Roberts Raw!

› posts tagged ‘casio’

Electro-Optical System

Canon EOS Badge

Canon EOS Badge

It’s been twenty-two years now since the debut of Canon’s Electro-Optical System. Usually referred to, of course, as EOS, borrowing its name from the Greek goddess of the dawn.And, I have to say, it wasn’t a bad choice of names for the system. EOS was possibly the first entire system to decide to forgo mechanical operations between the lens and the mount (such as screw drive AF, which still leads to occasional problems for Nikon and Pentax users to this day). Since its inception EOS lenses (designed for the new EF mount, which boldly replaced the popular FD mount entirely) have had built-in AF focus motors. For pushing that envelope alone Canon is to be commended, as far as I’m concerned. The EOS system has gone on to be a massive giant in the camera scene, with something like 40 bodies, and gave the world the first “affordable” consumer DSLR in the form of the original Digital Rebel.

Despite changes in optics and motor technology, the distressingly forward-looking decision to switch to an all-electric mount has meant Canon has been able to increase functionallity without altering the mounts, and has lead to them having perhaps the largest and most comprehensive lens line-up on the market (although 22 years of history means the occasional confusion or overlap as better optics replace or slot in beside older ones).

So, this Friday, stop in and check out the current line of EOS products (including many impressive bodies, whose design by the way is influenced by work done in the past by renowned designer Luigi Colani).



Back to the Basics

The time was 2007, and CIPA (the Camera & Imaging Products Association, representing Canon, Nikon, Sony, Olympus, Kodak, Casio, Panasonic, Sigma, Hoya, and Fuji) showed that the score was thus:

Digital Cameras: 6,926,337

Film Cameras: 720,475

Through November last year, CIPA reported 11,199,175 digital cameras shipped. It’s pretty hard to argue, digital has won. But, even with the plethora of Nikon digital SLR cameras and Canon Powershot digital cameras and Sony digital cameras and blah blah blah out there, there’re a few things about photography that haven’t changed. Not as a result of image stabilization, nothing to do whatsoever with megapixels and ISO, and they don’t care whether you’re using a point-and-shoot or a DSLR.

They’re the elements and principles of design and composition.

Now, I’m sure Chuck and Jody at the least are intimately familiar with these, but here’s the shakedown for those wondering how design matters to their photography.

Design, as an art field, is the purposeful application of art as a form of communication. It uses, as its foundation, a handful of basic principles that are derived from visual Gestalt theory and human psychology. In short, these points are the underlying points for all visual arts, and that definitely includes photography.

There are, typically, seven “elements” of design:

read more



Canon 5D Mk II Firmware

Canon Digital SLR Camera 5D Mk IISo, I’m sure you all know this already, but the news of the morning is that there’s new firmware for Canon’s hotly anticipated 5D Mk II. Early reports are saying that it does, in fact, fix the by now infamous “black dot” scenario. It also promises correction for occasional vertical banding noise. So, there we go, the new Canon digital SLR camera gets its rough edges knocked off, letting it confidently be viewed as one of the truly great imaging machines going.



EX-F1

Nope, not a typical HD camcorderOK, so, I mentioned this camera some time ago, and now I get to proudly say that it is in fact up on our site. Not in stock just yet, but soon.

So, for those who missed it, why am I bothering to talk about what looks for all the world like a run-of-the-mill ultra-zoom SLR-like compact? Well, this isn’t your usual camera. No sir (or ma’am), this is a 60 fps 6 megapixel slideshow monster. And, in case that wasn’t impressive enough, it has full HD video, making it a flexible HD camcorder that can be used in A, S, or even M mode like and SLR.

Still not enough? OK. I saved the best for last. At the cost of resolution, it can shoot video at up to 1200 frames per second. Yup, 1200. That’s what we in the camera business like to call “a whole freaking lot” of frames per second. How much do you lose? Check out this video from Casio’s site: http://www.exilim.com/intl/ex_f1/mov04.html

Once you’re convinced that this is, in fact, the camera that’ll help you improve your backswing or free-throw form, head on over here and let us know you want one when we get them.



Shoot Faster. FASTER!

Casio EX-F1 That sexy beast of a camera is the Casio Exlim EX-F1 I’ve been informed it’s going to be the new kid on Roberts shelves coming soon. This is, like the G1, a product I’ve been eagerly awaiting the chance to see in life.

It’s not the fixed lens SLR-type design, nor the simple hotshoe. Nope, it’s the frame rate. This bad boy can shoot a jaw dropping 60 frames per second, albeit only for one second. Drop into sub-VGA resolutions and it’ll shoot between 300-1200 frames per second. Admittedly, that’s not going to put it in a place to replace high def camcorders anytime soon, but 300 frames per second is a ridiculously awesome amount of frame rate, and slowed down to normal video speeds gives you some astonishing slow motion video caps.

