Mike Kobal

Shot in 15min with the FH100. Great quality, good Af and image stabilization. If you are interested in high frame rate video and still shooting, also check out the new Samsung TL350. Looks promising but I did not have a chance to try it out yet.
Music, Strom, from the album Kraftwerk 2, you can buy it here: Kraftwerk 2
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I got many emails from readers asking about which point and shoot I recommend and decided to do a quick comparison of my 3 fav’s. Samsung TL500 (my current and fav), Panasonic LX3 ( my fav until I got the TL500) and the Casio FH100, my fav fun camera for just playing around, shooting high speed sequences at 9mp! resolution (jpg) plus great looking HD video (1280×720 @ 30fps) and slow motion down to 1000! frames (although the resolution kinda sucks at 224×480), all three cameras have a 10mp sensor, Samsung and Panasonic a 1/1.7 CCD and 1/1.63CCD, the Casio a 1/2.3 backlit CMOS. Samsung and Pany have the edge here with their slightly larger sensor ( ~23 and 24mp/sqcm) the Casio packs 35mp/sqcm into theirs. Keep in mind these point and shoot cameras CAN’T compete with the Micro4/3 system or any Dslr currently on the marked, but there are days when the T2i, GF1 or PEN E-PL1 seem too big or heavy, that’s when the p&s come in. If you find this information helpful, please consider helping me maintaining this blog by purchasing your gear through my product links to B&H. It will cost you nothing and allows me to keep adding! Thank you.

Finally got around comparing my two favorite wide angle primes, the Voigtlander Skopar 20mm/3.5 SL-II pancake and the Zeiss Distagon 21mm/2.8 ZE, both in Canon mount, I use them on the Canon T2i, 7D and 5D2 and via adapter on my Panasonic Gh1. The Zeiss Distagon has the edge when it comes to image quality but the extremely small size and low weight of the Voigtlander make it my favorite walk around lens. And lets face it, the quality is still extremely high and better then most wide angle zooms (one notable exception is the Nikon 14-24mm), extremely high center resolution wide open and it sharpens up nicely once stopped down to 5.6 (on full frame, the edges are not a problem on a cropped sensor). Manual focus is a piece of cake on ultra wide angle lenses and very enjoyable on both, the Zeiss and the Voigtlander. I keep the Zeiss around for crucial work but 9 out of 10 times I grab the Voigtlander because of its tiny form factor.
Here are the links to the Voigtlander MTF and Zeiss MTF charts at photozone.
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Very exciting news, Panasonic just released a pdf, a few more details about the recently announced AG-AF100, looking forward to get my hands on one, I am already very impressed with the GH-1. The AG-AF100 will be capable of 12hrs video recording (two SDXC cards) 1080 and 720, 59.94, 50, 29.97, 25 and 24 fps.
It will also feature HD SDI and XLR connectors and it will be compatible with all Lumix G Lenses and other 35mm lenses via adapters.
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Kudos to Canon for giving us manual sound control for the 5D2 in their latest firmware, we can finally turn or AGC and set the levels manually. There is only one glitch, we cannot see or change the levels while recording, it has to be done beforehand. Nonetheless very practical in controlled situations, I use the AT897 microphone to record directly into the camera and the result is very good (during assignment I have a professional sound guy record sound to a separate device) but there are times and situations when you need to do it yourself. ( I also use the Marantz 661 as a stand alone device, I prefer the level control over the Zoom H4N) Now I was curious what would happen if I plugged a small field mixer directly into the 5D2. Got my hands on the Sound Devices MixPre and was immediately impressed with the built quality and the clean signal it produces. Ideally, I would have liked the the Beachtech DXA 5DA but could not get it on time for this test. I think this would be a really good combination, for now check out the video and see/hear for yourself. If you find this information helpful, please consider helping me maintaining this blog by purchasing your gear through my product links to B&H. It will cost you nothing and allows me to keep adding! Thank you.

A very quick comparison between the two cameras, just received yesterday and the T2i is tiny and very light. The same 18mp sensor (or almost) as in the 7D, but the most exciting news for me is the manual hd movie mode. This little camera is indeed a very capable hd video camera, of course it still lacks proper audio controls but in this case I won’t complain. It is fantastic to have a small camera with such a great sensor for quality video/image output. The trade off, it lacks in the handling department, too many buttons need to be pressed but it will fit in a large pocket. My new take everywhere camera. If you are thinking about getting one, check out this short video and check back in a week for updates. If you find this information helpful, please consider helping me maintaining this blog by purchasing your gear through my product links to B&H. It will cost you nothing and allows me to keep adding! Thank you.

UPDATE: full size comparison shots at different aperture setting (shot on 5D mark II) can be downloaded from here.
If you are looking for small, high quality lenses for your Canon Dslr’s, look no further, they are here! The Voigtlander Utron SL II 40mm 2.0 is totally amazing. Sharp wide open on the a full frame sensor, slight vignetting is visible, but that is to be expected, and pretty much flawless once you stop down to 4 and 5.6. The 20mm 3.5 Color Skopar SL II is not far behind, although the edges are not sharp wide open on the 5D2. Stopped down to 5.6 it produces amazing results. Just love them, the built quality is first rate, manual focus ring is very smooth and a joy to operate. I am using mine on the 5D mark II and the 7D.Check the short video for to see how they look mounted on the camera and compared to the Sigma 50mm 1.4 and the Canon 28mm 2.8 (one of the smallest lenses in the Canon line up). Photozone posted a review/MTF test of the 40mm, tested on a Nikon D300. I got mine from Cameraquest.comIf you find this information helpful, please consider helping me maintaining this blog by purchasing your gear through my product links to B&H. It will cost you nothing and allows me to keep adding! Thank you.

The Olympus E-P2 just arrived and I am excited about this little camera. This is a quick video comparison between the Olympus E-P2 and Panasonic Lumix GF1 and to illustrate size I am also showing the Canon Eos7D next to it. I really , really like the new external view finder VF-2- on the E-P2. Makes me (almost) forget that I am looking at a live view! It is that good! The only gripe I have with it is that if I am not careful with it while it is attached to the camera, it is possible to accidentally brake it off. Dig the full manual movie mode, the built in image stabilization and the colors right out of the box (esp greens) are very nice. I will update this post once I have had some real shooting time with this little gem. If you find this information helpful, please consider helping me maintaining this blog by purchasing your gear through my product links to B&H. It will cost you nothing and allows me to keep adding! Thank you.