Photography, random posts and very little about kebabs.
A few years ago, when I was bored I drew up a fantasy lens list. Now a few years later I’ve revisited the list again…..
So in a few years the list has increased slightly in size but gone up by £10,000 – but most of that is due to version 2’s of some of the lenses. So from the original list I’ve only managed to buy one (EF200mm f/2.8) – hoping for a lottery win.
Time is a healer, but for dodgy versions (we’ll say no more) of photoshop – time certainly isn’t.
Things change, I’ve changed and it’s time to look forward. However looking forward with Adobe can be expensive, certainly when the future is prefixed with the initials CS. I’ve ranted about Adobe’s software costs before, and whilst Lightroom is now a much more sensible £100 it’s still the exception. CS6 is great, I know I’m trying it.
But CS6 has a problem. It’s £667, Adobe’s banking system still hasn’t worked out exchange rates yet, so in the US it’s $649 which is £413 (ex Vat) – ok the ‘real’ UK price is around £500 – which is still bloody expensive, but less of a kick in the nads. Suddenly something I once discounted as being utterly stupid is now looking sensible. It’s an Adobe subscription for Photoshop. Currently around £17 a month or just over £200 a year. Spread over 3 years its about even with the initial purchase price. But this is Photoshop, they’ll be a £200 upgrade if I bought it, so it’s looking even ‘cheaper’.
So what’s it like then, sort of like this….
On the face on it, it looks much the same – although with the darker interface that Lightroom introduced to me. It’s smooth and fast (running on a Mac Mini – i5 2.3 ghz, 8gb Ram), still copes well with a number of images thrown at it. Slight tweaks to the UI are taking a little while to get used to. It would be nice if it went completely full screen like Lightroom (maybe it does, I’ve just not found out how to yet). My actions I imported from CS3 seem to have a manual element to them – but on the whole happy with the application. So much so that I’ll kick off the subscription once the 30 day trial is up.
Some random images I was messing with….
Found some nice features in the Save for Web module – seems now you can add a bit of info in the JPEG file. So a Copyright notice can be there – will look to see if further manipulation is possible.
Some may remember the last ‘new’ camera I bought, it was several years ago at Focus 2008. I was tempted, I had money and someone pointed out that it was a good price. So an Eos 1D Mark III was bought. It turned out to be a little naff to be honest, constant errors and some fairly shoddy build meant it went back for a refund.
Still I’ve longed for the fast AF and frame rate of the 1 Series for a while and during one of my recent ponderings I thought – I don’t use my 5Ds so why not sell them and get a 1D. Well being one to jump the gun I decided to get a 1 series.
Now a while back I tried the 1D Mark II N and was impressed, in fact I was seriously looking at one for a while, but then moved on to other things (Apple Macs I think). But during my recent research (yes I do research my purchases – well more like reassuring myself) I looked at the older 1D MkII. There’s not a lot of difference if your prepared to have a smaller LCD, no pic modes or have the ability to write RAW to one card and JPG to the second card (though the latter is a big consideration). So I decided to look at this model. Initially I was tempted with a fairly ropey looking one on Ebay, which eventually went for £375 – which wasn’t too bad to be honest.
Continue reading “New(ish) camera time”
Following on from my pre-focus blog a few days ago………
The prices did get the expected drop, Jacobs were very competitive on the new stock front. New the 5D Mk II was £1499, which is £100 cheaper than Mifsuds online store. The B-Stock prices also took a downwards turn. The price ticket had last years price of £1399 crossed out and replaced by £1299 (Calumet also were selling B-Stock for the same price)
So without any hesitation I grabbed a B-Stock unit, plus a B-Stock BG-E6 grip for £149 – which to be honest is still vastly over priced, but as they retail for around £200 I couldn’t really complain (New stock at the show was around £170). The guy at Jacobs had a look round for a B-Stock battery but couldn’t find one, he offered a new one for £54 – but I declined that as I knew I could get it cheaper.
It wasn’t the end of my purchases, as the 5D MkII produces 21mp images the 4gb CF cards I have probably aren’t going to cut it. They would probably only yield around 115 images, which isn’t too bad. But to be honest it’s like having 2gb CF cards back on my original 5D. Talking of which, I have 2 of them which are now looking fairly surplus. So after the rambling you’d expect that I would have bought a bigger card – yes you’re right I dropped £50 on a 16gb Sandisk Extreme which was is around £15 cheaper than online – I may visit on Wednesday and get another one – seriously this is good value.
Not content with a bigger memory I really needed a 2nd battery, My preference is normally for cheapo clones. With my original 5D’s I had 2 originals, so it was easy to pair them up. But for the MkII I’d have to buy a second Canon one. Which I did for £50, which isn’t great – but again cheaper than online at the moment. Only issue I have is only 1 charger. I may rectify this again on Wednesday, but looking at Hähnel’s dual charger and It might be worth getting a couple of their batteries as they are currently £30 each (Didn’t want to mix Canon/Hähnel together).
And finally………….
The end of the long running bag debate is over. I finally replaced the aging, but great Nova 4 (which is getting kinda holey in it’s old age). I replaced it with another Lowepro, this one is pretty much a direct replacement – Nova 190 AW. It’s had a few tweaks, like the AW cover and a few pocket changes. To be honest if the Nova 4 was around I would’ve got that as I feel the pocket changes are quite annoying. Still it’s progress, and now it’s waterproofed (ish) and it only cost £50 – which is probably the best price for the bag (in Black).
I spread the purchases out a bit, with the bulk going to Jacobs (5D, grip, bag), Premier Ink (Memory) and CameraWorld (Battery).
With an honourable mention to Amateur Photographer for making me part with £2!!!!!! for a copy AP and WDC. I did get to speak to the mighty Tharg for a while though. Also a mention to Moo as I spent £4 on a couple of Moo card key fob things.
And a special hello to the lovely Jemima Wade from Photobox PR and Promotions – very nice and chatty.
Right pictures (you deserve it after reading this far!)
New and Old face off
Obligatory f/1.4 shot
Side by Side, the big screen makes all the difference
New and Old LowePro bags
So, pictures then? Well none yet, unless you want a closeup of my monitor and loft ladders. The truth is I didn’t get a chance to test it, was messing around with Custom Functions for a while, attempting to get the rear button focusing on ‘*’ instead of the AF-On button (succeeded in the end).
I’ve not attempted Live View or Video yet, but hoping to do that in a few days. Tomorrow I hope to get a few shots in and around the Jewellery Quarter – unless it’s chucking it down of course.
Tis the time of year, where the mind goes off on one. So excuse me as i’m pondering once more.
Looking back at last years Focus posts and prices, it seems I missed the rather large elephant waving to me in the room (well not so much room, it was a large hall at the NEC).
So what did said large trunk wielding beast wave at me? Not too sure about the elephant, but the price tag on Jacobs stand read……
For those not used to looking at iPhone high quality imagery it reads “B-Stock” “Eos 5D MkII Show Price £1399”
So that’s £300 cheaper than the ticket price. Now, I’m fairly sure the new kit will retail around £1,550 (assuming the discounts last year are roughly the same), so hoping B-Stock maintains the same price differential I could end up with the camera costing around £1,250 + £200 grip £50 spare battery, so less than a new one. B-Stock is fully guaranteed, so not worries then.
Maybe a new bag and ND10 filter can be bagged at the same time. Chances are though B-Stock may sell out, so Sunday is probably the purchase day for me. Though based on last year the new price hardly moved.