The best camcorder ever!!!!!

Yes.  It's the best prosumer camcorder ever built.  It shoots 1080p/60fps.  No it does not shoot 4k.  I'm glad it doesn't.  Yes 4k televisions are falling in price.  In Canada, the major cable providers only have 1 or 2 4k channels.  With dwindling cable subscribers  I don't see the major providers upgrading their equipment to fully support 4k in the near future.  I have a 4k television at home with an Apple 4k TV set top box which we, being my girlfriend and I don't hardly watch.  We don't watch a whole lot of television rather looking at our phones or iPads or computers which only support 1080p or 1440p.  But on a phone, you cannot differentiate between 1080p and 1440p.  There are a few phones that have 4k displays but again, they're a small screen factor.  That is why I'm still shooting 1080p.

Lets get back to the Canon Vixia HF G40 camcorder available for purchase here.  Like I've written previously it does shoot at 1080p/60fps.  What Canon does right with this camcorder is colour reproduction.  It does come with 20x optical zoom and 300x digital zoom.  Thanks to the sensors enhanced sensitivity, the Vixia HF G40 provides vivid, accurate recording through an improved signal to noise ratio.  The camera shoots in both MP4 and AVCHD with MP4 being web ready.  The camera provides dual SD card slots for never ending storage.  I have 2 64GB cards in the camera and I can shoot the whole weekend and not fill up both cards.  You can record to both cards at the same time just in case one fails.  I did buy an extra battery for longer shooting.  I can shoot about 90 minutes with the battery that comes with the camera and with my larger battery I can shoot over 220 minutes on a single charge.

The OLD screen is big and bright even during sunny days.  The electronic viewfinder shifts to 45 degrees and is easy to use and see thru.  For a guy with glasses, it's a big help.  The optical image stabilization is great when you want to shoot that is far away from you.  The lens is great on this camera being a f1.8 to f2.8 which means it's great in low light and is extremely sharp.  

Here are some of the pros of the camera:

1. Great price
2. Great lens
3. Portable
4. 1080p/60fps
5. Focal lenght
6. Multiple hot shoes to attach accessories
7. OLED screen
8. Viewfinder
9. Comes with remote control and lens cap
10. Weight of 1.7 pounds
11. Reach of 26.7MM to 576MM (35MM equivalent)
12. Wide angle and zoom lenses available
13. Has Wifi and FTP 
14. Superb video
15. Superb colour reproduction

Here are some of the negatives:

1. Does not shoot 4k (is that a negative?)

You can buy two teleconvertors.  One wide and one a telephoto.  I currently have the wide lens and it's amazingly sharp.  The camera does have audio in which unfortunately doesn't provide phantom power.  I currently use the Rode Video Mic Pro+ available here.

When I was in Calgary last year for work I brought this camera with me.  I decided to buy a Sony 4k camcorder thinking 4k is the future.  Let's just say I sold the 4k camcorder and I kept the Canon.  With the Canon I don't need that many hard drives as the files are smaller and I don't need as much processing power.  If I wanted I could use my iPhone 8 Plus running iMovie to edit my Canon clips for my portfolios.  You can check my portfolio links on my blog to see what the camera is capable of.

Best pocket camera in the world

The Sony RX100 Mark V is possibly the best pocket camera in the world.  Currently you can buy the Sony RX100 Mark VI as well but the Mark V is a bit cheaper.  The Mark VI has a 24-200MM lens compared to the 24-70MM on the RX100 Mark V.  The Mark V takes amazing photos and videos and I'm guessing the Mark VI is slightly better.

The Sony RX100 Mark V has a one inch type Exmor RS CMOS sensor with a 21 megapixel sensor (20.1MP effective) which shoots great photos and even better videos up to 4k.  It can shoot up to 4K UHD video and regular video at 1080P.  It can even shoot slow video up to 980fps.  I've had the camera for over a year now and it is very reliable.  I take it everywhere with me since it does fit into my pocket.  You don't feel like a paparazzi with the camera.  You will not get stares as you would with a gigantic DSLR and a 70-200 lens.

The Sony RX100 Mark VI does have a 24-200MM lens which is awesome and is the only reason I would ever upgrade to the Mark VI.  The Mark V is very versatile little camera.  It's pretty much travelled with me every where I go.  From Calgary to Vancouver to Ottawa and down south to Florida.

