Photography Anyone Tour - Toronto

Clay Blackmore's "Photograph Anyone Tour" is coming to Toronto this spring. Two 1/2 day seminars are available on May 23rd 18:00-22:30 and May 24th 14:00-18:30 for $69 - $79 with two full day master classes 09:00-17:00 held on Friday and Saturday 25th and 26th respectively for $199 or book both a seminar and a master class for $249.
Everything from camera settings, posing and lighting will be covered in this unique seminar which uses a live video feed directly from Clay's camera. Clay will cover to how handle portraits of children, mother and child, maternity, men, women, high school seniors, business portraits, small-to-medium groups and detailed wedding coverage. Technical aspects of using your camera and your speedlights as well as post production retouching techniques will covered. The masterclass provides hands on use of your camera and speedlight setups so you can practice what you've learned.
Attendees of the masterclass will receive a copy of OnOne's Perfect Portrait a value of $99. If interested I suggest you book soon as dates are filling up quickly.

Lightroom 4 and Photoshop ACR v7.0

 Early adopters of Lightroom4 (LR4) like myself are receiving  pop up warnings when trying to export Edit into Photoshop CS5. The Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) version used in LR4 is ACR 7.0 however Photoshop's ACR hasn't been updated yet resulting in the following warning:

This version of Lightroom may require the Photoshop Camera Raw plug-in version 7.0 for full compatibility.

Please update the Camera Raw Plug-in using the update tool available in the Photoshop help menu.

 The suggested method of updating doesn't work because again you can't update to something that isn't available yet!! Not sure what Adobe was thinking? Looks like a rush to market with little fore thought of the consequences.

 Adobe's response to user's question are:

Camera Raw 6.7 (currently available on Adobe Labs: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/ca... ) provides compatibility between Lightroom 4 and Photoshop CS5. The final release of Camera Raw 6.7 through the Adobe update mechanism will be available in the very near future.

Camera Raw 7.0 (currently available on Adobe Labs as party of the Photoshop CS6 beta: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/ph... ) provides seamless compatibility between Lightroom 4 and Photoshop CS6. The final release of Photoshop CS6 will be available later this spring. 

However some users are still having issues after updating to ACR v6.7. Some who have updated to v6.7 still get the warning, others are complaining about noticeably brighter images in Photoshop rendered images "Open Anyway" compared to those that were rendered in LR4 which appear to match the original. Jeff Schewe recommends rendering in Lightroom prior to Photoshop editing, or to instal ACR6.7 with the caveat of dealing with the know issues. I will move forward with Lightroom rendering rather than dealing with all of the unknowns of ACR6.7.

Manfrotto Magic Arm

 I recently purchased the Manfrotto Magic Arm which is, truly magic. The arm provides a flexible and stable way of mounting a camera to a pole or any flat surface in locations where tripods are forbidden. The arm is available in two different models and each offer different configurations with /without camera brackets etc.. One model uses a locking lever the other uses a variable friction locking knob which provides a more precise method of positioning your camera or lighting head. The locking knob located at the elbow joint when tightened also locks in place the two ball joints at either end making it very easy to position your camera.
 Both models can be purchased with a quick release camera bracket (which uses a 200PL-14 plate) or a removable camera / umbrella platform bracket. I went with the platform version and then added a Manfrotto 323 quick change plate adapter, essentially the flexibility of both models in one. The arms can also be bought without a camera bracket or in a kit which includes: platform bracket, backlite base and a super clamp. I recommend getting a super clamp even if you do not own the magic arm, it's an indispensable piece of equipment when trying to securely mount a light, gobo or any equipment that uses a spigot. You can use a super clamp along with a Justin clamp and mount a speedlight almost anywhere on location.
 The arm is ideal for low light or night photography in places where tripods are not allowed: buildings, observation decks etc.. The rent a cops (security) in these places are usually only interested in tripods, so if it doesn't have three legs they'll usually leave you alone. Others have used the arm to mount cameras on bicycles or cars to capture video and have found it to be very stable.
 The arm likely wont fit in your bag but it's fairly light and compact when folded up and can be easily transported around. I order mine through B&H in New York because local shops here in Toronto didn't carry the friction version. I received the arm within a couple of days and even with shipping charges the price was cheaper when I compared to local prices on similar model.

