The main reason I ditched the other two for this one: the video quality, and a more up to date sensor for my back-up.  The 40D was always great, but it didn’t have video and it was getting a little old. In my opinion, it was geared more toward action and sports photography than portraiture.

Some additional benefits of the T2i.  First, it’s the same exact sensor as it’s replacement, the T3i, but it’s about $100 cheaper.  It’s small, maybe a little too small in my hands for a full-time camera, but as a back-up or travel companion, it’s great (as a side note, my first DSLR was the XTI, which has the same size body).

There are some features I miss from my 5D.  I use a second button, not my shutter button, to focus, but I don’t see the option here.  And to save real estate (and cost I would presume), there’s no screen when looking straight down, so I have to use the viewfinder or the full blown display on the back for the settings.

Again, not really deal breakers we’re talking about.

UPDATE: Found the back-button auto focus. Menu / Custom Function / 9 / 1

Oh, and it takes SD cards, not CFs like just about all of it’s big brothers.

All in all I think it’s going to be  a good camera, and I’m looking forward to using it!

Here are the pictures, me playing around, straight out of the camera:

In case you’re curious about why I’m selling it, read on.

I bought this camera earlier this year for exactly three reasons: it has a super-affordable underwater housing.  And let’s be honest, that’s cool. Next is, it has a hot-shoe mount and a pretty good focal length, and it’s small enough to disappear in my camera bag, which makes for a really nice back-up camera when I’m on a job.

And lastly, it does 720p video.  This was really cool, because I’ve been wanting to do more video interviews, so it would come in handy for my second angle.

A few months later, here are my thoughts.

Underwater?  Really??

Small, yes. It’s still small. Nothing wrong with that.

Video.  Alone, it does good video and I like it.  But when I put it next to the 5D, it just doesn’t hold up.  Without getting too technical, the smaller sensor in the G12 extends the depth of field and puts a lot in focus.  And making a video with that and the 5D looks like I filmed half with a pro-rig and half with a home video camera.  Again, the quality itself is fine, just nowhere near on par with the 5D

So now what?

Well, I’m looking at getting either  a Canon 550D or 600D. This would be an entry level DSLR, but fits all my lenses and has really good video capability (partially due to it’s larger sensor size).

In addition to all that, I’m thinking about selling my 40D, and just using this as my backup to my main.  Although the 40D’s an older camera, it still beats the 550/600D in fps and build-quality. Plus the 550/600Ds are smaller cameras. After a lot of shooting, I’ve worked out what I can need and what I don’t.

I’ll probably do another blog post just like this in 7 months with all new stuff  :)

I think it was actually the first time I ever used the zoom function (that’s not really important to this post, I’m just proud of myself and wanted to broadcast my mad-skills).

But the “quickie” from the title is this: look below at how drab the original photo was.  It had good composition (where the stuff is inside the frame), but it’s a little under-exposed (dark) and the colors are flat and muddy.  As a result my eyes instantly get bored looking at it.

But I ran it through one of my most used iphone-apps, the Best Camera App (named after the philosophy that the best camera is the camera you have with you).  I played around with a few filters but settled on one layer of the “candy” filter and finished by putting on a white border. That’s it.

It was easy. So easy I did it during red lights on my way home from work over a period of about 4 minutes.

I don’t post-produce everything that comes out of my camera, but there’s not much that sees the light of the internet that I haven’t first re-touched in at least a subtile way (in case you missed that: most of what goes in my camera never comes out!).

And, as you can see in the two pictures here, a little tweaking can make a dramatic difference.

This leads into the issue of over-producing, a hot and sweaty debate I am sneakily slipping out of.  For today, anyway.

Ciao.

Here, in two parts:

First, it’s a digital rangefinder. I’ve wanted one of these for a while because they’re quieter than normal SLRs, and once you master the manual focusing (which is made easier by the rangefinder system), you can focus much faster in low light. For a lot of the street and embedded photography I do, the size and noise of my camera keep me from blending into the background as well as I would like. But not so with a rangefinder. If you want to go film, you can find affordable rangefinder options, but to go digital, the same options aren’t there. So, seeing this is a happy step in the right direction.

The second is the look. It’s a 50′s throwback with a cool, retro vibe. This makes it a great unimposing walkaround camera that looks more sentimental than expensive. Attached is a 35mm equivalent f/2 lens–something that will allow you to easily transition into the darker indoors.

So far, there’s only one thing I’m not crazy about: the lens is not interchangeable. That is, for the life of the camera you will always have the same non-zoom field of view. Since I prefer to shoot wide, this isn’t entirely a bad thing. But I might put down my 5D for a while if this came with a telephoto option.

All in all, I’m still excited to watch it as it gets closer to market. And a little more curious still about the price. I shouldn’t be that curious. This is bad. And good. And bad. Here’s the video.

Here’s what DPReview says.

And you know what else, I think I might just pack it down twice to fit as many coffee grounds into that tight, little space as I can.  I know it might cause the water to overflow a little, but let’s be serious for a minute…

That’s where all the fun is.

Update: just tasted the coffee.  It’s has the consistency of dried maple syrup.  If I put a spoon in it and let go, it would stand up all on it’s own.

Meanwhile, came across this and this yesterday.

Both interesting in their own rights.

Friday.

Saw the above the other day.  In case your still piecing it together, it’s a flag pole mounted to a scooter.

I’ve been doing a lot of editing lately, which is to say: I’ve been spending a lot of time in front of my computer.  But what helps that fly by?  Good, melodic, background music.  Russian Circles just released their third album, Geneva, a few weeks ago.  They’ve got a little bit of Kings of Leon and a little bit of Tool, but without words, ’cause hush that noise! Although some tracks are only a step-up from those waterfall recordings that people buy to help keep their feng shiu in order, there are definitely some killers on here like “Hexed All” and “Malko.”  All together, the album as a whole works.

Earlier this year The Pains of Being Pure at Heart released their debut, self-titled LP.  They won me as soon as I heard their catchy drum-driven “Young Adult Friction” and “A Teenager In Love.”  Fortunately, it doesn’t end there, and they deliver with boat loads of fuzzy, distorted guitars.  To cap it off they close with “Gentle Sons,” a song The Thrills would be proud of.  And me, too. 

Buy it and Love it!

So naturally I was perusing their website in the same way I’ll sometimes find myself on Bently’s site building my own Azure or weighing the options because I might really like the Continental better.  You never know.

Back-to-the-camera.

Interesting to note, it was used to shoot some recent movies like The Informant, District 9, Gamer, and My Bloody Valentine 3D. Not that you can tell by watching the movies themselves (RED’s website spilled the beans).

It’s always cool to me to see the converging of these kinds of technologies.  In fact, Alexx Henry, whom I greatly admire as a money-making artist, in his latest blog post talks about the nearness of a video-print-fused format.  Like a video on the cover of a magazine, etc.  It’s paper thin and flexible.  I guess the last hurtle is making it affordable enough to be disposable.  But it shouldn’t be too much longer until you’ll see it around.

More on RED; click here to see some of their outlandish prices!  You can order your own straight from their site.  Isn’t it fun?

Here’s a picture of one.  It would cause some problems if I took this on vacation.