A few bits and bobs

I haven't posted anything recently after a busy Christmas and New Year.  Its been relatively quiet in the DSLR world with only Nikon D4 and first impressions of the C300 and Scarlet to entertain us.  Rather more with the C300 it must be said.  After a slightly negative initial reaction with mumblings about the feature set and price the C300 seems to be winning hearts and minds.  Canon bringing the price down to more F3 like levels has not done any harm.  However, the real theme I have noticed is that people really like using it.  They also like the image, especially in low light.  Its not the perfect camera but it seems one with relatively few compromises.  As a step up camera from a DSLR it makes a lot of sense.  It is still, unfortunately, a pretty big step though.  Here are a couple of reviews from my friends Philip Bloom and Nino Leitner.

The D4 shows Nikon is stepping up its game on video.  Have they finally avoided introducing any gotchas that undermine their camera in video?  I still haven't seen any definitive hands-on reviews yet.  Like its arch-rival, the 1DX, its still too much camera for me - too big, too expensive.  I don't have any Nikon lenses so I was never going to be a buyer but I welcome its innovations and hope Canon follow suit.

How soon will that response be?  Well the rumour mill has been hotting up for the Canon 5D MkIII since the turn of the year.  There now seems to be a strong chance of an announcement as early as February with some going as afr as to say the 5D and its rival the D800 me get released on the same day.  Unknown cameras from both suppliers have been spotted (leaked?) in pictures recently.  The specs on both still seem to be inconsistent in the rumours.  The Canon also seems to have characteristics similar to the 7D as much as the 5D.  Could the 7D get updated first?  Could we have something like a 6DX, replacing both models in the same way the 1DX does for the 1D and 1Ds.  No idea, I will be keeping an eye on Canon Rumors as diligently as the next man till they break cover.  It would be great to see something as soon as BVE or Focus on Imaging.

I was planning to follow up on my backup and archiving article with some practical advice and experience.  Unfortunately the floods in Thailand put pay to that as hard drive prices rocketed.  I have added an SSD and a 4 way USB3 card to my MacPro but I wont be able to complete my plan until we get back to those October prices.  We seem to be at around 30-50% dearer though it has been worse.  I am on the lookout for fast USB3 caddy or external drive.  I have been disappointed with the ones I have tried so far.