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Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Let’s answer the big question on everyone’s mind:

This is the best camera Canon has every built. Jim Rose

I got the opportunity to play with the 5D Mark II and photograph with it. Long story short: it is very much worth the wait. It may seem arrogant and perhaps even premature to say, but I do believe the new 5D Mark II will reestablish Canon as the market leader. This couldn’t have come at a better time after the focus issues with the 1D Mark III and 1Ds Mark III has caused a lot of headache and bad blood between Canon and Canon loyalists, but the 5D Mark II brings some light to what has been a very dark tunnel of despair.

On paper, the 5D Mark II sounds very impressive: 21.1 MP, UDMA support, 1080p HD video, ISO up to 25,600, a 3 inch LCD with 922,000 pixel resolution for about the same price as the 5D Mark I when it was first introduced. In my hands, it is very well constructed and feels quite solid, but not quite the same build quality and durability as the 1D/1Ds series bodies as others have mentioned.

Jim Rose was discussing how low noise is at ISO 6400 and when the staff photographers at San Francisco Chronicle (they have two on order BTW) saw the images at ISO 6400, their jaws dropped. Jim was discussing how even George Lepp (of the famous Lepp Institute of Digital Imaging) was very impressed and said that ISO 6400 on the 5D Mark II is very usable. That’s a very nice seal of approval. At ISO 12,800 things start getting a bit noisy, but not terribly bad. By ISO 25,600, things are quite noticeable noisy, but if this is the only way to get a shot, it is still usable. According to Jim (not Canon’s official stance), ISO 3200 on the 5D Mark II is comparable to ISO 800 on the 5D. I was allowed to fire off some shots on my memory card with the 5D Mark II and the images are very nice with very low noise. Unfortunately, despite being a production camera and not a prototype, I am not able to publicly post the pictures at the time (they are posted but password protected but I’ll remove the password after the 5D Mark II starts shipping).

The 1080p HD video feature of the 5D Mark II is very, very nice. You can record up to 12 minutes of video and take stills while recording. How that works is while you are recording, you just press the shutter button as you would if you were taking a picture and it will pause the recording, take the picture (or pictures) and then resume recording. You lose half a second of video for each photo taken during recording. So if you are recording a video and three minutes into recording, you snap a picture, half a second later the recording will resume resulting in a single file, and not split video files with the thirty second skip where the photograph was taken. Very cool! Also Canon recommends that you prefocus before you start recording although you can auto focus while recording (by pressing the AF-On button), it is very slow because it uses the Live View contrast detection auto focus. Another thing to note is that you can only record videos in Aperture priority mode. You select the aperture, the camera will select a shutter speed and auto set the ISO to maintain a constant consistent shutter speed. You can also dial exposure two stops up or down. You also need a UDMA card to take full advantage of the HD video recording.

The back LCD is stunning and breath taking. At 3.0 inches with 922,000 pixel resolution, checking for sharpness has become so much easier. The images displayed on the LCD are very stunning. Also the viewfinder has been redesigned and is definitely brighter than my Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II viewfinder.

Jim has been with Canon for more than eight years, since the start of megapixels (i.e. Canon D30) and this is the first camera that he is really excited about and believes that it is “going to re-energize Canon”. Jim also speculated on the 1D/1Ds line as it was asked about it’s future considering that Nikon has moved in full frame, which I won’t post as it is all speculation. Jim also mentioned the 5D Mark II should sell very, very well considering how many people want the ultimate in megapixels but couldn’t afford or justify the cost of the Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III. This is certainly a good thing because I think the Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III, while is a spectacular SLR, it is not worth $8,000. It’s worth $5,000 and that is where they are selling used for now (and in some cases even less). Once the new Nikon D3x is released and priced around $5,000, I’m sure Canon will no longer be able to justify pricing the 1Ds at $8,000.

So is it worth it? Yes. Am I getting one? No. I’m waiting for the the new Canon EOS 1Ds Mark IV. I love the ruggedness, durability, and auto focus. Adam Tow is thinking of downgrading from his Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II and Canon EOS 1D Mark II to two Canon EOS 5D Mark II because of the size and the HD video options.

Other little tidbits: there are seventy eight Explorers of Light and Printmasters, of which Vincent LaForet, Joe Buissink and George Lepp are members. Jim Rose does in fact read DPReview.com.

I also forgot to mention:

Adobe CS3 DOES NOT support Canon EOS 5D Mark II RAW files. It also appears that there will NOT be an update for CS3 to fix this and you have to either buy CS4 or convert the Canon RAW to DNG.

The shutter on the 5D Mark II is very, very quiet. I was quite shocked, it sounded almost 25% quieter than my 1Ds Mark II.

Political Photography Part II: Jared Polis

Adam and his wife, Rae, went to Colorado to photograph the last week of his high school friend’s campaign for Congressional seat in Colorado District 2 before the elections. Jared Polis is an internet entrepreneur having started Blue Mountain, ProFlowers, and Fuser which he sold all off during the height of the dot com boom making millions. Jared is also founder of the New America Charter Schools. Jared has been campaigning for a year and half for this two year term. Adam spent a week following Jared around as he campaigned at Park-N-Rides, Honk and Waves, Meetings, Halloween and Farmer’s Market, Canvassing, and finally Election Day.

