I just wanted to do a quick sign off post for 2009, saying thanks to everyone who’s been part of what we’ve done this year. Thanks!
We’ve been involved with quite a few events in recent weeks, and things aren’t slowing down! We can’t wait to hit the ground running in 2010 and hopefully get you guys on board with everything we’ve got planned. It’s going to be superb!
Merry Christmas and have a happy New Year!
Posted in Events and Activities | Tagged Canon, Christmas, rebel | Leave a Comment »
Tuesday evening saw CanonCameraBuzz host a round table discussion with Canon on their range of DSLRs.
We’d invited along a seven professional photographers all of who you can catch up with online, @meteorit, @BenjaminEllis, @chrisbrockphoto, @regularjen, @carlonicora, @mnoo and Kishor Krishnamoorthi. Present from Canon were new media consultant Lisa Freeman and product specialist Mark Burnhill who got the evening started by briefly chatting about Canon as a brand, before going into the specs of the DSLRs they’d brought along.
On the table were Canon’s 1000D, 450D, 500D, 50D, 7D, 5d Mk II, 1D Mk IV and 1Ds Mk III. Each of the cameras is given some analysis by Kishor in his post covering the event. And out of the selection it was Canon’s 1D Mk IV which seemed to cause the most excitement.
However, each camera prompted reaction – Jen took a particular liking to the 7D, with Chris loving the full frame goodness of the 1Ds Mk III and Carlo even decided to get his followers involved to see what they thought.
To finish the night off everyone headed out for food and to chat into the night, something that went down well, excuse the pun.
We’d like to say a big thanks to the guys who attended, including Lisa and Mike from Canon, it was great to meet you all and we hope that everyone found it valuable – we can’t wait until the next one!
If you’d like to be involved with what we do at CanonCameraBuzz get in touch. We’d love to hear from you, so just leave a comment below.
Photo credits to Kishor Krishnamoorthi and Marianne Taylor.
Posted in Events and Activities | Tagged 1000D, 1D Mk IV, 1Ds Mk III, 450D, 500d, 50d, 5d Mk II, 7D, canon round table, meet-up | 1 Comment »
At the FredMiranda forums is a thread we were directed to via Twitter. It features the tale of a Canon DSLR Rebel XT that found its way into the hands of a skydive instructor who mounted it to his helmet (along with a video camera) and used it to shoot fellow skydivers in free fall. However, the ‘mounted to his helmet’ status of the Rebel changed dramatically…
The story is told by contributor Calin Leucuta,
“The mounting plate detached when he opened his chute and both cameras (photo and video) took a fall from approximately 3000 ft. Amazingly, the Rebel survived the fall and my friend is still using it to this very day. It has a crack in the plastic body and the kit lens is a little jerky when zooming, but functional. I’d like to know if there is a similar story or something close to this but I doubt. It might me a world record indeed (for the height of a camera drop which survived). Kudos to Canon!”
It is an amazing story. Although the camera did hit relatively mushy ground, the impact on landing is estimated to have been at about 100-110 mph. As you can see from the pictures it was clear it had suffered a trauma, but a fall from 3000 feet and to not be in tiny pieces, let alone still working?!
Fellow contributors have been amazed by the Rebel’s survival with AGeoJO suggesting,
“[…] report it to Canon, they may put that into the record book and if they induct that particular body to the “hall of fame” for what it went through.”
And of course there is also some humour to be found, such as this play on the old Timex slogan from docnlaw24,
“Takes a lickin’ and keeps on clickin’”
Have you got anecdotes of Canon cameras coping with excess brutality? Ole’s recent weather testing of the 7D proves their built tough, but a plummet to earth from 3000 feet is in a new league of survival.
Posted in Canon EOS 7D, Rebel DSLR | Tagged build quality, fredmiranda, Rebel DSLR, rebel xt, skydive, survival, terminal velocity | Leave a Comment »
The Can-Do Film Festival is the world’s first international web film festival and is running from January 1st 2010 to March 20th 2010. The competition is open to Canon shooters worldwide and sponsored by Vimeo, where all the submissions will hosted.
If you’re creative juices are already flowing then you’ll need to know the rules, all of which are on the site. Importantly the movie must be less than four minutes long and shot on the Canon HD DSLR EOS 1D Mk IV, EOS 5D Mk II or EOS 7D.
There are plenty of prizes up for grabs, with each winner of the 10 categories getting a Canon EF Lens of choice worth up to $1000. Those successful in Creative Inspiration and Technical Innovation will each receive a Canon EOS 5D Mk II HD DSLR with the competitions overall champion receiving a Canon EOS 1D Mk IV HD DSLR.
