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One of the highlights of the Canadian Winter Olympics had little to do with figure skating, slalom skiing or snowball fighting. A special edition Canon give-away to photographers covering the event was a special coffee mug in the shape of the popular 70-200mm EF lens.

The official name of the coffee mug is Canon EF Lens Collector Cup. Apparently, Canon had so many requests from eager buyers that they have now made the mug available for purchase. Still produced in very limited quantities, some photo retailers may soon stock this rather cool addition to your camera bag. Even if you don’t like coffee, there’s little argument that an extra ‘lens’ in your backpack can’t make you look more professional…

Firmware 2.0.3 was scarcely available for half a day when Canon posted an update to its latest firmware release. 2.0.4 corrects an issue that can occur with audio recordings for which levels have been set manually. The easiest workaround is to leave the audio level metering on automatic, but the best fix is to visit the for the Canon website and download firmware 2.0.4.

Quite possibly the fastest set of firmware updates we’ve seen for the Canon 5D Mark II...

Firmware 2.0.3 for the Canon 5D Mark II is available for download from the Canon website.

The firmware update includes the following five enhancements to the movie function and a fix to the manual sensor cleaning function:

Download from this link. While you’re there, be sure to download the latest, updated user manual. It includes additional information regarding the new features:

Canon delivered a pre-announcement of the anticipated firmware for the Canon EOS 5D Mark II last week. The new firmware release is to be available sometime in the next week or so and focuses primarily on extending the camera’s video shooting capabilities.

The update add will add 24fps and 25fps recording to the EOS 5D Mark II, as well as some improvements and modifications to the Live View shooting function and the histogram display.

Whilst these improvements are certainly welcome, I’m sometimes surprised by the fact that very simple, marginal additions to the existing firmware could provide a huge amount of functionality to standard shooting options. As an example, Canon DSLR cameras do not provide a built-in time lapse feature. That’s a fairly standard and simple addition, probably already existing in some shape or form inside the code of the firmware all the EOS cameras rely on. Yet, Canon seems to be unwilling to provide marginal firmware updates to add such useful features. Possibly, it’s their ability to charge for additional accessories that provide the features most photographers eventually want to utilize…

In any case, the free update to the EOS 5D Mark II firmware will be available on the Canon website soon.

The Canon MP990 is finally available in South Africa. A multi-feature printer, including a scanner, this is one device I have been waiting to get to use for some time. Let’s talk about the features the MP 990 provides: it’s a compact three in one device, containing a photo printer and a scanner. That’s just a part of it, of course. The MP990 is a photo printer and high-definition scanner, an all-in-one unit that will fulfil all needs a fairly demanding user will want to have access to. Not only does the MP990 print photographs in high definition, but it provides decent scanning with support for slides and duplex printing on demand. It may be worthwhile to provide some additional detail on this device in the future.

But, as a Macintosh user, I am becoming rather aware of the support provided to that platform by hardware vendors. Canon is usually quite excellent when it comes to camera support on the Mac. On the installation procedure for the MP990, I found their offering quite lacking. After having unpacked the printer and having followed the rather deliberate unpacking cues provided by orange magic tape, I loaded the provided Mac CD ROM and proceeded to install the software to get the printer to function. That’s an error, of course. The release of Snow Leopard has made many hardware installation procedures invalid. Whereas systems without Snow Leopard can safely load the provided CD ROM software, more modern systems will have little success in getting the multi-function MP990 to work. Here’s the lowdown: Snow Leopard has significantly altered the way hardware support is provided. To install a modern Canon peripheral, the first step is to download the Apple-supported Canon drivers. Get the 250MB download here.

Once the Apple drivers have been installed, set up a printer in the system preferences and point the printer to the correct device. I found that the printer would work only once the Apple drivers had been installed and the latest drivers for the MP990 had been installed from Canon‘s support site. It is important that the MP990 is identified in the Apple configuration indicating the Canon IJ network connection:

This is possible only once the latest Apple drivers have been loaded, followed by the installation of the latest drivers available from Canon. Get the Canon drivers here.

Scanning seems to work without an issue, even over a network connection. Printing requires an extra effort… It’s not out-of-the-box…

I’ve been watching a number of DVD‘s related to photography and the EOS 5D Mark II. Most of the titles I have purchased so far are published by Blue Crane and are of a very high quality with regard to content and instruction. As the 5D Mark II is suited to high definition video capture, I recently ordered the title Learn 5D Mark II Cinematography with Philip Bloom. Bloom is an accomplished cinematographer who has recently switched to the EOS 5D Mark II for commercial work. Like Vincent Laforet, he is trying the camera out quite extensively to determine how best to capture the content he is after.

The title is rather interesting and worth a look if any kind of digital video capture using a DSLR is of interest to you.

That said, the Canon 5D Mark II seems to be an almost incidental actor in the multi-chapter DVD Bloom presents. My assumption that the presentation would focus at least in part on some of the mechanical aspects of how to capture video using the camera was wrong: other than showing the most basic technique of how to enable video capture on the 5D Mark II, Bloom spends very little further time discussing the actual mechanics of how to interact with the camera. Important topics that include how to focus are almost completely left out and never discussed in any great detail. Though one could argue that these topics can easily be found in the camera’s manual, the title of the DVD suggests that these aspects would be covered. As a comparison, the free-to-view video by Tyler Ginter goes into a lot more depth with regard to the technical aspects of how to use the camera to capture video, including what to look out for when focussing and re-composing.

