding, odds are most of you will have the items you need lying around the house. All we are going to need are two rubber bands and a pen (I find a fine point Sharpie to work the best).

I managed to find two Sunday newspapers that I snagged the rubber bands from and stole a Sharpie off my wife’s desk.

Setup

All we need to do is to place one rubber band on the focus ring and the other rubber band on the part of the lens next to the focus ring that is not going to rotate.

To set my first focus point, I find it easier to use the photo mode’s autofocus or use Live View and zoom in close to make sure your focus is as sharp as possible. Now you make a line on both rubber bands that line up so now we have the first point. Next, we set out focus on the second focus point and mark the rubber band on the focus ring in line with the stationary band.

Focus Point 1

Focus Point 2

Now we are set to go into video mode and start shooting. When you are ready to change focus, you just rotate the focus ring to line up the second focus point line. If you are setting up multiple shots, you can use different colors of pens to correspond to different setups.

Results

Your finished result will be entirely dependent on how well you originally set your focus points and how smoothly you can turn the focus wheel without it being jerky or moving the camera. With a bit of practice, you should be able to get pretty good results.

The video below demonstrates what you can do with this setup. The video was shot on a Canon EOS 7D with a Sigma 24-70 f/2.8 lens and is actually my very first attempts at using the setup.

As you can see, the results aren’t too bad for a first try. If you are an aspiring filmmaker on a tight budget, give this technique a try and see if you can add some nice focus pulling effects to your videos. If you have done any, please post links in the comments.

ISO and Aperture

The good news is that two out of three aint bad. What I mean by this is that ISO and Aperture affect video exactly the same way that they affect stills. ISO will make the sensor more sensitive to light so just like stills, you can increase the light into the camera by increasing the ISO setting which, just like stills, will add digital noise to the image.

Just like still images, Aperture will open or close the lens’ aperture diaphragm to allow more or less light into the camera which will affect the depth of field.

So long as you already have a good handle on ISO and Aperture, the same principles apply to both stills and video so you already well on your way.

Shutter Speed

With stills, shutter speed is fairly simple to understand, a longer shutter will allow more light but may add motion blur while a fast shutter speed can freeze motion but cuts down on the amount of light entering the camera. The confusing part is how this affects video. Many new video DSLR owners simply think this affects only the light since the frames are already moving. The reality is that the shutter speed can have a significant impact on the video image and most of the articles on the internet are painfully difficult to understand.

The traditional standard for video is 24p (which is actually 23.976 frames per second) which is very pleasing to the eye and is pretty much the standard for camcorders and DSLR video recording (much more on this is available on Wikipedia).

To achieve a film look (which has just enough motion blur between frames to look natural without being “smeary”) you need to follow the 180 degree rule which, simply put, says that your shutter speed should be double the frame rate. This is one of those times when I want to say “don’t worry about what it means, just go with it” as the technical explanation is quite…well…technical. Tyler Ginter did a really good job explaining the technical side of this on his blog post 180 Degree Shutter – Learn It, Live It, Love It.

While I am not going to try to explain the whole 180 degree shutter concept, I will instead just jump into what it really means to you and your video.

Since we already know that when we are shooting stills with action, a slow shutter speed will have motion blur and a fast shutter speed will freeze action. When we translate this concept to video, a slow shutter speed will create a smeared look to the video. If the shutter is too fast there isn’t enough motion blur to smoothly transition from frame to frame causing a stuttering or staccato effect. If you have ever looked at something moving with a CRT monitor behind it you will know what this stuttering can look like. Sometimes, this can be used for creative effect like in the opening of Saving Private Ryan.

To see how this looks in actual video, I did this quick comparison of 24p video shot at both 1/50th (yes, I know 1/48 is double the 24fps but most cameras can’t do 1/48th shutter speed so we have to take the closest option which would be 1/50th) and 1/300th shutter speed.

What about exposure?

The issue with exposure is not when things are too dark as we can open up our aperture and increase our ISO (only to a certain point before we need additional lighting anyway) but when things are too bright, we only have a few options. If you are already at a small aperture and a low ISO and 1/50th of a second will result in an over exposure the temptation is to increase the shutter speed, but this is going to violate the 180 degree rule and cause the stuttering video.

The only way to knock the exposure down is with the use of a neutral density filter. The most versatile filter is a variable neutral density filter that allows you to dial in the amount of filtering. A good example of this is the Fader ND Mark II which is adjustable from 2 to 8 stops.

The real beauty of using a filter with this much versatility is that you can shoot at the relatively slow 1/50th of a second at wide open apertures to create a very short depth of field that just isn’t possible with regular camcorders. The ability easily create different depth of field shots  is a key reason many filmmakers are jumping onto the DSLR video bandwagon.

The Exception to the Rule

Let’s face it, every good rule deserves a good reason to break it and the 180 degree shutter rule is no different. In fact, there is one really good reason to break it and that is when you are specifically shooting for video that will be shown in slow motion. If we use the basic rule of having a shutter speed that is double the frame rate, when we slow down the video we will end up with more blurry video. If you shoot at faster shutter speeds, when you slow the video down you will get cleaner looking video.

This actually brings up a major difference between shooting stills and video. With stills, our final output will be a still frame. Sure, you may use some panning and zooming in a slidehsow which may require cropping that isn’t very tight but lets not digress too much. With video, you really need to think ahead about how the video will be played back. Will the video be sped up, played at normal speed, or slowed down as this final product needs to be considered when choosing the shooting settings.

Summary

Hopefully this has helped make some sense out of the shutter speed issue with DSLRs. If you are just going to be shooting video for yourself, you may not care much about all this but if you are trying to really make your video look its absolute best, and most certainly you can achieve incredible results with the current video enabled DSLR’s, then this is one of those topics that you really need to get a handle on.

Differences between camcorders and DSLRs

Many of you are probably own some kind of camcorder. These small, handheld video cameras are actually pretty amazing for their price with 1080p video for under $700. If these little wonders are so good, why do we even need DSLR video? For one thing, the sensors in the consumer camcorders are relatively small and the have a single lens with a fixed focal length. This doesn’t allow much in terms of creative shooting like being able to blur a background. Most don’t even let you select a focus point and they try to guess what you want. Are they REALLY 1080p video, well yes, technically speaking but they are not “broadcast quality” images. Just because something puts out video out 1920×1080 resolution does not mean the image quality is going to be that great.

On the opposite end of the spectrum are DSLR’s that can shoot video. In comparison to high-end, dedicated video cameras, DSLR’s can actually have a BETTER image because the sensor size in a DSLR is larger than in a video camera and the ability to use many different lenses allows for very creative shooting.

The big downside is that most (and this IS changing) current video-DSLRs do not have full-time autofocus. This can be a huge challenge for many people who have come to rely on autofocus for their still photography. Add to this moving subjects and trying to adjust focus on-the-fly, and you can be in for a very challenging shoot. Also take into consideration that the ergonomics of a DSLR are not really suited for shooting video so trying to hand-hold a DSLR while shooting is almost certain to add unwanted shaking or movement. One of the other things to consider is going to be accessories to help you shoot video better (more on this below) which may include a tripod with a fluid head, a good microphone, a stabilization system, viewfinder enhancements, constant lights, and software to do the editing. If you go “all in” you can easily spend more on video accessories than you did on the camera body.

Getting Started

I am going to start with assuming most people are going to be shooting video that is not destined for broadcast TV or movie theaters but in future articles we will get into fine tuning our video and camera settings for those applications. For now, we will start with the basics just to get things going.

Equipment

Depending on what you are shooting, you may or may not need all of the things mentioned here and I will try to point out when and where different pieces will be used.

Tripod and Fluid Head

While you probably own a tripod, the head on it is likely not smooth enough for video. As you tilt and pan, it is very hard to get a real smooth motion. For video, you want was is referred to as a fluid head which will really make a huge difference in controlling your camera for video. If you have a tripod with a removable head, you can just buy a head made for video and use it when needed. Good fluid heads can cost hundreds of dollars but a fairly decent one such as the Weifeng WF-717AH can be found for around $70.

Monopod

A monopod can really be a lifesaver when it comes to video since it can help you steady your camera instead of trying to hold it still for extended periods of time. Another little trick is to put the bottom of the monopod into your belt or pocket and extend the monopod so the camera is eye level, this technique can help you get really smooth pans but is going to be fairly bouncy when walking. For this purpose, you can find a cheap monopod at Walmart for about $15.

Batteries

If your camera supports an add-on battery pack, I would highly recommend you get one and some extra batteries. Running your camera for extended periods (which means the LCD is on as well) can suck the life right out of your batteries before you know it.

Microphone

As you can probably guess, the on-board microphones on DSLR’s are not going to give you superb 5.1 Dolby stereo audio. In fact, its fairly poor mono audio and with no windscreen in front of it, you can pick up a lot of noise. A fairly popular microphone is the Rode VideoMic which runs about $149. I happened to have a Zoom H4 recorder which not only has two mics for recording in stereo but also has two XLR connectors so it is extremely versatile. I just needed a $2 audio patch cable and a hot shoe adapter. Of course, if you aren’t planning on recording video and always plan on just having a music soundtrack, then you really aren’t going to need a microphone.

Lights

If you have a bag full of 580 EX II’s, they aren’t going to do you any good when shooting video, you will need a constant source of light. While certainly I am a big fan of big LED light banks like Ikan’s, they are outside my budget. With a couple of small lights like the YN160 you can get generally decent lighting for about $75.

The YN160 can be mounted on-camera or on a light stand and can use seven different types of batteries including regular AA cells.

Software

This is where things can get crazy real fast. While you may find lot of people suggestion that you can use Windows Movie Maker, the video files directly from the 7D and the 5DMkII are NOT compatible with Windows Movie Maker. There are tools to convert the files but now you are getting into a real headache. If you have any software suggestions, please post them in the comments as I would love to hear about them.

I am going to do my best to offer up some suggestions here based on different price points:

Free Software

• iMovie (Mac)
  This is USUALLY free as it is bundled with most Macintosh systems (as far as I know)
• Lightworks (Windows)
  Lightworks is an open source editor that is actually quite powerful but is somewhat lacking in documentation and tutorials

Consumer Grade

• Adobe Premiere Elements 9 ($99 for Mac/Windows)
  Probably one of the better mid-range tools available and at a reasonable price
• Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD ($95 for Windows)
  Vegas is an extremely popular editing program with a very nice feature set

Pro Grade

• Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 ($179 for Mac/Windows)
  My personal choice as I work on a high-end Alienware Windows 7 machine
• Final Cut Pro ($300 for Mac)
  FCP and Premiere usually take turns beating out each other on features. With Final Cut Pro X, I think it takes the lead.

Summary

Hopefully this wasn’t too much to start off with and I really want to hear from you and find out if you are interested in more articles about DSLR video. I will leave you with this little video I did as my first video project with a Canon EOS 7D.

Later in the show Kerry and Robert discuss the current Fusion trend of mixing still images and video.

Be sure and check out Robert’s sites at:

• http://www.robertevans.com
• http://www.celebrityweddingphotographer.com
• http://www.photofusionworkshops.com
• Engage Video

Show Host

Kerry Garrison

http://kerrygarrison.com Twitter Facebook FriendFeed

This podcast is also available on iTunes.

