Saturday, July 28, 2007

Best deal on an EOS 5D..... NOT!!!


$1600
EOS 5D's

Vanish
from Amazon.com

They say all good things must come to an end. That must go double for unbelievable deals like the one Amazon.com was offering on the EOS 5D cameras. Although all day yesterday Amazon listed them for $1600 (about $800 cheaper than competitors), today they have sadly returned to $2585.

The worst part about this is I was not quick enough to order one at the $1600 price. Would they have honored it? (at least if they didn't I would get an explanation). If anyone was able to snatch up some $1600 EOS 5D's please let us hear about it! Leave some comments at the bottom of this post...

It leaves one wondering what happened at Amazon? Was it a glitch? Did they sell out? Drop a deadbeat vendor? Whatever happened it leaves a bit of a bad taste in our mouths about the trustworthiness of Amazon.com

This is too bad since Photography Resource Weblog uses Amazon.com as an advertiser on our site. We will put them on probation for now. We will keep an eye on them and of course if we find any more 5D's for $1600 we will let you know.

We also have to wonder in light of any 5D price drop, if rumors of an imminent replacement to the EOS 5D might carry some weight.

Currently the best deals we are aware of for the EOS 5D came from Dell.com last December. Dell lets you sign up for a monthly online newsletter, this newsletter has special pricing and coupons. Last December with the newsletter only pricing, and the coupon, on top of Dell's Christmas 20% off electronics, lucky customers were coming away with $1899 EOS 5D's

More info and product details on the Canon EOS 5D


Again if anyone ordered one, or has had trouble with Amazon.com please leave comments below.

Best Deal on a EOS 5D


$1600
At Amazon.com



This is a smoking deal on a fantastic camera. Normally this would seem too good to be true but since it is through Amazon.com I would not hesitate to pick one of these baby's up.

Other trustworthy sites that also offer good pricing (though not the $1600 Amazon is offering)

Costco

KEH Camera

B&H Photo

Dell

Fry's

More info and product details on the Canon EOS 5D

Monday, July 16, 2007

Will Sony turn Pro?

Sony set to announce expansion of Alpha DSLR Line
Full Frame Professional and Midrange model expected


Will a Sony Alpha line be able to rise like a phoenix from the ashes of Konica-Minolta...
When Konica Minolta corporation sold off its camera division to Sony last year it was a bittersweet announcement. The loss of both Minolta and Konica was a bit of a blow to long time camera buffs. Both companies had a rich history of innovative cameras and world class in-house optics. Both companies had also struggled to keep pace with innovations and marketing since the beginning of the autofocus era in late 1980's.

Konica
1873-2003

Konica dropped out of the SLR business with the advent of autofocus and focused on a fantastic selection of rangefinder cameras, finishing up with the Hexar RF, an innovative rangefinder that put Leica's flagship M system on notice. The Konica RF took Leica M lenses (as well as its own excellent Hexanon lenses) and had features Leica had neglected to give the M for 20 years. Dante Stella tells the Konica RF story on his website "Hexar RF: The final Frontier?". Sadly it looks like the Hexar RF died with Konica, but who knows, Sony is a chip & sensor powerhouse who supplies all the major digital camera makers, if the new Leica M8 Digital is a success who knows what we may see from Sony.

Minolta
1928-2003
Minolta was a autofocus innovator and brought to market the first autofocus SLR beating competitors Nikon and Canon by several months. Although Minolta had quite a bit of success with its Maxxum AF line it choose never to develop a professional model, however it did create one for Leica, the R system, modeled after a pre-af Minolta camera chassis. With the advent of digital Minolta made a conscious decision to make the transition and to develop a semi-professional digital SLR. The Minolta 5D & 7D was the result, innovative cameras to bring Minolta strongly into the new century. Unfortunately after releasing the 7D it did not look like Minolta would follow soon with a Pro model capable of the robustness and features found in the models from Canon and Nikon. It looked like Minolta was going to repeat the same path it had with autofocus relegating it to a bottom feeder in the SLR world.

Hello Sony....
Est. 1958
In march 2006 Sony Inc. purchased the camera division of the floundering Konica-Minolta Corp. Sony had never made an SLR camera but they had power and money, not to mention momentum that Konica-Minolta sorely lacked. Sony quickly announced they would re-design the Minolta 7D and rename it the Sony Alpha. The same name Minolta used in Japan for its Maxxum cameras.

The Sony Alpha A100 is an updated Minolta MaxxumD with full use of all previous Minolta Maxxum and Rokkor lenses. It is still not robust or feature laden enough to be considered a Professional camera but it is superior to most entry level DSLR's and has a foundation of lenses that are certainly professional quality.

The big question for the moment is where will Sony take things from here?
2 new Alpha models are expected to be released within the next 12 months. As well as several new pro lenses. Speculation has been that Sony will be releasing a full frame sensor Professional Alpha camera. This is big news if it turns out to be true. Hopefully Sony will be able to accomplish what has eluded Konica, Minolta, and many others for a long time....

