Archive for August, 2008

Product summary

Canon EOS 50D

Manufacturer: Canon USA

Part Number: 2807B006

CNET editors’ take

• By: Lori Grunin
• Published on: 08/25/2008

(Credit: Canon USA)

Bringing another rumor cycle to an end, Canon has announced the EOS 50D, a follow-up to the popular 40D, which will remain available at least through the end of the year. Though the timing seems a bit surprising–the 40D is only a year old, and midrange dLSR cycles tend to run closer to 18 months rather than 12–it was probably inevitable once the Rebel XSi, which is very similar to the 40D, shipped.

Built around the identical body as the 40D–the only differences are the name plate and mode-dial bezel–the 50D brings with it a bump to 15 megapixels. According to Canon, the new sensor has smaller pixels than that of the 40D’s 10-megapixel version, but the company claims superior noise and image quality; 1.5 stops better, in fact, thanks to an improved manufacturing process and larger, gapfree microlenses that effectively result in the same light-sensitive area, according to Canon.

In combination with an upgrade to a newer version of the company’s image processor, dubbed Digic 4, Canon also says that the higher resolution won’t impose a significant performance penalty, and that the 50D will be able to maintain burst speeds close to the 40Ds. And now that the camera’s CompactFlash supports UDMA, the burst buffer can process more shots–JPEGs, at least.

And though it has a 3-inch LCD like the 40D, Canon has switched to the same higher-resolution display found on the Nikon D300

Some key differences:

50D
40D

Sensor
15.1-megapixel CMOS
10.1-megapixel CMOS

Sensitivity range
ISO 100 to ISO 12,800
ISO 100 to ISO 3,200

Image processor
Digic 4
Digic III

Continuous shooting
6.3 fps
90 JPEG/16 raw
(60 JPEG with non-UDMA card)
6.5fps
75 JPEG/17 raw

Autofocus
9-pt AF
all cross-type to f5.6
high-precision diagonal cross-type in center to f2.8
9-pt AF
all cross-type to f5.6

Price (body only)
$1,399
$1,099

The Digic 4 enables some other new capabilities, including face detection in Live View mode (up to 35 faces), additional settings for the Auto Lighting Optimizer and high-ISO noise reduction (low, medium, and strong), and user-requested variable raw sizes of 7 and 3.8 megapixels. There are also some tweaks to the autofocus system, for example compensation for pulsed versus constant illumination, and support for in-camera lens databases that enable it to perform vignette correction and ensure undergraded illumination across the entire frame. Finally, Canon has improved the dust prevention, with a fluorine coating in front of the low-pass filter to deal with sticky dust.

Canon expects to ship the 50D in early October. The body will run $1,399, and a kit with the f3.5-5.6 28-135mm IS USM lens will cost $1,599.

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It’s been sooo many years since I was last back in ol’ E-town (Emporia, KS), and I’m with very mixed emotions that my 20th high school reunion that is coming up this weekend (with the first event being Friday night at the bar and grill that used to be the movie theater that I worked at all though those HS years).

For the most part I haven’t seen almost any of those people since graduation day. Now that I think about it, I think I might be able to say that I have seen none of them since graduation day. Most of the people after that which I hung out with were all from the year above me.

I was never very popular (a classic 80s spaz/geek/nerd), so didn’t know a great many of them. I’m finding myself going back over my yearbooks to match names to faces. I wonder what it’ll be like this weekend.

I have arranged for some meetings with some of my favorite ol teachers, and can hardly wait to catch up with them.

Oh Pru Schmidt, I need to see if I can run into her while I’m back. If anyone ever could be blamed for being a formative teacher/mentor, it’d be her and Mr. Chapman.

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Over the past five years Golden Gate Faire has quickly become my pride and joy. Don’t get me wrong, I love Valhalla and the rest, but this is our first one that we did ourselves. We created it, didn’t take this one over from a failed attempt by someone else, it showed up on the city’s doorstep and said, “hey, mind if we borrow a part of your park for the weekend?”

Each year it’s grown, both in participation by vendors and performers as well as in the attendance through the gate. This year we had over 7,500 patrons. If you add in the 700+ performers each day plus the vendors and support staff, we had well of 10k people on the ground. It gets smoother each year, we figure out the best layout/footprint, and we scale it up a bit more each time.

All our tuning doesn’t always work out, and we go “ok, we’ll not do that again next year.” But overall this event is just a joy to see develop and come along. It’s become a part of San Francisco’s annual calendar of events, and the crowds are expecting to see it. Next year it’ll return to it’s normal dates of the last weekend of August (which will put it on the 29th and 30th of 2009). This year we had to move it back due to September 1st being a Monday, which would make the last weekend of Aug be Labor Day weekend which there’s so many other big events that weekend, we weren’t really interested in having those dates.

Next year we’ll start with two box offices, for four active ticket lines plus one for will-calls and overflow from the others. I’ll adjust the 1st leg of the serpentine to force a left turn at the garland booth. And we’ll extend the front of faire further forward to the East as the site continues to grow. Oh, and we’ll double the number of privvy’s ordered.

Anyway, to the team goes the kudos. I still believe I just play a figurehead, play with city officials and deal with paperwork (and the whining of vendors), but let’s be clear, he’s the folks who suffer just as much (if not more) along with me each year in putting it together:

• Co-Producer/Public Relations & Marketing / Guild Coordination: Marti Miernik
• Facilities & Operations Manager: Durelle Polleck
• Site Manager (& the other half of Durelle’s Brain): Perry Louie
• Volunteer Coordinator: James Dyer
• Security Coordinators: Gaven & Beaker

And here’s a few links to some postings:

• SFist: Rockin’ Out at the Renaissance Faire 
• SFCitizen: Golden Gate Renaissance Faire 2008 Goes Off Without a Hitch

 

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Spectators cheered as entire Cambodian Midget Fighting League squared off against African Lion

Tickets had been sold-out three weeks before the much anticipated fight, which  took place in the city of Kâmpóng Chhnãng.

The fight was slated when an angry fan contested Yang Sihamoni, President of the CMFL, claiming that one lion could defeat his entire league of 42 fighters.

Sihamoni takes great pride in the league he helped create, as was conveyed in his recent advertising campaign for the CMFL that stated his midgets will “… take on anything; man, beast, or machine.”

This campaign is believed to be what sparked the undisclosed fan to challenge the entire league to fight a lion; a challenge that Sihamoni readily accepted.

An African Lion (Panthera Leo) was shipped to centrally located Kâmpóng Chhnãng especially for the event, which took place last Saturday, April 30, 2005 in the city’s coliseum.

The Cambodian Government allowed the fight to take place, under the condition that they receive a 50% commission on each ticket sold, and that no cameras would be allowed in the arena.

The fight was called in only 12 minutes, after which 28 fighters were declared dead, while the other 14 suffered severe injuries including broken bones and lost limbs, rendering them unable to fight back.

Sihamoni was quoted before the fight stating that he felt since his fighters out-numbered the lion 42 to 1, that they “… could out-wit and out-muscle [it].”

Unfortunately, he was wrong.

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