Its that time of year again...

Gosh, just realised that it is just under 3 weeks before Christmas. How time really flies. Meanwhile I have been testing out the new Canon EOS 7D for several weeks now. And my comments are that this camera is definitely worth it, especially if you are coming from an xxxD or even xxD EOS camera.

The EOS 7D is breaks new ground in terms of high ISO image quality. Its noticeably ahead of the EOS 50D. The grain on the images from the 7D are much more even with none of that streaking and blotching found on the EOS 50D. Next the 8fps shooting speed puts the camera squarely in the professional sports camera league.

Of course professional frame rates are useless without an equally good AF system. And the Canon EOS 7D does not dissapoint here. At first I was a bit wary of new AF system as I noticed that AF coverage across the frame had not actually increased. I would have much preferred an additional 4 AF points at each of the four courners, just to round out the "semi-diamond" layout. But I guess that would have been too much to ask. After having tested it for some weeks now, I'll say that the current layout and spread is adequate. I wouldn't go into the new iFCL / 64 segment metering system, AF tracking speed control, Focus Shooting Priority, AF zone selection, AF points expansion, AF points display, VF grid display, AF points tracking display, and automatic change of AF points given orientation change- all of which contribute to getting in-focused shots while the action is taking place at high speed. You can read all about that in official Canon literature. How the camera performs in actual use is the most important of all.

See full pixel crops of BIF (Bird in Flight) photo sequence below:

You'll notice that the camera's AF system was not easily fooled by items that came between the lens and the subject being tracked. I had the burst mode set on Focus Priority. Meaning that the camera only fired when the AF had acquired focus. The trick is to let the AF system lock on before letting loose the 8fps shutter.

And speaking of burst shooting, I found the buffer of the Canon EOS 7D to be more than adequate when covering the short flight of these birds across the wetlands. Of course, you'll need to use a high speed CF card. I was using the Sandisk 32GB Extreme III CF card, not the fastest CF card money can buy, but pretty fast enough.

The Canon EOS 7D is definitely worth the upgrade. Readers will note that I haven't even touched on the high definition video capability of the camera yet. That's because I'm currently teaching myself how to cut video. I'll have more on that in a future blog post. For now, I'm going out to take more pictures and record more of that gorgeous 1080p full HD video using my collection of Canon EF mount inter-changable lenses.

Update (8th Dec '09)
It seems the weather sealing on the Canon EOS 7D is also pretty impressive. Here a Canon shooter takes his own Canon EOS 7D out to Antarctica for 3 1/2 weeks and shoots during snow storms and while lying down on wet ice. Altogether an excellent performance for the new camera. I'm glad to be using one now. This now gives me a lot of confidence in its all weather capabilities.

Corporate Greed Strikes Again

In another case of corporate greed, Apple is now taking legal action against a business in Australia that has been using "MacPro" for its brand of computer and technical support services for over 26 years.

Orginally being handed a ruling in favour of MacPro Computers (the small business), Apple has now made an appeal to the Federal Court. According to The Age's report, Apple has spurred a number of requests by the small business to settle out of court.

It seems the company is not interested to negotiate but rather is out to exhaust the other business financially so that it will simply quit the fight.

It reminds me of the Firewire fiasco years ago when Apple (which invented Firewire) told PC makers that it wanted up to 50 US cents per PC per Port for Firewire licensing. I'm sure PC makers, seeing the technical merit of Firewire tried to negotiate. Eventually Intel and others, probably HP and Compaq included promptly "gave Apple the finger" and went on to create the Universal Serial Bus or more commonly known as USB. Which today has become ubiquitous. Had Apple been ready to compromise, today will see Firewire being the commonest standard instead of the much slower USB.

Despite all the talk and showmanship shown by Apple's top executives including Steve Jobs. It seems Apple is just another greedy corporate giant that will use its financial resources to do anything and everything to get its way.

That's another good reason why I don't have any brand loyalties to products. To me, they are just tools to get something done. No room here for Apple Fanaticism or any kind of Fanboyism of any sort.

Amazon / Dpreview.com threaten web blogger.

Askey / Amazon threatens Karel Donk for "using dpreview's images" without permission". They also demand that he give written reply that he will in future not use any of dpreview's material. Effectively gagging him. He replies by arguing fair use and mentioning principles used by the US courts on determining what is fair use. Amazon's lawyers then BACK DOWN. I think dpreview's objectivity was compromised long ago since Amazon took over. Nowadays, almost every camera is "Recommended" on their site.

