While surfing the web for interesting stuff to share with my readers, I found a very innovative camera strap.  The BlackRapid R-Strap caught my attention.  When going to their site blackrapid.com, I noticed they had a Seattle address.  Since I live in the Pacific Northwest, I decided to pay them a visit for my blog.

After contacting the Chief Marketing Officer, K. Francesca Lukjanowicz, I set up a meeting.  She met me at the office in the Fremont District of Seattle.  She explained to me that the owner Ron Henry was a working photographer who had a flash of brilliance about camera straps.  He was tired of straps sliding off his shoulder, neck aches, tangled and fumbling around.  He designed a better camera strap, by redistributing the weight of camera and making the camera available quick for shooting.  She said that the company was now distributing in 50 countries.

Ron then met me and explained the concept of the strap.  By having the camera hang upside down being held by the tripod socket, the camera is always ready to maneuver into position at a moments notice via a sliding connector that allows the camera to move freely while the strap stays put.  By using the tripod socket, the strap can be attached to heavy long lenses as well.   The R-Strap utilizes hardware that is engineered to facilitate shooting speed by enabling the camera to glide smoothly up the strap from its upside-down resting position. Stress on the connection between the body and the lens is reduced since the strap attaches to the lens rather than to the camera body.

He gave me the RS-7 to tryout.  I have to say I have used it on two shoots and find it is very helpful.  The strap is constructed of ballistic nylon for extreme durability.  With the camera at my hip, I was able to maneuver easily through the shoot, carrying other gear and simply liked having have both hands free.  When I was ready to shoot, the camera connector quickly glides up the strap into shooting position. It is as simple as, grab, glide, shoot.

I have always liked having a camera strap on my camera whether still or video.  Now that we have still cameras that shoot video we have only one camera, it still needs a strap.  Other shooters have not liked using straps.  I have found that I can stretch out the strap and have a more stable platform shooting video handheld with a rig.

Their complaint is sometimes the strap gets in the way.  Having the fastener in the tripod socket, it is easy to remove the strap when on my slider or tripod.  I just screw the fastener back in to use the strap again.  Simple.

I interviewed Ron at his office and he explains how to used that strap and the different models that are for sale.

(The iPhone is mine.  Like the nifty backing?)

Canon Europe has released a video about the New EOS5D MarkIII. It has a headphone jack. The EOS 5D Mark III is the latest addition to Canon's world-famous EOS 5D series. Building on the performance of the legendary EOS 5D Mark II, the new the EOS 5D Mark III offers improved speed, greater resolution, enhanced processing power and extended ISO.

From press release:

“Next generation EOS Movies

The EOS 5D Mark III builds on the reputation of the EOS 5D Mark II, with a range of new features introduced following feedback received from photographers to provide even better Full HD video performance. As well as offering the depth-of-field control loved by video professionals, the new full-frame sensor combines with the vast processing power of DIGIC 5+ to improve image quality by virtually eradicating the presence of moiré, false colour and other artefacts. The addition of a movie mode switch and a recording button also offers greater usability, enabling videographers to begin shooting immediately when movie mode is engaged. Additional movie functions include manual exposure control and an enhanced range of high bit-rate video compression options, with intraframe (ALL-I) and interframe (IPB) methods both supported. Variable frame rates range from 24fps to 60fps, and the addition of SMPTE timecode support provides greater editing flexibility and easier integration into multi-camera shoots. Users can also check and adjust audio during recording via the camera’s Quick Control screen and a headphone socket enables sound level monitoring both during and after shooting. Enhanced processing power provided by DIGIC 5+ also makes it possible to conveniently trim the length of recorded movies in-camera.”

Sample videos:

Mario_Nette

Rad Ball

Color_Of_Hope

I just received a camera slider. I had ordered a Kamerar SLD-230 23″ Camera Track Slider for $99. I have always wanted a slider and was looking for a small one that would fit in may suitcase when I fly. Thus it is short, 23 inches to be exact. I did not want to spend a lot of money. This is a friction slider as there are no wheels or bearings. It takes a little more work to get a smooth move, but it is inexpensive and small.

Here is a trial that I did to test it out.  Shot with the Panasonic GH2, the Lumix G 14mm f2.5, the Leica Summilux DG 25mm f1.4 and the Olympus m.Zuiko 45mm f1.8.  I edited in Final Cut Pro X with no transcoding of the raw camera files.

