Stereodude
Not really a
I'll take one!
RED plans to place Monstro into, "another camera aimed squarely at the DSLR market." He later adds, "Future cameras will shoot ultra-high resolution stills and motion..."
You know you are in trouble when a simple crop command brings up a very slow progress bar (2 minutes?). The image is only about 30MP, I think it's the 32-bit part that is dragging it down...
You definitely have a suboptimal system and workflow. I was processing and printing 100-120 megapixel images 6 years ago with XP2200, 1.5GB RAM and 15k drive. Yes it was a struggle, but 30MP is nothing today if you have an efficient workflow. Do you have a file with a dozen image layers or something?
5D MK II?
That is the hope. It seems imminent, and I'm hoping to have that be my second body. Having two different crop factors should give a smaller lens collection more variety. At the same time, my EF-S lenses will be less useful, and I'm looking for a new set that will take over where my 10-22 and 18-55 EF-S lenses currently are. From the reviews I've read, the lenses I've picked out will offer higher quality as well.
Mysterium "Monstro" is a sensor program that pushes the envelope past anything on the horizon. It will go into Epic, and another camera aimed squarely at the DSLR market. Epic ships with Mysterium-X and has a free upgrade to Monstro. 4k or so video camcorder aimed squarely at the dSLR market, is what I'm guessing Jannard is alluding to .
Scarlet has been talked about extensively. It is a 3K, 120fps camera with a built-in 8X zoom that starts at 28mm (full frame still 35mm) wide angle. The T-stop will be "at least" as published.
Production units of the 5D replacement have already been shipped to some long-lead media outlets under an NDA so they can get their reviews lined-up for the day the embargo comes off.
I got this from a pro-photo source friend in central London, the same that told me the D3 was in final testing last June, two months before the unveil....
The source says that there's some speculation the industry that this Beijing Olympics will be the last covered by single-frame photography. By the time of London 2012, the 'photographers' will be shooting HD sequences, from which picture editors will take the best 'grabs'.
As you can see, dynamic range and image quality is pretty stunning given that this was shot with no special lighting at 1/50th second exposure in a hotel reception room. Easily printable at A3 size or bigger.
The camera's AA filter is designed with movies in mind, hence it seems less sharp at first glance for a still than say a Canon 40D, but if you put it into Photoshop and apply an Unsharp Mask with 300, 6, 0 as settings you can quickly recover similar sharpness levels. Look at the tablecloth detail for example.
Will be interesting to see if the higher res 50D can give ISO12800 or even 6400 with same or lower noise than the D300. All in all, the new 50D seems like a bargain compared to the D300 (which is now street priced @$1600 from reputable dealers).
Canon got their butts handed to them with the lackluster 40D
Huh? WTF are you talking about here? Makes no sense at all. The 40D has been (and continues to be) an excellent performer, offering easily the best combination of picture quality, cost, and features on the APS-C market today. It has equal picture quality to the D300 (many people say better, but I'll be generous and say equal) at almost half the price, and gives away only a few minor features of no real consequence. It easily outperforms the considerably higher cost D200 (I have no idea why Nikon continue to sell that one, let alone why anyone buys it), which pending the arrival of the D90 leaves the D80 as the only other unit you'd want to compare it to, and there again the 40D is the clear winner. They you have the Pentax range, which is attractive but really in a different class because the range of lenses available is so very, very different, and I suppose you could throw in S*ny if you wanted to, though why anyone would want to is beyond me. You should probably also consider the 400D and the 450D, though these are really in a different market segment and don't attempt to offer the same usability.
In short, you have the best all-round APS-C camera on the market and yet you think it's "lackluster"? Bizarre!
I think the new D90 looks like a very nice unit, something that will at long last give Nikon a non-flawed camera that most people would be pleased to own at a more-or-less reasonable price (D300 costs almost twice what it is worth; D200 is ancient; D80 is so old it doesn't even have a self-cleaning sensor; the lower models are lens-choice crippled .... doesn't leave a lot.)
I haven't quite figured out where the D700 fits into the scheme of things.)
The 50D is an interesting looking unit. I'll presumably get one to try out when it becomes available. Will the very high resolution (for an APS-C unit) provide any real benefit for bird photography? Not as much as the fan boys will claim, I suspect, but it might be handy where I'm focal length limited and the light is very good. And it's cheap enough that I can feel relaxed about buying one without really knowing if it's going to provide any practical benefit over the cameras I already have.
As for the 5D replacement(s) ... wait and see.
