The Canon PhotoMarathon 2010 – Davao leg site is now open for registration.
The event will be from 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM on Sunday, 24 October 2010 at the Davao Convention and Trade Center.
One can register at the PhotoMarathon site. There will be 150 slots available, so better hurry and sign up.
The long-awaited Canon Photomarathon 2010 for the Philippines has been announced today via Facebook.
As per the Canon Photomarathon 2010 site:
The Canon Photo Marathon is a 1-day photo contest that lets you actually go out and shoot new images within the specified location or area. You’ll get the chance to compete against other amateur/professional photographers & hobbyist under strict contest deadlines as well. Just submit the images you’ve captured subject to a panel of a judges’ evaluation. Your thematic creative instincts, as well as your ability to work under tight timeline pressures will be thoroughly tested in this exciting and unique competition. Are you ready? Join The Canon Photo Marathon today!
Canon PhotoMarathon 2010 Poster
This time, the Photomarathon will happen in Metro Manila, Cebu City and Davao City, making this a nationwide event.
It will kick off in Cebu City on the 16th of October 2010, followed by Davao City on the 24th of October 2010, and culminate on the 6th of November in Metro Manila
The Cebu and Davao legs will give Canon camera users in the southern parts of the Philippines the opportunity to join this event.
Canon users can join via online registration at the Canon Photomarathon 2010 site. Registration is free and starts tomorrow 9 October 2010, 12PM Philippine time (GMT+8).
Canon Marketing Philippines recently held a free color management seminar at the showroom of their corporate headquarters in Taguig last 23rd of September 2010. This event is the latest in Canon’s Print-Like-A-Pro seminar series, which aims to help printer owners and photography enthusiasts achieve the best results possible from their printers.
There are a lot of times that inkjet printer buyers get unsatisfactory results when printing their photographs; the resulting prints are usually duller or have color tints very different from what they saw on screen. This is because the way that pictures are seen on a computer screen is not the same as the way they are printed.
Seminar at the Canon HQ Showroom
Color management is the process by which one can ensure that what one sees on screen will be very close to what comes out of the printer.
The speaker for the seminar is photographyer Jo Avila, Canon DSLR Ambassador and one of the better known photography instructors in the country. With his technical expertise and evangelism on printing out pictures and color management, he is a printer ambassador for the brand.
To start things off, Canon also provided a simple but tasty buffet dinner for the attendants; Free food and drinks seem to be a common hallmark of Canon’s recent public events. Due to the heavy traffic that day, I arrived late and missed the dinner.
Photographer Jo Avila explains Color Gamuts
I also missed the beginning of the seminar, as Mr. Avila was already discussing color spaces by the time I got there.
This is the second Print-Like-A-Pro seminar that I have attended (the first one was held at the old Bella Luce studio in Makati a couple of
years back). This seminar is similar to the color management/printing module of Jo Avila’s Basic Photography course, but is less technical and geared
towards educating the general public. While the technologies and terminologies used in this event are mostly Canon’s, the principles and techniques used will also apply for those with non-Canon printers and gear.
The seminar covers the basics of color management and printing, which includes the following topics:
To illustrate his points, Mr. Avila walked the audience through the calibration and profiling of his computer screen using a Datacolor Spyder3 colorimeter, projected his screen so that people could see how he prepares a picture file for printing, and ended his talk by printing the end result of his work process. A question-and-answer session followed afterwards, with Mr. Avila answering queries about color management and printing.
Ace Porlet of Canon and team raffling out prints by Jo Avila
Prizes were raffled off after the discussions. 20 A3-sized prints done on a Canon Pro-series printer and signed by Mr. Avila were raffled off to the attendees. Nobody went home empty-handed as everyone got a Canon PIXMA canvas bag and PIXMA pen each. Canon’s PIXMA printers were also available for printing out 4R/4″ x 6″ prints, free for those who brought CF/SD cards or USB drives with pictures. There were also special discounts for attendees who wished to buy a new Canon PIXMA printer that night.
The seminar was well-attended considering that Canon’s headquarters is relatively out-of-the-way, and vehicular traffic that day was horrible.
Raffle winners with their A3 prints signed by Jo Avila.
I was informed that the next two seminars in the Print-Like-A-Pro series are to be held out-of-town, and will be something for people in the
Southern parts of the Philippines to look forward to.
It was also mentioned that while there are no plans of holding another Metro Manila-based session anytime soon, it is not an impossibility. If another one is announced, sign up for it immediately, as the slots get filled up fast. Registration for this one was closed 2 hours after the event was announced on the local forums and Facebook.
