Bounce a pop-up flash with Lightscoop

October 28, 2009 @ 8:04 pm

I was just introduced to Professor Kobre’s Lightscoop, a clever little attachment for digital SLRs that bounces the light from the on-camera flash upward so that photos you take with the flash don’t look all blown out. [via]

Most on-camera flashes these days are pretty decent and are actually quite powerful if tweaked correctly, and I imagine that this $35 add-on does wonders at a fraction of the price of an actual hot-shoe flash attachment.

Most of the images in the Flickr Lightscoop photo pool are pretty much on par with the quality of images I would expect from a much more expensive flash attachment.

Canon 1D Mark IV: 10fps burst

October 26, 2009 @ 10:44 pm

Here’s Canon’s EOS 1D Mark IV doing a 10fps burst. That’s a beautiful sound, isn’t it?

Canon instant rebates on lenses

October 26, 2009 @ 7:04 pm

If you’re looking to buy a Canon lens this upcoming holiday season, Canon is offering a good amount of instant rebates for several of their most sought-after lenses. Have a look at their instant rebate PDF here. This special promotion ends January 15, 2010.

Some thoughts on the Canon EOS 7D (and the Canon 5D Mark II)

October 25, 2009 @ 6:35 pm

So for the past few days I’ve been doing quite a bit of research on a new digital SLR body. Since I already own Canon lenses — most of which have no resale value — the smartest thing for me to do was focus primarily on Canon camera bodies (just to put it out there: if I could get good money on the lenses I own now, I’d probably make a major switch to Nikon).

Anyway, my current digital SLR is way out of date and I decided recently that it’s about time I get some new gear in my hands. Camera technology and picture quality has changed dramatically over the last 5 years since I last purchased an SLR which means that the gap between high-end professional SLRs and pro-sumer SLRs are becoming narrower.

For example, below is a comparison chart between the Canon EOS 7D and the Canon EOS 5D Mark II (green boxes indicate superior specs).


Click image above to enlarge

While the 5D Mark II is the higher-end camera, it seems like the 7D is the camera that actually gets all the goodies I’d actually make use of. Sure, the 5D’s full-frame sensor is a huge deal, but at this point, I feel like I’m willing to compromise in exchange for a generally more sophisticated feature-set in the Canon 7D. Specifically, here are the things I’m sold on in terms of the Canon 7D being a “better” choice: 8fps shooting, dual Digic 4 processors, better auto-focus system, built-in Speedlite transmitter, on-camera flash, and 100% viewfinder coverage just to name a few — all of these features are missing from the higher-end 5D Mark II for some reason (but I have no doubts that they’ll make an appearance on the 5D Mark III).


Click image above to enlarge

I guess the question for me is whether or not I’m willing to pay an extra $1000 for a full-frame camera with less features. At that price, I’m leaning towards a no.

Pentax K-x Kore Ja Nai camera

October 23, 2009 @ 1:08 am

I already knew the Pentax K-x digital SLR was going to come in rainbow colors, but I had no idea that Pentax had in mind to release the K-x in the colors of Japan’s robot toy, Kore Ja Nai (I’m not even going to pretend I knew what Kore Ja Nai was before writing this post…apparently it’s a big thing in Japan).

Anyway, Pentax is making only 100 of these colorful versions and all of them will go on sale starting November. Peep the gallery below.

Icon design by Jonatan Castro

October 23, 2009 @ 12:25 am

Jonatan Castro not only has a great website but he also has some incredible skills at designing computer icons. Believe it or not, the three images here are icons and not photos (or photos converted into icons) of the actual products represented. If you want to use these icons here for your computer, you can download them all for free at Jonatan’s website.