As far as I'm concerned, Karel gives pretty good insight in his analysis and critical writing. I think these matters concern free speech, fair use, and exercising one's own critical thinking and not having the "wool pulled over our eyes" by camera companies, camera sellers, and their "independent camera review sites". http://www.kareldonk.com/karel/

New Passion & Creativity Unleashed

Having thrown off the shackles of manipulation and passive intimidation (see previous post), I now have a renewed sense of energy and creativity.

Below are just a selection of the photos created by myself in the days leading up to that fateful decision and the days immediately after.

Oh! What a change! What an awesome improvement! My photography has gone further and reached a whole new and different level. A higher level.

The color, the mood, the composition, the picture! Definitely moments worth capturing!

Friends & the Passon of Photography 2

Its been slightly over 3 months since I've posted to this my blog. The main reason is that I've been reflecting on some of the things I see and now I've decided to post this so that I'll get this out of the way and move on.

Bear with me as I recount a few incidents that will be used to make my point. A number of months ago I posted an article which described my personal experiences on what kind of photographers one should get along with... those who have a passion for photography and are willing to share and learn with you. Versus those who simply make use of other people and hoard all the information and know-how and only seek to learn from you without giving. A friend of mine advised me to take it down and give the person a chance. I also thought perhaps I was wrong and it was all a misunderstanding. One bad taste doesn't mean that one apple is rotten right? Since taking down that post out of respect to my friend and her advice, I have since felt and still do feel that I had been right in my assessment of that person all along. I felt suppressed in my own thoughts and feelings. I've been mulling about it in my mind. Its as if some people turn from Mr Hyde into Dr Jeckyl when they pick up a camera. And that bothers me. I've since put it back up for obvious reasons. Its here.

Now back to the continuation of the story... A few weeks ago, I did some photography for a couple of good friends who were getting married. I know both the bride and groom. Being responsible for ushering in guests to the wedding, I didn't do much shooting, until only after when it was clear no more new guests were coming and the wedding was well progressing did I being firing away (b4 that only candid shots). Next thing that came was really strange, that same photographer came over and quietly said to me that guest were still coming in. I immediately made my way out to the foyer and withing 10 seconds I was out there. It was a small church. As I was getting out to the foyer, a couple who were also ushers were on their way back in, having stood out in the foyer. Still, I went out to check and there was not a single soul in sight. I though it strange and didn't think more about it and quickly went back to cover the wedding. It was then that same photographer, when he saw me again seemed more determined to get more shots. He also seemed slightly agitated that "I had returned" and that seemed to make him more eager to fire away with his camera. In fact, he was so eager that he began to be "getting in my way" pretty often whereas I would make sure I didn't get in his way and take shots carefully. Usually as professionals, we photographers know to keep out of each others' "line of fire". So it seemed really odd to me that I was being blocked.

In both instances, its that same photographer. Some of you reading this may think that I'm being really naive and that I should really get over it and move on. Perhaps he's just a jackass. Others may think that this is now big deal, that its very common and one shouldn't be paying too much attention to it anyway. I think that's both correct.

But how does one then reconcile this fact with the fact that I'm in photography for the creative expression and that photography has to be fun and that once that is being tampered with I then tend to loose my creative excitement? And also the fact that I'm a nice guy generally and like to share and learn from others? Whereas there are others out there that are quite simply - feral.

Also since taking down my original post about that bad experience / taste, I have felt that I suppressed my own self even though I had made a correct assessment of the situation and there are more instances btw. But really when there is a clear trend, I really can't be stupid twice. I guess he just turns into Dr Jeckyl or Jerk when he picks up a camera. Stay clear from such kinds of people, especially when they are about to pick up a camera. This sounds crazy but its true.

So what do I do?

Here's what I'll and this will be the "moving forward":

1) Continue to be a nice guy. What?!? I hear some of you say. Pro photography esp in Fashion is cut throat. Nice guys get trampled on. Well that's me and I'm not going to compromise my character for this. Plus, doing so will eventually kill my passion anyhow. So being like the rest of them is definitely no go.

2) Carefully pick the ones I call my friends when it comes to Photography. And not just photography but those things in life where passion from your heart is important. Choose people who build you up and not those who leave you with a sour or bad after taste. Continue to learn, give, share, and grow with those who share the same passion AND are willing to share, learn, and give as you do.

