Roberts Raw!

› archive for November, 2008

Roberts Raw Footage: Slik Pro 700DX

It’s a shortish week here at Roberts thanks to the holiday this Thursday, so I’ll be starting things off quick with another Raw Footage from Mike. The product on special this time around is the Slik Pro 700DX, a pro-caliber camera tripod featuring some impressive height and solid construction. This one will feel more at home next to your professional studio lighting than it will out in the field, but you nature photogs shouldn’t worry, I’ve got another video coming later this week geared more towards you.

Now, without further ado, the video. Or, view it on our podcasts page here.



Canon Rebates

In an unfortunate turn of events, Canon’s rebate processing company has filed for bankruptcy during our Canon Days celebration. Roberts would like to assure everyone that this is definitely not a fault with Canon, and, actually, we already have new rebate forms up for the video end of things (well,for the professional camcorders anyway) available in our Rebate Center. So, if you’ve been eyeing the Canon GL2 or XL2s over the Sony HD camcorders, you won’t have any worries now with going ahead and getting yourself one.

On a more positive note, tomorrow is Canon day itself, so if you’re in the Indy area be sure to stop by and try some equipment live and in person. I know I always enjoy it when we have all the exotic L Canon lenses kicking around here.



Focusing Screens

EF-D Focus Screen for EOS 40D/50D Among the more interesting and most under-mentioned digital camera accessories I can think of are focusing screens. Pick up your DSLR real quick and put it to your eye. Depending on your brand you’ll see different things, you might see nothing, or maybe you see a few AF areas marked out. What you aren’t seeing is the very finely textured screen that lets you discern focus through your viewfinder.

In the modern age of auto-focus this is the most versatile way of doing a focusing screen. It allows for focus points anywhere in the frame, and provides bright, clear viewfinders. But, for people who prefer manual focusing (like for macro work), the old split-prism focus screens of the film age are missed. Old-Fashioned Split PrismThose of you who used film know what I mean, but for those of you who joined us in the digital age cameras used to have a circle in the viewfinder with a dark ring around it and it was split in half. The line through the center would divide subjects and if they weren’t in focus they wouldn’t line up, which made confirming focus pretty darn easy.

What a lot of people don’t realize in a lot of modern DSLRs, including several Canon digital SLR cameras, Nikon digital SLR cameras, Olympus digital cameras like my E-3, and more have available alternative focus screens.

Some of these screens are just even more precise “matte” screens, but some have grids etched (for making sure straight lines are, ya know, straight), and hey, some of them even have the split prism functionality.

So, you might take some time and look into it. Odds are, the way you currently see through your DSLR might not be the only option you have.



Industrial Design, Anyone Remember This?

http://robertsimaging.com/cmItemDetail.jsp?pid=12153So, month’s ago when the new Sony digital camera, the A900, was being introduced I wrote a blog where I started touching lightly on my love of industrial design and the different approaches to camera designs. I promised way back when I wrote that I promised I would discuss the that famous red triangle that adorns the grips of the Nikon digital SLR cameras.

So, let’s talk about automobiles. I’m sure everyone here has heard of the DeLorean (at the least everyone knows Doc Brown’s car in Back to the Future), and most probably know the Volkswagon Golf. These cars, as well as dozens of others (including many highly celebrated sports cars dating back to the 70s), have something in common with Nikons dating back to the F3. Namely, an Italian designer named Giorgetto Giugiaro.

Now, if you believe the internet (and for now we’ll assume it’s not lying to me too horribly), Giugiaro designed the first Golf, which used a red line around the grill and the headlights for emphasis. When he designed the F3 for Nikon, the brought that same simple concession to color to the world of black professional SLRs.

This line, once dated, would expand into the ellipse found vertically beside the grip on the F5 and the D1, and would with the D2 series condense into the red triangle that adorns so many cameras right now, including the D40, D60, D90, D300, D700, and the once-again Giugiaro-designed D3.

So, there we go, modern Nikon cameras come from a design heritage that also includes several iconic cars like Lotuses, BMWs, Alpha Romeos, Bugattis, Mustangs, and more. Addressing Nikon’s continued use of an element introduced back with the F3, Giugiaro said this:

“For the Nikon F3, I added a red line to the professional-use camera, which used to be entirely black. I sought to make that the hallmark of the Nikon F3 through a bit of graphic flair. In other words, I added a bit of fun to it. Fortunately, the company likes the addition of the red line. I am delighted that the company still uses it extensively to give a family feel to Nikon’s camera line.“

Next time, we’ll look at the history behind the current, sleek legacy of Canon digital SLR cameras, and continue my push into digital camera comparisons via industrial design.

Further reading on the Nikon designs can be found here and here.



Sony HDR-FX1000 prosumer knockout

Sony has finally released the replacement to the ever popular HDR-FX1.  The new Sony HDR-FX1000 has a lot of features that were previously only available on the best of professional camcorders.  The big enhancement on the new model is the ability to record both 24p and 30p progressive.  The low light ability has also been improved down to a 1.5 lux rating.  The new 3.2″ LCD monitor has a 921K pixel screen so the recordings look more accurate to the amazing HD capabilities of the camera.

