Monday, April 28, 2008

canon 450D/XSi preview

dpreview.com has published a part of its canon 450D/XSi hands-on preview. it is about half the usual review, the full review will follow within two weeks according to the website.

some features that look interesting:

  • live view with edge detection auto focus
  • highlight tone priority- according to dpreview, in this mode canon should capture more information in the bright areas of the image at the risk of more noise in the shadows
  • better (or more) noise reduction in high iso
  • "my menu"
  • displaying the iso in the viewfinder

creatures of bare island: striated frogfish

interesting creatures from bare island:
i believe this is a striated frogfish (Antennarius striatus), a kind of anglerfish.

 Bare island isolated reefs Bare island isolated reefs

i got this photo in sydney - bare island, february 14, 2008. (canon G7 two inon strobes). i have a there are a couple more photos on my flickr site.
for more info see wikipedia or fishbase.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

canon 450D / XSi dSLR

the new canon 450D is available in most places for around 900USD with the kit lens (IS 18-55).
No housing for it yet. Just to get an idea i looked through digideep.com, to see how long it took for the underwater housings to be available after the camera hit the market. i only looked at fantasea and ikelite to get an idea.

cameraannouncedavailableikelite availablefantasea available
canon 450D/XSi26-jan-200815-apr-2008
(for US, i guess)
under consideration

canon 400D/XTi26-aug-200615-sep-200610-Oct-2006
1 month
1-Apr-2007
5.5 months
nikon D4015-nov-20061-dec-200615-mar-2007
3.5 months
1-may-2007
4.5 months
nikon D20028-oct-20051-nov-20054-apr-2005 (?)
6 months

nikon D7012-dec-200312-mar-200412-may-2004
2 months
1-mar-2005, +1 year !
(announced 1-feb-2004??)

so fantasea is a bit slow with its housings, is it?

too bad, i would choose fantasea over ikelite since the price is better, and also some of their housings are slightly more compact. but if they take 6-12 months to get the housing out, well... that's not good, is it?