Mar, Apr 2006: Canon EOS News and What's New at The-Digital-Picture.com

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

ISO 12233 Chart Sample Crops have been added to the ...

Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM Lens Review
Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM Lens Review

Vignetting test results have been added to the ...

Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM Lens Review
Sigma 120-300mm F/2.8 EX DG HSM Lens Review

Canon Fall/Winter 2006 rebate checks are coming in. If you did not receive your check - or the amount received was incorrect, check your rebate status at www.web-rebates.com/canon. If you are not satisfied with the status of your rebate, call the Canon Rebate Center at 1.877.862.6870. If the person you talk to does not completely satisfy your problem, ask to speak to a manager. The rebate submission information is scanned and available to these people, and it is possible to reach a person with the authority to make everything right.

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

My 1DsII body is back. What I learned is that focus adjustments on this body cost $180 + sales tax + shipping ($206 total). Time to file an extended warranty claim with my credit card company. I hope to have the Canon EF 85mm f/1.2 L USM Lens Review significantly completed next week.

Vignetting test results have been added to the following ...

Canon EF 85mm f/1.2 L USM Lens Review
Canon EF 500mm f/4.0 L IS USM Lens Review
Canon EF 28-105mm f/4-5.6 USM Lens Review

I finally decided to endure the pain of migrating to a new laptop - something I do at least once a year. By that time, the system needs reloaded anyway, so ... I am up and running 95% on a new Dell Latitude D620 2.16 GHz Centrino Duo (2 GB RAM, 100 GB 7200 RPM HD ...). The performance increase from my Dell Latitude D600 Pentium M 2.0 GHz is very nice - This upgrade will net me lots of time savings for sure.

Monday, April 17, 2006

Introducing a new section I've been working on (don't miss the mouse-over comparisons) ...

ISO 12233 Lens Test Chart 100% Crop Comparison Tool

Be sure to read the ISO 12233 help page to understand what I am presenting.

The entire process of acquiring/QC-testing lenses and getting the test results online has been taking much longer than I anticipated (and has significantly delayed the reviews I have planned). The database is currently populated primarily with Canon's wider fixed focal length lenses, but I currently own (and plan to include results from) all of Canon's current AF lenses and all listed (and a couple of yet-unlisted) Sigma and Tamron lenses with the Sigma 150 and Tamron 90 being the only two exceptions. Additional not-listed lenses will be included in the distant future.

Please let me know what you like, don't like or would like to see added to the crop comparison tool - I take your requests seriously.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Plans change. Upon receiving the new on Thursday, I planned to spend much of the weekend using it including at a couple of events I was shooting. Unfortunately, my 1DsII developed a backfocusing problem (focuses slightly behind the subject) - costing me many hours of troubleshooting time.

Both the 1DsII and the 85 II are on their way to the Canon Factory Service Center for adjustment. I already miss the 1DsII. The 85 II definitely focuses faster than its predecessor, but I need more time with it on an accurately-focusing 1DsII body to adequately critique it.

In the meantime, I have been spending a lot of time with the Canon EOS 30D. It is proving to be an excellent camera - I'm very pleased. I have been incrementally updating the review as I gain experience with it.

Well, it did not happen as scheduled over the weekend, but the site is now running on a new (and 4x more expensive) server. Hopefully you will be able to experience the site with faster response times. Your support of the site makes this possible.

Friday, April 7, 2006

To answer many of the questions I get, I have added a page in the Photography Tips section discussing Exposure Basics.

To accommodate the increasing bandwidth requirements of the site and the expected bandwidth requirement for a soon-to-arrive new site section, The-Digital-Picture.com is moving to a new server this weekend. The transition may result in a short period of down time. Please let me know if you are not able to reach to site or some of its features for a period of time longer than 1 hour.

Did you know that you can upgrade your copy of Photoshop Elements to Photoshop CS2 for $299? PS Elements came with many Canon cameras including the 20D.

Wednesday, April 5, 2006

New at the Canon Digital Learning Center, Shooter's Insight: EOS 30D with Vincent Laforet On Location in the Paniolos of Hawaii.

Saturday, April 1, 2006

The Canon Spring/Summer 2006 Rebates start today. Some of the excellent deals are ...

$300 rebate on the Canon EOS 5D Digital SLR
$100 rebate on the Canon EOS Rebel XT Digital SLR
$50 rebate on the Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM Lens

Thursday, March 30, 2006

B&H is now accepting orders for the Canon EF 85mm f/1.2 II USM Lens.

