The 5D Mark II is one heck of a camera and puts Canon back in the game at the semi-pro level.

I was all set to buy the original 5D after its price dropped with the release of the new one. I also considered selling all my Canon gear to get the D700. I’m glad I waited.

The new revision has some grand features:

• 21 megapixel, full-frame CMOS sensor
• ISO 100 - 6400 (extendable to ISO 50 - 25600)
• HD Movie recording and HDMI out
• 3.9 frames per second continuous shooting

The addition that would have been nice is an improved max sync speed. 1/200 is a bit slow. ISO 50 helps, but it would be even better if max sync could get to 1/250 or 1/320.

External links:

• Canon Press Release
• DPReview Hands-on Preview
• Sample Video Footage
• Not quite pro for video

The video samples are not exciting, but are beautiful quality. If only Chase Jarvis was shooting Canon gear. Not that it matters, the new 5D will sell by the truck load.

I wasn’t hugely interested in the Olympics from a sporting perspective. I’m more a Winter Olympics kinda guy. However, I’ve found myself enthralled by the lengths taken by photographers to capture the games.

The main entry point is Vincent Laforet’s blog. He’s an experienced photographer and is sharing his thought processes as he covers the games for Newsweek.

Newsweek have taken an interesting approach and sent three photographers to shot the games and to blog about it. Their combined blog is here. This article is a good example of the kinds of information being posted. The editor also selects a photo for the day.

Reuter’s photo blog is also featuring an Olympic photo of the day from their photographers.

I’m learning a lot about sport photography and photography in general by reading through these, especially Vincent’s musings. I now have enthusiasm for the Olympics.

1. Be Aggressive
2. Diversify
3. Look for new resources for finding customers
4. Pay attention to your primary message — don’t let it get lost
5. Look for new promotional partners
6. Build your brand
7. Pay attention to your website
8. Use your own work for your holiday cards and stationary
9. Look for new promotional opportunities
10. Stay on top of technology

This is a very short synopsis of Skips’ normal four-hour presentation.

From Skip Cohen (via Jeff Greene).

I started out in photography as I love taking photographs. I’m sticking with photography as there is so much to learn; business strategy, marketing, technology & more.

I’m recently become quite excited about printing my photos. So much so that I’ve bought an A4 photo printer for “proofing”. For high quality prints, I’d rather outsource to a professional lab. The information on which ones are in Melbourne is a bit scattered, thus this list.

Melbourne labs:

• Bond Imaging – Richmond (quote on request)
• CPL Digital – St Kilda (price list)
• Digital Works – Hallam (price list)
• Lab X – St Kilda (price list)
• NuLab – Braeside (price list on registration)
• Vanbar Imaging – Carlton / North Melbourne (price list)

To get the most out of a good photo lab, or any photo lab, you need to be using a colour managed workflow. This should include proofing in Photoshop based on the colour profile of the print device. If the lab can not supply a way of colour matching to their printer, you may want to consider another lab.

Disclaimer: I’m not affiliated with any of these labs. I actually haven’t used most of them, so if you have recommendations, please leave a comment.

This edition of Michael Clark’s newsletter is a doozie. Aside from reminding me of my annoyance with Canon for not having a decent competitor to the D300, he has an inspiring article on shooting the Patagonia Expedition Race. This is wow.

The race is described on the official site as:

It is a journey to the end of the world, to the unknown, a trip to a virgin and wild territory, to southern Patagonia, the tip of the American continent. It is a race marked by the mystique of exploration, of discovery and facing the untamable Mother Nature. It is an adventure at the end of the world…

Reading that in isolation, I’m thinking “yeah, sure”. Reading that after Michael’s story and seeing his photos, I’m thinking “wow, Wow!”.

He quotes Kent Kobersteen, a famed photo editor from National Geographic:

The really strong photos come from those situations where the last thing you want to do is take pictures – where everything is going to hell, where the storms are raging and everyone is trying to hang on.

They were definitely in the right place:

And we were in an alpine jungle with trees so dense that not even a helicopter could find us in this valley.

Well worth a read (pdf). Or even just a download to look at the pictures!

A closing thought:

There are two basic ways to find inspiration. One is to go on a trip and the other is to put the camera down for a while.

– Jay Maisel, page 20