New Car Road Testing - Spy Shots - How to Spot Disguised New Cars being Driven

Over the last few years I've seen a number of new cars on the roads being driven with various levels of disguise presumably for real life road tests prior to launch. It appears that as we are close to the Delphi Diesel site in Kent that some cars are being tested with their components.

Kia Sportage 2010 Spy Shot

   Often cars are fitted with additional panels to cover how the final shape and design will look. This car was spotted in Gillingham Kent in July 2009 and subsequently proved to be the new 2010 Kia Sportage being test driven.


As you can see in the shot above the car is disguised with additional padding/panels to hide the contours and all badges and markings have been removed.
The final production version of the 2010 Kia Sportage is below and you can see the similarity in the lines and detail such as the indicators on wing mirrors.

Kia Sportage final production model


While out recently I spotted this vehicle again with some form of disguise, this time more limited and gaffer tape covering some key areas such as headlights. Again all markings on the vehicle had been removed. This was being tested by Delphi Diesel systems.

Pentax K to EOS Lens Converter (Use Pentax Lenses on Canon EOS Camera)

A lot of people ask how to use old Pentax K lenses on their Canon EOS camera. I bought a converter to allow Pentax K lenses to be used on my Canon EOS and have done the tests below using my Canon 550D SLR camera.

Pentax lenses can be picked up incredibly cheaply on Ebay or similar auction sites. Some have been available in the range of £10-£20 for a Pentax 28mm f2.8 lens as per the one I did these tests with.

The Pentax to Canon EOS adapter allows you to connect your Pentax K lens on your Canon EOS Camera. In this example I first added the adapter to my Pentax 28mm f2.8 lens and then fitted this to my Canon EOS 550D camera.

Pentax to EOS Lens converter

And then having fitted the Pentax K 28mm f2.8 lens to my Canon  EOS 550D I took a few sample photos. Remember that the Pentax lenses are manual focus and do not transmit any data from the lens to the camera so you have to operate the Canon 550D camera in totally manual settings as aperture cannot be set using the camera. Fortunately Pentax K lenses have aperture rings so you can adjust it manually.

Photo using Pentax K 28mm lens on Canon EOS 550D

You also have to focus the lens manually. This is a hassle for shooting stills but for video it makes very little difference as you need to manually focus anyway.

using Pentax K 28mm lens on Canon EOS 550D camera

Canon 5DII 24-105 lens Error 01

Last week I had a problem with my Canon 5DII and Canon 24-105 f4 IS L lens giving an Error 01 message, unable to communicate with camera. It appeared to be intermittent but as this is my workhorse lens that I use for almost every shoot I needed to get it fixed asap. The excellent Miles Whitehead repaired the lens for me and the fault was a known problem with the lens with the aperture unit connector failing. By losing contact at different points in the focal range it explained the intermittent nature of the error 01 fault on the camera.

This error occured on my Canon 5D too but showed itself in a different way; the error message on the Canon 5D2 was much more informative and showed the problem.

You can see the photos of the repaired part of the Canon 24-105mm f4 lens here

Canon 5D2 lens Error 01

Canon 5D Mark 3 Rumours and Spec Sheet

It is now nearly 3 years since the Canon 5D Mark 2 revolutionised the world of photography and video by being able to shoot full HD 1080p video on a DSLR. It is also nearly 6 years since the original Canon 5D was released.

On these timescales we should be due the Canon 5D Mark 3 being announced in the next few months. What features should be on the Canon 5D Mark III spec list?

Clearly HD video has now become an integral part of every DSLR and as the 5D2 led the way with this in the same way the original 5D led the way as the low cost full frame DSLR, Canon are likely to have something up their sleeve to be another game changer.

The features that seem certain to be on the Canon 5D Mark3  are:

Rotating/ moveable LCD screen
Wireless flash control built in
Basic HD video editing in camera
720p HD video (hard to remember that the Canon 5D2 only has 1080p and 640x480)
HD crop mode to give digital zoom of up to 10x
ISO range up to 102,000

So which innovative feature is likely to appear that is the next game changer?

