Canon 5D Mark II: DxO Lab

(Credit: DxO Labs)
CNET's Underexposed, a blog by Stephen Shankland, has posted an article with a bunch of interesting news on the Canon 5D Mark II. For instance, it reports that the camera's sensor ranks very high on DxO Labs' test of sensor performance. This is especially significant since there's been an ongoing debate as to whether the $2,700 5D Mark II performs better than the $6,500 1Ds Mark III, which has the same resolution of 21.1 mps.

Although the DxO tests give the edge to the 1Ds Mark III based on its better color and dynamic range, the 5D Mark II has a better low-light performance. In my view, this is particularly welcome news considering that the price of a 1Ds Mark III is 2.4 times that of 5D Mark II.

The blog post also mentions the black-spot issue reported afflicting some of the new 5D Mark IIs. It also reports that Chuck Westfall of Canon will make an official comment on the issue.

Detailed image quality measurements for the Canon 5D Mark II: (DxO Labs)

As an aside, I was shopping at B&H today, and noticed a few things:

1. During my visit, the customer traffic at the cashiers' lanes were light in comparison to others occasions I was there. I didn't have to wait for a salesclerk to help me.

2. There was quite a crowd surrounding the Nikon island, where new models are on display. In contrast, the Canon island had a much smaller number, mostly around the point & shoots (ie the G10).

3. If I'm to believe the salesclerk, B&H had no 5D Mark II in stock and had even ceased taking pre-orders via email since there were too many.

Moises Saman: Machu Picchu

Photograph © Moises Saman-All Rights Reserved
I noticed that The New York Times' featured a slideshow of Machu Picchu's photographs by Moises Saman, who's better known as a conflict photographer, having covered the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The slideshow is titled The Lost City of the Incas while the accompanying article is written by Simon Romero.

The article's premise is that while Hiram Bingham (a model for the fictional Indiana Jones) has always been credited with discovering the Incan city of Machu Picchu in 1911, evidence has emerged that a German adventurer may have preceded him. Some records show that the German adventurer bought land in the area in the 1860s. It's an interesting read for those who feel (like I do) that many countries' heritage and patrimony have been pillaged by colonizing Western powers (especially European). For instance, I read that Ethiopia is now demanding that Britain’s museums return some of its most significant religious treasures and artifacts, including the Ethiopian royal crown, 140 years after they were looted by marauding British troops.

As for Moises Saman, he became a staff photographer at New York Newsday from 2000-07, and is currently a freelance photographer based in Brooklyn, New York. His work received many awards and recognitions, including in the 2007 World Press Photo contest and the UNICEF Photo of the Year awards. He also received a World Press Photo award for his coverage of the presidential elections in Haiti, as well as being named Photographer of the Year by the New York Press Photographers Association.

WSJ: Phil Borges

"When Phil Borges learned of the perks that came with being a dentist, he switched his major from engineering to orthodontics. But his first love -- photography -- would eventually become his second career."

And so begins the recent Wall Street Journal's article on a peerless photographer; Phil Borges. For over twenty five years Phil has lived with and documented indigenous and tribal cultures around the world, and with his work he aims to create a deeper understanding of issues faced by people in the developing world.

The article tells us that Phil, now 66, says it would have been easy to stay in orthodontics. "I would have had a comfortable life," he says. "[But] I wanted to be fulfilled, and whenever I picked up my camera, I was doing what I wanted."


And he did.

[Previous posts on Phil Borges on TPP can be found HERE and HERE]