Lightroon Ships at Half Price

Adobe's Lightroom 4 has been released and for the first time in Lightroom’s history, Adobe has lowered the price from $299 down to just $149 for the full version, and only $79 for the upgrade. Also remember that NAPP members receive a 15% discount.

Adobe: Upgrade Policy About Face

 Late last year Adobe announced that they were changing their upgrade pricing policy which offered a reduced price for current users of older versions of their products. They had allowed users who were within a couple of older versions a special upgrade price to their newly released products. Currently you can receive a reduced upgrade price for Photoshop (PS) CS5 if you have a license copy of PS CS2 or newer. Their new policy would only offer a discount price to users who were using the current version of their creative suite applications (versions CS5 or CS5.5 depending on the app).
 This caused a huge uproar in the user community and Adobe has since changed it's policy at least for the latest version CS6 to be released early this year, but going forward it appears you will need to be a user of CS6 to be entitled to a reduced price for the next version down the pipe.This change appears to be a one shot grace period for next year only, after that you'll need to stay current or pay full price when you want to upgrade.

Adobe's press updated policy:

Upgrade offer for CS3 and CS4 customers

We’re very excited about the upcoming release of Adobe® Creative Suite® 6 software and Adobe Creative Cloud™. CS6 will be a major new release of our creative desktop tools, with huge improvements for every type of creative professional. Adobe Creative Cloud will be our most comprehensive creative solution ever, giving members access to all of the CS6 desktop software plus additional services, new tools, Adobe Touch Apps, and rich community features. In addition, Creative Cloud members will receive continuous upgrades and updates to all products and services as part of their membership.

With these great new releases coming in the first half of 2012, we want to make sure our customers have plenty of time to determine which offering is best for them. Therefore, we’re pleased to announce that we will offer special introductory upgrade pricing on Creative Suite 6 to customers who own CS3 or CS4. This offer will be available from the time CS6 is released until December 31, 2012. More details on this offer, as well as any introductory offers for existing customers to move to Creative Cloud membership, will be announced when CS6 and Creative Cloud are released later this year.

Canon: One Price Fixes All

Canon Canada has gone to a flat rate repair fee business model. If you send a camera or lens into their service center you will be charged a set fee for the repair regardless of the problem. Depending on the camera/lens model they set the price for your repair even before they look at the unit. This could work to your advantage if the repair were say replacing a sensor or shutter mechanism. The flip side is also true if your repair consisted of cleaning some lens contacts that you could have performed yourself.

The repair fees seem to be based on original model value, for instance a sample of their DSLR models breakout as:

Model	Repair Fee*
Rebel T2i	$149
EOS 60D	$199
EOS 7D	$219
EOS 1DS III	$299
* plus taxes and shipping

I recently sent in one of my Canon EOS 7D bodies for repair. I was getting an "error 30" code which points to a problem with the shutter. The camera was returned within 5 days and required a loose connection to be soldered. They also performed a sensor and eyepiece cleaning (they normally charge $40 for a sensor clean) and firmware upgrade (not sure about the firmware upgrade, was certain that I was up to date, maybe a reflash?). The complete cost was $247 including taxes and shipping (Mississauga to downtown Toronto). The repair warranty is good for 90 days, I will put this model to work and leave my newer model as a backup.

One has to ask "In store extended warranties are they worth it"? Henrys here in Toronto offers an "Extended Life Plan" which extends the warranty from 1 to 3 years and provides some lemon protection, price protection and full in store replacement in the early months of ownership. For a Canon EOS 7D they charge $219 which is the exact same price as a single out of warranty repair charge from Canon. Is it worth it, that is a great debate for sure. I've owned 4 DSLR bodies and this is the first out of warranty repair that I've had. I've only had one other dealing with Canon's repair center, which was a defective/recalled battery grip for my old 20D. Before deciding if you should spend the money on an extend warranty plan you may wish to first check the cost of an after warranty repair charge at this site: Canon Canada Repair Ctr.

Camera Shutter Life

I was recently looking for information regarding the shutter life for my camera. The manufacture gives approximate shutter life expectancies in their warranty information but how accurate are they? This Web Site contains average measured shutter life for popular makes and models.