Canon's 1DX an all-in-one pro solution?

Canon announced the new EOS 1D X camera on Tuesday to seemingly mixed reviews. For some, the new system is a departure from the expected take in the 1D line, while for others its a well-thought-out successor in a long line of legendary professional imaging tools.

For those who claim the former, they seem to feel that the rather scant megapixel count doesn't seem all that more advanced than the 1D Mark IV's 16MP sensor. Besides, the IV's sensor carried a peculiar 1.3x crop so gaining the realestate of the X's full frame sensor - Canon's third body to offer this size - would allow for the additional pixels without much perceived effort. But, there's more under the hood here than pixels, and it's those added features that make this a rather significant upgrade.

For starters you've got 12 fps performance out of the box and up to 14 fps in JPEG with proper settings engaged. This is a 25-33% increase in image capture performance. This is made possible by the dual - yes TWO - Digic 5+ image processors built into the body. The double-duty processing power also helps with the ISO performance. The new X touts a max normal ISO of 51,200, up from 12,800 on the IV.

Other notable improvements are the 400,00 actuation rated shutter mechanism, full 1080p video with multiple frame rates including 24 fps and dual CF card support.

There are a host of other changes, but this covers the most significant. It will be available in March for around $7000, which is somewhat competitively priced, though I feel $6000 would be more appropriate.
 So, why the mixed reviews?

Well, for one, there are simply too many pixel counters out there. 18MP is plenty for what this camera is designed to shoot - basically everything that's not going to be on the cover of a major magazine; and even then, it's probably enough. It's target audience is going to be the the photojournalists, sports shooters and wedding photographers that are Canon loyal. The body is designed to take a beating and deliver nearly half a million shots before shutter failure. Basically, it's a do-it-all workhorse for professional photographers.

Look, 18MP is plenty of resolution, especially when high ISO performance comes into play. If you need studio quality, medium format-rivaling resolution, pick up a 5D Mark II for less than $3000 and be quiet. Or, better yet, wait for the MIII. Those in this camp should consider the minuscule difference in resolution anyway - keep reading. You're not going to get 30MP with ultra high ISO performance at 10+ fps...at least not yet.

The only direct competition with this camera is the aging Nikon D3 series which boasts 12MP and 10-11 fps. The D3's ISO performance as become legendary and at a price tage of less than $6000 it will remain a force to compete with. Rumors are churning about a D4 that should hit the market around the same time with a possible announcement around the first of the year, perhaps at PMA. This could make for an interesting race if Nikon plays its cards right.

Those that like this announcement get what it is: a slightly overpriced professional go-to body. It attempts, I think, to eliminate the multi-body-depending-on-assignment predicament that some shooters face. For some Canon shooters the question might be: "do I grab my $2400-6000 high resolution full frame camera or my lower resolution high speed work tank?" This attempts to blend the two I think. Remember, the 5D MII and 1Ds MIII are only 21MP. The X then is 2MP up from the 1D MIV and only 3MP down from the 5D and 1Ds and you're gaining full frame coverage in a body that's even faster than the MIV. The problem with this blend is the price. If you have the 1Ds (forget the 5D for a moment) at $7000 and the MIV at $5000 and you're really trying to sort of appeal to BOTH audiences, wouldn't $6000 be a more accurate figure? Make it $5500 and you've got something incredible here.

Would I buy it? If I were back to shooting Canon and I wanted a do-it-all body, then absolutely - but I might wait a bit for the price to drop. I shoot sports and weddings, so it's ideal. It's enough resolution for bridal portraits and promotional materials and enough speed, durability and ISO performance to handle the rest. Several Canon shooters won't be tempted by this, however. Many, who shoot predominantly in one field may elect to remain with their current lineup. Wedding and portrait shooters rave about the 5D series and feel it's more than capable in low light. Action shooters my feel that an extra 2MP and 2fps won't justifiably alter their workflow enough to fork over seven grand.

If nothing else, you'll see the cost of the 1D MIV and 1Ds plummet and hit the used market. So, if you've been wanting one of these, hold on until spring and you can pick up a great camera for a lot less money.

