Alodia Gosiengfiao, Canon’s new Brand Ambassador – Image credit: infochat.com.ph

A quick round-up of news concerning the brand Canon. Let’s start with Canon’s South-Africa Expo (click here for the whole story):

Canon South Africa has announced that this year’s highly anticipated Canon SA Expo will be held from Friday, 30 November to Sunday, 2 December 2012 at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, Gauteng.

The Canon SA Expo will be open from 10:00 to 18:00 daily and entrance will be free.

As with last year’s incredibly successful Canon SA Expo which attracted in excess of 13 500 visitors over the three-day period, Canon SA has taken it upon themselves to make this year’s show bigger and better.

The Expo will again showcase Canon’s wide range of consumer and selected business solutions. Visitors to this exclusively Canon Expo will also be the first to see and touch some of Canon’s latest technology.

There will also be a photographic competition. Each of the four winners will get an EOS 5D Mark III and an EF 40mm f/2.8 STM lens.

Next, cens.com reports (click here for the whole story) that

Canon Taiwan Inc, a Taiwanese affiliate under Canon of Japan known as a globally-leading digital still camera (DSC) brand, increased investment to NT$ 15 billion (US$ 500 million) in the camera-lens factories in the Taichung Export Processing Zone and Jiayi County, in Southern Taiwan.

[...] Canon Taiwan’s Jiayi plant focuses on producing its popular single-lens digital cameras series EOS-600D and 1100D, and will move all production lines of single-lens digital cameras to the Jiayi plant at the end of this year.

Finally, Alodia Gosiengfiao, a costume playing star, is Canon’s newest brand ambassado (click here for the whole story) for the Image Communications Products (ICP) division.

She considers Canon to be her number one brand of choice for gadgets because of its highly advanced features, superior quality, and numerous offerings, which are not limited to only professional photographers. “It really targets the community, what they want and need,” she declares. “The service is great; anything is accessible with Canon.”

Her plans with Canon include participating in conventions, encouraging people to join the photography community, modelling in monthly photo shoots, and meeting and working with people with the same interests—not too far from what she would do in the cosplaying industry.

Gizmodo compared the video modes of three Canon DSRLs in a price range from $1000 – $7000. It’s Rebel T4i/650D vs EOS 5D Mark III vs EOS-1D X. From entry level to top end.

[...] all three cameras [...] shot the same scene with the same lens (Canon 24-105 f/4) and settings (f/9, 1/50, ISO 100). We use a picture style with sharpness at 0, contrast at 0, and saturation at -2. We adjusted the focal length on the crop-sensor t4i to match that of the other two cameras. Obviously this isn’t completely scientific, but we did our best.

The outcome may surprise you. While the EOS 1D-X is obviously the best performing gear here, and the 5D Mark III is second placed, the performance of the Rebel T4i/650D is by far not so much worse as the others cost more (we’re talking about video modes here). See for yourself, and do it by enlarging the video to full screen (otherwise moire artifacts are hard to spot).

EOS 1D-X price check: Amazon, B&H, Adorama, Canon USA, J&R, Digitalrev, eBay, rent it at Borrow Lenses
EOS 5D Mark III price check: Amazon, B&H, Adorama, Canon USA, J&R, Digitalrev, eBay, rent it at Borrow Lenses
Rebel T4i/EOS 650D price check: Amazon, B&H, Adorama, Canon USA, J&R, Digitalrev, eBay, rent it at Borrow Lenses
EF 24-105 f/4L price check: Amazon, B&H, Adorama, Canon USA, J&R, Digitalrev, eBay, rent it at Borrow Lenses

[via gizmodo]

Good deals laying around on eBay. I list only reputable, top rated seller. However, when on eBay use your gut instinct.

eBay Seller Big Value Inc has the EOS 5D Mark III body down to $3,057.54 (click here)!!. The 5D3 with an EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM AF is sold for $3,903.31 (click here).
Moreover, the EOS 5D Mark II is down to $1,896.71 (click here). The EOS 7D is yours for $1,240.71 (click here). Shipping is free for the US.

Time to come back to the glorious EOS 5D Mark III. As I wrote before, I prefer user generated gear reviews. Although such a review is not comparable with tests made in a lab setting (obviously), user reviews are often closer to real world problems and settings. In other word: as much as I am interested to learn about the details and to know all the technical measures, there is nothing as a review made by a photographer who wants to know how his or her gear performs in every day usage. photographyreview has such a review, written by an admittedly expert user.

Next, Adorama notified ma about two kits bundled around the EOS 5D Mark III.

• EOS-5D Mark III & TS-E 17MM f/4 Lens – $5,363.00 (click here) instead of $5,763.00 (Mail In Rebate -$400)
• EOS-5D Mark III & EF 24-105L IS with Lexar 64GB Professional 600x SDXC UHS-I Memory Card and b/w 77mm UV (Ultra Violet) Haze Multi Coated (2C) Glass Filter and Canon 200-DG Digital Gadget Bag for $4,299.01 (click here) instead of $4,451.85

Update (thanks to Bobby): Amazon also discounted the 5D3 body and one kit. Get the 5D Mark III body only for $3,349 (click here), but you are better done if you take the 5d3 body & 32 GB Extreme HD Video Secure Digital Memory Card 45MB/s (Class10) bundle offered by beach camera on Amazon for the same price ($3,349, click here). Amazon itself has also a kit with the 5d3 body and the EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM lens for $4,099.99 (click here), that’s $50 less than below.

The EOS 5D Mark III, both body only and kit, are $150 off at B&H. The 5D Mark III with the 24-105mm f/4L IS USM AF lens now is $4,149.00 (click here), the body only is $3,349.00 (click here). For sample pics uploaded to Flickr and more click here.

• 22.3MP Full-Frame CMOS Sensor
• 3.2″ Clear View High Resolution LCD
• DIGIC 5+ Image Processor
• 61-Point High Density AF
• Full HD 1080/30p and 720/60p Formats
• Built-In HDR and Multiple Exposure Modes
• Extended ISO Range (50-102400)
• Up to 6.0 FPS Continuous Mode
• Dual CF and SD Memory Card Slots
• Durable Magnesium-Alloy Construction

Read the rest of this entry →

Thanks to reader jlawr.

Manuals and tutorials for the EOS 5D Mark III can be uploaded on your camera and then viewed on the LCD display. The other Canon camera that comes with this feature is the EOS-1D X. Tutorials for a plenty of the camera’s functionalities are available for download (click here). This is a fine thing, since you can have all the needed references with you, on the cam, without the need of a tablet, notebook etc. The tutorials are covering autofocus settings, audio options, manual controls, compression methods, time code, and more.

EOS 5D Mark III price check: Amazon, B&H, Adorama, Canon USA, J&R, Digitalrev, eBay, rent it at Borrow Lenses