Through A Glass Darkly - The New Canon Camera Is Seen

I am possibly fairly nearly almost positive that I have seen the new Canon EOS 5D MkIV camera*. It was at the Flour Factory restaurant/bar last night in Queen Street in Perth - just down the street from a new camera shop...**

Canon Australia brought an example of the new camera to the venue, and if you got there early and there was some residual light, you could see it. You could certainly see the large prints that Hugh Brown had taken with the camera. And you could see Hugh Brown.

Canon Australia let him have a go with this newest of their DSLR range because Hugh has been a Canon shooter from waaaaay back - some 17 years. He is thoroughly familiar with the operation of the marque and has used them for great photojournalism in appalling conditions.

I do mean appalling - he's taken Canon cameras to horrible depths in mines and terrible heights on volcanos. He's subjected them to dust and acid fumes and heat and cold to an extent that would leave our speck-of-dust local photographers unconscious with anxiety. And apparently the Canon cameras just keep on ticking... I can't tell you what his lungs are like, though...

Well, Hugh's impressed with the EOS 5d Mk IV. He got a rotten night to try it out on - rain and mist - but even given the poor atmospheric conditions he could show the improvements in the image noise that the new camera makes over older Canon models. Once he got into the dry conditions of the Fremantle markets he made a delightful environmental portrait - all on the spur of the moment, as the new EOS 5d Mk IV has added yet another step level of ISO performance.

A quick cut-away to the food. Brad isn't quite sure what it is either...

Note to equipment enthusiasts: There are two new Canon lenses coming out that you can marry with this camera  - a new 24-105*** and a new 16-35. If you are going to get a new top-of-the-line camera you might as well pop for a new lens as well. No-one is ever sad with a new lens.

Now Perth photographers are a sort of laid-back bunch in many respects. They do not whoop and cheer at these events like an Oprah show. But they do listen pretty darned carefully to a technical presentation and then to a candid report of the goods on offer. Every one of the listeners will make their own private assessment and that will be the principal determinant of whether they will spend their money, but I must say I am impressed with their good sense and good manners in giving strict attention to the speaker. Well done, folks.

At the end I was able to track down the elusive Canon EOS 5d Mk IV in the ( rather attractive ) hands of one of the other photographers. We'll have to wait a little for the appearance of the new lenses, but remember that ALL " L " lenses fit this camera and they ALL look good. Saul mentioned that people can pre-order the new camera....and as they are going to be in high demand that is a good idea. You can always call here to the shop and offer money - and you will engage our instant and complete attention.

* It was a dark place...

* And more of that anon...

***I should advise this for all the people who want to use this camera for video work. The old 24-105 was great and the new one will have even better and quieter performance.

" Do the Work "...A Night With The New Canon EOS 80D

Canon 80d

I knew I had the quote I wanted when Steven Scourfield, the Travel Editor of the West Australian newspaper, addressed us at the Northbridge Hotel last night. It was upon the occasion of the launch of the new Canon EOS 80D camera and 18-135mm lens.

Steven gave us samples of his travel photos and told us something of his methodology before showing the results of a trip he took with the new Canon camera. He pointed out that we all come back from our photo excursions with more than enough material but we need to sit down and work at it - work at critically looking to our own images and weeding them down to the final best few.

 He confessed to being a person who never throws anything away - at least in the digital world - and who is sensible enough to back up all his files on SEVERAL devices in SEVERAL premises - thus ensuring that even the most poignant disaster will not remove all his work. I do hope the audience decided to listen - I know I regard my own Drobo external storage device as vital to security.

Well, anyway, Steven was also able to make the point that he was a writer before he was a photographer and a photographer before he was a writer...or in other words he knows the value of the parallel forms of presentation when it comes to telling and selling a story. He told aspiring travel photographers to write down what they had done and seen as well as pressing that shutter button. I can concur with this - even if the notes in the travel diary are never going to be the great Australian Novel, they help to make any images concrete and accurate and fix them in the photographer's mind. and if anyone demands a caption you can supply accurate details.

But that's not what you came to this column to read - nor what I went to the Northbridge to see - we all want to know about the new Canon EOS 80D.

Well, if you have seen an EOS 50D, 60D, or 70D you know roughly what it looks like. Canon found an ergonomically pleasing design and thankfully have stuck to it. The camera has a heft, for sure, but it is not excessive, and is perfectly shaped for the average western hand. It's got the standard swivel screen, top plate LCD screen, and perfectly normal control location.

Inside it has new AF points - a lot more and a lot more selectable. You can command the AF system to pick out things intruding in the frame or ignore them - just like the AF system in the Canon EOS 1DX Mk II. You can find all the helper programs and alternative filter settings now on an external dial - no more menu searches. You can shoot at 7FPS. You can shoot AF where you select your subject on a touch screen and let the camera have its head...vaguely disturbing but very sophisticated.

