Posts Tagged ‘camera’

Change: Yes I Can

November 29th, 2008 jimcarter

I’ve had a while to think about things and I feel pretty good about all the decisions I’m making for next year. Here’s my pre-new-year’s resolutions to get off my chest:

Me and Val are making a huge change, and we’re moving out of Long Beach (i know..) and in with family in Chino Hills to save some cash next year with the hopes to buy a home by the end of 2009 or early 2010. It’s weird to think that I’m leaving LB after the 4+ years I’ve existed here, but that just means new perspective, new surroundings, and hopefully new outlooks on life.

I’ve also been pretty excited about the release of the Canon 5D MarkII, and on the waiting list for the last month or two.  However I decided to pass and hold off on buying it now that it’s shipping.  I realize that if I just jump into bed with a new camera with hopes to do amazing things, I’ll be just like every other Prosumer out there.. and I’ll loose even more desire to take photos since I’ll be so excited about taking video.  ..rather I’m taking the initiative to get better at what I do know and finish my outstanding projects before I make a new investment. I also want to do my homework and be ready for the transition to video.  I plan on watching a lot more movies, in detail, and dissecting them the best I can.  I want to learn all the things you take for-granted which constitutes a good movie, understand editing a bit more and really get a good feel for color. Hopefully early next year I’ll make the purchase after I can see what other people are coming up with and figure out what to avoid.  I’m up for the exciting new challenge and in for the ride.

Lastly, my blog has always been a little side website where I’ve thrown up all kinds of randomness as I come about it.  Somehow that lost it’s luster amongst many other things recently but I’m in the process of turning it around.

With the help of a few friends I’m going to make this into a portal for the things I work on and am into day-to-day. Nothing over the top, just something focused that I’ll enjoy putting my effort into.  Looking at my stats I’ve only lost about 20% of my new traffic over the last month where I’ve been silent with posting, so that tells me it’s still worth pushing out my thoughts and forcing you to enjoy them like the good American I am.  Heh.

Back soon with a new design, and a new feel for this place.

Posted in Currents Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , Comments

Canon 50D Announced

September 1st, 2008 jimcarter

Well, talk about a great start to the month, just saw the announcement of the new Canon 50D which looks mighty fine.  Here’s a quick lamens version of what’s new:

 

Canon’s newest entry into the fall season Olympics is the EOS 50D, which sports an impressive 15.1-megapixel APS-C format CMOS sensor that takes full advantage of Canon’s new DIGIC 4 image processor.

The EOS 50D can knock out up to 90 Large/Fine JPEGS or 16 RAW images at burst-rates of up to 6.3 f/p/s. If you often find yourself shooting under low-light conditions, the new camera can be set for ISO ratings up to 12800, which means you can not only photograph people standing in near darkness, you can also photograph what they’re thinking about. (Just joking folks… don’t get alarmed)

To keep noise under control and maintain optimum image quality at higher ISO ratings the EOS 50D allows you to choose from four levels of noise reduction – Standard, Weak, Strong, and None. The camera’s DIGIC 4 image processor also features in-camera peripheral illumination correction, which can automatically smooth-over uneven blue skies and other large areas within an image that can benefit from smoother tonality. This feature, along with other image enhancing tools such as Auto Lighting Optimizer can also be performed post-exposure using Canon’s Digital Photo Professional (DDP) software, which is included with every camera.

Image viewing has also been improved via a greatly enhanced 3″ LCD that employs 920,000 pixels for breathtaking clarity. Canon also tweaked the Live View function by incorporating a ‘Quick Mode AF’, ‘Live Mode AF’, and ‘Face Detection Live Mode AF’ that can detect up to 35 individual faces within the camera’s frame.

Other features of the Canon EOS 50D include an Integrated Cleaning System for preventing dust and other forms of airborne schmutz from gathering on the sensor’s low-pass filter and a choice of two smaller RAW formats (sRAW1 and sRAW2) in addition to the 50D’s standard RAW mode.

The Canon EOS 50D will be available in October as a body only, or in kit form with a Canon EF 28-135/3.5~5.6 IS USM zoom lens, which covers the field of view of a 44.8-216mm lens on a full-frame 35mm camera.

That’s some serious new features. I love the extended ISO range and all the sexy new additions they made.  A definate favorite is the integrated HDMI port on the camera, that just makes life so easy for geeks like me.

If you’re looking for an indepth review of this guy, DPreview already has one posted including sample images.  This one might just be a winner towards Christmas season, afterall another reason to get out there and shoot more never hurt anyone.

Posted in Music - Photo - Video Tags: , , , Comments

The Countdown Begins

April 29th, 2008 jimcarter

My Chinese Visa

So it’s officially started, my one week countdown to a two week trip through China is on. It’s a bit maddening to say the least, however the tour I’m taking is fairly americanized, which means the culture shock should be a little easierto handle, but from what I’ve heard from friends I really don’t have a whole lot to worry about.

 

Clothes, Camera & Computer, the three c’s for a winning trip.  I wish it could just be the first two, but I realize there’s no way I can take a 12 hour flight without being semi-productive with as much work as i have to do these days.  Hopefully on the way over if by pure luck there is a power adapter, I can re-build the whatsopen site with the new features and framework I’m pioneering for our revision.  Maybe on the way back I can start going through all my photos and hit the US with a jump start on all the shotty I’ll be taking.

 

There are two phrases I need to master before I go.  “Where is the bathroom” and “Can I take your picture”.  I honestly feel if I have those covered, the rest will just fall into place.  I’m also adding the data package to my iPhone this week so I should be able to moblog some photos along the way.  I wish Val could get the time off to go with me, but hey it’s not the last time I plan to travel to Asia, so at least the first time around I’ve got a base for what to expect.

 

I leave May 5th @ 7am, so if you need any Jimmy-lov’n before that hit me up, this week is already going faster than it should be and the work level is not going down as fast as I’d hoped.

Posted in Currents Tags: , , , , , , Comments
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