Canon has made the following pre-PMA announcements for their digital SLR line:

• Canon Digital Rebel XSi, a 12.2 megapixel DSLR.
  
• Pricing and specifications for the Canon EF 200 f/2L IS lens (Retail $6000)
  
• Pricing info for the Canon EF 800mm f/5.6L IS lens (Retail $12,000)
  Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS
  

The two L lenses are geared towards pros and priced to match; while I find myself drooling over the EF 200 f/2L IS for its large aperture, I'm sure that sports and wildlife photographers must be ecstatic about the 800mm IS, which is a mere fraction of the cost of the now discontinued Canon EF 1200mm f/5.6L lens which was $89,000 and custom made to order. With the 800mm now available at such a price, is it any wonder why one of the few Canon EF 1200mm f/5.6L lenses became available on BH photo for $99,000 shortly after the announcement of 800mm last October? The inclusion of IS on the 800mm seems like a marketing gimmick to me -- I find the idea of attempting to handhold a heavy 800mm telephoto to be rather unrealistic, though I suppose at 800mm, the clap of the shutter could introduce vibration into the camera, even if mounted on a tripod.

The final lens mentioned, the EF-S 55-250 IS fills a product niche that's been sorely missing in the EF-S line of lenses -- from the begining, EF-S lenses concentrated on the wide-angle and normal zoom ranges, but when faced with telephoto ranges, were forced to purchase EF lenses. Because the sensors on EF-S mounted cameras are smaller, EF-S cameras don't really need as much glass as EF lenses provide; so this new telephoto zoom for EF-S does two things: it continues the range left by the 18-55 kit lens, and it gives EF-S a cheaper telephoto lens option. I can see lots of amateur photographers buying this lens and the EF-S 10-22 wide angle and basically completing their kit.

With the PMA (Photo Marketing Association) trade show taking place next week, the interwebs seems to be talking quite a bit about the possibility of Canon updating their product line, replacing the older models over 18 months with newer, better, shinier ones. Rather than announcing the new cameras at the show, they tend to release the news to the press the week before, which means that this week is very likely when we'll be hearing about the new cameras hitting the PMA.

Nikon's entry into the high-end full-frame professional market was in August 2007, with their 12 megapixel Nikon D3. Although some believe that this is the first opportunity Canon has had to respond to the competition, I feel as though it is Nikon who is acting in response to Canon's products; Canon brought full-frame digital to the professional market first, with the Canon 1Ds series, and then later to the prosumer level with the Canon EOS 5D. Announced in August of 2005, the 5D came onto the market in October of 2005, filling the gap between Canon's professional 1D line and their EOS prosumer line of cameras. With the 5D in production for over two years now, people have been guessing since last February about the possibility of a Canon 5D replacement. Indeed, I had thought such a release likely too, as I had bought a Canon 5D in July of 2006, thinking that a new model would be out by the time Comic-Con rolled around again, and was surprised when it didn't happen.

What's due for an update on Canon's DSLR line?

• The Canon 5D prosumer line. It just needs a refresher to add in all the new features found in Canon's consumer models; 3.0" inch screen, Live View, dust removal. Whether they call this update the 7D, 3D or 5D Mark II remains to be seen, but this product is due. I expect the price of the sucessor to remain close to $2000. In anticipation of this announcement, eBay, craigslist and the like have had many second-hand 5Ds listed for sale as those who want the lastest and greatest sell the old to buy the new.
  
• A new Digital Rebel. Every 18 months, a new consumer-grade DSLR model is unveiled with more new features and improvements over the last. The last one, the XTi (400D) was announced in August of 2006 -- February 2008 will be the 18th month, so the 450D is a no-brainer.
  

Everything else that Canon has is too new for an update; the 40D, the 1Ds Mark III and the 1D Mark III were all announced last year.

The evidence?

• The price of a Canon 5D with a $1000 24-105 IS L lens ($2749) has dropped far below the price of the Canon 5D when it was released in October of 2005 ($3499). In this bundle, the 5D is effectively costing $1700, less than half as much as it retailed for 2 years ago.
  
• UPC code to the Canon 7D posted this past Friday.
  

