GeoTracking – Canon’s New EOS 1Dx

Canon New GP-E1 GPS

Overview (from Canon)

“Canon has brought the best of the EOS-1D Series of digital cameras into one phenomenal model: the new flagship of the EOS line, the EOS-1D X*. Its full-frame 18.1 Megapixel CMOS sensor and all-new Dual DIGIC 5+ Image Processors deliver high quality image capture at up to 12 fps (14 fps in Super High Speed Mode) and a powerful ISO range of 100 – 51200 (up to 204800 in H2 mode) provides sharp, low-noise images even in the dimmest low-light conditions. An all-new, 61-Point High-Density Reticular AF and 100,000-pixel RGB Metering Sensor that uses a dedicated DIGIC 4 Image Processor, makes the EOS-1D X reach new levels of focus speed and accuracy delivering advanced tracking even for the most challenging shooting situations. Taken all together, the EOS-1D X’s improved HD video capture, numerous connectivity options, combination of processing power and durable construction, including shutter durability tested to 400,000 cycles, make it the ultimate EOS.”

Ya, just another camera body you say – but here might be the kicker (I’m hoping to get a system to test ASAP – then will report here and on my general photo-travel blog as well as our Great Apes Diaries “the making of” blog.)  Canon is also introducing the Wireless File Transmitter WFT-E6A and the all-new Canon GPS Receiver GP-E1.

 

When Pictures Won’t Lie

Rising floodwaters of the Mississippi River approaching Dow Chemical plant in Cancer Alley at Morrisonville south of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Photo taken 05.17.11 GPS: 30° 31’93″ N at 91° 21’56″ W

“I want the truth” – “You can’t handle the truth”

Seeing is believing.  Someone just sent me more photos of the Mississippi River’s ability to inundate the lives of the people who have decided to erect their futures on the floodplains of history.  About a dozen images that could be divided into two categories – 1) the flooding of the Mississippi River below Vicksburg, and 2) the flooding of the Mississippi River at Vicksburg.

What one immediately notices, besides lots of cafe au late colored water, is the scale of flooding and the visual impact on human lives and infrastructure – group #1 not much, group #2 considerable.

A few weeks ago I was on assignment in California covering the Amgen Tour of California pro bicycle race.  Before I could watch the first stage pedal off from the start-line I was asked to fly to the Mississippi River’s lower delta and document the flooding disaster.  The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, at the panic urging of the State of Louisiana, had opened the spillways at a couple of sites – Bonnet Carre and Morganza – as well as the Old River Control System built after the nightmarish 1927 floods–which 2011 waters were approaching.  If the spillways weren’t opened New Orleans and Baton Rouge were in waters way.  Perhaps more importantly were the chemical factories and oil refineries between the two cities – infamously known as Cancer Alley.  No one was saying it, but the fear had to be that if the Mississippi burst its banks (or Corp levees) the toxic gumbo in this stretch would pour all over the Big Easy – and the entire Mississippi Delta wetlands.  Frankly that would make the BP oil disaster look like kids’ play.

Gumbo toxin - bauxite waste at an aluminum manufacturing plant - potential poison in the floodwaters of the lower Mississippi River, Cancer Alley, Darrow, Louisiana (above and below.)

Unfortunately, for the client, the Japanese-like tsunami wave imagined never arrived.  The reality was more like a slowly leaking bathtub.  Visual, but not horrific.  A couple days of aerial haven’t seen much viewing.  And that’s sad.  Not so much because I need to have my photos published, rather we should using them to illustrate a point.  Expand on the discussion.  Prepare for a future nightmare of true tsunami proportions.

Unfortunately, these pictures just didn’t lie enough, unlike those of the general media and the sets being passed around the web (see my comments in Flooding Fiction.)  As an environmental photojournalist that’s my concern every time I work – the real issues are subtle, they visually bio-accumulate, and the images alarm quietly.  We have become a citizenry of poor listeners, and poorer seers.  Blinded by all but the brightest images.

My thanks to pilot Tom Hutchins and SouthWings.org for making these aerials possible.

