Canon 5D Mark III is hard to find but worth it

Canon 5D Mark III is hard to find but worth it
By Jefferson Graham, USA TODAY

LOS ANGELES – Canon is ready for its closeup, and it's a beauty.

Talking Tech
By Jefferson Graham

The 5D Mark III is the stunning — and pricey at $3,499 — sequel to the $2,200 5D Mark II, an SLR aimed at professionals and serious hobbyists that totally revolutionized video when it was released in 2008.
On the Mark II, video shot on a still camera could, for the first time, look dramatically better than that of a video camera. The Mark II produced cinema-like quality thanks to its large image sensor, which is more than 20 times the size of what's found in a consumer video camera.
It also became the go-to camera for wedding and portrait photographers, who liked its compact body and its ability to shoot wider, high-quality frames in a full-frame sensor. The sensor is larger than what's seen in most digital SLRs.
The sequel, the Mark III, is just out and hard to get. Online retailers report limited supply, and Amazon says it will take one to two months to fulfill orders. However, we got our hands on one and spent a few days shooting photos and video. Consider us drooling.
The Mark III has three major upgrades.
•Sharpness. The camera sensor has been redesigned to produce dramatically improved images, especially ones produced in low light, such as in living rooms and restaurants and at parties.
•Greater focus. To use the autofocus effectively, Canon lets you select from nine dots on the Mark II screen to set your focus point — with the center point being the most accurate. The Mark III has 61 focus points and, of those, some 41 are as strong as the one center point for the Mark II, says Rick Berk, a tech specialist at Canon.
•Video. On the Mark II, a major limitation was that you could shoot clips up to only 12 minutes in length. Now you get 29-minute clips. Which makes it more usable at weddings, school plays, concerts and recitals, where you can't afford to miss a moment .
I've been a 5D shooter since 2006, upgrading rather instantly to the Mark II in 2008, shortly after it was released. I spent the money on the upgrade for one main reason: low-light performance, which was so much better than the Mark 1.
The 5D Mark III has a 22.3-megapixel sensor, redesigned for dramatically improved low-light performance, Berk says.
Light starts with the ISO settings on your camera. Generally, the lower the ISO, the better the quality. In afternoon daylight, you may shoot at 100 ISO, while indoors, you could be at 800 or 1600. That's about as high as you'd want to go for acceptable quality. With the Mark II, I would never go any higher than 3200 before picture and video quality would fall off. On the Mark III the other night, I took pictures of my cat Jinxy indoors, resting under the table, at the previously unimaginable setting of 12,800 ISO. The images look amazingly sharp and noise-free.
For comparison, I took the same shot with the Mark II at 6400 — as high as it goes — and the results are muddy and full of noise.
Focusing still tricky
Getting to shoot longer video clips is a huge plus for the Mark III, as is the ability to shoot the clips at a higher bit rate for an even crisper image. But focusing isn't any easier.
You compose the image on the LCD window on the back of the camera, where it's hard to be as precise as through a viewfinder. (Solution: Many folks buy hood loupes that cover the LCD.) Additionally, you can't effectively autofocus once the recording starts if the camera or subject moves. Because of the issues, most folks making videos with DSLRs shoot in manual focus.
What you can do with video on the Mark III that you couldn't do before is change the audio settings while recording. With the Mark II, if the audio conditions changed during your shot, there was nothing you could do except stop recording, set and reset. Now you change the audio settings during recording.
Additional bonus: Canon has added a headphone jack to monitor sound while recording. It sounds small, but for videographers, this is huge.
Still some issues
Despite all the advances Canon has made to the Mark III, there is still room for improvement:
•Autofocus, as mentioned, is still an issue.
•No rotating LCD screen, such as is found on other Canon cameras, including the 60D and Rebel T3i. These features are beloved by videographers, especially those who need to take shots of themselves.
•The back of the Mark III has buttons in new places that don't necessarily improve ergonomics. More often, they just confuse longtime users.
Still, the Mark III overall is a great leap forward. With the much sharper photos and low-light breakthroughs, I can learn new buttons.
Ka-ching! Canon got me again.
Source: USAtoday
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Sprint Unveils HTC Evo 4G LTE Smartphone [PICS]

Sprint Unveils HTC Evo 4G LTE Smartphone [PICS]
By Peter Pachal on Mashable

HTC Evo 4G LTE

The HTC Evo 4G LTE will be Sprint's second LTE phone. It'll be available in the spring for $199.99.