3) Last of all, go out and take more photos and grow your passion!

With that lets move on soul and let your passion grow to new heights!

Looking forward to do more posts here from now on.

Fall Colors

Taken a few weeks ago in the Mt Dandenong ranges.

Fall is nice, but I can't wait for warmer weather to come. Will not come for many more months...

www.pbase.com/danyong/fallcolors

Perfect Spheres

Some photos taken in my backyard, after the early morning dew.

Nature is so beautiful...

www.pbase.com/danyong/ps

Canon Camera Quality Control Catches Up To Reality

Canon finally seems to have come clean with defects on its flagship Powershot camera... the Canon Powershot G10. This same defect was identified by yours truly last November. Spotted the defect within the first week of shooting and the first time I took the camera out.

But one major question remains, why has Canon taken so long to admit the problem? As I have mentioned in my November post, the problem is so glaring it could easily be spotted... IF Canon had done any quality control at all. Perhaps now that the camera is more than 6 months old and sales have tapered, that Canon thinks its safe now to announce the problem and offer to have it fixed. sigh. If my conjecture is correct, its another instance of corporate greed and Canon arrogance at work again.

However, all is not fixed yet. Canon has still to address the "blur band" across the center of the viewfinder. This "blur band" gets larger has you zoom in and was also identified in my November post. I guess for Canon, if they think they can get away with it, they will try to. And if they get caught, the company will try and lie its way out of things. Only when it can't get off by lying will it offer to remedy the defect.

Canon is getting its ass kicked by Nikon now. It can continue to bury its head in the sand and pretend that all is fine. Suites me one way or the other because I use whatever is the best tool for the job at the time. Be it Canon or Nikon or any other brand.

Good luck Canon.

Apple MacMini Upgrade

Well, my Apple MacMini finally arrived some days ago and yesterday I finally upgraded a.k.a. hacked my Apple Personal Computer....

From 120GB low capacity and slow hard drive to a Western Digital 500GB big and faster hard drive.

And from 1GB of inferior Apple supplied RAM which incidentally comes from a little known supplier in Singapore to 4GB of OWC DDR3 RAM, which exceeds Apple's specs. This memory runs rock solid on the MacMini.

Of course, before I did the upgrade, I cloned the existing HD to the new 500GB WD HD, tested it by booting from an external drive before installing it into the MacMini.

Piece of cake.... heres the shots...

Oh and incidentally, this is my first Apple Computer. The Apple II PCs in the '80s never did capture my immagination. There lacked the graphics and usability of the Atari 800 Home Computer, which had 5 CPUs... one each for graphics, audio etc. But I digress...

Open Vs Closed System

Last week, I ordered my first Apple PC. For those who feel confused with "Apple PC" it simply means Apple Personal Computer. An Apple is a Mac you say.... no PC stands for Personal Computer. An Apple computer is a PC. Forget about the silly Mac Vs PC commercials you see on TV. That's just clever sales promotion to attract the gullible and brand conscious user. More on that other day perhaps but tonight, I want to talk about Open Vs Close computer systems.

As mentioned I ordered my first Apple PC last week. And lo and behold, the delivery will take a few days to assemble as my Apple is considered a "custom order" simply because I opted for a slightly faster CPU. Gosh, this is ridiculous you can install a CPU on the system-board in less than 3 minutes.

That just goes to show Apple's mentality. Change a single item in their closed box, upgrade-less, dead end boxes they sell you and its considered a custom order. And it takes an extra few days. I ran Apple yesterday and the girl said that I should check again today and it should have been shipped out.

I checked when I got home today and lo and behold, the date just got extended from 16th April to 21st April. Ridiculous. I ordered Gateway 2000 PC years ago and it got delivered in less than a week. Ordered a DELL monitor and it got delivered in 3 days.

I could understand if my config had custom or hard to source components.... but Apple just offers a few options. And it charges heaps for extra memory or storage. More on that next time when I hack my Apple Mac Mini to give it 4GB of RAM for one third the cost that Apple wants to charge you and as for the 500GB HD... well Apple just wouldn't sell you one.

And whats the SATA header on the Mini's system-boad doing there but its not offered? Silly. If I get time I'm going to hack it so that it becomes an eSATA port too. Well more on that next time.... I'll definitely post when I upgrade to 4GB RAM (using memory superior to what Apple offers) and up the ridiculous and slow 120GB HD to a faster 500GB one.

