Tong Family (richtong.org sync)

Sigma has been really doing a great job lately and the coolest thing now is that you can download firmware into their lenses at home rather than needing a factory adjustmnet LensRentals.com – Photo/video thoughts from the largest rental house I am certain, though, that Sigma Photo, Inc. has changed a lot in that time.…

Sigma has been really doing a great job lately LensRentals.com – Photo/video thoughts from the largest rental house I am certain, though, that Sigma Photo, Inc. has changed a lot in that time. Truth is, they’re making serious waves in the photo industry these last few years. They’ve improved their repair service and quality assurance.…

Scott has really figure this out, the important figure of merit for a lens+body combo are the number of lines it can resolved for every physical millimeter of the sensor at an MTF-50 (where you have 50% contrast). The Sony RX100 actualy does the best at 270 li/mm mainly because it is easier to design…

Well, if you are off on a long trip, how do you make sure your clubs make it in one piece. Here are some tips: Golflink. First is that you pay a premium if the bag is big and heavy. They cost about $100 and you want to find one with a pull handle and…

The various specs are so confusing. Imatest which pcmag.com and imaging-resources.com uses and dxomark which dxo and dpreview now uses are different metrics for the same thing. How good is a particular body and lense combination. Truth is that a great body (NEX-7) can turn in a low resolution camera with a mediocre lenses (it’s…

The various specs are so confusing. Imatest which pcmag.com and imaging-resources.com uses and dxomark which dxo and dpreview now uses are different metrics for the same thing. How good is a particular body and lense combination. Truth is that a great body (NEX-7) can turn in a low resolution camera with a mediocre lenses (it’s…

Well shopping for a monitor for work and the big question is shouldn’t we just get a flat screen instead. If the environment is light controlled, it seems like the latest generation of projectors is probably the way to go. And if you can stand waiting, this new generation 4K projectors is just coming on…

Let the drooling being, this is a massive monitor. 4 times the size of a 1080 display! ASUS launching a 4k 31.5-inch monitor – but don’t expect to hook it up to your Mac just yet … | 9to5Mac ASUS today revealed that it will launch a 31.5-inch 4k monitor late next month, its 3840×2160 pixels…

Well real cases go for thousands, but if you want something that gets you down to snorkel depth, try it and the main thing it needs is a filter kit to take care of the loss of red at that depth and of course, how do you make the touchscreen go while underwater 🙂 Sony…

Well, since spending $1000 for some editing software just because iMovie doesn’t grok AVCHD seems a little dumb. Instead, I’ll waste way more than that in time moving to an open source video editing tool. Actually, this all makes sense with Adobe jacking the prices up so significantly and the high price of NLE video.…

Well as Scott says, it is all about the lenses, but it is interesting to see the moves Samsung is making with their cameras. They are first more open in that they are open source now, but are they good cameras. the first previews are coming from Ubergizmo.com and Cnet.com OK, not really, but it…

I had not realized that Canon does their own spec publishing. Good discussions. I know know what Sagittal and Meridional lines are the difference between contrast and resolution. But the quick summary is that: Canon publishes lense specifications and MTF for its lenses on its website It measures both the lense at the center and…

OK, I admit it, on Windows I used the complicated but powerful Sony Vegas Pro, but on the Mac, I’ve been living with iMovie for years because it was pretty easy to use and quick to get nice looking output. But now with these fancy cameras (and greater awareness on my part…eg reading too much…

I have an old  Canon camcorder (a *massive* 40GB hard disk, well it was in 2006!) that produces MTS files at 720×480 or 640×480 and it turns out iMovie processes these correctly. Shooting video settings. On my 5D2, I put in a special cinestyle designed just for video. Rungunshoot.com and Bruno have similar suggestions. Here’s…

I have an old  Canon camcorder (a *massive* 40GB hard disk, well it was in 2006!) that produces MTS files at 720×480 or 640×480 and it turns out iMovie processes these correctly. However, the new RX100 produces these same strange files. Here are the oddities: When you connect you RX100 to a Mac, it does…

