Full compatibility with Canon EF and EX-series Speedlites
Magnesium alloy body
New battery, new grip
Price: 2600€
Official announcement: 17/09/2008
It seems possible that this is real data, not a leak, since it is said that Canon has miscalculated the limit date for its recent NDA (they are trying to extend it).
And the announcement date seems to be what everybody thinks about the official launch of the Canon EOS 7D or Canon EOS 5D Mark II.
This little shark (goblin shark in English, Mitsukurina owstoni) lives in the deeps of the ocean, and has an extensible mouth. See it in action against a human diver (don’t worry, there is no blood and wounds).
Chasseur d’Image recently told us all that the Nikon D800 was not only a rumour. But what is really this bizarre photo camera (bizare because still unknown)? The question is there to be answered and it’s a difficult task. But, let’s see what we can infer from the little data available.
According to the numbering scheme, it would not be the direct successor of the Nikon D3 (totally pro). On the contrary, coming behind the Nikon D700, and much too early to be its replacement, in the semi-pro range, this must be a better camera.
Nikon D800?
Furtheremore, it appears that the Nikon D700 has a camera body which is not fully exploited: The memory card location seems pre-cut for an additional and smaller Flash card (SD model, probably). It seriously leads us toward the high-end cameras using two cards simultaneously to write both the RAW files on one card and JPEG files on the other. This would clearly be a feature for a high-end camera, but without being enough to create a separate model.
Hwever, Nikon became the specialist of re-use, re-cycle and modularity of its SLR cameras. They ensure that as many parts as possible are common to two different cameras. So, I would believe that…
the Nikon D700 body will be re-used (sorta confirmation of the Nikon D800)
this camera would be in the high-end
But which body?
I wonder whether the Nikon D800 (let’s use this name for the time being) would not be the real user of the Sony Full Frame 24.6 mega-pixel sensor that has been promised to us. Can you imagine it? A semi-pro Full Frame range at Nikon with a D700 of 12.1 MP and a Nikon D800 of 24.6 MP. Nikon would only have to add a high-end pro successor to the Nikon D3 in January of February 2009 and, here comes the best-looking range of digital cameras for enthusiast photographers.
Nikon would have no real dififcult to succeed here. At least, they already have everything for it.
I recently had the problem of an application (DreamWeaver) which had hidden a Windows dialog box. When opening it, it was out of view. But how to drag it back? It appears that this is rather easy (if you know how).
First, you use your keyboard: Ctl-Space to open the system menu of the dialog box. You don’t see anything, but you can hit Enter to select the “Move” option of the menu. Your mouse pointer should have been brought to the dialog window.
Gently click on the left button and drag the window around, you have the window stuck and it should follow the mouse movements. This way, you can find and drag it back.
You never can hide anything from the keen eyes of the Internet photo lovers. The Sony Alpha 900 has been seen used with the Carl Zeiss 16-35mm f/2.8 lens.
Notice the small trapezoidal LCD screen on top of the camera body, the nice position of the drive and exposure buttons on top of the grip, nearly under the finger:
We were waiting for it, we were speaking about it, we were murmuring. Here it comes. Sony just let some information leak about their new super-tele-lens to complete an already rather rich list of good quality lenses:
The Sony 70-400mm f/4-5.6 G SSM is described in the PDF documentation of the Sony 70-300mm f/4-5.6 G SSM. Obviously, they were designed together. It is a twist-zoom. This will differentiate quite notably from the push-pull type of others like the Canon 100-400mm and it should protect it efficiently against dust entry (and we know that this is the bane of push-pulls.
The technical features can be read from this table. I can imediately notice that the diaphragm is staying between f/4 and f/5.6 (the golden standard of this type of zoom), that the weight is rather high (heavier than the Nikon and the Canon, nearly as much as the Sigma equivalnet) and that the minimum focus distance is very competitive.
Let’s wait for images and tests (and the price), but this could be the ideal lens to go and shoot in a wild-life safari.
I migrated this web site to the latest version of WordPress (version 2.6). Since this is a significant jump from the old v2.3.3 that I was still using (because it was stable and without known bugs), I feel that it could be interesting to summarize the observations I made during this migration.