The Mini is nothing but a laptop without the screen, keyboard, or mouse. One can get a laptop with similar specs and about the same cost. I'm buying a Mini simply because of the OS. Lets hope I don't regret this buying decision. That Leopard OS had better be worth the cost of that Apple.

United States- A Land of Violence

This past week or so saw some of the worse high profile gun violence and killings in the USA. With 14 dead in a NY citizenship center and 3 police officers gunned down in Pennsylvania, the violence is just overwhelming. In the latter case, the gunman was reportedly wearing a bullet-proof vest and armed with an AK-47, shot gun and a hand gun. He gunned down 3 police at the door step before pinning down a SWAT team as their vehicle approached the house.

Terrible. I remember an ex-colleague of mind relating his experience of the USA. He was ex-Army reserve, served in Bosnia, had real firefights and so on. While on exchange in the USA, his team was sent out on a mission to rescue two police officers who had stumbled upon a drug deal and were engaged in heavy firefight with heavily armed gangsters.

He tells me he remembers coming in on board a Blackhawk chopper and as they were "ropping" off the chopper onto the ground below, the gunner in the chopper was firing away with his 7.62mm machine gun down at the "terrorists" below. And he remembered thinking to himself, "Gosh, this is America. This is supposed to be the land of the free." His team was fully armed with automatic weapons and body armour and it was a full on firefight against the drug dealers before they eventually had the situation under control.

I think the USA is no longer the land of the free. Many parts of the country is wrecked with violence and killing. I think its time the US government started tackling terrorism at home first instead of meddling in other countries problems and usually making the problems worse.

On a side note, think if something like this were to have happened in China, the international press would definitely play up the issue and suggest that the violence is somehow linked to some repressed ethnic group or of some ill-treated and marginalised Chinese citizen who finally lost it after not getting "justice" from the local government. Either way, the Chinese government almost always gets blamed NO MATTER what they do or don't do. And we've seen this time and time again in the international news.

I remember the time when it was reported in India that a pick-pocket who was caught by the police was tied by the ankles and dragged through the streets on a police motorcycle. No one in the international press raised any questions. Is it because India is a democracy and China is not? If this were to happen in China, the international press would be all over the story. They'll claim among other things, human rights violations, police brutality, and government inaction and corruption. These seem to be the favourite topics raised.

Irony. Full of irony.

The Importance of Post Processing Software

Post processing software is indispensible today. With cameras being digital, you have to process you digital files. Having good PP software which gives not only excellent IQ, reliable results and excellent user interface is therefore critically important.

Here are several important ways how NOT to do it...

Taken from a couple of quotes from Lloyd Chambers, renowned online author, software engineer (20+ years), blogger, camera equipment tester, Apple PC user and photographer tells of what he thinks of Nikon's Capture NX2 RAW image processing software.


Where NX 2 falls flat is with overall usability, and it is downright painful working with batches of files where each file needs some tweaks of its own. This author is hard pressed to think of a worse user interface design in a RAW file-converter. The user interface design seems to be a literal translation of some engineer’s stream of consciousness thinking about the code and data structures, as opposed to thinking about how to ease the workload on the user. The NX engineering team should study Apple’s Aperture, or Adobe’s Lightroom for example. This author, having been a software engineer for 20 years, would lay odds that the NX team has never consulted a skilled user interface designer.

To solve the batch selection issue, one must manually move desired images into their own folder. Worse, Capture NX attempts to batch-processes both NEF and JPEG files of the same name. Removing the JPEG files should not be required to batch-process a group of NEF files! And here’s the kicker: once a batch job is started, no more batch jobs can be added; you must wait. Given the folder orientation for batch processing, how does one process 10 folders... dump all the files into one huge folder? No, one waits and waits for the batch to finish. That is not batch mode, it’s waste-time mode, a colossally infuriating design.

In contrast in Canon's Digital Photo Professional, you select the photos you want to batch and hit Command B and you're done. And while the DPP worker is at it, you can continue working and add new batch processes which will immediately start working. How easy is that?

And here's the real show-stopper with Capture NX...

Make the tiniest change to a NEF (RAW) file and you lose—your time, your disk space. For example, change the white balance and save the NEF. A 14.3MB NEF file inexplicably becomes an 18.6MB file—30% larger. Worse, it takes 5-10 seconds to save (on a quad-core 3GHz Mac Pro with a 4-drive striped RAID capable of 350MB/sec). Do the NX2 engineers really think this is the way it should work? Canon’s DPP can save settings for hundreds of files in the time it takes NX2 to save them for a single file—and you don’t lose gigabytes of disk space in the process.