Shooting stills from video - not far off already?
Higher ISO range - unlikely to go much above
Higher pixel count - likely to be higher but not above the Canon 1DS Mark4
Higher frame rate? - possible or may be enable video still extraction
Auto focus for video? Would be highly popular

What do you think the Canon 5D Mark 3 should have on its spec?

How to Buy a Portrait Shoot Lens for Less than the Studio Hire!

I've been testing out various cheap Canon lenses as well as my normal Canon L series that I normally use for studio shoots. If you are looking for a cheap lens to shoot studio portraits with then you can't get much better value than the Canon 35-80 lens that was sold with many cameras such as the Canon 500N during the 1990s. For portrait photography the Canon 35-80 is far better focal length than the Canon 18-55 lens that comes supplied with the camera. The Canon 18-55IS lens is too wide for flattering portraiture so the 35-80 range (equivalent to approx 50-120 on the Canon crop sensor) is a much more suitable focal length.

I picked up an example of the Canon 35-80 lens on Ebay recently for £22 and tested it yesterday on a shoot using my Canon 550D camera, which has the same 18Mp output as a Canon 600D.

The results in a controlled studio environment were very good although clearly the advantages of the L series pro lenses are far more than the improved optical and build quality. You also get the f2.8 aperture as well as the image stabilisation.

The shot above was taken with the Canon 550D and Canon 35-80 lens that is an amazing value portrait lens for studio photography.

Studio hire, £30 per hour, lens £22.

There can't be many lenses the cost less than the hire of the studio!

What is a Cheap Portrait Lens for Canon 600D for studio shoots?

Are you looking for a Cheap Portrait Lens for your Canon 600D SLR Camera for studio shoots?

I've been testing out various cheap Canon lenses as well as my normal Canon L series that I normally use for studio shoots. If you are looking for a cheap lens to shoot studio portraits with then you can't get much better value than the Canon 35-80 lens that was sold with many cameras such as the Canon 500N during the 1990s. For portrait photography the Canon 35-80 is far better focal length than the Canon 18-55 lens that comes supplied with the camera. The Canon 18-55IS lens is too wide for flattering portraiture so the 35-80 range (equivalent to approx 50-120 on the Canon crop sensor) is a much more suitable focal length.

I picked up an example of the Canon 35-80 lens on Ebay recently for £22 and tested it yesterday on a shoot using my Canon 550D camera, which has the same 18Mp output as a Canon 600D. During the same shoot I also used my Canon 5D with the new Canon 100mm L f2.8 IS macro lens as a comparison. How will the £900 lens compare to a £22 one?

The answer is very well. The results in a controlled studio environment were very good although clearly the advantages of the Canon 100 macro are far more than the improved optical and build quality. You also get the f2.8 aperture as well as the image stabilisation. However the fixed focal length was more of a hindrance in the studio.

The shot above was taken with the Canon 550D and Canon 35-80 lens that is an amazing value portrait lens for studio photography. There can't be many lenses the cost less than the hire of the studio!

Editing Canon 600D Video using Windows Movie Maker Live

Editing Canon 600D Video using Windows Movie Maker Live

Are you looking to edit video on your Canon 600D DSLR using Windows Movie Maker Live for free? Windows Movie Maker Live is a free download from the Microsoft website and includes a number of enhanced features that are not in the standard Windows Movie Maker packaged with Windows XP/Vista/7.

Windows Movie Maker Live will not work with the standard MOV Apple Quicktime files that are produced from the Canon 600D camera. The files need to be converted into AVI format first that will allow them to be opened in Windows Movie Maker Live. The software I use is Cineform Neoscene which costs approx £60 but having spent £1000 on your Canon 600D with a decent lens it is a small price to pay to be able to easily edit video from the camera with free Windows Movie Maker Live software rather than Adobe Premier or similar. Even if you bought Adobe Premier Elements for a similar price you would have problems with the performance editing Canon 600D movie files on anything other than an incredibly high spec PC. Once converted to AVI a much more modest spec PC can be used.

