The new camera shine has rubbed off the Canon 5DMKII and I’m now quite partial to shooting with both it and the Canon 7D on the same shoot. It’s not always practical, but there has been instances where using the tilt shift and the macro on the 7D, as well as the overcranking capability have really added to a production. Having the two bodies effectively gives each lens another look and use due to the crop factor of the Canon 7D. So very happy on the front, now if they’d just bring out a full frame 7D with all the Canon 5DMKII audio perks, I’d be pumped!

Anyway, enough about that for now, here’s a quick rundown on what’s coming to Highdefedition.com over the next few weeks. . .

The LumoPro LP160 Review
A new all manual speedlight from Midwest Photo Exchange in the good ‘ol US of A.

The good folks at Midwest Photo Exchange (lovingly known as MPEX) were kind enough to supply us with one of these beasty flashes for review. I’ve been using it exclusively as a slave, which fires by way of it’s amazingly sensitive optical trigger every time it see’s another flash, but there are three other methods of triggering it, hotshoe, PC and a mini jack. So far I’ve been really impressed with it’s simplistic operation and considerable power. It produces a flash almost as bright as the Canon 580EX II, it’s just about a fraction of a stop less. It’s a huge improvement over it’s predecessor and once I’ve had a little more time with it, I’ll be putting a story about it here. If you just can’t wait, check out the MPEX web store for yourself, I’d have to say at this stage, for the price, you can’t go wrong.

Sigma 50mm f1.4 EX DG HSM Lens Review
A great inexpensive prime lens for your full frame or crop camera.

I just got my grubby little mits on one of these this week, by way of a not-so-great experience with Australian retailer, Dirt Cheap Camera’s. Negative experience aside, the lens is very nice and a great upgrade from the tried, tested and much loved Canon 50mm f1.8 II that I had. For the price it’s very hard to justify the extra expenditure to go up to the Canon 50mm f1.2L, I should have some nice footage to illustrate that.

Filmtools Car Mount for the 5D & 7D
A 3 suction cup car mount rig – One sucker for the body, 2 suckers for the triangulation kit to stop the shake.

This is not set in stone yet, I am looking seriously at getting hold of one of these, but cannot source one at the moment, due to their being no stock. It’s unfortunate as otherwise I would have had it weeks ago and would have been able to elaborate on it in this very post. I’ll keep you posted as things develop on this front. Make sure you keep an eye on the twitter feed and the Facebook page for the good news.

That’s about it for now guys, I did say it would be a quick one. . .if there’s anything out there you’ve had some fun shooting, throw us a link on Facebook or Twitter and show us what you’ve been up to. . .If you haven’t got anything to show, get out and bloody shoot something!

Until then. . .

A brand spanking Sigma 30mm f1.4 EX DC. I gave it a quick run down the beach just now and am really impressed with the quality. Fantastic image and build quality for around $600. I think I’m in love!

I’ll be shooting a bunch in the coming days so I’ll definitely whack some footage up when I get a chance.

On the 7D front. . .I heard yesterday we are looking at 7-10 days until we get our grubby little mits on our 7D’s!!! To say I am frothing would be a significant understatement. . .Hurry up Canon!!!!