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Canon ESO-1DX review

October 18, 2011 By

The news is out and I wont bother retyping all the specs as I am sure you read them already. Instead, I would like to go over some of the points to see what this announcement really means for both photographer and videographers.

As a photographer

Nothing surprising here: improved ISO, shutter speed, less noise, more and faster focus points Spock would not be impressed. They call it the best camera Canon ever made, of course! It is their latest flagship product! Did you really expect them to step backward?

Actually, they did in some regard: the pixel count is going down in the name of bigger pixels. It is interesting to see Canon following the approach Nikon did with the D3. Problem is: Nikon came out later with a 24mp sensor which offered an even better sensor. So it is possible to get high ISO, low noise, high dynamic range while keeping a high pixel count.

Now the stupid feature: in camera HDR! The guy who had the idea to put this in the camera should be fired! I don’t know a single person who shoots HDR who would accept that a computer does all the composition automatically. There is one exception to this: if the end product is a RAW image, but from what I understand it is going to be a compressed JPEG.

As a videographer

Instead of taking another leap forward, the 1Dx is more of a refinement. While a lot of wedding and sport videographers will complain about the lack of 60fps@1080, anyone who really cares about image quality will be happy about the moire and jello effect improvements.

The addition of time code and edit friendly compression formats are nice but not quite what people would have expected. Especially since the newest version of Premiere and FCPX can edit native H.264 now. Why didn’t they get their inspiration from what is done with Magic Lantern? There is a reason why most non Canon sponsored filmmakers use it!

I have not been able to find anything about the video out capabilities but I would be highly surprised if it was a clean HD feed while recording. But hey, we can always hope!

Will history repeat itself?

The 1Ds MrkIII will be remembered as the camera which, while providing some decent incremental gain, did not gain a lot of traction because it was quickly made obsolete by its (cheaper) alternative: the 5DMrkII.

Will it be the case with the ESO 1D X vs the 5DMrkIII? A lot of people were expecting more significant improvements in the video department from a pro level camera, especially since the 5DMrkIII is expected any time soon.

This put us in an interesting situation: Canon has to make the 5DMrkIII significantly better than the MrkII version while keeping it under the ESO 1D-X. I have a few theories about this but I will leave them for an upcoming post.

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Canon announces T3I & T3

February 7, 2011 By

I am not the first to cover the news so lets go straight to the interesting parts. Forget the T3, it only record in 720p, lets look at the Canon T3i which is the only real option for HDSLR shooters.

Features

The spec sheet is looks pretty standard/expected until we hit these two points:

  • Improved EOS Full HD Movie mode with manual exposure control, expanded recording with new Movie Digital zoom and Video Snapshot features for enhanced video shooting options.
  • Vari-angle 3.0-inch Clear View LCD monitor (3:2) for shooting at high or low angles and 1,040,000-dot VGA with reflection reduction

Improved movie mode

The big word here is not the manual exposure control (and the 720p60!) but the new movie digital zoom. In the description it says:

magnify the center of the image by 3–10x while at the same time maintaining gorgeous Canon Full HD image quality

I just dont understand how they can do it! To zoom 10x while still reading 1080 pixel high means the sensor would have to have at least 10,800 pixels! I think this is a typo and the 10x zoom is only available when shooting in 640×480 mode. Anyone can confirm this?

Vari-angle LCD

Clearly Canon realized the demand for vari-angle LCD and is acting on it. If you think it is useless, it is simply because you have never tried it! The question is: are they going to add this feature to the other, more advanced, camera models? I hope they do (at least up to the next 5DMrkIII or 7DMrkII) but I doubt it.

What about the stills?

For those who still enjoy taking pictures, Canon improved the automatic mode (they now call it A+) and the metering/autofocus. I have no idea how much of an improvement this A+ mode is since I have not used the Auto mode in the last 8 years… I am not a big fan of camera deciding how to exposure my shots but I am sure this camera will be very popular among soccer moms and amateurs.

Value proposition

Priced at about 800$, the Canon T3i is an incredible deal for someone getting into HDSLR video. At least on paper! Lets all hope Canon keeps the ball rolling and gives the same level of improvements to the next 5D!

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Canon 60D announcement + bunch of new lenses!

August 26, 2010 By

I just saw on CanonRumors the press release of the 60D.

Here is the executive summary:

  • 18 MP APS-C CMOS sensor
  • Advanced creative features with Basic +
  • Vari-angle 7.7cm (3.0”) 3:2 ratio LCD
  • Full HD movies with manual control (same settings as the 7D)
  • DIGIC 4
  • ISO 100-6400, H:12800
  • 5.3fps shooting for up to 58 JPEGs
  • 9-point cross type AF System
  • iFCL metering with 63-zone Dual-layer Sensor
  • Integrated Speedlite transmitter
  • In-camera RAW processing

Priced at about 1100$, it is probably going to replace the 7D as the second camera for a lot of shooters (and main camera for a lot of people too!).

