When I upgraded my workstation 2 years ago to a Sandy Bridge Core i5, I also added to the mix a pair of USB3 ports. Until now, I’ve had absolutely no use for them. My external storage needs are covered by a eSATA dock and or by gigabit Ethernet to my networks file server. Flashcards were handled by my venerable SandDisk Extreme USB 2 dual slot reader, and that was fast enough. Right?
Well I thought it was until I got my Canon 5D mark III, and started filling 16 and 32GB flash cards like they were 8GB cards in my 1D mark III. Video was even worse. Okay sure, waiting 15 minutes for a 16B card to download at at <20MB/s isn’t exactly world ending but being able to do it in less than 5 at almost 90MB/s is wow.
…or a Non-Review of the Lexar USB 3.0 Dual Slot Reader…
My sole USB3 device now is a Lexar Professional USB3 Dual-Slot reader, and honestly, there’s not a whole lot to say about it. The connector is different, and unlike the SanDisk reader, it pops up from the base/case/cover. As a portable device, I guess I can see the utility of that; as something I have mounted to my desk so it doesn’t slide around, the popup bit is just silly.
…or When is a 400x Card not a 400x Card…
The real surprise out of all of this was in fact just how fast my 400x Lexar cards actually were. Compact Flash cards use the same silly x rating system that CD-ROM disks used, that is 1X is equal to 150 kilobytes per second (KB/s). By that measure a 400x card should read and write—assuming they’re equal but they’re not—at 60,000 KB/s, or about 58MB/s.
In reality, it takes longer to write a flash cell than it does to read it but you’d expect that for a 400x card you’d see numbers somewhere around 50-58MB/s. You’d think that at least.
Read performance form a 32GB Lexar Professional 400x card nets me a download speed of on average 86.6MB/s. In Compact Flash card Xes that’s equal to almost 600x. Not bad if you ask me.
A pair of Black-Bellied Plovers “dance” on the Sanibel Beach.
Though I’m no bird expert I’m totally at a loss as to what was going on here. The bird on the right remained standing and seemed to be foraging, at least it was moving as I’ve normally seen Black-bellied Plovers do. The bird on the left would stand up, walk a couple of paces and then crouch down like this again, then either sit or lay flat on the ground.
My first thought was that it was a threat, alarm, or defensive display, however the large tern colony behind me wasn’t doing anything to indicate a threat near by, nor were there dogs or may people within 100′ or more. My second thought was that the bird may have been injured or tangled up with fishing line. However close inspection though the lens revealed no line, and the bird was certainly capable of moving normally as it did at times. I don’t think it was a territorial display either, as they never strayed far from each other for the 30 minutes or so I was observing them
In any event, if you’re a bird photographer or watcher, and have a clue as to what they were doing please leave a comment.
Christmas brought me a Lee Big Stopper, and I’ve been working writing a review of it as well as testing it out to figure out how I can best put it to use. I already had a 10-stop ND filter, a HiTech Pro Stop, but the color casts it imparts render it almost impossible to shoot color images with it. My research pointed me to the almost impossible to get Lee Big Stopper as being a solution to that problem.
This isn’t a review of the Big Stopper, in fact, what I want to talk about here isn’t the performance of these filters, but the near complete inability to talk, market, or describe them in what I would consider a useful manner.
The simple reality is, I’ve yet to meet a 10-stop ND filter that actually is neutral. Whether by design or as a side effect of the construction process, there appears to be ready way around a color cast. However, the marketing and technical specifications for the products should be much more clear and up front about this, and about how much should be expected than they actually are.
To give credit where it’s due, both Lee and HiTech do note the issue in their documentation. How well, perhaps is more of a matter of debate.
Though both Lee and HiTech do warm of color casts, they do so with perhaps the last useful language possible. Lee says, “Use of the Big Stopper may result in a slight colour cast,” likewise, HiTech says, “The filter has been purposely been designed to give a slight blue colour cast.”
