Tag Archives: preview

Equipment

Canon’s New Powershot G1 X Camera

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Shortly after the start of the new year, Canon announced a new camera in its “Powershot” series, the Powershot G1X. While the “Powershot” label might bring to mind something more like a consumer point and shoot camera, the G1 X provides considerably more capabilities than that might suggest. (G1 X at site sponsor B&H.)

Canon Powershot G1X
Canon Powershot G1X

There is a lot to note about this camera, but one of the most interesting and important features is its use of a larger sensor than used in previous Powershot designs. The earlier cameras (including the current “high end” of the series, the G12 and the closely related S100) use very small sensors. This allows those cameras to be very small and light, especially because smaller lenses can be used. They can produce quite good image quality at low ISOs, but the IQ breaks down relatively quickly if you have to shoot at a higher ISO in low light.

The G1 X sensor is considerably larger. Its 14+ megapixel sensor is only a bit smaller than that found in the Canon APS-C cropped sensor DSLR bodies (like the t3i and the 7D, etc) and it is a bit larger than the sensors in the compact four-thirds cameras. It is a lot larger than the sensor in the previous Powershot cameras. Since many photographers who have been otherwise attracted to the smaller cameras (like the S100 and the G12 ) have been slightly put off by the compromises inherent in the very small sensors, this is a big deal. The G1 X provides a relatively small and compact camera that can provide image quality that is very competitive what that produced by cropped sensor DSLRs. Continue reading Canon’s New Powershot G1 X Camera →

Commentary, Equipment, Technique

Canon EOS 5D Mark II: Two More Reasons to Love Live View

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Yesterday I was at Point Lobos shooting a variety of wildlife, nature, and landscape subject. As I worked I found myself using the live view feature of my Canon EOS 5D Mark II very frequently – partly for reasons I’ve written about before, but largely for two reasons that I’d like to briefly mention.

Much better depth of field preview – Everyone knows about the small depth of field preview button on the body near the lens. Since the lens is open to the widest aperture when you focus you cannot tell what your depth of field will be until you push this button to stop down to the aperture that you’ll use for your shot. There are two problems with this technique: you cannot judge sharpness critically enough across the frame in the viewfinder and the viewfinder becomes incredibly dim if you stop down to small apertures like f/16. Put those two problems together and the usefulness of the preview button is diminished. However, when you use live view the camera automatically adjusts when you press the preview button and the image is still plenty bright to see on the LCD. Even better, you can zoom in to 5x or 10x magnification to carefully check sharpness. All in all, this makes DOF preview a much more useful feature when live view is used.

You can compose a photograph when using neutral density filters to extend exposure – At one point this weekend I was using a 9-stop neutral density filter to make exposures of the surf with durations in the 10-20 second range. My usual practice is to compose the shot and, if necessary, manually focus without the filter attached. Once the shot is set up I attach the filter. Unfortunately, the filter renders the scene virtually invisible through the viewfinder. Recomposing or manually focusing requires removing the filter, making adjustments, and then reattaching the filter. I discovered yesterday that live view mode can display the image in the LCD even with my 9-stop ND filter in place, allowing me to make changes to the composition/framing or adjust focus without removing the filter

(Shortly after posting this I got a message from B&H photo saying that they again have the Canon EOS 5D Mark II back in stock, and unlike some other dealers they sell it with no markups at the list price of $2669.95.)