As 2007 drew to a close, I ordered the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM lens, to fill in the gap of f/2.8L lenses in my collection. Two years ago, I had purchased the Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L USM IS lens as a general walkabout lens for my Canon EOS 20D. Since then, I have purchased a Canon EOS 5D and use the 20D mostly as a secondary body. I've also purchased a Canon PowerShot SD800 IS to do most of my photography that doesn't involve a DSLR.

Designwise, the 24-70 is the mechanical inverse of the 24-105. While both feature a telescoping design, on the 24-70, the widest angle is when the tube is fully extended, and on the 24-105, the widest angle is when the tube is fully retracted. The location of the lens hood is different also, where the 24-105 is attached to the telescoping front element, and the 24-70 lens hood is attached at a stationary mount point unattached to the front element.

The 24-105 acts as a great introduction to Canon's professional L series of lenses. It is a general purpose lens, and it covers the range of 24mm to 105mm. It includes image stabilization, which helps in situations where you want to avoid camera shake and use a slower shutter speed. My one problem with this lens is that at f/4, this lens isn't fast. The image stabilization is especially useful at focal ranges upwards of 70mm.

When I first attached the 24-70 to my 5D and looked through the viewfinder, my first reaction was "Shouldn't this thing go further?" The 24-105 has spoiled me in this respect, giving me an additional 35mm of zoom. While it doesn't seem like a lot, it is an additional 43% of range over the 24-70.

Both the 24-105 and the 24-70 have always been close in terms of price, with a $100 price difference between the two. The 24-70 f/2.8L has a larger aperture, while the 24-105 f/4L features image stabilization and 35mm more range.

I tested these two lenses against each other in a series of tests, pitting aperture size against image stabilization, as well as seeing if there was any visible difference between the two lenses at an aperture size of f/4.

In photography, the general guideline is that one should try and shoot at a shutter speed no greater than the inverse of the focal length of the lens. This means that using a 50mm lens, the shutter speed to use is no more than 1/50, because at speeds slower than that, one can introduce camera shake to the photograph. Image stabilization on the 24-105 helps this by attempting to remove camera shake by using a lens which corrects for this -- effectively adding 3 stops to the camera, meaning that at 105mm, one could effectively handhold a shot up to a shutter speed of 1/15. Shooting at such a low shutter speed introduces the problem of motion blur, which image stabilization cannot correct for.

In my tests, I was shooting in a natural light lit room, at ISO 400 and f/4 aperture size. The difference between the two lenses are negligible at f/4. The photos below feature one being taken with 24-70, and the other being taken by the 24-105 at a 24mm:

The picture that features the slightly wider perspective is the 24-105. Because both pictures were shot from the same spot, and because the 24-70 is slightly longer than the 24-105, the difference due to the difference in length from the two lenses.

My small subcompact Canon PowerShot SD800 IS features a focal length of 28-105mm, so I shot the following picture:

At web resolutions, the shot looks brighter than the other two shots, and just as crisp and focused, but while the DSLR shots were taken at ISO 400 with a aperture size of f/4 and a shutter speed of 1/640, the SD800 took the shot at at ISO 400 with an aperture of f/2.8 and a shutter speed of 1/60. A closer look at the file reveals the SD800 contains much more noise than either of the DSLR shots.

In the end, the question of which lens to buy comes down to the user and their purpose. For someone who wants a lens that they can use all day long, the 24-105 f/4L is a well-rounded versatile lens. It has its shortcomings in low light conditions, but the extra length and the image stabilization at the longer end make up for that. I have gone on trips where the the 24-105 was my main lens.

The 24-70, while heavier and featuring a shorter range, also features a much larger aperture, making it a faster lens. On a 1.6x crop factor camera, the 24-70 is a good length, but on a full-frame camera like the 5D, it feels rather short. This is likely why Canon chose to bundle the Canon EF 24-105 f/4L USM lens with the EOS 5D Both are really good lenses, and after this series of tests, I can really no longer recommend one over the other, as they are both good for different reasons.

Last year, when I went to Japan, we visited Roppongi and saw this giant sculpture of a spider.