As soon as the MOV files are converted to AVI format they can be imported into Windows Movie Maker Live and the project created. From personal experience I would always recommend saving regularly and particularly before publishing a project to avoid a crash losing your hard work.

Windows Movie Maker Live allows you to publish the results of your editing direct to YouTube and other social media sites saving time compared to the older version of Windows Movie Maker.

Canon 100mm f2.8 L IS Macro Lens for Studio Portraits

I recently sold my old mark 1 Canon 100mm macro lens circa 1990 and upgraded to the latest Canon 100mm f2.8 L Macro Lens with IS. Once the lens arrived I arranged an impromptu studio shoot with model Bethany to test the lens out and review how it compared to the other Canon lenses I use. I tested the Canon 100mm f2.8 L IS Macro Lens with my Canon 5D camera.

Canon 100mm f2.8 L IS Macro Lens Review

The lens is exceptionally fast to focus and is much lighter than the Canon 70-200 L2.8 IS which makes it more comfortable to use on a shoot. It does however have the fixed focal length which makes it less flexible and meant I needed to move around a lot more than I would with the 70-200 or my 24-105 lenses.

Studio portrait with Canon 100mm f2.8 L IS Macro Lens

Overall I was incredibly impressed with the Canon 100mm f2.8 L IS Macro Lens for a portrait shoot. The lens is very sharp, possibly the sharpest lens I own but it is also the latest technology so perhaps you would expect that performance on a digital camera.

Studio portrait with Canon 100mm f2.8 L IS Macro Lens

Looking for a Cheap Portrait Lens for Canon 60D?

Looking for a Cheap Portrait Lens for Canon 60D?

I've been testing out various cheap Canon lenses as well as my normal Canon L series that I normally use for shoots. If you are looking for a cheap lens to shoot portraits with then you can't get much better value than the Canon 35-80 lens that was sold with many cameras such as the Canon 500N during the 1990s. For portrait photography the Canon 35-80 is far better focal length than the Canon 18-55 lens that comes supplied with the camera.

I picked up an example of the lens on Ebay recently for £22 and tested it yesterday on a shoot using my Canon 60D camera. During the same shoot I also used my Canon 5D with the new Canon 100mm L f2.8 IS macro lens as a comparison. How will a £900 lens compare to a £22 one?

The answer is very well. The results in a controlled studio environment were very good although clearly the advantages of the Canon 100 macro are far more than the improved optical quality. You also get the f2.8 aperture as well as the image stabilisation.

The shot above was taken with the Canon 550D and Canon 35-80 lens that is an amazing value portrait lens for studio photography.

Using Pentax K Lenses on Canon EOS 7D cameras for Video

I was recently selling some of my old Pentax lenses and was surprised by the level of interest and number of bids for what are quite specialist and now rather old lenses. The lenses were manual focus but genuine Pentax and with very wide maximum apertures.

I found out shortly afterwards that there is a big demand for Pentax lenses to use with Canon EOS 7D cameras for shooting video. With video the focus is manual anyway and the lenses are such high quality that they are a bargain for the price.

As an example you could pay £600 for a Canon 135mm lens but the Pentax version will set you back the princely sum of £20! You do need to buy a Pentax K to Canon EOS adapter to allow you to use the lens on your Canon 7D camera but these can be bought on Ebay for around £10.

With a total outlay of £30 you can have an excellent quality lens to use on your Canon 5D Mark 2 for video and get some stunning results.

Editing Canon 7D Video using Windows Movie Maker Live

Editing Canon 7D Video using Windows Movie Maker Live

Are you looking to edit video on your Canon 7D DSLR using Windows Movie Maker Live for free? Windows Movie Maker Live is a free download from the Microsoft website and includes a number of enhanced features that are not in the standard Windows Movie Maker packaged with Windows XP/Vista/7.