Adam packed his Canon EOS 1D Mark II and Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II with the following other items: Canon EF 28-70mm f/2.8L USM, Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM, Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM, Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L USM, Canon 1.4x Extender, Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM, Canon Speedlite 550EX, and a Gary Fong Lightsphere. He found he was primarily using the 28-70mm on his 1Ds Mark II and 135mm on his 1D Mark II.

Adam’s daily workflow:

1. Shoot in the morning
2. Select, rate, process in Apple Aperture 2 and upload photos to SmugMug
3. Recharge batteries
4. Shoot in the evening
5. Repeat steps 2 and 3

Reason Adam does the post processing in the afternoon rather than the evening is he figured he wouldn’t do it in the evening.

Jared Polis won the Congressional District 2 seat with 60% of the vote. To see Adam’s pictures, you can visit his SmugMug here.

Gallery

Click for larger image.

I wonder what Marvel is thinking? I liked the first Punisher, so I’m wondering why they are making another one for. Frank Castle is now played by Ray Stevenson who replaces Thomas Jane.

My first impression of Framingham Nissan Dealer’s (Nissan Dealer MA) website is that they have a very plain website compared to many other flashy dealer websites such as AutoWest dealers or Stevens Creek Nissan here in the Bay Area. Normally having a plain website means boring which means uninteresting. But when you think of the sleazy new/used dealers you think of how much they are trying to rip you off, so having a simple website might be a good thing because it may convey that they are no fuss, no high pressure sales tactic dealer.

Upon a bit of investigation, I noticed something interesting. The website, http://www.NissanDealerMA.com is NOT the homepage for Framingham Nissan Dealer. It seems to be a “special” landing page, not sure what purpose for. If you visit http://www.framinghamnissan.com/, you will get their actual website. In some ways, it seems a bit fishy.

Navigating the NissanDealerMA.com website is quite easy and intuitive, which is very important. If you make things too difficult for a potential customer to find, they’ll go somewhere else and you’ve just lost a potential sale. So if I want Service, New Nissan Search, and/or Used Nissan Search it is all right there near the top and easy to find. You can schedule for an appointment to bring in your Nissan for repairs, oil changes, alignment, and a host of other services. The hours are prominently and clearly displayed so you know when they are open (Monday to Saturday), what times they are open (7:30AM - 6:00PM, Saturday 8:00AM - 12:00PM), and when they are closed (Sunday). My two suggestions would be to put the service desk phone number up and move the address from the ity-bity footer bar up to where the hours are.

I also like how in the right hand sidebar, all the cars/trucks/SUV are listed with their corresponding picture so you can easily find the vehicle you want, click on it, and be taken to all the listings for that specific model. I liked it right up until I clicked on one of the images/links and got this message:

The page you have requested does not exist.
You will be redirected to the homepage in 7 seconds. If you do not want to wait, click the following link to return to the home page. http://framinghamnissan.com.

Figuring, OK, one bad link might not be so bad, so I tried another and another and got the same exact problem. Nothing worse than not keeping a business website up-to-date. This would certainly annoy some visitors and once again, lead to loss in a potential sale.

One thing I definitely dislike on the NissanDealerMA.com site is the video. It’s really a tacky video and doesn’t serve to help the site any and in some ways detracts from it. I also find that there is too much text with no real organization. A bunch of text on a single page like that does not inspire me to want to read it, but rather skim through it. A suggestion I would have is to break up the information into parts with proper headers such as Introduction, Testimonials, History, etc. Limit each topic to three or four sentences. I’m not 100% sure if I like the $20 off Dunken Donuts with a test drive coupon.

The website starts off with a bit of potential, but then starts seriously falling off the boat. Too much text, the links don’t work, the tacky video, etc. It’s fine to have a landing page other than your homepage, but if it looks completely unprofessional compared to the more professional looking homepage, one has to wonder what is the point. It almost looks borderline spam site without all the ads. I would recommend they take down this landing site or redesign it or at least fix the links.

Introduction

For those who don’t know what SlideShowPro is, it is a Flash based software that allows you to easily create Flash slideshows for your website. It’s a great piece of software for only $29.99. It’s quite configurable and relatively easy to setup and use. SlideShowPro Director is a web based application that is used in conjunction with SlideShowPro for an additional $29.99 per domain. It’s not required, but I highly recommend SlideShowPro Director as it will save you enormous time in creating slideshows with SlideShowPro.