D300 costs almost twice what it is worth
[url=http://pixinfo.com/en/articles/ccd-dust-removal/]pixinfo.com test[/url] said:Here is our ranking according to effectiveness:
1. Olympus: good
2. Canon: poor (we are disappointed)
3. Pentax and Sony: useless (we are very disappointed)
If you are looking for a camera, have the dust removal as an expectation only at the end of your list. If sensor cleaning / dust removal is a must, the choices are limited to Olympus and Panasonic cameras.
We guess that theoretically it is possible to get better results with Canon cameras when the CMOS sensor is not charged, but Canon must find a way to discharge the sensor first (if this is really the problem). If the system is so unreliable, the EOS-ICS is not much more than a good marketing name.
In case of Sony, Pentax and Samsung cameras, the dust removal function should be considered as almost non-existent.
[url=http://www.macandphoto.com/2007/03/la_vrit_sur_les.html]Chasseur d'Images test[/url] said:Chasseur d'Images s'est lancé dans un test exclusif : LES SYSTEMES ANTIPOUSSIERE au banc d'essai ! Là, c'est sûr, ça va hurler... car la plupart des systèmes antipoussière sont totalement inefficaces ! Zéro pointé pour l'EOS 400D, guère mieux pour le Pentax et le Sony. Seul Olympus s'en sort bien .
As for sensor cleaning, none of the manufacturers except for Olympus have a truly effective system:
Spoken like a man who doiesn't own one.
I am telling you that I own or have owned no less than four cameras with sensor cleaning, three of them different models, use them a great deal, and in the harsh, dusty conditions you may normally expect in the inland of the driest habitable continent on earth. They work. End of story.
Now, who are you going to believe? Some snot-nosed journalist with a deadline to file copy by? Or someone who actually uses the machinery regularly and relies on it, day in and day out? Your call.
No-one that I have heard of suggests that the D300 autofocus is anything in a different league to that of the pro-level Canon cameras, one of which I own and use a lot, as you may recall.
In other words, I am familiar with the differences. They are not that great, unless perhaps you are doing birds in flight, and nobody worth talking about uses Nikon cameras for bird work
So, given that the D300 is priced around 30 or 40% over what itought to be, why do so many people buy it? Simply, because Nikon are smart.
LunarMist said:I don't understand the value of LR either. From what I gather it is a software used for photographers to do everything in a workflow. I don't have all the fancy modern software and hardware everyone here has. :wink: I just know about glass, camera bodies, and how to use PS and certain valuable plugins to make nice prints. In general it takes me about 30 minutes to 2 hours of work per simple image, and several times longer for a composite (stitched) image. Much of that time (other than occasional stitching) is human time, so the computer is only killing maybe 20% of the total time. Human time consists of retouching/cloning, multiple masks for local noise reduction, general and/or spot tone and color corrections, masks for add-ins, HL/SH, masks for dodging and burning, asymmetrical radial density correction, asymmetrical/offset lens corrections incl. POV, multiple/partial CA corrections, masks for general and local sharpening, etc.
Does anyone have the 800/5.6 EF-L yet (maybe Tony)? Other than the main problem, getting on the airlines, a serious concern would be selling the lens later on, though it should not depreciate too much over time.
That is about what I spend per image that I like, though you probably put your time to better use. The second half of your list I don't even understand.
asymmetrical radial density correction?
asymmetrical/offset lens corrections incl. POV?
multiple/partial CA corrections?
Off to the google...
Does anyone have the 800/5.6 EF-L yet (maybe Tony)? Other than the main problem, getting on the airlines, a serious concern would be selling the lens later on, though it should not depreciate too much over time.
250MB/sec is so not enough. This stitch is thoroughly disk limited, (CPU is at 5-10%, PS has maxed it's 3.446GB of RAM) and took about 4 hours last time. I think it's time for a new RAID-0 of SSDs...
Why am I doing the stitch a second time? Because Photoshop crashed right at the end of saving it as an .hdr file this afternoon. Bleh.
Not yet, Lunar, but certainly on my radar. I'm hoping that it will drop in price a little - say a thousand or so - over the next few months, but I'm thinking that it might be another year before that happens, if it happens at all. In any case, I've spent too much time away from the office lately (just back from another desert trip, which was great) and need to put my head down, my bum up, and earn a bit more, as I don't intend to go too far into hock for yet more glass.
So maybe around May/June next year. Unless I decide to go the other way - a 300/2.8 - first, in which case the 800 will have to wait a bit longer again. Still thinking about that.