I’ve always thought that IMAX was better in the non 3d world and normally go there then cinerama but with IMAX 3d in regular theaters I’m wondering. Here is what folks say about a 3D comparison. Basically in commercials 3d it sort of depends. Some of the IMAX are absolutely huge like the pacific science…

Spent the afternoon listening to Asian YouTube artists. Wow I’m impressed. Jwcfree for acoustic guitar Musicneversleeps aka Jason Chen Lilcdawg Kina grannis. Sharon Kwan Claracmusic David choi It’s like Xmas in YouTube land. No auto tune. Real production values. Love it!

We have nearly all these game consoles (xBox, PS3, Wii) and for some reason, I have to say, these new announcements (xBox One, PS4, Wii U) just don’t sound all that interesting. I had not realized it has been *seven years* since the release of the xBox. As Calvin said, when you have a late…

Well time to lust for bikes too…here is a list from Bicycling.com: Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL4 Red. Won last year. $8K, 12.6 lb if you can believe it! But let’s face it the real lust starts with the $12K (?!!) Tarm SL4 Di2 which has Shimano’s electronic shifting components. You can also get this as…

Wow, this is the first full frame camera that can produce raw footage. Something the Canon folks are trying to keep to their $30K high end cameras (you could really dislike Canon for crippling its mirrorless EOS-M and locking out video output with their prosumer cameras in favor of their C line). But their lenses…

I’m one of those outliers who use DxO instead of Adobe Lightroom and one of the reasons has been the way they automatically correct lens imperfections because they test each camera body and each lense. For instance, they say they correct vignetting because they know at every aperture and speed what is the darkness at…

This would be a big move on Sony’s part, wish that their lenses were better (thanks to Scott for explaining that lenses are as important as bodies!) Mirrorless Rumors Matrix agent’s would say…It was inevitable MR-Anderson! Panasonic and Samsung dropped the DSLR world, Olympus will do it soon. So, what is Sony going to do?…

A great analysis by Roger over at Lensrental.com trying to decide what dSLR to buy. Inreresting thing was to compare Nikon D800 and Canon 5D Mark III at 24-70. The new Canon 24-70 II is amazingly sharp and of course the Nikon D800 is 36 megapixel vs Canon at 22, so would seem to be…

We just upgraded our aging late  2008 MacBooks with SSDs ($120) and did an Apple refurbish ($300). I know this seems like a crazy amount of money to spend when you can buy a new Macbook Air for $1K, but somehow it feels good to keep things going (reduce, reuse, recycle). Even the really slow…

Well like the Ricoh GR, this is a APS-C sensor with a fixed F/2.8 lense. DXOMark just tested it and found that it produced a 13P-Mpix which is pretty amazingly good for a 16M APS-C sensor. It is fixed focus, so really a carry around for someone who wants a wide angle fixed focus. If…

Well don’t u know it sometimes the tech support folks are right. This morning we lost Internet access from Comcast and this reboot procedure actually worked unplug the modem and remove the battery wait a minute and plug it in if this doesn’t work remove the cable and u should see just two lights turn…

While there are many review sites for photography on the web, a few have the detailed technical specifications that a true wonk wants (Needs?!). Here’s a good list from lensrental.com and if you are a true geek if you know the sharpness of a lense you can correct for this in digital post producting. So…

Well there has been so much discussion about resolution and sharpness, I’m so confused, so finally spent a little time with Imatest trying to figure out what a Modulation Transfer Function actually is. Also Scott mentioned that in addition to mingthein, checking out the lensrental.com blog is important as they Imatest every lense they bring…

I have the Sony RX100 on order, but a rumor is that Canon will introduce an APS-C sized sensor version in the same form factor. Wow now that is pretty cool. It will might have competion from Fuji as well with a low-end X-mount camera. Wow what a time to be looking at these things!…