Windows Movie Maker Live will not work with the standard MOV Apple Quicktime files that are produced from the Canon 7D camera. The files need to be converted into AVI format first that will allow them to be opened in Windows Movie Maker Live. The software I use is Cineform Neoscene which costs approx £60 but having spend over £1000 on your Canon 7D it is a small price to pay to be able to easily edit video from the camera with free Windows Movie Maker Live software rather than Adobe Premier or similar. Even if you bought Adobe Premier Elements for a similar price you would have problems with the performance editing Canon 7D movie files on anything other than an incredibly high spec PC. Once converted to AVI a much more modest spec PC can be used.

As soon as the MOV files are converted to AVI format they can be imported into Windows Movie Maker Live and the project created. From personal experience I would always recommend saving regularly and particularly before publishing a project to avoid a crash losing your hard work.

Windows Movie Maker Live allows you to publish the results of your editing direct to YouTube and other social media sites saving time compared to the older version of Windows Movie Maker.

Cheap Portrait Lens for Canon 550D

Looking for a Cheap Portrait Lens for Canon 550D?

I've been testing out various cheap Canon lenses as well as my normal Canon L series that I normally use for shoots. If you are looking for a cheap lens to shoot portraits with then you can't get much better value than the Canon 35-80 lens that was sold with many cameras such as the Canon 500N during the 1990s. For portrait photography the Canon 35-80 is far better focal length than the Canon 18-55 lens that comes supplied with the camera.

I picked up an example of the lens on Ebay recently for £22 and tested it yesterday on a shoot using my Canon 550D camera. During the same shoot I also used my Canon 5D with the new Canon 100mm L f2.8 IS macro lens as a comparison. How will a £900 lens compare to a £22 one?

The answer is very well. The results in a controlled studio environment were very good although clearly the advantages of the Canon 100 macro are far more than the improved optical quality. You also get the f2.8 aperture as well as the image stabilisation.

How to Quickly Edit Video from Canon 5DII/7D/60D/600D

Having recently had to quickly produce a short video clip of a musical show I had videoed I thought it would be useful to explain how to quickly edit Video from Canon 5DII/7D/60D/600D using Windows Movie Maker by outlining my workflow in five easy steps.

1) Copy images and video from memory card to PC
2) Process the Canon MOV files to AVI files using Neoscene software. This allows the files to be edited in Windows Movie Maker.
3) Import AVI video clips into Windows Movie Maker and cut/add transitions as required. My clips needed very little cutting and transitions can be added quickly.
4) Save Movie Maker project and publish as AVI or WMV.
5) Upload to YouTube or Vimeo.

The video I edited of Stage Theatre Society production of Our House is here

So in these 5 easy steps I have taken the raw video files from the Canon DSLR camera (5D2/7D/60D/550D/600D) and edited them together to create a final movie. This whole process took under 30 minutes so clearly there wasn't a massive amount of editing done but it shows what can be done easily using free video editing software. The new Windows Movie Maker Live software also allows direct publishing to YouTube or Facebook.

By using the Cineform Neoscene software the highly compressed MOV files produced by the Canon 5DII are converted to AVI format which is more easily editable and avoids the problems of jerky video playback that can be experienced on the Canon 600D files when in the native MOV file.

Using Pentax K Lenses on Canon EOS 5D2 cameras for Video

I was recently selling some of my old Pentax lenses and was surprised by the level of interest and number of bids for what are quite specialist and now rather old lenses. The lenses were manual focus but genuine Pentax and with very wide maximum apertures.

I found out shortly afterwards that there is a big demand for Pentax lenses to use with Canon EOS cameras for shooting video. With video the focus is manual anyway and the lenses are such high quality that they are a bargain for the price.

As an example you could pay £600 for a Canon 135mm lens but the Pentax version will set you back the princely sum of £20! You do need to buy a Pentax K to Canon EOS adapter to allow you to use the lens on your Canon 5DII camera but these can be bought on Ebay for around £10. One such example is here

With a total outlay of £30 you can have an excellent quality lens to use on your Canon 5D Mark 2 for video and get some stunning results.