Good Afternoon Everybody,
Here is the news - How good are prints from Canon's 5D Mark II video grabs?; Laforet's video "Reverie" takes down Canon's servers!

Man, Oh man, has it been an incredibly busy day! I've been non stop till just a few minutes ago. I'm just now hitting the computer for today's post, but a provocative post it will be, I hope.

So the BIG news over these past 3 weeks has been Canon's announcement of the Canon 5D Mark II. Of particular note has been the new Hi-def 1920x1080 video capture capabilities of the camera. Vincent Laforet even put together a unbelievable video entitled, "Reverie" that got 1.5 million view in 10 days. In fact the "Reverie" video was so wildly popular, it brought down the Canon servers and they unfortunately needed to pull the presentation. Vincent said it should be back on as soon as mid-next week.
You still want to know how hot the camera is? Well, Amazon just posted that they or out-of-stock on their pre-orders. How you get out-of-stock on a pre-order - beats me, but it looks like everybody wants one of these puppy's. Here is that story over at 1001 Noisy Cameras right here.

The camera has definitely raised a...

The University of Michigan's Museum of Art has been operating an off-site gallery (1301 South University, Ann Arbor ) dedicated to photography while the construction of the UMMA addition has closed down the museum. For photography lovers, that has been a wonderful opportunity to see photography-only exhibits that have, for the most part, been well-executed.

The latest exhibit, "The Infinite Landscape: Master Photographers from the UMMA Collection" runs until January 4, 2009, but I would see it as soon as possible, and as many times as possible. Landscape photography is a broad genre, and this exhibit definitely showcases some of its ardent practitioners - Ansel Adams, Paul Caponigro, Brett Weston, William Henry Jackson, Eliot Porter, and Michael Kenna, to name just a few. If one is an Ansel Adams fan, you'll be pleased with the 6 images of his that are shown (the Aspens is my favorite). However, landscape photography IS infinite. Whether one photographs an intimate view of a pond (Nenuphars by Atget) or the enormity of the larger Yosemite Valley (Adams, William Henry Jackson, Carleton Watkins), the "landscape" can be almost anything. I was pleased to see a Calotype from William Henry Fox Talbot - Loch Katrine, as well as an Orotone print from Edward S. Curtis of Canyon de Chelley (an Orotone is a print made on glass with gold pigment...

Written by T. Michael Testi

While taking pictures is easy, especially in this digital world, mastering the art of photography is not always clear and straightforward. There are a lot of variables to factor in and one of them is Depth of Field (DOF). The first barrier that usually makes people's eyes glaze over is that it is a mathematical calculation. It combines a number of different factors including the distance of the camera to the object being photographed, the focal length of the lens, as well as the aperture that is being used.

The ExpoAperture2: Depth Of Field Guide was developed to make this process much easier and much more accessible to the average user. While there are several versions, the one that I am reviewing is the combo pack which contains two ExpoAperture disks. The first covers standard focal lengths (15-135mm), and the second is for telephoto lens lengths (70-600mm).

ExpoAperture is a tool that will allow you to take control over depth of field and let you apply selective focus within your images. This guide will show you the relationship between focal length, focal distance, aperture, and the resulting depth of field and let you make the calculations you need quickly and easily.

Just what is an ExpoAperture disk? It was invented by George A. Wallace as a companion product to the ExpoDisk. Essentially,

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Nikon has now officially revealed the compact, professional, twelve megapixel, full-frame (FX format) Nikon D700. From the outside the D700 is virtually identical to the D300, albeit for its larger 'full frame' viewfinder, internally it's almost identical to the D3, except for a slightly slower shutter (five frames per second up to eight frames per second with the MB-D10 battery grip). DPreview have just posted their review of the new D700 DSLR here. "In conclusion the Nikon D700 is...

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Canon recently launched the much anticipated EOS 50D, an upgrade to the 40D. On the surface it looks very similar to its predecessor, however there are quite a few significant improvements. Fifteen megapixel CMOS sensor, faster DIGIC 4 processor, 3.0" VGA LCD monitor with Live View mode offering 3 AF modes, ISO sensitivity expandable to 12800 and an HDMI connection for high Quality Image viewing are a few of the expanded features. Outback Photo just posted their diary style review of the...

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Written by T. Michael Testi

There are a lot of things that Photoshop CS3 Extended can do that Photoshop has never been able to do before. These include importing and editing of video and animating any object in a file. Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended For 3D And Video is the first book to provide a detailed look at these new features. This book is geared for both those who want to learn about video and 3D in Photoshop as well as those video producers and 3D artists who want to incorporate Photoshop into their workflow.

The goal of CS3 Extended For 3D is to get you started down the road in using Photoshop for 3D and video. Even if your workflow is print based and you think that there is nothing in this book for you, or you feel intimidated by professional grade 3D and video software packages, this book is aimed at you.

One thing to keep in mind is that because of the specific nature of this book, it does not go over how to use Photoshop. It is assumed that you are comfortable with using Photoshop and know the most basic concepts such as the interface, pallets, tools, how to work with layers and other fundamental topics. CS3 Extended For 3D is 318 pages long divided into ten chapters.

Chapter 1, "Photoshop's New 3D Abilities: The Basics," starts off by looking at Photoshop's new extended capabilities with regard to video and 3D.

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