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Canon has posted new firmware versions ...

Canon EOS 1D Mark II N v1.0.4
Canon EOS 5D v1.0.5
Canon EOS 30D v1.0.4

The Canon EOS 1D Mark II N firmware update includes 2 improvements. It "Fixes the phenomenon where the images are monochrome" and "Fixes the phenomenon where the images are overexposed when using Focusing Screen Ec-S."

The Canon EOS 5D firmware update also includes 2 improvements. It "Fixes the phenomenon where the images are monochrome" and "Fixes the phenomenon where the shutter cannot be released when using the EOS 5D + EF85mm F1.2L + Speedlite580EX. (*)"

"(*) For EOS 5D units that contain 1 in the fifth digit of the body number (e.g., XXXX1XXXXX), the correction will not be reflected even if the firmware is updated to Version 1.0.5. If you have an affected product that you would like to have fixed, please contact the nearest Canon Service Center."

While it is surprising to see a new Canon EOS 30D firmware version already, the fix, though important to some, is not related to camera performance. "Problems displaying Simplified Chinese or Traditional Chinese on the LCD monitor" are fixed in this version.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

B&H is now accepting orders for the Canon EOS 30D Body.

The new 30Ds are starting to ship from many retailers.

Saturday, March 26, 2006

B&H is now accepting orders for the Canon EOS 30D with kit lens.

Thursday, March 23, 2006

As many of you noticed, many areas of the site had problems intermittently over the last two days or so. First, I want to thank those of you who notified me of the problems via email. I can't monitor all areas of the site continuously and greatly appreciate being alerted to any problems.

The problem? The web host upgraded the database server. I was notified of a pending upgrade, but this site's server was not included. To be sure, I contacted support - and was assured that "The upgrade is only for your email account. It will not affect anything within your website or database." Well, guess what?

Everything *should* be running smoothly again.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Vignetting results have been added to the ...

Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Lens Review
Sigma 12-24mm F/4.5-5.6 EX DG HSM Lens Review
Sigma 15-30mm F/3.5-4.5 EX DG Lens Review

I am not totally satisfied with my vignetting sample image capture from these ultra-wide lenses having convex object lenses. I may try to get better samples, but these results should be enlightening as they are.

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Canon has posted updater versions of Digital Photo Professional v2.1, EOS Utility v1.0, CameraWindow DSLR v5.3R2 (Windows), ZoomBrowser EX v5.6.0 (Windows) and ImageBrowser v5.6.1a (Mac). Select the "Drivers / Software" link, then select the updater you want to download.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Sample pictures have been uploaded for the ...

Canon TS-E 90mm f/2.8 Tilt-Shift Lens

Monday, March 13, 2006

Vignetting results have been added to the ...

Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Lens Review
Canon EF 50mm f/2.5 Macro Lens Review

Friday, March 10, 2006

The Canon EOS 30D Manual (6 MB .PDF) is now available for download.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006

If you have not ordered your Canon EOS 30D yet, here is your chance to get on the top of a list - J&R just started taking orders ...

Canon EOS 30D (with kit lens)
Canon EOS 30D (body only)

Monday, March 6, 2006

Adorama is taking orders for the new Canon lenses ...

Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Lens
Canon EF 85mm f/1.2 II USM Lens

Vignetting results have been added to the ...

Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM Lens Review
Canon EF 35mm f/2 Lens Review
Canon EF 200mm f/2.8 L USM Lens Review
Canon EF 400mm f/5.6 L USM Lens Review
Canon EF 400mm f/4 DO IS USM Lens Review

Thursday, March 2, 2006

Canon's rebate center must be one of the worst places to work - because I'm sure they get a lot of very unhappy people calling them. If you have not done so already, check your Winter 2006 rebate status - odds are that you will then need to call the Canon Rebate Center to get it straightened out. Details to do this along with my latest rebate story can be found on the Canon Lens Rebate Page.

Wednesday, March 1, 2006

Amazon is offering 5% off some cameras and lenses with the coupon code "ELECDEAL". In addition, some of these items are on sale. Big ticket items can have big savings. Some examples include ...

Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II for $6,650
Canon EF 600mm f/4 L IS USM Lens for $5,887
Canon EF 400mm f/4 DO IS USM Lens for $5,025

Go to the review for the camera, lens or accessory you are interested in, click on the Amazon link, put the item in your cart and enter ELECDEAL in the coupon box during checkout to see your final price.