For me, a Nikon shooter, the most interesting thing about this announcement is what it will do to the Nikon  line. If there is a D4 coming in the next 6 months, how will it compare? The rumored D800 could be announced next week, but if the rumors are true, it'll be a dream machine for studio and landscape photographers, but the focus on resolution and lack of emphasis on low light and speed performance will jar a lot of loyalists. Most owners are in the D700 camp because it was a cost effective option that offered great low light performance, admirable shooting speeds and acceptable resolution in a cost-effective package. Again, it's a prosumer version of what Canon is trying to push on the professional crowd with the X. One thing's for sure, only time will tell how well the new X will be received and what competitors are cooking up to compete with it.

Be safe and happy shooting.

-R

Farewell to a visionary and icon - Steve Jobs

Today the world lost a truly magical mind. Steve Jobs, co-founder and, until six weeks ago, CEO of Apple, Inc., passed away  at the age of 56.

Jobs was behind some of the greatest technological innovations of our time. Believe it or not MP3 players weren't always collectively referred to as iPods and cell phones used to have keypads.

The question used to be, "How do we compete with Microsoft?" Now, the world is trying to keep up with Apple.

He stepped down as CEO a little over a month ago and the company held it's first major product announcement of the post-Jobs era yesterday with the unveiling of the iPhone 4s.

People have questioned how Apple would function with Jobs simply on the sideline. Now the world will watch the company progress without its founder, pioneer and, for lack of a better word, inspiration.

Apple's future will undoubtedly be strong. Jobs has left his mark on the company and industry as a whole. He taught us that it's okay to try new things and to do what others never dreamed possible. To borrow from a former company slogan, he taught all of us to "Think Different."

He gave us products we needed, products we wanted and products he promised we'd want. He revolutionized the music industry, made computers intuitive and fun, and forever changed how we connect with the world around us; and that world is a slightly dimmer place without him. 

My prayers are with the Jobs and Apple families. He will be missed.

Great Gadgets for Photographers: Kertz's Studio Lighting Setup PSD

I've decided to start blogging more, when I get the time, and one of the things I want to try and start doing regularly is posting information and links about great gadgets for the working photographer. These gadgets can range from actual equipment to setups to post production techniques to philosophy. Anything that I have found to be beneficial in my workflow, I'll try to highlight in these posts.

Though often the gadget in question might require a financial investment, I'm going to start things off with a FREE tool that is highly customizable and exceptionally handy in logging your technique with lighting setup and ultimately sharing that idea with others.

Today I'm talking about Kevin Kertz's handy Photoshop file for Studio Lighting Setups. You can download it by clicking here. The linked document is a zipped PSD file that's rather small in size, but robust in features.

The idea is simple, provide photographers with the ability to create a virtual representation of the studio or location lighting setup they've implemented. Here's an example:

Keep in mind that the tools are designed to illustrate an overview of the setup from above. Here is a mockup of how I approach my head shots for the athletic media guides. Once arranged the final product can be saved as a JPEG file and stored for future reference, emailed to a friend or coworker, or posted online.

What makes this PSD file so handy is the variety of tools that Kevin has preloaded. There are two backgrounds to choose from, three cameras (35mm, medium format and large format) subjects both with and without shadows (human and a ball for inanimate subjects) and a buffet of lighting systems and modifiers. You can choose from plain strobes or gridded or gelled or a strobe shooting through a diffusion screen. Select both gridded and non-gridded softboxes and strip boxes, beauty dishes, hair lights, gobos, reflectors, umbrellas and ring flashes. Add or remove a grid and even turn on arrows and note windows for sharing ideas, settings, etc.

Think this is only for studio pros? Think again. Although I didn't find an off camera flash graphic, using a standard strobe and turning the background paper off is a great way to illustrate outdoor shoots as well. Here's a very basic example:

Here is the lighting setup I used for the women's soccer cover shoot that I did on the football field. I used the subject with shadow to indicate the light direction and then picked the strobe with a gel for reference. I was using a Nikon SB-800 on a stand but did have a CTO gel to balance with the setting sun. For some shots I did use a second SB speedlight on a stand at a lower height, but it was only on one of the four sessions so I just left it off.

