17Sep Canon EOS-M discontinued, Still no replacement?
I’ve been seeing the Canon EOS-M price drops everywhere. With the development of Canon’s first new APS-C sensor in years (found in the Canon 70d), I thought we’d see an announcement of a new and improved EOS-M with a better auto focus system built around the new sensor. This morning I found several online retailers listing the EOS-M as “Discontinued” but I have yet to see an announcement from Canon on it’s replacement.
With Canon’s continued development of “Dual Pixel CMOS AF”, they seem to have committed themselves to a sensor that works well in both APS-C and mirrorless cameras. Are they trying to give the 70d some breathing room before releasing the sensor in lower priced cameras? After all it took almost 8 months before the 7d’s APS-C sensor started showing up in Canon’s rebel line.
I wondering if this means no new EOS-M until the end of the year. Personally I’d like to see more mirrorless options from Canon. Sony does a great job with the NEX line, but the menu system and controls make the cameras feel like a fisher price toy instead of proper cameras and I’ve never been very enthusiastic about 4/3’s cameras. Canon’s had a slow start, but at least the EOS-M line has all the same menus and controls seen in their full sized DSLR line.
More EF-M lenses would also be nice. The 22mm f2 is a decent start but I’d like to see 3 or 4 more primes in the lineup. What good is a E.V.I.L. camera if you don’t have a range of pancake primes to go with it? Hopefully Canon continues to invest in the EOS-M lineup and releases some more lenses to go along with a new EOS-M body around the end of the year.
16Sep Stacking Grid Light modifier
There are a number of DIY projects that show you how to build one of these grid light modifiers out of straws, foam core, and electrical tape. Most of the methods I’ve seen use around $10 to $15 in parts and supplies. This is pretty reasonable when compared to the $50 grid from Rogue, but if you can simply buy one for $22 like the one above, it might be worth $5 or $10 extra dollars in time savings. It also doesn’t require you to glue or attach anything to your flash head. If you really want to save money there are a even a few of these grid modifiers sold for under $10.
If you aren’t familiar with a stacking grid light modifier, basically it’s a grid placed in front of a light source that reduced the amount of light that is allowed to scatter. This effectively produces a soft beam of light on your subject. The longer the tubes are that the light travels through, the smaller the beam will be. The shorter the tubes length, the wider the beam will be.
For a 3 in 1 stacking grid light modifier, the thinnest grid provides the largest beam, the thicker grid provides the medium sized beam, and the two combined will give you the narrowest beam. Each grid can be added or removed from the snout by rotating the locking circle on the front of the unit.
This unit is designed for the Canon 580EX II, but it’s shape and size allows it to easily fit many other flashes. The design isn’t as compact as Rogue’s offering, but for $27 in savings it’s large plastic size is pretty easy to deal with.
With the thinnest grid in place you end up with a light beam that looks something like this. It can be a nice effect if you’re trying to isolate a subject from the background. It also provides pronounced a vignette which can be pleasing and give an old timey feel to an image. At $22, this stacking grid light modifier is worthing taking a look at and adds another reasonably priced lighting effect to your kit.
13Sep Light Blaster Strobe looks pretty interesting
You don’t often see something new or innovative in the world of flash photography. Sure there are advances in wireless controls, and lower price flash units are coming with more and more features, but overall it’s just been improvements on the same thing. The Light Blaster Strobe is actually the first light modifier style flash device that’s actually peaked my interest.
When I first took a look at the Light Blaster Strobe, my first thought, was “What the heck is this and why is there a lens attached to it?”. It turns out this is a case of old tech in a new and interesting format. You’re all probably familiar with a projector and how it uses a film strip and a bright light to shine an image through a lens and onto a white wall or screen. Basically the Light Blaster Strobe does the exact same thing.
You simply insert a 35mm slide, attach a lens, and use your strobe as the light source. Instead of the lens gathering light to focus on a small sensor, it uses the lens to magnify the image and project it onto a wall or subject. The major difference between a projector and the Light Blaster Strobe is lens selection.
Old projectors were designed with 90mm or 200mm lenses so that the projector could be placed in the back of a large room and still magnify the image large enough to fill a whole wall. With the Light Blaster Strobe you can use any lens in your collection which opens up the opportunity to use very wide angles. With the right lens attached you can fill an entire wall with a background image from only 4 or 5 feet away.
This example image from their catalog of a young girl with a circle laden background gives you an idea of the kind of things you could do. I’m sure the same could be accomplished with a good backdrop or some photoshop work, but it’s always interesting to see what you can accomplish in camera.
I have a review model of the Light Blaster Strobe coming and I’ll post some more info on it once I’ve got it in my hands. Now I just need to find somewhere that can make 35mm slides at a reasonable price. A background filled with gears for the steampunk ball would probably go over pretty well or a film noir high contrast background could be useful.
13Sep Canon EOS-M with 18-55mm $309
Newegg has the Canon EOS-m with 18-55mm kit lens on sale right now for $309. Sell the lens for $120 and you’ve effectively bought a t4i in a smaller package for $189. That’s a hell of a good price for a starter camera, even if the AF system isn’t great. Also note that just like the Sony NEX cameras you can adapter the Canon Eos-m to just about anything thanks to it’s small flange depth, that including old FD lenses. On top of that, there are a lot of companies selling generic eos-m to EF adapters for well under $100.