More Other Worlds…

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Aerial Magic and Other Worlds

For months now Tom (Hutchings) has been waxing on about “this place.”  As we flew over the Atchafalaya Delta and other wetlands he would say, “just wait ’till you see those wetlands in Florida.”  Saturday we did – all I can say is my god it was another world!  Flying above it was aerial magic.  Just insanely magical – like nothing I had seen before.  Not a straight-line in sight.  Just the elegant, graceful, sensual curves of a planet untouched.  Wow!  Afterwards what tugs at your heart is that was once what the bayous and backwaters of the Mississippi Delta looked like – until we F#&@ed it up.

To see more Other World images 

Many thanks to pilot and friend Tom Hutchings and SouthWings.org

The Miracle of Flight

For as long as I live on this planet flight will remain one of the most amazing feats ever achieved - by any creature. Over the past several days I have been trying to get a few last sections of the Louisiana Gulf Coast documented from the air - weather has stifled the effort - today looks very promising so I sit waiting on my pilot Tom Hutchings, flying for SouthWings.org, to pick me up. As I wait at this tiny airstrip in the bayou country of SW Louisiana the sky is alive with soaring, sailing and flapping egrets, herons, pelicans and a host of smaller birds. Each works the sky with stunning agility, twisting and banking with acrobatic deftness I only wish I could attempt - even with the aid of Tom's skill and experience. It's part of the beauty of photography and filming - for those few moments we get to share the thrill of being airborne, the experience, the flight. Photo: Canon 7D, 560mm @ f/9; 1/1250sec.; ISO250. Copyright Gerry Ellis/Audubon/Minden Pictures.

“It just needs ‘bush technique’”

The easily movable Mode Dial on the Canon 7D (and 5D) can switch with a slight bump; Some solutions are simple - "bush technique".

Here’s the problem, that Mode Dial on the Canon 7D and 5D, it rotates far too easily.  In fact, it commonly rotates with the slightest encouragement – a gentle bump.  Something that easily happens when flipping the On/Off switch.  More than a few folks have complained to me about it.  The issue came to a head for me a few hundred feet over the Gulf.  I was flying along, firing off images of the convoluted stream patterns in the marshes, when I did a quick check on the LCD monitor – crap! everything blown out!!  The dial had rotated to “M” from “Av”.  Errrrrrgh!!

A few years ago I was working in north central Kenya and my 4wd had mechanical issues beyond my resources to fix.  I pulled into a frontier town-looking auto shop, popped open the ‘bonnet’ and look at that problematic alternator.  Immediately I was surrounded by professional mechanics – seemed Isiolo was a town where every male was a mechanic. After considerable shouting and threats by me to keep your hands out of my motor this elephant-sized human strolls up wiping his hands on a rag, the crowd parts like the Red Sea.  He stares into my motor, I say “alternator I think”.  He looks a bit longer then takes the wrench from me and tries to free the bolt – the cheap wrench snaps.  Without hesitation he reaches in with his hand and forearm and breaks the alternator free, saying, “It just needed bush technique.” An hour later I was off and running.

Some solutions are simple - bush technique. In the case of a Mode Dial – gaffer tape.

"Bush technique" - a bit of black gaffer's tape holds the Mode Dial in place.

I wish Canon had taken care of this in the design lab.  It’s really simple Canon designers, just create a click-stop or small flip-lock.  This solution is an old one, found on numerous cameras over the past few decades, call it design bush technique.

Geo Tracker with Canon 7D

Now, with the new Geo Tracker system worked out, returning to find 29° 58’51″ N at 85° 30’05″ W, won't be a problem.

Geo tracking with the Canon 7D and WFT-e5a was outlined in my last post

Wireless Wings – Geo Tracks Across the Sky

Here are the modifications and updates I talked about testing and promised to re-post on.

The first issue was a tweak to the Bluetooth size issue.  The test Bluetooth projected out from the Canon WFT-e5a unit a bit too far for my liking.  I knew regardless of he precautions it was simply a matter of time before the Bluetooth was bumped, bent and/or snapped off – a mess if this happened on a flight, where multiple bodies are being shuffled around hurriedly.  The solution is the “IOGear USB 2.1 Bluetooth Micro Adapter GBU421″ below.  Look at that thing, super tiny.  In fact so tiny one could probably build it right into the WFT – hey!?  What a great idea!  Canon???