Goodies well worth winning, which means competition is going to be stiff, but if you think you’ve got what it takes all the details are here. Submissions for the Can-Do Film Festival must placed into one of 10 categories and these vary from music video to nature documentary, movie trailer to narrative. Whether an aspiring Michel Gondry, Spike Jonze or David Attenborough, you should be able to find a suitable category.
The event will be judged by a panel including producer at ILM Rick McCullen and Vimeo director of community Blake Whitman, with the results being announced mid April 2010. If you’re from the UK and thinking of getting involved we’d love to hear about you and your project, just drop us a comment below and we’ll be in touch.
Posted in Events and Activities | Tagged can-do film festival, Canon, EOS 1D Mk IV, EOS 5d Mark II Camera, EOS 7D, HD | Leave a Comment »
At the WEXblog Hamish Brown has reviewed the Canon EOS 7D. Going from a spec list to a conclusion, and covering a whole lot in between the two, it is likely to have the answers to anything you’re wondering about where the 7D is concerned.
His thoughts on the spec list are that it ‘seemingly goes on forever’ – he cuts it down a little, but feels continuation and expansion are required, adding in mentions of the weather sealed body (see Ole Jørgen Liodden really testing this) and 100% viewfinder coverage to name just two.
The speed of the camera is also discussed under the sub-heading of ‘How Fast Indeed!’ This focuses on the attention paid by Canon to DIGIC 4 processors and the placing of two into the 7D,
“In practice, I found the extra speed a real bonus in terms of getting the shot with moving subjects. If action or wildlife is your thing, then you’re onto a camera that will serve you very well.”
Hamish pays close attention to size of images, giving detailed information on how those 18 Megapixels are used. In addition to this he’s impressed with the built in flash, referring to it as ‘class’. From then on it’s into new buttons, autofocus and metering. In terms of metering he suggests that he should have titled the section, ‘you can’t have everything, but this is close.’
As for shooting movies, he recommends getting an external microphone, just to add a further level of professionalism to your output, before going through the different frame rates the 7D offers,
“You get three different frame rates at 1080 in the video mode at 24, 25 and 30 fps and at 720 you can get slow motion effect frame rates of 50 and 60 fps. It’s not like it’s just a great quality HD video camera, it also gives you plenty of options to get creative rather than just point and shoot.”
The post is finished by Hamish under the heading ‘In retrospect and conclusion’ before giving the camera a rating,
“Canon has taken the developments both pre and post digital, and provided a fast, high quality camera body for both stills and video. It has improved metering, focusing and a gamut of new features that raise the stakes across the DLSR board.”
If you’re intrigued by the Canon EOS 7D, the review is a must read, going into to the finer details that you’re going to want to know about.
Posted in Canon EOS 7D | Tagged Canon, HD, review, eos, 7D | Leave a Comment »
Ole Jørgen Liodden in his latest post at Canon Field Reviews has been testing the Canon 7D in extreme weather conditions. Obviously extreme weather takes many forms, but a recent trip to Antarctica proved more than suitable for putting the 7D through its paces. He took a similar trip last year and his, and others, equipment faltered under the conditions, which meant this was definitely going to be a stern test.
The conditions, and the shooting process, are described by Ole,
“When shooting wildlife I’m usually laying on my stomach, with the camera in direct ground contact. This works great with most cameras if the ground is dry, but in Antarctica the ground is almost always wet, muddy or covered with snow or sand. On my recent expedition it snowed almost every day, and at times wet snow, which is worse than rain.”
So how did the 7D cope? Remarkably well is the answer. In Ole’s test the “7D had absolutely NO problems with snow, rain and water (sea spray).” He makes a note that the battery grip on the 7D appears to be tighter and better sealed than previously, knowing that some 5D Mark II users have had problems with water leaking between the grip and the camera. On the trip he did also have a 5D Mark II and 1DS Mark III which he comments on in relation to how they coped with the environment.
As far as thoughts on the 7D though, Ole was impressed – the camera passed 10,000 exposures without any hint of a problem. If you’ve used any of these cameras in extreme weather conditions Ole would love to hear your opinion, so jump to Canon Field Reviews and let him know what you think.
Posted in Canon EOS 7D | Tagged 1DS Mark III, 5D Mark II, 7D, Canon, canon field reviews, extreme, Ole Jørgen Liodden, weather testing | 3 Comments »
Benjamin has posted a review of the S90 at Benjamin Ellis on the Net. It goes into some depth and being a user of the SX200is he sees the S90 as ‘notch’ above it, yet points out that it is not a straight forward comparison to make…
It is from here that Benjamin heads into his review, noting numerous features, in particular that,
“[...]the s90 also has an extra dial around the lens, which is configurable for fast one-handed adjustments. It is one of the features that really grabbed my attention.”