The note windows and arrows are handy for creating an all-in-one graphic for the setup. Since I typically add discussions with my illustrations and since many setups can be come bogged down with icons, etc., I tend not to use these tools as often. However, for basic reference, you can easily add these elements. Here's the same setup but with notes added followed by an image taken under the illustrated setup:

Amanda Gemmell - Faulkner University Women's Soccer

Here is the same setup, but I added the other "subject" I mentioned previously - the ball with shadow - since it was a soccer shoot. This example shows the settings and approximate distances, etc., that I basically used for the shoot. This is a way to make quick points that are self-contained in the images and require little additional explanation. As you can see the ideas and possibilities are endless.

Overall its an easy and fun tool to use. There are several options to choose from and if something isn't exactly what you wanted, you can just add a note box and explain it. If you are accustomed to using layers in Photoshop, this is an outstanding reference tool and the elements are already made for you.

My only recommendation is that you leave the white background layer on. This layer reveals Kevin's information, etc. and will give him appropriate credit for the design of the layout tools as well as direct others interested in using his tool to his website.

If you shoot portraits or still life with any type of off camera flash this is a superb archiving and learning tool. I find that I throw some ideas together before shoots with lighting setups I want to try. I can use it as a visual strategy and it helps take some guess work out of the equation and it's much easier to read than my sloppy sketches.

Give the PSD a try. It's free, just don't use it for commercial purposes. It should be a reference and learning tool. Thanks Kevin for the hard work and wonderful design.

Until next time, be safe and happy shooting.

- R

Nikon's long-awaited announcement arrives - to mixed thoughts

It has been rumored for some time now that the world could expect a "big" announcement from camera titan Nikon. The public thought that the announcement would come a handful of weeks ago, but only a small release of Coolpix cameras made their debut.

Then rumors started about a new announcement date of Sept. 21 and sure enough, at midnight, an official press release announced Nikon's entry into the mirrorless arena.

Here's the rundown, if you're in the market for a mirrorless system, it's probably worth the wait until late October when the new V1 and J1 offerings from Nikon hit the shelves - or so we hope. The system offers plenty to admire and several things to question. Let's take a quick preliminary look at the Nikon 1 system.

Potentially good:

Size: The 1 system is tiny for an ICL (interchangeable lens) system. In fact, Nikon claims that the V1 is the smallest and lightest in the world with a built in EVF.

Options: The 1 system comes in two flavors, a base J1 body and a bigger brother in the V1. They have the same features, but the V1 offers a 1.4 million dot EVF that's auto activated when you raise it to your eye, has a magnesium alloy body, both an electronic and mechanical shutter and an accessory port for external flash and GPS unit as well as an external mic port.

Lenses: Both bodies will be offered in kit format with a 10-30mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens (more on this in a minute). With a 2.7x crop factor this works out to a 27-81mm equivalent and makes for a good general purpose lens. Other optics that will be available in the beginning include a 30-110mm f/3.8-5.6 VR (81-297mm eqiv.) a 10mm f/2.8 prime (27mm eqiv.) and a full range zoom in the 10-100mm f/4.5-5.6 VR (27-270mm equiv.). This is a decent lens lineup right out of the gate, but Nikon has SIX additional prototype lenses in the pipe that range from fast portrait primes to macro optics to sports zooms.

Accessories: The V1 is compatible with the new SB-N5 external flash for more powerful fill (the J1 has a popup flash built in) and the new GP-N100 GPS unit for geo tagging images, etc. Finally there is the FT-1 which is an optical converter which lets users mount existing F mount lenses on their 1 series bodies.

Specifications: The sensor, though smallish by comparison to other mirrorless systems (more in a minute) offers 10 MP resolution and full 1080p HD video at 30fps or 1080i at 60fps. The bodies incorporate a new hybrid 73-point AF system that uses both contrast and phase detection for optimal autofocus accuracy in a variety of conditions. The shutter speed caps out at 1/4000th on the mechanical shutter (V1) and 1/160000th on the electronic shutter. The camera can capture up to 10 fps in autofocus mode for rapid-fire action-stopping images. The sensor boasts an ISO range of 100-6400 with hi/lo expansion.

