Occasionally, I do product photography for a group on Ebay. I received a camera strap this past week from Dawn of Ella Monde. She did a fabulous job with it! I love the fabrics! You can contact her through her website if you’re interested in purchasing one from her.
With the purchase of my ultra cool Wacom Intuos 3 6×8 Tablet, I received 3 free subscriptions to Photoshop User magazine. I was quite thrilled about this little perk but didn’t realize it was an online subscription rather than a real magazine. This … I’m not so crazy about. I hate reading things online because I spend all day on the computer already. But hey, it’s free so what can I say.
First, I LOVE LOVE LOVE my Wacom tablet. My sister introduced me to them because they are indispensable to a graphic designer. Secondly, a photog friend of mine had just bought one and was raving about it with the type of work we do too. I must admit – the pen is such a blessing when it comes to editing photos. I can’t even use a mouse anymore to do some of the edits because the pen is THAT much easier. Plus, I have customized the buttons for shortcuts that makes editing faster too. Love it! Plus I got the 6″x8″ refurbished (with full warranty) for basically what the 4″x6″ one cost. Score! I got mine through email specials with Adorama but Digital Graphics Resource is another excellent place to look for these on sale.
As for the magazine, the digital subscription is through Zinio. They have free samples of other magazines that you can download to your computer too. You just download their interface software and the issues you’ve received/purchased. You have the option to print as well. Pretty cool!
As if announcing that the 50D will be available in October, Canon has now announced that the 5D will have a big brother … the 5D Mark II. This is an AWESOME camera! I’ve had my eye on the 5D as a “wish list” item, but this camera rocks. I found the info on MCP Action’s blog with the press release from Canon that it will be available at the end of November. And don’t worry, it’s less than the cost of a used car ($2699)…
You can go to Jodi’s post to read the press release, but here’s the basics (which is anything but basic).
Key Specifications:
Canon 5D Mark II 
Canon’s newest entry into the fall season Olympics is the EOS 50D, which sports an impressive 15.1-megapixel APS-C format CMOS sensor that takes full advantage of Canon’s new DIGIC 4 image processor.
The EOS 50D can knock out up to 90 Large/Fine JPEGS or 16 RAW images at burst-rates of up to 6.3 f/p/s. If you often find yourself shooting under low-light conditions, the new camera can be set for ISO ratings up to 12800, which means you can not only photograph people standing in near darkness, you can also photograph what they’re thinking about. (Just joking folks… don’t get alarmed)
To keep noise under control and maintain optimum image quality at higher ISO ratings the EOS 50D allows you to choose from four levels of noise reduction – Standard, Weak, Strong, and None. The camera’s DIGIC 4 image processor also features in-camera peripheral illumination correction, which can automatically smooth-over uneven blue skies and other large areas within an image that can benefit from smoother tonality. This feature, along with other image enhancing tools such as Auto Lighting Optimizer can also be performed post-exposure using Canon’s Digital Photo Professional (DDP) software, which is included with every camera.
Image viewing has also been improved via a greatly enhanced 3″ LCD that employs 920,000 pixels for breathtaking clarity. Canon also tweaked the Live View function by incorporating a ‘Quick Mode AF’, ‘Live Mode AF’, and ‘Face Detection Live Mode AF’ that can detect up to 35 individual faces within the camera’s frame.
Other features of the Canon EOS 50D include an Integrated Cleaning System for preventing dust and other forms of airborne schmutz from gathering on the sensor’s low-pass filter and a choice of two smaller RAW formats (sRAW1 and sRAW2) in addition to the 50D’s standard RAW mode.
The Canon EOS 50D will be available in October as a body only, or in kit form with a Canon EF 28-135/3.5~5.6 IS USM zoom lens, which covers the field of view of a 44.8-216mm lens on a full-frame 35mm camera.
P.S. I just saw on MCP actions blog that Canon just announced their rebates for some of their fabulous camera bodies and lenses. And guess what, my dream lens is included! The 70mm-200mm/f2.8 has a $125 rebate (that just tells you how EXPENSIVE it actually is).