In the below video you can see Benjamin showing off the S90’s extra dial, along with highlighting other details including the maximum aperture setting of f2.0, something that really suits his preferred style of shooting. Also in his post is a slide show of a mixture of images taken on the S90 and 5D Mark II, once viewing them just click on the image to get info on what took what.
Overall Benjamin was impressed with the new additions to the Canon catalog, especially the S90,
“The S90 nicely slots into the range – if I was after something very high end, like the PowerShot G11, but in a much more compact form, then the S90 looks the business.”
To read the full post and view the slide show click through. Or if you’d prefer to get straight to the images leap into this Flickr set Benjamin has put together.
Posted in Events and Activities | Tagged 500d, 5d, 7D, aperture, Canon, Flickr, HD, s90, sx200is | Leave a Comment »
Adam made it to Tuttle last week for the first time in a while, but was thankful he’d set aside the time to do so after he learnt from @LloydDavis that Canon would be sponsoring the meet-up,
“[…] as I’m a long term Canon SLR and DSLR user, and getting the opportunity to play with their new kit was too good to be missed.”
His post at One Man and His Blog titled On Tuttle, Canon and the Multimedia Journalist gives an insight into how he sees the social media era requiring a wider skill set than ever before for the journalist, namely the ability to be handy with all aspects of a camera and the associated kit. This is something he addresses in relation to the cameras Canon had on show at Tuttle, all of which he was able to get hands on time with,
“I had the chance to play with the 500D, 5D and 7D, all of which can shoot HD video, and they’re seriously interesting pieces of kit. The paradigm of using the video recording is nothing like using a traditional camcorder, and challenging to get your head around, but I’m really looking forward to experimenting with the 500D’s video capabilities in the near future.”
He also gives CanonCameraBuzz a mention as we’ll be putting up some of the images taken with the Canon cameras (of which there was a lot!) shortly… watch this space!
Posted in Events and Activities | Tagged 500d, 5d, 7D, Canon, HD, tuttle, video | 3 Comments »
Documentally has had his hands on a Canon Digital Ixus 120is and is a fan. Having been impressed with the Digital Ixus 110is when he saw it at a Tuttle Club get together he couldn’t resist having a play and shooting some video with the new model when he saw it in Micro Anvika on the Tottenham Court Rd.
Obliging staff allowed him to pop in his own SD card so he could get busy seeing what the Digital Ixus 120is could do,
“Once again I was blown away. This is a 12.1 megapixel ultra-compact camera the size of a pebble. It feels rock hard and it has a 28mm wide-angle lens in it. Really very easy to ensure you are in the frame when video blogging. It was just too tempting I had to have it.”
And so he bought it. The Digital Ixus 120is is already functioning as his EDC (Every Day Carry) and has seen him capturing loads of footage. It’s early impressions, but Documentally has his suspicions that this compact could be a ‘serious contender’ in the HD pocket cam market,
“It may well knock them for six.”
He’s more than happy for you to get in touch with him through his Twitter @Documentally to ask about the cam, so feel free to drop him a message. We’re certainly looking forward to hearing more on everyday life with the Canon Digital Ixus 120is.
Posted in Ixus 120is | Tagged 120si, Canon, documentally, first impressions, hands on, Ixus 120is, review, video footage | Leave a Comment »
This week Canon is sponsoring the Tuttle meet-up (the Social Media Café) taking place between 10am-1pm on Friday 27th November at LEON in Spitalfields.
The Tuttle Club was created by Lloyd Davis and sees those with a passion for social media get together and discuss over coffee the industry, emerging trends and where they see things going in the future. It’s usually a lively affair with something for everyone if you’re an online and social sort.
At Friday’s event Canon will be showcasing cameras from compacts to high-end Digital SLRs. If you have any questions, whether on the products being demonstrated or any Canon camera, the Canon UK team will be there and more than happy to help.
The meet-up is free to attend; you don’t even have to sign up, just arrive and enjoy the debate. You can follow the build-up to the event on Twitter with the hashtags #canontuttle and #tuttle, and if you what some more details just @canoncamerabuzz.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Oh, and your first coffee is on Canon.
Posted in Events and Activities | Tagged camera, Canon, coffee, lloyd davis, meet-up, tuttle, Twitter | 1 Comment »
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