Potentially bad:

CX Sensor Size: For most people, this is going to be the kicker. Many, myself included, think the introduction of the CX sensor size is rather odd. Here's why. Nikon's late to the mirrorless game. In fact, the only other camera manufacturer that anyone really cares about that's not in the game now is Canon. So, let's consider the competition. The companies that really started the fad are Olympus and Panasonic with their open format micro 4/3 offerings. Two huge benefits for O and P are: 1. the sensor is roughly TWICE as large as the Nikon CX offering here and 2. the mount is an open standard, making lenses from multiple manufactures simple to use and the selection much broader. Virtually all offering from O and P have slightly higher resolution, but it's rather negligible in therms of numbers, but perhaps not in terms of image output.

Going up the ladder, you have Sony, with its NEX system which offers a standard APS-C sensor on board. It boasts the highest resolution sensor on the market with the new lineup offering 24 MP of larger sensor data. The APS-C sensor is the same size that's in the majority of consumer and enthusiast DSLR bodies and at a resolution few can match at the time of this post.

So what? Well, typically (though not always) larger sensors can handle detail and color better than smaller sensors and this gets exponentially better as the ISO increases. The new image test of choice is how well a sensor/lens combo handles moderate to low light levels with regard to image noise and detail. So with Nikon's CX sensor weighting it at half the size of m4/3 and 1/4 the size of the industry leading NEX sensor, Nikon is going to have it's work cut out if it wants to compete with the industry leaders.

Saving grace - if Nikon has manages to produce images equal to or better in quality than the bulk of it's rivals despite the smaller sensor, it's going to be a game-changer for sure. Right now there's a funky middle ground in the ICL camera market. The mirrorless "advantage" was supposed to be superior quality in a smaller package. Kinda like Blade, the day-walking vampire slayer. Mirrorless was sort of touted as having "all of the strengths (of a DSLR) and none of the weaknesses (bulk, weight, cost)." So, you get a smaller, lighter, capable, flexible system that costs less (potentially) and does virtually the same thing as it's bigger brother. Was mirrorless designed to tempt the avid pro? No. No SI shooter or Vogue photographer is going to shoot anything important on a tiny ICL unless it's for fun. Will they make enticing personal walk-around cameras? Yes. For those of us used to lens choices and manual versatility, yes - as long as we can justifiably afford a completely new auxiliary system!

The problem has been in image quality. So far, normal, every day images have been great out of all but the worst mirrorless systems. In fact, the Panasonic GF line and Olympus Pen cams have been extremely popular with users. However, when the light falls, the images do tend to suffer. Sony has done more in this territory with it's larger sensor, but even it can come up short. In fact, many have indicated that given it's obvious size advantage it should actually do better. All of these offerings trump point-and-shoot images even from the higher end contenders like the Canon G series, which also rivals the mirrorless market in price.

So, if the Nikon 1 system can manage strong image quality, especially in lower light, it will make a run and might just find itself at the top of the pile in the ever-growing mirrorless pool. If, however, the smallish sensor does suffer from weak quality, the entry might just be dead on arrival. It's really going to come down to the sensor. If it performs, Nikon's got a home run. If it fails, the line will fail. They came along simply too late in the game to hope to build a broad fan base on anything but brand loyalists if the images aren't strong.

The provided sample images from Nikon do reveal wonderful color reproduction, good detail and effective low light performance to ISO 800. However, these images are always strongly controlled situations that the average shooter would never mimic and the low light shot is more a moderate ISO boost in subpar light than in a bat cave at 6400. We will see more on this soon.

Lens Selection: It's good that Nikon is offering four lens choices that cover a very respectable focal range. However, many enthusiasts who know what they are looking for will be patiently awaiting those faster prime prototypes that Nikon has put un display - especially with the smaller sensor. Why? Well, theoretically the smaller sensor will offer weaker low light performance, so a faster lens will help in that regard as well as potentially helping with shallow DOF. However, the later is strongly effected by the sensor size as well, so a wider aperture alone won't likely make a massive difference in a blurrier background.

Nikon has been an industry leader in optics for forever, so maybe they have an ultra wide design coming down the line. They do have a wide angle "landscape" prototype, but no focal length numbers are available yet. Right now 27mm is as wide as you're gonna get, which is respectable, but for a lot of users, they're gonna wanna see something approaching the 20mm range or even wider. Panasonic offers a 7-14mm f/4, which with the mere 2x conversion equates to a 14-28mm. Now the lens also costs around $900, but it's available for those who want it and will work on either Olympus or Panasonic bodies.