Good
Somehow, the performance is the same, but the administration panel has been improved with a logic more task-oriented (important and common things are more immediately accessible).
Bad
Unfortunately, in the administration panel, I lost most of the direct visibility onto the posts scheduled in the future (I prepare a lot of articles in advance to free myself from the tyrany of web site updates).
The “Write Post” page is organised differently, but I lack the flexibility of re-organisation that was in version 2.3 (dragging the elements where I wanted them to be). But, maybe it’s because I still don’t know how to do it… Apparently, people think it was a regression in v2.5.x, but what the heck? It was working fine before.
Conclusion
I have no difficulty working with WordPress 2.6 now. Even if a few things keep annoying me and I feel that it was not all change-for-the-best, I would easily recommend it (even the newest v2.6.1).
Importantly, the progression of the moon phases will apparently progressively reveal the new camera around the end of the month, just in tome for the opening of the Photokina fair.
The Canon France web site started to prepare the arrival of a new Canon EOS camera with an animated teaser. Visibly, it will be at the top of the range (who said Canon EOS 7D?).
How could we ignore the launch of Chrome, the new browser from Google? Every is babbling about it, everybody tried it (it can be downloaded here).
But after one test run, I believe that I should explain something. Yes, this is a marvellous browser because it takes most of the good things from FireFox, Opera or Safari (all IE competition). I immediately noticed:
No space is lost in useless graphical waste, everything is concentrating on user display,
The good tab management,
The impressive performance,
The name-completion in the address bar.
Some will also have noticed the more technical features like:
The separation of applications running in different tabs,
The very small footprint (including for the Javascript).
But, all this is hiding a very critical reality: Google did not even try to make a mere browser (it even lacks a simple RSS feed manager). They are more interested in doing more than Internet Explorer competiton. Much more.
Chrome (tasks)
The impressive advantage of this browser is elsewhere: it will fight against Microsoft applications allowing to work online in the best possible conditions. Chrome is nearly an Operating System competing with Windows. Yes, because where Windows offered a vehicle to sell Microsoft Office, Chrome will allow Google to develop a wider range of online tools in the path opened by the Desktop applications and GMail.
It will hurt Microsoft real bad. Chrome is obviously the best browser to support this approach. Rock solide, fast (very), reliable and able to support application crashes.
A Danish photography magazine just leaked the official name of the new flagship camera from Sony.
Sony Alpha 900 - magazine ad
As everybody expected, it will be named Sony Alpha 900. Also,this tends to contradict the possibility of additional similar cameras (possibly with a different/smaller sensor).
Preliminary disclosure: Usually, I refrain from commenting about issues relating to my own employer. But today, Johnson Controls issued a press release unusually significant that I assumed would be worth an exception.
The American economy is in pain, the automotive industry is in pain: General Motors should see a slowdown of 30% or more, Ford forecasts 22% less activty from one year to the next and Toyota would be good at only loosing 7,5%. With this, nobody should be surprised when automotive part manufacturers are preparing to quickly reduce the costs like is done by most car manufacturers (GM is announcing regularly plant closings).
It is in this context that Johnson Controls announces an important restructuration. We will know details only later, but it is clear that $450 to $500 millions of restructuing charges will lead to major job layoffs. JCI only gives the general orientation and says that they want to cut down automotive plants/footprint in the USA, follow the move toward Low-Cost Countries including in Europe. Which is normal since interior vehicle parts (like large plastic parts) are very difficult to transport and car manufacturers are also moving toward Eastern Europe.
If you add to it the difficulties of real estate in the US, a market where JCI is very present with its Building Efficiency division, it is easily understood that adaptation will touch this branch too, since experts do not forecast any quick improvement in this part of the American economy.
These intense perturbations in the immediate environment of Johnson Controls may have enough power to bring some auto parts manufacturers down to their knees. The most fragile ones may have to take really drastic measures (or more drastic than massive layoffs, if you follow my reasoning). But Johnson Controls could well be among those who will survive best (or relatively best); According to Investopedia.com, Johnson Controls and Autoliv are those most apt to protect themselves.
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