Over the past several months, both Canon and Nikon introduced new entry-level Digital SLRs to their lineups. Both brands offer many new features, and better image quality. Boy, these cameras are sweet. Their light, portable, offer stunning image quality, and they are a huge step up from the previous version. It’s a Smackdown!

Round 1: Design

Both the Canon and the Nikon have wonderful design. The XSi features a huge 3 inch screen, while the D60 sports a 2.5 inch display. Being that the Canon uses Live View technology that allows you to see the image on the screen before you press the shutter button, I love the larger screen. Both the XSi, and the D60 feel almost natural to use. The buttons fall right where you would expect them to be, however, being a hardcore EOS 40D user for nearly a year now, I would love to see the addition of a “Quick Control Dial.” The D60 has the shutter button, preset modes, power switch, and command dial all at your index finger, allowing it to be almost identical to its 6.1 megapixel predecessor, the Nikon D40.

Winner: Both camera bring excellent design to the DSLR table. They both have many of the buttons placed on the right side of the unit, allowing your thumb and index fingers to do most of the controlling, without moving your left hand off the lens, making it feel almost natural to use. Canon’s XSi and Nikon’s D60 both get a 9 this round.

Round 2: Features

When comparing both brands to their predecessors, you are blown away with some of the new features. The XSi now features a 12 megapixel sensor, and Live View. The D60 is now equipped with 10.2 megapixels, and Nikon’s “Integrated Dust Reduction System” which presents several ways to rid the dust from the image sensor. Both cameras are a giant step up from their predecessor, however the Canon XSi simply has more features. The screen is absolutely breathtaking, and the shots don’t disappoint. 

Winner: Canon’s XSi has plenty of features that will last you for years to come, and are easy to access and use. Don’t get me wrong- The D60 is an excellent camera, it’s just it doesn’t bring enough punch to compete with the XSi. The D60 gets a 7 this round, and the XSi gets a perfect 10.

The XSi features a 12.2 megapixel sensor, and a DIGIC III image processor allowing for excellent images. The Nikon, on the otherhand, features a 10.2 megapixel sensor. Both cameras offer great image quality, that will last you for years to come. However, the Canon XSi seems to add a bit better color quality, and sharpness to each photo. The Nikon D60 gets a 8, while the XSi gets yet another 10.

Round 3: Performance

Both the Nikon and the Canon start up immediately after you flip the power switch, allowing for you to capture the shot you want, when you want. The autofocus is wonderful on both cameras, as well. The XSi is quick to autofocus on the subject, while on the D60, it seems you wait just a tad more for the camera to focus completely. The Nikon gets a 4, while the Canon gets a 5.

Round 4: Value

Boy - these cameras have value. They are both stuffed to the brim with features, compared to their predecessor, and will have enough power to supply you for years and years to come. The Canon XSi retails for $899 with a 18-55mm lens whereas the Nikon D60 retails $150 cheaper at a mere $750 with a 18-55mm lens. In my eyes, if you have the money, spend the extra money and get the XSi, which features a larger LCD, LiveView, greater megapixel count, and frames per second (FPS), just to name a few.

Winner:

The Canon XSi scored a 34, and the Nikon D60 came in with a 28.

Obviously, the Canon is a better built camera all around, and I’d recommend spending the extra $150 on a camera that packs a bunch more features. Don’t get me wrong- the D60 is an excellent step up from the D40, but it just seems Canon brought more to the table this time. XSi Wins!

This year marks the start for a new uprising of web services which focus around the concept of Cloud Computing, the ability to run high end and useful applications from the web using an ordinary internet browser. One such experiment is from Adobe Lab’s which is the web version of Photoshop aptly named Photoshop Express (BETA).

Photoshop Express (BETA) is a Flash powered website that allows you to perform the basic Photoshop operations on photos such as colour adjustment, cropping, red-eye removal, and special effects. To get started you simply create an account (currently you can only join by stating your country as the US), login and then upload your photos. Now this presents PSE’s first hurdle, redundancy of data. Now this is intended for quick touch ups and edits, just like it’s competition which is the mediocre applications that ship with digital cameras. The advantage with these applications is that any inexperienced user can plug in a camera and be instantly downloading and editing their photos. I found it annoying to have to use my browser to look for the photo I wanted to edit, it was just a step I felt I could do with out.

What I think Adobe may getting at sooner is extending this service into their AIR platform, allowing the AIR application to directly access the user’s hard-drive and pull all the photos they have on their hard-drive or memory card. This is something that could be a real winner for Adobe, allowing my grandma to visit our house and immediately show us her new photos without having to email a 50MB zip file.

But, Adobe also does allow me to import my photos from Facebook, Picasa or Photobucket so I can edit a headshot of me for later use. Something that if promoted would win over the Facebook crowd.

