Based on my experience with my Sony NEX camera and the reviews of their new flagship full frame camera, I'm going to sell my Canon gear and buy a Sony a99...but the plan is much more complex than that...

I've purchased some inexpensive lens adapters from Fotodiox. This allowed me to do some tests at the local camera shop with a demo model to make sure it would work at all. Making sure the camera will meter correctly in Aperture priority mode is the most important thing. Second is to make sure that the lens can properly focus to infinity. if it can't, then the clearances are wrong and the lens won't be properly usable. I already know that the in body image stabilization won't work because the adapted lenses have no electronic contacts. If the camera doesn't know the focal length of the lens, it can't do the correct math on how far to move the sensor...more on that later.

These tests worked so I bought the camera...in fact I also picked up a NEX-5R because I've become addicted to that system and the 5R seemed like an incredible camera too in it's own right. So why Sony and no a Canon like I'm already shooting? Why not Nikon? (as asked by just about everybody I know). Well there are two big reasons. First is focus peaking. The Sony has an electronic viewfinder and so has focus peaking both in the viewfinder and on the back LCD screen. I've already used this with my NEX-7 and it's an incredibly fast and accurate way to focus manual lenses. The other reason is that the a99 has better video functionality than any other camera for the type of work I want to use it for. If I can get the Super Steady Shot to work, then that's another huge advantage which no other camera can offer. 

The solution to the image stabilization came to me while looking at alternative ways of adapting my lenses. This is how I found Leitax.com. Leitax makes lens adapters for many brands of lenses to adapt to many types of camera body. It so happens that they make adapters for Leica R lenses and Nikkor lenses to fit Sony bodies. These adapters are a bit more involved as they replace the factory bayonet with a new one machined perfectly to fit to the lens and the body alike. The big advantage of these adapters is that they are designed to be used with the focus confirmation chips. These chips are pre-programmed by to report a focal length and max aperture to the camera. They are simply glued into the new bayonet. Once complete my Leica R and Nikkor lenses will be Sony Alpha lenses with digital contacts. I'll then use the regular Sony Alpha to E-Mount adapter to mount them onto my NEX-7 and 5R. The NEX cameras will become my b-cameras for event photography and videography and share the same set of lenses. The final package will be very capable and extremely compact compared to using modern AF lenses with multiple DSLR sized bodies or a DSLR with big lenses and the NEX with it's own set of lenses. In time I will get some native Sony lenses but I'm holding out for now as Sony doesn't make any full frame weather sealed lenses and their pricing model at the moment is a bit steep compared to what I'm used to.

Some of the lenses I use are old Tamron Adaptall II lenses. These were above average lenses quality wise in their day and well constructed. Plus they are very cheap to buy today if you can find them. I'll have to use the Fotodiox adapters mentioned previously for them but there is a possibility that the focus confirmation chips which fit the Leitax mounts will also work on the Fotodiox adapters. If not, the lenses will still work, just without image stabilization...not the end of the world.

I'm still deciding on which lenses to keep as I have more than I need. I'm selecting lenses based on image quality, quality of construction, condition, and nice-to-haves like integral lens hoods and the ability to focus unusually close. I'm still making the final decisions but so far, this is likely what the full kit will look like until I can fill the holes with new lenses.

• Tamron SP 17mm f/3.5
• Leica Lietz 35mm Summicron f/2 R
• Leica Leitz 50mm Summilux f/1.4 R
• Leica Leitz 90mm Summicron f/2 R
• Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 AiS Micro (Macro)
• Nikkor 180mm f/2.8 AiS ED
• Tokina 400mm f/5.6 (Nikkor Ai Mount)

One other advantage of the Sony a99 over Canon DSLRs is that it has a crop mode which emulates a crop sensor by using only the center portion of the sensor. This provides a crop factor of about 1.4x and 2x (there is also a digital zoom mode which provides gradual simulated zoom up to 8x). Given the focal lengths above, I end up with the following usable focal lengths just with the 1.4 digital teleconverter: 17, 24, 35, 50, 70, 90, 105, 126, 147, 180, 250, 400, 560, 800, and technically speaking up to 3200mm with the full digital zoom...though there might not be enough quality there to make that practical. This is not bad considering I can carry all 7 lenses in a space smaller than just a hand full of modern pro grade fast, zoom, autofocus lenses. An argument can be made for a couple of high quality zooms being more convenient as lenses don't have to be switched as often, or at all, but I prefer the speed and quality of primes for the types of work I do. Considering it would cost over $4000 to buy the two main fast Sony pro zoom lenses, my solution is much more attractive right now. There are a couple of primes I'd like to add to the list but fortunately these are old Nikkor lenses and I can pick all of them up online for less than the cost of any pro grade Sony zoom.

I've only had the camera for a day or so so it's too soon to give you too many first impressions but so far I can tell you that I've made the right choice for the set up I want and the type of work I do. The manual focus with peaking works perfectly and with some custom programming on the buttons I can quickly get up to a 5.6x focus assist zoom on the screen and in the viewfinder using the aperture preview button...something not possible with optical viewfinder dslr cameras. Also, the layout of the screen and viewfinder shows additional information almost exactly the way it does in the NEX cameras so that all 3 have a very similar feel...this is nice as well when switching back and forth. The low light sensitivity, while possibly not as good as some of it's competition, is far superior to any crop sensor camera I've used and that's a good thing. My favorite thing is that with the battery grip, it takes 3 batteries. This is going to be great when working large events or doing a full day of video.

