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Still on-track

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.

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Focus is coming

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

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

Canon WFT-E4

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
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So long 24-105…..

….well, it should come back. Eventually after waiting a few months I’ve finally gotten round to sending the thing off for repair. Naturally being the cheapskate I decided to send it to Canon for a fixed price repair (£102) versus Fixation (£200+vat). Hopefully the lady on the other end of the phone quoted me the right price, we’ll see.

Hopefully this will mark a reversal in my current equipment related Fail. Sending it off failing should mean it’ll returned fixed. 5 – 10 days apparently (from Tuesday 9th Feb – currently it’s in the hands of Royal Mail Special delivery).

So stayed tuned for the outcome, it should be one of these:

1) It’s Fixed and Returned
2) They’ve not got the parts in
3) They messed up on the priced
4) Royal Mail have lost/broken it more

Anyway, I’d like it back I feel I’m missing something since it’s been knackered.

/update:

Royal Mail have Delivered it.
Canon are happy with the £102 I sent them
Unable to track the progress of the repair though as their website isn’t accepting my details.

/edit 2: It’s fixed and on it’s way back 🙂

/edit 3: It has been returned and it looks to be fine. They’ve calibrated it, replaced the Lens assembly and the Dust Seal (not too sure what is left of the original!). Seems like new 🙂 It’s like having an old friend back. As much as I like the 17-40 it’s not the 24-105.

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And the next IT related fail is……….

………yes another External Hard Disk Drive.

After the woe that was Western Digital and the My Book Studio annoyanceware it’s the turn of Freecom.

Now I’m a fan of Freecom drive, they’re well build, look nice (sort of fit in to an Apple look being Aluminium) and of course have lovely firewire built in. So after an Epic with Amazon it eventually arrived.

First task, Format: works o.k.
Second task, Copy Data from RAID drive: worked fine
Third task, Copy Data from other volumes: Fail

And fail it did, it reintroduced me to the Apple Black Screen of Death. Or Kernel mode death. It managed to induce that state of deathness connected via Firewire and USB.

His Latest Fail

Shame as I’ve been looking at this device for a while, it also seems to be in very short supply as well so the chances of getting another are fairly slim. One annoyance is the fact that my data has been on it and I cannot delete it securely. Though it’s currently hooked up to the MacBook (via FW400) to zero out the disk. Currently will take 13 Hours.

I feel the need to swear, but I’ll hold back.

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iPad, No I don’t get it either

As sure as eggs are eggs, Apple release products in January (or announce). This January is no exception. So today’s epic product?

The iPad, no not an Apple designed feminine hygiene product, but a big iPod Touch/Tablet hybrid with 3G capability.

WFT?

WFT?

WFT?

Picture Credit:Apple

Sure it looks, luuuuurvly but I can’t see the point. It’s a big iPod Touch, but with the advantage of having a subsidised data plan on 3G (on AT&T in the us, now doubt it’ll be a crap data plan tied to 02 in the UK). Released in a few different capacity sizes, with an escalating price to match.

16gb $499

32gb $599

64gb $699

Oh, add $130 if you want 3G functionality.

So what does it do? Well pretty much everything the iPod Touch does, but bigger. I’m not being too dismissive about the iPad yet, afterall I couldn’t see the point of the iPod Touch until I tried one.

If they manage to get Magazines on board and offer subscriptions to a eMagazine then I think it could take off. But at present it seems too much for a media player (o.k. it’s got email/web etc – but that’s going to cost $130 + $15-$30 for a data plan to make it mobile).

It’s not available for a few months, so I’ll have to reserve judgement about the products. For my Photography though I think it’s a worthwhile method to showcase images, however it’s utterly pointless as a mobile LightRoom/Photoshop device (as it won’t run).

Steve Jobs is indicating it’ll change the way we Read and Surf. I’m not sure, but Steve Jobs’ company is worth oh around $50 Billion, my media corporation is currently worth around £2000 so I guess he has form on being right.

Chances are I’ll probably get one!

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