Little Matterhorn, Glacier National Park. Canon 5dMkII  100-400mm 4.5-5.6L IS.   ISO100  f8.0  1/20 sec

I was editing images this evening and kind of liked this one. It’s of the Little Matterhorn in Glacier National Park taken last September in the late evening. The image was taken at a longer focal length around 400mm and processed in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop.

Here’s a link to a blog that has some interesting photos of Canon’s 200-400mm, their new 600mm, and some mystery cameras all spotted in Kenya this week. http://blog.apertureacademy.com/2012/01/canon-200-400mm-and-600mm-prototype.html

Labrador Puppy. Canon 5dmkII   70-200 f4IS. ISO400   f4.0   1/1000sec

This is Abbey, our newest edition to the family. Having fun in our backyard with two feet of snow we got the other day.

As you’ve probably heard there’s been an awful lot of excitement over the last couple weeks with all of the CES announcements. Apparently mirrorless camera systems continue to generate a ton of buzz and this seems to be one of the fastest growing divisions within the camera industry at the moment.

I’ll have to say I hadn’t really been following a lot of these developments until recently and have been pretty surprised how quickly things are moving within this market.

Rarely do I get this excited about something especially within this area of cameras, but Fuji’s announcement of it’s new X-Pro1 this last week has made me sit up and pay attention.

Almost always I’m shooting with Canon DSLR’s, just because of the nature of my work, but there are times when a smaller walk around/travel camera would be great to have, especially something that has a larger sensor, great image quality, responsiveness, and an attractive design.

At least from the spec sheet it looks like Fuji has hit the nail on the head with some of the features photographers have been looking for in a camera of this class.

Here’s a brief rundown of it’s specs:

16mp, APS-C Sensor/No optical low-pass filter
Continuous Shooting 6fps
Optical/Electronic Hybrid Viewfinder
Video: 1920 x 1080 (24 fps), 1280 x 720 (24 fps)
3″ 1.23m dot LCD

On an interesting side note, Fuji is using a more complex proprietary sensor design that excludes the optical low-pass filter usually necessary for preventing color moire. Fuji claims that this design will provide more resolution, even out resolving Canon’s 5dmkII. We’ll have to wait and see on that one, but if true, it would be amazing.

The X-Pro1 will also be released with three new lenses. A 18mm f2, 35 1.4, and 60mm macro2.4. With the APS-C conversion factor, these lens focal lengths basically equate to a 28mm, 50mm, and a 90mm.

Personally I think the camera looks awesome. The cool retro design, premium build quality, and  amazing spec sheet moves this into a more upper-level category. If it lives up to what they’re claiming, I can see this camera not only being a major hit with enthusiasts and professionals, but also really shaking things up in the industry.

dpreview.com has a nice preview you can check out here.

Montana Windmill. Canon 7d, 500mm f4L IS.  ISO 160   f5.6   1/1000sec

Here’s a shot from this afternoon taken out in central Montana. “Will not be punctured by hunters’ bullets or boys’ guns” because “ringing the bell with ordinary small caliber rifle will not pierce the Monitor case.” This was Monitor Windmill’s claim that their iron gearbox was built like a tank and could not be destroyed. Looks like it’s been thoroughly tested.

More exciting news this week, Lightroom4 Beta has finally arrived and it’s loaded with some great new features and refinements.  You can download this for free and it’s available until March. Of course being a Beta, Adobe would like any feedback with bugs, etc. You can download it at Adobelabs.com

So far I really like some of the new tools and develop adjustments they’ve added. One set in particular is the Highlights & Shadows sliders in the Develop Module. These replace the Recovery & Fill Light sliders and the control they give you is just amazing.

There’s lots of other little tweaks and adjustments they’ve made as well, making some things that much better, including the Adjustment Brush tool which now has even more editing adjustments you can add.

A couple big additions that will be apparent is the ability to now create your own photo books and also a new maps feature allowing you to utilize GPS image locations.

Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski have a great intro video with all these new features at Photoshopuser.com

Lightroom has certainly matured into a fantastic program that keeps getting better. It’s not all roses though as the clone tool still unfortunately stinks and of course you have to send anything over to Photoshop for layering as usual, but overall my work spends more time in Lightroom now than anywhere else.

The advancements in technology that have been made over the last few years have  opened up the doors for some dramatic changes to camera features and image quality, especially in some of the new smaller formats. One of the problems that I’ve found with previous generations of these compact models is excessive noise and low image quality. I’ve previously used a Canon Powershot G10 which was a great little camera with a fantastic design, but very lacking in the image quality department.

Photographers have tried hard to love these upper level compacts, designed and marketed as a smaller camera to one who already owns a DSLR  or one who is looking for the best in compact features.They offer convenience with image quality and responsiveness being the major hurdles.

Part of the problem has been the smaller sensor size these cameras have had; coupled with increased megapixels and dated processing power, the results have been subpar performance at least for professionals looking for close to DSLR image quality.

Why the Canon Powershot G1X looks so intriguing is that it’s using a much larger sensor, only 20% smaller than Canon’s APS-C size, and in addition it’s also using their new DIGIC 5 processor. At 14 megapixels with this size sensor and processing power, this is a huge leap in quality from it’s predecessor the Canon Powershot G12.

Improvements in image quality and noise should no doubt be a major upgrade from the previous model. When asked a question on how the G1X handled noise here’s what Canon’s Chuck Westfall had to say about it: “Closest comparison is to cameras like the 7D and 60D, because it uses the same pixel pitch. The G1X is actually lower noise than the 7D, because it’s the latest generation of the DIGIC, the DIGIC 5. Can’t speak to RAW because I haven’t seen it, but the JPEGs and videos are definitely cleaner at any given ISO than the 7D’s. I can speak to that personally because I tested it myself.”

There’s a ton more improvements I won’t get into, but if you’re a photographer who is looking for a small compact to compliment your DSLR for travel, this camera is very exciting news. The only downside is the price has jumped up a bit from previous models with the G1X being released at $800.

Check out the review of the G1X and the interview with Chuck Westfall at imaging resource. www.imaging-resource.com

Yellowstone Coyote. Canon 7d 500mm f4IS, 1.4Xtc.  ISO 1600  f6.7   1/1500

Thought I would sneak a quick post in here before the first day of the new year is officially over. First lesson of the year: “Don’t bite off more than you can chew!”

This little guy was snacking on a recent elk carcass inside the park that the Canyon wolf pack have been visiting. No wolves today, but lots of other scavengers.

Winter around here and most of the state is still pretty bare and not much in the forecast. I spoke with a friend the other day  in the southern part of the state and he had 60 degrees fahrenheit on his thermometer! Hard to believe at the end of December. Although not quite that extreme today , the park was pleasant and temps in the 30′s. Still not too much snow though, cross our fingers for January…

Happy New Year to everyone!