Photography Bay

Digital Camera News, Reviews and Tips

Archives for 2012

Spider Arca-Swiss Clamp Announced

By

Spider Arca-Swiss Clamp

Spider Holster has announced the availability of its Spider Arca-Swiss Clamp, which is designed to work with Arca-Swiss-style L-brackets (like those from Really Right Stuff). The Spider Arca-Swiss Clamp connects with the bracket to allow users to use both a bracket system and their Spider Holster without the need to reattach components to the bottom of the camera when shooting conditions change.

The Spider Arca-Swiss Clamp retails for $95.00 and is available via Spider Holster’s website.

More details in the press release below. [Read more…]

 

“Departure Date” Shot with the Canon C300 at 35k Feet on a Plane Full of Passengers

By

The Canon EOS C300 cinema camera recently made history when it was used to shoot “Departure Date,” the first movie almost entirely shot on airliners in flight.  The 24-minute short film was shot over 9 days across 3 continents covering 28,000 miles while flying at 35,000 feet on planes carrying real passengers.

Sounds like a recipe for disaster…

Somehow though, they made it work and the film premiered at the L.A. Film Festival on June 17, 2012.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIwXGTov8DE&w=640&h=360]

More details in the full case study summary below. [Read more…]

Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L Lens Hands-On Report: “This Thing is $%^#ing Amazing”

By

Canon 200-400mm f/4L IS USM

I heard back from Jeff Cable on his experience shooting with the Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM lens on his Canon 1D X.  Here’s what he had to say:

[Update: The Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM lens with built-in 1.4x extender is now officially available. It is priced at $11,799. Check it out here at B&H Photo and here at Adorama.]

Oh my goodness – I am soooooooo hooked on this lens!!!! I am begging and pleading with Canon every day to get use of one of these for the rest of the Olympics.

Here is my take. [Read more…]

Shooting in the Stratosphere with the Canon 5D Mark II and RED One

By

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUoS5lxIZSk&w=640&h=360]

Red Bull Stratos is a mission to make the highest free-fall jump in history.  Felix Baumgartner will jump from 120,000-feet (22.7 miles) above the earth and it will be captured from a variety of angles.

To make this happen some of the cameras are modified to deal with the extreme cold and some are encased in nitrogen-filled housings.  Among the gear featured in the above BTS video are several RED One cameras, Canon 5D Mark IIs, Canon EF-S 10-22mm lenses (mounted on the RED One’s) and Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 fisheye lenses (mounted on the 5D2’s).

Canon is finally getting a trip to space in spite of NASA’s long history with Nikon.

[via PetaPixel]

Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM in Use at Olympics

By

Canon 200-400mm

Canon apparently has some loaners of the upcoming EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM lens on hand at the Olympics.  The development of this lens was announced alongside the official unveiling of the new EF 500mm F/4L IS II USM and EF 600mm F/4L IS II USM lenses – both of which are now starting to trickle into commercial availability.

As I was reading Jeff Cable’s update from London today, I noticed that he dropped by the Canon loan desk to borrow one of these new lenses.

I contacted Jeff to see what his thoughts are on the lens; however, I know he’s busy over there and it may be a few days before I hear back.  In the mean time, you can follow Jeff’s action in London over on his blog.

Hopefully, this is a good sign for the availability of this lens and Canon will begin shipping it out to the mass market sooner rather than later.

Stay tuned.

‘Camera Warfare’ Sends DSLRs to War!

By

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYZmFo3_F1g&w=640&h=360]

In this fun video, Devin Graham puts DSLRs in the middle of a WWII firefight . . . and the DSLRs are the weapons.

After watching all the Canons go to war, check out the BTS video below for a peek into the making of this epic battle.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlGX1qsY8BE&w=640&h=360]

[via PetaPixel]

OS X Mountain Lion and Adobe CS Compatibility

By

If you are a Mac user, then you probably are well aware that Apple released OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion this week.  By all accounts, it’s an improvement over 10.7 Lion.

If you are a holdout (like I was), then you may still be using OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard.  I was concerned about losing 32-bit app compatibility, quirks in other 64-bit apps and the death of Spaces (something I use all day, everyday).

Having mulled Mountain Lion over for several weeks, I bit the bullet this week and upgraded from Snow Leopard.  Based on most of what I had read, CS6 app stability and speed improves with Mountain Lion.  Since that’s the software suite I use more than anything else, I went for it.   [Read more…]