Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Canon TS-E 45mm f/2.8 Tilt Shift Lens for Canon SLR Cameras This instant


I've been a photographer since the film era, and I also have previous experience with view cameras, so I'm familiar with the lens movement. Yet, TS-E has a couple of peculiar points that have its own learning curve. Image quality is also very good, but not perfect.

I use this lens mostly for tabletop product photography, food photography and creative and corrective portraiture. I think product photography is probably the most common application for TS-E45mm, although not many people talk about it online... and even less so for corrective portraiture. Anyway, if you can pay for the lens and willing to take the steep learning curve, this lens is almost essential for these things.

I found TS-E45mm tends to give inaccurate focus even when the focus is dead on on the viewfinder screen. This happens most often when tilted and shifted simultaneously, and the focus is taken near the periphery of the view. This happens on both 5D and 7D. I don't know if there's a good way to overcome this problem other than live view or tethered.

Although officially unsupported, we often see people say that TS-E45mm works fine with 1.4x and 2x teleconverters online. I think what they mean is merely that the teleconverter fits without a mechanical problem. However, this needs a caveat. If the lens is shifted while on a teleconverter, the lateral chromatic aberration worsens dramatically. Other aberration probably worsens, because focus is also not very sharp. Tilt is not as bad in this regard. Simultaneous tilt and shift is also very bad. So, if you use this lens with a teleconverter, you should limit the lens movement to a small tilt only. Since the movement is limited by the image quality, the limitation is not absolute, but certainly limits the usability of this lens with a teleconverter. Also, with a 1.4x teleconverter, I see a noticeable drop in image contrast. So, if you buy TS-E45mm with the hope of using it with a teleconverter, I think you'll eventually buying TS-E90mm as well, to avoid these problems.Get more detail about Canon TS-E 45mm f/2.8 Tilt Shift Lens for Canon SLR Cameras.

Energizer EL1CR2BP Lithium Photo Battery Immediately


This battery is a really nice because you can put it in calculators but if the calculator is not also solar powered and you use it a lot it could run out quicklyGet more detail about Energizer EL1CR2BP Lithium Photo Battery.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Tamron Autofocus 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 XR Di II Macro Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras Best Quality


product was shipped & arrived quickly. for the price this is a great product. for the price i paid for it & the results i'm getting there's no way i can complain about this lens. would purchase from this seller again.Get more detail about Tamron Autofocus 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 XR Di II Macro Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras.

Canon PIXMA MP240 All-In-One Photo Printer Get it now!


I bought this printer in October 2008 after reading several positive reviews. I would like to offer a strongly dissenting opinion!

The printer barely lasted a year before the paper feed broke. Mind you, I used this strictly for the occasional home print job. No photos, just text. I doubt I printed more than 100 pages in the year I had it. Yet it still broke. When I contacted tech support, they told me it would cost more than the printer was worth to fix it.

I contacted Canon "customer service," but was informed that it only has a 90-day warranty. Clearly, they expect this to break quickly. I don't consider a printer a disposable item, but Canon sure must. Worse than the useless warranty was the fact that Canon didn't offer to rectify the situation at all. My last printer was an Epson. It also broke after the warranty had expired, but when I contacted THEM, they agreed that the printer should not have broken under such light use. Epson provided me with a replacement printer free of charge. Even shipping was included. Canon, on the other hand, wouldn't even admit that it was ridiculous for a printer to break so quickly. Their only response was to offer me a 'Loyalty Bonus' of 15% off my next Canon printer. As if I would ever buy one of their shoddy products again! No thanks.

BTW - The scanner is useless, as well, producing images that are absolutely unreadable. All in all, a disappointing piece of junk. I will NEVER buy a Canon product again after dealing with their incredibly poor customer service.Get more detail about Canon PIXMA MP240 All-In-One Photo Printer.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Canon Pixma MX850 Office All-In-One Inkjet Printer (2436B002) Buy Now


The Canon MX850 was a very good printer for about a year. The color match was very close to subject. The printing time was often delayed due to printer resets but, other than that, it was quite functional. The customer service was very good during warranty. Once the warranty expired I started to consistently get Error Code 5100. The troubleshooting in the manual for this error was not specific enough so I went online. I tried all of their fixes, but nothing has solved the problem. The printer is only about a year old and is virtually dead. I have a lot of ink cartridges but the new models don't accept them. So, I am forced to buy another printer with all new ink cartridges. I've learned my lesson... I WON'T BUY A CANON!!Get more detail about Canon Pixma MX850 Office All-In-One Inkjet Printer (2436B002).

Canon EOS-1D Mark II 8.2MP Digital SLR Camera (Body Only) Order Now


I purchased this camera used recently primarily because of the cameara's ability to take 1.4x teleconverters on longer slower lenses, lightning fast autofocusing capabilities, and super speedy 8.5 fps. Seeing as the 1D Mk III sells for a lot more, I decided to go for a used 1D Mk II. After 2 days of extensive shooting in the field, I am very happy with my purchase.