The next post in this series will be a review of the camera once I've had a chance to use it a bit.

I've been shooting Canon for a long time. My first DSLR was a Canon nearly 15 years ago now. That Rebel S became an Elan 7N which became an EOS 3. Years later came digital with a 50D and then a 7D. I got on the digital bandwagon late and when it came time to consider my full frame options, the 5D MKIII was the go-to camera in Canon's line up. I'm one of those crazy people who always felt that 35mm film, scanned properly was more than a match for modern digital cameras...at least the ones I could afford. To a certain degree I still feel the same way. I still shoot 6x7cm medium format film with an old Mamiya RB67. Scanned at 4000dpi, a single 6x7 slide or negative produces a single image with over 100 megapixels. For a camera only worth a few hundred dollars on todays market, the quality is hard to beat for the money.

Earlier this year, when the 5D MKIII came out in fact, I didn't feel all that highly about it and in an act of rebellion, I bought a Sony NEX-7. This small but powerful mirrorless camera has transformed how I look at modern digital photography. For the type of photography I do, the little NEX is easily the equal of my Canon 7D but in a much smaller package. The day I realized that I could adapt all old manual focus lenses to the NEX format was an epiphany. With simple adapters purchased online, nearly any lens ever made was now ready to be used on my NEX.

In just 6 months, I've accumlated nearly 20 manual focus lenses for use on my NEX-7. In fact I don't use any modern E-Mount lenses any more. Some of these old lenses are considered legendary by some and the optical quality in some of these lenses can't be matched by any but the best modern lenses...if at all.

As a professional photographer I've been able to get by with an APS-C sized crop sensor for digital and medium format film the rest of the time but a full frame digital camera was inevitable. When I was looking at the work I could do with my little NEX compared to my Canon cameras and a small selection of L lenses, I realized that I preferred the old lenses. There's more of them, in many cases they are better quality, they're smaller and don't have messy electronics to deal with, and overall those 20 lenses cost less than my 5 select Canon lenses. I wanted a full frame camera but wanted to be able to use those old lenses which had become my favourites. Unfortunately you can't manually focus those lenses on a Canon DSLR very well even if you bought the required adapters as the autofocus system is useless and the focus screen can't help you like it could in the old manual focus days. In the NEX-7, the electronic view finder has focus peaking as in higher end video cameras. This allows me to focus the lenses rapidly and effectively every time. With this system I don't miss autofocus one bit.

There are a few other cameras which have focus peaking but none of them have a full frame sensor...or so I thought. This week I was introduced to the Sony Alpha A99. To make the long story short, this camera is very close to making me jump ship and sell all of my Canon gear...to be continued...

I recently provided some product photography services to a great local business specializing in imported olive oils, balsamic vinegars, and other specialty foods. Evoolution is located in the downtown core on historic 104th Street and while only recently opening their doors, they are already making a big splash...most recently at the Rocky Mountain Wine and Food Festival.

Some of these photos have been used by Avenue Magazine for their shopping guide both online and in print for their November issue and the upcoming December issue. The tasting bar alone is worth making the trip but also check out their great holiday gift ideas.

Yesterday I was called by Metro News Edmonton for an online article about Google Business Photos. Laurie Callsen wrote a great article about the program and even received some feedback from one of my customers. I'm glad to see she chose MilArm; an example which is less mainstream. It's great to see that people are talking about it. Hopefully this will help get the word out about this fantastic service that can help businesses of any size. Check out my Google Business Photos page for more details.

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Part one of my test put two best-in-class macro lenses to use on the street. One from just a few years ago and one from well over 20 years ago.

A macro comparison wouldn't be a comparison without some true macro shots so I set to work setting up a macro studio at home. I don't shoot studio macro shots often so it's a little improvised but it gets the job done. The goal was to get the conditions as identical as possible for both cameras. For this test I used a Manfrotto tripod with a gear head and a sliding video mount plate to make all adjustments. It's crude but it served well enough. An Einstein firing into a 60" umbrella directly over the camera provided all light.

I shot various items with varying levels of detail, texture, and colour so that the images could be compared side by side. I thought images would need to be cropped to account for the difference in focal length but this wasn't the case...at 1:1 magnification they are very close. The NEX-7 is known to have a better dynamic range and colour reproduction than the 7D but I don't think this was a significant factor in the results. There is a slight difference in colour between the images. It's unknown if this is due to the lenses or the cameras. Both cameras were set to identical shutter, aperture, and ISO settings. Slight discrepancies in exposure between the cameras were adjusted in Adobe Lightroom 4 but no other adjustments were made other than fixing the white balance to Daylight in Lightroom. Each subject was shot at various aperture values from wide open through f/16. 

I'll start with my conclusion. Keep in mind that these are full frame lenses being used on APS-C sensor cameras. You can view the results below and see for yourself after that...

Canon

The Canon lens is excellent and it's hard to imagine a lens being any better...or needing to be. The lens is as sharp as any sane person would need a lens to be. In the corners there is just a hint of softness wide open. It's so subtle I'm not even sure it's not in my head and has to be blown up to 100% to even try to find it. Bokeh is fantastic. Shooting a small object on a white background produced no flare in the lens even when the light was turned up too high.