Other than its attractive price point, I really like the vari-angle LCD. Its usefulness is very context dependent but for shooting from a tripod or steadicam device, it is going to be a life saver. Actually, I think it is THE feature that will make this camera a must have for a lot of HDSLR shooters.

We will have to wait for official reviews before calling it a 7D killer, but lets say everything looks like it since they share so many features.

Note: Canon also released a bunch of pro lenses, we will talk about these very soon.

You can get it (reservation) here from BH Photo or from Amazon
. Hurry up, I think they will sell quite fast!

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Canon Wonder camera, wonder what?

July 9, 2010 By

This week big news was Canon announcement of their wonder camera. If you have not see it yet, here it is.

You know what this reminds me of? Videos from the 60s saying everyone would own a flying car in 2000…

Some of the technologies highlighted in the video already exists and I am sure they are working hard on those that do not. Still, I believe it is all vaporware coming from Canon marketing department.

Think about it: why would Canon design a camera able to do everything in a single unit? We are talking here about a company that is over protective of its product lines and would rather limit customer options than cannibalize its sales. If you dont believe it, just think about where we were 18 months ago with Canon stalling the 5D  MrkII firmware to protect the video division. To make it happen Canon would have to merge the DSLR, point and shoot and video (pro and consumer) divisions under a single entity. Unless there is a big mentality shift at Canon, I can’t see it coming anytime soon.

Instead of this presentation, I would have preferred seeing one about Canon vision of what it coming in the next 3-5 years. Then again, CEO are like politicians, they only promise stuff that is going to happen when they are out of the picture.

Am I the only one wondering where is the 3D?

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Canon 5D firmware update almost confirmed

February 26, 2010 By

Canon rumors has a picture from a presentation where we can see the list of features which will be added with the next firmware in March.

The features are:

  • Manual sound recording level & meters
  • Histogram display when shooting in manual mode
  • AV and TV mode for shooting video
  • Increased audio sampling rate to 48k.
  • 24/25 fps at 1080p.

So what does that mean?

First, no 60p720. That really sucks if it is true! I wont talk too much about this simply because everybody must feel the same as I do about it.

On the other hand, the new features are great! Shooting in AV/TV mode is an incredible feature if you need to shoot a subject moving in a variety of exposure and want to maintain a constant look.

While I dont care too much about the audio features, I know a lot of people who will appreciate it.

I kept the histogram for last. If there is one feature that can redeem the lack of 60p720, it has to be this one. While it is impossible to get a perfect exposure by judging the LCD image, using the histogram makes this job ridiculously easy.

What about stills?

Seems like there is nothing new for still photographers. This is a little bit ridiculous. How hard can it be to add a 5-7-9 exposures bracketing or auto ISO limits? Lets just hope there was a second slide to this presentation.

Shipping date

The week of March 17 is the rumored date and fits in the time line I was given (post Olympics) so I tend to believe it. I guess we will see soon enough!

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EOS Movie Plugin-E1 details

February 24, 2010 By

Canon is now hosting a full page in its digital learning center about the FCP E1 Plugin that we previously talked about.

Canon also used the opportunity to send a quick jab to Nikon when talking about H.264: This is an ideal file type for video capture in an SLR camera, delivering relatively compact file sizes with image quality noticably superior to alternate video compressions (such as Motion JPEG).

From what I have been able to gather from the various screenshots, there is not much new. On the contrary, some of the wished for features (lens & exposure metadata) are not present.

As I predicted, the sentence ‘start editing right form the CF card‘ wasnt really true. The plugin converts the clips to ProRes (you can pick any variations) before you can do anything with them. Canon talks about a 3x speed gain over the standard Compressor transcoding. That is nice but that is about the same thing you can get by using MPEGstream clip. Actually, I wonder if that is what they are using under the hood!

For who is this for?

Log and transfer is a workflow tool. It is near useless for 95% of the 5D users, but, for those who are going to use it, it is incredibly useful at helping them to organize their files and automating their backup strategy. Oh, there is also that Timecode thing that would be so useful if there was an easy way to synchronize the date/time on multiple camera at once.

While there is no harm in installing the plugin once it is available (March), unless you are shooting against a script, the organizing features of the plugin will be overkill.

BTW, thanks to David Guset for the link to the Canon page.

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Canon Rebel T2i: 7D killer?

