Canon 6D/7D/60D/70D Rebates

Instant Rebates Through Nov 3rd 2013 

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If you were thinking about one of these this would be the time.

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whil, Maybe it's Time for This

Heard of whil? Maybe it's Time

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Preface to say this has nothing at all do with photography and yet everything to do with photography.
How? You'll see.

What on earth is whil anyway? Well it may be something or it may be nothing at all. That's up to you. Ever feel like for all the time you spend online socializing, uploading photos, commenting, blogging, tagging, reading, comparing, G+'ing, Liking, Twitting, Meetupping, FBing, and whatever else you are doing, is taking a toll on you? Add that to your daily schedule, whether it's school or work, traffic or life's rough moments, it all adds up to whole lot of pressure and STRESS. 

I just found this whil from a story I was reading this morning and there is no denying it. whil, either is now, or will become necessary and beneficial soon to all of us who spend time online. And if you haven't heard of whil, you soon will. And here's why. The founders of  lululemon athletica, Chip and Shannon Wilson say, whil is a global conversation about being the calm in the chaos.

You can find out about how to help handle this stress by linking to the video, then reading about their story. But what I got from it is several times a day, you take 60 seconds, and I don't think it matters if its 10 or 300 seconds, so long as you really bring in the calm and then follow up by making some kind of commitment to setting a goal, and it can be a large long planned for goal or the tiniest one you'll ever make. What you achieve is calm and a power to continue. It's a form of meditation that feels so good, that I've already done it 5 times in the past 10 minutes.Here's a quote from  the whil story:

We believe whil is everything you need to live a full contact life. Its the edge to help manage the ins and outs, the ups and downs, and create the possibilities in our exponentially faster digital world. It is about arming ourselves with the ability to hit the reset button, and reboot without ever losing your cool to achieve greatness.

Why This Relates to My Photography

As a photographer I find it very easy and very exciting to do shoots outside, where I love to shoot. But it is when I am online linking to and there and spending time doing everything but shooting that I find the moment stressful. So I find this all so amazingly simple to adopt and get creative with. here's hoping you will find equally as helpful. If you don't let us know why or let us know what else you've discovered that helps you get back to earth.

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Canon Product Advisory: LP-E6 Charger

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 Product Advisory on Charger and battery Pack 

Have you had this happen? You plug in your charger, insert the battery pack and you see orange light flashing rapidly? The charger needs to be reset or your battery pack, specifically the LP_E6 won't accept a charge. If after following the instructions below, contact Support Center, below, and they'll send you a shipping label, test it, and if it fails replace it at no charge, that is if it fails for them. If it does not fail, you may incur a charge, so go through the motions before sending.

Affected Product
Canon LP-E6 Battery Pack when used with the Canon LC-E6 Charger
(Compatible with Canon EOS 5D Mark III, EOS 5D Mark II, EOS 6D, EOS 7D, EOS 70D,
EOS 60D, EOS 60Da)
Symptom
In rare cases, the orange lamp on the Canon Battery Charger LC-E6 will blink rapidly at regular intervals when the Canon Battery Pack LP-E6 is inserted. In such cases, charging the Canon Battery Pack LP-E6 in the Canon Battery Charger LC-E6 is not possible.

Battery Condition	Charge Lamp
	Color	Indicator
Standby for charge	Orange	Blinks once per second
Communication error		Blinks rapidly
0 - 49%		Blinks once per second
50 - 74%		Blinks twice per second
75% or higher		Blinks three times per second
Fully charged	Green	Lights up

 

This symptom may occur when a Canon Battery Pack LP-E6 has been discharged due to being unused for a prolonged period of time, such as when it is first purchased.
If this occurs, please follow the procedure below.

Procedure

1. Plug the Canon Battery Charger LC-E6, with the Canon Battery Pack LP-E6 inserted, into a power outlet.
2. Wait for 20 seconds.
   If during this time the orange lamp blinks once per second, please continue to charge the battery until the green lamp lights up, which indicates a full charge. At this point, the battery is ready for normal use, and there is no need to follow the remaining steps.
   If during this time the orange lamp blinks rapidly, please move on to Step 3 of this procedure.
3. If the orange lamp blinks rapidly, remove the Canon Battery Pack LP-E6 from the Canon Battery Charger LC-E6.
4. Wait for 10 seconds.
5. Reinsert the Canon Battery Pack LP-E6 into the Canon Battery Charger LC-E6.
6. The Canon Battery Charger LC-E6’s orange lamp should begin to flash slowly (once per second) and charging will begin.
   Please note: If the orange lamp blinks rapidly again, please repeat steps 3-5 above. If, after a third attempt, the Canon Battery Pack LP-E6 does not charge, please contact the Canon Customer Support Center for assistance.
7. Charge the Canon Battery Pack LP-E6 until the green lamp on the Canon Battery Charger LC-E6 illuminates, signifying that the Canon Battery Pack LP-E6 is fully charged.
   

