Rob Stothard, 27 years young and from Leeds, has been named the tenth Times/Canon Young Photographer of the Year. He got a six-month contract with The Times, and will be trained and learn about photojournalism. And he will receive all the state-of-the-art Canon gear he needs along with a year’s membership to the British Press Photographer’s Association. As reported on the London College of Communication’s blog:

Rob studied mathematics at the University of Leeds and had been working in the city when he turned his attention to photography, applying for LCC’s MA Photojournalism and Documentary Photography course. Then in a desire to better his photography skills he threw himself head-first into a big international story by making the brave decision of going to Egypt to cover last year’s elections.

Rob explains “I had been interested in and travelled in the Middle East for some time and felt going to Egypt and setting myself up to cover the elections would be perfect. So I changed to the online mode of the course hoping it would give me the structure and mentorship I feel is difficult to gain as a freelancer fresh into the industry.”

“Aside from the help from course director Paul Lowe, the other staff and my fellow students, being part of a society of journalists based in Cairo has been an invaluable experience. Whilst my technical skills as a photographer have improved I feel the most valuable part of my time in Cairo has been learning from more experienced journalists how to accurately and honestly depict a complex political scene.”

Check out some of his pictures at the London College of Communication’s blog. Congrats Rob!

That’s the same factory where the Canon EOS 6D is made, the factory is located in Oita Prefecture, Kyushu, Japan. Exposure Magazine was invited to visit the factory. They were welcome by Mr. Ritsuo Mashiko, head of the Canon factory in Oita. All started in 1982, with a first factory built in in Aki, near the Oita airport. In 2005 the new factory began to work.

This is the factory where the Canon EOS 6D (price & specs), Canon EOS 5D Mark III (price & specs), EOS 7D (price & specs), Canon EOS M (price & specs), and all the other digital EOS DSLRs are manufactured, where the Cinema EOS camera line-up is produced, all Legria and XF series camcorders are made, and all EF lenses too. But there is more: The Oita factory is also the place where Canon builds and tries out prototypes and deploys technological pilot projects. Moreover, advanced automation techniques are applied in the production chain. The know-how developed in automation goes so far that visitors are not allowed to take pictures:

“All automation came from ourselves and we did it ourselves,” said Mashiko. It is acceptable that to keep the secrecy, visitors are not allowed to take pictures in the factory, except in the area of guest reception and cafeteria.

The design of the automation process is based on a cell based production (i.e. the assembly stages are grouped together according to the similarity of parts of the parts that get assembled, or the tasks that are performed; each cell is an autonomous steps that lead to the finished product) and involves men and machines. Unmanned vehicles go from one assembling area to the next. Clearly, being this a factory where highly sensitive opto-electronic equipment is manufactured, everything has to be clean and dust free.

One interesting thing in Canon Oita factory is that it is clean, no dust at all. It could be cleaner than hospital. Workers wear special white shoes in the factory, and visitors are asked to wrap their shoes with plastics provided by the factory.

This is the same factory I reported about a few days ago, the factory where the Canon EOS 6D is assembled and packaged in 40 minutes.

[via Exposure Magazine]

• [shoplink 10222][/shoplink] Canon Powershot SX50 HS (B&H Photo, Adorama, Amazon USA, Amazon Canada, Canon Canada, Canon USA) preview at Digital Camera Review:
  • Even though it has a few shortcomings […] the SX50 HS comes as close to meeting the “bridge” camera concept as any digicam […]. The SX50 HS’s user interface is uncomplicated and its robustly constructed metal-alloy/polycarbonate body has very good dust/weather/moisture seals. The SX50 HS’s control layout is efficiently designed and all controls are logically placed and come easily to hand for right-handed shooters. The SX50 HS’s features Canon’s classic digicam menu system which is reliably logical, user-friendly, and easily navigated. The higher resolution LCD and large font size make reading menus simple. This remarkably easy to use, though somewhat chunky digicam, can capture images or HD videos of just about anything – from expansive landscapes to telephoto shots of distant subjects, from macro images to classic portraits, from extreme sports to candid street shots.

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