Size of a one-cent coin the IOGear USB 2.1 Bluetooth Micro Adapter GBU421 - perhaps buy a couple, they could be easy to lose in the shuffle of gear.

Ironically the only concern I have about the “IOGear USB 2.1 Bluetooth Micro Adapter GBU421″ is its Lilliputian size – it’s so small I can see losing the little bugger.  So I jumped back on Amazon an ordered a couple extra, at $12 it’s worth it.

Once inserted into the USB port of the WFT-e5a the IOGear USB 2.1 Bluetooth Micro Adapter GBU421 is even smaller - only protruding a scant 10mm from the wireless unit. Also the micro adapter's curved edges makes it like a mere bump: unnoticed by my hands since the WFT body casing actually protrudes further.

Never one to baby gear or fret about resale, I'm considering cutting off the rubber door to the USB port - it now protrudes more than the Bluetooth micro adapter. Seriously, look at that thing - the adapter - there's nothing to it! This is how simple it would be for Canon to build this unit into the WFT so no Bluetooth adapter was required - it would be worth an extra $12 - or more.

The next newly tested item will be a GPS transmitter.  My original tests on a Garmin GPS 10x did not work – I’m testing other models. Honestly the OnCourse tested on the initial flights in the Gulf worked fine, I just have a bit of brand loyalty to Garmin since all the other units of theirs have worked flawlessly for me.

The Garmin GPS 10x. is also small.  Measuring  mere 75mm x 40mm x 12 mm, and weighing virtually nothing, I think will be able to duct-tape this thing just about anywhere.  It has a transmission range of 7+ meters so I can locate it anywhere in the plane, helicopter or boat that I need to.

I will be further field testing this combination in the Gulf over the coming weeks and report back on the result as well as some images from both Florida and SW Louisiana.

Wireless Wings – Geo Tracks Across the Sky

Sometimes the mystery of an image is in not knowing – above is place tropical, tranquil, and totally lost in the imagination.

More often knowing exactly where it is becomes critical – 29° 59’55″ N at 85° 32’09″ W – for charting the pre-birth kicks and wiggles of an emerging sand cay.

I remember the first time exactness of place became critical. In desperation I turned to a newly emerged web technology, Google Earth, to find a photo location. My photo agent had a client wishing to use an image I had created above the Caribbean years early. The helicopter view not 2-D mapable.

After a couple of hours of spinning Google Earth around on its head (axis actually – it was our heads that were spinning) we (it took a few of the staff) confirmed from which angle in the Grenadines Islands it was created – whew!!

Since then I have struggled with shooting from the air and tracking the photo locations. On the Gulf for example a typical flight last several hours and usually sees me create 700-1000 images. I generally have a pretty good memory for my photos, but lets face it, after a few dozen maze-like marsh shots they begin to blur. The solution? A direct link to Google Earth? Just about – GPS every image.

Marsh maze coastal Florida

So with the help of Canon’s Mike Gurley we sorted out a super simple and elegant solution using the Canon wireless unit WFT-E5A on the 7D body, linked by Bluetooth from the WFT’s USB port to a GPS unit (for the test Mike loaned me his OnCourse GB737 the critical issue here is output data compatibility – it must be NMEA 0183 Ver. 3.0 or higher to sync) This week I will be testing the same set up with a variety of Garmin GPS units, more on that after the test.

Critical to the configuration of the Canon WFT-E5A GPS geo tracker set up in the Cessna 182 is making certain the GPS unit has a clear line of sight out of the airplane. (photo J. Loren)

While using the set up is simple you need to get the initial ‘pairing’ right – here is the step-by-step run through for the 7D:

1. Install Bluetooth (BT) dongle in USB port on WFT unit.
2. Turn On Camera
3.Press Menu -> navigate to Wrench1 Icon
4. Curser down to WFT- Press Set button “SB “(round button in dial)
Menu down to USB Device Connec.
5. SB-> Category-Bluetooth SB
6. Menu Down to Connect
Pop Up says Connect-Select OK Press SB
PopUp says connecting to USB
PopUp Says USB device is connected - Press SB for OK

7. Menu says- USB device connec.- Select
Bluetooth device Connection
PopUp-
GPS Not Connected
Turn on GPS unit and prepare to “Pair”
Pres SB and it will try to connect to the GPS.