Advantage - as of now all but the 10mm prime are equipped with VR which makes hand-held work easier.

Hot Shoe: The lack of a hot shoe is not going to phase most people, but more experienced shooters might be turned off by this. It's a similar issue that the early Sony NEX bodies faced as well, though the new NEX flock has the ridiculous proprietary shoe added. Most of the Panasonic and Olympus offerings, including the X series, have a standard shoe. This is helpful if you want to add a larger flash option or a radio trigger system. I know this sounds advanced for such a system, but it's actually super handy. When I traveled with my Olympus E-PL2 system to Hawaii with our softball team, I used the hot shoe countless times. I set my Nikon speedlight on a shelf or on a small stand to the side and triggered it with my handy Alien Bees radio transmitter and receiver. They are both tiny and it makes for a versatile lighting setup. Just for fun I even did some portraits in the studio with the Olympus.

Is it a deal breaker? Probably not, but the little SB-N5 add-on will not compare in versatility or power to a more capable SB speedlight. I suppose if you have an optical slave it'll work, but a popup flash in that situation is just as helpful.

Cost: At $650 to $900 (suggested retail) for a single lens kit it's not cheap, but nicely in line with some of the other offerings. The larger sensor Sony NEX-C3 comes in at $600 and the NEX-5 retails for $650. The NEX-5N has a tag of $700 and the new NEX-7 with 24mp presses on the wallet at $1350 with comparable lens.

The new Olympus E-P3 costs $900 and the new E-PL3 is $700. Panasonic's GF2 runs $500.

The thing to remember is this; a brand new Nikon D3100 DSLR with 18-55mm is only $650 and currently $600 with some instant savings options.

And those add on lenses? Not much cheaper. The 10mm and the 30-110mm will have a suggested retail of about $250 each. A 70-300mm lens can be had for about $170. Keep in mind that that's a 105-450mm equiv. on a DX sensor. It lacks the VR ability, however. And that 27mm 2.8 equivalent? The superb 35mm (50ish mmm equiv.) f/1.8 DX is longer, but faster and costs only $199.

The cost of the optics is not excessive, but it will make consumers considering this as a SECONDARY camera think twice.

Looks: Though it's about as essential as having nice-looking golf clubs, since the camera is a tool and not the end product, people want pretty equipment. I'm less concerned about this since I'll use anything that gets the job done effectively, but the esthetic quality is indeed a bit off, especially in the V1. The EVF hood makes for what appears to be a half-witted effort by a first year industrial design student. Suffice it to say that the designers would be fired if they worked at Apple, but that's not the point. They were obviously trying to keep it clean and simple and to that end I think they might have succeeded though few have had a hands-on experience as of yet.


THE EARLY VERDICT: In my opinion it's an odd, but interesting offering. It's compelling for a few reasons. 1. Nikon's finally in the mirrorless game and could make huge waves if the 1 series is well-received. 2. It's small and light and despite this, seemingly feature laden. 3. The lens choices are good for a startup and the others look like they could bring a lot to the table. 4. It's somewhat pricey, but well within the range of what you'd expect for this type of system. 5. It's a new gadget that a lot of people are gonna wanna play with.

The questionable: 1. I'm concerned about the image quality and overall performance, though as I mentioned earlier, the standard images available right now look fairly strong. 2. Ergonomics, will the system be too smallish for practical use without HAVING to use a neck strap? Some of these smaller cameras can come free easily in your hands.

Overall I think, and certainly hope, this is a strong contender for Nikon. In the point-and-shoot market Nikon is getting spanked by Canon in terms of image quality and they really need this venture to be productive.

The BIGGEST problem with this announcement is the LACK of a new pro DSLR. I know, it has nothing to do with this camera, but the fact that so many were expecting a D700 replacement at least has inadvertently made the early 1 system flavor a bit sour. Perhaps the new higher end camera is still indeed coming soon and perhaps Nikon felt that it would overshadow the 1 announcement if launched together. Who knows? Hind sight is always 20/20, but it seems that at last for US audiences a D700 upgrade today followed by the 1 system next week would have made more sense. It's been forever since any full frame updates have come out of Nikon and users keep seeing the improvements offered by other manufactures - mainly Canon - and are starting to wonder what gives.