Since War of the Worlds had been released the previous year, I overheard people who believed that perhaps this was a movie tie-in. I knew this probably wasn't the case as Martian war machines have three legs, but I took photographs of the sculpture, and then forgot about it, until I recently saw this photo taken in London:

Thirty-five foot tall spiders made out of bronze aren't something you see everyday, but this time I had more information. The work is called "Maman", and the original one made out of stainless steel is located at the Tate museum at London. The sculptor is Louise Bourgeois, and there are six bronze full-size castings of her work located at:

• National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
  
• State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
  
• Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
  
• Mori Art Museum, Roppongi, Tokyo
  
• Samsung Museum of Modern Art, Seoul
  
• Havana, Cuba
  

Now, the last time I was in San Francisco, we drove by the Embarcadero, and I noticed a smaller spider done in the same style. The one in San Francisco is not "Maman", but the smaller "Crouching Spider" done by the same artist.

Way back in June, John Scalzi posts about how the creation museum opened up down the street from from him, and how he refuses to visit. This of course, incited one particular reader of his blog who said that

"Scalzi should not be allowed to get off so easily. The Whatever Community needs to rise up and DEMAND he pay a visit to this important cultural center ASAP. In fact, we need to give him an irresistible reason to go. Here's my idea: not only will I pay the price of the Scalzi family tickets to the Creation museum, I will donate an amount matching the price of those tickets to the charity of John's choice... but only AFTER he files a comprehensive report about his visit on the Whatever.



Are there any other Whatever readers willing to make a modest donation to a Scalzish charity to compel a Creation Museum visit? C'mon, let's pass the digital hat. Who's in????!?!?!"

which followed in a counter by Scalzi, who put his going price by raising $250 by the end of the week to force a visit.

I will go to the Creation Museum and file a full, detailed and delightfully snarklicious report of the trip IF AND ONLY IF I receive at least $250 in donations via PayPal by 11:59pm NEXT FRIDAY, June 15, 2007. ALL the proceeds (minus PayPal's processing bite) will then be donated to Americans United for Separation of Church and State, an organization which for sixty years has striven to keep the chunky peanut butter of religion out of the dusky chocolate of good government.

Not only did the donations hit the $250 mark, it raised 256 times that amount, $5,118.36 to be exact. True to his word,
Scalzi then wrote a full report of his tour, complete with commentary and photographs , including gems like this one about dinosaurs being in the museum:

Are dinosaurs 65 million years old? As if -" the Earth is just six thousand years old, pal! Dinosaurs were in the garden of Eden -" and vegetarians, at least until the fall, so thanks there, Adam. They were still around as late as the mid-third millenium BC; they were hanging with the Sumerians and the Egyptians (or, well, could have). All those fossils? Laid down by the Noah-s Flood, my friends. Which is not to say there weren-t dinosaurs on the Ark. No, the Bible says all kinds of land animals were on the boat, and dinosaurs are a subset of "all kinds." They were there, scaring the crap out of the mammals, probably. Why did they die off after the flood? Well, who can say. Once the flood-s done, the Creation Museum doesn-t seem to care too much about what comes next; we-re in historical times then, you see, and that-s all Exodus through Deuteronomy, ie., someone else-s problem.


But seriously, the ability to just come out and put on a placard that the Jurassic era is temporally contiguous with the Fifth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom of Egypt -" well, there-s a word for that, and that word is chutzpah. Because, look, that-s something you really have to sell if you want anyone to buy it. It-s one thing to say to people that God directly created the dinosaurs and that they lived in the Garden of Eden. It-s another thing to suggest they lived long enough to harass the Minoans, and do it with a straight face.

A year ago, kwc and I wandered around Omotesando Hills looking for Tadao Ando's Collezione. It's far past the glamour and lights of the area, and were it not for kwc's insistence that the Collezione was in the area, we might have turned back without finding it.

We walked past Omotesando Hills, passing by the more glitzy architecture such as Comme de Garcons (Future Systems) and the Prada Aoyama Epicenter (Herzog & de Meuron) before finding the Collezione on the same street. Upon arriving at the Collezione, I recognized Ando's use of concrete and curves to create a somewhat solitary experience. Though it was often that kwc was just a few feet away from me, the circular corridors could obscure him from my view completely.

Built in 1989, Collezione uses one of Ando's favorite primary materials: concrete. There is none of the natural elements that is typically associated with Ando's work in this building. Having Collezione and Omotesando Hills so close to each other also gave me insight on how 15 years of change had influence on Ando and the area. Omotesando Hills was built in 2005, replacing an apartment complex, and uses water, light and stone to create a much more naturally accented area. In the Collezione, the lighting is recessed, and while some areas are open, some corridors give the feel of a modern man-made concrete tunnel. Where Omotesando Hills feels very open, Collezione feels very confined and closed.