You can film video with all sorts of new settings - the one that stood out for me was HDR. The camera shoots 60 frame per second of whatever subject is out there but does it in two batches at the same time; one exposed for highlights and one for shadows. Then it blends them into each other electronically and lets you have the result back as 30 frames per second video. If that's not magic I'm David Copperfield...

The new lens that is due with it - an 18-135 version - has a smoother and faster motor for focusing. And it has a secret connection panel at the bottom of the lens. It mates with a new zoom control box that allows for extremely smooth zoom action as well as the inherent focusing. You can set it for fast or slow zoom and it operates silently and with no jerky motion. All of a sudden the amateur look of your videos disappears and the Hollywood shots start to appear. It wasn't for sale yet but it is coming. And even more intriguing was the news that more new Canon lenses will have a similar connectivity. Expect better movies!

Altogether an impressive package from Canon. Mr. Scourfield got to use the test camera on a trip up north and it coped with the harsh conditions and lighting like a champion. For anyone wishing to shoot the APS-C size of sensor on a DSLR, I think this new Canon is at the pinnacle of attraction right now.

Good news for Camera Electronic customers - you can pre-order the camera and lens now on-line or in-store.

Note: Steven is shortly to take 20 photo travellers to Antarctica. And he may bring some of them back...

" I Drop These Cameras All The Time..."

If there were ever a phrase in the language more likely to cause me to love and admire Andrew Ritchie and the Canon EOS 1Dx Mk II, I have yet to hear it. He let us into this secret last night at the Northbridge Hotel while addressing the audience at the product launch.

Leaving his pictures aside...and they were very good pictures...his candid admission that the rough and tumble of his world - the newspaper photography game - is a tough one on cameras was a telling point for the brand. The Canon EOS 1D cameras of various marks are built to withstand all the rough treatment that they are likely to encounter. He knows it and he prefers them. He drops 'em all the time...

The evening was much the same as many product launches - a brief address from one of the CE owners - Saul - a talk about some of the new technical points of the equipment by the manufacturer's representative - Sheryl - and then a show and tell by a photographer who has had a chance to use the camera - Andrew. The audience was, in the "Casablanca" sense,  the usual suspects...but in this case they were the suspects for a different crime. Specifically for paid professional work that demands high speed and durability.

Andrew had been given use one of only two of the new EOS 1Dx Mk II cameras in the country and had to find suitable subjects that would test it out. He selected water sports, low light environmental portraiture, and his curly spaniel in the park with a green tennis ball. We can report that in all cases the camera and the Canon lenses that he selected to work with produced saleable, printable, publishable, hangable images. And the dog is gorgeous.

The camera is apparently a lot easier to use than previous evocations - they have taken a leaf from the more humble cameras and incorporated touch-screen technology to allow people to select what the AF system is going to do. It also has the ability to do a lot more than before, including tracking useful subjects even when interrupted by intruders into the frame. The viewfinder is a lot brighter than before.

The thing can shoot JPEG images as fast as it can get electricity - any where from 12 to 16 frames per second depending on the type of battery. And it can keep on shooting until the card fills up... the buffer has enough capacity for this. Even if you are firing off raw images it will go to 178 before needing a rest and sip of Gatorade. This means you get a picture of the spaniel and the ball in 178 frames of the tennis ball holds up..If you need to alter the raw file in-camera and then send it off fast to an editor ( or to Facebook...) you can do this as well.

ISO performance seemed good. He was shooting at ISO 2000 but of course the device will go into the 5-figure mark if you want it to.

From what I could hear, there will be an April delivery date for the new camera, but I could also hear the wholesale and retail people saying that you would be very wise to get a deposit in for the camera right now...there may be a rush and a delay in the supply otherwise.

Nota bene: The audiences at these beanfests do vary according to the sort of equipment that is on show. Of course camera people are always interested in cameras and lighting people are always interested in lighting, etc, but it is notable to observe the degree of concentration evinced and the sorts of questions that come forth from this crowd. These people are serious photographers and know what they need from their cameras. Their questions were sensible and to the point, and anyone listening to them and to the answers was benefitted.

Getting The Data Wrong

I must apologise to anyone who went along to the Northbridge Hotel tonight looking for Canon EOS 1Dx MkII cameras and free beer - they would have been disappointed by a day and had to buy their own drinks.

I apparently got it wrong in an early version of the post - the event happens tomorrow at 6:00 at the Northbridge. When I dial up the post now it seems to be correct but there must have been a time when it generated confusion. I hope no disasters ensued.

All that said, I am looking forward to seeing this benchmark professional camera and hearing about the use of it.