The main title runs for about one hour and comprises 24 chapters. An extra 17 minutes of workflow-related content is also provided on the DVD.

That’s not to say that Bloom‘s DVD is of no use. There are plenty of tips and tricks provided that are highly useful. A great explanation and practical example of the rolling shutter issue plaguing CMOS sensors and how to avoid issues with banding caused by electrical lighting are included. Audio synchronization and capture using external audio devices instead of the camera’s inadequate microphone is another example of valuable content. The extra section on workflow regarding the editing of video on a computer is somewhat confusing, consisting of screenshots with too much clicking without sufficient information on why certain selections are being made. Probably a no-brainer for video-savvy users, but not so for the novice.

One last comment: the inclusion of Bloom‘s company logo on every frame and every free space surrounding him is unnecessary. Having purchased the DVD and being an avid reader of his blog, I’m aware of his company and accomplishments.

That’s something one would never see on a Blue Crane title, for example.

In many ways, the DVD misses its mark, specifically because it seems to promise more than it delivers. There is no way anyone will learn cinematography with the 5D Mark II after watching this DVD. Instead, certain concepts may make more sense and certain explanations will assist with further understanding and self-study. The omission of actual camera handling techniques is serious, though plenty of other information is provided that is useful to the aspiring 5D Mark II cinematographer. I suggest the DVD to anyone who has an interest in DLSR video capture. The content is specific to the 5D Mark II only in the sense that Bloom uses that camera as a capturing device.

Whenever I install all my collection of favourite software on a Mac, I have the same  conundrum to solve: connecting an iPhone results in the following notification:

Regardless how often I’ve managed to find out what is happening, I seem never to remember for too long… The issue with CameraWindow appearing has to do with the installation of the Canon EOS Digital Solutions software. That CD contains EOS Utility and Digital Photo Professional, amongst others. Since certain cameras don’t trigger the automatic launch of iPhoto or similar software on the host machine, Canon provides this utility to assist. Unfortunately, the software is installed without question and is not immediately easy to disable. Instead of living in the System Preferences, CameraWindow can be disabled only once iPhoto has been launched and its preferences examined.

Selecting a different action to occur when a camera is connected gets rid of the annoying CameraWindow notification. Now I remember. Again…

As with all technology, a recent purchase of a modern DSLR is likely to result in quick disappointment as a newer model is announced, in increasingly shorter timeframes. To update the 350D, I bought a Canon EOS 500D in December. It’s an excellent camera with some fantastic features for the price. Yesterday, Canon announced the imminent arrival of the 500D‘s successor, the Canon EOS 550D. That camera is also known by its other moniker, the T2i.

The obvious focus of the new 550D is video capture, something the 500D already handled with aplomb. The camera is capable of 3.7 fps and an ISO range of 100-6400, expandable to an unusable 12800. Borrowing from its bigger EOS brothers, there’s a 63-zone metering system and 18MP image sensor backed by the DIGIC 4 Imaging Processor. Full 1080p HD video capture is possible, backed up by an interesting new feature for standard definition video recording: Movie Crop is capable of providing an almost 7x zoom into the field of view without any loss in image quality. Movie Crop is similar to the older digital zoom function found on cameras, though the difference is in the way the image is processed, being cropped and captured directly from the imaging sensor instead of a magnification of individual picture elements.

The Canon EOS 550D should be in stores in the USA within the next two months or so, costing about the same as the EOS 500D. More information can be found here.

I finally got around to updating the 5D Mark II‘s firmware to the new 1.2.4 version. A simple procedure that worked without a hitch. I prefer to use the CF card method.

The update corrects a phenomenon that visible noise may appear in images taken by continuous Bulb shooting. This firmware update corrects a phenomenon that if the [C.Fn II-1 Long exposure noise reduction] setting is set to [2: On], noise may appear in images that are captured while the previous image is still being generated.

Whilst on the Canon USA site, which I consider a spectacular resource for all things EOS, I had a look at the new content that had been added to the Canon Digital Learning Center. Needless to say that I spent roughly five minutes completing the firmware update to the camera and almost four hours browsing the content available on that site. With the rest of the house asleep, I was able to read a number of articles and assimilate a significant amount of information without interruption.

If you haven’t checked out the content Canon provides, I urge you to have a look. Videos, articles, technical discussions and more. It’s all there, regardless of your level of proficiency or technical ability. In particular, there are some great resources on HDR photography and the use of flash lights. On entry point is this link, but there is tons of other content accessible from the main site.

It’s that time again when I check various software packages and devices to determine whether the holiday season has provided any updates and improvements. In the case of Canon, it’s been quite some while since I checked for updates to the Canon digital imaging software. There are a number of updates, specifically to Digital Photo Professional, Image Browser and EOS Utility for both Windows and the Mac. The download links for these are easiest to find on the Canon USA site.

At the same time, I saw that a firmware update for the EOS 5D Mk II is also available, having been released in mid-December. Though I don’t use or own the WFT-E4 II wireless transmitter that is usable with the 5D Mk II once the update has been applied, update 1.2.4 does include a correction for the bulb mode function. It is possible that certain artifacts or noise may be visible in photos taken in continuous bulb mode. I’ve downloaded the update and will apply it later today.