Tokina

The Tokina is also excellent and produces fantastic results. At it's sharpest there is no perceivable difference in sharpness between the two lenses. It is also slightly soft in the corners wide open more so than the Canon. Again, you have to look very closely to see it. There is some chromatic fringing wide open but it's slight and is only obvious at 100% magnification. This is gone at f/4 (the next stop on the ring) completely as is any softness in the corners. Bokeh is great though I feel that the Canon is better. The Tokina does flare when shooting into a white over exposed background. Perhaps not the best lens for high key photos but certainly I've seen worse. Considering the age of the lens this isn't surprising. The Canon no doubt has much more sophisticated technology built into it for preventing such things. This lens extends when it focuses which makes macro work a bit more tedious requiring constant adjustment of the camera compared to the Canon. This is quite tedious without hardware dedicated to macro work. The contrast produced by this lens when the lighting is correct is the best I've seen.

NOTE: It has occurred to me that the depth of field is so shallow wide open at 1:1 magnification on these lenses that the slight softness in the corners could have been accentuated by the edges of the subject being slightly further away from the lens. I haven't tested this but during the tests I did perform it was obvious that wide open, the depth of field is incredibly shallow. Care must be taken to make sure everything is perfect. I have no doubt that small discrepancies can impact image quality in these conditions. Something as simple as the sag in the camera due to the weight of the lens can throw things severely out of focus or change the focal plane and make it impossible to get the entire subject at the same focus. I did my best to prevent these things from impacting the testing but it's obvious by looking at my samples my samples that I was off in some places when the lenses were wide open.

Conclusion

The Canon lens produces one of the highest image qualities I've seen in any lens I've used.  It's sharp at all apertures, controls flare very well, is built solidly, has weather sealing, and goes to 1:1 with internal focusing. While the Canon costs significantly more than what I paid for the Tokina, it still commands a surprisingly high price despite it's age. Even at top dollar, you'll pay half what the Canon sells for new. From what I've seen comparing the two, it would be hard to go wrong with the Tokina if you had the choice. If you require any of the features offered only in the Canon like weather sealing, it's pretty much your only option.

The below pictures were taken at 1:1 magnification and at various apertures ranging from wide open to f/16. The only edits which were done were slight adjustments to the exposure so that they are all the same and the white balance was set to Daylight in Lightroom.

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS	Tokina AT-X 90mm f/2.5
Canon f/16	Tokina f/16
Canon f/11	Tokina f/11
Canon f/8	Tokina f/8
Canon f/5.6	Tokina f/5.6
Canon f/4	Tokina f/4
Canon f/2.8	Tokina f/2.5

You may have to head to the gallery (http://bit.ly/OeMQLU) and look at these images full size to see any major differences...that's how good and how closely matched they are. Here's a quick sample for the pixel peepers out there.

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS	Tokina AT-X 90mm f/2.5
f/4  Near Top Right Corner	f/4 Near Top Right Corner

By f/4 you can see that both lenses are performing at an outstanding level of sharpness with no softness or other flaws in the image. I like to think that the Tokina outperforms the Canon when considering micro-contrast but at this level it's a non-issue...they're both amazing lenses.

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS	Tokina AT-X 90mm f/2.5
Canon F/2.8	Tokina f/2.8
Canon f/2.8	Tokina f/2.8

All images were over exposed slightly to accentuate the flare. Even on black the Tokina is flaring a little while the Canon is rock solid in both images. This isn't a deal breaker for the Tokina but I'll have to be more careful when using it to make sure I don't get too much light coming into the lens.

To see the full size images, please jump over to the gallery: http://bit.ly/OeMQLU

Macro lenses have always had a reputation for being well made with high quality optical designs. While not all macro lenses have been exceptional, most true macro lenses are at least very good.

The first macro lens I purchased came late in my photography experience in the form of a Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Di SP for Canon EF. This lens is one of the best bangs for the buck in lenses that you can currently buy new. It's a plastic body lens, has slow and noisy autofocus, but the optics are top notch. Many consider it to be one of the sharpest lenses currently available anywhere. With it's slow autofocus performance, it proved to be only good for macros and sat on the shelf a lot so I sold it to a friend who needed it more than I did.

This year I came to need a macro lens again. Knowing that autofocus wasn't really required for macro work, I looked for something older so I could save some money and still get top quality. The first lens I picked up was a Tamron SP 90mm f/2.5. This lens is a classic macro lens which is well known for high quality optics. Knowing it was the grandfather of the new Tamron I sold, I felt confident that it would serve well. Unfortunately the lens I bought used had an issue with it's aperture mechanics. With a lens that old and 9 aperture blades, it happens. Fortunately the shop I purchased it from was able to swap it for another lens.

This is how I came to own the Tokina AT-X 90mm f/2.5 Macro. This was a virtually new specimen complete with 1:1 adapter and the carrying case...it even came in the original box and came with instructions! I didn't know at the time but this lens is famous for being one of the best macro lenses ever made and one of the sharpest lenses ever made. It's also renowned for having excellent bokeh. So much so that its nickname is the 'Bokina'. It's a tank of a lens that screams of classic quality construction. For a lens first released in in the 80s and based on a Vivitar design from 1975, I was dying to know if it could stand up to the best today had to offer.