Use of non-genuine Canon Battery Packs
The situation may also occur when attempts are made to charge non-genuine Canon Battery Packs in the Canon Battery Charger LC-E6. However, the procedure provided above does not apply to the use of non-genuine Canon products.
Support
This information is for residents of the United States and Puerto Rico only. If you do not reside in the USA or Puerto Rico, please contact the Canon Customer Support Center in your region.
Please register your Canon Products. By registering, we will be able to notify you via email when future firmware updates become available for download.
Thank you,
Customer Support Operations
Canon U.S.A., Inc

Contact Information for Inquiries

Canon Customer Support Center

Phone:

1-800-OK-CANON

1-800-652-2666

TDD:

1-866-251-3752

Email:

carecenter@cits.canon.com

For additional support options: www.usa.canon.com/support

Memory Cards: Which Ones Does Your Camera Support?

Your Choices are Limited

You have decided you need a new memory card. Perhaps you feel you need an extra card or more, to take with you on a shoot. Or maybe you want a larger card so you don't have to change them out as often. Or you have always wanted to get a faster card. No matter the need, it is time to select one and wow is it confusing when you do a search. But before we delve into that how do you know which card to purchase?

Whether you have a new camera or last years model, or a 10 year old DSLR, you need to know which flash memory cards your camera body is compatible with. A recent conversation I had with a Lexar chat agent helped my decision, (well sort of) on buying a super fast card. I asked if their fast cards would work on my camera, a Canon 5D MarkII. The card I was inquiring about was their 800x Professional Compact Flash card. Why would one have to ask about this card? Well it seems a lot of us make an assumption that simply because we have a new or fairly new camera body, that we the cards we are looking at will work. After all newish should marry up with newish right? Yes and no.  Here is what you are presented with when you type "800x" into the Lexar web page search engine.

16GB Professional 800x CompactFlash

Price:

129.99

Buy now

Where to Buy  See full product description.

Looks simple enough if you like the speed and the price, but is it?  Of course not, so when you click on the See full description link, you get a lot of information that really sounds like exactly what you want but when you get to this line,

Leverages UDMA 7 technology to support the latest generation of high-resolution DSLR cameras,

you begin the journey of what could be a bit of work. Now you are faced with finding out if your camera is of the latest generation. So you go to the top of the page and clicking on Support you find a search bar or the option for a Chat window. I initially chose to search UDMA 7, because that is the class, but instead went to the FAQS column on the left and clicked, ending up with this to link to:

Memory Cards

Instead of looking up each individual camera model, would't it be nice to find this at each manufacturer? It would really make selecting a camera and the card so easy. After just a half hour of reading up on speeds you can glance at this chart and know which speed you are likely to want. 

At Nikon this is as close as it gets, and it is for only a single model


• CF Professional FAQs
  Once there, I found the the information I thought I needed. It stated the following:
  Which host devices in the market today are UDMA 7 compatible?

  The Canon EOS 1D-X is UDMA 7 enabled.
  The Canon EOS 7D, EOS 50D, EOS 1D Mark IV and the EOS 5D Mark II can be UDMA 7 enabled though a firmware upgrade.
  Canon EOS 7D firmware upgrade »
  Canon EOS 7D, EOS 50D, EOS 1D Mark IV and the EOS 5D Mark II firmware upgrade »
  
  Now in looking through the "host" devices, or cameras, I thought that's odd, only 1 camera in the entire Canon lineup is considered a "latest generation DSLR"? Now we get to the real meat of the inquiry, and I have to be honest that I'm already feeling that it should be easier than it is.
  
  So now I'll have to link to the website they are directing me to. And this turns out to be a website that is not from Canon, but a review site, which when linked through does not discuss the 5D MarkII at all. So now what to do? Well now I am forced to go to Canon and start this second phase of the journey all over. This is beginning to take on a real challenge. I'll cut to the chase here for brevity, but I wanted you to see how much could be involved in finding out which card is right for you. So after discovering that there is a firmware update I can add to my camera which will enable it to accept the new CF card from Lexar or any manufacturer of UDMA 7 class cards, I am finally ready to try it out. But then I discover that it is not enough to be camera complliant, indeed there is another condition that complicates the matter.
  