At it’s original price of $749, it’s overpriced but at $309 with lens, its a very good deal. The sale lasts until tomorrow so if you want one, you should probably move fast.
12Sep Tamron 24-70mm f2.8 VC $889.99
I swear this is the last crazy Ebay Deal I’ll post today. The Tamron 24-70mm f2.8 VC lens has become a staple in my lenses collection over the last year or so and it’s one of the first lenses I pack for just about any project. The VC (vibration control) makes it great for hand held shots and on a full frame body 24-70mm is right at the sweet spot for wide and medium shots. New the Tamron 24-70mm f2.8 VC is normally $1299, but if you don’t mind getting what could be gray market from South Korea, the Tamron 24-70mm f2.8 lens can be had for $889.99 with free shipping. That’s $400 in savings, that you could spend on a new 480GB SSD.
12Sep OCZ Agility 3 480GB SSD $286.98
Seems like there are a lot of ebay Deals going on today. Regardless, this is a very tempting price on a large capacity SSD. Right now seller onsale-ecost is offering up the OCZ Agility 3 480GB SSD’s for just $282.99 with $3.99 shipping ($286.98). This drive might not be the worlds fastest ssd, but it’s still more than enough to make your desktop or laptop feel like a whole new machine. Looks like it’s a limited supply so if you want one, now’s the time
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12Sep Canon 6d body on sale again $1599
The Canon 6d is back on sale yet again. This time the price is $1599 with free shipping. It’s the same seller I ordered my 6d from a few months ago (after I canceled my BMPCC order) and the camera body was delivered quick and packaged well. As usual with these sales the supplies are limited, so if you want one you should probably jump on it
. You can also check out my full review of the Canon 6d here.
12Sep Canon 24-105mm F4 L IS on Sale for $659
Arguably one of the best handheld walk around lenses for filmmaking and photography, the Canon 24-105mm f4 IS lens will normally set you back around $1000 new. However, if you don’t mind buying a new lens removed from one of Canon’s Kit packages, you can currently pick up a Canon 24-105 on ebay for $659 with free shipping. At that price it’s one of the most affordable pieces of L glass on the market. Not sure how many they have in stock, so if you want one, you should probably act fast.
11Sep Nexus 7 FHD tablet – First Impressions
The 32GB Nexus 7 FHD showed up at the beginning of the week and I’ve just started playing around with it. I held off on posting anything until I could get someone to lend me a working Nexus 7 so I could do some side by side comparisons. So far touch screen response on the new tablet seems snappier and HD video content looks noticeably better. Web browser feels a little more responsive but most other apps seem to run about the same.
Side by side the Nexus 7 FHD is slightly taller and thinner than the original. The front facing camera is also repositioned for a slightly better overall angle for live chats. The side bezel is thinner than the original but the upper bezel is just large enough feel awkward. I’m guessing they needed the extra space to squeeze in the rear camera.
The back view highlights the upgraded rubberized grip on the Nexus 7 FHD (right). If you look close, at the bottom of the unit you can see the stereo speakers, compared to the single mono speaker on the original. The other highlight is the newly included rear facing camera. While I don’t like to take photos or record video with a large tablet, I have seen people attempt it in real life and I’m sure they’ll be happy to have this new addition. Just remember to avoid vertical video syndrome and you should be ok.
Look at the at the charging port, you’ll notice that the original Nexus 7 had the headphone jack located on the bottom. The Nexus 7 FHD now locates the headphone jack at the top of the unit. Also note the slightly different looking charging port, while the new N7 supports the same type of USB charging cable, it also supports slimport HDMI output. A nice feature if you find yourself wanting to use this for video playback in a motel or at a friends house, I suppose you could even game on it if really wanted to.
I plan on sitting down for a few hours this weekend and doing some more side by side testing. I’d like to see how the Nexus 7 FHD handles as a field monitor for the 5d mark III and test it out with the new Gopro and 6d apps. If I get some time I’ll post a video with the test results.
11Sep Yongnuo YN568EX II quick flash test and updates
I’ve been comparing the Yongnuo YN568EX II to the Canon 580EX II in a few somewhat unscientific tests. In this case (above) I used the Yongnuo YN-622C Wireless flash trigger to fire both the 580EX II and YN568EX II. Both flash heads have the same guide number (58) and are set up identically. After taking a few test shots, it seemed to me like the 580EX II is slightly brighter than the YN568EX II. The difference isn’t enough to be a problem, but I did find that the YN568EX II needed +1/3 compensation to properly match the 580EX II.
This adjustment was made after I took a few shots of both units firing and looked over the results. Take a look at the shot above and let me know what you think. I don’t do a lot of flash testing and I usually set up compensation based on what looks good to my eye. If you have any other methods you would like me to use in order to compare these two units let me know.
So far the Yongnuo YN568EX II has done a great job. Recycle times are only slightly slower than the 580EX II, flash output is fairly similar, and HSS seems to respond well on both the 5d mark III and 6d body. It really pairs well with the Canon bodies I’ve tested and at $175 the Yongnuo YN568EX II seems to offer a lot of bang for the buck. I know it’s missing a few of the things people love about the 580EX II like the power adapter and slide to lock system, but for the price I think many would be more than happy to change out batteries and put up with a twist down latch. I’ll continue to mess around with it and keep you posted on my impressions as I spend more time with the Yongnuo YN568EX II.