Features

The Photobasics Green Screen kit is available as both a video kit or a still photography kit with the difference being the disk of backgrounds, the trial software that is included, and the educational DVD. The system is as complete as it gets with the following items:

Setup

Usage

Green Screen Setup

Using the kit is quite simple. The most important thing is to get the background as evenly lit as possible to make your editing go as easily as possible. If you have those two dialed in, then the process of using your green screen images is a simple matter of following along with the DVD.

Results

Taylor Shot 2

Fun Shot with David Esquire

And as you can see in this final shot, you not only can have fun, but you can even create some high-end fine art pieces.

Summary

Canon’s new EOS Rebel T1i is packed with features, both refined and new. In addition to its admirable performance with an all-new 15.1 Megapixel Canon CMOS sensor, DIGIC 4 Image Processor, a 3.0-inch Clear View LCD with anti-reflective and scratch-resistant coating, and compatibility with the EOS System of lenses and Speedlites, the EOS Rebel T1i adds remarkable Full HD video capture at resolutions up to 1920 x 1080. An HDMI port allows for quick connections to high definition TVs and monitors for easy viewing of your stills and video. The entire operation is simple and easy even if you are a beginner. You’ll have uncompromised EOS Digital performance with power and flexibility right in the palm of your hand.

• New 15.1 Megapixel CMOS sensor with DIGIC 4 Image Processor for faster processing of fine detail and natural color reproduction, 14-bit A/D conversion for smooth color tones and gradations.
• Full HD video capture at 1920 x 1080 resolution with HDMI output for HD viewing of stills and video.
• Live View Function for stills (Quick, Live and Face Detection AF modes) and video.
• 3.0-inch Clear View LCD (920,000 dots/VGA) monitor with anti-reflective and scratch-resistant coatings for improved viewing and smudge protection.
• Auto Lighting Optimizer for superior highlight-shadow control.
• Wide range ISO setting 100-3200 (ISO expansion: 6400, 12800).
• Creative Auto goes a step beyond auto allowing control over frequently-changed settings.
• Compatible with over 60 Canon EF/EF-S lenses and most EOS System accessories.

Suggested Retail Price: $899.99

Website: http://www.usa.canon.com

Kerry’s Picks

• Lensbaby wide angle lenses (link) (Discount link)
• Vanguard tripods (link)
• California Sunbounce (link)
• Spyder Cube (link)
• SensorKlear (link)

David’s Picks

• Sandisk USB card (link)
• Flip Video (link)
• Apple wireless keyboard (link)
• Photovision digital calibration target (link)

Show Hosts

Kerry Garrison (http://kerrygarrison.com)
David Esquire (http://esquirephotography.com)

This podcast is also available on iTunes.

Here is this today’s episode featuring me as the guest.

Top Ten Contest Entries

Nashville Train Station (link)
The Link (link)
Millenium Bridge (link)
Nicholson Viaduct (link)
The Road Goes on Forever (link)
Gothic Walkway (link)
Quase Infinito (link)
Golden Beach Dock (link)
DC Metro (link)
Her first day on the job (link)

And the winner is……

LShadrack's The Link

LShadrack’s entry, The Link is our contest winner. This killer shot of a bridge in Kansas City played well with the theme of the contest, nailed the symetry of structure, was exposed well, and made for an excellent image. Congrats!

Show Hosts

Kerry Garrison (http://kerrygarrison.com)
David Esquire (http://esquirephotography.com)

This podcast is also available on iTunes.

Please check out California Sunbounce at http://www.sunbounce.com

Unlike traditional tripods, Alta Pro’s Multi-Angle Central Column (MACC) System allows users to move the central column as needed from zero to 130-degree angles in variable vertical and horizontal positions. This allows more angle possibilities than any tripod on the market but its solid design maintains its stability.

Its Instant Swivel Stop-n-Lock (ISSL) System feature allows photographers to securely reposition the central column in one simple movement, in just a few seconds, with maintaining the tripod’s stability. Designed to support an array of camera types including DSLR and video cameras, camera setup is quick and easy.Alta Pro’s design also enables macro photography and special wide-angle shots with additional attachments that can be mounted to either end of the central column. Alta Pro is one of many new-for-2009 products introduced by VANGUARD at PMA 09, including :

• SBH ball heads – A lightweight line of stable magnesium alloy-constructed ball heads with tilting and ultra smooth movement, designed to support heavy equipment
• Kenline i-Pro bags – With three patents and lots of why-didn’t-I-think-of-that features, this line of soft-sided photo-video bags was designed for professional and amateur photographers by photographers
• Pampas bags – Line of durable and convenient sling-style, soft-sided camera and accessories bags for on-the-go photography
• Endeavor, Spirit, and Sereno binoculars – Industry-leading protective coatings, enhanced durability and special features are uniquely designed for an array of professionals

Alta Pro Multi Angle

Kenline Bags

Source: Vanguard USA

Curt’s background in film and photography have combined to put him into the perfect position to take advantage of not just both mediums, but also to enable him to fuse the two together using current equipment and software.

Curt gives some tips of getting started with video and how best to use video to compliment your photography.

Check out Curt’s work at:

http://curtapanovich.com
http://engagingfilms.com

Show Hosts

Kerry Garrison (http://kerrygarrison.com)
David Esquire (http://esquirephotography.com)

You can listen to this podcast now using our player widget in the right hand sidebar

This podcast is also available on iTunes.

In this video we talk to GO|Bee Bags (http://gobeebags.com), Trendy Camera Straps (http://trendycamerastraps.com) and Kerry and David head back to Orange County.

[podcast format="video"]/podcasts/WPPI2009_part5.m4v[/podcast]

In this episode we show some clips of shooting with Jeff and Dana Sipper (http://sipperphotography.com), Scarlett Lillian’s workshop (http://www.scarlettlillian.net), we see Pictage’s new slideshow tool, we then talk to Vu Bui about the FastTrack Bloggers Lounge and new video tutorials from the Bui Brothers (http://thebuibrothers.com),  and then head over to ShootSac (http://shootsac.com) to see their newest product.

[podcast format="video"]/podcasts/WPPI2009_part4.m4v[/podcast]

[podcast format="video"]/podcasts/WPPI2009_part3.m4v[/podcast]

[podcast format="video"]/podcasts/WPPI2009_part2.m4v[/podcast]

MiniTT1 – Canon

The smallest PocketWizard radio ever, the MiniTT1™ Transmitter locks onto the camera’s hot shoe supporting an on-camera flash with its own hot shoe while working with remote PocketWizard units. Remotes can be one or more PocketWizard FlexTT5™ Transceivers connected to Canon E-TTL II flashes or any PocketWizard Receiver for triggering flash or remote cameras.

Flex TT5 – Canon

The dedicated FlexTT5™ Transceiver, with its built in hot-shoe and ControlTL™ firmware, is the perfect addition to Canon E-TTL II flash systems.  The FlexTT5 takes the existing benefits of Canon wireless systems beyond the boundaries of infrared technology.  When paired with the Mini TT1™ Transmitter or another FlexTT5 Transceiver, a whole new world of wireless flash freedom opens up.  The FlexTT5 is also the perfect Transceiver for your manual triggering needs and works with all MultiMAX channels and many of the MultiMAX advanced functions.

The following video was taken on the show floor at WPPI 2009:

[podcast format="video"]/podcasts/PocketWizards_wppi09.m4v[/podcast]

For more information, go to http://pocketwizard.com

Mike talks about the possible future for plugins and for OnOne Software and hints at possible tools for the Apple iPhone and for dealing with video from new cameras such as the Nikon D90 and the Canon EOS 5D Mark II.

Mike also is giving away a copy of the Plugin Suite 4 which contains the following plugins:

• Genuine Fractals 6 Professional Edition
• PhotoTools 1.0 Professional Edition
• Mask Pro 4.1
• PhotoFrame 4 Professional Edition
• PhotoTune 2.2
• FocalPoint 1.0

This is a $499.95 value!! To be entered to win we have a little scavenger hunt to solve. First off, go to http://ononesoftware.com and find the page for the Plugin Suite 4, Figure out why you need plugins, and from there, find the 10 word slogan. When you have found it, send an email to contest@cameradojo.com with the subject “OnOne Software Contest” in the subject and the answer and your name in the body of the email. Entries must be received by 5pm on Friday the 13th of March, 2009 and will be announced on the podcast that airs on March 17th.

Be sure and check out the OnOne Software blog (http://www.ononesoftware.com/blog/) and the OnOne Exchange (http://www.ononeexchange.com/)

OnOne Software: http://ononesoftware.com

Show Hosts

Kerry Garrison (http://kerrygarrison.com)
David Esquire (http://esquirephotography.com)

This podcast is also available on iTunes.

YOU WILL LEARN…

• 32 ways to use your on and off-camera flashes for creative and dramatic effects.
• 10 of the best camera settings and lens choices for creating striking images on every job.
• 7 ways to use the new DSLR video capabilities to transform your product offerings.
• 10 “Magic Bullet” techniques to make your digital workflow nearly effortless, highly efficient, and fun with today’s top software from Adobe Lightroom, NIK, and LumaPix: FotoFusion.
• 20 new product and solid marketing ideas targeted to today’s customers to add substantially to your bottom line.

PROGRAM BONUS:

• Tour Handbook including: program notes, photography, marketing and more
• 2 Hour DVD with extended program content
• $100 Rebate from American Color Imaging
• 1 year membership to WPPI and Rangefinder magazine, a $99 value
• FREE 3 month membership to DigitalProTalkPlus.com, a $45 value

$2,500 in Door Prizes at EACH location and 4 Grand prizes totaling $20,000

If you sign up now, the price is only $59!! At the door the price is $79 which is still an amazing deal.

Go visit the Digital Wakeup Call website for additional information and to sign up. This event is most likely going to sell out in every city so I highly recommend you get registered as soon as possible.

Does scaling images have to suck?

The problem with scaling images up is that the software has to examine the image and guess what pixels need to be added to make the image look right and maintain quality, detail, and sharpness. Without a very sophisticated algorithm, you end up with blocky and blurry images when you are done. This is exactly what Genuine Fractals was designed to solve.

Photoshop CS4 vs Genuine Fractals 6

While Photoshop does an ok job at upsizing images, it most certainly does not do a terrific job. Let’s take a look at what Photoshop can do versus what Genuine Fractals can do on a small photo.  The original photo we are going to use is this photo that originally was at 640px wide. Let’s pit Photoshop CS4 vs. Genuine Fractals 6.

The following examples show the difference between the two programs:

Scaled with Photoshop

Scaled with Genuine Fractals

As you can see, the image scaled with Photoshop is much softer, looking out of focus than the one scaled with Genuine Fractals. This is a rather extreme example since we started with a pretty small image to scale up but it does prove the point. My normal use is for scaling screenshots up from 72dpi to 150dpi for use in the books I am writing and it does an awesome job of that.

Using Genuine Fractals

Genuine Fractals is a Photoshop plugin and when activated opens in its own interface with the toolbar on the right Besides just scaling images up or down, it can also add texturing and film grain which can help improve the perception of sharpness.

Another useful feature is a tool to create the data needed for gallery wrap images where the image continues off the edge of the frame and continues along the outside edge.