In summary, the Print-Like-A-Pro seminar series is a great way for one to learn how to learn about proper color management and how to get the best possible result from your printer.
P.S. I got to sample the buffet dinner after the event, as there really was a lot of food. Yum.
Best kebab EVAR.
Canon Marketing Philippines held another session of their News and Sports Photography seminar last Sunday, 5th September, 2010. It was the third iteration of their seminar series, with european pressphoto agency Chief Photographer Dennis M. Sabangan reprising his role as the speaker.
I was informed of this event only a day before, and only because the event was moved back from it’s scheduled date Saturday 4th September to the next day. It was also a surprise to know that Canon had another one of these seminars, and yet it was not announced in the usual places (Facebook or the local photography forums). A fellow attendee told me that it was actually advertised, as evidenced by a graphic announcement, but in another forum (bird-watching forum, if I recall correctly). I suppose that Canon was targeting another audience this time, those who use their pro-level supertelephoto lenses (300mm and above).
Venue at the SM Megamall
This time, the seminar was held at one of the conference rooms at SM Megamall. I had previously attended the second seminar and saw that the new venue was an improvement over the last one. For one thing, the previous event held at SM City North EDSA was held in an empty space inside the mall. We weren’t enclosed, so we could hear the sound and music of another event. A floor-to-ceiling wrap-around window let in a lot of sunlight, so we had a hard time seeing what was being projected on screen. The SM Megamall event in a conference hall with its subdued lighting and walls meant that we had no problems hearing and seeing.
I had expected that I’d be hearing and seeing the same thing again, since this was supposed to be the same seminar with a different venue and audience. That expectation turned out to be right, but there was actually more. I was correct in that parts of the talk and the photos shown on-screen were things that I had already heard and saw last time. However, this time, Mr. Sabangan’s lecture on photojournalism was made in the context of the recent hostage-taking at the Quirino Grandstand.
Veteran Photojournalist Dennis Sabangan lectures
With this unfortunate incident still fresh in everyone’s minds, the context made for a very fascinating and relevent talk. Mr. Sabangan walked us through how he and the european pressphoto agency team covered the incident from the start to finish. He talked about the gear and lenses they used, the angles they took, the timing, and the things they photographed from the start of the crisis to the aftermath. Mr. Sabangan also discussed the ethics of photojournalism, especially when one has to deal with death. Finally, he showed us the resulting photographs, and the foreign publications in which his hostage drama photographs appeared (one of the magazines is a major-major international one).
Mr. Sabangan Chooses Submitted Pictures. To his left is Antonni Cuesta of Canon's pro gear group.
The live critique session followed the lecture. Again, participants were asked to submit two (2) news- or sports- related pictures before the event. These pictures would be critiqued onstage by Mr. Sabangan. Just like last time, there were humorous one-liners (fun for the most of the audience, sometimes not-so-fun for those that don’t meet his standards), but the important thing was that Mr. Sabangan actually explained how each submitted picture could be improved. I don’t think any picture went through him unscathed, not even those pictures that seem to have been shot by pros with really long lenses. One is virtually guaranteed to learn something just by listening to the critique. At the end of the critique session, he picked what he thought were the 3 best pictures, and each of the the owners of those pictures would get a popular lens mug from Canon (there was a no-show, no-prize policy. In case the owner isn’t present, the mugs are raffled off to the attendees).
The seminar is a way for Canon to promote its photography-related products. In fact, the product samples on show in these seminar series are geared towards photography professionals. In addition to demo units of their 1000D, 550D, 7D and 1D Mk IV DSLR camera bodies, Canon’s best and most expensive supertelephoto lenses were also on hand for people to look at, and handle. It’s really something to be able to hold their 300mm, 400mm, 600mm and even 800mm lenses, which can cost as much as a car.
Canon's Supertelephotos from L-R: 800mm f/5.6L IS, 600mm f/4L IS, 400mm f/2.8L IS, 300mm f/2.8L IS
Canon also made one of their multi-function inkjet printers available for seminar attendees who wanted to have prints of their photos. Those who brought CF/SD cards, or USB drives with photograph files could have glossy A4-sized prints. I had a couple printed, and I went home happy with how they turned out.
In summary, this was another great seminar on news and sports photography, and one that even non-professional photography enthusiasts and students can appreciate.
Err... Cheers!
We didn’t go home hungry either. Canon gave every attendee a cold drink and a big doughnut from Starbucks. This was just icing on the cake that was a very good seminar that was worth braving the heavy traffic of a Megamall Sunday.
