(2 votes, average: 1 out of 5)

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According to several sources on the web, Canon will be increasing their prices on lenses and other gear starting in May. IMHO this also means there might not be any spring rebates either.

(6 votes, average: 4.17 out of 5)

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I’m a *big* fan of Canon’s Digital Photo Professional. In fact I prefer it to all other photo editing software I have ever gotten my hands on. The colors and detail are second to none. However, for the past few months I have been mystified by a couple bugs in DPP 3.2 which are rather unsettling.

The most toublesome is it appears there is a large IQ loss between DPP 2.2 and 3.2 in RAW mode. This was made apparent to me after upgrading. Many of my shots looked out of focus and soft, even though they looked amazing in DPP 2.2.

The second issue is it appears that when you double click a thumbnail in the main DPP browser, you no longer can dock a toolbar in an edit window. You can get the docked view by highlighting a thumnbail and choosing “edit window” in the upper left, but it’s a slower process.

I’ve put together some examples and the actual raw file  to be used in both versions of DPP so you can clearly see what I am referring to. The system I am running is Windows XP SP2, and the images were created by a Canon 17-40L lens on a Rebel XT body.  The IQ, when viewed in the DPP programs from the actual RAW file is more severe than the JPEG examples, so I suggest you go that route to get the best idea. All of the settings are exactly the same in both versions, with no changes or adjustments whatsoever. Here are two examples. Please click on them to see their large versions, then right click and download to view in photoshop using the comparison feature.

 
There is a severe loss in color, sharpness, shadows, contrast and just overall IQ between the two versions in this specific RAW screen capture example. But don’t just take my word for it, download the original RAW file itself and try it in both versions. It’s far more obvious when viewing a RAW file in DPP itself. You can download the file here:

DPP RAW file download link

This particular example is not even the worst one. Other images are completely OOF in 3.2, yet look brilliant in 2.2. This could be caused by several problems:

1. The high quality algorithm was not implemented properly in 3.2
2. Rebel XT’s are not properly supported in 3.2

Either way, it renders DPP 3.2 completely unuseable which is a shame because it’s my favorite image editor. The loss of double clicking into a dockable edit window is another irritating bug, but not nearly as much as this loss of IQ.

I have spoken with Canon on this and asked for them to put the DPP 2.2 update back on their website so those with the DPP 2.1 Canon disc can go back to a version with high IQ. They said that the file “disappeared” and no longer existed. OK. The rep acknowledged the tool bar docking bug, but was mum on the IQ issue. I’d love to be able to update, because this is some amazing software. Hopefully Canon addresses this and we can get the IQ back to 2.2 levels (at least for a specific camera user if it turns out to be a camera support issue).

Update: It looks like another website also has found other IQ issues with DPP 3.0 +. Not a good sign.

Update II: Canon says the 2.2 update “disappeared”. I guess they didn’t look hard enough. Here’s a link to that update(not my link).

Simply uninstall DPP 3.0+, then reinstall from DPP 2.0 or 2.1, and you get DPP 2.2 back.

Here’s another link to the 2.2 updater(not mine).

Both links are for XP/2000.

More examples of the awful preview quality discrepancy. Most people would throw out the DPP 3.2 shot as out of focus.

Here’s the actual RAW file of this scene for your own testing.

(3 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

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The Dooin Media Manager is an interesting new Portable Storage Device available from usbgeek.com The DMM offers a solution to all those new cameras out there shooting in higher resolutions, and for the new style of “hybrid”cams, which work as quality video cameras as well as still cameras. Todays standard 2 , 4 gb SD, CF and XD cards are simply useless for the photo enthusiast looking to capture lots of video and still images on vacations or in the field. Last year on a trip to the northern rocky mountains, using a Canon S2, I had gathered 19 gigs of video and still images. I was using a slow laptop at the time, and it proved to be a huge waste of time while on the trip. After all, we wish we could spend more time enjoying the sights and sounds, rather than worrying about storagebackup,and packing along bags of cables and various devices.

I received the package five days after ordering and paying 3$ shipping… from Hong Kong! That’s some pretty fast service. Inspecting the package, I was surprised that it included much more than I had thought. (more…)

(No Ratings Yet)

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CBN is currently under construction. Things should be finished up within a couple weeks.

(11 votes, average: 4.09 out of 5)

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Avg price: $600

Lens Construction
12 elements in 9 groups

Focal Length & Maximum Aperture
17 - 40mm; 1:4

Diagonal Angle of View
104° - 57° 30′

Focus Adjustment
Inner focusing system with USM

Closest Focusing Distance
0.28m / 0.9 ft.

Zoom System
Rotating type

Max. Diameter x Length, Weight
3.3″ x 3.8″, 1.1 lb. / 83.5 x 96.8mm, 500g

Filter Size
77mm

(5 votes, average: 3 out of 5)

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Average price: $1650