TWiP #224 – Canon, Olympus, & Lytro

This week on TWiP: Canon announces the EOS-1D X, Olympus fires its CEO, and the curtain is finally pulled back on the Lytro camera.

Hosts: Frederick Van Johnson, Martin Bailey, Syl Arena, Alex Lindsay

UPDATE

Last week on the show we told you about the situation facing Photojojo founder Amit Gupta and his battle with Leukemia. One of our listeners commented on the post and pointed out a few things to us with regards to getting tested for and becoming a bone marrow donor. Be sure to check out their comments on the site.

NEWS & DISCUSSION

Canon Announces the EOS-1D X
Canon today announced it's next flagship pro body – the EOS 1D X. The new Canon EOS-1D X incorporates a newly developed approximately 18.1-megapixel 35 mm full-frame CMOS sensor which, in addition to achieving an optimal sensor size and pixel count balance, effectively makes use of Canon's proprietary semiconductor technologies to ensure low-noise performance. Other features include a Digic 5 processor, dual CF card slots, new AF & AE systems, GB Ethernet, and HD video. Martin & Syl remarked that they are both very excited for this camera and Frederick would even consider jumping ship from Nikon based on the specs of this camera but wonders how long it will be before Nikon responds. Alex likes the improvements to the video features but does feel this will still primarily be a still shooters camera. It's expected that Canon will be releasing a new dedicated video camera so Alex thinks that we'll still have hybrid cameras for the still shooters who need to do some video (e.g. Photojournalists) but that dedicated video shooters will migrate back to these dedicated video cameras rather than going with the hybrid dSLRs.

In related Canon news, Syl also mentions that Canon recently opened a new Professional Tech Center in Hollywood and he is excited by the commitment to it's customers that this shows.

Lytro Camera Now Available for Pre-Order
Several weeks back, Frederick interview the team behind the amazing Lytro light field camera. On Wednesday they held a press conference to announce that the camera was ready for pre-order in the US.

Olympus Fires its CEO
From Petapixel: Olympus fired CEO and President Michael Woodford today, causing the company's stock price to take a 17% dive. The 51-year-old Briton was accused by the board of ignoring the management culture that the firm has had in place for 92 years. Martin comments that as someone who has worked in Japan for several years, it took him a number of years before he learned all of the cultural nuances in Japan but wonders why they hired Mr. Woodford for his cultural differences only to fire him for those same differences. Frederick wonders whether 2012 will be the year that we see companies such as Olympus and Kodak, who used to be major players in the photography market, go away.

Syl thinks that success will come to the first company to come out with an Apple-like interface for their products. Alex has maintained all along that companies like Canon and Nikon should focus on developing good products such as sensors and cameras and leave the interface stuff to others who are better at – such as Apple. The company that he thinks is in the best position to make this kind of a move is Sigma with their array of products. If they just opened up the APIs and allowed you to control their products with something like an iPhone, he thinks they would have a hit on their hands.

LISTENER QUESTIONS

Question 1: Karl Kochman from Springfield, IL writes: As a new “Digital” Photographer who has spent many years in “film” I am having a hard time making the transition to digital. Any tips you can give me would be grateful.

Syl: You need to decide if you are a photographer or a retoucher. Those controls in many ways are like choosing a film stock. I find many guys switching from film to digital end up going way too deep into Photoshop so I'd suggest going with Lightroom or Aperture. Also realize that ISO is an equally viable way of changing your exposure setting.

Question 2: Chandy asks: I have a canon 350D and I'm about to upgrade. Do I go for the new technology on the 7D, or go for the older but full frame of the 5D? I mainly do portraits and would like to move into doing weddings.

Martin: The 7D with the 1.6 crop factor is going to give you much less control over the depth of field compared to the full frame sensor of the 5D or the 5D Mark II. For portraits and wedding photography, having that ability to have a shallow depth of field would be beneficial. I you can get a great deal on a 5D and even the 5D Mark II which is likely due for an upgrade soon. Martin also likes the ergonomics better on the 5D bodies.

PICKS OF THE WEEK

Martin – DigitalPhotographyCafe.com

Syl – Westcott Orb softbox

Alex – iPhone 4s

Frederick – Mark Daughn Workshop in LA $300 off for THREE TWiPers $1,150 (regular price $1,450) and the 1197 iPhone Conference

WRAP UP

Follow us on twitter.com/ThisWeekInPhoto. Join the Flickr critique group. You can also join our Facebook group.

Martin Bailey – http://www.martinbaileyphotography.com or http://www.twitter.com/martinbailey

Syl Arena – http://www.speedliting.com or http://www.twitter.com/syl_arena

Alex Lindsay – http://www.pixelcorps.tv or http://www.twitter.com/alexlindsay

Frederick Van Johnson – www.frederickvan.com or www.twitter.com/frederickvan or Google Plus

CREDITS