Uncle Dick

Cameras And The Beer Economy

There has been a great deal of hoo hah recently in the media about Perth's beer economy. Apparently people pay for favours, products, services, and opinions by delivering cartons of beer instead of cartons of money. This is seen as matey and unlikely to attract the attention of the Australian Taxation Department. As it turns out, this is incorrect - everything - attracts the attention of the ATO.

Really, think about it. The ATO workers are in Canberra and Albury, NSW. If there were any two places on earth that would make you think about drinking, it would be Canberra and Albury. I should imagine office workers there think about it constantly, and the idea that they are not getting their share when your local tradie trims your asbestos fence for you with the chain saw( and then puts it through the mulcher ) would be gall to them.

Is it the same, we must ask, with bottles of beer at camera launches? Are we all in danger of little men in a grey sleeveless jumpers popping up at our elbow and handcuffing us as we reach for the Corona? Will we need to arrive at the door half cut beforehand on our own money and just sit down and watch the show.

And what is the sushi position?*

Well, after consulting a beeration expert I can reassure the clients and customers that it is not a federal offence to down one or two at the Camera Electronic promotional nights. The management are paying for the slosh and then reporting it diligently to the ATO as a legitimate business expense, as they do for the ammunition and spare horses, and you are in the clear. Your only obligation is to enjoy yourselves...moderately, please...and to give due consideration to the industry presenters, photograph makers, and video presentations. You are at liberty to fall lifeless from your chair after the first 20 minutes of a Powerpoint presentation and no-one will think ill of you...

It would be nice if you would look carefully at the special offer sheets that generally accompany the product presentations. Both the wholesalers and the shop work closely together to make sure that there are good deals there on the launch night - sometimes with prices and sometimes with added extras. Take advantage of these, and do it right then. Frequently the opportunity is only for that one occasion - this is a good illustration of the advisability of keeping an emergency photo fund somewhere. Somewhere that only you know about...when your time comes, Maitland, know it...

Product launches are fun. The industry reps there really DO know what their stuff does and they are more than happy to tell you all you need to know. It is ever so much more satisfying to get the REAL information from people that actually sell the cameras than rely upon someone at Mum's Basement Camera Rumour Pty Ltd. to tell you fairy tales.

Note: Keep reading the weblog and the CE Facebook site. We've got two dynamite Canon launches coming this month and March and I suspect there will be others from other firms as well. The recent Olympus and Fujifilm nights at the shop were a hoot.

*Rolled up.

So What Goes There?

What indeed.

Come along to the Northbridge Hotel, 210 Lake Street at 6:00 on this Thursday the 25th and see for yourself.

We can give you a few hints:  it is made by the Canon company, it takes pictures, and it has an EOS, a 1, a Dx, and a Mark II in the name. And it is brand spanking new. And fast. And rugged.

But these are just hints...you can eat and drink while we let out more hints on the night...RSVP to the shop to tell us you're coming.

Why the Olympus Pen F Will Succeed

It will succeed on three counts:

1. Performance of the stabilising mechanisms.

The Olympus camera uses more stabilising elements than other cameras. It compensates more for what people and circumstance do during shooting and as a result there is a better chance of the camera returning a sharp photo. It cannot entirely eliminate the effects of vibration if the user has attached it to a hammer drill or is taking pictures in Christchurch, NZ, but pretty near anything short of that will be within limits.

2. Adjustability of the colour and monochrome parameters.

This camera features a dial on the right front face that allows the user to start the process of adjusting the rendering of the view. It is further modified by a toggle switch on the back and produces a very great many choices of saturation, curves, grain and tone. This is the experimenter's dream camera, but it can also be a workhorse in a number of fields once the user has worked out exactly what they want to set and where. There are 4 custom channels, which is a full complement by any measure. You can set it and forget it, which is what you will do if you get lost in all the options open to you.

3. Styling.

The key style features are Pen F body shape, front colour control wheel, positive on-off switch in the same position as an old film rewind knob, and the rounded housing just above the left-hand-side electronic viewfinder. It just looks right and cool.

Last night's shop launch of the Pen F was started by Domenic Papalia, continued on a technical note by Burke Flynn, and capped off with the shooting experiences of Rod Lawson-Kerr. There was a good audience and everyone would have come away with something valuable. The camera and accessories - and a bunch of attractive Olympus lenses - are all in-store right now. Click here for Pen-F pre-order and here for the entire Olympus range in store now

A Hot Week Weblog Post

Congratulate yourself - you made it to Wednesday with enough energy to turn the computer on. Now if you can get all your messages done before the battery in the laptop makes the case glow with heat, you might be able to get to Thursday.

In the meantime stop in tonight at the shop and see the new Fujifilm gear and mark up your calendar for the Olympus Pen F launch as well - this will be on the 17th of February.

Rod Lawson Kerr will be speaking about this new model and there will be a good chance to try it out. Light refreshments at the Camera Electronic Shop at 6:00 on the night but do RSVP to the shop beforehand so that they can reserve a toothpick for you.

