I’m a real creature of habit, especially when I find some little piece of gear that makes my life as a photographer easier. To that point I recently learned some sad news, one of my favorite products has been slated for EOL.

Well I didn’t know what EOL was either, I had to ask—it stands for end of life. SanDisk is ending production of its SD and SDHC Plus line of memory cards. In an earlier blog I pimped the benefits of not having to carry around a card reader and cables, because the SD Plus memory card folds in half and plugs directly into a USB slot.

Seems putting a SDHC and USB controller on one of these convenient little cards makes them slightly more expensive, and so I deduce not as palatable to the thrifty shopper. For me the couple extra dollars is worth the convenience of have not having to drag around a card reader on vacation.

If you like these memory cards, get your fill while supplies last, because after the end of the year they may be as rare as hen’s teeth.

— Ken Geiger

The professional community has been eagerly awaiting news of the EOS 5D replacement, and today the long anticipated full-frame Canon EOS 5D Mark II was unveiled. The 5D was first released in 2005 with a palatable price point; its low weight and full frame sensor have made it a favorite tool for many National Geographic photographers.

The 5D MK II comes with an even larger CMOS sensor, 21.1 megapixels, 3.9 continuous frames per second, and an expanded ISO range compliments of the new DIGIC 4 processor. Live-view video can be captured at 1920x1080 pixels (30 frames per second) with stereo sound and individual clips lasting 4GB—about 12 minutes.  As an added benefit, still frames can also be captured while HD video recording is in progress!

Canon has even lowered the price of the 5D MKII to $2,699, with arrival scheduled at the end of November. More 5D MKII images and details after the jump.

— Ken Geiger

SanDisk has pegged the data transfer meter for SDHC with the announcement today of the Extreme III 30MB/s SD card. The 30MB/s edition (megabytes per second) will come to market in September and will be available in 4GB, 8GB and a whopping 16GB. The 16GB version will have a selling price of $179.99.

The speed of the camera's recording media correlates directly to the number of frames that can be written during a continuous burst—before a memory buffer overrun occurs. Here’s an example from Canon’s 50D literature.

It can shoot up to 6.3 fps, in bursts of up to 90 JPEGs (using an UDMA CF card), 60 JPEGs (using a CF card) consecutively or 16 RAW files, so you'll never, ever miss a shot.

Though the 50D uses only CF (compact flash) cards, Nikon’s newly announced D90 will be able to use the Extreme III 30MB/s cards. According to the press release, Nikon and SanDisk have been working closely to ensure that the D90 will take full advantage of the 30MB/s data transfer rate.

Though the Canon EOS 1D MKIII and EOS1Ds MKIII both have SD recording slots, the DIGIC III processor in these cameras will pump out only 15MB/s. Perhaps the next two Canon pre-Photokina camera announcements will be equipped with DIGIC 4 image processors, able to take advantage of the SanDisk Extreme III 30MB/s edition.

— Ken Geiger

So you just bought a new digital camera and now you’re wondering what kind of SD or CF card to use in that slick little device. Should you stick with one of the major brand names, SanDisk, Lexar, or perhaps take a chance on a cheaper card without the name recognition?

My criterion for choosing a memory card is speed: how fast the image data can be written from the camera to the card. You’d think that we could just read and trust the data transfer speeds listed by the manufacturers—you can to a point.

But that point stops when you realize that a single top-rated card will vary in performance depending on the camera brand or model in which it’s paired. Fortunately, if you are looking for the fastest card and camera combinations, you need only look as far as Rob Galbraith’s recently updated CF/SD Card Database. He has posted speed tests on a number of major digital SLR camera and card combinations.

If you are looking to free yourself from one less digital doodad, try leaving your SD card reader at home on your next outing. I know 2-in-1 SD cards have been out for a while but I’ve recently discovered just how well they work. The convenience of being able to remove the SD card from the camera, fold the card back to reveal the USB tab, and directly insert it into the computer is brilliant, simple, and fast.

— Ken Geiger 

Canon has posted a firmware update (Version 1.1.2) which, "Improves the stability of AF accuracy in AI servo AF when shooting extremely low-contrast subjects."

FROM CANON EUROPE:

Dear photographers,

Wednesday April 30, Canon releases world-wide a firmware update to improve the autofocus performance of EOS-1D Mark III and EOS-1Ds Mark III in some shooting conditions and to add new features in personal functions.
Those improvements have been implemented thanks to the feedback provided by professional photographers.

For more info and to download the firmware, click on the links here after:

http://web.canon.jp/imaging/eosd/eos1dsm3/firmware-e.html

You will need your camera serial number to initiate the download of the firmware. For detailed instructions on how to install the firmware update click here.

— Ken Geiger 

With the proliferation of online photo sharing and print fulfillment sites, creating a custom family Christmas card has never been easier. All you need is an idea and a couple of willing subjects.

If you were an early adopter of Canon’s EOS-1D Mark III and have been experiencing any type of autofocus problem, you may want to take a look at Rob Galbraith’s web site. He has been leading a testing and reporting crusade on what seems to be an autofocus deficiency in bright light situations. As of October 17th Canon will be offering a hardware fix to solve an AI Servo autofocus problem.

Here's a digital photography challenge: what would you do if needed to rename thousands of images? 

• I received 13,000 images from a photographer.  The files are named incorrectly and many hundreds of images have the same name.
• All files need to be sorted by the time they were created and renamed from 1 through 13,000.
• The files are located within more than 140 sub-folders by file category and in no apparent date order.
• Each of the images has an XMP file containing the caption information and this file needs to be renamed exactly as the file is named.

What program(s) would you use to quickly rename the photographs?

One of the best attributes of digital photography is the instant gratification of seeing your photograph appear on the preview screen, this handy feature makes today’s cameras great for experimentation. One technique I use to put a little spice into situations with poor light quality or jazz up party snapshots is to add a little controlled motion to my images.