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Back Side

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HTC Evo 4G LTE, Camera Mode

The camera on board the new HTC Evo has a burst mode that can shoot 4 pics per second.

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Photo

A photo taken with the HTC Evo 4G LTE.

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Photo Close-Up

Here's the previous photo, zoomed in for detail.

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Camera

The Evo's camera protrudes slightly from the casing.

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Camera Close-Up

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Back Removed

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Music Player

The HTC Evo 4G LTE also is equipped with Beats Audio.

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Side Shot

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App List

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Kickstand

The new Evo also brings back the kickstand, letting you prop it up to watch videos or use as a desk clock.

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Kickstand 2

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App Launcher

You can launch apps by sliding them to a "launcher."

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Home Screen

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Side View

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Camera Button

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Sprint's Future?

Will the new Evo give Sprint a boost? Let us know what you think of it in the comments.

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Sprint and HTC just unveiled an LTE version of the popular Evo smartphone that helped put HTC on the map in the U.S. Officially called the HTC Evo 4G LTE, it’ll will be available exclusively on Sprint this spring for $199.99.

You may be a little confused. Yes, we said Sprint, and yes, we said LTE. Sprint so far hasn’t deployed a high-speed LTE network, and it didn’t announce an official launch at this evening’s event. But the frequencies are settled, the chips are ready and the network will begin rollout later this year (first in Texas, Atlanta, and Baltimore). The Evo 4G LTE will be ready for that network when it arrives.

In the meantime, it’s got plenty of features to keep customers interested. Chief among them is the camera, an 8-megapixel shooter that performs well in low light and has an easy-to-use burst mode that snaps 4 pics per second for as long as you hold it (it’ll stop itself eventually). It can also capture still pics while shooting 1080p video.

Those pics will look nice and big on the Evo’s hefty 4.7-inch “super” LCD screen. The biggie-size screen looked fairly bright in our brief hands-on, and it follows the current trend of large-size screens spreading to more phones, with one extremely notable exception. Don’t worry, though, the new HTC Evo is no brick. It’s a relatively svelte 8.98 mm, and felt quite comfortable to hold.

The phone also has a first-ever feature for the U.S.: HD Voice. In an impressive demonstration, Sprint played a call from actor Kiefer Sutherland, starting out speaking on a typical, fairly muffled call which got slowly more unintelligible as background noise took over. Then the call switched over to HD Voice, and Sutherland’s voice came through crystal clear.

HD Voice works via a combination of tech on the phone and tech on the network. Although Sprint says HD Voice doesn’t depend on 4G (or even 3G) connectivity, it’s limited only to Sprint-to-Sprint calls. The tech isn’t proprietary to either Sprint or HTC, but the carriers have yet to work out how each one’s implementation will interact with other networks.

Other notable specs include Qualcomm Snapdragon 1.6GHz dual-core processor, NFC, 16GB of on-board memory, with a micro-SD slot under the hood for up-to an additional 32GB of storage, Beats Audio, Android 4.0, and a kickstand — a feature which disappeared since the first Evo and has now returned.

How do you like the all-new LTE Evo? Sound off in the comments.

Source:Mashable

New Ford Mustang Tracks Driving Performance on LCD Screen [VIDEO]

New Ford Mustang Tracks Driving Performance on LCD Screen [VIDEO]

November 15, 2011 by Mashable Video

Ford has announced that the 2013 Mustang will feature a 4.2-inch LCD screen that will allow drivers to test their performance with a new series of “Track Apps,” which measure 0-30 mph, 0-60 mph, and 0-100 mph speeds as well as the g force the car is pulling from left to right.

Learn more about the apps and the new Mustang in the video above.