Good job, Canon Philippines and Dennis M. Sabangan!
For those who missed this one, don’t fret. I was told that they will hold another one next month, and that’s really something to look forward to.
Canon has announced no less than 5 major release today, 26th August, 2010, rolling out a new DSLR body, 4 pro-grade lenses and upgraded lens extenders. Click the DPReview links below for more information.
The much-awaited 60D arrives with an 18-megapixel sensor, the 7D’s metering system, a smaller body (for an xxD-series camera), and an articulated screen to allow shooting from awkward angles. David Lee Tong has good commentary on this announcement, read it here.
Canon also put out 8 new pieces of glass, including 6 “L” lenses (L for Luxury, the mark of Canon’s pro-grade optics).
The EF 8-15mm f/4L USM is the world’s first fisheye zoom.
EF 8-15mm f/4 Fisheye
The EF 70-300mm f/4-f/5.6L IS USM has another 100mm more compared to the existing telephoto zoom offerings.
EF 70-300mm f/4-f/5.6 L IS USM
The supertelephoto prime lens range received upgrades as signified by the “II” designation: EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM, EF 400 f/2.8L IS II USM, EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM, EF 600mm f/4L II IS USM. These new lenses have improved optics, image stabilization and weigh less than the original versions.
EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM
In addition, Canon has released the 3rd iteration of its teleconverters: the Extender EF 1.4x III and Extender EF 2x III, featuring new lens release mechanisms and new integrated processors.
Extender EF 2x III
We’ve wondered why Canon was a bit quiet lately. Seems like they wanted to come out with a bang, and they’ve succeeded.
I was looking at my copy of L1fe, Canon Marketing Philippine’s catalog again today and saw this DSLR Lineup:
Entry Level Series
EOS 1000D
EOS 450D
EOS 500D
EOS 550D
Advanced Amateur Series
EOS 7D
Pro Series
EOS 5D Mark II
EOS 1D Mark IV
There’s no mention of the 50D, so unless this is an honest error (quite a big one), then I’ll take this as a sign that the 50D has been quietly removed from the lineup in preparation of a new camera, most likely the 60D. Like Real Soon Now.
Most of the information about the 60D remain unsubstantiated as of this writing, but pictures of a supposed 60D can be found on canonrumors.com.
Click for bigger version.
I attended Canon’s seminar on news and sports photography last Saturday, 7 August 2010 at SM North EDSA. I found out about only it a couple of days before the event (which was already the second one), when some of my photography contacts in Facebook got tagged in a post announcing the seminar and soliciting news- and sports-themed photos for their live critique session.
The seminar was pretty good. While waiting for the speaker to arrive, there was free A4-size printing of any pic using Canon’s PIXMA printer if you brought a USB drive or CF/SD cards, and Canon’s super telephoto lenses were available for people to touch and shoot with (a la Canon booth at the last DPP party). Photojournalists were also in attendance, including Ernie Sarmiento, Chief Photographer for the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
The speaker was Dennis M. Sabangan, a veteran photojournalist who’s now a Chief Photographer of the european pressphoto agency. He talked about his experiences covering news, sports and wars, and shared tips and techniques he uses in photojournalism. He also presented some of his shots and explained how the shot was taken. He taught us how international newspeople get to crisis sites in other countries quickly, what happens on the ground, and answered all our questions. Mr. Sabangan delivered his talk mostly in Filipino, which was pretty cool.
And then… he proceeded to do a live critique of pictures that were submitted (mine included). Mr. Sabangan went through a lot of pics, so much so that Canon got a function room at The Old Spaghetti House restaurant so that we could continue the live judging over a free dinner of pasta and beef. Yum.
The live judging was pretty funny. Mr. Sabangan certainly has a sense of humor and can deliver zingers (made even funnier because Filipino was used). Do not submit pics for critique to him unless you can handle criticism. He does not mince words, and some egos will be deflated.
That is not to say that it was an unnecessarily-cruel-crash-and-burn live judging session. Mr. Sabangan actually explained why a picture was good or bad in the context of news/sports editorial content. I submitted a couple of photos which I though were pretty good (and other photographers seemed to think so as well), and he pointed out things (timing and framing) that I can improve so that my pics can be more suitable for a news publication.
Mr. Sabangan picked out the top 3 pics (which were very good technically and aesthetically, some must’ve been shot by pros using supertelephotos), and the prizes were limited edition Canon Lens mugs. There was a no-show, no prize policy, and only one winner was present, so two mugs were then raffled off… and went to a man-woman couple who attended the seminar! Lucky guys!