February 10, 2010 By

If there is one thing no one was expecting this week, it has to be the release of a new HDSLR camera. Yet, that is exactly what Canon did. The new Rebel T2i is, on paper, an incredible package priced ridiculously low.

For the photographer

18mp on a 1.6x crop factor, I will have to see some real life sample shots to judge image quality but it is interesting to see the ISO going to 6400 (extendable to 12k) for an entry level toy. That is quite good if image quality is at the rendez-vous.

It also benefits from a lot of features that used to be restricted to the double prosumer bodies like improved auto focus and light metering. From a photographer perspective, it should be considered a decent upgrade for any 50D or older camera owner (if you dont need the burst rate). At least, from a specs sheet perspective.

For the videographer

Remember how 5DMrkII owners felt when the 7D was released? Well, 7D owners are now feeling the same! The new rebel can shoot video full manual and has variable frame rate (24p, 25p, 30, 50p and 60p), something to make 5DMrkII owners jealous. I know because I am!

Of course, the camera will probably not have the same low light image quality as the 5DMrkII (and maybe the 7D) and it is not full frame so it does have its limitations. Yet, it is a fraction of the cost of its ‘better’ alternatives. [Read more...]

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EOS MOVIE Plugin-E1 official announvement

February 8, 2010 By

We talked about it earlier and now it is official. You can read the press release here. The interesting part is Canon talking about a 2x gain in speed for Prores 422 HQ transcoding compared to Compressor. Then again, if you are using MPEG Streamclip, the speed gain should be about the same.

This last sentence sound a bit weird to me:

Additionally, users will also be able to add timecode, reel names and metadata to footage quickly and easily – further enhancing the experience of EOS MOVIE users when editing their footage.

This could mean that we will not have access to the camera metadata, something that was part of the original product developed by Gluetool.

Release date, for the free beta, will be in March so new features might pop in until then.

Note: Thanks to Peter Wiggins for the link on this one, almost missed the announcement!

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EOS E1 plugin for FCP: why?

February 6, 2010 By

A lot of people talked about the announcement of the EOS E1 plugin for FCP yesterday so I feel like I have to talk about it too. As far as we know, it is all vaporware so far since the software is not released yet. Old time blog readers might remember this post from Vincent Laforest testing a similar tool developed by Glue Tools (which has not been released yet, hence my lack of faith in unreleased software!).

So, what is all the fuzz about anyways?

Why do you need a tool to import files from the CF card to your computer? The finder/Explorer is already doing a fine job. Well, the first reason is to make the file importing task part of the FCP workflow. When using the Log & Trans window, you can attach other process to the import action, for examples sending the file to compressor for transcoding, make a backup copy on another drive, add meta tags, etc… Pretty cool and a nice time saver, especially if you are working on a set.

Now about what it cant do…

I have seen  a few cut&paste reports of people saying the plugin would allow users to start the edit with the video still in the camera/CF card. Sorry but this sounds more like a sentence taken from the generic Log & Transfert feature description than what you can expect to do from this plugin. You still need to transcode to ProRes if you want real time editing, and it is not like we are shooting 45 minutes long clips with the 5D, we are limited to 12 minutes so no real need to partial file import. Actually, I dont even know if it is possible with the H.264 codec to do partial import without re-encoding the whole clip.

So, is this a big announcement or not?

Yes it is because the Log & Trans tool is part of a professional work flow. Pros are used to it and expect it. While not a show stopper, it was keeping the 5D away from being seen as a ‘real’ tool on a production set.

The plugin is not out yet so we can’t confirm its features but I hope the file metadatas include exposure settings,  lens used, camera id, etc…

Once released, the plugin will be available here.

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The Story behing the Still: Contest is open!

January 15, 2010 By

The contest is now open. You can read the rules here.

The prizes are quite good: the choice between a 5DMrkII and a 7D, a lens (selected from a long list), a few days to shoot with Vincent and a year subscription at Vimeo. I dont know who made the prize list but I would like to know why someone would pick a 7D over a 5D! You could get the 5D, sell it, get the 7D and you would be left with some change. Even worst, the lens selection includes lenses ranging in prices from 700$ to almost 5000$. Who would be stupid enough to pick the 700$ lens (EF 15mm2.8) when you can have a 300L2.8?

Dont get me wrong, I think these prizes are awesome (especially the days with Vincent!) I just wonder how long the guy who made the prize list thought about it.

US ONLY

Now that we look at the prizes, we can somewhat guess the reasons about the US only restriction: the plane trip to see Vincent. I am sure this is the part that complexity everything for the lawyers. It is quite sad because I had a good idea and there is a building that looks exactly like the ending still near my loft…

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