Month: November 2014

20% Discount On FotoQuote & FotoBiz

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I know that many readers of this site have read my free eBook, “10 Incredible Tools For Professional Photographers“.  One of these 10 tools is FotoQuote, from Cradoc software.  A program that takes the guesswork out of pricing your photography for commercial and editorial sales.  Normally we can offer readers a 10% discount here, but since Cradoc software are celebrating their 20th birthday, they have kindly extended this coupon to offer 20% off their software until the end of the year 2014. All you have to do is use the coupon code: SM0414  on their website www.cradocfotosoftware.com.

7D Mark II Saves The Day

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Last weekend I set out on a quick camping trip to make the most of some gorgeous clear weather we had here in British Columbia.  Of course, I took the 7D Mark II with me as part of my ongoing test program for it and this time I’d planned to shoot some night sky images, particularly some star trails.  Since I needed to carry both camera gear AND camping gear, I transferred things into a much larger hiking pack.  I thought that I’d got everything, but I was in a rush and unfortunately the one thing that I managed to

Lightroom 5.7 Includes 7D Mark II Raw Support

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Adobe has finally released an update for Lightroom that contains support for the Canon 7D Mark II‘s Raw files, as well a number of other new cameras like the Nikon D750 and Canon G7X.  Head to Adobe’s blog post for a full list of new additions. The good news for me is that I can now begin to evaluate the 7D Mark II’s image quality in more detail, particularly when it comes to high iso performance.  As a taster, here is a shot from a couple of nights ago that captures a sizeable meteor streaking across the night sky in

Think Tank Production Manager

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This new roller bag from Think Tank Photo popped a few weeks ago but I was busy at the time and forgot to mention it.  I’m a big fan of Think Tank’s gear and I’ve used their tough-as-nails roller bags to travel with for many years.  The Production Manager is the largest one yet!  Really the photos do all the talking, so just let your imagination run wild with what you might be able to fit in this thing!  Designed primarily for lighting equipment, but equally at home storing your long lens collection on the road or at the office.

Canon 7D Mark II + Canon 100-400mm L IS II – Perfect Match?

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For Canon folks, the 7D Mark II is definitely the most exciting camera announcement of 2014, particularly if your hobby (or job) is shooting sports or wildlife images.  The original 7D was popular in these niches as well, but Canon have gone after these markets in a much bigger way with the 7D Mark II.  The 65-point AF system is generally on a par with that of the 3-times more expensive flagship EOS 1-DX, and in fact features a much wider spread of AF points across the frame. I think it’s the best AF system I’ve ever used, and the

Canon 24-105mm f/4 L IS Review

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Hey guys, I don’t like to cross post too many things on here but I did want to point you to my review of the very popular Canon 24-105mm f/4 L IS that I posted on Shutter Muse this week.  If you are in the market for a travel photography lens, or a general walkaround lens, then you should definitely check it out.       

Canon’s White Unicorn – 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS II Finally Unveiled

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After 16 years, Canon has finally launched a replacement for the original 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 L IS and on the face of it, it looks to have been worth the wait.  Gone is the “dust pump” push-pull zoom design that so many people despised from the original.  The Mark II lens features a typical zoom ring, but add a new variable friction control that we’ve not seen before on Canon lenses.  As you can see in the images, a central ring labelled Smooth<<—–>> Tight, now controls the amount of friction on the extension of the zoom.  The overall design is reminiscent

7D Mark II – What’s Really Going To Make A Difference For Your Photography?

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A few days ago I posted my initial thoughts on this interesting new camera and I continue to experiment with it as much as I can right now.  It’s both simple to use and paradoxically, incredibly complex. How is this possible? As I mentioned in the earlier post, I felt right at home with the camera as soon as I picked it up.  It feels like my 5D Mark III and all of the major buttons and functions work in the same way.  If you’ve shot with a 5D Mark III, you can have this thing up and shooting in

[LEAK] Canon’s New 100-400 Is Finally Coming

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  It seems like eons that people have been waiting for this lens!  Finally a replacement for the push-pull design of the old version.  Looks like this lens will be coming out within the next few weeks and it would be a perfect partner to the Canon 7D MKII. The design is very reminiscent of the excellent 70-300 L IS. No pricing information yet. Via Canon Rumours

New Continuously Updating Deal Page

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Hey guys, I just wanted to share a bit of housekeeping with you here as I’ve added a pretty cool new feature to the site this week! Up in the menu bar you’ll now see an item there called “Current Deals“.  Clicking through to this page will take you to a new section which will show you 5 different sections of the latest deals in the following categories: Canon Deals Nikon Deals Mirrorless Deals Memory Card Deals General Photography Deals What’s exciting about this is that it will be updated automatically, so you’ll always have quick access to the very

Canon 7D Mark II – Initial Thoughts

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I picked up my new Canon 7D Mark II  from the first shipment that came into Canada so I wanted to share a quick video with you guys, and also some very initial thoughts about this interesting camera. The second version of the 7D has been a very long time coming and the original continued to sell well right up until the end.  I owned a 7D at one point, but I was never happy with both the level of noise and also the structure of the grain that it produced.  Something about it really rubbed me up the wrong

Think Tank Launches New Perception Series For Mirrorless

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At PhotoPlus Expo this week the folks at Think Tank Photo launched a great looking new line of camera backpacks designed primarily for mirroless systems and everyday usage with laptops and tablet computers.  The Perception line takes its design queues from the Shape Shifter pack, a pack that’s one of my favourites and is nearly always with me.  Sometimes I’ve wanted something a little smaller though and the Perspective series delivers that in three sizes, the Tablet, the 15 and the Pro. NOTE: Buy any of these bags by clicking through the links on this page and you’ll get the