I went home with a new way of looking at my pics, a canvas Canon Pixma bag with lens and printer brochures and a Canon Philippines catalog with prices in pesos (super telephoto for P670K anyone?), two A4 prints of my photos, and a full stomach.
During the seminar I had asked an organizer where they advertised the event. She told me that they posted this in Facebook. Okay… Facebook event announcements are only visible to fans of a company’s FB page. Thus, one has to “Like” a company’s FB page first before one can see event announcements. I’ve told the organizers (which aren’t part of the usual Marketing group that does the Canon events) that they should be publicizing these things in News and Announcement sections of the local photography forums such as Digital Photographer Philippines and PinoyPhotography with permission from the moderators. Hopefully more people show up if Canon decides to hold another one.
All-in-all, it was a great seminar for photography pros, enthusiast and students of journalism and I learned a lot. If there’s a third installment, I’ll be there.
Thanks Canon Marketing Philippines! I’d also like to give thanks to Antonni Cuesta for answering my questions about this seminar before I showed up.
Note: This article is derived for the most part from my original post in the Digital Photographer Philippines forum, and edited for a wider audience.
Canon announced earlier this week that its new IXUS 300 HS digital compact (also known as the Powershot SD4000 IS in the US and the IXY 30S in Japan)will be released by the end of this month.
This IXUS is a rather interesting one because Canon is positioning this as a camera that can “take photos in beautiful and dark scenes”
Shooting under low-light conditions (read: indoors) is something that most compact digital cameras can do, but not do well. This is because they have small image sensors, which don’t lend themselves to shooting at high sensitivity level. Sure, one can set a higher sensitivity level from ISO 400 upward, but one also gets a healthy level of image noise that can get too undesirable. One can brighten up a scene with the camera’s built-in flash, but it’s not powerful enough in most cases, and will give the deer-in-the-headlights look to one’s human subject.
Currently, there are only a handful of cameras out there that do reasonably well in dark/indoor conditions without using a flash, the Panasonix Lumix DMC-LX3 (and its twin, the Leica D-Lux 4), the Canon G11, and the Canon S90, to name a few. These cameras do it with fast lens (f/2.8 and faster), and an image sensor with less megapixels (around 10MP) than your usual consumer-ZOMG-15-megapixel-digicam (quality over quantity).
Canon IXUS 300 HS in Silver
The IXUS 300 HS is seen to be joining that group of cameras, with what Canon has dubbed the “HS System” and the “Bright Lens”. These refer two aspects of the IXUS 300 HS that will improve pictures in dark situations.
The HS system (for High Sensitivity) is the combination of a back-lit image sensor similar to (if not the same as) the Canon S90′s and Canon’s DIGIC 4 processing engine. The sensor enables high ISO shooting with reduced noise, and DIGIC 4 provides additional noise reduction.
Bright Lens refers to the IXUS 300 HS’s large aperture/lens opening of f/2.0 at its widest focal length. With a large aperture, more light can go to the sensor, enabling one to shoot with less resultant noise overall, especially at ISO 400 above. The camera’s lens focal length is a useful 3.8x zoom range with a 35mm equivalent of 28mm to 105mm.
Together with built-in optical image stabilization (IS) to help minimize camera shake due to shaky hands, the IXUS’s HS and Bright Lens should let most shooters take better images indoors. Canon Rumors has a few pics at ISO1600 and ISO 3200 from a hands-on session with a pre-production camera.
The camera does not have full Manual control over exposure unlike the G11 and S90, but it does have shutter-priority (Tv) and aperture priority (Av) modes, which offer a significant amount of creative control when shooting. Other features include HD video capture capability and a few funky effects, such as a 240FPS (frames-per-second) video mode that can make things go in slow motion.
The stylish IXUS 300 HS comes in several colors: Black, Silver, White, Red and Yellow. The first two colors are your usual gadget color scheme, but the last three colors are bright and will appeal to those who like their gadgets to be a bit more fun.
This camera isn’t going to replace a DSLR for image quality, and won’t let you have full manual control like the Canon S90, Canon G10/G11, and Panasonic’s LX3. But then again, it’s not going to have the price tag of those and it will be a great point-and-shoot camera to take around with you all the time, even indoors.
As Canon says on its Japanese website “simply press the shutter button, you can take pretty pictures”.