The pros of the camera are:

1. Pocket size
2. Shoots awesome video
3. Shoots awesome photos
4. Easy to setup and use
5. Great for vlogging
6. 24 photo burst rate (Raw images)
7. Non-invasive 
8. Descent audio capture for such a small camera

The cons of the camera are:

1. It overheats when shooting 4K video 
2. 5 minutes limitations on 4k video
3. Battery life.  Buy lots and lots of batteries.  At least 2-3
4. Menu system is atrocious.  But once you learn it, it's ok.
5. No input jack for better audio

For me, I shoot mainly stock photos and videos so I don't really need audio recording for my needs.  This little camera does pretty much everything.  I actually sold all my Canon gear and bought the Sony RX100 Mark V and a Sony RX10 Mark II when I was out in Calgary for work.  I took it to the mountains whenever I was out there on weekends.  

If you would like to purchase it, please click here and help me out a little.  I do get a little back from Amazon when you purchase something.  It helps me buy new equipment and software and helps me travel to new places to take better pictures and videos.

FInally, I see ads!!!!

Well it took forever but I got all my Google accounts cleaned up.  Closed a myriad of accounts and services.  Forwarding my domain to the blogger site.  Correctly setup Google Adsense on the blog.  Correctly set up Google Adsense account, Google Analytics etc and for the first time, the website is able to display ads on my own, personal website.

From now on I hope to post daily or every other day and raise traffic to the site and all my various photo and video portfolios so that I can expand my photography business.  I live and breathe photography.  I am constantly thinking of what I want to photograph next.  It's an amazing hobby that gets you out into your city and local nature around the area you live in.  It's a great experience to explore and capture memories.

Cleaning up my Google services

Over the past week or so, I've been cleaning up my Google services and accounts.  Closing old blogs, pages and other websites I haven't been using for ages.  I was planning on just streaming all my content onto one site, one blog and one Youtube account.  I've finally gotten Google to provide grant me Adsense to my current website.  It took a few business days and I'm hoping that in the next few months, I can actually start making some money on my blog.  I've added shortcuts on this blog to all my micro stock accounts so you may visit those at your convenience.  

Things at home are finally settling down so now I have more time to devote more time to my photography and to blogging about my photography and photography experiences.  I hope you will follow me thru my adventures.  

Finally

Finally got my domain name pointed to Blogger.  Finally got Adsense to work with Blogger and my own domain.  I've had so much trouble with setting this up.  So many errors.  So many issues.  I haven't posted here in over a year because I've been so busy with work.  My girlfriend has had both her knees replaced in the past year so I've been helping her a lot this past year.  Driving her to physiotherapy, doctor's appointment etc.  But I am back and I'm looking to do more blogging and more photography.  I've wanted to have my own domain name pointed to the site for so long and have Adwords run on my site.  I finally had the time to sit down and do this.  

I am finally back.  Now I wish it would stop raining so I can fly my new drone.

Been away for a while

The Rockies in B/W

I have not posted in a while.  I have been extremely busy since March.  Also, a lot has changed in my personal life.  First off, back in March 2017, I left for Calgary for what I thought was a three month contract with the National Energy Board.  Turned into a four month contract.  I also started dating a wonderful woman back in January 2017.  I am still with her and we actually moved in after I came back from Calgary.

I spent a lot of time in the rocky mountains on my weekends when I was out in Calgary and I have to say I fell in love with the environment when I was out there.  I took roughly ten thousand photographs while in Calgary.  I traveled to Vancouver, Seattle, Tacoma and back to Calgary while out in the wild, wild west of Canada.

A lot has changed in the past 8 months.  All for the better I think.  Got a new girl.  Got some new digs.  Got some new photography and video equipment which I will talk about in a later blog.  Needless to say, I am back in Ottawa looking for a job.  I am still doing a lot of photography.

I will be updating the blog more often now.  Stay tuned!

Still adding photos

Still going thru my photos from my trip to Arizona and I keep finding more and more photos that I like.  I'm of course adding them to my Shutterstock portfolio and my own personal website.  Arizona is certainly a beautiful state with extremely nice people.

It's been a while

Well 2017 is here and what a year.  Got a new girl in my life, work is going well and finally doing more photography.  Finally.  Busy, busy, busy.

Been a busy few weeks!

So several weeks ago (three to be exact) I went on a solitary vacation to the state of Arizona.  I have never been alone anywhere.  I was always with either a friend, family member, ex-wife etc.  I was never alone with a camera anywhere.  I needed this trip to clear a few things up.  I wanted to be alone to think, clear my head and do some photography.   I think this particular image says it all for me.  Life's a journey, not a destination as the song says.

It was an awesome vacation with just a few hiccups.  But what vacation and life in particular don't have a few hiccups.  I got what I needed.  It was an awesome time to regroup and collect my thoughts.  I now know what I want out of my life and it's time I go and grab it.

Oh by the way, I missed Forrest by 5 minutes!  ;)  

It's been a while

Sometime, life gets in the way.  I've been doing a lot of photography but haven't been posting to the blog.  I wish I could post daily but I've been uploading my fall photos to Shutterstock, Bigstock etc.  Just trying to get more money.  I recently booked a vacation to Arizona.  I'm going to the Grand Canyon, the horse shoe bend near Bend and Monument Valley.  

