Long awaited Canon 5D MKIII comes with a long list of improvements compared to its predecessor Canon 5D MKII.
New 5D MIII features compared to 5D MKII
new Digic 5+ processor: 6 fps in RAW+JPG mode, new noise reduction algorithms for higher ISO
22.3MP full frame (36x24mm) CMOS sensor – almost no change in images size vs. full frame 21 MP @5D MKII
ISO: standard 100-25600, expandable to 104,200 – much better sensitivity in low light than Canon 5D MKII
New: 63-zone dual layer iFCL metering system. This one is truly exciting. New Intelligent Focus Color Luminance Metering system integrates with the focusing and take in account both New: color and luminosity near chose AF points! Evaluative, center-weight, partial or spot metering modes
New: 61 point High Density reticular autofocus vs. 9 points in 5D MKII. The new AF system is sensitive in extremely low light scenes – up to EV-2
100% coverage optical view finder vs. 98% in 5D MKII
3.2″ TFT LCD with 1.04M dots resolution vs. 3″ LCD with 900K dots
New: finally, dual card slots! CF + SD
New: built-in HDR mode. I love this one.
New: silent shutter mode
exposure compensation in +/- 5 stops in 1/3 or 1/2 increments vs. +/- 3 stops in 5D MKII
New: Multiple exposure mode for cinematic-style images: additive, average, bright and dark
Verdict: fantastic tool for low light shooting, optimized for professional videography.
Note that the actual spec above was changed since the below commercial video was released. Smaller 22 MP sensor (and not 28.2MP like advertised, 6 fps and not 8 fps). In any case, Canon 5D MKIII with its current specification is a great machine to work with.
Just a quick note to let you know about such a great price for this exceptional tool which should be in the arsenal of every photographer. It is a one-day deal at B&H Photo, NYC, NY USA.
We just have released the new 2.0.2 version of PSM for Mac Os X Snow Leopard. This release follows previous v2.x releases for Windows, switching PSM to work with your (free) Lightburner account. Thus you get the best of the two worlds, browsing and adding metadata locally, while uploading only once for all microstock channels via online software. For more information see release notes for 2.x versions.
Once you’ve downloaded the latest software, make sure that
I am happy to announce that the long awaited PSM v2.0 BETA is currently released for Windows OS. This is a major software release changing how PSM works with your images. While the user experience and the GUI mostly remain the same, other software layers were significantly modified.
Main changes
PSM now works as a Lightburner.com client, uploading images exclusively to your Lightburner.com account. If you did not get your free Lightburner account yet, go get it now.
It means that now you can upload your images to as many microstock and traditional stock photography agencies as you wish, either by using pre-defined Lightburner.com microstock sales channels like iStock and Shutterstock, or by defining your own private FTP channels.
It also means that PSM will now upload images only once, to Lightburner.com, instead of uploading them N times to N agencies. Thus you save time and bandwidth.
Lightburner accounts are set up for automatic distribution of all uploaded images, no additional action required. Once PSM uploads the images Lightburner will distribute them to the microstocks of your choice.
The IPTC/EXIF/XMP metadata library is replaced by a more sophisticated solution. WARNING: MAKE COPIES FOR ALL JPEGs BEFORE YOU APPLY ANY METADATA CHANGE, particularly because it is an early BETA release of the software.
The database structure was cleaned up and was significantly changed. The new database is incompatible with DBs of PSM 1.x.x. If there will be a huge demand for the backward compatibility I will consider adding a DB convert utility.
Some less important functionality existed in the previous versions is removed to reduce the number of features delivered in this BETA release.
Alamy, a UK-based traditional stock photography agency, proudly announced in their latest letter to their contributors that Alamy will be able to transfer payouts via PayPal.
Good news – we have made some improvements to the way in which we pay our contributors. We are now offering PayPal – we can pay you in GBP, USD or EURO’s via PayPal. If you opt for PayPal we will send your payment so that you do not pay any PayPal fees
I like Alamy because they are so British. Meaning they are so ages-back traditional and so fantastically slow in adopting the change and following the market trends, and nevertheless – or because of that, – they still sell well. Today virtually every reasonable stock photography agency offers PayPal payouts, so welcome to the club, my dear Alamy.
Shutterstock, who came to the microstock market as a first agency to offer microstock subscriptions, joins iStock, Fotolia and Dreamstime by offering single images sales. The recent announcement on Shutterbuzz states that current royalty rates for subscription-based packages are not going to change. As per the new product which ‘is being tested in the certain markets’ the planned royalty rates are based on the contributor’s life-time earnings on Shutterstock:
up to $500 – 20% payout rate
$500 – $3,000 – 25%
$3,000 – $10,000 – 28%
over $10,000 – 30%
Shutterstock is an owner of BigStockPhoto.com, re-branded as BIGSTOCK sometime ago. BIGSTOCK, which deploys a traditional credits-based microstock model, was purchased by Shutterstock to complete their subscriptions offering. For the last few months in addition to the credits packages BIGSTOCK also offers immediate purchase of a single image. The single download prices start from $2.99.
BIGSTOCK single image sales
It looks like Shutterstock was closely following BIGSTOCK in this initiative and now they are doing a similar move.
All in all this is good news for the microstock artists. I believe that the contributors like me will be happy to increase their earnings effortlessly, by selling the same microstock collection on Shutterstock in a different way, so let’s wish Shutterstock good luck with their new baby.