Teeeeejirrrrr

Something I had not noticed before until the other morning, when I took a different subway going to work. Hidden in a fenced-off garden just feet away from the street. Shot was hastily taken as the lighting was perfect, with the Cosina-Voigtlander Ultron 40mm f/2 manual focus lens.

Yesterday, Canon issued a recall on one of their flagship DSLR cameras, the EOS 1D Mark III. One of the problems is related to autofocus issues when not using the center focus point – which I don’t experience because I almost exclusively use the center point. There are a total of 45 autofocus points on the camera viewfinder, with 19 of them being selectable. The remainder are “assist” points.

The autofocus has had knocks on it because under certain conditions it totally freaks out – high temperature heat/haze in the backgrounds, and under low contrast conditions (such as a dancer wearing black against a black background). The EOS 1D Mark IIn, its predecessor, apparently did not have these kinds of issues.

The other problem which is potentially more serious and troubling are ‘ERR99’ messages that occasionally pop up and without real regularity. These cause the camera to become unusable until powered off.

Canon’s biggest problem though is that they are perceived as covering things up.

It’s a lot like when a Windows desktop would crash- you had no idea what happened, and like voodoo in the Microsoft way- with the reboot of the computer, and the waving of a dead chicken, everything would come back just fine. Some users have had to leave their cameras powered off for extended periods of time, while others just remove the battery to reset it, and everything is okay again. I have personally never experienced this problem, so I can’t comment on it.

Canon’s biggest problem though is that they are perceived as covering things up. Having some camera bodies out there that work, and some that can’t focus, and now finally acknowledging some that randomly crash makes this problem worse. In some ways, I wished that ALL of the cameras had failures so that it would be easier to clear the mess away and start over. Then they could issue a credit on current 1D Mark III owners towards the newer model. But I can’t

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You’re probably here because of a random search. Well, i’m no expert, but i’ve got some equipment, and i’ve been shooting for only a little while. I’m probably the perfect person to offer an objective point of view! I’m a newbie too. Just like you, but the only difference is that I have some gear, and you don’t (yet).

Well, I want to help you. I want to help you save money, time, and frustration. So without further do, please allow me the opportunity to set you straight on a few things.

1. The equipment DOES NOT really matter!
2. Persistence and patience do matter, however.
3. Being creative and curious helps a lot.
4. Special effects are easy. Time consuming, but still… easy.
5. Connections help more than expensive lenses.

The explanation for each of these points continues after the break.

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This will be a bit of an ongoing comparison between one of Canon’s pro-level cameras (the 1D) and a convenient point-and-shoot camera that was purchased on a binge at a bankruptcy sale of a large retailer- the Canon SX110.

This is not meant to be a joke. It’s part of my way to try and be a better all-around photographer and get used to equipment from both professional and casual shooter territory. I’ll be posting more of these types of comparisons as time permits. It’s actually rather fun and isn’t meant to be a put down for the more expensive camera- and definitely not a situation where a rinkydink point-and-shoot is being fed to a tiger den.

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