The first couple of features are pretty stock standard such as Red-Eye removal, Auto Correct and Exposure. One feature that really striked me as quite attractive was the Touchup feature, allowing me to select an area that may be blurred or scratched and replace it with a swatch from another area. It takes a little getting used to because you need to adjust the red circle (the area you wish to copy) before clicking the green circle (the area to replace) otherwise it may accidently take a swatch from the background or some random area.

With White Balance, PSE has some nifty presets for adjusting based on the lighting conditions at the time. Highlight adds extra light to a photo which, unless the photo was taken well, will result in just a washed out photo. Sharpen and Soft Focus perform exactly what their names imply.

Pop Colour is a nifty effect allowing you to select a specific colour and have it stand out, much like those photos you see with a greyscale photo encapsulating a coloured object, for some artistic users they may enjoy producing art basically on the fly. The Hue, Black & White, and Tint effects are what you’d expect from any photo application. Sketch transforms photos into something like it had been drawn while Distort allows you to bend photos creating “fish-eye” effects.

As you may of noticed that effects are pretty standard, but this is a powerful web application for quick edits and novice users. I am found myself using it when I need a quick crop, it saves me the wait of Photoshop to load or to have iPhoto want to first import it into its 6GB library.

Photoshop Express is a winner for anyone on the go wanting to edit that little blemish or produce a mug-shot in a snap, it especially appeals to those running Windows who right out the box want to edit a photo without loading some trialware enhanced application. I will certainly be using this a lot more in the future.

Sharp wide open at f/2, super fast autofocus, a beautiful smooth depth of field at low aperture settings, and a perfect focal length for long range landscape/short range sports are a few of the areas where this lens really shines.

One of the things I’ve been most pleased with other than the sharpness wide open is the superb autofocus performance. When the lens is switched to focus at 1.6 meters to infinity, focus locks in at a rapid pace, perfect for fast moving subjects in the distance. When set to 0.9 meters to infinity, the Canon 135L becomes a versatile lens allowing excellent macro and close up images to be taken.

The Canon 135L has made me fall in love with prime lenses all again, the same way the Canon 50 f/1.4 did. While the Canon 24-70L is an excellent zoom lens, it never took this kind of effect on me or my images. The 135L will be attached to my camera for some time to come.

It has been my goal for some time now to attend a wedding as the main photographer, a goal I completed over the weekend down in Christchurch, New Zealand - a two hour flight from home.

Overall I found the whole process rather relaxed. My flight arrived in Christchurch the afternoon before the wedding, and I popped into the chapel before heading to my accommodation for the night to check out the lighting, and scout locations for the formal shots.

The morning of the wedding was super relaxed, however I found myself running between two houses shooting the preparation shots from both the groom and the brides sides. I must have swapped lenses dozens of times in the two hour period of shooting preparation shots, though I found myself primarily shooting with the Canon EF 135 f/2L and the Canon EF 50 f/1.4 under the harsh lighting conditions. The primes kept me thinking about composition and created a very ’smooth’ depth of field when shot at low apertures.

The chapel where the ceremony was held was very small, I used the Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L for shots of the wedding party arriving, along with the bride walking down the aisle. In saying this, the Canon EF 135 f/2L was a perfect focal length for most of the ceremony, and was attached the the camera for 90% of the time. I feel this could be a different story under different conditions (size of chapel/church), so a little extra focal length might come in handy in the future. One of the upsides of the 135L is its immense sharpness, so cropping is possible if more detail is needed to be pulled from images.

The most invaluable lens of the day was hands down the Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L. The versatility when it came to shooting portraits was invaluable. I enjoyed the ability to go from full-body shots to head-shots within a twist of the zoom. The only other way to provide similar versatility would be to have two camera bodies, one with a wide angle lens and another with a medium length telephoto.

If I was shooting another wedding down the line in the future, there are a few extra tools I’d like to pick up.

Canon Speedlite Flash

I didn’t think I’d be needing to use flash anywhere near as much as I did. I thought with my two super-fast primes, I could make use of available light. Although true, I found I used the flash for over 75% of the portraits as fill light to eliminate shadows on faces.

A Canon 430EX purchase looms in the very near future.

Wider Prime Lens

I shot the Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L at two focal lengths the entire day, 24 & 70. When shooting outdoor formals the lens was glued to the wide end - I found myself often wanting to shoot wider.

The Canon EF 14 f/2.8L looks very attractive for this use, bar the hefty price tag it carries. Of course the Canon EF 16-35 f/2.8L must be considered, but I could see myself using the lens glued to the 16mm end - hence the want for the prime.

Extra Camera Body

While a different camera body mightn’t have created better images, it’d have made it a whole lot easier to capture the ones I did. Shooting with an aging Canon 350D wasn’t the easiest thing to do, especially when trying to capture focus for candid portraits when the action was moving very quickly.