Any undo negatives will soon fade from the 1 system facade to make way for any serious negative reactions that are legitimately based on performance once testing is under way.

The 1 system is promising, but only time will tell if it will be a true contender in the mirrorless market.

Fuji X-100 impressions

The photography world got a pleasant surprise when they announced that the X100 would be arriving this spring. Amidst all of the other big releases, it was this little, simplistic, retro unit that really caught the attention of so many people. Why? Well, even though the needs and likes of each photographer are different, there has to be something about it that's indeed a universal draw and I think that the simplistic functionality coupled with the retro styling and just the right amount of technology has really boosted this camera into the limelight.

The retro styling is the first thing that jumps out about this camera. It's unlike anything else on the market, with perhaps its closest competition being the Olympus PEN series, which doesn't go this far down the retro styling track.

There is a manual knob on the top for shutter speed and another for exposure compensation. There is a retro style shutter button that takes the syringe-style screw in remote shutter release cable and there is a hot shoe - that's it!

The aperture dial is where it used to be - on the lens. The newest lenses out there have the aperture controlled electronically. This has the aperture dial right where it should be at the base of the lens next to the body and it's marked with full stop increments starting at f/2. It appears that ISO is still dialed in via the menu system.

The lens is fast, but fixed. That means you have 35mm equivalent all the time. Because of this, the camera will probably appeal to hobbyists as well as travel and street photographers more so than traditional shooters or those looking for more focal range. The lens has a four leaf shutter that is very quiet and fires at up to 1/4000 of a second.

Behind the lens is a 12 megapixel APS-C size sensor. That puts it on par with sensor sizes in most DSLRs and up in size from the four thirds offerings from Olympus and Panasonic. The only other major small body APS-C player is the Sony NEX series. It offers interchangeable lenses and a lower price point, but it lacks a viewfinder - even an option for an add-on - and a hot shoe. There are other pros and cons that come into play, but the bottom line here is that Fuji will have a love it or hate it following as there isn't much out there that can compete with the feature set directly.

The flagship feature of this model is the hybrid viewfinder. The camera features a genuine optical viewfinder with digital overlay indicating the exposure information, EV levels, a histogram, color temperature, digital level and more. With the flip of the switch on the front of the camera, the optical window closes and a super high resolution electronic viewfinder takes over. It's the first of it's kind and it has certainly generated a great deal of discussion and from the hands-on reviews I've looked at so far, it's very good. Or, if you must, you can use the LCD screen to compose your images. (PS, if your doing this, you might want to look at some less expensive cameras as you're eliminating one of the camera's strongest features).

For a complete look at the features, visit the product site here.

The body is well built, simple and will certainly be fun for the lucky owners.

The bad? Other than the arguably limited fixed focal length, it's expensive at $1,200. You can get a very well equipped DSLR with various lenses for the same price or less and offers you more versatility. But you wont get the looks, build, and hybrid finder. And not to mention a small, easy to use, compact take-anywhere shooter.

Others will compare it to maybe something like an Olympus E-PL series. Well, you get a body and more versatile 28-84mm equiv. lens, but it's slower and there's no EVF built in. If you want to make a similar package you'd need the $350 Panasonic 20mm (40mm equiv.) f/1.7 lens and the $250 EVF adapter and pairing that with a $600 E-PL2 body puts you in a similar price point. Remember, the E-PL2's shoe will be occupied by the EVF, so you LOSE your hot shoe potential. 

Again, this is not a review as I have not had any hands-on experience with it nor will I be purchasing one. This is a look at the potential pros and cons and my opinion on where this little guy will fall in the end.

PROS:

Sexy, sleek, retro design

Build quality

Fast lens

Great simplicity - it gets to the shooting and away from living in menus

Extraordinary viewfinder

APS-C size sensor really puts it in a league of it's own

Quiet leaf shutter

Cool built in modes including panorama stitch similar to that found on Sony cameras

Seemingly great high ISO performance - see DPREVIEWs sample images here.

Everyone will be jealous of you

CONS:

Expensive

Fixed focal length

Smaller body may not be for everyone

Bottom line: Get in line, because even at $1,200 these babies are going to fly off the shelves.