Don’t believe me? PopPhoto took a keen interest in this camera, too, and put together a few short video clips with stills fired from this thing. Check’em out, and then check back with us soon to get your hands on one for yourself.



Canon Vixia Camcorder price drop

The line of Canon camcorders has dropped in price.

Canon HV 30 $799.97
Canon HF10  $799.97
Canon HF11 $1099.97
Canon HF100 $749.97
Canon HG20 $849.97
Canon HG21 $1199.97

Roberts Imaging has them all in stock today!  Get one for the holidays.  Tape based, SD memory card based, and HD camcorders!  One for every occasion!



My Memory Sticks

Even after 20 years at the store I still find it hard to believe that I’ve been here twenty years. Two decades, 5 summer olympics, 5 presidental terms. That is a long time. I guess that is why they honor that kind of persistence with things like watches at most companies. I got mine, and it is a doozie. I am wearing arm candy (not the kind that gets you into the posh nightclubs, or out of marriages). I was honored by Bruce Pallman and the company he keeps with a very nice Citizen Titanium Eco-Drive alarm/chronograph/perpetual calander number in a royal blue. This arm candy always has the time for me.
The ceremony (pre-opening meeting) was a couple of weeks ago, and got me thinking about time and the industry, and co-workers and waxing poetic about age and technology. Here is some of the things I have found out about life in a camera store. It moves pretty fast even when it is moving slow.
When I started they expanded the payroll to nine employees. I  worked in the relatively new camera department in a store that was 30% jewelry and clocks, 50% catalog showroom (remember those?), 15% cameras, tripods, albums and frames (mostly albums and frames) and 5% video and miscellaneous (anybody need a rotating 8-track tape rack? It holds twenty 8 tracks).  Today we have 30 employees at our main store which is 85% camera and video products, with the balance being jewelry, clocks and that miscellaneous stuff (call and reserve your 8 track rack today they are going fast!).
About two years before I started at Roberts I was selling cameras at a major retailer. That is when I was introduced to the new ‘Auto Focus’ cameras from Minolta. By the time I started here Nikon and Canon both had Auto Focus cameras too. In the time since then film cameras themselves have all but disappeared, digital cameras of all styles makes and sizes have taken over the imagination of the imaging inclined, and technology marches on.
The first point and shoot digital cameras from Olympus, Kodak and Casio were about the size of a brick and sported between 160 x120mb resolution to 320×240 mb pixel resolution (or thumbnail to 1/4 screen size on the computers of that day).  Today you can buy an Olympus Stylus digital, Panasonic Lumix digital, Nikon Coolpix camera or Canon Powershot digital cameras that are about the size of a deck of cards and have 10 or more mega-pixels of imaging resolution (32 to 64 times the resolution of those oldies). The first compact flash memory cards came in 2,  4,  6 and 8 mb sizes, Olympus’ “SmartMedia,” (no longer available) maxed out at 64mb.
Today Sandisk Card come in SD, CF, xD, Memory Stick and many other formats for electronic devices, and go up top 16gb in many of those formats. Kingston and Lexar offer the SD and CF cards too, and all are at fractions of the cost of the first digital memory cards.
On my trip down memory lane I found out something interesting about Roberts itself. Of our 30 person staff here at the main store the average years on the job is 8.3, I think that is amazing. I think that is a staff with experience and answers, if you need them.



Confessions of a Coffee Addict, pt 3

The Nasty Yellow

So, as my dentist would be more than happy to tell you, caffeine-rich beverages like tea and coffee are also really, really good at leaving a yellow stain on things. My mother would be more than happy to tell you how awful it is for countertops, too (usually right after yelling at me to go find a paper towel and WIPE THAT UP!). But, you know, at this point I’m used to the fact that all of my purportedly white counters have a vague yellow brown tint. I don’t feel the same way at all about my photographs.

Now, first, let’s get my stance on white balance out there. I think an accurate white balance is one that recreates how I perceived the light at the time, because, let’s be honest, we very rarely get actual white light. But, there are occasions when getting an accurate white balance becomes important (in my case this is usually shooting in the absolutely awful dim mixed lighting of my friend’s metal concerts).

Now, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t tend to carry around a sheet of white paper to take an incident reading off of for my custom white balance setting. This is where my coffee addiction becomes a saving grace. It turns out coffee filters (the bleached kind, sorry eco-warriors) are great for setting white balance.

How? Just strap one of those bad-boys over your lens, point it at the light source, then do whatever jiggery-pokery your camera manual says you have to do in order to set a custom white balance. Voila! The coffee filter acts as a diffuser and a white instance all at once, and I generally get some pretty fabulous results from this.

It does, however, look a bit, ah, ‘low budget.’ If you’re looking to impress clients, I recommend a product called the ExpoDisc, which works very similarly but looks a whole lot more porfessional and comes in a variety of handy sizes.

Next time: Spilling Things! Or, Why Derek Likes Olympus Digital Cameras and Panasonic Camcorders.




Switch To Mobile Site