Visia Productions in Action!

Here Tim, Derek, and Gabe are working on the tripod mounted camera with the 55-300mm lens attached.

Here is Tim checking the video abilities of the newly acquired T2i and zoom lens.

Mounting the T2i to the steadycam.

 

Some steady cam practice in the streets of Palo Alto.

My Dad's Goldfish - update

It is with a sad heart to report that the lazy goldfish has now passed away.  My parents came back one day and noticed it wasn't moving much, even after putting food in (eating was his favorite activity).  A few hours later, he stopped breathing all together.  May he join the rest of my pets in goldfish heaven... rip un-named fish.

Photoshoot: Mei+Ian

A few weeks ago Brent, myself, and our assistant for the day, Esther, had the opportunity to go around Palo Alto to do a photoshoot for Mei and Ian.  We started out around 4pm, so the sun wouldn't be directly over-head but we wanted to be able to end the day with some nice dusk shots as well.  We only had time to stop at two locations in Palo Alto (a small grass-land spot freeway and in the iconic Stanford campus), but one of the faults that I quickly learned when reviewing the pictures was that even though Mei+Ian went through several poses, one of the things we did wrong was not asking them to move to a new spot each time.  In the end, I felt like there wasn't enough variations in the background, but we'll have to just chalk this up to 'lessons learned'. 

Overall, Mei+Ian made up for our shortcomings and modeled beautifully.  Their natural love for each other shows through in all of their pictures, as evidenced in their radiant smiles and body language.  We had a wonderful outing with this couple and wish them the best of luck in their preparations for the wedding!

 

Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 EX DC HSM ELD SLD Aspherical Super Wide Angle Lens

I just ordered a Sigma 10-20mm wide angle lens along with a 16gb SDHC C6 card from Amazon.  I was looking at this lens or the Tokina 11-16 but decided on this due to its range that would fill more "gap" up to my 24-105.  Here is how the items were packed:

One step inside the box:

One more step without the wrapper.  I like that it came with a case (though bulky) and a petal lens hood.

And here is a pic of the "friendly packed 16gb card" that is pre-opened for you so you do not need a razor blade to slice open the package.

I linked up my new lens to my T1i body and began shooting.  I like the effect that it provides and the speed at which it does it.  I do need more practice with it, but it does a great job getting everything in the picture with minimal pin cushion.  One thing to note is that when I was shooting on aperture priority, it would auto select it a higher ISO leaving dark pics quite noisy.  It does great in good day light.

Unboxing the new toy!

Video has always been one of those outlets that has intrigued me and something I wanted to play with for a while.  When canon came out with the T1i, it initially intrigued me, but when I read that the follow-up T2i had similar specs as the 7d, and started seeing the videos that came from this camera, I was sold. So I started my research,  but realized it was back ordered everywhere.  (Apparently a very popular camera).  But luckily, last week my cousin checked Amazon and realized they finally had it in stock.  Placed my order, added 2 day free shipping thanks to Esther's Amazon Prime account, and in it came today.

First off, the T2i box looks nearly identical to my XTi, and has the same size.  (For the remainder of this post, the T2i is on left, and XTi on right.)

The normal set of manuals/warranty info/software:

The camera definitely has a better feel to it.  The rubber grip and thumb pad makes it feel more professional.  The size of the grip is also a little bigger than the XTi, but that extra amount does help a lot especially if you have bigger hands.  The mode dial on top is raised more, making it easier to adjust as well.

The LCD is only .5" bigger, bit it makes a huge difference when reviewing pictures.  As you could see, the button placement looks similar, with some minor differences.  The iso button is moved to the top, but otherwise everything else is there but in different places.

The T2i lens does come with image stabilizer which is always a plus, especially since the kit lens is great for those just starting out.  I spent 10 minutes playing around with the lens and was very impressed with the optics of the lens.  Compared with the old 18-55 which came with the XTi, this one definitely gave sharper results and had great depth of field (great for those who like playing with the bokeh effect). 

It's a little to early to give an accurate review of the camera, but I do like the overall feel.  The battery is a bit heavier and it feel like the general build quality has gone up, giving the camera more heft than my XTi.  The functions are pretty easy to learn, but I do wish there was a dedicated movie mode button instead of having to dial the knob (maybe there's something about this in the manual).  I'm excited to get out in the field and start shooting with this thing.  I'll probably end up carrying around both cameras,  one with a wide-angle, and a standard 35mm on the other, enabling me to get a variety of shots without having to stop and switch lenses.