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Date: January 31, 2009
Subject: EOS magazine newsletter: 31 January 2009
EOS magazine newsletter 31 January 2009
Currently sent to 21039 subscribers You are receiving this newsletter because you have actively subscribed. If you would like to change your e-mail address, or cancel your subscription, please use the links at the bottom of this newsletter. Please do not reply to the mailing address as it is not monitored. Comments or feedback should be addressed to Robert Scott.
Hello First, a warm welcome to everyone receiving this newsletter for the first time. There has been a rapid rise in the number of subscribers over the last few months, with January 2009 being our best month so far for new subscribers. We hope that you - and all our regular readers - find something of interest in this issue.
If you are not yet a subscriber to EOS magazine, you'll find details here. EOS magazine is only available by subscription - you won't find it at your local newsagent.
EOS Forums and EOS Classifieds If you have tried visiting our EOS Forums and EOS Classified sites in the last 24 hours you will have found that they are not currently available. The company running the servers for the sites is closing down its web hosting business and we are in the process of transferring the domains to a new company. We hope to have everything up and running again very soon, but for the latest information we have set up a news page. The EOS magazine site is not affected - it is hosted by a different company.
Wireless Remote for EOS cameras Would you like an all-in-one cable release and wireless release for your EOS camera? And would you like it to come as standard with adaptors for E3 and N3 terminals (covering any EOS camera with a remote socket)? The Hahnel Wireless Pro Remote offers all these features, and more (a 4-second delay timer, for example, and multi-channel setting). The Canon wireless controllers work with infrared signals, which require line-of-sight between the transmitter and receiver. This has the advantage that it can be used anywhere in the world without a licence. The Hahnel model operates with a a radio signal. This does not need the receiver in view of the transmtter, and can even work through walls and windows. A radio frequency of 433MHz is used. This is a licence-free frequency in European countries - a licence might be needed in other parts of the world. The Hahnel Wireless Pro Remote is available from EOS magazine at £49.99. You can get more information here.
Golden anniversary 2009 is the 50th anniversary of the first Canon single-lens reflex (SLR) camera. The Canon Flex was launched in May 1959. Over 50 million Canon SLRs have been sold since then. We'll be covering the anniversary in the April-May 2009 issue of EOS magazine. If you are a Canon camera collector and have a Flex model, we'd like to hear from you. Please get in touch with Robert Scott.
Bye-bye black dot Canon has released a firmware update for the EOS 5D Mark II. This resolves the 'black dot phenomenon' (when shooting night scenes, the right side of point light sources become black). The fault only becomes visible if the image is enlarged to 100 percent or more on a computer monitor, or if very large prints are made. The firmware also resolves vertical banding noise - if the recording format is set to sRAW1, vertical banding noise may become visible depending on the camera settings, subject, and background. EOS 5D Mark II firmware update version 1.0.7 is available here.
Firmware update for EOS 40D Firmware update version 1.1.1 for the EOS 40D incorporates the following fixes and improvements.
1. Fixes a malfunction that can cause an erroneous low battery
indication to be displayed when using the EF 85mm F1.2L II USM lens. You can download the firmware here.
Presidential first A new official portrait for President Barak Obama was released on 14 January. Much was made of the fact that it is the first official portrait of an American President to be taken using a digital camera. But not just any digital camera. If you download a copy, save the image as a JPEG, open the file in Digital Photo Professional (or other imaging software) and go to 'info', you will see that photographer Pete Souza used an EOS 5D Mark II. The EXIF data will also tell you that the photograph was taken at 17:38:39 on 13 January with an exposure of 1/125 second at f10 and an ISO of 100. The colour space was Adobe RGB, rather than the sRGB colour space Canon recommends for normal shooting. That's because Adobe RGB is better suited to printing in newspapers and magazines. The data also shows that Pete Souza had forgotten to update his copyright information, which reads 2008. The EOS 5D Mark II allows you to set your name and copyright date (via the EOS Utility software supplied with the camera) so that it appears in the EXIF data of every image you shoot.
Slumdog millionaire Danny Boyle, director of the highly successful film 'Slumdog Millionaire', has said that parts of the movie were captured with Canon stills cameras shooting at 12 frames a second. The cameras were used to capture sequences of real crowds (not actors or extras). "If people see a stills camera, they don't think it's recording live action". But which camera? We can't think of any Canon camera which shoots at 12 frames a second. Perhaps he meant 10fps, which would bring the EOS 1D Mark III into the frame. With continuous bursts of up to 110 Large JPEGs or 30 RAW images possible, this would allow sequences of 11 or 3 seconds. Run as a movie with fast cutting, these would produce the raw (not RAW), natural energy evident in the crowd scenes.
Wildlife Photographer of the Year The search is on for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2009. This prestigious competition is run by BBC Worldwide and the Natural History Museum. The 2008 competition attracted 32, 351 entries from 82 countries. As a sign of changing times, transparencies (and prints) are no longer accepted. You must submit digital images (though a high-quality digital scan of a transparency can be entered). There is a £20 entry fee of online submissions, or £27 for postal entries (on CD only). Click here for full details.
Patent success Canon was awarded 2114 US patents in 2008, but this impressive figure (nearly 6 a day) only gave the company third place on the US patent leaders board. Top, for the 16th consecutive year, was IBM with 4186 patents, followed by Samsung with 3515 patents.
Canon printers get top marks for reliability "Canon is to printers what Apple is to desktops and laptops: simply put, our readers love their products." So says the American PC World magazine. You can read their report here.
Win a trip to Australia Baz Luhmann's epic romantic adventure 'Australia' is in cinemas across the UK. The film boasts a star studded cast and is set against the beauty and drama of the Australian landscape. Now Canon offers a chance to visit Australia and capture its majesty. Spend over £100 (€120) on any Canon products between 26 December 2008 and 15 February 2009, claim your free 'Australia' gift and enter a prize draw to win a 10-day photographic safari holiday for two to the stunning Kakadu National Park in Australia. The draw is open to EU residents, but the purchase must be made from a retailer or etailer in the UK or Republic of Ireland. The holiday departure is 18 June 2009, returning 30 June 2009.
120 runners-up will win one of the following prizes: You can download an entry form and read the full terms and conditions here.
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