It was with that thought that I went out and rented one of the best current macro lenses which would fit my Canon cameras. The EF 100mm f/2.8 L IS was introduced in 2009 and was the first lens in Canon's line up to offer Hybrid Image Stabilization. With it's weather sealed design and 'L' quality, it is one of the higher quality Canon lenses.

I don't own a full frame camera which can mount the Tokina so the comparison will be done on APS-C sensors. The Canon will be mounted on my 7D and the Tokina on my Sony NEX-7 via an adapter. These cameras have very similar image quality and should be good enough to see if there are any appreciable differences between the two lenses. Part one of the test will be on the street using these lenses as regular medium telephotos, the Tokina without it's macro extender as the lens can't focus to infinity with it mounted. Part 2 will focus on true macro capabilities in controlled conditions with each pushed to their limits.

Canon and Sony side by side with Extension tubes fitted

Today I took both lenses to the local farmers market to see how they handled in the real world. My observations follow:

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 L IS USM

For a 100mm lens, it's big. Bigger than my 135mm f/2 L and while it's heavy, it feels like it should be heavier. Considering it has 4 stops worth of image stabilization, internal focusing down to 1:1 macro, and Canon L glass quality, some bulk and weight is to be expected. It handles well for a hefty lens. This would be a good portrait lens but if you don't need macro capabilities there are better lenses to own in this focal length ball park like the 100mm f/2, 85mm f/1.8, and 135mm f/2 L...all of which are cheaper, faster, and smaller lenses.

The image stabilization works very well and allows you to handle the heft at lower shutter speeds. If hand held macro shots are your style, this lens delivers. You can easily get the f-stop values you want for macro work in natural light without having to push ISO too high. If you're walking around with this lens for a while, IS will be a welcome feature especially in failing light.

In the morning shade of one of the farmer's market booths, I shot this close up of some Kale. At ISO 800 the shutter speed at f/8 was down to 1/15 of a second. It looked good at the time and the IS worked well but still wasn't quite sharp when I got it home. One of the pitfalls of trusting autofocus for macro shooting is that even the slightest shift after the camera focuses can ruin the shot despite amazing image stabilization.

In better light, hand holding macro shots is no problem.

The autofocus is fast on this lens and can be switched between macro only ranges and longer ranges in case the autofocus hunts. The bokeh looks good as one would expect from a quality lens such as this with 9 rounded aperture blades. As with most macro lenses it's sharp wide open and at most apertures. At no time did I notice unreasonable levels of sharpness even wide open in the corners

Shot at f2.8

Shot at f/4.0

Tokina AT-X 90mm f/2.5 macro

This lens without it's 1:1 extender is much smaller and lighter than the Canon lens but is very beefy for it's size. It feels very sturdy and handles well despite being quite a bit of lens to have mounted to the skinny NEX-7. The focus ring has a lot of real estate to grip on which is nice since it rotates nearly a full 360 degrees from infinity to it's minimum 1:2 macro focusing distance. It's not quick to manually focus this lens except when your subject is near it's infinity focusing distance. This is a poor lens for capturing any sort of action. Even in this configuration 1:2 macro isn't bad and you can still get a lot of great hand held macro shots.

Once I got the pictures back to the computer the thing there were two things which struck me as amazing about this lens. First was that the bokeh really does live up to the hype. This is pretty amazing considering it has 8 non-rounded aperture blades which aren't even symmetrical. Stopped down, they produce an uneven shape which you can see in the picture at the top of this post. Despite this the bokeh looks really good, especially wide open. The other is the contrast. Pictures taken with this lens just appear to have a pop that I haven't seen before with other lenses. Typically I need to make tweaks in post production to get the blacks to look black and the whites to look white but I felt zero need to make any edits to the images I shot at the market. These two things combined create a background separation which is the best I've ever seen from a lens. Subjects in the foreground really stand out. For this reason I feel that this lens would make an excellent portrait lens. I own the outstanding Nikkor 105mm f/2.5 Ai-S and would really like to compare them to see which works best for portraits.

On the way home I took a few shots at f/32 just to see what they would look like. Normally a lens produces it's poorest results stopped down to it's smallest aperture. I was surprised that the images, while not exactly sharp, were better than I expected.

Conclusion

Based on what I saw today I can only say that both of these lenses are outstanding. Each have their pros and cons. Certainly there are features which make the Canon lens superior with it's weather sealing and image stabilization. That said, the Tokina cost me over $1000 less than what the Canon lens is worth new which is extremely good value in my books for a lens which is easily the equal of the Canon for image quality, if not better.

Full resolution versions of the photos can be viewed here: http://bit.ly/OeMQLU

So I've finally been able to spend a few days with my new MacBook Pro Retina and it's been a bit of a life changing experience. As I've always claimed, there are pros and cons to both Windows and MacOS worlds. Here are some observations I've made.