Friday, July 13, 2007

Free Pop-Photo Subscription


Freebizmag.com currently offering FREE
Popular Photography Subscriptions

Here is the link: www.freebizmag.com/brpopphoto01welcome.htm

This is not a scam (no money is involved) but you do need to provide freebizmag.com some personal information, which they will no doubt share with marketers likely resulting in increased spam and junk mail. I use a yahoo e-mail account I set up just to give out to potential sources of spam and have not noticed a significant increase.

The Photography Resource Weblog has no affiliation with freebizmag.com, other than following the procedures to get a free subscription ourselves. We started getting our subscription shortly after filling out our forms. As always when providing personal information over the internet it may be wise to avoid specifics and complete accuracy.

After creating an account and filling out the marketing information forms you will be issued a 1 year subscription to Popular Photography. Other free magazines will be offered to you as well depending upon your answers provided th the survey forms. We choose to receive Flying and Sound & Vision magazine for free as well.

Several on-line magazines were also offered, but although they look interesting we choose to decline all e-mail subscriptions.

If anyone feels like freebizmag.com is not what they seem or have difficulty redeeming the free subscription offer please leave some feedback on this post.

P.S. If you share this link please let everyone know you found it here at: webphotoresource.blogspot.com

Thanks.

Canon's DPP Updated to 3.0.2


Canon's
Digital Photo Professional (DPP)

Free Software to unleash
the RAW power of the EOS Digital SLR


Canon Inc. has just released the latest update to their free RAW processing and workflow software DPP. Version 3.0.2 replaces 3.0.1.5 and includes a major update for Windows Vista and a couple of minor fixes for Mac and non-Vista users.

I generally shoot in RAW format, and I rely heavily on the DPP program. With the release of Version 3 Canon has given its customers a fantastic tool for free. I can often achieve fantastic results processing my RAW images in DPP and never have to adjust them in PhotoShop.

The ability to shoot RAW images is a feature of higher
end cameras and allows for you to have all the raw sensor data from the digital camera without the camera making any automated image enhancements like it would to make a .Jpg image.

This RAW file really is raw data, think of it like a film negative, and must be processed in conversion
software and made into a .Jpg or .tiff file.

This conversion software allows me to make decisions on brightness, tone, contrast, color temperature,
color saturation, and grain sharpness. By allowing me to make these decisions I can fine tune my pictures, often far better than the logic built into the camera.

Canon in addition to providing the RAW software DPP provides a detailed 106
page user manual, and goes one better providing intensive online tutorials that are easy to understand with video examples by world class photographers and Canon reps.

Unfortunately Canon's Digital Photo Professional will only work with RAW files generated by its EOS line of Digital SLR's. For those with RAW files generated by Canon p&s cameras like the G6 or other manufactures RAW files they will sadly not work with DPP.

Canon's DPP software can be downloaded here:
Digital Photo Professional 3.0.2

The DPP manual (106 pages) is here:
support page

Visit the Online learning center for DPP tutorials and video lessons:
DP
P Canon's Digital Photo Professional

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

The best SLR never-made...

The Nikon D3
coming soon....
Maybe


Another day has gone by and Nikon has not yet made an official announcement regarding their latest flagship professional digital camera the long anticipated D3. Nikon has reportedly come close to releasing the camera at least twice, but has pulled it back for "re-tuning minor items" or perhaps a major overhaul.

The latest word is we can expect an official announcement sometime during summer 2007. A re-tuning might be a good sign that Nikon wants to do things right with this camera, especially considering the trouble Canon is in with some who feel they released the EOS 1D Mark III with autofocus issues. ( The latest report on 1D Mark III AF issues)

The current Nikon D3 is expected to be of modular design very similar to the F and F2 system cameras that made Nikon famous and beloved by pros. The Nikon partnership/merger with Sinar that was talked about in 2006 seems to have gone nowhere since it was announced although it is possible Nikon is holding back on releasing any big news until the D3 is ready.

When that will occur is anyones guess, however current predictions suggest a big announcement to coincide with Nikon's celebration of 90 years of making camera equipment on July 25th.

As for those of us anxiously awaiting news of the mythical Nikon D3 we can track the announcements, leaks and outright rumors reguarding the history of the D3 on the Photography Bay Blog, A History of the Nikon D3

Current hinted at specks for the Nikon D3...
  • Modular body (interchangeable finder, back, and storage modules); the body is the host camera brains and control system, power source, lens mount, mirror box, shutter, and support system while everything else gets added on:
  • 10-12mp APS High Speed Back (10 fps DX crop, 12 fps HS crop)
  • 24mm FF Low Speed Back (3 fps FF, 5 fps DX crop)
  • 12mp Black and White Back
  • Prism finder with real time displays (e.g. histograms)
  • Card storage module (2x CompactFlash or 2x SecureDigital)
  • Drive storage module (40, 80, 120GB hard drive)
  • Wireless module (1x CompactFlash for backup, WiFi)