Key Features of Genuine Fractals 6

Genuine Fractals may seem like a pretty basic program but it does have an impressive list of features as well.

• Resize images up to 1000%
• Maintain sharp edges and minute detail
• Control texture for maximum quality with different image types
• Apply sharpening based on luminosity only
• Add simulated film grain for perceptual sharpening
• Includes document size presets for common photo and paper sizes
• Supports cropping and resizing in one step
• Supports resizing RGB images
• Supports resizing grayscale images
• Supports LAB images
• Supports layered Photoshop files
• Tiling feature – create tiled mosaics
• Batch process multiple files at once
• Supports resizing CMYK images  **
• Gallery Wrap feature – add extended margins for printing on canvas **
• Integrates with Photoshop Lightroom **
• Integrates with Apple Aperture **

** Only availale in the Professional Edition

System Requirements

Windows
Windows XP SP2 or Vista
Microsoft .Net 2.0 Framework or higher

Mac OS X
Mac OS X 10.4.11 or later
Universal Binary – Supports Intel Processors

Common
Photoshop CS2(v9.0.2), CS3, or CS4
Photoshop Elements 4 or later
512MB of RAM
25 MB of disk space
Adobe Flash Player 9
Internet connection for update checking & tutorial movies

Genuine Fractals Demo

In this video, Kerry shows how to use Genuine Fractals to scale up images.

Vu’s background in video production as well as marketing combines to give you an interesting perspective in how you should be looking at this medium for use in your own business.

Vu and his brother Lan give regular seminars and workshops and will be doing some really cool things at WPPI. Listen to the show to find out more about the WPPI event.

Vu Bui – http://vubui.com

The Bui Brothers – http://thebuibrothers.com

Show Hosts

Kerry Garrison (http://kerrygarrison.com)
David Esquire (http://esquirephotography.com)

This podcast is also available on iTunes.

Carlos lays down the challenge to Camera Dojo listeners to post images taken with a single light source. To submit your images, add them to the comments on this page.

Be sure and check out Carlos’ website at http://carlosbaez.com and check out his DVD at http://www.photographymentor.com/school/seethelight

Show Hosts

Kerry Garrison (http://kerrygarrison.com)
David Esquire (http://esquirephotography.com)

This podcast is also available on iTunes.

From Scarlett:
“I had so much fun last year shooting a sizzlin’ bride and groom session in the glamorous lights of Vegas with Ross of Flosites.com and his bride Leysa, and this year, I want to give you the same opportunity for some rockstar portfolio pieces too! For those attending WPPI this year, I’m hosting a stylish photoshoot in Vegas again. Lyndsay, who won my “I Want to Spend A Day With Scarlett” contest will be the model with her hot husband as we shoot around the city that never sleeps! ”

To join in on the photoshoot, the session fee is $199 and we’ll shoot on Monday, February 16 at 7pm. To sign up, send Scarlett an email at scarlett@scarlettlillian.com! This a FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE event, and WILL sell out, so by emailing, you are agreeing to reserve your spot by paying the registration fee!

One of the sponsors, Pocket Wizard, will be at the workshop filming an exclusive BEHIND THE SCENES video of Scarlett and all of you participating in the workshop! So bring your inner rock star and get ready to be on camera! Seriously, you won’t want to miss this!

One lucky winner will get a chance to win a FREE spot in the workshop, so let’s do another CONTEST! The winner will ALSO win a pair of Pocket Wizards, AND the 1st, 2nd, & 3rd place winners will all win a Trendy Camera Strap, and Camera Dojo Powertools & Dojo Wedding Tools Lightroom presets! Woo hoo!!

You guys got so creative with the “I Want To Spend A Day A With Scarlett” contest, but this time, let’s call it, “I Want To Shoot With Scarlett in Vegas!”

THE RULES:

1. You have to be in the pic. You are welcome to have others in the picture as well!
2. The pic has to say somewhere “I Want to Shoot With Scarlett In Vegas” whether holding a sign or photoshopped or whatever.
3. Get creative as you want, and try to tie in something Vegas into it! You can dress up like Elvis, or reenact Britney’s quickie Vegas wedding, or show me your winning hand at poker, or whatever you want!
4. Once voting is opened up, you will want to blog/Facebook/Twitter about your contest entry and direct people to come vote for you here on my blog!

Because WPPI is quickly approaching, the DEADLINE for contest entries is next Monday, February 2 when the Finale of my video blog premieres!! Then we’ll have my blog readers vote on the winning photo to award the winner! There is limited availability for the workshop to keep the group intimate for learning and getting the best shots, so for those interested, go ahead and sign up now, and if you win, I’ll refund your session fee!

Thanks to these amazing sponsors! Check them out!!!

Trendy Camera Straps (Scarlett will be hanging out at their booth, more details later on how you can come say hi!)
Pocket Wizard
Camera Dojo
Modern Photographers

“Lost That Spare Tire” from PeptidBond. He will receive a new R-Strap from BlackRapid. They also announce the next contest “converging lines”. More info about this new contest will be posted tomorrow.

Later, Kerry sat with Master Photographer David Ziser. David is a high end wedding photographer who has recently made the switch from JPEG to RAW and discusses the reasons for making the switch.

David has also recently switched to the new Canon 5D Mk II and discusses the new camera and how video will play a role in wedding photography.

Be sure and check out David’s website at http://digitalprotalk.blogspot.com and watch for news on his upcoming seminar.

Show Hosts

Kerry Garrison (http://kerrygarrison.com)
David Esquire (http://esquirephotography.com)

This podcast is also available on iTunes.

Getting the Camera

Since I am not sponsored by Canon (any help here would be appreciated – wink wink) and I haven’t been able to justify the cost yet, I decided that another way to get one for a little while was to call up the good folks over at BorrowLenses.com. I hooked up with Max to get a weekend rental on the 5D Mk II so I could use it on a wedding shoot I had planned as well as to play around with the other features. If you have never rented equipment, you can’t go wrong by using BorrowLenses.com as their prices are great and you don’t get slapped with a huge deposit (no deposit in fact), but more about BorrowLenses.com in an upcoming article as I review their service.

I got the camera and couldn’t wait to slap in a card and start playing with it.

First Impressions

When picking up the body the first thing you notice is the surface has a much better texture on it than previous cameras making it easier to hold. The form factor is much like the 30D/40D/50D/5D. For users of those mentioned cameras, the control layout will be very familiar with the only noticeable exceptions being that the delete button has shifted due to the large screen and the top LCD illumination button has been moved to the right side of the display. For people moving up from a 30D/40D you will notice the lack of a pop-up flash and no preset modes on the mode dial (this is much more of a Pro camera than a consumer camera after all).

The large LCD on the back is just stunning with its much higher resolution display which enables you to better see if an image is sharp and in focus.

The new menu system is super clean and sharp looking on the big display although a little hunting around the first few times to find some of the features will be in order. The only thing that threw me for a loop for a minute was figuring out how to setup exposure bracketing. Not wanting to turn to the manual, I figured it out quickly enough. What I did have to crack the manual for was to figure out how to  use the video mode. Simple enough, go into Live View mode and press the Set button in the middle of the large dial on the back to start/stop recording.

First time setup

Before really being able to push the 5d Mk II to it’s limits, you will need to go into the menus and setup a few options first. Here are the things I did to get it ready for my tests.

C. Fn I : Exposure
Custom Function 3 changed to 1 to enable ISO expansion. This is needed to shoot at ISO ranges above 6400.

C. Fn II : Image
Custom Function 3 changed to 1 to enable Highlight Tone Priority. This enables Highlight Tone Priority which can help from overexposing important aspects of your image. Note however that when this is enabled, you will not be able to go over ISO 6400 regardless of the previous setting.

C. Fn III : Autofocus/Drive
Custom Function 3 changed to 1 to enable Multi-controller direct. This option enables you to select the autofocus point by using the multi-controller (mini joystick).

Live View Function Settings
LV Func. Setting set to Stills+movie, Screen Settings set to movie display

Image Quality
Image quality was set to RAW.

Finally, I made sure the date and time was correct, dropped in a compact flash card, formatted it and I was ready to go.

Shooting the 5D Mk II

Like many people getting the 5D Mark II, I have been shooting APS-C sized sensors for the past few years as I use a 30D as a primary and a 20D as a backup. Functionally, the 5D Mk II is virtually identical in how to operate the camera although the shutter sound is different and quieter. The big difference comes into play when using the same lenses you were using on the smaller sensor. If you aren’t familiar with this phenomenon, the smaller sensors in the 20D/30D/40D/50D are smaller APS-C size sensors versus the full frame sensor in the 5d Mk II. The smaller sensor size introduces an effect referred to as a zoom factor (also known as crop factor) which, in essence, magnifies the focal length of your lenses by 1.6.  To put it into simple terms, subjects on an APS-C sized sensor will appear closer (as if zoomed in by 1.6x) and the same lens on the 5D will give you an wider field of view. If we take a 50mm lens and put it on a camera with an APS-C sensor, what we get is basically an 80mm lens. A 70-200mm on the 50D becomes a 112-320mm lens on the APS-C sensor. This is interesting to note that a telephoto lens will get you more reach on a smaller sensor but you lose width at the smaller focal lengths. With my typical lenses, I now have to move closer to the subject to get the same effect as before, but I now have the added bonus of wide angle lenses being wider than before.

Image shot with 50mm on 30D (APS-C)

Image shot with 50mm on 5D Mk II (Full Frame)

Ok, so how about this ISO stuff, how good is it really? Yeah, well, its pretty damned good. On my 30D, it pained me to go up to 1600 ISO, on a 40D, 1600 would give you a very usable image but 3200 got to be a bit much, on the 5D Mk II, 3200 is a no-brainer and 6400 will give you very usable images. Moving up into 12,800 gets to be noisy but should be usable with a good noise reduction software while 25,600 ISO is basically unusable unless you convert the image to black and white and then you will get something looking like an older newspaper image.

Comparison of ISO settings from 5D Mk II

A feature that first appeared on the 40D is Highlight Tone Priority which can be a saving grace in numerous situations. Instead of going into how great this feature is, please refer to David Ziser’s post about Highlight Tone Priority.

What’s missing from the 5d Mk II?

Yes, the 5d Mk II is a huge leap forward for Canon, so much so that some shooters with the higher end 1Ds Mk III are actually “downgrading” to the 5D to get the improved sensor cleaning and higher ISO performance. But surely the 5D Mk II is not the Holy Grail of cameras, something must be missing right? Well, of course, otherwise it would be an $8000 camera. So what is it that we don’t have on the 5D Mk II that it’s big brother has?

• Dual memory card slots
  Many people think this is a major disappointment that the 5D wasn’t outfitted with dual memory slots to provide real-time redundancy when shooting.
• Built in battery grip/portrait grip
  The original 5D didn’t have one, and the 5D Mk II is aimed at the high end Pro-sumer market, not the professional market so this is an option. Unfortunately, the 5D Mk II uses a redesigned grip so existing ones will not work.
• Long life shutter
  The big gun 1Ds Mk III is rated as about double the shutter activations as the 5D Mk II (150,000 (5D) vs 300,000 (1Ds)).
• Dual Digic processors
  While the 5D Mk II does have the newer Digic IV processor, the 1Ds Mk III has dual processors for faster image processing.1

Granted, the higher ISO performance, larger, higher resolution LCD screen, improved dust reduction, 21 megapixel , full frame sensor, full HD video, and significantly cheaper price does make for a very compelling camera.