• Where's the Bluray support? There appears to be none natively in the Lion operating system. To watch movies will cost money buying a third party app, and burning the bluray disks might require yet another.
• Parallels is amazing. Running Windows applications so seamlessly inside another operating system is amazing. I never imagined emulation would converge to this point. I'm using it to run Oloneo PhotoEngine, my preferred HDR processing app and so far it's flawless.
• The screen is a amazing...but. The Retina display is fantastic and light years ahead of what I'm used to. It's a step up in a big way. That said, the applications aren't there yet. For example watching an HD movie or Bluray looks good but isn't as sharp as on my HD TV. I suspect the screen is doubling the pixels and actually running at less than 1080p. It's the only reason a 40" TV should look sharper at 10 feet than this screen should at 10 inches. I have no doubt, like with the iPhone and the iPad before it, that things will not take long to catch up.
• It's supported by my Drobo! After a big scare last year with some lost data, I bought a Drobo FS networked RAID array. It's a fantastic device but didn't work with Windows as seamlessly as I'd have liked. I used Synctoy to manually push my files across when I needed them to be. I've just learned that the latest Drobo firmware allows shares to be created on the Drobo which have full Time Capsule compatibility. I don't know much about the Time Capsule app yet but I've heard good things.
• The Trackpad is great. I was originally planning to use my Microsoft 6000 wireless mouse. Loading Microsoft's Mac drivers resulted in several crashes and a completely intert pointer. I can't handle that level of unreliability so I ditched it and just went with the one button track pad. Soon after I learned that the track pad driver is very versatile including 3 and 4 finger gestures. A two finger tap gives me what I'm used to being a right click...good enough for me. Being able to move whole windows, access the desktop, and open the Launchpad with just a few fingers is fantastic and just the kind of convenience I like.
• No NTFS. I could read NTFS volumes but not right to them. This stalled me as I'm currently using several USB hard drives from my Windows computer to work with video. I had to buy $20 worth of third party drivers just to get back to work. Not a terrible price but something I would have expected to have been free in the Windows world.
• iTunes. I was never a huge fan of iTunes but had to have it as I've got an iPod, an iPad, and a wife who loves her iPhone. Now that I see how all these devices integrate together with the full computer, it's actually a pretty amazing piece of software. Combine later innovations like iCloud and Airplay which I've not really looked into before and it's already become a staple for managing most of my media. I just wish it liked more formats of video as I've ripped many of my old DVDs to hard drive and it's not crazy about all of them.
• Magsafe is genius. Having damaged notebooks by dropping them on their plug, I can appreciate how smart this is. Apple really did strike gold with this innovation and I'm not sure I'll ever go back. I only wish they could do the same with the plugs for iPod/iPad/iPhone.
• Thin is king. I've been carrying it around with me every day since I got it and I can honestly say that it hasn't been a huge burden. I've certainly had a sore shoulder a few times but since the bag also carries cameras, lenses, and other heavy stuff, that likely would have been the case regardless. An ultra book or Macbook Air would be easier to carry but the MBP Retina is a much better computer per pound in my view.
• Getting my wireless printers to work has been so easy I almost don't believe it. Even scanning over wireless from a multifunction Canon works natively. Compared to my experience with Windows lately, this is a real joy.
• One down side is that there are far fewer free programs available. So far I've had to buy several smaller programs ranging from $10 to $50 just to get the basic functions I was used to having for free in Windows. Quicktime Pro, NTFS write drivers, media encoding programs which support the formats I need, etc.
• The Battery life is impressive. I use stand by all the time and would have no problem closing the screen and leaving it for a day or two.
• Boot time. While some Windows Ultrabooks might claim a faster boot time, the MBP Retina boots fast and comes out of standby/hibernation really fast. I can pull it out, bring it out of standby, check and send several emails and have it back in my bag in the time it took my Windows notebook just to boot.

The MBP Retina arrived yesterday while I was out. As fate would have it, I ended up getting an iPad 3 while I was out so when I got home, I was ready to drink the Retina Kool Aid!

I was going to do an unboxing video but I decided against it for two reasons. First, I got home late and wanted to get working with it as soon as possible. There are lots of videos out there already including a great tear down on iFixit.com where you can see it inside and out in great detail. Instead I wanted to just give you my first impression after one night of playing around with it

First, physically it's gorgeous! This is the first computer which isn't all plastic for me and I approve! It feels solid and durable. I've been using an original iPad since it was still a fairly new product, have never used a case, and it still looks new. Because of this I knew that the new iPad and the new Macbooks would be just as good. Judicious use of Gorilla Glass and aluminium should keep both working for me through the worst incidents. Size wise it's not that much smaller than my Sony and side by side it's hard to believe that one is a 15" and the other a 17". Then I double checked and realized that the Sony is actually less than 17 and the Apple is more than 15 so they're closer than the published numbers would lead you to believe. The Sony is a bit wider and deeper but the big difference is in thickness. I've yet to measure but the Macbook Pro seems less than half as thick as the Sony and is almost half the weight as well despite all the Aluminum.

One difference which concerned me was the ports. My Sony seems to have one of everything including VGA, HDMI, Expresscard, SD slot, and Firewire. This MacBook Pro is missing a few things I'm used to but with an HDMI port, USB ports, and Thunderbolt ports which adapt to seemingly everything. I'll miss the Expresscard slot as I used an Expresscard CF reader for high speed transfers but my USB 3.0 reader is also very fast. One thing of note is that there is no Kensington lock hole on this model. That is something I use sometimes but the unit is so light and thin that it's not hard to just never leave out of your sight or bag or whatever...I'll manage.