Ideally, I’d like something which has a more accurate AF system, better performance above ISO 400, and something with two card slots for redundancy. The last thing any wedding photographer wants is lost images.

Overall, I was extremely happy with the images I managed to capture with the gear I had with me - I’m very excited with the results from the day, and I’m looking forward to the next wedding, whenever & wherever that may be.

The Final Figures

1419 frames fired using one camera body, two Sandisk 4GB compact flash cards, three Canon lenses, and 11.19GB of hard-drive space.

1066 Images - Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L
250 Images - Canon EF 135 f/2L
103 Images - Canon EF 50 f/1.4

The Tasman Sea At Dusk, On Board Pacific Star

I discovered an interest in many new areas of photography while away. Including candid, landscape, and architecture. While at home and seeing the same scenes each day I became accustomed to my surroundings, and my photography developed a very basic pattern to it. Visiting new locations really helped me open my eyes to other potential shots. I feel the getaway has been a huge help in terms of refreshing my photographic eye while opening up a different aspect I can put in-to action back in my home town.

Port Douglas Coastline, Queensland Australia

Get out with your camera, venture somewhere new. Book a flight to a remote location, head out for a week long road trip. Simply head away from your usual surroundings and discover what’s out there - when you arrive back home, your eyes will have opened to many new photographic opportunities which didn’t appear before your trip.

Now - where’s that 135mm prime lens. I’m off for a walk.

Long have I been a subscriber to the theory that those new to the digital single lens reflex arena should start their lens collection with one, relatively inexpensive piece of glass, the f/1.8 variation of the 50mm prime, in either a Canon or Nikon mount, depending on the users choice of camera brand.

As a Canon user there are two different relatively affordable variations of the standard 50mm prime lens. An f/1.8 and f/1.4 version. The f/1.8 variation is the lightest and the cheapest ($79 USD) of all three, it’s the perfect piece of glass to introduce an individual to primes lenses. I’ve owned this lens in the past and thoroughly enjoyed my first experience of inability to zoom. Owning the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 forced me to use my eye to its full creative ability.

Second in the line is the slightly heavier, and relatively more expensive ($329 USD) f/1.4 version of the 50mm lens. Advantages of this lens include a far more superior build quality, faster focusing, full time manual focus ability, and a larger aperture opening. I now own this Canon 50mm lens due to its advantages over its cheaper counterpart.

Also available is the Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM. This is the only 50mm prime lens in Canon’s line which features the “L” tag, as a luxury series lens. It features the most superior build quality of all Canon 50mm primes, and is one of two lenses in the Canon EF mount lineup which will open to f/1.2 (the other being the Canon EF 85mm f/1.2 USM) - allowing in a significant amount of light.

Why Should I Invest In A 50mm Prime

I initially purchased the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 after hearing praise of the lens optical quality for its small price on photography forum Fred Miranda. Once in my hands, I discovered why.

The focal length of a 50mm prime is somewhat special, as it’s very accurate in terms of field of view to a human eye. Essentially, on a full frame body, what you see through your eye is what you get through the cameras viewfinder.

When limited to a single focal length, there’s only one possible field of view. This view rapidly sticks in your mind, until you know exactly what you’ll see through the viewfinder of your camera without having to life it to your eye. It’ll make you think about framing of images much more closely, and help you improve your eye for creating exceptional shots.

You’re made to think much more about the finder technical aspects of the image, such as aperture, ISO, shutter speed, and exposure. Changing the framing of your image will need to be done via your feet (foot zooming), giving you much more creative control over your image, rather than standing in one spot and either zooming in, or out.

While I believe that all photographers should have a general walk around zoom in their bag for general use, prime lenses will help you create better images, and help you develop your personal photographic style.

| This image was captured using these settings: f/2.8 | 30mm | 1/3200th | ISO 100|

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As many Canon fans are awaiting an announcement on an updated full frame EOS 5D Mark II, Canon have come out with an update to its entry level DSLR - the XSi (450D).

The camera features a twelve megapixel CMOS sensor, 3.0″ LCD monitor, Live View with both AF modes (contrast-detect and passive), 14-bit processing and RAW, spot metering, improved AF, 3.5 fps continuous shooting, a larger viewfinder, SD/SDHC storage and a new higher capacity battery.

12.2 Megapixel CMOS sensor

Canon’s EOS Integrated Cleaning System

3.5 frames per second

3.0″ LCD with Live View shooting

9-point wide-area AF system

DIGIC III image processor

Compact and Lightweight body

The step up in improvements from the 400D to the 450D is much larger than what progress was made in the previous installment when Canon replaced the 350D with the 400D. Live View is slowly making its way across the whole line, along with 14-bit RAW, and a 3.0″ LCD monitor. These are too expected in the next edition of the 5D.

