Sony Steps up

Sony just announced at the NAB show in Las Vegas that they will debut their 35mm Alpha mount Camcorder next year. It doesn't have a name yet, but you can see the prototype above. Like I mentioned in the posting about the new Panasonic Micro 4/3s camcorder, this is the camera I thought Canon would bring out. Full-frame 35mm sensor that uses Sony's Alpha lenses. This will be the next generation in digital film making.

Oh, Canon! You're now officially third place in this horse race, unless you can manage to pull a rabbit out of your hat and make a Hail, Mary pass to win the game, to thoroughly mix my metaphors.

Canon 5D mark II Hits Primetime!

Greg Yaitanes, director of the season finale episode of House, M.D., has announced that the entire episode was "filmed" with a Canon 5D mark II camera with the EF 24-70mm L and 70-200mm F2.8 L lenses. This will be the first time a digital HD SLR has been used like this for TV. The things that attracted Yaitanes to the Canon camera was the shallow depth of field and the richness of the images. The episode airs on May 17th.

New Panasonic Video Camera

A couple of months ago, I had this thought. Last year, I picked up a new Canon 5D mark II and have used it for one video project. It worked really well, for what it is, and I was more than happy with the image quality. But being an SLR, it isn't really suited to hand-holding and shooting video. It's too hard to hold steady. Given the popularity of this camera with indie filmakers, I had this insight: Canon will make a dedicated video camera with a full-frame or APS-sized sensor that uses Canon's own EF lenses from their EOS line of D-SLR cameras. Well, I got it somewhat right.

Panasonic has announced that they will debut the AG-AF100 by the end of the year. It uses their 16:9 Micro Four/Thirds sensor that is used in their GF-1 still camera and will use that camera's interchangeable lenses. This will be a full 1080p HD camcorder with 24 fps and a host of other features. The above picture is obviously an illustration, but that is the general configuration for the new camera. This is good news and I'm sure indie filmakers will line up to buy this one. In fact, it's everything I imagined Canon would do, but I forgot about Panasonic. Kudoes to them. Canon, get cracking before Sony beats you to it and you're left to come in third place in this race.

It's That Time of Year Again!

Hey, it's time for Solo Photo Book Month (SoFoBoMo), or at least it will be before you know it. This year it will happen during the months of June and July. You need to shoot, edit, and "publish" a book of your images on any subject of your choice. All you need to do is start at any time in June or the beginning of July and then you have 31 consecutive days to finish it and post it to the SoFoBoMo website. There are no prizes, but you will have a very nice portfolio of your images ready to send out or link to. I did it last year and have pledged to do it again this year. This is a really good idea. Why don't you all consider joining me in this?

Go to SoFoBoMo to learn all about it and register.

The Shape of Things to Come

PMA is going on right now and some products have been announced. Nothing earth-shattering, but Sony is showing a non-functioning prototype of a compact, non-SLR, interchangeable lens camera in the vein of Panasonic's GF1. More interesting to me is the CompactFlash Association, who knew there was one, has announced that the newest Compact Flash Cards will have the astounding capacity of 144 petabytes. For those like me who never heard of such a thing, a petabyte is a thousand terabytes, which is a thousand gigabytes, which is a thousand megabytes, etc. To go along with this, DALSA, which makes imaging sensors for high-end medium format digital backs and other more scientifically intended equipment, has debuted a 196-megapixel imaging sensor. For now, this will only be used in aerial photography cameras, but still, you know that sooner or later those sensors will show up in medium format backs and that will push Canon, Nikon, and Sony to even higher levels of performance which will mean bigger and bigger hard drives and faster and faster processors for our computing needs. Fasten your seat belts, the ride is going to get bumpy.

Interesting Reading on Photographic Composition

George Barr has written a concise and easy-to-digest article on photographic composition for Michael Reichmann's website The Luminous Landscape. Barr breaks down the entire idea of what goes into the making of a great picture and explains everything in words and pictures. He has identified several common elements and themes that can be found in successful photographs. Some of his ideas are obvious, though they are worth repeating, while others are head-slappingly, simply brilliant. Highly recommended reading. And while you're there, check out Michael's site. It's one of the best. Go here to read the article.

World's Oldest Camera to be Auctioned!

One of the world’s oldest photographic cameras will be auctioned off in Vienna, Austria, this coming May. The camera is a Giroux Daguerreotype and was made in Paris around 1839, which is when Louis Daguerre published his photographic technique known as the Daguerreotype. The camera was made by Alphones Giroux, Daguerre’s brother-in-law from plans drawn up by Daguerre. Considering its age, 170 years old, the camera is in beautiful shape and in its original condition. It’s a pretty look at the beginnings of photography. The camera is expected to bring somewhere around $750,000.