Posts Tagged ‘canon’

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

Heading To China

May 4th, 2008 jimcarter

Talk about a trip sneaking up on you.  As much as I’ve been looking forward to this, with everything else going on this trip just seemed to come out of no where even though I’ve seen it getting closer on the calendar.  I’m a little anxious but really excited to land in someplce I’ve never been and start taking pictures.  Bringing my Canon 20D and my EOS Rebel 2000 for some film, 4 lenses and my laptop.  If by any luck I have power at my seat, I may be able to get some stuff done.. that 12 hour flight would give me a great bulk of dedicated time to GTD.  However knowing me I’ll probably end up working on photos the whole time just because I can.

 

That map up yonder is where I’ll be for the next two weeks.  I know that typically blogs/most sites/anything fun is blocked from China, I have a few proxies lined up with hopes to tunnel my traffic through home so I can at least post some photos to my site, but no guarantees.  

 

In any case, check back every now and then and you might see some random photos from somewhere in the world where I end up.  See you in two weeks, 再见

Posted in Currents Tags: , , , , Comments

Lazy Weekend

March 30th, 2008 jimcarter

This was a good weekend.  Val had off, we watched a bunch of movies, and I’ve gotten a lot of work done sofar.  I also bit the bullet and ran the Wordpress 2.5 update, re-configured all my plugins and installed the gravatar system for blog comments, works pretty sweet too.  If you havn’t setup a gravatar yet, jump over and set one up here.  Super simple and just makes life easy for blog posting.  The new WP is fantastic, no problems yet, and the new admin is killer.

Eco-Safe PDF’s are sexyier than evar.

I spent some time working and finessing the render process and now we’re generating the best looking PDF’s we can based on popular demand.  Give it a shot! Convert this post and let me know what you think. By the way if you’re using IE you won’t see the link to download a PDF since I’m having issues with compatibilty and it’s stupid popup blocker rules. You can however send a PDF to yourself.

 

New Toy: Sigma 10-22mm f4-5.6 Wideangle Lens

I finally broke down and bought a wideangle, this new baby is sweet.  I wanted if for our trip to Mexico in a week, but really looking forward to using it for the China trip in a month and a half.  After reading reviews and reviews, debating over this or the Canon 10-20mm, I realize that since I still don’t have a full-frame DSLR, it’s really not worth spending the extra money for anything more.  One of these days when I can justify popping another few grand for another camera, I suppose I’ll figure it out then.  I’m hoping sometime this week if I have the time to do a little photowalk and snap a few shots.  I need to put some usage in my Flickr account again.

I should be launching 2 of my most recent projects this week, stay tuned and I’ll be posting all the fun stuff in the next few days. In the meantime, Die Hard just came on A&E HD.  I know where I’ll be for the next two hours.  Heh.

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