Worse, your file is put at risk of data corruption due to overwriting the original file. This is not an idle concern; Nikon itself warned of data corruption with Capture NX and Mac OS X Leopard (now allegedly fixed)! Your file date is modified as well. Capture NX violates a fundamental data-integrity rule: never write over an original file. At least with Canon’s DPP, space is set aside in advance for the settings, which makes it fast and low-risk.

The storage issue is a major nuisance, the potential data corruption a serious concern, but the performance issue is a show-stopper. Working through large numbers of images, one just can’t waste 10 seconds per file for a save (which includes answering the inane dialog about saving).

This is insane... it violates just about every basic rule of data integrity, efficiency, and common sense.

And now with the latest release of Capture NX2.2.0, it gets worse than "worst"

Run a batch job and the programme uses about 7% of only one of the CPU cores of the new MacPro. Or as the author states 0.4% of the available processing power of that computer. Thus, it takes 30 minutes or so to process 15 NEF files.

Lloyd Chambers calls the programme manure. Humm.... makes me wonder if Nikon even tested their software..... I shudder to think. It reminds me of Canon's QA of its L lenses.

But at least now with DPP3.6 released, more features are being added and more importantly, the programmes generally works well and its interface works pretty well too. Most of all its easy to use, fast to use and makes use of 2 to 4 cores efficiently, and it uses hyper-threading too. BTW, DPP3.6 is only available on the Japan website for now.

The problems with Nikon Capture NX 2 are so bad it actually makes it worthwhile to be shooting Canon. At least I feel better now and I'll give Canon time to launch better lenses and cameras which actually work as advertised while I enjoy my Canon EOS 50D and Powershot G10 cameras.

Earthquake

Just felt earth tremors for the first time in my life! Really scarry if you ask me. This is the first time I've felt an earthquake. I've always wondered how it felt. NOW I KNOW. And its not fun. I was just sitting there at my PC workstation when I felt the floor shift back and forth quickly and the roof of the house shake as though a very strong wind suddenly blew. But there was no sound save the sound of the plaster on the wall next to me creaking slightly.

An earthquake is definitely NOT FUN. Yes we live in perilous times indeed.

New Digital Camera for Crime Scenes

Singapore has announced the purchase of one or more state-of-the-art digital cameras to help with crime scene investigations. This camera can take 360 degree panoromas, zoom in to record details at high resolution and even measure distances between objects. Its like of like taking a digital record of the crime scene for later analysis in the lab. Sounds like the science fiction-like capabilities seen on CSI are becoming more of a reality for the Singapore Home Team's SCDF or Singapore Civil Defence Force.

Interesting

Note, the photograph shown in the news report is of the Special Operations Command, a branch of the Police, not the SCDF. Although both the SCDF and the Police are under the Home Team Command.

Democracy, Human Rights, the World Economic Crisis and Differing Political Systems

I've been reading world news recently with a feeling of irony. With the world economy generally in recession, with some economies in crisis (e.g. the United States), Wen Jia Bao Premier of China the other day expressed concern that China's investment in US Treasury Bonds could be at risk, and asked the United States to safe-guard Chinese assests and other investments.

Its ironic because here you have a Top Communist Official talking about treasury bonds - a Capitalist instrument of investment and asking the party to which it has lent money or otherwise made an investment to help safe guard that investment. Ironic isn't it? The communists telling the capitalists to make sure they are good stewards of the lenders' money.

If anything, the Chinese (and when I say Chinese I mean Chinese from mainland China, not the Overseas Chinese). Anyway, the Chinese are just about one of the most business and capitalist minded people on the face of the earth. Today, the Chinese Communists are only Communist by Name. The Chinese have been doing business, conducting international trade both on land via the silk road and via the sea for hundreds if not thousands of years.

China had its own lending and financial institutions run as private businesses during the times of the Chinese emperors. Doing business is second nature to Chinese.

Today, China holds about $730 Billion Singapore dollars in US Treasury Bonds. It is the 3rd largest economy in the world. And is today the largest creditor (aka lender) to the United States, which I will point out is supposedly the worlds largest Capitalist economy.

Ironic isn't it?

