Friday, November 30, 2007

Canon Australia's great service!

I recently changed from Nikon over to Canon at what seemed the perfect time for me.  The aussie dollar was strong which meant the prices were great and the products were just what the doctor ordered.  I originally changed from Canon to Nikon back in early 2000 and took delivery of one of the first D1's into the country.  I worked my way through D1H, D1X, D2H, D2X with an F5 thrown into the mix.  They served me well over the past seven years however Canon's stranglehold on low light performance and focus speed and accuracy eventually got the better of me and I took the plunge.

Blow me down recently when I had a call out of the blue from Rick Slowgrove at Canon Australia advising me of a fix that needed to be done to the EOS1DMkIII and guaranteeing a 24hr turnaround time and offering a loan camera if required.  The fix is pretty widely known around the web (Canon Aust info at http://www.canon.com.au/support/customer/default.asp?DXI=KnowledgeBase/Customer/KBArticleForm&File=KB01650&productID=eos1d_mark_III) however full credit to Rick and the Canon guys for their personal attention to this fix.

Great work!

What happened to the Dell 12" notebook?

Explain this to me Dell?  I bought one of your XPS m1210 notebooks recently and ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!  I am hooked on the 12" form factor - it is very transportable, has plenty of grunt and a great screen, all the things a photographer who is on the road a lot needs.  So, recently while interstate on a job a journalist eyed off my notebook and instantly fell in love with it.  He decided then and there he had to have one and so went to the Dell site and .................. discontinued.  But not replaced with another 12" but now a 13.3".  Apple have done a similar disservice to their 12" Macbook Pro fans except they have dropped the small form factor totally and just left 15" and 17" sizes.

Dell and Apple - do you realise that now there really isn't a decent 12" notebook on the market?

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Luke O'Donnell - ready to play!

Luke was back in the gym recently showing that he has fully recovered from a sickening 2007 injury that saw him miss much of the season. He looks to be back fitter than ever!

See my pics of Luke over his Cowboys years at http://www.cameronlaird.com/search/index.mg?searchWords=luke+o%27donnell&searchType=InUser&NickName=camlaird

Matt Bowen to stay a Cowboy until end of 2011 season

What great news for the Cowboys! Matt Bowen signature on a new three year contract seeing him through until the end of the 2011 NRL season. Now we have the most exciting fullback in the game joining the best halfback in the game, what a great combination for the next couple of years at least!

See all my pics of Matt over the years at http://www.cameronlaird.com/search/index.mg?searchWords=matt+bowen&searchType=InUser&NickName=camlaird

Compact Flash card reader speeds investigated

I thought I would do a bit of my own research into the difference in speeds between various card readers as I have been a bit disappointed in the transfer speeds of my photos when working on deadlines on my laptop. My test consisted of an arbitrary 1.36Gb of files transferred using three different card readers. A Sandisk Extreme USB2.0 reader, an Apacer MegaSteno USB2.0 all-in-one reader and another badged "mrgadget.com.au" 12-in-1 USB2.0 reader. I did all the tests using a brand new Sandisk Extreme IV 4Gb CF card.

Transfer files to computer using (seconds)
Sandisk Extreme USB2.0 88
Apacer MegaSteno USB2.0 174
"mrgadget.com.au" 12-in-1 USB2.0 207
Transfer files to CF card using
Sandisk Extreme USB2.0 139
Apacer MegaSteno USB2.0 171
"mrgadget.com.au" 12-in-1 USB2.0 265

I also gave the quickest reader (Sandisk Extreme USB2.0) a try with a Sandisk Ultra II CF Card with the results listed below.

Transfer files to computer using (seconds)
Sandisk Extreme USB2.0 136
Transfer files to CF card using
Sandisk Extreme USB2.0 154

So all in all, pretty happy with the transfer speed of the Extreme card reader when combined with the Extreme IV CF card. The Extreme Firewire reader is quite a lot quicker however unfortunately it only works with 6 pin and 9 pin firewire connections which rules out a LOT of laptops on the market (those equipped with only 4 pin connections)

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Why I love British tabloids - sometimes....

What a cracker of a front page! How could you walk past a news stand without picking this paper up! :-)