Focusing on Video

Yeah, the 5D Mk II is the Grand Poobah of DSLR’s that can shoot video with its full 1080p video capture. Being able to use all of the lenses at your disposal to shoot video is quite awesome indeed to achieve the same shallow depth of field that you can get in stills. So look out Sony, your days of being a video camera manufacturer have come to an end and the 5D Mk II is taking its rightful place of the King of all things video…..well….not exactly.

There is no question you can get stunning HiDef video out of the camera, there are plenty of examples online. But let’s look at the reality of shooting video with the 5D Mk II.

First off, abandon all hope of using autofocus when shooting video. If you are using the on-board microphone, you will hear constant whirrrr whirrrrrrrr whirrrrrrrr as the contrast-based autofocus “attempts” to focus. In some situations it may do alright, but the majority of the time you will end up with lots of times where the camera is trying to focus but tracks back and forth a few times before locking on. You really need to consider the camera as a manual focus camera when shooting video. Use autofocus in still mode to get your focus, then switch to video mode with autofocus off for best results. As for the built-in microphone (located just underneath the 5D logo), its alright for playing around, but anything serious will require an external mic plugged into the microphone jack on the side of the camera.

5D Mk II LowRez Video from Kerry Garrison on Vimeo.

Sample HiDef Video from 5D Mk II from Kerry Garrison on Vimeo.

Megapixels = Mega Storage

Oh sure, we all SAY we want more megapixels, but you really have to think of the ramifications of that. Here is a comparison of the same image taken with several of the different available image quality settings:

This means that a RAW file from the 5D Mk II is 4 times larger than a RAW from a 30D and even the 5D Mk II’s Fine JPEG is 2mb larger than the RAW file on the 30D. That’s 1/4 of the number of images I can fit on the same memory card and a typical wedding shoot for me will balloon from 10gb to 40gb. Add to that the additional disk space required to hold the images, and the addition computer horsepower (CPU and RAM) needed to process these huge files and you need some seriously beefy hardware to use this camera to its full potential.

For best results, UDMA Compact Flash cards are recommended, using these will speed up write times to the disc. Keep all of these things in mind if considering moving up to the 5D Mk II as it could turn out to be a bigger investment than just the camera itself.

Using the 5D Mk II

The first project I had was a small wedding reception, shooting out on a golf course at 11am presented some really harsh lighting conditions, the highlight tone priority system did a great job at keeping the subjects from getting blown out. One thing that I noticed was that the autofocus was really fast and super accurate. This is compared to the 30D that I normally shoot with. Normally I will get a handful of out of focus shots for no apparent reason, of almost 500 shots, there were only two that were out of focus, a significant improvement in the autofocus system over my camera.

The shutter noise is fairly quiet and doesn’t draw attention which is nice for quiet ceremonies and for catching candids without disturbing anyone.

For all your Shamu fans out there, here are some shots from Sea World.

5D Mark II - 70mm 1/640 f/9 ISO 200 Mode: Program sRAW1

5D Mark II - 70mm 1/5000 f/8 ISO 200 Mode: Program sRAW1

5D Mark II - 70mm 1/500 f/8 ISO 200 Mode: Program sRAW1

5D Mark II - 24mm 1/25 f/6.3 ISO 400 Mode: Manual sRAW1

5D Mark II - 42mm 1/60 f/2.8 ISO 400 Mode: Manual sRAW1

Is the 5D Mk II Right For You?

I only had the 5D Mk II available to me for a few days but I am completely impressed with it from a technology point of view. One of it’s biggest selling points is also one of its biggest problems, and that is the size of the images. A typical wedding will take up 30gb of space and just a simple day at an amusement park could easily eat up 6gb.  The ability to use the smaller sRAW sizes is a plus, but its painful to have to limit the camera, something I think I could get over easily enough but it remains to be seen if it is too limiting for doing paid wedding shoots in the reduced file format sizes.

Unless you already have a beefy uber-computer and have more compact flash cards than pairs of underwear, then there are going to be some hidden costs of getting into the 5D Mk II. I am probably fairly typical (or at least not abnormal) in that I am currently shooting with a 30D and put together some numbers as what it would take for me to purchase and use the 5D Mk II, and this is not upgrading the CPU or RAM in my machine as it isn’t that terrible to work on images with what I have.

That’s well over $4,000 with tax and shipping and isn’t counting having another as a backup. I would certainly recommend the 5D Mk II to anyone who can afford one, but, for myself, I need to take a look at the 50D before deciding to save up for the 5D.

Author: Kerry Garrison

Rental Equipment by: http://BorrowLenses.com

Overview

The VerteX is designed to give the ultimate in lighting control from a typical speedlight by allowing almost an infinite amount of adjustment. The VerteX is a mechanical device that can accept one or two panels on it to allow you to send the light in the specific direction(s) that you want.

The VerteX works by having a swinging arm that can have either one or two flaps attached to it that can rotate 360 degrees. Each flap has a mirrored side and a white diffusion side.  By adjusting the swing arm and the flaps you can split the light coming out of your accessory flash and send the light in different directions. Nothing else on the market today gives you this much control over your lighting.

Setup

Normally I would go into a real lengthy section and maybe even some step-by-step pics showing how to assemble a product. Bust seriously, the VerteX takes about 30 seconds to setup, you will spend more time reading this paragraph than you will spend setting the VerteX up. You take the two arms and snap them into place in the holes on the sides of the rubber band, push them together over the cross piece, and push the flaps into place, which are held there with magnets. That’s it. I find it easier to get onto the flash if you attach the rubber band to the flash head right after putting the two arms on and before attaching the cross bean and flaps. In under a minute you are ready to start taking pictures with the VerteX.

Usage

I am going to be really honest here, if you really don’t understand lighting, you may have trouble previsualizing what you can achieve with the VerteX. However, if you are the type of person who can look at a scene and know, for example,  that you want a slight shadow from one direction, a little fill up front, and some top lighting, then you will be able to use the VerteX to it’s full potential. Since you can split the light and send some forward, some up to bounce off the ceiling, some left to bounce off a wall, you can achieve lighting effects that otherwise would have required multiple strobes.

Results

Before getting into wedding photography I did mostly product photography so using multiple lights was second nature, getting into wedding photography felt very limiting as it really isn’t practical on most shoots to lug around multiple light sources, radio remotes, light stands, etc and the current light modifiers on the market work very well in specific situations, but there hasn’t been a product that could really give you the flexibility of multiple light sources from a single strobe head until the VerteX. Here are a few shots from a recent wedding where I used the VerteX to get some really nicely lit indoor shots.

Summary

While the VerteX may look like a homing beacon for an alien spacecraft, it does exactly what it is intended to do. I am thrilled with the control over the light that it gives me and enables lighting that simply wasn’t possible before.  For $49.95, it isn’t any more than other brand-name modifiers but it does give you a level of control that other products do not. I have used the VerteX at several weddings now and it has not come off my flash yet. The only real negative thing I can say is that if you happen to bump something and one of the flaps comes off, they are so light that you stand a good chance of not noticing since you usually wont hear it hit the ground. Most of the time I use it as pictured in the image to the right with only one flap, so if I actually lost one for good, I could get by for a while, so keep an eye on the panels wqhen you are moving your equipment around.

Here is a little video showing more about the VerteX and how I use it.

VerteX Light Modifer from Presslite from Kerry Garrison on Vimeo.

Product Review Scorecard

Product Page: http://www.presslite.com/vertexinfo.php
Company Page: http://www.presslite.com

Author: Kerry Garrison

Have you ever imported some RAW files and when you first open the image in Lightroom the image is vibrant and looks great and then all of a sudden the image switches to something that is less sharp and the colors are all bland? If you have seen this phenomenon, what you are seeing initially is the embedded JPEG image being displayed first and then the on-screen image changes to the RAW sensor data image. The reason why there is a difference is that the JPEG images have had your camera settings applied to them before being saved. With Canon camera, this is usually Standard, Faithful, Landscape , Neutral, and Portrait. Other camera brands have similar types of basic settings. Many people complained that the JPEG image was often very nice and it took a lot of work to get your RAW images to look as good as the JPEG image.

To solve this, Lightroom needed to have a way to understand what the cameras where doing to the images. Initially, you could use the camera calibration controls to dial in some default settings, but this was really inaccurate and rather a pain to use. Shortly after Lightroom 2.0 came out, Adobe came out with the first beta versions of the camera profiles. These profiles were actually based on the characteristics of the different cameras and can be used to very quickly get your image looking better right from the beginning.

Sometimes the effect is more subtle

For some people who still shoot JPEG instead of RAW, one of the complaints about RAW is that it takes longer to process RAW images to get them look good. Lightroom 2.2 with camera profiles solves this problem quite nicely. You can easily create a camera profile preset (or download ours here) and use them as an import preset so that it is applied to every image as you are importing them. Applying the Standard profile during import will get the vast majority of your images looking almost identical to what you would get from saving the image as a JPEG.

Beta Profiles

If you have installed the beta profiles, you can go ahead and remove them using the following instructions specific to your operating system.

Go to the following folder (based on your operation system) and delete anything with the word “Beta” in it’s title. Then restart Lightroom and all should be good in the world again.

Mac: /Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/CameraProfiles
(note: the Library folder for Macintosh HD, not your user account)

Windows 2000 / XP: C:Documents and SettingsAll UsersApplication DataAdobeCameraRawCameraProfiles

Windows Vista: C:ProgramDataAdobeCameraRawCameraProfiles

Video Demo

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.0 Camera Calibration from Kerry Garrison on Vimeo.

