Friday, April 13, 2012

Canon's New Ultra Cameras: 1Dc and C500

The Canon Cinema EOS family with the new C500 and the 1Dc

Yesterday, Canon, Inc. announced two new cameras they will be introducing at this year's NAB - the Canon EOS 1Dc and the Canon EOS C500.  The two new EOS Cinema EOS cameras (Super 35mm) are 4K capable, with support for uncompressed Canon RAW file (still for 1Dc and motion for C500).
   

After the success of the hybrid 5D MKII and the 7D with Indie Filmmakers, Canon shifted its R&D to its products' video capabilities.  Last year, it created a new product line called Cinema EOS with the introduction of the C300.  Aside from pro-class cinema/broadcast cameras, the EOS Cinema family also features new pro-cinema lenses.  Faced with a shrinking consumer camera base (mainly due to cellphone cameras), the company is clearly shifting its focus to the professional motion imaging market.

Monday, April 2, 2012

Stewart Sy's Wild World

Stewart capturing beauty underneath the waves

Stewart Sy's love affair with nature and the wild started at a very young age.  Growing up in the Philippines, he fondly recalls spending a lot of his free time pouring over the catalogued back issues of National Geographic in the Xavier School library (we were classmates), dreaming of one day visiting all those exotic places and experiencing the grandeur of the wilderness captured by the magnificent NatGeo photographers.  After graduating from college (DSLU) in 1989, Stewart migrated to Canada to follow his family.  In Vancouver, he discovered a dive shop a few blocks from their house.  He signed up for a course, and the rest is history -- he has been diving now for more than 20 years.

Stewart discovered photography pretty much the same way, by accident.  People were curious about his new diving hobby and were badgering him about it.  So he finally decided to bring a camera with him during his diving expeditions to capture some of the beautiful things he saw underwater.  This second hobby also became an obsession.  Not only did he become a diving photographer, he liked photography so much that he became a part-time freelance commercial photographer too.  Aside from this, he runs two photography related businesses:  one that offers professional digital scanning services; and the other, a dealership offering aquatic photographic equipment and accessories.


Stu and I lost contact after we graduated from High School, so I was not aware of his photography until we reconnected in Facebook last year.  Stewart would post some of his work once in a while, and I was soon impressed by the consistency of his vision and skill.  He has an unmistakable artistic 'eye.'  According to him, he drew and doodled a lot when he was younger, but he never formally studied photography or any other art form.  Amazing, is the first word  that comes to mind, whenever I think of his photographs. 

I interviewed Stewart to get a better insight into his photography, his vision and his art: