Posted by Constantin Chirila on Jan 12, 2009 in
News The rumor I was talking about a few days ago about the release of the new professional camera, Canon EOS 1D Mark IV, seams to be true according to a lot of articles gathered at Northlight Images blog. Here’s a quote regarding the use of the video function at sport events (it seams canon is looking for approval of FIFA):
“…Canon has a replacement for the 1D MKIII ready to launch during the second quarter of 2009. What’s holding Canon back is a decision from FIFA … to allow pro-cameras with video capability ( see 5D MKII) during sporting events. FIFA is currently looking into the legal implications with television rights and contracts with broadcasters. If FIFA give the green light then Canon will release the camera.”
But it’s not a huge dead, because Canon won’t delay the launch of the camera whatever the answer from FIFA will be. There isalso a rumor that the possible announcement date is May 19, 2009.
Tags: Canon, DSLR, Gear, News, Photography, Release, Rumor
Posted by Constantin Chirila on Jan 10, 2009 in
Photography,
Tips & Tricks We are constantly bumping on this “Aperture” notion, especially when we are trying to buy a new lens. Well the main function of a camera lens it’s to collect light. But often we need to control the amount of light coming in: some times we need more and other times we need less. Well this is the job of the aperture (which in fact is an iris), to control the amount of light getting in ( the larger the diameter of the iris, the more light gets to the image sensor). Another fact that aperture controls is the Depth Of Field.
So the aperture is measured in F-stop : f/1.8, f/2.8, f/10, etc. The smaller the f number (value), the larger is the diameter of the iris, and the 
bigger the f number (value) the smaller is the diameter of the iris. You might ask “Why it’s so twisted?”. Well because the F Number is represented by the formula F/D (F= focal length, D= diameter of the iris). So as you can see the diameter of the lens varies at different focal lengths.This is because a 300mm lens needs an larger “hole” to collect the same amount of light as a 50mm lens with with the same aperture. In fact that’s the reason why those 300mm, 400mm, 600mm, are so huge, because they need a hole large enough to catch enough light. Also that’s why there aren’t super telephoto lens like 600mm with small f/number, for example f/1.8 (first of all will have a microscopic depth of field, and second of all will be an enormous).
Read more…
Tags: Photography, Tips & Tricks, Tutorials
Posted by Constantin Chirila on Jan 8, 2009 in
Camera Gear,
News 
A few days back I sadly talked about the failure of Canon with their new two cameras: 5D Mark II and 50D.
Well, today, with my smile on my face ( I’m a huge fan of the 5D Mark II), I can say that the “black dots” and “banding issues” on the 5D Mark II are fixed with the new firmware update ( at least that’s what Canon says).
The black dot problem is fixed due to this test made by Andrew Yip. For you 5D Mark II owners ( lucky bastards 
) out there here is the link to the official Firmware 1.0.7.
Tags: 5D Mark II, Camera Gear, Canon, DSLR, News, Photography, Release, Software, Technology
Posted by Constantin Chirila on Jan 3, 2009 in
News 
At the begining of this year, 8020 Media announced that by the end of this week they are closing down JPG Magazine. Due to economic crisis they weren’t able to sustain the money flow they needed. Since you don’t know how will gonna keep the site together with your photographs, you should delete your photos and your account to be sure that your photos will not be used without your consent.
Tags: News, Photography
Posted by Constantin Chirila on Jan 2, 2009 in
Photography,
Tips & Tricks As I promised a few posts back i would like to start talking about some basic aspects of the camera. Like Shutter Speed, Aperture, ISO, Camera Settings, etc.
Today I will talk about Shutter Speed. Here is a list o things you should know about this:
1. What is Shutter Speed?
As the name says, it’s the speed of the shutter is opening and closing. In fact it is measured in the time the shutter stays open (from 1/8000 of a second to 30 seconds and more in the bulb mode). So if you take your photo with 1/250th of a second the shutter stays open for 0,004 (1/250) seconds, or if you take it with 1/25 of a second the shutter stays open for quarter of a second. Read more…
Tags: Camera Basics, Gear, Photography, Tips & Tricks, Tutorials
Posted by Constantin Chirila on Dec 21, 2008 in
Photography,
Tips & Tricks 
Since a few days I’ve talked about ways of backing up your photos, I think it appropriate to talk about organizing your photographs, since keeping your photos organized helps to find your well organized photos.
First of all it’s very useful to use a software that helps keeping you organized and even helps you finding your images much faster. Since there are dozens of software packages for this kind of job it all comes down to personal preference and a few very important features that would help you a lot, like:
- Organize by Category, Calendar Date, Keyword, etc.
- Let’s you assign rating and tag
- Thumbnail view
- RAW support (in case you work a lot with RAW images)
- Helps you backing up your photos easily
- Easy E-mail sharing
I have compiled a list of software packages for your organizational need.
For professional users (has a lot of professional features) :
For regular users (has all the feature you need for our every day family photos) :
Although you have whatever software you need you still have to know some other things. To be more specific here is my work flow when I come from a shoot:
- Soon after I pop in my memory card into the card reader I create a new folder named like this: ” Year-Month-Day-Specific Number A specific name” (The specific number refers to the case where i have a couple of different shoots). Here is an example, let’s say today I had two portrait sessions with John Doe and Jane Doe, I have two different folders named: “2008-12-20 (1) John Doe portrait session” and “2008-12-20 (2) Jane Doe portrait session”.
- Copy the folder onto my external drive.
- I review the photos and delete the worst of them (Blurry, test shots, etc).
- I usually leave the default names of the photos.
- I import the photos into Adobe Lightroom.
- I tag and rate my photos (5* excellent, 4* good, 3*usable, and the rest receives 1*)
- I back up the photos on a CD/DVD.
- And after all of that I format my memory cards.
As you can see I am a little paranoid, having three different copies of the photos.
Bottom line is experiment, and use what is better for you and not time consuming. Happy organizing. 
Tags: Backup, Photography, Tips & Tricks
Posted by Constantin Chirila on Dec 16, 2008 in
Camera Gear,
Photography Due to fact that I love shooting landscapes, I am in love of the new Canon 5D Mark II. Talking a lot about it a friend asked me what’s that special with this camera compared to my Canon 40D. And it all came to one major difference: the 5D Mark II has a full frame sensor and the 40D has a crop sensor. So in this article I will try to explain the “Crop factor” notion, and the difference between them.
Full frame notion. A full frame sensor has an area of 36 x 24 mm and it’s close to the area of a 35mm film camera, back in the film days.
Crop factor. Well many of the digital cameras, from compact to DSLR cameras, have different image sensors with different dimensions. Most of the sensors have sizes equal or smaller than 36 x 24 mm. Because of the smaller sensor, the camera tends to capture less than an image giving the effect of cropping. There are a lot of crop factors starting from 1x (the Full Frame) and going all the way to 2x (Olympus), for DSLR’s and going even further than 6x for compact cameras. A 2x crop factor refers to a sensor size 2 times smaller than the full frame meaning a roughly 18 x 12 mm sensor size.
Now let’s see how this translates in the actual size of the image:
Read more…
Tags: Camera Gear, Canon, Comparation, DSLR, Nikon, Photography
Posted by Constantin Chirila on Dec 13, 2008 in
Photography,
Releases 
A couple of weeks ago ShutterVoice was announced in a beta testing state where only a few were chosen to test it. Now it’s finally out for you to buy with a price tag of 30$.
For those of you who aren’t aware of what this software can do here’s a quick summary. Shutter voice enables you to control you camera (that’s connected to your computer) by voice, through the Canon EOS Utility. It allows you to change a whole bunch of settings just by telling that to your camera. Unfortunately it can be used only by Canon owners. Here’s more information and don’t forget to watch the video demonstration. This software is excellent when you are testing different light setups and the only model available is you.
I would like to add that among those few people chosen to test ShutterVoice I was chosen as well. Played a couple o hours with the software and I have to say that I was pretty amazed of what it can do. But, you must have a very goo microphone and you must be able to speak clearly so that the computer understands what you want. You might want to know if I was that impressed that I would want to buy it, the answer is YES, but I won’t for know until I upgrade my Canon 40D to a camera that can automatically focus in live view mode. That is because my 40D can’t automatically focus so still i have to go back an forward to my camera to focus.
Tags: Camera Gear, DSLR, Photography, Release, Software