Author: Kerry Garrison

1. DIY Photography
   (http://www.diyphotography.net)
   Udi does a terrific job at bringing alternative ways of lighting, shooting, and creating light modifiers to people without unlimited budgets.
2. John Nack’s Blog
   (http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/)
   John is the product manager for Photoshop and almost every day has a new blog entry with something interesting or cool to look at.
3. Photo Business News
   (http://photobusinessforum.blogspot.com/)
   John Harrington writes several times a week with news and information relevant to the business of photography. This is one of my must-read blogs every week.
4. Strobist
   (http://www.strobist.blogspot.com/)
   David Hobby has several posts a week that specialize in talking about working with small accessory flash units and getting the most out of them. This is definitely one of the best sites if you are into lighting.
5. Lightroom Journal
   (http://blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjournal/)
   This is the official blog from Adobe for Photoshop Lightroom. All official Lightroom news is posted here.
6. Lightroom Killer Tips
   (http://lightroomkillertips.com)
   Matt Kloskowski posts excellent tips and presets several times a week for Lightroom users.
7. Digital Pro Talk
   (http://digitalprotalk.blogspot.com/)
   This is the home of David Ziser, one of the top wedding photographers in the world. David is one of the most prolific bloggers around and posts awesome shooting and lighting tips virtually every day. He posts so much that its hard to keep up with all of his posts. This is another must-read site.
8. Flash Flavor
   (http://flashflavor.com/)
   Matt Adcock takes some of the most amazing photos you will see anywhere and is simply an inspiration to go through and see what he is doing and how he does it.
9. Digital Photography School
   (http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/)
   This site from Darren Rowse is chock full of good tips and tutorials with new content on a regular basis.
10. Rob Galbraith DPI
    (http://www.robgalbraith.com)
    Rob always has good information and is often the first with breaking news.
11. TWIP
    (http://twipphoto.com/)
    Although known more for their podcast than their blog, the This Week in Photography blog has a new post every day. Maybe someday CameraDojo will get mentioned on their show (hint hint) – wow, CameraDojo got mentioned on their site today!
12. Photoshop Insider
    (http://scottkelby.com)
    Another site with several new posts every week from Scott as well as regular guest bloggers.
13. 1001 Noisy Cameras
    (http://www.1001noisycameras.com)
    With new info more often than you change your underwear, 1001 Noisy Cameras may never win a design excellence award but certainly is at the top of most lists of useful and informative sites.
14. Pro Photo Life
    (http://www.prophotolife.com)
    This site from Jim Talkington amazes me that I don’t see it on most “top sites” lists like this. Jim does regular video tutorials and the wealth of content on his site is awesome. If you aren’t visiting this site every week, you are missing out on some fantastic stuff.
15. PhotoJojo
    (http://photojojo.com)
    You don’t even have to remember to go to PhotoJojo, this is a twice a week newsletter that is emailed to you with cool stuff in every email. Sign up and never miss it.
16. Photo Walk Pro
    (http://www.revellphotography.com/blog/)
    Jeff Revell’s site is another often-0verlooked site since many people think it is just about photo walking. Jeff also does a good amount of tips and tutorials for shooting and for working with Photoshop.
17. The Pioneer Woman
    (http://thepioneerwoman.com/photography/)
    Ree Drummond must be the most amazing woman on the planet, with multiple blogs about her life including photography, cooking, home and garden, and more she is a non-stop blogging phenomenon. While her sites appeal mostly to women, her photography stuff appeals to everyone.
18. Lighting Essentials
    (http://www.lighting-essentials.com)
    This is another excellent site for tutorials on lighting. Don Giannatti is an awesome photographer and is bringing his knowledge and experience into this website.
19. DPReview
    (http://dpreview.com)
    If you just have to know everything there is to know about camera bodies and lenses, DPReview is the encyclopedia of all camera knowledge when it comes to specs and unbiased technical reviews.
20. AllTop
    (http://photography.alltop.com/)
    Alltop.com is the brainchild of Guy Kawasaki and the photography section is filling up with a great list of photography sites. Bookmark this page there and never have a lack of reading material.

While there are dozens of other sites out there that are all worthy of being on any list like this, I decided I was going to stick to the top 20 sites that I personally use. Please add your own favorites into the comments.

Links from the show

Photography Mentor (http://photographymentor.com)
Robert Evans (http://robertevans.com)
Engage Film (http://engagingfilms.com)
Robert’s Twitter (http://twitter.com/RobertEvans)
Issuu (http://issuu.com)

Show Hosts

Kerry Garrison (http://kerrygarrison.com)

This podcast is also available on iTunes.

What is selective Focus?

We have talked about selective focus here numerous times using depth of field (here) (here) (here) and lenses such as the Lensbaby 3G. Selective focus simply means that the main subject of the image is in sharp focus while the rest of the image is blurred out, this forces the viewer’s eye to the section of the image that we want them to be looking at. This can have a dramatic effect on the image and give it a much more dramatic feel. The problem with simply using aperture settings to control the selective focus is it doesn’t allow you to control the shape, direction, direction, or opacity of the blur effect. With a Lensbaby lens you have more control over the sweet spot of the focus area but you are limited to a round pattern and you don’t have some of the other controls either, and you can’t do a true tilt-shift effect with a Lensbaby lens. With a tilt-shift lens you have more control in the different directions but you still can’t control some of the effect, a tilt-shift lens will also set you back over $1,000. This is where Focal Point comes in. You can use your high quality auto-focus glass to take a great picture, and then add a variety of selective focus effects to the image in post production.

Lensbaby Image

Comparison to using a specialty lens

Before jumping to conclusions, bear in mind that I am a fan of the Lensbaby lenses and I use them at different times to achieve a look that I know how to get in-camera. I have the new Lensbaby Composer and have a review of it coming as well. I know what that lens will do and I use it to create images like the one you can see here. You get a sweet spot where the lens is pointing and then there is a blurring effect that gets more intense the further away from the sweet spot you get. If you are a huge fan of doing things in-camera, then a Lensbaby is a great lens to use. However, the amount of effects that you can get is limited. If you have the time to swap lenses and get the image dialed in, the effect is very cool. If you don’t have a Lensbaby, or if you find later that you have a great shot that would have been even better with that effect, then you are out of luck without a re-shoot. With Focal Point, we can now add the effect in post production and get very similar results.

What can we get with Focal Point?

The best way to see what Focal Point can do is to take a look at several before and after images for comparison.

Original Shot		Focal Point Effect
Original Shot		Focal Point Effect

Using Focal Point

Focal Point installs as a Photoshop plug-in for Photoshop CS3 or CS4. Once launched you can move the “Focus Bug” around to select your sweet spot, and then grab on the handle to adjust the effect. You also have 3D effects that can control the focal plane by holding down the alt key on Windows or the Option key on the Mac and dragging within the focus bug.

Focal Point Plug-In Interface

On the right side of the interface are sliders for fine tuning the effect as well as adding a vignette effect and film grain into the blurred image. Any of the settings can then be saved as a preset for easy access at a later time.

Key Features of Focal Point

While we have mentioned most of them already, let’s take a quick look at the key features of the Focal Point plug-in:

• Focus Bug
  This unique control gives you very simple control over the effects. Just drag and click to move the sweet spot or to adjust the amount of effect.
• Aperture Shape
  While we have only looked at the round shape so far, you can also use a planer shape that simulates narrow depth of field that is often used with food or macro photography or for simulating the miniature effect that you can get with a tilt-shift lens.
• 3D Tilt
  As mentioned, you can adjust the tilt of the sweet spot to create the effect of a tilt-shift or view camera.
• Blur Types
  You can choose from a standard “defocused” look or add a bit of motion to the blur
• Add Layer Mask
  By default (you can turn this off if you want) a new layer is created in Photoshop containing the image with the effect applied. This allows you to change the opacity of the layer or paint out areas that you don’t want affected.
• Vignettes
  Focal Point allows you to add either a dark or light vignette effect to the image with the ability to adjust the amount of the vignette as well as the midpoint.
• Presets
  If you have created an effect that you like and may want to use again, you can save it as a preset within Focal Point so you can easily apply it to another image later.
• Film Grain
  While you may not think you want to add grain to an image, adding the film grain effect to the blurred image will help to maintain a realistic image as well as prevent posterization during printing.

System Requirements

Macintosh

• Mac OS X 10.4.10, 10.5 or Higher
• 1 GHz or faster G5 or Intel Core Processor(s)
• 1GB RAM (2GB+ recommended)
• 25 MB hard disk space for installation
• OpenGL 1.5 Compatible video card with 128MB VRAM at 1024×768 or higher.
• Adobe Photoshop CS2 (9.0.2) CS3 or Elements 4.0.1 and higher.
• Internet Connection & Flash 9 player
• Adobe Acrobat 6 Reader or higher

Windows

• Windows XP SP2, Vista or Higher
• 1 GHz or faster Pentium 4 processor(s) or equivalent
• 1GB RAM (2GB+ recommended)
• 25MB hard disk space for installation
• OpenGL 1.5 Compatible video card with 128MB VRAM at 1024×768 or higher.
• Adobe Photoshop CS2, CS3 or Elements 5 and higher
• Internet Connection & Flash 9 player
• Adobe Acrobat 6 Reader or higher
• Microsoft dotNET Framework 2.0 or higher

Focal Point Demo

Here is a video of Focal Point in action so you can get a feel for how it works.

Focal Point Demo from Kerry Garrison on Vimeo.

Results

Focal Point retails for $159.95 which puts it into the mid-range of prices for lenses from Lensbaby and is significantly cheaper than a tilt-shift lens.  Given that you have more control with Focal Point than you do with any type of lens, its hard to argue the value of Focal Point. There are certainly people like myself who enjoy using specialty lenses as they force you to slow down and really think about the image you are trying to make. Even for me though, there are times when I look at an image and wish I would have broke out the Lensbaby to take the shot and now I can get the effect that I want in post production. The effect that Focal Point creates may not be for everyone but if you shoot weddings, food, macro, still life, or nature shots, then Focal Point can add a new dimension to your images.

Product Review Scorecard

Product Page: http://www.ononesoftware.com/detail.php?prodLine_id=35
Company Page: http://ononesoftware.com

Author: Kerry Garrison

PX System Pricing:
$249 PX Transmitter
$249 PX Receiver

JrX System Pricing:
$99 JrX Transmitter + JrX Receiver Basic Kit
$129 JrX Transmitter + JrX Receiver Studio Kit
$69 JrX Transmitter Individual
$59 JrX Receiver Basic Individual
$89 JrX Receiver Studio Individual
$50 Aftermarket Software Upgrade (Basic -> Studio)

For more information and a video showing the new products, please visit: http://radiopopper.com/blog/

We think there is a little something for everyone in this interview and hope you enjoy it as much as we did recording it. Please stop by her site and let her know if you enjoyed listening to her.

Show Hosts

Kerry Garrison (http://kerrygarrison.com)
David Esquire (http://esquirephotography.com)

This podcast is also available on iTunes.

With Extreme 24.5-Megapixel Resolution, Processed Image Files Exceeding 138 MB, Five Frame-per-Second Burst Speed and Nikon Core Technologies, the D3X Ushers in a New Level of Image Quality

MELVILLE, N.Y. (Nov. 30, 2008) - Nikon Inc. today announced the D3X, an FX-format digital SLR featuring extreme 24.5-megapixel resolution and superb low-noise capabilities, which provides professional photographers with commercial-quality image performance in a familiar and extraordinarily versatile D-SLR form factor. In conjunction with the groundbreaking Nikon FX-format D3, the D3X tops off a collection of flagship level, rugged, professional caliber digital single lens reflex cameras engineered to excel in all types of professional photographic disciplines from photojournalism and sideline sports, to commercial in-studio applications.

The foundation of the enhanced performance of the D3X is its FX-format, 24.5-megapixel (6048 x 4032) CMOS sensor providing commercial, high fashion, fine art and landscape photographers with the extreme resolution, dynamic range, color depth, detail and sharpness that clients demand. Whether creating catalogs, magazine covers, billboards or gallery prints, the large 5.49-micron pixel size and high signal to noise ratio produces vibrant images with breathtaking image fidelity while reducing lost highlights and shadows, and ensuring smoother tone reproduction with minimized noise. With full resolution shooting speeds of up to five frames-per-second (fps), and 14-bit files, that when processed are approximately 138 MB, the D3X offers today’s photographic artists an extreme level of performance and versatility ready for demanding assignments in the studio or on location.