Canon Japan has set a release date of the 27th of May for the Japanese market’s IXY 30S, and we can expect a similar release date for the other regions in the world.
EVIL.
A word more commonly associated with dead zombies, clowns, Darth Vader, politicians.
And now there has been a lot of buzz with EVIL cameras. It’s even spelled out in all caps E-V-I-L.
A camera that’s hateful, malicious, despicable, loathsome?
None of that sort of course.
So what is an EVIL Camera?
EVIL stands for Electronic Viewfinder, Interchangeable Lens. I guess “ILEV Cameras” just doesn’t have that ring to it.
Traditional optical viewfinders are those glass windows that you peer through on a compact, rangefinder cameras, DSLRs. Light passes through a series of lenses and/or mirrors and prisms to your eye. One peers through a viewfinder to frame a shot.
Why an EVIL Camera is smaller. Pic from the Micro Four Thirds.org site
An electronic viewfinder (“EV”) works differently. Instead of directing light from the lens all the way to your eye, the lens directs light on to the camera’s imaging sensor. The imaging sensor’s data is then converted for meaningful display on an LCD screen, allowing you to see what the camera sees. If you’ve worked with a consumer video camera or compact digital cameras with an LCD display at the back from the past 10 years, then you’ve already worked with an electronic viewfinder equipped device.
Interchangeable Lens (IL) is also nothing new. Film-based cameras dating back decades had them. With the popularity of affordable DSLRs, people have been using interchangeable lenses more than ever. And for good reason, since having interchangeable lenses lets one pick a lens that’s most appropriate for the job. Shooting landscapes? Use a wide-angle lens. Wildlife? Switch to a super-telephoto.
At this point, we’re talking about two things, EV and IL, that are old stuff. The magic happens when you put EV and IL together, and get EVIL.
The problem with compact digital cameras is that their image quality is poor and prone to noise when shooting in dark conditions. This is because their image sensor is small in order to fit into a small camera body. Therein lies their main appeal, compact digicams are small. They can be slipped into a pocket ready for any situation and not be noticeable.
A modern Digital SLR will have better image quality compared to compact digicams by virtue of a bigger image sensor. You can also fit different lenses to a DSLR to fit different shooting situations. Unfortunately, even the smallest DSLR on the market now as this writing, the Olympus E-420, is still significantly bulky. There are times when one desires a lighter and smaller camera, or when one is being discreet as a DSLR can be attention-grabbing in a very bad way.
EVIL cameras combine the best features of compact digicams and DSLRs.
The EV part eliminates the mirror and prism assembly that eats up space in a DSLR (that hump on top of a DSLR houses the prism), cutting down on the size and weigh while retaining a DSLR-sized image sensor for high quality pictures. The IL part allows lens changes to suit the conditions.
The result is a camera that’s small and light, yet still capable of taking DSLR-quality pictures. Couple that with a selection of new lenses designed specifically for EVIL cameras, and you have a very flexible and portable photography system.
Here are’s a list of the main pros and cons of an EVIL camera.
Advantages
Disadvantages
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 Color Choices
Olympus and Panasonic came out with the first mainstream EVIL cameras, the Panasonic GF-1 and the Olympus E-P1, based on their jointly-developed Micro 4/3 (Four-Thirds) lens mount. These cameras have proven to be wildly popular, even if they can cost more than an entry-level DSLR. Olympus has recently come out with two more EVIL cameras, the E-P2 and a stripped-down E-PL1.
Seeing the opportunity in the market, Sony has come out with its NEX3 and NEX5 cameras based on Sony lenses. With Sony’s name recognition and consumer loyalty, their EVIL cameras are set to be bestsellers as well.
Sony's upcoming EVIL Camera, The NEX-3
Now that Sony has jumped in the fray after seeing how popular the Panasonic and Olympus offerings are, will the big ones, Canon and Nikon, follow in their EVIL footsteps?
Canon’s Japanese website announced today that 40 Million EOS film and digital SLR bodies have been produced since their flagship line of cameras started coming out of their Fukushima factory in 1987.
It goes on to say that 20 million of those units were Digital EOS cameras, which is an awesome number.
An interesting bit of trivia: EOS stands for Electro-Optical System, which refers to the then-new electronic interface between the lens and the camera body. Canon was a pioneer in this technology, and also introduced a new line of film SLR cameras with Autofocus lens back in 1987.
40 MILLION! That’s a lot of cameras. That’s 39,999,997 EOS cameras out there other than mine!
Here’s the original Japanese press release, as translated by Google.
33HJXDAHA93K
