Immersion Wrap Up

It was, officially speaking, a bad-ass week.

I just got home from six days of the 2009 Multimedia Immersion and NPPA Convergence held in Las Vegas. It was exhausting, exhilarating, inspirational and humbling.

We coached 45 students from around the country on how to produce multimedia storytelling. We used gear from our sponsors, Canon, Think Tank Photo and Roberts Imaging, and along the way we tried to instruct and inspire the students so they could go home and spread the multimedia goodness to their friends and coworkers.

And we ate a lot of noodles.

At some point, all of the handouts that the coaches provided will be available as downloads on the Multimedia Immersion website. I made up a tip sheet for the 5D Mark II, as more than 15 of the students used that as their only video camera. And on Thursday at the NPPA Convergence, I gave a presentation on Photoblogging geared to the beginners. Both of those can be dowloaded from my blog.

Make sure to check in with the Immersion website to see when the participant’s videos are posted – there is some bad-ass work in there!

Canon releases firmware update for 5D Mark II allowing manual exposure in Video recording

Canon has now released their firmware update which will finally allow users of their 5D Mark II camera to have manual exposure control when recording video.

Includes a function to enable the manual exposure setting when shooting movies.

*When shooting movies in manual (M) mode, the shutter speed *1, the lens aperture value *2, and the ISO speed *3 can be freely set to allow a greater flexibility.

Notes:
*1 Shutter speed range: 1/30 sec. to 1/4000 sec.
*2 Lens aperture range: Maximum to minimum aperture value of the lens used
*3 ISO speed range:
Auto: ISO 100 to 6400 set automatically
Manual: ISO 100 to 6400, H1

That’s fantastic news for most of us who have had to master the art of trickery and MacGyverism to get the camera to expose the way we want it to.

I’ll be sure to report back after using it.

Firmware upgrade will add manual exposure to 5D Mark II video

I received an email from our Canon rep, Mary Mannix, delivering the much-needed good news that the Canon 5D Mark II will finally be given manual exposure controls for it’s video mode via a firmware upgrade coming in “early June”.

With the popular request for manual exposure control within video for the EOS 5D Mark II, Canon U.S.A. Inc. will be releasing a free firmware upgrade in early June. The upgrade will enable users to have manual exposure controls while shooting video, including ISO, aperture, and shutter speed. The manual exposure control in video on the EOS 5D Mark II is expected to make a huge impact with photographers. –Mary

Here’s the link to the press release. I’ll be sure to review it here shortly after it’s debut.

KNPA winners announced

The Herald-Leader and yours truly fared pretty darn well this year. Check out the results and the winning photos at knpa.org

Canon releases “black dot” fix with firmware update

Some have been reporting odd little black dots which appear on the right side of point light sources in images from the 5D Mark II. I personally haven’t had a problem with this frankly because I haven’t taken the time to analyze my photos pixel-by-pixel. So they might be there, might not. I’ve seen examples from others and while the dots obviously shouldn’t be there, I’ve not found it worth much worry.

Regardless, Canon says their new 1.0.7 firmware update will take care of the problem and also addresses some vertical banding noise.

McClatchy wants to sell Miami Herald

The Herald-Leader’s parent company, McClatchy Company, is heavily in debt and apparently wants to sell one of it’s most prestigous newspapers, The Miami Herald.

The surpise was which paper they wanted to sell – I’m not so suprised that they’re starting the fire sale. Makes you wonder what’s in store for the HL.

Kernel wins Pacemaker

UK’s student newspaper, The Kernel, won a Pacemaker Award – considered the Pulitzer of College Newspapers. Congrats to all of them!

KNPA announces seminar dates

The Kentucky News Photographers Association’s annual POY contest and educational seminar is scheduled for Jan. 16 and 17, 2009, at the Marriott East in Louisville.