The screen is very nice. While it's not as bright as the previous generation of screen, it's plenty bright for me....testing in the summer sun will be the ultimate test but I rarely need to do that so it's not a realistic test. Unlike my Sony, the adaptive brightness actually works. When it gets dark in the room, so does the screen. Plus adjusting the brightness in real time when it's not quite right is much easier. I'm confident that in the sun, it will crank the brightness up automatically. The viewing angle is great and the colours were very similar to my calibrated 27" monitor right out of the box. The glass surface is glossy but is supposed to have less glare than previous models. So far the only issue I've had with glare came from a ray of direct sunlight...which will doom any screen.

This might be old news to the Mac fanboys but last night was my first experience with Parallels. Buying, downloading, and installing Parallels was super easy. I had Windows up and running from my OEM disk in minutes without even reading the quickstart guide. Parallels integrates so seamlessly with the MacOS that the applications run in windows within the MacOS without ever having to look at the Windows Desktop. I can even see the whole start menu of windows right from the MacOS desktop...it's so much better than my previous emulation experiences.

Lightroom 4 was one of the programs I installed and I have to admit that it's not ready for the Retina display yet. Once it's updated to support the retina display, it will be gorgeous. Currently photos look soft on the screen. Also not quite ready is Adobe CS6. The graphics card supports Cuda but it seems to not be working with Premiere or SpeedGrade yet.

Today is the day. It's on a FedEx truck finding it's way to my doorstep. Just enough time for some final thoughts before things get hands-on!

There seems to be equal amounts of praise and criticism to the new MacBook Pro Retina. Fortunately I ordered mine before a lot of it came to the surface. Had I waited, the sceptics might have soured my enthusiasm and I might have waited. I had a chance to play with a demo yesterday and it seemed fine to me.

It's amazing to me how much negativity has sprouted on the internet over this computer. Perhaps that was already there in the Apple world and I've been oblivious to it for the most part until recently...it's surprising none the less. It seems that every group from designers to photographers to video editors to plain old fanboys have a bone to pick...even celebrity status professionals have chimed in with equal parts enthusiasm and scepticism. I thought I would narrow in on a few popular arguments and offer my two cents. This one's a bit wordy and there aren't any pictures. I'll make it up once I it in my hands, I promise!

The RAM and Hard Drive aren't upgradable.

It's true! All of the RAM is solid state and all of it is soldered directly to the motherboard. The 'hard drive' is also solid state and on a proprietary daughter board. I'm not sure why it couldn't have been mSata like in an Ultrabook but it's Apple and they like to do things their own way sometimes. Apple says that this is approach has something to do with them working more closely with hardware partners but all I see is marketing. Consumers have whole heartedly embraced the Macbook Air (which was the first of their computers to have non-upgradable Solid State storage). We have told Apple that having a thin, light machine is more important than the ability to upgrade in the future...they don't have to be told twice.

My take? I have used notebook computers almost exclusively for many years now and all have had components which could be upgraded. Some more than others but always the hard drive and the RAM. Since my first notebook I've only upgraded the RAM in one of them once to try and breathe life into a 4 year old machine, and the hard drive in one of them once but only because of an out of warranty failure. With this purchase, I'm already upgrading from 4GB of RAM to 8GB and to the latest generation of i7 processor...from a computer which performs perfectly well today for my needs. I can't see myself wanting more than this for at least 2 or 3 years. At the rate these computers are advancing, 3 years is about as long any machine lasts before it's obsoleted by new technology anyhow. I have no doubt that most notebook computers (PC and  Apple alike) will be suffering to keep up with the demands of users and the requirements of software by then...adding some RAM or a bigger hard drive won't really do much to delay that. I'd rather have a smaller notebook with the power I require as I am a power user and will likely upgrade the whole system (regardless of who's I buy) before 3 years. I feel that this design helps them bring costs down as well. It's not a secret that the new MacBook Pro Retina costs less than a 15 inch 'old' MacBook Pro with similar specifications. The fact is that even with the maximum storage Apple offers (over 700GB), I'd still be using external hard drives for video work and for backing everything up so either way my workflow stays the same. It might not be as fast as it can be in an ideal world but it will be faster than I'm used to and that's fine with me.

The battery is glued in!

Also true! The huge 90Wh battery is built in and glued to the Aluminium chassis. To upgrade the battery will require a trip to a Mac Genius with $200 in your hand. Many folks are upset about this but this is also a trend started by Apple. This is in fact, by my math, the 5th generation (at least) of non-upgrade ready batteries in Apple products starting back with the iPod. The iPod, iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Air have all been incredibly successful with the same design. I can't help but wonder how many nay sayers own one of these previous products happily.

I've done the math and for me this isn't a big deal. Apple claims the battery will last for 1000 full recharge cycles. By the standards of most electronics hardware, that's a very high number (the original MacBook Air was good for only 300 cycles). If you fully recharge the battery every day, that's 2 years and 9 months. Plus you have to realize that the battery isn't going to just quit at that point. It should have at least 80% capacity from when it was new...more than the standard battery in the 'old' Macbook Pro models or about 72Wh. I've used notebooks for years and some Dell's I've used would need a new battery annually as they would degrade to the point where they could barely run the computer for 30 minutes. Mind you this was in the day when there was no such thing as a 'mobile' processor and power notebooks used full blown desktop Pentium 4 chips...they were hot and very hard on the batteries.

