Canon 7D APS-C and a fast 8 frames per Second.

New Canon EOS 7D
18mp APS-C CMOS
Dual DiGiC 4, 14bit
8fps, 94 large fine jpegs or 15 RAWs
19 points cross type AF sensor. Center AF point uses cross plus X type AF sensor
ISO 100-6400, extend to 12800
100% coverage, 1.0x opitcal viewfinder with smart information display.
3.0‘ LCD, 920,000 dot
New iFCL metering system, brightness and color
150,000 shutter life cycle
internal e-ttl flash control

Could be interesting, but I will have to see how they handle image quality with 18mp on an APS-C camera, also a trio of lenes including an EF 100 f2.8 IS L Macro with a pair of EF-S zooms.
The Pro type auto focus sure looks nice, birders and sports photog's will love this one. Basically it looks like a Pro Crop camera with some interesting new features including: electronic level, color metering, duel processor, %100 view finder and more. Fully sealed ? sounds like it.
Diffraction Limit f/6.8
Crop 1.6x
Pixel size 4.3µm
Image size 5184 x 3456
Info Video at Canon
See it at Canon Canon 7D

Down load the manual here
Buy it Here at B and H.
Ross Murphy Images In Light

Black and White

Image: Seattle B and W, 5D Mk II, 16-35 f2.8 L II..

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Image: Mt Baker, 5D Mk II, 17-40 F4 L, 3 Stop GND soft. B and W in Lightroom and CS4.

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Black and white is something I have become fond of lately,the images evoke a different emotion than color and I'm at a stage where I want to experiment a little more and try to put more feeling in to my work, I am not yet happy with the way I process the images, but I am experimenting with different ways, the above image was taken B and W in camera and processed with DPP and CS4, my other options include Lightroom, but I am yet to come up with a combination I like for my final work flow, so a little more research and some playing around I hope to come up with the right recipe. Getting just the right look and feel to a black and white image is harder than color images in my opinion. The best thing that digital has given me is the ability to experiment with out the cost of film.

Ross Murphy Images In Light

Fall is Coming whether we like it or not

Image: Fall Aspen in Grand Teton, 50D, 300 f4 IS L.

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Fall may be the best time of year to get out and shoot landscapes, I'm having a hard time trying to decide on where to go, but I think I may end up in the Canadian Rockies and Glacier N.P. Montana, I just fell in love with that place last year, but most places, at least in the Northern hemisphere have fall color to shoot in late September and early October, even out in the desert South West, as a matter of fact the Pacific North West has some great fall color, to see it you need to get up in the mountains or on the east slope of the Cascade range. Probably the best here would be the Alpine Lakes Wilderness or the Mt Baker area along with Mt Rainier National Park.
So make your plans now and be ready, its a short window of time. The above image was taken in the first week of October last year in Grand Teton N.P. Wyoming. For you photog's in the Southern hemisphere, well you have spring coming up, the other great time of year to shoot. One of these days I will shoot Patagonia in the fall, if some one wants to invite me down just drop me a line....

Ross Murphy Images In Light

Tripods,Ball heads and L-Brackets

As a landscape photographer, there are some tools that you just have to have if you want to get sharp images: Tripod, Head, Bracket. There is a dizzying array of options out there. Lets start with the tripod, now keep in mind this is from a landscape point of view. I chose a Gitzo 6x carbon fiber 3 leg with a flat plate, the reason behind my choice, the G3530s was light weight, 3 leg extension for better stability, flat plate with no center column again for better stability, short folded up length and finally its ability to hold a large lens, as with everything it has its shortcomings but I found it to be the best compromise for my work. Next I needed a system for mounting my camera and the main system is the Arca-Swiss style mount which several manufacturers have adopted for use, including Arca Swiss, Really Right Stuff and Kirk Enterprises, just to name a few. My choice was with Kirk Enterprises, for cost, design and build. The BH-1 is simple and robust, it does what its intended and will stand up to being abused and keeps on ticking, even after a pretty good fall from the top of my jeep. One last item is the way you mount your camera to the ball head, you have two options with the mounting plate on the ball head a Single Plate or an L-Bracket, really its one choice and that is the L-bracket, this allows quick change from portrait to landscape mode, it also acts as a little roll cage for your camera as a little bonus (note: remote shutter release can still be used with L-bracket). With this set up you can backpack, shoot a city or do Panoramas or long exposures and you wont have to buy another set up for a long time, most photographers go through buying several before they figure out that they should have got a good one to start, including me. This will give you a rock solid mount at a reasonable cost and a good weight. A good alternative and less expensive ball head is the Gitzo with a Universal Quick Release Clamp installed on it, like the above image.

Ross Murphy Images In Light

Portrait mode vs Landscape mode

Image: 5D Mk II, 70-200 f4 IS L, CPL, 3 stop soft GND filter,70 mm @ f16

Image: 5D Mk II, 24-105 f4 IS L, CPL, 3 stop soft GND filter,67 mm @ f16

Shooting landscape or portrait ? Last weekends trip down to the Columbia River Gorge made me think a bit more about this. I now shoot mostly in portrait mode, I just seem to prefer it, some images demand one or the other and some times I like to see an image stretched across two screens. What do pro's do, well if your shooting for a magazine cover you would want to shoot portrait, for a fine art print, you could go either way, for a stitched panorama, I also prefer to shoot 5 portrait mode shots or two landscape mode shots, I think print size plays a big roll also, portrait mode shots, I feel, look better than landscape in sizes at or below 12 x 18, above that either way works for me. So when out shooting try both, see what works for what type of landscape. The lower of the two shots above is one half of a panorama.

Another example:

Ross Murphy Images In Light

Star Burst

Image: Mt Shuksan Sunrise, 5D Mk II, 16-35 f2.8 L II, f22,1/6 s, -1.7 ev. 3 stop GND soft.


Image: Mt Shuksan Sunrise, 5D Mk II, 16-35 f2.8 L II, f16,1/8 s, -1.0 ev. 3 stop GND soft.

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F22 vs F16, tell me which you like better.

I had a chance to try out an EF 16-35 F2.8 L II this morning, so far its looks pretty good, one thing about shooting this type of lens that is a plus for landscape photographers is the round lens diaphragm you only get this on top of the line lenses, you need more blades in the diaphragm to create the round hole for shooting wide open, however when you stop down you have more intersections of the blades, this allows, when stopped down to f 22, the ability to add nice looking star burst's when including the sun in your image. Also allowing very nice bokeh at large apertures.

Ross Murphy Images In Light