Moreover, today the Chinese Communists leadership is stressing development in the economy, social justice, human rights, scientific based progress and development in strategic areas (e.g. defence, food production, resources management), research & development, and the fight against corruption which it has recognised could cause the weakening and eventual downfall of government (in this case, itself the Chinese Communist Party). Isn't it ironic that while the Chinese communist can clearly see that corruption weakens government while justice, the rule of law, democracy (yes democracy!) and human rights leads to strengthening of government in the long term, the bastions of "democracy" & "human rights" aka the United States seems to have forgotten these very same universal values which have made it "The Greatest Nation on Earth".

Today, corporate America is rife with corruption at the highest levels and self-serving CEOs who milk the companies they run and reward themselves with fat pay-outs when they run those companies into bankruptcy. Whats worse, the current economic crisis was caused basically by the failure of American institutions - the banks, the regulators, the government in general, even the failure of ordinary citizens who spend what they don't have on what they can't afford. Today the United States within is rife with violence (esp gun violence) and crime while overseas, it carries out killing, imprisonment, and torture carried on foreign shores and justifies it as its "war against terror". America it seems has lost the very values of individual freedom, democracy and human rights as espoused by its founding fathers. Fighting terror by toppling governments, occupying other countries, killing innocent cilivians and providing arms and training to other criminals to do more of the killing doesn't guarantee a win to the war (whatever the "war" is and however the "win" is defined). One needs to go after the perpetrators of the crime and fix the root causes of terrorism. Bush on the other hand did more to ruin the American economy and strengthen the hand of terrorists and extremists than Osama Bin Laden ever could. If Osama is still alive, he's probably comforting himself that Bush the idiot has done what he alone could never have achieved. There'll be many more Osamas after he's gone.

Now back to the economic mess- If this crisis had started in Asia, the lecture from Western nations, we would not hear the end of. Lectures on good corporate governance, accountability, transparancy and the proper enforcement of law (or the lack thereof) will be the topics Asian countries would be lectured on. Moverover had this crisis started in Asia, there would no doubt be accusations of corruption, nepotism, currency manipulation, unfair trading practices, insider trading, improper government intervention and so on. True, corruption and nepotism is rife in certain Asian governments, but as someone said, "You shouldn't throw stones at others when you yourself live in a glass house."

Here and here are the related news reports on China's US Treasury Bonds.

Of Bugs and Flowers

Took these in my backyard. I didn't know they existed existed until a friend of mine spotted them. Nasty looking bugs. They look like ticks. Maybe they are parasites...




And here is a crop of the first picture...


You can clearly see how these bugs have motted. Some look really fat. They look like they are just sticking to the plant by their bellies. Yucks.

Great Home Cooked Food

Part of the joys of having your own home is that you get to enjoy good home cooked food with your family and loved ones. And what better way to show off the food than on your very own blog.

So here is a small selection... Yum, I'm feeling hungry again...

Canon Stoops To A New Low.

I can't believe it. This all started a few days ago when fakechuckwestfall.wordpress.com was threatened with a shut down order. The threats made were so ridiculous it was actually funny. Then Wordpress decided to stand up to the lawyers hired by Canon and kept the blog open. And now hits to fakechuckwestfall has skyrocketed from 200 to more than 19,000 hits in less than 2 days. Canon has just paid a lot of money to raise the publicity of fakechuckwestfall.

Well done Canon. Read all about it here.

Okay I know this blog is about photography. I'll put some nice photos from my personal collection in the next few days.

Canon Fiasco

Well, it seems Michael Reichman's recent Antarctic Trip is causing quite a stir on the internet. You can read about MR's account here and read a sample of the resulting discussions here. What all this is causing is that Canon is going to have a PR disaster. How long can Canon afford to ignore this? As one poster wrote and I paraphrase, "Why didn't Canon just put in proper weather seals like the 1D Series and be done with it?". Another poster wrote that theres no definition of what "weather sealed" means. Most people will take that to mean rain, but it can also mean sun, wind, hot, cold etc. In the absence of a definition those claims mean nothing.

Its also interesting that at the time the 5DII was announced, there was some quote from Canon that the camera can take rain up to 10mm per hour for 3 minutes. I can't find the source to the quote. But it was from official Canon marketing material at the launch of the camera. So it seems "weather sealed" means at least light rain to Canon.

