Never before

There aren't many pictures that can claim to be a world first. Obviously every image is unique, and in metaphysical terms, completely unrepeatable. But when it comes to US presidential inaugurations then most of the photos are the same each time, only the president changes.

With these days of press positions and fenced off media enclosures there is not much option for a different picture of a familiar ceremony. Two photographers in the USA Chuck Kennedy from the McClatchy-Tribune Photo Service, and David Bergman produced images from the inauguration ceremony of President Obama that show lateral thinking and the diversity of what digital photography can bring to age old traditions.
Mega panoramic picture
First up David Bergman's incredible 1.5 gigapixel image taken with his PowerShot G10. Yes gigapixel...! Using a G10 and a Gigapan imager - a robotic camera mount - David shot 220 pictures to make a hugely detailed panoramic shot that is 59,783 x 24,658 pixels! David wrote that it took more than six and a half hours to make the composite image on his MacBook Pro and the resulting file is almost 2 gigabytes.
That'll be the image you don't open in Photoshop and press CTRL/OPTION J to dupe the background layer and double the file size!

Closest ever camera at an inauguration
Then using more "regular" technology Chuck Kennedy got his camera in a position on the podium where no camera had ever been before, right on the podium for the closest camera to an inauguration ever. He used a WiFi transmitter connected via ethernet to get the image from the EOS 5D Mark II camera and triggered the shutter with a hard wired release. Seems like President Obama is a good subject for the EOS 5D Mark II. You need to scroll down the NPPA page to see the camera in it's adapted peli case.


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Grips

Vertical grips...if you're not using an EOS-1 Series camera, then a grip is a very useful accessory to have if you intend shooting with either long lenses or in a portrait format. For one it helps the camera balance better, for the other it gives you vertical shooting buttons to provide a more stable shooting position. If you use an ordinary grip, it also gives you two battery slots and therefore double the shooting time between charges. 

Now, for some users, the WiFi grip might be the way to go. Perhaps you shoot events sometimes and WiFi helps you get images in front of subjects quicker. Or maybe you work in a studio and you like to WiFi out to a computer which projects directly to a wall, giving you and the model a big view of the images you're shooting. 

Chances are though that you don't use WiFi all the time - maybe you're out on location and don't need the WiFi functions. Having two grips - one ordinary, one WiFi would be a bit extravagant. Instead, why not just use the WiFi grip for everything? Makes sense right? Except the one thing you need to do is remember to turn off the WiFi function. If you leave it on, it'll keep flashing at you and also use the battery in there more than it needs to. If you turn it off, you still get all the vertical shooting buttons, and while you don't get two batteries powering the camera at the same time, you do at least have a spare battery with you at all times, 'stored' in the WiFi grip just waiting to be swapped with the one in the camera when it gets low. 

To turn the WiFi grip off, just go to the menu, select WFT Settings and in Communication mode, choose "Disconnect". And that's it. Your WiFi grip will not keep trying to transmit and you still get the vertical shooting buttons and better balance. 

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WiFi grips gotcha

If you are thinking to get one of the WiFi 'grips' for your Canon EOS camera don't get caught out with this supremely annoying gotcha.

Canon Wireless File Transmitters WFT-E1, WFT-E3 and WFT-E4 need to have a battery installed to work and the battery is not supplied in the box with the WiFi grip.

Yes you read that right, you spend all that money on a WiFi grip only to find you need to put a battery in it. Even better is that the battery in the WiFi grip cannot power the camera and the grip. So if you plan on getting a WFT-E1, WFT-E2 or WFT-E3 don't forget to get the additional battery or else you can have camera operation and no WiFi - OR - WiFi operation and no camera.

WFT-E1 for the older EOS-1D Mark II, EOS-1Ds Mark II, EOS-1D Mark II N, EOS 5D, EOS 20D, EOS 30D needs a BP-511A battery (and charger if you're using an EOS-1D model; double doh!)

WFT-E3
for the EOS 40D and EOS 50D (firmware update to v2.0 needed) needs a BP-511A battery. You can use the charger that comes with the camera to charge this battery

WFT-E4 for the EOS 5D Mark II needs an LP-E6 battery. You can use the charger that comes with the camera to charge this battery. Though since the LP-E6 is new and exclusive to the EOS 5D Mark II they could be in pretty short supply now that EOS 5D Mark IIs seem to be hitting the stores.

Lucky people with an EOS-1D Mark III or EOS-1Ds Mark III and the WFT-E2 sleep safe since the camera does provide power to this one.

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Reuters shoot the Endeavour space shuttle launch

Live from lanch pad 39A

From the Reuters photographers blog on the right side bar here I picked up that they had an article about their coverage of the space shuttle launch. Watch the video to see how Scott Audette from Reuters uses the EOS 40D and EOS 30D with wireless transmitters and a custom transmission system to shoot images of the launch using cameras set out in the field hours before launch.

For Reuters the important thing is that they get the pictures from the cameras and on the Reuters wire service in about 4 minutes. This is a real edge since they can't get back to the cameras for at least two and a half hours after the launch.

Note also that Scott mentions that he's using a custom remote for sound based triggering of the camera that's built by one of Canon USA's pro reps. A guy who used to work for Nikon but joined Canon earlier this year.


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