I’ve had good luck with Dell LCD displays. My first Dell LCD, a 2001FP is still alive and kicking after more than 10 years of daily use. Heck until recently, I’ve never had a problem with a Dell display; that was until my venerable 2408WFP decided that it was time to start its death spiral.
The first indicators were that display would just flick to a black screen and return. Perhaps, desperately clinging to the hope that I wouldn’t have to go display shopping, I changed cords and video cards, and nothing helped.
With nothing left to replace between the computer and the display, there wasn’t much doubt. Moreover, any remaining doubt was erased when a series of extended power outages prompted serious problems with bringing the display back to life from a cold state.
After doing a little research, it turns out early 2408WPF have a failure mode where they’ll refuse to power up properly when brought up from a cold start. So long as power is applied, and the display only asleep, it will function perfectly fine, at least until it doesn’t; and while there’s a workaround to get the display back up from a cold start, it’s seriously not fun to have to do.
Today Canon announced two new lenses, an EF 35mm f/2 IS and an EF 24-70mm f/4L IS USM zoom. In many ways, both will no doubt have their controversies. It’s not unexpected, then, to see people start voicing their opinions on the lenses, and Canon rumors is right there with their opinion (and no so am I).
If you’re interested, you can read the entirety of the CR opinion piece here. I’ve quoted the few points that I feel have warranted a direct response.
High ISO, or ASAs before international standardization, has always been about getting shots when having the shot mattered more than having a great technical images. I view things very much the same way with digital, though the capabilities of our current digital cameras have pushed the realm of acceptable limits to simply staggering numbers. ISO 3200 on a 5D mark 3 is certainly printable as a small, say 11×14 or smaller, print and holds up amazingly well compared to what you might have expected from film.
I don’t know what prompted me to shoot this, it’s not anything approaching art, but it was an excuse to get the camera out and shoot something. The image above was shot at 1/30th f/5.6 ISO 102400, at 7:42 PM—just 18 minutes prior to the end of astronomical twilight. The conditions weren’t all that favorable either, with the forecast best described, somewhat humorously though, as breezy with a chance of hurricane. It was blowing 20 MPH, with gusts to 30MPH, and the Osprey was perched on top of a 30-40 sailboat mast. In short, it was rocking and rolling and a 1-2 second exposure wouldn’t cut it. Oh ya, and this is a 7MP crop out of the native 22MP image.
It’s noisy, not real detailed, and doesn’t hold up to any kind of critical scrutiny, but it is passable enough to see what’s going on. And even 2 years ago, it’s a situation where I simply wouldn’t have bothered getting the camera out since something like that would have been out of reach anyway.
The point, perhaps is that sometimes it’s useful to go push your gear to the limits and see what you get. Unlike shooting film, you’ve already paid for the shots upfront, you might as well see just how far you can go before everything falls apart.
Some people are probably thinking that I’m picking nits here, but I’ve just about reached wits end with misreading the format card screen on my dual card bodies and scaring the crap out of myself. Below you see the the format card screen form a Canon EOS 5D mark 3.
Canon Format Card Screen
As the display states, there’s no card 2 in the camera. However, while the UI is accurate it’s just not a good design. Three issues leap out at me.
Forgive me I’m going to ramble for a minute about a crazy, if dubious, idea that popped into my head today.
Canon should dump the 3:2 APS-C sensor in the next iteration of the 7D, and replace it with a 24mm x 14.8mm “super 35” sensor.
If you stop and look at the product launches this year, Canon is fully embracing the video production thing. I’d argue it actually started when the 5D mark 2 was an unexpected runaway success. In fact, I’d attribute a lot of the relatively pathetic rate of camera advancement between 2H 2008 and now, or at least 2H 2011, as an artifact of a major shift in Canon’s direction. That is the move from a division that makes still cameras with video added, to a division that is fully behind still and video tools.