Previous models of the Sony HD camcorders were not nearly as well balanced as this new machine.  It also feels very solid.  Other than the lack of XLR inputs, the new HDR-FX1000 is at the top of the heap in prosumer camcorders.  We have one on display at our Roberts Imaging downtown location.  Come down and check it out.  We also have the full line of both Canon and Sony consumer HD camcorders in stock and ready for a good home!



Hoya HD Filters

Hoya HD

We’re working on getting the full line of Hoya’s new HD filters up. But, Derek, you ask, what are HD filters? Well, Hoya’s High Definition filters are made from the best quality optical glass and then specially coated, ending in a product that promises to be 4 times harder than regular ol’ optical glass and have a super-fine finish for easy cleaning. Popular Photography claims the coating is so good they wrote on one with markers and wiped it right off.

We’ve got a Raw Footage from Mike who briefly discusses the line below:

And, if you’re curious about that durability claim, I dug up these videos originally from Hoya’s site. The first one shows what happens when you throw a steel ball bearing at a regular filter. The second shows the same test with an HD filter.

Now, personally, I’m a fan of any product that’s been rigorously tested by throwing balls of metal at it, I have to confess. Find one for yourself over here.



Roberts Raw Footage: Canon Days

It’s a Canon Days special post on Raw Footage. This time I’ve gone down to the sales floor and picked up one of my top point-and-shoot picks for the season, the Canon PowerShot A2000 IS. Now, the A series of PowerShot digital cameras is the more practical end of Canon’s line-up, and the “A” of course designates the use of standard AAs for power, a feature which is still pretty popular among a lot of shooters. This particular model lets you use a nice combination of 6x optical zoom and 10 megapixels to record shots of whatever strikes you to the ubiquotous SD memory card.

Oh yeah, and the face-detection is pretty slick, too, but I’ll leave that for the video (also available on our Podcasts page).



Roberts Raw Footage: Tokina 12-24

Another chill, grey day here in Indianapolis, another Raw Footage video for me to post. This is the next in the series with our THK rep, and this time we’re showing the Tokina 12-24mm lens. Like the 11-16 this lens can sit amongst your Nikon lenses or Canon lenses, since it’s available for either system. It’s got a durable, rugged metal build, as well. For the rest, I’ll turn you over to the video. Embedded below, available as always on our Podcasts page as well.



Sony T700 Cybershot

The new Sony Cybershot camera T700 camera has arrived at Roberts Imaging and it is a sharp little camera.  It sports a 3.5 inch LCD screen that is the brightest and best resolution in its class.  The camera has 4GB of internal memory and a memory stick slot for added memory storage.  It is available in red, pink, silver, and gray.

The T700 is controlled by a touch screen menu system that is very simple and straight forward to operate.  The speed of the camera is very responsive.  Hit the shutter and away it goes!  Check it out.

T700 Sony



Mirror Lenses, Apparently Not Dead

Sigma 200-500mm f2.8It’s been a series of odd coincidences around here lately. First off, Nick was taking an order for one of the more exotic of Canon lenses, the 800mm f5.6, so we were talking about exotic lenses in general and the big giants, like the Sigma 200-500 f/2.8 (a piddling 34.6 lbs for over 2 feet of lens. It needs its own battery. No, really) and my favorite big honking lens of all time, the Canon 5200mm f14 (pictures and a copy of the brochure page here, here, and here). Supposedly it had a working range of 18-32 miles and came with spotting scopes. Nice. This sucker reports to have been a very pocketable 220 lbs and 75.6″ long. Now, a lens taller than most adult men might sound massive, but if you stop to do some quick math and figure out that a 5200mm lens should be around 17 feet long, you might not find 75.6″ so bad.

It was a mirror lens, using mirrors in addition to glass elements to ‘fold’ light inside the lens, by first sending it to the back of the lens, then back up to a small mirror in the middle of the front element, and then finally sending it back to the sensor.

Then, the day after that, Jody was surprised to hear new announcements for mirror lenses (which have no aperture controls, you get one fixed aperture and need ND filters past that).

500mm f8 ReflexThen, today, I was reviewing the current Sony instant rebates, and saw the 500mm f8 Reflex sitting down in our Sony lenses. Apparently, if you buy Sony Alpha cameras you’ll find yourself in the unique position of having an available autofocus mirror lens, giving a fieldof view equivalent to a lens three times longer than it actually is.

Will it rival that $11,000 Canon for quality? No, but hey, for under $700 bucks and for it’s tiny size (well, compared to optically formulated 500′s), it’s going to be hard to beat. Don’t forget on any Alpha other than the A900 you’ll have a 1.5x crop making it a 750mm lens which is only about 5″ long.




Switch To Mobile Site