“In 2007, the 12.1-megapixel FX-format D3 delivered groundbreaking digital SLR image quality, coupled with incomparable high ISO, low noise performance and high-speed handling. In doing so, the D3 broke photographic barriers, enabling photographers to work in ways never before possible,†said Edward Fasano, general manager for Marketing, SLR Systems Products at Nikon Inc. “Now, the new 24.5-megapixel FX-format D3X D-SLR provides the extreme resolution and high dynamic range capabilities needed to meet the extraordinary needs of photographic disciplines such as high fashion, commercial advertising and fine art. The D3X delivers this remarkable capability while fitting seamlessly within the Nikon system, taking full advantage of Nikon’s world-renowned collection of NIKKOR lenses and Speedlights.â€

Image Quality Takes Center Stage
To re-emphasize the importance of image quality above all else, the D3X delivers an incredible level of digital SLR performance to provide photographers with extremely high resolution, exceptional dynamic range, phenomenal total gradation and outstanding color reproduction. Image files can be recorded as TIFF, JPEG or NEF (RAW) formats in either 12- or 14-bit compressed or uncompressed formats, and recorded to UDMA compatible CompactFlashâ„¢ cards for optimum speed. Photographers can save image files directly to the dual card slots as overflow, backup, or as separate file formats to different cards. Building on the D3X’s flexibility, users have the creative option to shoot in the 5:4 crop mode with 20.4-megapixel resolution, the ideal format for creating 8 x 10-inch portraits. While using DX-format lenses, faster continuous shooting of up to seven frames per second can be achieved at a resolution of 10.5 megapixels.

The exceptionally low noise of the D3X is essential to any professional commercial application, and it provides photographers with an ISO range of 100 to 1600, expandable to 50 (Lo-1) and 6400 (Hi-2). The ultra smooth tones and lack of grain at ISO 1600 as well as at low sensitivity settings result in smooth, natural skin tones and exacting detail that, before the D3X, required larger and far costlier studio-bound camera systems.

Advanced Technologies, Meticulously Executed
In a commercial setting or on location, imaging professionals need high performance in both speed and processing. The Nikon D3X can shoot at up to five fps at full resolution or up to seven fps in DX crop mode, allowing photographers to catch the split-second difference in a model’s expression or capture all of the action in a sequence. Just like the D3, the D3X achieves a start-up time of a mere 0.12 seconds and a shutter release time lag of 0.04 seconds.

The D3X’s speed, as well as high levels of performance, leverages Nikon core technologies including a newly enhanced EXPEED™ Image Processing System, specially designed for the D3X to provide superior image quality, faster processing speeds and lower power consumption. This advanced system is able to achieve extremely precise color reproduction for a broad spectrum of hues, in addition to vivid saturation and smooth gradation. What’s more, Nikon’s advanced noise processing function is engineered to minimize noise at all sensitivities and operate seamlessly without interfering with other image color parameters.

The D3X also features Nikon’s exclusive Scene Recognition System, which continuously analyzes information from the 1,005-pixel RGB light sensor, to further refine auto exposure, auto white balance and autofocus calculations. This results in flattering portraits and awe-inspiring landscapes that portray accurate color and fine details. Nikon’s exclusive 3D Color Matrix Metering II helps ensure accurate exposures, even in the most challenging lighting conditions. Instantly evaluating each scene before capture, input data from the system’s sensor is automatically referenced against an internal database of more than 30,000 images derived from actual photographs to calculate correct exposure values. Active D-Lighting, used in combination with 3D Matrix Metering II, helps to determines proper exposure, and creates realistic contrast while compensating for lost shadows and highlights. Prior to shooting, users can choose from Extra High, High, Normal, Low or Off settings, as well as an Auto mode.

Additionally, the D3X features Nikon’s exclusive Multi-CAM 3500FX focus module, with 51 AF points, 15 cross type sensors and 36 horizontal sensors that easily track and lock onto moving subjects, delivering the same fast and accurate AF performance that helped make the D3 immediately successful. Users can select any of the AF points, making it easy to consistently attain accurate focus right on a subject’s eyes, frame after frame. Additionally, three AF-area modes – Single point, Dynamic-area AF and Auto-area AF – are available to maximize the use of the 51 focus points by selecting the most suitable one to match subject conditions. AF is also available in one of two Live View modes optimized for the studio, including a phase detection handheld mode and a tripod mode. This feature allows the user to zoom in up to 27x on the LCD screen to ensure critical focus. While in Live View, the graphic indication of a virtual horizon is also available, making it easier than ever to confirm camera orientation.

To further ensure each photographer’s ability to balance their personal style, Nikon’s Picture Control System enables users to adjust their images to pre-set parameters such as Standard, Neutral, Vivid and Monochrome that apply tweaks to image sharpening, tone compensation, brightness, overall tone and saturation. Photographers have creative control over these image parameters with the use of up to nine available customizable presets.

Synchronizing Both Form and Function
Engineered for real-world functionality, the D3X retains a rugged shell with moisture, dust and shock resistance that has become a hallmark of flagship Nikon D-SLRs, while preserving the usability and ergonomics that allow the camera to remain an extension of the photographer’s vision. Attention to detail goes so far as to include a self-diagnostic shutter system that is tested to exceed 300,000 cycles for maximum durability and longevity. The camera’s body also maintains the resilient magnesium alloy construction and form factor of the D3, promoting consistent Nikon system synergy.

A bright and accurate viewfinder offers 100 percent coverage with 0.7x magnification. The body also houses Nikon’s acclaimed 3.0-inch super density LCD screen, now relied upon by so many photographers. The high-resolution 920,000-dot screen is viewable at wide angles up to 170 degrees, and will allow photographers to quickly zoom in to confirm critical focus. Users can also output the video signal to an external display via HDMI to allow client viewing. Thanks to incredibly efficient internal circuitry, the D3X can capture up to 4400* shots per single charge of the camera’s Lithium ion battery.

System Strength Withstands the Test of Time
The D3X is fully compatible with Nikon’s Creative Lighting System (CLS) to give photographers a mobile lighting solution that is easy to manage. To further enhance mobility, the D3X is compatible with Nikon’s GP-1 GPS receiver to gather information such as latitude, longitude, altitude and date of shooting. Photographers can easily shoot tethered via USB, or use the WT-4a wireless transmitter to send images wirelessly when speed and mobility are essential. D3X users will also enjoy the system strength of more than 50 genuine NIKKOR lenses that provide outstanding sharpness and high resolution across a broad range of focal lengths.

Price and Availability
The Nikon D3X will be available at Nikon Authorized Professional Dealers starting December 2008, and will be available for an estimated selling price of $7999.95.**

* Based on CIPA Standards
** Estimated selling price listed is only an estimate. Actual prices are set by dealers and are subject to change at any time.

The plugin we will use is Timothy Armes’ LR2/Mogrify which uses ImageMajick to do things such as:

• Graphic watermarking
• Multiple text annotations
• Multiple borders
• Image resizing
• Adjust saturation and brightness
• Export against an ICC profile file

How much does this amazing plug-in cost? Well, it is free if you want to be limited to only exporting 10 images at a time. If you need to do more, than Timothy will accept any donation that you think is fair.

Installation
First off, we need to download LR2/Mogrify from Timothy Armes site at:

http://timothyarmes.com/lr2mogrify.php

Follow the installation instructions there for either Windows or Mac OSX. I won’t cover the installation since it is only a few simple steps.

Usage
Using LR2/Mogrify is as simple as using Lightroom’s existing Export function as the functions are added into the export utility. The easiest way to get things started is to create a new file in Photoshop with an empty (transparent) background and your logo on other layers. If you don’t have Photoshop, anything that can create a PNG or GIF with a transparent background will work.

From the Library module in Lightroom, select an image or images (up to 10 with the free version) and click on the Export button.

In the Post-Process actions enable the features you want like borders, or Graphical Watermark. In our case we will select the Graphic Watermark, select the file that we want to use, select the bottom left hand corner of the image, and resize the image if needed.

After you configure all the settings you want, click on the Export button to start the process. In a few seconds you have created your first watermarked images.

Here are a few images showing some different watermark styles as well as a multi-line border setup.

Who would have thought that doing advanced watermarking would be this easy? Please consider donating to Timothy for his hard work on bringing us a tool that provides the functionality that should have been included in Lightroom.

Below is a video showing exactly how this works:

Advanced watermarking with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom from Kerry Garrison on Vimeo.

Pixel Blender: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/pixelbender/
Pixel Blender Plugin Download: http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/pixelbender.html
Pixel Blender Exchange: http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/exchange/

Cloning and Stamping tool Live Preview with Photoshop CS4 from Kerry Garrison on Vimeo.

Kerry and David discuss the new features of Adobe Photoshop CS4 and give their impressions of Lightroom 2.1.

Kerry talks about OnOne Software’s Photoframe 4.0 and FocalPoint 1.0.

Before using FocalPoint

After using FocalPoint

Video Light Link
SUNPAK RL-20 Readylite 20 Video Light

Please feel free to send in your letters, questions, and comments to podcast@cameradojo.com, leave a message in the forums, or send us a message at twitter or facebook.

You can listen to this podcast now using our player widget in the right hand sidebar

This podcast is also available on iTunes.

Content Aware Scaling in Photoshop CS4 from Kerry Garrison on Vimeo.

The Adjustments Panel

Working with adjustment layers has always been a serious tool for hardcore Photoshop geeks, now this has been made much simpler with a new adjustments panel. This can be used to easily adjust Curves, Levels, Hue/Saturation, Vibrance, and more. New On-Image controls allow you to adjust colors in the image without the guesswork of trying to match a complex color. The panel features a wide range of modifiable presets for each type of control and more than 20 preconfigured, customizable starting points are included.

New to the masks is the concept of Density and Feathering to control how much of the mask is used. This is a huge improvement from before where deciding you wanted more or less effect would require constant redrawing of the mask.

Improved Dodge, Burn, and Sponge Tools

If you are a big fan of the dodge, burn, and sponge tools, one of the big issues in the past is that they could sometimes affect the color underneath in odd ways. The new versions of these tools work in a much more natural way and help you to make the adjustments you want while retaining tonal quality.

Improved Image Aligning and Panorama tools

CS3 has some really good photo merge tools and panorama tools, but CS4 takes these tools to all new levels. The improved algorithms improve blending, vignetting, and geometric distortion which results in much better final images. The blending tool can take multiple images of the same shot using different focal points and combine them into a single image with a greater depth of field.

Content Aware Scaling

Ok, this is some wicked cool sh** right here. What happens when you want to scale an image that has people in it? The people can get severly distorted ruining the new image. With content aware scaling, you can size an image and retain the original sizes of key elements like people. Using this you could change a horizontal image to a vertical image and the people or key objects in it will look the same while scaling the remaining parts of the image in a very natural and usually undetectable way.  When you see this in action, you will simply be amazed at what it can do.

Fluid Canvas Rotation

If you use a Wacom tablet or just need to view the world a little differently, you can now easily rotate the canvas around to make it easier to work on a it. Rotating the canvas does not affect the rotation of the actual image, this is simply a tool to make it easier for you to work on images by being able to look at it from different angles.

Smooth Pan/Zom and Flick effects

Some people may think that the new smooth pan/zoom and “flick” effects are just for show, but as you begin to use them you will see how much nicer it is to smoothly zoom in and out of an image and be able to toss the image around as if “flicking” it with your finger. The built-in physics engine makes this new way of dealing with images much more natural.

