Wasted Continuum

Canon has finally announced the successor to their ever popular EOS 5D with the EOS 5D Mark II. The major things to know about it are:

• 21.1 megapixel full-frame sensor
• New DIGIC 4 image processor
• Live View
• EOS Integrated Cleaning System
• ISO range 100-6400
• Shoots HD (1920×1080) video with HDMI out

The last little bullet is the interesting one. Yes, all the other features rock, but they were expected. The video capture ability caught me off guard. I did not expect Canon to implement that in time. Nikon just released their D90 which shoots 1280×720. It is great to see Canon not only catch up but release something with better stats. But the whole concept of being able to shoot video with a DSLR is intriguing. Imagine shooting a short film with a 50mm 1.4. With that lens, you would be able to shoot in low light without any trouble. How about shooting video with a 10mm wide angle lens or even a tilt-shift lens.

The 5D Mark II will set you back $2699 for the body only. I am debating if I should start saving up for one now and purchase it next summer. It is so tempting.

Today I finally got a copy of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2. I have been a fan of Lightroom since the original beta. It has completely changed my digital photography workflow. Not only did it speed up my process, but it also helped me organize my whole operation. Lightroom covers everything from importing my photos all the way to exporting for web or print. It has also kept me from launching Photoshop on more than 99% of my photos. That was Lightroom 1.0. Lightroom 2 is levels above its predecessor. These are some of the new features that were not in the first version:

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I am back from Houston and so glad to be home. I’ve missed my bed. Houston was incredible. I totally had a foodies vacation. 95% of what I did while I was there was eat and the food was amazing. I’ll write about the more in later posts. In the meantime, I uploaded some photos from two weekends ago when I was in San Francisco plus some missing 365 photos. I had limited access to the internet while I was in Houston. I will post photos from my trip throughout the week.

Today, I finally got my 50mm 1.4 to replace my sad, broken 50mm 1.8. The 50 was by far my favorite lens. I’ve been without it for too long. Not including the last two weeks, I’ve been shooting with the kit lens. Not that I can’t take quality photos with that lens, it’s just much more restrictive. I went to the park right after I left the camera store and took a ton of photos. I uploaded some of my photos to my Flickr.

Yes, I know I haven’t been blogging lately. It’s because I’ve been working insane hours for the last three weeks on the Michigan project. It’s due this Wednesday and it has to be solid since it’ll be out of state. The great thing is that I figured out the major problem I was dealing with for the last two days. This means that tomorrow and Tuesday should be regular eight hour days for me. I think I can actually go for a run tomorrow. Don’t think I’ll last that long but whatever. I’m going to do it.

I have been shooting quite a bit with my new lens, the Sigma 10-20mm. I have a bunch of photos that I haven’t uploaded yet. I already have some up on Flickr that I love. With all my overtime this month, I might be buying the 50mm 1.4 this week to replace my 50mm 1.8.

Adobe has officially released Photoshop Lightroom 2. Lightroom is a powerful application that streamlines your digital photography workflow. From importing your images to printing, publishing or presenting your final work. I personally use Lightroom to import, organize and process all my photos. I don’t know what I would do without it now. I used to spend hours working on my photos. Now, with Lightroom, I can spend more time doing what I love more, shooting photos. Lightroom 2 has added many features. These are what Adobe is listing as the top:

• Local adjustment brush
• Enhanced organizational tools
• Volume management
• Extensible architecture
• Multiple monitor support
• Flexible print package functionality
• Streamlined Photoshop CS3 integration
• Enhanced output sharpening
• 64-bit support for Windows® and Mac OS