Requirements

• WordPress/WordPress MU installed and functioning
• SlideShowPro
• SlideShowPro Director (optional)
• Kimili Flash Embed for WordPress plugin installed

Directions

1. Download Kimili Flash Embed for WordPress plugin, upload to WP-Contents/Plugins folder and activate
2. Download the SlideShowPro Flash add-in module, setup, and configure it. Downoad, setup, and configure SlideShowPro Director if you opted to purchase it.
3. Create a slideshow following the Quick Start Guide to create a slideshow. If you are using SlideShowPro Director, use these directions here. Make sure you remember where you published your SWF and XML files to.
4. Login to your WordPress dashboard and create a new Post or Page
5. Click on the Media Upload button (the star button next to “Add media:”) and upload both the SWF and XML file. Most likely, you will have to change the paths inside the XML file to match the location of where the uploaded file is being stored based on your permalink structure. If you are using SlideShowPro Director, you will only need to upload the SWF file.
6. Copy the link that appears in the Link URL field (e.g. http://bui4ever.com/files/2008/11/ar-carnival-cruise-d02.swf)
7. Use this code where you want the slideshow to appear: [ kml_flashembed movie="/path/to/your/movie.swf" height="300" width="300" /] with NO space between “[” and “kml_flashembed” and be sure to replace /path/to/your/movie.swf with the URL that you copied in Step 6. Change the height and width to match the slideshow. The default dimensions for a slideshow created in SlideShowPro is 548 width x 373 height.
8. Click Save or Publish and you should see the slideshow appear. If not, check that you followed all the steps exactly. If no images appear, most likely the paths in the XML file are wrong.

Conclusion

These directions are based off the information that I found here. For the most part, you could create a physical directory on your webserver if you want more control, but I didn’t like that solution as it involves a two step process: using a FTP program to upload the file and then embedding it into WordPress. My method is more elegant in that you use WordPress’ file management system to store the Flash files and then plug the URL into the Kimili Flash Plugin. While this may not seem that important in a single WordPress install, if you use WordPress MU, you are quite aware that any physical directories created are accessible by all domains on that WordPress MU install (e.g. http://bui4ever.com/downloads/ is the same as http://buiphotography.com/downloads/) which can lead to file issue nightmares. By using the WordPress media uploading method, you allow others to upload their SlideShowPro slideshows without granting them dangerous FTP access and allow them to keep their content separate and organized. For the most part, this method works quickly and easily. Your mileage may vary, as I use SlideShowPro Director to house all my photos and thus negate the need (and fustration) of having to manually create an XML file. Also keep in mind that you need to grant access to all website that will be accessing SlideShowPro Director by using the crossdomain.xml file tip (see Step 4).

The customer rating system is certainly a very effective system for potential or repeat customers. While some more shady companies can purchase positive reviews to influence unwitting customers, attempting to purchase credible, random reviewers can become cost prohibitive. These community review sites (e.g. Yelp.com) can, in essence, make or break a company reputation.

What I particularly like about Diet Blog Talk is their no-nonsense layout. It’s very easy to look up various diet programs and/or diet supplements from the drop down list in the sidebar. There is also a search field to assist in finding what you are looking for. For additional inspiration, you can browse the Before & After Pictures of actual customers who used the products courtesy of Sensational.com.

I read through some of the reviews and a majority of the customer reviews seem relatively credible. It seems like Diet Blog Talk gets a good amount of traffic according to Alexa. I like the concept, the design, and the wealth of information available.

I came upon this epiphany via Google search and found this sticky thread by Otto42. If you look down at number 3:

3. Update your Adobe Flash to the latest version (esp you Linux users!): Flash.
NOTE: NOT TO VERSION 10. The new Flash version 10 is incompatible. The latest version 9 of Flash is what you want. There will likely NOT be a fix for this any time soon, since the problem is actually with Flash 10 itself. Stick with Flash 9 for the time being.

therein, lies the answer.

So now how does one roll back to Flash Player 9? A Google search produced this result on MacNN Forums with a solution by Art Vandelay. He suggested deleting the Flash Player 10 plugin and using the Mac OS X 10.5.5 software update (file size: 601MB) which includes Flash Player 9.

2008-11-01 UPDATE: So how to roll back to Flash Player 9 is easy. First delete the flash player plugins by going to /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/ and delete Flash Player.plugin, flashplayer.xpt and anything else that says Flash Player. Download the Mac OS X 10.5.5 software update and run it again. It will ask you to restart your computer and after restart, open up FireFox and load up http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/ and right click on the flash movie, at the bottom it should say “About Adobe Flash Player 9″.

The beauty of this backpack that sets itself apart from other existing backpacks is that you can pack a decent amount of gear, basically what you need as a photojournalist/wedding photojournalist, and when you have all your equipment out, you can collapse the bag to half the size! This is quite ingenious because after you’ve unloaded all your equipment, why would you want to have a big bag still? I’ve owned the Lowepro CompuTrekker Plus II which was excellent for packing a lot of equipment, but becomes quite a drag after all the equipment has been removed.

I already currently own a Pelican 1514 (great mobile case), a National Geographic NG-2477 shoulder bag, and a Lowepro CompuDayPack.

Here are some pictures by Rob Galbraith of the new Think Tank Photo Shape Shifter. You can see more photos on his website.