Levi Buzolic » canon

Cactus V4 Flash Triggers & Sigma EF 500 DG Super

Levi — Fri, 01 May 2009 01:52:34 +0000

Just got my Cactus V4 Flash Triggers from Gadget Infinity and so far they seem pretty good. Just a note to anybody who has a Sigma EF 500 DG Super, make sure you set the flash to Slave mode (pictured above) this stops the flash from switching itself to standby mode and will allow the flash to fire using the standard centre pin (required for the V4 Triggers) rather than the proprietary Canon pins.

South West Photo Trip 2009

Levi — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 16:52:46 +0000

I’m still going through photos from both the ARC and the various landscape shoots, I’m getting there…

CompactFlash for Canon 5D Mark II Video

Levi — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 16:00:40 +0000

I just did a quick little test and it turns out that Sandisk Ultra II’s are definitely up to the task of recording video from the Canon 5D Mark II. This is great news, because it opens up a huge list of cards that–based on speed tests–should be able to work with the 5DMkII’s video mode and it means we have more cost-effective storage solutions for such a task.

According to Rob Galbraith’s tests; the 5DMkII writes files to the Sandisk Ultra II at around 10MB/s. So, theoretically any card that writes faster than 10MB/s should be able to handle the data rate required by the 5DMkII’s video mode.

Because the Sandisk Ultra II sits around the halfway mark on the chart, that leaves us with plenty of options to consider, including (but not limited to):

SanDisk Extreme Ducati 8GB, 4GB
SanDisk Extreme IV 45MB/s Edition 16GB, 8GB
SanDisk Extreme IV 8GB, 4GB, 2GB
SanDisk Extreme III 30MB/s Edition 32GB, 16GB, 8GB, 4GB
SanDisk Extreme III 16GB, 12GB, 8GB, 4GB, 2GB, 1GB
Lexar Professional 300X 16GB, 8GB, 4GB
Lexar Professional 233X 8GB, 4GB
Lexar Professional 133X 8GB, 4GB
Lexar Prof. 80X (3rd ed.) 2GB, 1GB
Transcend UDMA 300X 16GB, 8GB, 4GB
Transcend 266X 8GB, 2GB
Transcend 133X 32GB, 16GB
Transcend 120X 32GB, 4GB
Hoodman RAW 300X 8GB
Hoodman PRO 150X-133X 4GB, 2GB
Hoodman RAW 280X 8GB, 4GB, 2GB
Kingston Ultimate 266X 8GB, 4GB, 2GB
Kingston Ultimate 133X 8GB, 2GB
PNY Optima PRO UDMA 266X 8GB, 4GB
PNY Opt. PRO UDMA (2007) 8GB, 2GB
ATP Pro Max 1GB
ATP Pro Max II 300X 8GB
A-Data Turbo 350X 16GB
Dane-Elec 300Xs UDMA 8GB
Ridata Pro 150X 8GB, 2GB
Delkin PRO 305X 16GB, 4GB
Maxell standard 2GB

Because you can only store a little over 3 minutes of 1080p video per GB, you really need to consider a card larger than 4GB though 8 & 16GB cards will probably give you the best GB-per-dollar value.

Looking around at some Australian online stores I found a few good deals:

Transcend 133X 16GB – $63 (0.254GB/$)
Transcend 133X 8GB – $39 (0.205GB/$)
Transcend 133X 4GB – $26 (0.154GB/$)

It would seem Transcend 133X cards are the cheapest around that can manage the speeds required by the 5DMkII’s video mode.

If you’ve found a great deal on CompactFlash cards that would suit the 5DMkII, then feel free to leave a link in the comments.

Canon 5D Mark II

Levi — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 08:55:34 +0000

Well it’s here. Just not here.

China, Japan, USA, Australia and Europe have all received their limited initial shipments and the numbers aren’t too impressive. It will probably be weeks before pre-orders are filled in most places, though it looks like Australia’s numbers are the worst of the bunch.

Rumours floating around DP Review and OCAU suggest that Australia’s first retail shipment was just shy of 80 units, 7 of which were said to have made it to Western Australia — that’s not many at all.

The good news is; additional shipments should be arriving every week through December. So I’m hoping I’ll have mine in hand well before Christmas.

If you didn’t even know about the 5D MkII yet, here’s the short version:

21 Megapixel Full Frame Sensor
3.9fps RAW Shooting
1080p High Definition Video
A massive 50 – 25600 ISO range
And a lot more

Vincent Laforet said this thing is going to be a real game changer, and provided proof to back it up.