After using the GH2, I don't see much need in an optical viewfinder in a HDSLR anymore.  The advantages of an electronic viewfinder are plenteous:  You see what the camera is seeing, Exposure, White Balance, 100% view, it is eye level and does not black out when shooting video and you can hold the camera with out a rig.  This new advancement in viewfinder technology makes the viewfinder better than a 720p display.  This article is from Gizmag:

“Digital camera technology has just taken a huge leap forward with the development of a microdisplay panel that's millions of pixels beyond what is currently used in the highly detailed electronic viewfinders of Fujifilm's most recent X-series cameras (X-S1/X-Pro1), and more than double the panels in Sony's latest alpha and NEXcameras. MicroOLED's new bright and detailed, low power OLED panel has been viewed by a number of industry pundits as the final nail in the coffin of the optical viewfinder.

Even though electronic viewfinders (EVF) allow photographers to access lots of important information like exposure or white balance while framing a shot, and see what the application of different settings will look like on the fly, professionals and serious users still seem happy to continue with optical. Reasons offered for sticking with tradition include a lack of dynamic range, noticeable lag while the digital image is processed and concerns about the power needed to drive electronic panels.

The image quality of Sony's recent consumer-level XGA OLED EVF panel developments, in particular, already seems to have stunned some of the critics into silence, but now MicroOLED has entered the fray with the highest pixel density OLED microdisplay available on the market today. The new 0.61-inch (diagonal) OLED panel has a 5.4 million pixel density and a sub-pixel pitch of 4.7 by 4.7 micrometers. It comes in both 16 million color SXGA (1280 x 1024 pixels) and monochrome (2560 by 2048 pixels) formats, and is also said to have eliminated any spacing between pixels and benefit from 96 percent uniformity.

The high resolution image reproduced on the display has a 100,000:1 contrast ratio that should pick up many of the subtle tones in a scene that are missed by other EVFs and, perhaps most importantly, it can be driven with as little as 0.2W of power.

MicroOLED is looking to market the new panel for use in head-mounted displays used by surgeons, professional cameras and camcorders, and night vision applications.”

Micro Four Thirds lens choices is getting bigger.  GH2 owners will need to watch to see what this brings.

Olympus News Release:

Olympus Imaging Corp. and Panasonic Corporation jointly announced the Micro Four Thirds System standard in 2008 and have since been working together to promote the standard. Now we are pleased to announce that three more companies have recently declared their support for the standard and will be introducing products compliant with the Micro Four Thirds System standard.

ASTRODESIGN, Inc., a developer of advanced imaging-related equipment, such as the 4K camera system, that incorporates the latest technology; Kenko Tokina Co., Ltd., one of the world's leading manufacturers and developers of interchangeable lenses for digital and film SLR cameras; and Tamron Co., Ltd., an internationally renowned manufacturer of precision optics who has been providing powerful, high-quality lenses for a wide variety of fields for more than half a century. With the addition of exciting new products from these companies, the Micro Four Thirds lineup will become much more diverse, further increasing the potential of this advanced digital imaging system.

As the originator of the Four Thirds System and Micro Four Thirds System standards, Olympus Imaging Corp. will continue to develop and enhance the product lineup for both standards to meet the diverse needs of our customers.

ASTRODESIGN, Inc.

A Japanese company established in 1977 that designs and develops professional video equipment and measurement/analysis-related equipment. Well known for developing the world's first programmable signal generator and the Ultra HDTV image processor devices used at Expo 2005 Aichi, Japan.

ASTRODESIGN, Inc. Website
http://www.astrodesign.co.jp/english/

Kenko Tokina Co., Ltd.

A Japanese company established in 1957 that designs and develops a wide variety of photographic supplies and optical products. It is Japan's largest manufacturer/seller of lens filters.

Kenko Tokina Co., Ltd. Website
http://www.kenkoglobal.com/

Tamron Co., Ltd.

A Japanese company established in 1950 that designs and develops interchangeable SLR camera lenses, lens units for surveillance, as well as ultra-precision optical components based on the integration of advanced optical, electronic and precision machinery engineering technologies.

Tamron Co., Ltd. Website
http://www.tamron.co.jp/en/

The outlines of the standards can be checked at the Four Thirds website

http://www.four-thirds.org/en/
http://www.four-thirds.org/en/microft/index.html

This article by George Will in the Washington Post is of importance to all photographers:

A snapshot of our times
By George F. Will, Published: January 18
LOS ANGELES
Shawn Nee, 35, works in television but hopes to publish a book of photographs. Shane Quentin, 31, repairs bicycles but enjoys photographing industrial scenes at night. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department probably wishes that both would find other hobbies. Herewith a story of today’s inevitable friction between people exercising, and others protecting, freedom.

