1600 Club Camera Rankings

The 1600 Club ranks the D3X as King of the Hill!

Using a well thought out system for it's rankings, the 1600 Club manages to do what few have done. The 1600 Club comes up with what I consider to be the most "real" camera rankings I've seen yet.

These aren't just tech spec rankings listing which DSLR is the best because it sports the most megapixels or the best high ISO. These rankings factor in a multitude of factors, including tech specs, but more importantly, real world use.

Check it out! I think you'll find the 1600 Club is one the mark.

iPortfolio... an excuse to buy an iPhone or an iPod Touch

If you're like me, and you don't already have an iPhone or an iPod Touch, here's yet another good reason you and I should have one. iPortfolio.

I made up the term, at least I think I did. As far as I know, and from what a quick googling of the term showed, there's no app or device name iPortfolio at this point, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't have one. :)

One of the reasons I've been kicking around the idea of buying an iPod Touch (besides the fact that they're so freakin' cool) is to have an iPortfolio. An iPortfolio is a selection of your best work stored on your iPod Touch or iPhone so that you can quickly show a potential client, existing client, (or anybody else for that matter) at a moment's notice.

Consider these scenarios.

You're out and about and meet someone who needs some headshots done. You whip out your iPod Touch or iPhone and show them some of your best headshots.

You've just been introduced to a friend of a friend who's getting married soon. You whip out your iPod Touch or iPhone and blow them away with the beauty and elegance of your wedding portfolio.

You're out on a shoot and you're hitting a wall. You're subject isn't getting the shot you're trying to explain. You whip out your iPod Touch or iPhone and show them some samples that demonstrate what you're trying to do (might be your work, or it might be some inspirational stuff you've saved from another photog).

I've pretty much talked myself into one. You can blame me if I've talked you into one too. I will say that I'll likely be going with the iPod Touch as I just can't deal with the highway robbery of the iPhone service plans. My left arm is just too much to pay to surf the net with an iPhone, especially when I can do pretty much all the same stuff using an iPod Touch provided I've got WiFi access which is pretty much everywhere these days.

Lithium Ion Batteries that recharge in seconds!

When I read this I thought, yeah... that's a tech leap that I can use! Imagine the potential!

This article over at Nature News talks about the many possibilities including electric cars, which I have to admit wasn't my first thought.

My first thought was DSLR batteries, AA's for my flashguns, and my laptop battery all recharging in seconds. How sweet would that be!

Of course, the point about electric cars is probably much more important in the grand scheme of things. One of the biggest downfalls of electric vehicles right now is the crazy long recharge time, and the equally crazy short range after that crazy long recharge.

Imagine now that you could plug in once you got somewhere, and your car would be recharged and ready to go in seconds! Long trips would now be feasible. Instead of pulling over for gas, you could pull over for a few seconds to recharge. Even better, you could recharge with a solar cell in seconds and not even have to stop driving!

Very cool!

Jalbum 8.2 just released

For those of you who haven't heard of Jalbum, you're in for a treat.

Jalbum is a fantastic little piece software that generates web albums, and best of all... it's FREE!

You can change the look and feel of your web albums with different Jalbum skins, and there are literally thousands to choose from!

I've been using Jalbum for several years, and I like it. The good folks behind Jalbum are continously releasing updates with new feature and little tweaks. Incredible when you consider it's FREE!

The Ultimate Bounce Card

If you're like me, you've tried just about every flash modifier out there. There's tupperware types galore, OEM modifiers that come with flashes like Nikon's SB-800, mini-softboxes, and a host of others.

My friend Peter Gregg introduced me to my favourite flash modifier, A Better Bounce Card a couple of years ago, and even though I continue to try others that come out, I find myself returning to it every time. It just works!

Last year, I up-graded to the latest version, the Ultimate Bounce Card, and I love it! Elegant in it's simplicity, it works like a charm. You can use it to shape light however you need to, and best of all... you can achieve AMAZING results with on-camera flash. Yup, I said it... with on-camera flash.

Sure you can get awesome results by going with off-camera flash. Sure some shots need elaborate off-camera lighting set-ups. But for the most part, for wedding and photojournalism type work, on-camera flash with the Ultimate Bounce Card will get the job done beautifully with no extra work setting up lights and equipment... something I find to be almost essential when I need to work quickly and efficiently such as at a wedding or a PJ type shoot.

Canon EOS 50D DSLR

We've heard rumours for weeks, but the official announcement has finally been made by Canon. The new Canon EOS 50D features an APS-C sized 15.1-megapixel CMOS sensor, a new DIGIC 4 Image Processor, and improved ISO capabilities up to 12800.

Also new is "a refined 3.0-inch Clear View LCD (920,000 dots) monitor, supercharged Live View Function with Face Detection Live mode, plus a number of new automatic Image Correction settings and HDMI output for viewing images on an HDTV."

There's also new sRAW settings, a new set-up for the sensor's micro-lenses, and Canon says the 50D has better environmental sealing than it's predecessor, the 40D.

I'm thinking what is more important may be in what is not emphasized by Canon. The 50D has pretty much the same AF system as the 40D. That leaves Canon's AF complaints unanswered, and certainly doesn't offer any competition for the Nikon D300's excellent AF system.

The 50D also doesn't appear to have wireless speedlite control, a valuable function that Nikon has had on most of it's cameras for some time now.

All in all, the 50D appears to be a fairly minor up-grade from the 40D. Sure it's got more mega-pixels, but do we really need them? Most pro's (including myself) will tell you that we don't need any more mega-pixels. Ten or twelve is more than enough already. Much more important would be for Canon to fix it's AF and QC issues.

A New 70-200mm f2.8 VR Nikkor?

Rumours abound that there is a new version of Nikon's venerable 70-200mm f2.8 VR lens in the works. An up-date to the latest version of Nikon's "Vibration Reduction" technology, "VR II" would be welcome.

There are also reports of problems when the existing version of the lens is used with the full frame D3 and D700. Nikon guru, Bjorn Rorslett, comments on the issues with the current version of the lens when used with the D3 and D700 on his site.

I can't see Nikon not addressing the issue as the 70-200mm f2.8 VR is one of their top lenses. As yet however, there is no official word from Nikon, so I guess we'll have to wait and see.