The above picture is from Mud Lake located here in Ottawa.  I've been there a lot this fall doing video work.  I was able to get a juvenile egret up close which is awesome.  

Junior Egret at Mud Lake

Today was a fantastic day in Ottawa.  We're having great weather on the weekends.  Sunny and warm.  I on occasion go to Mud lake in Ottawa to do some photography since there is a variation of birds at the lake from Owls to Great Blue Herons and egrets to chickadees, nuthatches and robins.   WIth the shallow waters this year, you can get to places that you couldn't before.  This junior egret has been hanging around for the past several weeks.  I've managed to get some really good photos and video of this amazing bird.  He is not skittish or shy around humans and will completely ignore you.  Which is good for us photographers.  :)

Lac Leamy Casino Sound of Lights

Finally got out to do some photography after taking a break.  This summer has been weird for me for photography.  I didn't really get out much this summer with the cameras.  At least it doesn't feel like it.  I've been doing a lot more video work and uploading to other micro stock agencies trying to diversify my portfolio availability.  

I think this fall, I'll be heading out more to do some more landscape and wild life photography.  I miss shooting my wolves, deer and foxes along with my Algonquin Park landscapes.

Sony RX100 Mark II

The Sony RX100 Mark II is a camera I had before last year.  I upgraded it to the Sony RX100 Mark IV.  I went back to the Mark II because I had no need for 4k video and other features of the camera were a bit gimmicky.  The Mark II is just a great little walk around point and shoot.  It has a 20.2 megapixel sensor and shoots raw.  It's also mirrorless which has it's disadvantages such as battery life.  But you can add an adapter to the front of the camera so you can filters and other devices.  I have yet to attach it to my telescopes eyepiece which I'm planning on doing later this summer and this fall to get some shots of the planets Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.  Also I plan on doing some videos of the moon.  I just wish the weather cooperates on the weekends.

Lac Leamy Casino Sound of Lights - Canon Vixia HF G40

So I wanted to do a review of the Canon Vixia HF G40 last week.  Life always gets in the way as a friend and fellow photographer lost her life to cancer at the young age of 28.  I hadn't gone shooting for a bit with the camcorder as my day job seems to get in the way.

But this past week, I got to shoot the Casino de Lac Leamy fireworks.  I had missed the previous show as I totally forgot about it.  And yesterdays event, let's just say, whoever went to it got soaked in the torrential downpour.

This was the first time I had used a camcorder at night.  Shooting video is a little bit different than shooting photos at night.  Especially fireworks.

I had set the camera at ISO 100, f1.8 and exposure of 1/8th of a second.  Let's just say that didn't work out as I thought.  The exposure was way too low so I increased it to 100th of a second and voila, problem fixed.  So setting with ISO 100, f1.8 and the exposure was 100/1000 of a second.  Problem fixed.  So I thought.  My external mic died about halfway thru the show.  Hence no sound on the video.  For this Wednesday's show, I have a fresh battery in the mic and I know what my settings have to be.  I also have a better idea of how to frame the shot as I framed it wit htoo much empty space to the left.  

Overall, I think the Canon Vixia HF G40 is an excellent daytime and night time camcorder.  You can control pretty much any setting on it as far as exposure, white balance, mic etc.  I am really happy with the camcorder.  

One of the reasons I bought the camcorder was to do a lot more video work at Parc Omega where I get pretty much all my wildlife shots.  I hardly go there in the summer as the animals hide in the shade of the forest because of the heat.  I'm planning to go a lot more starting in September as it's mating season and the fall colours start.  Also the fur on the animals thickens as they prepare for the colder temperatures of Canada's northern climate.

A good one has gone home

I was going to do a review of the Canon Vixia HF G40 today after work.  That is not going to happen as this morning, I woke up to find out that one of my photography friends passed away at a young age from cancer.

As a cancer survivor myself, this hit me pretty hard.  I got cancer at the age of 35 and luckily got my 5 year clearance this past December.  My friend got her cancer while in her late 20's and passing away early in her 30's.  

You don't know the unimaginable guilt I feel that I'm still here and she is gone.  It's a total shock to the system to think that someone so young and full of promise could just pass away so quickly and so quietly.  I am still in shock and it's just really upsetting that I'm still here and she's not.  This is not the first friend that I've lost in my lifetime and it won't be the last.

I'm just mad that cancer took a young and promising person and not someone who has done evil in this world.  Death always takes the good ones too early and leaves us to mourn.  

I know she is in a good place now and the pain is gone for her.  I will truly miss you my friend.

R.I.P.