When the Los Angeles Police Department developed a Suspicious Activity Report program, the federal government encouraged local law enforcement agencies to adopt its guidelines for gathering information “that could indicate activity or intentions related to” terrorism. From the fact that terrorists might take pictures of potential infrastructure targets (“pre-operational surveillance”), it is a short slide down a slippery slope to the judgment that photography is a potential indicator of terrorism and hence photographers are suspect when taking pictures “with no apparent aesthetic value” (words from the suspicious-activity guidelines).

One reason law enforcement is such a demanding, and admirable, profession is that it requires constant exercises of good judgment in the application of general rules to ambiguous situations. Such judgment is not evenly distributed among America’s 800,000 law enforcement officials and was lacking among the sheriff’s deputies who saw Nee photographing controversial new subway turnstiles. (Subway officials, sadder but wiser about our fallen world, installed turnstiles after operating largely on an honor system regarding ticket purchases.) Deputies detained and searched Nee, asking if he was planning to sell the photos to al-Qaeda. Nee was wearing, in plain view, a device police sometimes use to make video and audio records of interactions with people, and when he told a deputy he was going to exercise his right to remain silent, the deputy said: “You know, I’ll just submit your name to TLO (the Terrorism Liaison Officer program). Every time your driver’s license gets scanned, every time you take a plane, any time you go on any type of public transit system where they look at your identification, you’re going to be stopped. You will be detained. You’ll be searched. You will be on the FBI’s hit list.”

Nee is not easily discouraged — the first day he took photographs of street life, one of his subjects punched him — and has a bantam rooster’s combativeness when it comes to exercising his rights. He exercised them again, successfully, when police told him to stop photographing during an incident while he was standing next to Shania Twain’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Quentin, who finds aesthetic — and occasional monetary — value in photographs of industrial scenery at night, was equally persistent when deputies ordered him to stop taking pictures, lest they put his name on a troublesome FBI list. He was on a public sidewalk, using a large camera on a tripod, photographing an oil refinery at 1 a.m. He has a master’s degree in fine arts from the University of California at Irvine, so there.

Quentin — who in another incident was detained for 45 minutes in the back of a squad car — and Nee are not the only photographers who have collided with law enforcement. In conjunction with a Long Beach Post story on distracted drivers, a photographer went to a busy intersection to take pictures of people texting and talking on hand-held phones while driving. A courthouse was in the background; deputies called it a “critical facility,” so his picture-taking was “suspicious activity.” He was given a pat-down search, and deputies demanded to see the pictures he had taken.

On behalf of such photographers, Peter Bibring of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California has filed a complaint alleging violations of the First Amendment (photography as an expressive activity; freedom of the press is constitutionally guaranteed) and Fourth Amendment (unreasonable searches of persons and their cameras).

Bibring, not a stereotypical ACLU fire-breather, is sympathetic about the difficult decisions law enforcement officers must make concerning the shadowy threat of terrorism. “Points of friction,” he says equably, “are inevitable.”

As are instances of government overreaching in the name of security. Most seasoned law enforcement professionals, however, have sufficient judgment to accommodate the fact that online opportunities for the dissemination of photographs mean lots of people can plausibly claim to be photojournalists.

Furthermore, digital cameras — your cellphone probably has one — are so inexpensive and ubiquitous that photography has become a form of fidgeting: Facebook users upload 7.5 billion photos every month.

This raises reasonable suspicions not of terrorism but of narcissism, which is a national problem but not for law enforcement.
georgewill@washpost.com

Stop Internet Censorship Now. Call your elected officials. Tell them you are their constituent, and you oppose SOPA and PIPA.  Why?

SOPA and PIPA would put the burden on website owners to police user-contributed material and call for the unnecessary blocking of entire sites. Small sites won't have sufficient resources to defend themselves. Big media companies may seek to cut off funding sources for their foreign competitors, even if copyright isn't being infringed. Foreign sites will be blacklisted, which means they won't show up in major search engines. SOPA and PIPA would build a framework for future restrictions and suppression.

In a world in which politicians regulate the Internet based on the influence of big money, websites cannot survive.

Congress says it's trying to protect the rights of copyright owners, but the “cure” that SOPA and PIPA represent is worse than the disease. SOPA and PIPA are not the answer: they would fatally damage the free and open Internet.

Go to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/

http://www.google.com/

http://www.craigslist.org/

http://www.mozilla.org/

http://www.wired.com/

http://wordpress.org/