Don't you see where all this is leading? All their "cutting corners" over the past few years is all coming back to bite Canon in the behind. The focus shifting 50mm 1.2 L they are trying to sell for top dollar, the noisy and banding 50D, the clearly false claims of "weather sealing" in their 5DII and 50D cameras, not to mention the false claims of the 50D being a good sports camera with its ancient and unrealiable 9pt focusing system. Also lies by Canon's top executives about "having no space" to put in a pop-up flash and a new AF system and last of all, that Canon's worst year is due to the economic situation rather than Canon's own poor behaviour. If Canon doesn't change its going to go downhill all the way. It's already started.

Meanwhile Nikon will be charging much more for its cameras knowing that Canon is now beset by poor and incompetent leadership, much like Nikon was in the years prior to 2007. What happens next we can only wait and see.

Love my Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 XR Di

Its on days like this that I really find good value in my 3rd party lenses. Especially so when even slrgear.com rates the Tamron as a hair sharper than Canon's 3 times more expensive and not fully weather sealed EF24-70mm F2.8 L lens.

The picture speaks for itself....

The new Canon EF 24mm f1.4 Mark II still leaves a lot to be desired.

The Canon EF 24mm f1.4 L Mark II review is out at slrgear. Based on the results that they've obtained, this is what I think... Looking at the graphs, sure its a whole lot better than the Mark I version of the lens but it still leaves a lot to be desired. Compare this len's performance against that of the competition; Namely the Nikkor 14-24mm f2.8 G and the Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8 G. Both Nikkor zoom lenses have better and more even sharpness across the frame than the Canon. Just look at the test graph. The graphs below from slrgear.com show the comparison against the Canon when all lenses are set at 24mm f2.8.

The graphs above shows the Canon 24mm against the 24-70mm Nikkor, both at 24mm f2.8. You will see the the Nikkor offers better sharpness across more of the frame.

This graph shows Nikon's 14-24 f2.8 G. The results are even better here. And these are zoom lenses!!!!

Moreover, look at the graph below. It shows the Canon EF 24mm f1.4 L Mark II at f1.4. It shows horrendous corner softness at up to 6BxU (blur units) as measured by Slrgear.com. What if I want to compose a shot where the subject / object is off center and I want narrow DOF? With this lens it would effectively mean a soft picture where it really ought to be sharp.

Whats worse, we are comparing a prime lens against two zooms. This prime is Canon's newest wide angle lens with SWC (Sub Wavelength Coating), Canon's own technology to give performance similar to Nikon's Nano Coat technology. And guess what, this Canon prime performs less well. Quite disappointing really.

At this stage, its not looking good for Canon in terms of its new lenses. If this new Canon L lens is any indication of things to come, Canon WA lenses at least are not standing up to the best Nikkors. This will have real implications if your style and type of photography calls for sharp pictures, wide open with the subject matter often framed off-center.

RAW files - Are they really raw?

The way RAW files are output by the camera is of course a closely guarded trade secret for all the camera manufacturers. A RAW file by definition is the digital version (zeros and ones) of the analogue sample taken off the sensor. This happens without the application of a tone curve among other things. The idea there is so that one can "process" the RAW file anyway he or she likes, much like a digital negative which hasn't been developed. The good thing about RAW files is that you can process them in an infinite number of ways whereas with emulsion film negatives or positives (as in slides) you can only process them once. (of course I may be wrong, I never process emulsion film)

Here comes the problem.... Camera RAW files from certain manufacturers have been becoming more and more "processed" BEFORE they written to the card. To take a quote from an online forum, "Canon has been very, very good with this so far. Other brands have been notoriously deceptive about this. From Nikon clipping their black levels to "improve" noise performance, to Sony blatantly performing aggressive NR to their RAW files."

And this holds true in application. So much so that although Canon's EOS 50D RAW files contain more noise than the previous camera, I have found that with proper post-processing, one could properly handle noise and squeeze the maximum image quality out of the 15MP RAW images coming from the camera. So Chuck's comment that it all depends on the RAW processing technique and software being used hold true.

Tweaking my digital workflow has given me the opportunity to improve my post-processing skills too. After working with the RAW files of the EOS 50D and for that matter the RAW files of any camera, one gets a feel for the image characteristics for various types of images produced by each camera (e.g. bright vs dark, scenery vs portraits or landscape vs people), ISO (high vs low), flash or no flash etc. Hence I am able to post-process them appropriately to get the result I want.

After a while, you really know how to work with different cameras - both in capturing the best image and in post-processing so as to get the look you want or a consistent image regardless of what camera you use. This is what is most important as far as the science of photography goes.