As a body targeted at those moving up from point-and-shoot camera, the megapixel count is something un-educated buyers take into account. While 12.2 megapixels stuffed into such a small sensor might not be so forgiving on noise at ISO 800 and above, it does sound impressive for Canon’s most affordable DSLR.

The Canon XSi is expected to start retailing in March 08.

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| This image was captured using these settings: f/1.4 | 50mm | 1/2500th | ISO 100|

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The Night Of Fire

| This image was captured using these settings: f/5.6 | 55mm | 1/100th | ISO 800|

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Warm/Shadows

| This image was captured using these settings: f/4.5 | 50mm | 1/4000th | ISO 400|

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I just read the news of Canon’s latest two super telephoto lenses, the EF 200mm f/2L IS USM and the EF 800mm f/5.6L IS USM. Both lenses will be shown off by Canon at PhotoPlus Expo from October 18 to 20.

I’ve been watching in the past few weeks as the old discontinued Canon EF 200 f/1.8 lens has been selling for upwards of $5000. The f/1.8 lens was discontinued due to a lack in popularity - it became uneconomical for Canon to continue producing it.

I have a feeling the new 200mm super telephoto from Canon will slightly kill the market for used f/1.8 versions. Expect to see a few put up for sale over the next few months, I’m expecting to see a steady price drop of the unit gradually falling to around the $3500 mark.

Not enough sales to keep the production running or may be it had to do with the by-products generated during the manufacturing since some of the elements contained lead (as in Pb, a heavy metal)?

Since it contained lead, the by-products (read: waste) will have to be contained and handled appropriately as it may harm the environment. Regardless, this lens has increased in value after it has been discontinued.

The 200mm f/2 IS looks the ticket for low light sports photographers, or event photographers who are constantly shooting in dimly lit halls like Duncan Davidson. It’s already playing in my mind if he’ll purchase this and have it take over the majority of his workload the 70-200 cops week in week out.

The pricing for the 200mm f/2 IS is currently speculated by POTN forum members at around $3500 USD - sitting just below the price of the 300mm f/2.8 IS. However we won’t know this officially for a while.

One thing we do know is this lens will be worth waiting for if it’s anything close in IQ to the f/1.8. Lustworthy is the way to put it.

Weave/Wave

| This image was captured using these settings: f/7.1 | 50mm | 1/125th | ISO 100|

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Green Haven

| This image above was taken with the following settings: f/2.8 | 50mm | 1/500th | ISO 100|

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Grass Straws

| This image above was taken with the following settings: f/5 | 160mm | 1/1250th | ISO 200|

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Although relatively inexpensive, I’ve heard good words about Canon’s consumer 50mm prime lens for a long, long time. I’d been meaning to pick up one for myself since I bought my 350D 18 months back, and finally did just that last week on impulse.

The lens I bought is the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8. Widely known as the cheapest Canon prime lens with the best image quality. I also picked up the optional ES-62 lens hood as a precautionary measure for eliminating reflection and glare while shooting in wide open daylight.

Build Quality

One thing this lens isn’t well known for is a top notch build quality, in fact, this lens really lacks even a medium quality build. It uses a cheap looking plastic EF mount, and feels very flimsy. I wouldn’t want to drop the lens, even on a soft surface. It’s quite apparent the slightest knock will break the lens.

If you’re after something with a better quality build which an be knocked around a little more, the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 might be what you’re after ($329 USD).

| This image above was taken with the following settings: f/2.8 | 1/100th | ISO 100|

Image Quality

Abeit the low quality build, the image quality and sharpness for such an inexpensive lens is remarkable.

Low light shooting really is a joy with the lens wide open at f/1.8. The possibilities of different shots using f/1.8 and an ISO of 1600 really open up so many potential frames you couldn’t capture on anything else.

In lower lighting conditions where I still have a little light to play with, I tend not to use the lens wide open, rather opting for slightly higher aperture value of 2.2 for added sharpness - and bumping the ISO speed by one notch to make up for the aperture difference.

I’ve found the lens to be sharpest when opened up past f/2.8, daylight performance at f/2.8 is a little disappointing, with a noticeable lack of sharpness around the focus point. Cranking the aperture up eliminates this, and the lens really starts to shine at f/3.2.

| This image shows the overall image with a 100% crop to show sharpness|

Conclusion

If there is one single lens you should pick up when you purchase your first DSLR, this is the one. Albeit the low quality build, the image quality for such an inexpensive lens is remarkable.

It makes shooting in low light much, much easier. I’ve also found shooting with a prime lens has opened up the bar for my creativity - I’ve started to think about composition so much more which results in better images.

For $80, you really can’t go wrong with the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8. It really has me thinking about my future lens lineup, and the overall sharpness has me thinking about going with a lens lineup completely comprised with primes.

Architecture

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City Living

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Dramatic Highlights

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