Bridge

I have always hated Bridge, I’m not afraid to admit it, it was slow, real slow, painfully slow to start up and slow to use. Even on my new quad core system with a nice video card, I still didn’t like Bridge. But get ready you fellow Bridge haters, Bridge is one sweet tool now. Not only is Bridge faster, but it has been improved in a number of areas. There are several new views such as Carousel view which makes working with large numbers of images signifigantly faster. Bridge now also has a PDF-based contact-sheet creator and preview along with web gallery tools. Bridge has certainly grown up and is more integrated into the majority of the CS4 tools besides just Photoshop.

Camera Raw 5

Take the Develop module tools from Lightroom 2.0 and put them all into Camera Raw and you now have Camera Raw 5. And I do mean virtually all of the tools like port-crop vignetting, the gradient filter tool, and the local adjustment brush tool. Unfortunately, Lightroom Develop presets are not available in Camera Raw.

Smarter Smart Objects

Smart Objects were introduced with CS4 and made a huge impact on how you dealt with new objects. With CS4, Smart Objects can now accept perspective transformations.

64 Bit Support (Windows 64 ONLY)

As a HUGE shocker to long time Macintosh users, the advantage this year goes to 64 bit Windows systems. Apple changed a bunch of things without telling Adobe and thus Adobe had to pull 64 bit support out of the Macintosh version. Are Mac users going to have to switch to Vista 64? Not really, only the heaviest of users is going to see much of a performance difference according to sources at Adobe.

Live Preview for Clone Stamp and Healing Brushes

As cool as the cloning tool and healing brushes are, the results have always been somewhat black magic, you just never really knew what you werew going to get. The new versions of these tools provide a live preview for easier and more precise cloning and healing results.

Availability and pricing
Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended is now available in North America for an estimated street price of US$999. Adobe Photoshop CS4 will be available for an estimated street price of US$699. Both can be obtained directly from Adobe or through Adobe Authorized Resellers.

To order directly from Adobe, visit the Adobe Store at www.adobe.com or call
1-800-833-6687.

Licensed owners of Photoshop CS3 Extended, Photoshop CS2, or Photoshop CS can upgrade to Photoshop CS4 Extended for US$349.

Licensed owners of Photoshop CS3, Photoshop CS2, or Photoshop CS can upgrade to Adobe Photoshop CS4 for US$199.
Licensed owners of Photoshop 5 or 6 can upgrade to Photoshop CS4 Extended for $899 or Photoshop CS4 for $599.
Licensed owners of Photoshop CS3 Extended, Photoshop CS3, Photoshop CS2, or Photoshop CS are also eligible for special upgrade pricing to certain editions of Adobe Creative Suite 4.

Press Release:

Canon brings HD moviemaking and 4fps shooting to its PowerShot super zoom series

United Kingdom / Republic of Ireland, 17 September 2008: Canon today supercharges its PowerShot digital compact camera range with two powerful new models: the 10 Megapixel PowerShot SX1 IS and PowerShot SX10 IS, which jointly replace the PowerShot S5 IS.

Both raise the benchmark for compact zooms with an outstanding 20x wide-angle (28mm) optical zoom, with USM and VCM for fast, silent, zooming. The  PowerShot SX1 IS offers a revolutionary series of features never seen before on a Canon compact camera – a 10 Megapixel Canon CMOS sensor, 4 frames per second continuous shooting, and full HD movie capture – while both cameras use Canon’s new DIGIC 4 processor for fast performance and richly detailed, clean images in a wide range of shooting situations.

Unbeatable reach
With a Canon 20x wide-angle (28mm) optical zoom lens, the PowerShot SX1 IS and PowerShot SX10 IS tackle everything from long-range telephoto shots to sweeping landscapes. Canon’s Ultrasonic Motor (USM) combines with Voice Coil Motor (VCM) technology for near-silent operation and the speed for sports or wildlife subjects. And thanks to Canon’s optical Image Stabilizer – which now offers a 4-stop advantage – camera shake blur is avoided even with the zoom fully extended.

10 Megapixel power
The PowerShot SX1 IS and PowerShot SX10 IS feature resolutions of 10 Megapixels, capturing all the necessary detail for poster-size prints or creative cropping in post processing. A Canon CMOS sensor allows the PowerShot SX1 IS to shoot full-resolution JPEGs at speeds of up to 4fps – making it a powerful, pocket-sized tool ideal for capturing fast-paced action sequences.

High Definition moviemaking
For the ultimate in visual quality, the PowerShot SX1 IS delivers 1080p (30fps) High Definition video – ready for instant playback on any HDTV via a built-in HDMI connection. The PowerShot SX10 IS offers fun, spontaneous VGA movie shooting. Movies on both cameras are enhanced with CD quality stereo sound, optical zooming and Face Detection Technology; and if extra reach is required, the PowerShot SX1 IS includes Canon’s Advanced Tele-Converter for an extra 2x zoom with no loss in movie quality.

DIGIC 4: intelligent processing for better photos
The PowerShot SX1 IS and PowerShot SX10 IS both feature Canon’s new DIGIC 4 image processor. As well as ensuring ultra-fast operation and superb, low-noise images, DIGIC 4 drives several intelligent technologies that make great photos easier than ever.

People shots benefit from improved Face Detection Technology, which even detects faces positioned at an angle to the camera, or in profile. Face Select & Track tracks a specific subject even more accurately, while a new FaceSelf-timer function – which automatically triggers the shutter shortly after a new face enters the frame – makes group shots and self-portraits easy.

Canon’s improved Motion Detection Technology delivers fantastic, sharp results by registering camera and subject movement, then automatically adjusting ISO to prevent image blur. Blur is further guarded against by new Servo AF, which continuously adjusts focus on subjects moving towards or away from the camera.

DIGIC 4 also powers Canon’s new i-Contrast feature, which brings out great, natural-looking detail in dark areas of pictures – without blowing out lighter areas.

Total Control
For the ultimate creative precision, the PowerShot SX1 IS and PowerShot SX10 IS offer full manual control over both aperture and shutter speed. A Multi Control Dial offers fingertip access to all key settings. Plus, compatibility with a range of accessories – including Canon’s professional Speedlite EX flash units – extends creative potential even further.

Also included with the PowerShot SX1 IS is Canon’s WC-DC300 controller, which allows wireless control of shooting and playback. This is ideal for tripod shots at slow shutter speeds, or any situation where keeping a distance from the camera is preferable.

“Both of these cameras offer exceptional imaging possibilities,†said Mogens Jensen, Head of Canon Consumer Imaging, Europe. “In particular, the PowerShot SX1 IS genuinely redefines what a compact digital camera can do. This kind of power and versatility must be experienced to be believed.â€

Pricing & Availability
The PowerShot SX1 IS is available from December priced at £519.99 / €679.99 RRP inc VAT
The PowerShot SX10 IS is available from October priced at £359.99 / €469.99 RRP inc VAT

Features at a glance:

• 20x wide-angle (28mm, f/2.8) optical zoom with optical Image Stabilizer
• 10.0 Megapixels
• Canon CMOS sensor for full resolution continuous 4fps shooting (PowerShot SX1 IS)
• Full HD (1080p, 30fps) movies plus HDMI output (PowerShot SX1 IS)
• DIGIC 4 for outstanding images and fast response times
• Shooting modes include full manual control
• Great people shots with Face Detection AF/AE/FE/WB plus Face Select & Track and FaceSelf-Timer
• Targets every possible cause of blur with High ISO Auto, optical Image Stabilizer, Motion Detection Technology and Servo AF
• Auto Red-Eye Correction in shooting and playback
• i-Contrast boosts brightness and retains detail in dark areas
• 2.5†vari-angle LCD II with wide viewing angle plus electronic viewfinder (PowerShot SX10 IS)
• 2.8†widescreen vari-angle LCD II with wide viewing angle (PowerShot SX1 IS)
• Multi Control Dial and customizable My Menu
• Smooth, 30fps VGA movies (PowerShot SX10 IS)

• 21.1 Megapixel Full-frame CMOS sensor, 14-bit A/D conversion (16,384 colors/each of 3 primary color), wide range ISO setting of 100-6400 (expandable L: 50, H1: 12800 and H2: 25600).
• Full HD Video capture at 1920 x 1080 resolution for up to 4GB per clip with HDMI output for HD viewing of stills and video.
• Next generation DIGIC 4 Image Processor for faster processing of fine detail and color reproduction as well as reduced image noise.
• High performance with 3.9 fps continuous shooting, new shutter with a durability of 150,000 cycles and improved weather-resistant body.
• Live View Function for stills (Quick, Live and Face Detection AF modes) and video.
• 3.0-inch Clear View LCD (920,000 dots/VGA) monitor with anti-reflective and scratch-resistant coatings for improved viewing and smudge protection.
• Updated EOS Integrated Cleaning System specifically designed to work with a full-frame sensor.
• Compatible with over 60 Canon EF/EF-S lenses and most EOS System accessories.

The EOS 5D Mark II features a huge, full-frame sensor. A 21.1-megapixel CMOS sensor delivers images of up to 5616 x 3744 pixels. And since it is full-frame, all lenses will deliver the angle of view they would on a 35mm camera without a conversion factor. This comes in handy especially when shooting with wide-angle lenses. For the flexibility to shoot in even the most dimly lit situations, the EOS 5D Mark II offers Canon’s highest ISO sensitivity to date, ranging from 100-6400 (expandable to ISO L: 50, H1: 12800 and H2: 25600). Thanks to improved noise reduction technologies, images shot even at highest sensitivity will be remarkably smooth.

The Canon EOS 5D is slated to ship towards the end of November 2008 at an expected street price of US$2699 in the U.S.

New plug-in for Photoshop® and Aperture™ incorporates
U Point® technology for precise selective sharpening

Las Vegas, NV — September 4, 2008 (Photoshop World, Booth #321) — Nik Software today announced the latest version of its popular Sharpener Pro photographic plug-in for use with Adobe® Photoshop® and Apple® Aperture™. Designed for professionals and photo enthusiasts, Sharpener Pro 3.0 is the most advanced and powerful sharpening solution for photographers, eliminating the guesswork typically required for achieving superior and consistent results.

Now featuring Nik Software’s patented U Point technology, Sharpener Pro 3.0 enables photographers to selectively sharpen objects within their images. U Point powered Control Points are easy to use and offer precise control over sharpening intensity without the need to create complicated selections and layer masks.

“Sharpener Pro 3.0 has been dramatically improved with a range of new features, including powerful creative sharpening tools, a soft proofing option, and integrated U Point technology,†said Michael J. Slater president and CEO of Nik Software. “This new version of Sharpener Pro offers the most comprehensive tools for optimally sharpening images for any output device while also offering photographers the complete control they expect,†Slater concluded.