Let me first say what I love about this camera.

-45 autofocus points, selectable in nearly any possible combination. This is fantastic for getting your focus spot onto nearly any possible target.
-8.5 fps. It's hard to fathom how fast this is unless you experience it in the field. 8.5 fps is amazing!
-LIGHTNING fast AF. AF on this camera, especially at center point, is extraordinarily fast and very accurate.
-Responsive handling. The shutter button is very sensitive, which is great for making sure you get the shot you want when you want it. It does take some getting used to.
-Permanent portrait grip. Shooting in portrait mode on my 40D without a grip was difficult and uncomfortable. With the 1D Mk II, it's very easy and comfortable.
-Decent performance at f/8 center point focus. One of the big selling points of the 1D bodies is the ability to autofocus using center point with a lens like the 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 with the 1.4x teleconverter. Autofocus is not fast by any means with this combination, but in good light, it is accurate and is very useful for getting close to non-moving subjects from a distance without breaking your bank.
-Weathersealing. As someone who shoots outdoors 2 days all day every week, weathersealing is a nice bonus. It takes a lot of the worry about taking this camera outdoors in rough situations away.
-3 stops of exposure compensation. I wish Canon put this on all their DSLRs instead of just 2 stops of exposure compensation!
-2 button menu. At first, I was somewhat annoyed with the 1D Mk II's user interface, mainly that it requires at least two button pushes to change any setting (with exception of the main wheel just above the shutter button). I soon realized that this is because the 1D Mk II is designed so that accidental button pushes don't change your settings unintentionally. Once gotten used to, this is a great feature for button-pushing prone people like myself.
-8.2 megapixels. Others may disagree, but 8.2 megapixels is quite enough for most photographic work and for printing even relatively large shots. Stuffing more megapixels on a sensor also tends to degrade overall apparent image sharpness. The 1D Mk II does a fine job of making the most of the sharpness quality and color contrast of any lens that is attached to it.

What I don't like about the 1D Mk II:

-Small dim LCD. The LCD on this camera is very small and not bright enough. The 1D Mk II N and 1D Mk III each have much larger and better LCD screens.
-Weight. This camera is HEAVY. I've nicknamed mine "the brick." It will wear your arms out until you get used to it. You should consider buying a padded neckstrap for this camera.
-Battery life under high speed shooting. The battery drains fairly quickly when shooting in high speed burst mode. You can still get about 850 shots on one battery while shooting in high speed burst mode. In one shot mode, it comes to just about 1100 shots. Low speed burst is somewhere between.
-1.3 crop factor. I really wish this were a 1.6 crop factor sensor. I miss the extra apparent reach of the 40D over this camera since I mostly shoot at longer telephoto lengths.
-Default settings. The default settings are somewhat odd on this camera. You have to set a custom function to display the ISO on the top screen, something I'm sure nearly every photographer pays attention to with each shot! Default file format is low quality .jpeg also! EEK!
-So so high ISO performance. When shooting in a controlled environment, the ISO quality at ISO 800+ was acceptable. After shooting in the field, ISO 800 is fairly noisy. This noise can be easily removed in Photoshop or an analogous RAW image editing software package, but if possible, should be avoided on this camera.
-No back button autofocus. For people shooting action, as this camera was designed to do, the back button autofocus is a very useful little tool. I was shocked to see it was not present on this camera.

All in all, this camera is nothing short of a very fine piece of equipment. Even many years after it's release, the 1D Mk II is still a wonderful and powerful DSLR and offers a lot of wonderful features that are only now coming available to lower end Canon cameras.Get more detail about Canon EOS-1D Mark II 8.2MP Digital SLR Camera (Body Only).

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Canon PowerShot SD870IS 8MP Digital Camera with 3.8x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Black) Decide Now


All low light pictures are grainy. I have had this camera for a year now and have tried and tried different ways to improve the picture, to no avail. The flash is just now powerful enough and I can only assume the sensor is low quality to get such grainy pics. I have to literally get on the dance floor next to the married couple to get even a half decent picture of their first dance.

This camera is very fragile. the first time I dropped it, it broke. I dropped it on wood so it was not like dropping on concrete, but my wife's Fuji Finepix camera has been dropped time and time again with just scratches all over, never broke. I had the Canon fixed, but for the price this one cost, you would expect it to be a little more resilient.Get more detail about Canon PowerShot SD870IS 8MP Digital Camera with 3.8x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Black).

Canon TX-220TS Calculator Right now


Great business desktop calculator. Wide-screen, beautiful buttons and tilt display. I'm proud to have it grace my desk.Get more detail about Canon TX-220TS Calculator.