Top Right Quadrant

Posted at 19:20 on Monday, 08 February 2010 — with 72 comments.

PHOTOGRAPHY Canon released word of the latest addition to their EOS line of DSLR bodies today.

The 550D, known as the T2i in the US, was unveiled by Canon today and I must say, it’s pretty attractive. It fits in somewhere between the 450D and the 50D, replacing the still fairly new 500D, bringing with it a higher resolution, some awesome new video features — including full 30fps 1080p or 60fps 720p capture — and an expanded 100-6400 (up from 3200) standard ISO range.

I won’t lie; it does trigger some photo lust. Apparently hitting the market in April with the standard 18-55 f/3.5 to f/5.6 IS lens for $900, or $800 body-only — which makes it an appealing 2^nd body for anyone currently shooting with one of Canon’s entry-level DSLRs that really wants some heavy duty video capabilities.

For those who consider video capture an afterthought, however, the 1.6x crop APS-C sensor is likely a blocker for upgrading. The sensor is allegedly the same as in the renowned 7D, so will likely perform very well at hiked-up ISO levels, but personally I can’t see myself upgrading to a body that doesn’t boast a full frame. That doesn’t detract from the allure of this camera, though. It also sports an auto-ISO function, allowing you to specify a maximum light sensitivity value to minimise noise in your images, making the 550D – as far as I know (correct me if I’m wrong) – the only in it’s class to support it.

I won’t be upgrading, but the Canon 550D fills the role of “poor man’s 7D” pretty well. Keep an eye open for it in April. In closing, a more detailed list of specifications:

• 18 Megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor
• DIGIC 4 processor with ISO 100-6400 (Expansion to 12800)
• Continuous shooting at 3.7fps
• Full HD movie recording with manual control and selectable frame rates
• 7.7cm (3.0”) 3:2 Clear View LCD with 1,040k dots
• iFCL metering System with 63-zone Dual-layer Metering Sensor
• Quick Control screen to change shooting settings
• Exposure compensation +/-5 stops.
• Select maximum value for Auto ISO
• External Microphone socket
• Movie crop function
• Eye-Fi connected functions compatibility

Posted at 13:09 on Monday, 01 February 2010

PHOTOGRAPHY I’m very proud of this week’s photo (although you can see the shot I put together for last week’s blow, also), because I went out on this shoot with the goal of learning about, and experimenting with, light — which is, unsurprisingly, what I like most about this image. I uploaded some more from the same set here.

Posted at 18:08 on Saturday, 09 January 2010

PHOTOGRAPHY A double bill of photography project shots today as I totally missed the one last week!

As for today’s, though, my lovely model and I went out and braved the blistering cold (yes, blistering) for a walk around the lake with my brand new, albeit budget tripod and a borrowed 85mm f/1.8 lens. The light wasn’t fantastic but the scenes were lovely — and I started to realise why 85mm is the preferred portraiture focal length.

The one below is from the week before; kind of similar to this one, but I’m not very happy with it because I completely misjudged the shutter speed. I was rather proud of my composition though.

I’m learning :).

Posted at 23:40 on Monday, 28 December 2009 — with 1 comment.

PHOTOGRAPHY Guess what: You’ll actually have something to read on here regularly on here if y’all be crazy enough to subscribe.

Gone are the days of absurd New Year’s resolutions pertaining to health, fitness and not eating chocolate. 2009 was a year that yielded many new hobbies for me: one of them is photography. I’ve always loved consuming the photographic work of my friends, but this year I decided to get into doing it myself. Apparently newbies and seasoned photographers alike tend to do what is known as a “project 365” — or some other equally silly variation on that title. It’s no coincidence that one of your earth years contains 365 days; these maniacs will actually make it a task to take and upload a photo every single day for a year in order to hone their skills.

The idea of an ongoing photography project did appeal to me, but I actually have things to do most days. For that reason, I hereby announce the commencement of Edd’s “Project 52”.

One photo a week, starting today. I’ll be uploading them to my Flickr page along with any commentary which will also be mirrored here. I will try to vary it each week, of course. Variation will likely be enforced for the first month or two anyway because I plan to rent and try out a smorgasbord of different lenses after the new year anyway — to find my vibe, so to speak.

My first entry has already been uploaded and is available on Flickr and attached to the bottom of this post.

Basically: fuck dieting.

Oh, and as an aside: feel free to add me to your Xbox Live Friends. My gamertag is “eddmizzle”.