Key Features

• New U Point Powered Control Points—Enables precise, selective sharpening control
• Updated Output Sharpening—Provides the ultimate control to create perfectly sharpened images on all devices and media types such as display, inkjet, continuous tone, half tone, and hybrid tone
• New Creative Sharpening—Enhances fine details and textures with new structure, focus, and local contrast tools for drawing attention to desired areas within the image
• New Industry-First Sharpening Soft Proof—Allows detailed inspection of sharpening results on screen before printing, eliminating costly test prints
• New Output Presets—Enables custom settings to be saved for consistent, professional results
• Updated RAW Presharpener—Retains and enhances sharp details within images without amplifying noise and other artifacts
• Updated Powerful Selective Tool (Photoshop only)—Enables the use of Photoshop’s brush tools to paint in sharpening selectively
• New Smart Filter Support (Photoshop only)—Provides compatibility with Adobe Photoshop’s Smart Objects enabling adjustments to sharpening after Sharpener Pro has been applied
• New Multi-Image Support (Aperture only)—Provides compatibility with Aperture’s multi-image support, allowing photographers to easily copy and paste settings between images to maintain consistency

Pricing and Availability

Sharpener Pro 3.0 will be available in September for electronic delivery directly from Nik Software (www.niksoftware.com) in four languages (English, French, German, and Spanish) and will be available through specialty camera retailers in October of 2008. A complete list of resellers may be found at www.niksoftware.com/resellers.

The suggested retail price of Sharpener Pro 3.0 is $199.95. Upgrades from any previous version are available for $99.95. Sharpener Pro 3.0 installs as a plug-in for either Adobe Photoshop or Apple Aperture 2.1 and is available for Windows and Macintosh operating systems, including Vista and Leopard. For more information about Sharpener Pro 3.0, including video tutorials showing the software running within Photoshop and Aperture and a free 15-day fully functional trial version, please visit www.niksoftware.com/sharpenerpro.

About Nik Software

Nik Software, Inc. is a privately held company that develops software solutions for the growing digital imaging and photography markets. Established in 1995, Nik Software has become the recognized leader in digital photographic filter development and produces award-winning technology and software products for digital photography and imaging professionals including U Point® technology (www.upoint.com), Dfine®, Viveza™, Color Efex Pro™, Silver Efex Pro™, and Sharpener Pro™ software.

I have been a fan of Wolverine products for almost four years now and my trusty Wolverine FlashPac was in need of an upgrade. Not that the FlashPac didn’t do it’s job, its just that it was pretty slow and didn’t have a display that could be used to view the images. Without hesitation I turned back to Wolverine to see what they had available and I found the new ESP Digital Photo Album and Multimedia Player. While the full name may be a bit long, it does convey a lot more of the ESP’s features as well as being a card reader, external hard drive, and FM radio.

Overview
The ESP is an incredible multimedia device that can handle most all of your portable multimedia needs from listening to MP3′s, watching videos, playing a photo slideshow, or listening to FM radio. While many people will love all of those features, from a photographers point of view the most important things to me are the ability to do backups of my compact flash cards in the field, review the pictures on the device, and to have a portable device to show potential clients a slideshow of my work. The ESP does all of these tasks quite well and at a price that won’t make you wonder why you didn’t just buy a nice laptop instead.

Top view of the ESP

Features
As already mentioned the ESP has a multi-function card reader that can either make backups to the internal hard drive of the ESP or when connected to your computer’s USB port your cards will appear of drives that you can access directly.

• Store and View Thousands of Photos

• • Download images directly from any digital camera without a computer
  • Use it to backup and carry all your digital images
  • Display JPEG, Bitmap, Tiff, Text and RAW images (most popular SLR Cameras)
  • Print directly to printers

• Store and Play Thousands of Songs

• • Supports five music Formats: MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV, AAC (MP4-audio) & CDA
  • Easy, drag and drop music files from your computer and play them instantly

• Store and Play Hundreds of Hours of Video

• • Supports: MPEG-1, MPEG-4, WMV9 and Xvid

• Built-in FM Radio

• • Listen and RECORD your favorite talk shows or music from any FM Radio Station
  • Scan and preset up to 18 different Radio Stations

• Plugs to TV and Stereo System

• • With the included Video/Audio cable connect the ESP directly to any TV or Projector
  • View a slide show of your favorite photos or watch recorded videos on the big screen
  • Connect to a stereo system to enjoy and share your music collection

Setup
The setup of the ESP is quite simple, it comes with both an AC adapter and a USB cable, be sure and plug it in until fully charged before using it the first time, after that the simple to navigate menu system walks you through everything you need to know.

“The ESP was a lifesaver for us at a fashion shoot when the assistant left the CF cards back in the car. With the ESP we would fill up a card, tell everyone to take a five minute break, dump the cards to the ESP and get right back to shooting.” – David , Esquire Photography

ESP Controls

Usage
The ESP’s operating system is very simple to use and works the way I would expect it to, when I insert a card it pops up and asks me what I want to do with it, I select backup and it just starts working. The main controls consist of the “joystick”, a menu button, and the ESC button.

Using just these three simple controls you can manage everything on the system. The “-” and “+” buttons control volume. The only other control is the power button on the right side as well as a lock control to keep the power from coming on accidentally.

At the bottom you can see a small mic port for doing audio notes and near the top are the LED indicator lights.

The has an optional docking station that can also be used for capturing video and audio from remote devices. Since I don’t have a use for that right now I didn’t get one yet to see how that works.

ESP Menu System

The menu system is an icon driven system with easy-to-read captions to help you navigate. Pushing left/right or up/down on the directional pad will move you from application to application and then pushing in will select the item. The Menu key will give you a list of available options from wherever you are while the ESC key will back you out one step at a time.

The main thing to keep in mind is that images that are backed up from a memory card are found in the Backup application instead of the Pictures application. You have to specifically copy images into the Pictures folder for them to be viewed there. This is a great way of having a photo slideshow of images without getting confused as to what images are from your current photo shoot.

What I actually like to do is to backup my images to the ESP and then if I have time, review them for focus issues or just for being a bad image, I can delete them right from the ESP and save time later when importing the images into my computer.

ESP playing video

For client meetings, I also created a couple of really nice slideshows using Proshow Gold and output them formatted properly for the ESP. Let me tell you, the image shown here does not do the ESP justice, the screen may only be 320×240 but the slideshows and pictures look fantastic on it. So far, everyone that has seen the slideshow videos on the ESP have been very impressed.

The ESP has a bunch of other features that I could spend a few more pages writing about but they really don’t have much appeal to me, these include the mp3 player, the FM radio, the audio recorder, and the Tetris-like game that is included. While those are nice add-ons, they really aren’t the main reason a photographer is going to want the ESP.

Tested Transfer Speeds (1gb of data)

Reader to Computer    3:31 minutes
Reader to ESP    3:43 minutes
ESP to Computer    1:44 minutes

Why the ESP?
Why would I choose the Wolverine ESP over the Epson P-5000? The simple answer is a cost/benefit analysis blows the Epson out of the running. For almost twice the price of the Wolverine ESP, the Epson P-5000 offers basically a nicer screen. When the folks at Wolverine decided to make a new device, they interviewed tons of photographers and asked them what they would like to see that would compete against the Epson units and the top answer was that they wanted a much more affordable device even if it meant having a lower resolution LCD display.  If I am going to spend $800 for a portable media device, its going to be a new laptop, not a small box I throw into my camera bag and use mostly as an external drive and card reader. Coming in at $329, the ESP is much more affordable and does it’s job exceptionally well. It’s a nice upgrade from my old FlashPac in terms of functions and download speeds which is a nice bonus as well.

What’s in the box
In the box you will find the ESP unit itself along with the nice quality carrying case along with the user documentation and CD, AC charger, USB cable, Audio/Video cable (to connect to TV), and Earphone.

Summary
The Wolverine ESP competes nicely against other units offering similar features and at a price that doesn’t give you sticker shock. The base features do exactly what they are supposed to do while there are enough extras to add even more value to the package. I don’t leave for a shoot without my ESP in my bag and often will be making my backups of my cards on the drive home. With my old Flashpac I would have to be quite far away to actually finish a large backup on the drive home but now it takes a fraction of the time.

Final results:

Website: Wolverine Data
Author: Kerry Garrison

Features

The official feature list is show here, we will dig into more of these later on:

• New 15.1 Megapixel CMOS sensor with improved noise reduction, wide range ISO 100-3200 (H1: 6400, H2: 12800), 14-bit conversion for smooth color tones and gradations.
• Next generation DIGIC 4 Image Processor for faster processing, 6.3 fps up to 90 JPEGS using UDMA CF cards; 60 consecutive JPEGS or 16 RAW using standard CF cards.
• 3.0-inch Clear View LCD (920,000 dots/VGA) with multiple coatings for improved viewing and smudge-resistant protection.
• Enhanced Live View shooting includes Face Detection Live mode.
• 9 cross-type high-precision sensors for accurate target subject acquisition and diagonal center cross-type AF point with f/2.8 and faster lenses.
• New Lens Peripheral Illumination Correction setting to automatically even the brightness across the image.
• Updated EOS Integrated Cleaning System with a fluorine coating for better resistance to dust.
• Creative Auto goes a step beyond full auto with on screen setting display.
• HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) output for displaying full high-resolution images on a High Definition TV.
• Compatible with over 60 Canon EF/EF-S lenses and most EOS System accessories.

The new sensor

As expected, a new sensor is built into the 50D that improves the light gathering ability by using bigger micro lenses over each pixel. Effectivily this will give you 1 to 1.5 stop of better noise reduction allowing you to shoot at ISO 3200 and have images that have noise that is closer to what ISO 1600 looks like on the 40D. Like the previous 20,30,40, the 50D is an APS-C sized sensor giving is a 1.6x crop factor and delivers images at 4752w x 3168h pixels. The integrated cleaning system is also claimed to work better than the one built into the 40D.

The new processor
The next generation of the Digic processor, the Digic IV is debuted in the 50D. This new processor is claimed to be 30% faster than the Digic III and provides a plethora of new features.

• Full size RAW (15.06 megapixels), sRAW1 (7.12 megapixelss) and sRAW2 (3.76 megapixels)
• Three levels of High ISO Noise Reduction
• Three increments of Auto Lighting Optimizer
• Peripheral Illumination Correction – This is a vignette control based on profiles of Canon lenses
• ISO 100 – 3200 is standard along with extended ISO of 6400 and 12,800
  

Better Storage

Although many of us were hoping for dual card slots, the 50D still sports a single Compact Flash slot although support of UDMA makes for faster read/write speeds.

Better LCD

The LCD on the rear has been improved with more resolution giving you 920,000 pixels which now gives you even great clarity than previous models. The Live Mode provided through the read LCD has also been improved with two types of autofocus now available including a simple quick mode that toggles the Live View off while the camera performs the focus and Live autofocus that uses contrast detection like we saw possible when using DSLR Remote Pro for tethered shooting. Like many new point and shoots, the 50D now has face detection when using the Live Mode autofocusing.

Shipping and Price

The EOS 50D is supposed to be available sometime in October at $1,399. As the camera gets closer to the release date I am sure more information will become available, especially from some of the sites that get pre-production units to test.

For a detailed hands-on preview of the 50D, check out: http://www.dpreview.com/previews/canoneos50d/

Source: http://www.usa.canon.com

Continue reading the article to view the video.

Lightroom 2.0 Library Module from Kerry Garrison on Vimeo.

Lightroom 2.0 Overview from Kerry Garrison on Vimeo.

Adobe Photoshop Express Demo from Kerry Garrison on Vimeo.

Lightroom Digital Workflow from Kerry Garrison on Vimeo.