Note: the shop is air-conditioned but it is unnecessary to wear fur coats or heavy parkas to protect yourself from the cold.

Here's Very Big News From Fujifilm

But the very big news is not in a very big package - in fact it is more compact than you'd think.

The Fujifilm company has just released their Fujifilm X-Pro2 camera - the newest component of their award-winning mirror-less camera system. It joins the other fine cameras and derives from the original Fujifilm X-Pro1.

People familiar with the Fujifilm X-Pro1 know that it has a unique X-Trans sensor that delivers extreme sharpness and very rich colours. The New Fujifilm X-Pro2 continues this performance and improves upon it with 24 Megapixels resolution. The new sensor is referred to in the literature as the Trans CMOS III. It is paired with the X-Processor Pro digital engine to put out even better images.

Looks as though the designers at Fujifilm have looked into the past of camera design to see what features people really need and appreciate, and they have placed some of the controls of the new camera right where we always wanted them to be.

For example: The ISO setting for many film cameras was found as a small window dial in the shutter speed control. Fujifilm (and I...) think this was a great idea to eliminate one more menu control. Here it is back in the right spot with great precision. Yay!

Fujifilm (and I...) thought that photographers needed more of a grip on the right hand side of the camera. They put on a bigger grip. Yay!

Then they thought whether the Fujifilm users would like a small front control wheel just under the right forefinger - and we would. Yay, again!

The shape of the X-Pro1 is there - perhaps a tad sleeker - but the functionality hasn't been compromised a bit. Full TTL hot shoe operation? PC socket on the side for studio flash? Thumb button to steer the AF points about? Don't mind if I do! And I'm guessing the battery will be the W 126 so we don't have to swap things over. Yay, indeed!

Now we'll be having a lecture/demonstration/hands-on by a very famous press and journal photographer to let us see what this new camera can do. Adam Ferguson has had numerous covers and editorial pictures accepted for Time,The National Geographic, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and many others. He's exhibited his work in Houston, Los Angeles, Sydney and numerous other places. He's been shooting the shooting where the shooting is going on and knows how to do the photo business. When he comes to talk to us it will be well worth looking and listening.

Our Facebook and email contacts will be able to tell you when thus will be - the small press release doesn't nail it down yet. Suffice it to say this will be red-letter day for street shooters, portrait shooters, press shooters, and one old hot rod shooter.

And the wonderful thing about the Fujifilm X-System...? We don't have to get rid of any of our old gear! It all fits together seamlessly! But come in and buy a new Fujifilm X-Pro2 anyway - because Camera Electronic can do that! Yay!

* Heading Image: Delightful profile of new body and new lens.
* Tailing Image: Does the X- Trans sensor deliver the colour? Have a look. Pontiac LeMans.

The Three B's - Canon's New 5Ds In The Real World

The three B's*. A glorious night.

Canon Australia sent some of their new Canon EOS 5Ds cameras out, and one of them landed in the hands of Brodie Butler. Last night Brodie gave a memorable lecture regarding this camera to a gathering of enthusiasts at the Oxford Hotel in Leederville.

Canon made a good choice in letting Brodie work with the new camera - Brodie can do, has done for a long time, did then, and was able to do right in front of the viewers. He can also explain what he did and why and THAT is a rare talent.

As Brodie explained, the new camera is massively increased performance packed into a familiar body shape - that of the Canon EOS 5D MkIII. If you know how that feels, you know how the 5Ds feels...but you won't be prepared for what it does until you see the results.

Over 50 megapixels available in one shot from the full-frame sensor. Available with very fast focussing. Large files, and clean. Wild amount of detail available when enlarging - the display prints that were made by Fitzgerald Photo Laboratory on Chromajet metallic paper were startling in their impact and the impact continued right down into the finest detail of the image.

Brodie was able to take photos there on the night with his trusty Elinchrom giant umbrella reflector and the same lady who had modelled for the original photo shoot. The shots made of eyelashes and detail on a fur jacket were detailed beyond belief - but there they were...

The really startling thing for the landscape, architectural, portrait, or fine art photographer is the thought that this camera can do what it does with all the existing Canon L-series lenses! People who might have been looking longingly at other medium format camera systems while shooting with their faithful Canon system can now shelve their envy - the Canon company has the answer to their dreams.

Their dreams are not going to be inexpensive dreams - this level of performance is not going to be fond in the bargain basement - but the purchase price of this 5Ds camera body or the companion 5Dsr body later on is is going to be a great deal less than the medium format option. And you have so many more lenses to choose from...

Altogether a very satisfying rainy night out - good speaker, great images, a remarkable product new to the market - a product that will be truly useful as well as technically brilliant.

* Brodie, Butler, and beer.