  

  Buying a Memory Card is Not so Simple

  So now I find that in order to connect and download the data from your camera it connects through a USB 3.0 rather than through the standard USB 2.0 connection. For me this is not a problem, I have a computer equipped with both USB 2.0 and 3.0, but for many you discover that you now need to buy a card reader which connects with the USB 3.0. Now what happens if your computer does not have 3.0? Well when connecting the USB 3.0 your data will bottleneck down to the USB 2.0 speed. Now can you imagine buying an internal card to support USB 3.0, and then finding out that your computer motherboard does not support that speed? The option of course is to use your camera connected to your computer and the software for your camera.
  
  You will already know what type of card to buy, since one either came with your camera or you have the manual which will inform you. It is the speed you need to be careful when purchasing. And for all the searching I did online there simply is no way to keep up a list for all the different manufacturers and models made without dedicating a full day a week it would seem to refreshing the list. No one has that kind of time, except the manufacturers.And here is what I found for the Sony, Nikon and Canon.
  
  
  Canon offers a single set of data per camera. The one below is offered at which-canon-camera.com, not at Canon.
  
  

  

And at Nikon, this is as close as it gets also. One set of data for one model of camera. At least they have informed us that regardless of speed, all of the following cards are compatible. the question that comes to mind is, will they continue to update this list as the cards continue to change?

The following SD memory cards have been tested and approved for use in the D90. All cards of the designated make and capacity can be used, regardless of speed.

Sony offered the best and only multi-model chart below, though since it is not a gif or an image I cannot guarantee how long it will be viewable in this post if they decide to take the excel document down. But it is a great compatibility chart showing 33 different Cyber-Shot models.

Media Catgory	Standard Size
Speed Class	Class 4					Class 10
Model Number	SF-2N1	SF-4N4	SF-8N4	SF-16N4	SF-32N4	SF-8NX	SF-16NX	SF-32NX	SF-8UX	SF-16UX	SF-32UX
Capacity	2GB	4GB	8GB	16GB	32GB	8GB	16GB	32GB	8GB	16GB	32GB
Models
Cyber-shot® Cameras
DSC-H55	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
DSC-H70	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
DSC-HX100V	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
DSC-HX5V	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
DSC-HX7V	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
DSC-HX9V	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
DSC-S2000	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
DSC-S2100	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
DSC-T110	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
DSC-T99/T99D	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
DSC-TX10	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
DSC-TX100V	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
DSC-TX200	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
DSC-TX5	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
DSC-TX7	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
DSC-TX9	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
X = No compatibility O = Compatible — = Not guaranteed
Model Number	SF-2N1	SF-4N4	SF-8N4	SF-16N4	SF-32N4	SF-8NX	SF-16NX	SF-32NX	SF-8UX	SF-16UX	SF-32UX
Capacity	2GB	4GB	8GB	16GB	32GB	8GB	16GB	32GB	8GB	16GB	32GB
DSC-W310	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
DSC-W330	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
DSC-W350	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
DSC-W370	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
DSC-W510	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
DSC-W530	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
DSC-W560	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
DSC-W570	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
DSC-W610	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
DSC-W620	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
DSC-W630	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
DSC-W650	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
DSC-WX10	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
DSC-WX5	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
DSC-WX50	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
DSC-WX70	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
DSC-WX9	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O

Final Conclusion 

Do the research online before you buy. Don't rely on a salesperson's "Oh that ought to work". They may know less than you do, they may be unaware of any recent changes to new class cards. Call or chat online with the manufacturer if you can't find the information for your camera online. Or you'll find yourself returning the product and paying the return shipping, while a small amount, you won't have to if you do a little legwork. 

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Your Customer Doesn't Just Buy a Print.............

What a Client Really Wants

A customer who buys your prints, doesn't just buy the pictures. They buy into the way you do your prints. And the way we shoot is to listen to the client. When I produce an image, be it a portrait shoot, a Hospital's need for a print, a University or a Corporate entity, I have to think about the reason they want to use the prints. A corporate client may want explosive splash, a University may want to explore a social aspect, a parent may want the lasting beauty of their Daughter, and so on.

A baby shoot for a GrandParent vs a young couple can be quite an array of differing expectations. One couple recently told me "We want our baby's pictures for GrandPa and GrandMa's special photo wall. I want them to be able to show them off to their visiting friends and family." So the result was to produce photos which were rather a soft, cute, sweet smiling little face that we all love to look at, yet with an angle from a Grand Parenting perspective. That meant doing the shoot at the grand parent's home, or it could have meant shooting anywhere the grand parents thought of as their favorite location. One has to be able to read into a clients request, a sense, a feeling, so the outcome truly grabs them. So you produce something really special. Either that or you'll end up with a shoot that resembles the rather low quality shooting booths set up at malls, with the photographers rattling a baby toy up against a pink or blue background. You'll stand out from the generic by listening to what the client asks for and delivering something they will refer your skills to a friend or family member for the next shoot.