In my case I also use my notebooks plugged in when ever possible. You never know when you're going to need to run on the battery so why do it when you don't have to? The 10 minutes it takes me to find an outlet in the airport could pay dividends when the plane is stuck on the tarmac having it's wings de-iced. Not only does this provide you with working time when you need it, but it preserves the battery in the long run. If I fully charge the battery only every other day (for example...it's likely to be less often than that in reality), the longevity of the battery jumps to at least 5 years before it will 'only' hold 80% charge. If anybody is using this notebook in 5 years it will be my wife, another relative who was in need of a good computer, or a school to which I charitably donated it...it won't be the computer I still edit on...that I'm sure of.

It's Unfixable!

iFixit is a very popular website famous for tearing down consumer electronics just days after (or even before) they hit shelves to show us the insides to help people fix their own hardware. I love their tear downs and coming from a computer engineering background, I can appreciate the service they're providing. They have stated  that the new MBP Retina is 'unfixable'...and they're not happy about it. I respectfully disagree and think that their comment should have been that it's not 'fixable at home in your living room'. I've owned notebook computers for nearly 2 decades and even while it was my every day job as a bench technician to take apart and fix notebook computers, I didn't fix my own at home. Very few people do. The reality is, as a professional photographer, I don't have the time or the skills to do this myself with the level of quality, speed, and confidence it takes to get me back into my editing quickly enough. I leave this to the experts because without my computer I can't make money and could lose customers. Even if I can't fix it, Apple can. And even if I could, I'd still take it to Apple for service and not do it myself.

Now there are other arguments which do hold some water...The LCD screen is fixed/glued to the glass and aluminium housing making it impossible to replace without replacing the whole unit. This makes the replacement cost more. That said, I've worked for Dell and I can tell you that replacing the whole LCD panel is standard practice for most computer notebook manufacturers. Regardless of the cost of the whole unit vs just the LCD panel inside, the time it takes to replace the whole unit is much much shorter (minutes) than the time it takes to replace the LCD inside of it. The time it takes to replace is certainly factored into the cost and the higher the skill level required of the technician, the more that replacement costs per hour. The bottom line always rules and the path of quickest, cheapest resistance always prevails.

As long as Apple can fix it, there is no difference to me and there won't be to many many others. If you're a DIY type or a tinkerer or plan to use this notebook for 7 years past the warranty expires...it might not be the best choice for you. Many won't be buying one because it's hard to service and that's fine...we all have different needs. It's not enough to make me regret my decision.

Straight out of Shanghai, factory direct, my new Macbook Pro is on it's way to me. I'm very happy that I decided to expedite the shipping if for no other reason that I'd be kicking myself now if I didn't and knew it could get here faster!

In the few hours I spent considering this purchase, I had to decide if there would be any compatibility issues. I didn't have time to confirm everything as working or not...even now some things might still surprise me. If you're changing over from Windows to Mac (or vice versa), it's something you want to think about because your computer investment can quickly become pricey if your existing hardware and software aren't compatible. Running Windows via Parallels will be a must but I have an extra copy of Windows 7 around already. Below is some of the software and hardware which apply to me.

• Western Digital USB 3.0 Hard Drives - This was something which turned me off of Apple computers up until the new Retina came out with USB 3.0 ports. I do the majority of my video work on external hard drives and the extra speed is essential. When these (500GB) drives aren't big enough, I'll likely upgrade to Thunderbolt drives to get an even larger boost in speed.
• Microsoft Wireless Mouse 6000 - Heresy? Maybe but it's the mouse I have and the mouse I'm used to. Microsoft offers Mac drivers.
• Pantone Huey Pro - Mac Drivers are available.
• Lexar USB 3.0 CF/SD Card Reader - This should be fully compatible.
• Belkin USB 3.0 Hub - This should also be fully compatible.
• BenQ 27" LCD Monitor - This monitor accepts VGA, DVI, and several HDMI inputs. Since it's native resolution is 1080p, the new HDMI port on the MBP Retina should be perfect for me.
• BenQ Projector - This is a low resolution compact projector I use at events. I'll need the Thunderbolt-VGA adapter but it should work fine.
• Sandisk Expresscard CF reader - No Expresscard slot!
• Sandisk Expresscard USB 3.0 card - Still no Expresscard slot!
• Memorex USB DVD/Bluray Burner - Inside this great drive is Pioneer hardware so I'm hoping it works. Despite being Memorex brand, it's the most compact, USB powered Bluray burner I could find for under $200. It's served me well and I hope it continues to do so.
• Canon and Brother Printers (some wireless some wired) - Mac drivers available for all printers.

