Kebablog

Steam, Valve, Apple

…..or possibly delayed.

Went to Focus on Sunday morning (must have been mad) and the prices made my decision for me. The cheapest the 5D mkII was going for was £1599. The other option was the 7D, which was going for £1149. Both too much for me being a cheapskate. I may pop in Tuesday/Wednesday to see if the price drop further, but I doubt it. With only 2 main retailers being there (Jacobs and CameraWorld) it’s unlikely they’ll be a massive shift in prices.

I did however get to play with a 7D, and was very impressed. Still not too sure if I want to drop down to a cropped body though. I’ve done a few test shots to check out noise (compared with my 5D, a MkII and a 7D), will post once I figure out how to post some EXIF info into the image (I have a PS script which almost does it. However the camera model doesn’t display)

Having one of those mmmmmmm moments, rather than a nice shiny camera I could pay off more of my Barclaycard. That indeed is the sensible option, however when I have a pile of cash sensible seems to go out of the window.

Sure there’s bundles of Apple product to buy also, but at the moment I’m not overwhelmed with glossy screens. So I should give them a miss.

What’s a reasonably chubby bloke to do?

Yep, things are moving towards the 5D MkII. The accountant came through with the dividend so I’ve got around £1,200 use. Hopefully a £750 sale (£700 after fees) for the old 5D and another £75-100 for the battery grip will push it up to £2,000.

Now I just need the 5D Mk II to fall in price during Focus 2010. I wasn’t sure about the discount I got when I bought my first 5D back in 2006, however using the Wayback Machine I managed to check the Warehouse Express website from around the day. Was surprised to see that selling price was £1899, I managed to get it for £1749 so saving £150, which is a nice discount but not what I’m looking for now.

However at that time Canon offered a £100 cashback (I thought it was £150?) so the price was in my opinion artificially high (as with most Canon Promotions). So I reckon the discount was more like £250. £250 off the current RRP of £1,700 would be most welcome. We’ll see, I’m not going to rush in this time (like I did with the 1D MkIII).

I’m also hoping the WFT-E4 II is offered at a discount, oh and some batteries.

Let me clarify one thing, I’m not buying a Ford. Focus on Imaging 2010 is coming to an NEC near you soon. Well an NEC near me anyway and as they’ve sent my free ticket it’s worth going.

So as I’m there already you know I’m looking to spend money. Targets for acquisition?

1) Canon Eos 5D MkII

It’s the obvious upgrade for me, I like the full frame format of the existing 5D so a bump in specs is nice.

2) Canon WFT-E4 Wireless Adaptor

I usually go for the battery grip, but I like the functionality of remote trigger and wifi this device offers. O.k. it’s around £600, but the battery grip is £250 so it’s not really over the top.

Costs are a big consideration, as mentioned before selling my old 5D will bring in around £700, the battery grip maybe £100 more. But I’m looking for discounts at Focus. After all the Eos 1D Mk III I bought a few years back was discounted by around £400, so I’m looking for around £250 off the 5D Mk II. Hopefully this should bring the price down to around £1,500. Leaving me around £700 short on the deal.

An incoming dividend (around £1,300) should help balance things up a bit. Though, hopefully the bottom hasn’t fallen out of the used 5D market yet.

Potential Stumbling blocks/issues:

• Batteries for the 5D MkII are around £60 each – no real cheapies (other than none smart ones).
• The WFT-E4 needs the same battery as the camera – Cheapskates at Canon don’t supply one with the device.
• 21mp Raw images means existing 4gb cards are now a lot smaller!, 2gb cards might as well leave at this point.
• HDD space, still an issue at the moment – I really need to resolve this.
• I’ll probably annoy more people with HD Video on YouTube