Single-Serving Photo

Well, here it is, folks. As reported by Digital Photography Review, Rob Galbraith DPI, Engadget, and undoubtedly more, Canon has officially released the EOS-1D Mark IV, the latest digital SLR in their 1-series (“pro”) line.

I find it somewhat amusing that they chose to throw on the EF 50mm f/1.4 for their promo shoot; a lens that, for me, spontaneously stopped auto-focusing after only a couple years of use and that exhibits pretty significant vignetting. Nevertheless, the EOS-1D Mark IV is a fairly intense camera body, with its 10 frame per second burst mode, and ISO settings up to 102,400. You should be able to lay your hands on one here in the States for a mere $4,999.

Personally, I don’t think I’ll be purchasing a 1D Mark IV, if only because it has an APS-H sensor with a 1.3x crop factor and I am utterly spoiled by my 5D’s full-frame sensor. It is worth noting, also, that for the $4,999 that a brand new 1D Mark IV is going to cost you, you can pretty readily find a pre-owned 1Ds Mark III, which is 21 megapixels of full-frame goodness.

It really excites me that people are out there coming up with new techniques for photographing difficult subjects. It excites me even more that National Geographic has it in their budget.

Over on the right you see a photograph taken by Michael “Nick” Nichols (and his team) for National Geographic, which is on the cover (well, part of it is on the cover, it’s a huge photograph) of the October issue of the magazine.

The image was made by jigsawing 83 separate photographs together (which you can probably tell by the jagged edges), each of which was taken by one of three DSLR cameras mounted on a gyroscope-leveled, pulley-lowered rig that Nichols and his team designed for the purpose. You can check out the photo on Hack a Day of Nichols with his rig; it looks like they’ve got six Pocket Wizards on there (I don’t know what the other three are for) and maybe a couple of bicycle wheels. All in all, a very righteous hack.

This particular redwood is allegedly the “most architecturally interesting” tree in the world, with several forks and bends stretching 300 feet into the sky. It’s only been standing there for over 1,500 years(!!), but now it has been recorded in the annals of photographic history forever.

Via (one of my favorite blogs) Hack a Day, via National Geographic, via NPR