We shot at night, which only seemed to add to the isolation of the building; retail shops while lit, were closed, and the employees of the offices of the upper floors had long left the building.

Flickr Photoset: Collezione

Early this morning, there was a lunar eclipse. I awoke, went outside and took pictures.

Things that I learned from this little adventure. I need a better tripod and a nice high-powered telescope that I can slap my DSLR onto the next time I try this. A remote timer is likely going to be next on my list, as self-timer + mirror lockup is only a 2 second delay, which isn't nearly enough time to stop the vibration on the tripod.

Flickr: Lunar Eclipse

A year and a half ago, Nikon said "In making a full frame sensor camera, nothing can be considered as an obstacle. In the first place, the current situation is that the picture quality of the DX camera can already sufficiently produce a satisfying photograph. So, what's the meaning of such a big sensor? Of course, there is also a price problem. We cannot put out an outrageously priced camera simply because we want to have better function on the camera."

Of course, that's just what they've done. Nikon has just announced their 12.1 megapixel D3 fullframe camera. Capable of shooting from ISO 200 to 6400 at 9 frames per second with autofocus tracking (and 11 without). It has an amazing 51-point AF sensor, along with Live View on a massive 3 inch screen. At $5,000, it's a bit pricy, but probably worth every cent if you need the frames. The Nikon D3 is 3 times as fast as the Canon EOS 5D for twice the price, and as fast as the recently released Canon EOS 1D Mark III with the advantage of full frame and 2 more megapixels of resolution for about the same price. Nikon seems to have done a fabulous job positioning the D3 in the perfect niche.

I find it interesting that after all these years of scaling back their efforts on full-frame lenses focusing on DX-format lenses, they've decided to re-enter full-frame with a professional level SLR (I guess they got tired of losing all their pros to Canon) that is priced in between Canon's pro-level EOS-1-series and their amateur EOS 5D. Make no mistake, this is a pro camera that's built for speed, and should find its way into the hands of paparazzi and photographers who feel the need the speed this November.

This weekend, I was contacted by one of the Wikipedia admins for permission to use some of my Lemony Snicket photographs for their entries on Daniel Handler and Lemony Snicket. Being a huge supporter and user of Wikipedia, I was glad to assist, even as it meant changing the licenses on the photos from my standard of Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution-Non Commercial to Creative Commons 2.0 Atrribution Share-Alike.

A more detailed look at Creative Commons Licenses (with examples) is here.

One of the questions that comes up is that now that the photos used in Wikipedia have been released as "Share Alike" without the No-Derivative Works or Non-Commercial stipulations, couldn't someone actually make money off my photographs? Yes, however, it's higly unlikely, and any derivative works created using my original work would have to be licensed under the same Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license.

For more regarding why Non-commerical images aren't used on Wikipedia.

One of the camera lens purchases I've been holding back on was the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM. With Canon's new instant rebates, I felt the time was right to purchase it. Weighing in at 3.25 lbs, it's more than twice as heavy as my daytime walking lens, the Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L USM IS, which weighs only 1.5 pounds. The camera body weighs about 2 pounds with the batterry loaded, so it's a bit over 5 pounds, with the center of gravity somewhere in the middle of the lens, so two hands are definitely required to keep it stable. It includes an image stabilizer, which then becomes invaluable if your hand strength isn't enough to keep the camera steady. Now all I need is to get the Canon 1.4x II Extender and I'd be set.

It definitely feels like a lens that I need to get used to lugging around and practice taking shots with. Convention season starts for me this weekend with Fanimecon (May 25 - 28), followed by Anime Expo (June 29 - July 2) before finally culminating in the big one -- San Diego Comic-Con (July 25 - July 29).

There are several other conventions in the Bay Area such as Baycon, which is more for Science Fiction authors and runs the same weekend as Fanimecon, Super-Con, which takes place the weekend afterwards, and is more centered on Comic Books, and Con X-Treme, which feels like a sci-fi convention for those who couldn't make it down to San Diego for the comic con.