• Adobe Creative Cloud - Adobe is very Mac friendly. My CC license should get me what ever I need.
• Lightroom 4 - Same for Lightroom. My retail disk has both Windows and Mac versions on it.
• DSLR Remote Pro - This is a Windows only program which should work in Parallels but hasn't been tested to my knowledge.
• Oloneo PhotoEngine - This is also a Windows only program but has been tested in Parallels and should work fine.
• FolderFTP - This is an automated FTP folder monitoring app. It's Windows only. I have to find a Mac equivalent.
• Microsoft SyncToy - Obviously this is Windows only. An on-demand backup application will need to be found.
• CrashPlan Client - CrashPlan is a great service that has clients for all operating systems.
• Google Drive - I believe there is a Mac client for the new Google Drive service.
• Google Picasa - I use Picasa for a few things but will be trying to migrate those tasks to Lightroom.
• Google Chrome - I'm going to give Safari an honest try mainly because of the support for the Retina display.
• MS Office 10 for Windows - Windows only. Should work on Parallels but might use this as an excuse to use Google apps more.
• Drobo Dashboard - My onside backup device is a Drobo FS. The Drobo Dashboard client should work on Mac.
• Microsoft Image Composite Editor (ICE) - Now that I have a Creative Cloud subscription, I should be able to use Photoshop CS6 to assemble my panoramas.
• GoPro CineForm - The GoPro software is available for MacOS.
• Samsung Kies (desktop software for my Samsung Galaxy) - To my knowledge, there is a MacOS version available.

When I bought my first Mac years ago, there was really no such thing as programs which ran the same on Windows and MacOS. Now however, many apps work on both and the rest can be emulated using Parallels. There were windows emulators back then but it was unstable technology which never worked very well.

In the mid 90s I enrolled in college. It was a whirlwind event as I hadn't planned to attend but a combination of sudden job loss and the fact that the girl I was dating at the time lived next door to the program head of Computer Engineering Technologies at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT), got me to jump in at the last minute...starting class a week late after getting approved from a waiting list.

I soon realized (or at least convinced myself) that I needed a new computer and that a notebook would likely be the best way to go despite the cost. I convinced myself that as I'd be learning to be a programmer, the platform shouldn't matter. I'd be learning to program in Unix (Linux wasn't yet the Juggernaut it is today unfortunately) after all so I started looking into a PowerBook. Code was code and programming languages transcend computer platforms...don't they?

Image from the Wikimedia Commons

Unfortunately that sexy Black PowerBook G3 which cost me about $2700 at the time (and which took most of my school years to pay off too) proved to be almost useless because NAIT used only PCs and insisted that I do the same. I made do for a while but had to submit and go back to the PC world as it was defined by my educator. I later sold the computer to my grandmother (who took to computers like a duck to water!) and moved on.

Jump to last year when I was starting my photography business. I bought what I thought was a top of the line Sony Vaio. 17" screen, quad core i7 processor...I was ready to take on the world! Only later I learned that the screen on my carefully researched investment couldn't reproduce reds properly even with regular calibration and defiantly refused to fit it's bulk into every bag I tried to put it in. After 10 months of working with an external monitor to get around the colour problems, I started researching my next notebook.

After much careful research I decided that the new Asus Zenbook Prime (yet to be released) was the way to go. It was small, thin, powerful, and had a proper IPS screen even if it was only 13". I was sure that this was the ideal computer for me as I am always on the move and don't operate out of a traditional studio.

This all came crashing down around me when Apple announced the new MacBook Pro Retina this week. A computer which would be tough, fast, thin, light, and all around amazing featuring a display with 2880x1800 resolution!. Less than an hour after the press release, I realized that the Zenbook Prime had been trumped despite the fact that 'Ultrabook' computers are supposed to be competing with the MacBook Air...not the Pro. The fact is that the new MacBook Pro is as thin as the Asus, has equal battery life specs, and is only slightly larger and heavier otherwise. It costs more but the top of the line Asus I was planning to buy would have cost quite a bit more than the $1000 'Ultrabook' benchmark anyhow.

The new MBP Retina had obsoleted many leading edge machines with a computer which was the answer to all of my professional photography needs...and was positioned to beat the PC competition to market as Apple started taking orders for them that day! I swallowed hard, drank the Kool-Aid, and ordered one before they back ordered. This is an expensive and snappy decision but I'm confident that I've made the right one.

This will be the first in a series of blog posts documenting the journey back to the Mac. Hopefully I didn't screw up again.

An unboxing post will be coming as soon as it gets here. It should ship in about a week.

For the second year in a row I've acted as the official volunteer photographer for the Edmonton and Area Corporate Challenge. I always have so much fun working this event that I always try to keep 2 weeks free in the summer so that I can help out.

After 17 days of shooting over 170 Edmonton and Area companies compete in 22 sporting events, I've taken over 6000 photos. Of those, I've published over 800 of them to a gallery on my website.

This year I have a new website connected to proper analytics so I've been able to see just how popular the photos are. I thought I'd share some statistics as the numbers amazed me long before the event was even over. These numbers are still growing but these are the figures from May 27th when the first pictures were published until yesterday, June 12th.

Number of visitors to the gallery: 2,413

Number of page/picture views: 100,207

Number of visits from China: 6

Average pages/pictures per visit: 41.5

Busiest day: May 28th (21,415 page/picture views)

Busiest time of day: 8am to 11am (over one third of all traffic)

Most viewed picture:

The U of A boys sure know how to bring it!
All of the photos from their show were very popular!

Now that the games are done for another year I want to thank the organizers, volunteers, and participants for making my job easy again this year. You all showed amazing dedication and spirit and it was my honour to do what I could to preserve some of these memories for the future.

See you next year!