Fit the Client's Need

Recently I did a shoot, and this couple's request went more like this, "We have decided we want a real artsy look to her photos." So this one went quite different. I used lighting so that it came in from the side window and indirect bottoms-up lighting, then a strobe bounced off the arched ceiling, for a real strong effect. They loved them. But even with this direction I wanted more than just artsy. And it worked wonderfully. In this case I took the grand Parents and their Grand Child to a nearby lake for a golden sunset series they could choose from. And they loved the ones they sat holding their baby Grad Child while she was sleeping, with the hue from the sunset landing directly on their faces. I can't show them here as requested.

Or as I prepared an image recently for a hospital art buyer, it was clear that the print had to show a very soft, gentle, healing style, as did the subject of the print itself.

Take an Extra Step Toward Stunning

I think what I've tried to strive for whether I'm doing a shoot or creating an image for my own satisfaction, is to go a step beyond whenever possible. Taking the extra time to add lighting, a reflective bounce from a silver or white or gold panels, or special backgrounds you can think of around your area which offer something that can't be achieved in a studio. Think on-location spots to fit the need. You can always pull it back a degree if needed. But in reaching further, you will have shown your client that your intent was not to merely get another job done, but to reach for the stars. That effort will not be forgotten.

Scout Your Area

You'll find locations that can work on many different shoots, from water locations to historic buildings and gorgeous overlooks and trails, bridges, parks, brightly lit city areas, airport landing and take-off backdrops, rocky outcrops, lighthouses, rivers, hilltops, and so on. The ideas for great outdoor shoots are endless, but so are indoor locations, if you are comfortable with adequate light, or using strobes and speedlites.  You'll find more than you can imagine, if you do some scouting as you have time, prior to a shoot. And don't forget the beaches if there are any near.

 Now Go Get Some Special Shots for Your Clients

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Nearly Weightless Light Stand Bag

Take This on Your Next Shoot

Rock Steady Weight Bag

 

 

Incredibly versatile, our new RockSteady Bag can be stored and transported empty, then filled with sand or other ballast to the exact weight needed. When filled, the bag is ideal for stabilizing LiteStands and counter-balancing boom arms.
The saddlebag design is great for securely stabilizing light stands. Heavy duty material and double-stitch seams provide strength, durability, and impact resistance. Double-opposing zippers ensures containment of ballast. (http://www.photoflex.com/products/rocksteady-bag)
Warranty 5 Years

You know what its like carrying all your equipment to do a shoot. Its a matter of lugging it all in one trip which is usually far too much to carry for one person. Especially if you need to carry any ballast for a shoot with even the slightest of breezes, when using light stands, soft boxes, remotes or whatever you don't want falling over. So you find yourself looking around for heavy items at the location instead of hauling in the weight. I know you've done this, as we all have, we try our best to find anything that will fit around the legs of stands and we usually end up with nothing suitable. With this bag, you can add local rocks or sand or a zip loc bag of dirt placed in the weight bag, if you have nothing else. Photoflex has been in the business of providing pro products since 1985, and they have come up with a winner. Perhaps you haven't seen this before. It even has D rings for counter balance arm hanging. Or you can hang it on a light stand. I've used alternatives such as pillow cases or sandbags, but in order to get these to work I always have to scramble around looking for strings or zip ties, and they work ok, until I find that then I have to find a way to tie them so they hang or nearly hang. The solution really is to get these or make these, and for $35 I don't mind since they have a warranty of 5 years and they are made from heavy canvas so they'll probably last a very long time. Here's a closeup of the material.

By the way I am not getting paid or remunerated in any way for this news, I just like it for ease of use and light weight.


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Apple Teen Survey Forecast

________________________________________________________________________

Apple Teen Survey Forecasts Increase

The survey is so strong in forecasting Apple devices that it makes one wonder if those long lines when new products arrive will only get longer. It is clear teens want Apple products as much as adults want them. At present 55% of teens already own an iPhone, compared to 48% in April, so the demand is increasing steadily. A quote from macrumors states:

"Though Samsung has attempted to portray the iPhone as a device for "uncool" parents, Munster's newest survey suggests that the iPhone continues to gain market share among teens while Android phones become less popular with the group".

Holiday Shopping Right Now

Looks like Christmas may be a bustling season if you don't plan ahead. With forecasts such as this one, you may want to begin online right away. And don't forget the new iPads and iPad minis are coming soon. According to Allthingsdigital October 22nd is the day of the Fall iPad 5 Event. The new iPad is rumored to have the A7 processor like the new iPhone 5s. We'll see what the iPad mini will have but it's time to buy the wrapping paper and get online.