Now back to the RAW-ness of RAW files, I think Canon has got it right this time. A RAW file should only have the bare necessities. Everything else which can be added later should be added later. To this end, shame on Nikon and more shame on Sony. They are corrupting the notion of RAW. In trying to compete with images leader Canon, they are going down a slippery path which hopefully other camera manufacturers do not follow. For now I'm very happy with the RAW files produced by my Canon cameras. Hooray for RAW.

Californian Redwoods

Stumbling upon a forest of Californian Redwoods - Sequoia Sempervirens, which were planted in 1938 presumably by the local loggers, I decided to take a few shots and also to stand in the shallow section of the river in order to capture the scene from the middle.

I stood for an entire 40 minutes or so in the water, trusting my Gortex lined hiking boots from Colorado's "Titanium" range to keep my feet dry. They did, until about the last 10 mins or so when moisture started getting in at the seams. My feet didn't get really wet. Just moist. My boots did keep me dry for the most part though.

After getting up from the river bank and about a good 30 minutes later, I felt something crawling around my lower left leg. What I learnt from my time in the jungles while in the Army was, "If it itches once scratch it. If it itches in the same spot again, you better check it!" I did and was horrified to find a little leech crawling around. Luckily it hadn't begun to bite. So I just flicked it off. No big deal. But I did find a clean spot to sit down, remove all my boots, check my feet and toes, and roll up my trousers and made sure there weren't anymore of them sticking to me! And no I didn't have the peace of mind to capture a shot of that leech on my leg before I flicked it away. Were the shots worth it? You bet!

Chasing waterfalls and nature treaking part 2

I like this image as it shows off the rugged terrain I had to clamber over to get to the spot where I was to take those photos. Taken with my G10 you can see I'm clearly making full use of the deeper DOF of a small sensor camera. On the ground you can see the Lowepro Flipside 400AW camera backpack that I use. Its much better the the Israeli designed Kata 3n1 30 that I have used before. The Flipside 400AW feels like a real backpack when your carrying it. Meaning its comfortable and functional. If you look carefully, you'll also see a sliplock pouch I've added to the side. I have two, one on each side to be exact.

This shot shows the EOS 50D in "settings display" mode. Looks much like a Sony Alpha doesn't it? I find this feature very useful especially when taking shots in awkward positions. I swith between this screen and LiveView to adjust settings, compose, focus, and take the shot.

Chasing waterfalls and nature treaking

Here's some photos of my few days of chasing waterfalls, photographing them and often getting so close I could feel the spray on my face. Really refreshing. And yes my new EOS 50D performed well, and so did my Canon Powershot G10. Both cameras in the 15MP range and providing excellent image quality, built quality and handling. With the G10 you get to take videos of course. I use this to capture the ambience - the feeling, the sights and well as the sounds. It lets me take home and enjoy what would otherwise be a half day's drive and hour or so hike down to the falls to enjoy be there. Isn't technology supposed to make our lives easier and better? I think in this case it does, but only if you apply it properly.

Combining ones' hiking & backpacking skills, love for nature, love for technology and skill in photography and creative use of your creativity and taking time out to enjoy is what makes a holiday worthwhile. YEA!

Yes my Mag Fiber tripod is indeed in the water. Kinda makes me glad that I spent the money on this instead of one of those metal legged ones. No rust to worry about here.

Birthday at Chong Yao and Lynette's

Celebrated a good friend's birthday today. It was a good time catching up since many of us were all over the place over Christmas and the New Year. It was the first time I got to see Chong Yao and Lynette's new baby too. (Sorry no pic of the baby. Didn't want to strain her tender eyes with any bright lights.) Respect the locals I always think.

Its a rare shot of everyone together. So here it is..... You can click on the image to get the large picture. The image may look a bit off color. It looks okay on my monitor but after uploading the color looks strange in a browser. Anyone who has any ideas please do let me know.

BTW, I hope to be posting some shots taken of waterfalls. Yes I spent a few days out in the wild chasing waterfalls and secluded nature surrounds. Hopefully some pics real soon. Haven't done much post-processing as my computer is really slow. It was never meant to process video and high resolution digital images using sophisticated RAW image editing software. Time I started looking for an upgrade it seems.

(update)

Ok, I've fixed up the color on this photo using another RAW processor. This one looks more natural doesn't it?