Equipment->Reviews: October 2005 Archives

I checked out the M-Audio Microtrack 24/96 today at my local Sam Ash. Looks like a nice unit, very small. I think it's overpriced at $400, maybe $250 is closer to what it should be worth. The definite downer for me is that it uses a proprietary Lithium-Ion battery. If you're in the field and you run out of batteries, then you're screwed unless you can recharge it (AC or USB). I'd prefer something that I can feed NiMH AA batteries into in a pinch. :-(

Replacing the LithiumIon will cost $75 + shipping, via Maudio. I do like the little mike they provide, although I wish it was built-in and not a separate unit as I know I'll forget to bring it to an interview if I got this unit. I have some further thoughts on other field recorders by Marantz and Edirol after the jump.

I found a blog called HDforIndies.com which is an equipment review/discussion site for independent filmmakers. It's a wealth of information on DV/HDV and recording equipment. The only problem is that I can't get Netnewswire to subscribe to their RSS feed -- it keeps asking for a username/password. I'm not sure if this is a bug on the HDforIndies site or in Netnewswire. Can someone try to subscribe using another program?

Luminous Landscape has a wonderful review of the new Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS lens. It sounds like a winner, except for the slightly increased barrel distortion. Contrast and resolution apparently is higher. The new lens was released this October and has the new 3-stop IS; increased weatherproofing; increased contrast/stray-light control; and features 18 optical elements (3 aspherical) in 13 groups.

I have the old EF 28-70mm f/2.8 L lens and while I'm generally happy with it, it does suffer slightly wide open at wide angles in the corners. I was thinking of replacing it with the new 24-70mm L lens, but for fieldwork, it looks like the 24-105mm f/4 L IS is a better choice since it is smaller (83.5mm Dx 107mm L), lighter (670g), and has longer range. The MSRP is ¥145,000, B&H has it for $1249.

The buzz on the EOS mailing list is the significant vignetting in the corners seen on wide angle shots at open apertures with the new full-frame Canon EOS 5D. William Coburn was kind enough to show an example using a 20mm lens at f/2.8 versus f/5.6: http://infohost.nmt.edu/~schlake/5d/2point8vs5point6.jpg

Now, some of this is undoubtedly due to the lens itself (most wide-angles suffer from corner darkening at full apertures), but digital sensors are susceptible to more vignetting (or more accurate, light-falloff) with wide-angle lenses* due to their surface microlens design. I decided to hold off buying the 5D until I had gotten more user reports and I'm glad to have done so. Let's see how this shakes out.

* The Epson R-D1 digital rangefinder camera has a software tool to reduce vignetting because of this problem. And people with Photoshop CS/CS2 can correct this in the RAW plugin too.