...what about a little more?

Since we didn´t write anything from our equipment front in the last months, it´s about time to catch up.

Not that spectacular, but a good start: finally a canon fisheye. Last time we had to rent it because Canon wasn´t able to deliver one. Crisis? Well - if you can´t deliver, who shall buy your products - no wonder the sales go down.

Other news on the lensboard: Canon 100-400mm L, a Canon 2x Converter (you´ve already seen pictures from that "set"), and in fact since summer in our range: The legendary Canon 85mm 1.2L (I don´t have to say much about it I guess - it more than meets our expetations).

Oh, and yes - there´s also a new Canon 7D, which we bought due to the video capabilities and the frames per second. Especially when travelling, our Sony PMW-EX1 is somewhat heavy (our carry on luggage is already too much without it). The 5Ds on the other hand: while producing amazing image quality, the sensor for some shots is already too big resulting in too shallow DOF. Additionally it doesn´t deliver 25p for the moment. Up to now we are impressed by the handling and quality the 7D delivers. While not quite on par with the 5D, it´s still good value for money. Well, that leaves us with 6 DSLRs in our lineup. 1xEOS 1Ds Mk II, 2x 5D, 1x 7D, 1x 400D for timelapse and 1x Nikon 40D because of the electronic shutter, that has big advantages in some situations.
Due to the astounding image quality of modern DSLRs and the new 7D, we sold our Sony FX1. 1080i isn´t quite suitable for the international market anyway.

OK, and finally the really great news:

The Minidolly from Kesslercrane is a great tool for shooting moving camera footage with a great 3D effect. While it is only about 1m long, it brings great results - and is very mobile. We plan to bring it to the maldives in March but have to look for a new bag (once again).

The Omni-Tracker is some sort if skateboard on 3 inlinewheels, you can adjust the direction of every wheel to produce exact moving shots around an object. The disadvantage compared to a standard dolly: you need a flat surface - but this is something you can get anywhere. The big advantage: it is extremely lightweight and versatile.

Now if anybody ever questions our rates again

Currently we are looking for two heavy steeltripods to use with our new Sunbounce Big. Guess what: there really are tripods for the above menioned price (www.gomediamonkey.com - I don´t want to allow myself to think how much these will cost in Europe - easily 30% more!!!). The ones we choose are much cheaper, but still far too expensive - for a tripod!!!

I can easily have a custom stand made for those prices. I guess not many of you would ever buy a camera for that amount. But that´s the life of the photographer.

During our career as photographers we hardly ever received a rejection after we sent our proposal, but those few who did reject our work should really read this blogpost ;-).

Gyro? No, it´s nothing to eat...

...it doesn´t even originate in Greece. Still it´s pretty old and manufactured without changes since the 1960´s. And because the Chinese didn´t put any effort into copying it, it cuts a deep hole in our pocket ;-).

To explain, it´s a small „thing“ that looks like a bomb. In the hosing are four gyroscopes, that rotate in the opposite direction with 20.000 rotations per minute. All that resulting in quite a surprising amount of power needed to change the orientation of the „bomb“. If you mount a  camera, it keeps the latter pretty stable – very important when filming or shooting images from a helicopter or a boat for waterskiing. I guess we will come up with quite some more applications ;-).

Ikelite isn´t that light ;-)

We waited quite a bit before we upgraded our housing. Now that we have the second generation of new cameras, there is quite a need to. Due to the fast developments in the digital area we decided to get the more reasonable priced Ikelite housing instead of getting another Sea & Sea as we had before. While the latter was ergonomically better one has to admit that ergonomics usually is not responsible for better images. And perhaps we have to buy a new housing in two years time if technology continues to change at current pace. Well, and then underwater photography is not our main focus.

Flashlight is out – long live reflectors and diffusors.

We had them on our wishlist for quite some time, the sunbounce and sunswatters from California Sunbounce. Finally we took the plunge and purchased a series of those (quite highly priced) products. That will give our images an even more creative touch in the future.

OK, flashlight isn´t really out – of course we are going to use both, sometimes even combined. That´s exciting.

...Wooohooo but why isn´t there a "y" in Steadicam?

OK, there are more important things than that. This beast is just great and will support us with more steady video in the future. Some of the experimental footage we have already taken looks like shot with a camera crane or tripod, it´s just soo much more active because the movement oft he camera man is so much more flexible.

It somehow looks like a weapon and people say it´s hard to control. But let´s see. We ourselves feel pretty well balanced so hopefully it´s not that difficult.

21 megapixel, video and better ISO performance

It was finally time to update our equipment. And because we are continuously facing problems getting our cameras through hand luggage inspection, we decided to not buy the successor to our Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II, but rather two Canon EOS 5D Mark II. That leaves us with a lot less weight on the one hand, but still the best resolution Canon can offer up to date along with great ISO sensitivity and dynamic range. And also very important for us: video in a DSLR! For other photographers this might be nonsense, but not for us because we are also shooting videos quite often. The quality of the video is outstanding (in regard to sharpness even better than our Sony PMW-EX1) and so we don´t have to carry two housings with us to offer underwater footage and images.