Identifying the exact location of details from the air, so they can be matched to ground images and catelogued over time requires GPS and geo tracking. Here for example is a BP financed sand berm across the outwash of Draper Lake, Gulf Coast Florida - I have several shots from the ground over the past six months to match to this aerial.

To collect the GPS information on the above berm photo just download the image and I search either in PhotoShop info or in Lightroom’s Metadata field (example below.)

Location of GPS Metadata in Lightroom - note arrow on right of data links directly to Google maps.

Is there any image that doesn’t need coordinates?  Not really.  I have a box of historic photos I’ve collected from around the world during my travels – I so wish I could click, or scan, or open some magical device and know that place – and then begin the exploration in earnest.

What I didn’t test was the use of multiple Canon 7Ds linked to the single GPS unit.  That is another test I will be doing over the coming week.  Obviously if several cameras can be linked it simplifies the set up enormously.  Theoretically it should be fine as Canon literature states up to 10 cameras can be linked wirelessly.

The whole package is very small and simple – only three parts.  Plan to spend around $700-$900 (depending on GPS) – but the results for me are priceless.  Here are some issues you need to be aware of – look at them as challenges to a great end result.

1. It is critical that you mount the GPS unit in a place that avoids obstruction to the satellites.

2. This device requires an extra battery for itself. You still need a battery in the camera. The power source is not being shared/pooled, so you NEED TWO SEPARATE BATTERIES (same model as the one that goes into the 7D body). This part is very different from battery grip BG-Ex series. Then, as you may realize, you have to take this wifi grip off to take the battery from the camera itself for charging. It’s quite cumbersome. Canon – we need a better design, or at least an external charger that I can plug into this whole setup and charge both batteries simultaneously.

3. The Bluetooth toggle pokes out and can get snapped off.  Fortunately the USB mount for the Bluetooth is out of the base of the WFT on the left – the way I hold the camera body helps prevent damage to the Bluetooth, but I see issues.  For my tests I have ordered a very tiny ‘nub’ of a Bluetooth, the “IOGear USB 2.1 Bluetooth Micro Adapter GBU421″.  I trust Canon will come up with a future WFT model that is Bluetooth enabled – heck, maybe even the GPS built-in and avoid the whole issue.

Update to this article posted: Geo Tracking with Canon 7D

Manfrotto Tripod, $400 – stainless steel bolts, priceless!

Professionalism at what cost?

Ever wonder what a real Pro tripod costs?  Better yet, what’s it worth?

Well, a couple of weeks in (to the Gulf) and the new $400 carbon fibre Manfrotto 535 MPRO legs I bought are pretty worthless.  Well, worthless unless I go spend $2.00 more for a half-dozen stainless steel bolts.  That’s right – for a frigg’n $2 more Manfrotto could have made a REAL pro tripod.

Hmmm?  Note a tone of piss’d off ness?

YES!  When I spend $400 on a set of PRO legs I expect a higher degree of quality – hell, charge me the $402, I’ll pay it – really.  This wasn’t a price-point issue.

I’m rough on gear – I’ll admit it.  I take it to places even my body complains about.  But I’m not a ‘studio pro’, I work in the real world of rain, heat, salt, BP oil, and all kinds of shit (yes, real shit – I have a growing list of how many creatures have pooped on me and my gear.)  I NEED gear that works – it’s my job to USE the equipment – I depend on it.

C’mon Manfrotto – you made a carbon fibre set of legs, called it “MPRO”, so it could be carried into places.  I love them – light, rock steady, quick for both stills and video, perfect except on tiny, centimeter by 1/4 cm bolt and corresponding nut… oh, and the spring in the clamp lever that is certain to go soon.  Seriously, when they went for that pasta lunch, how many bottles of Valpolicella did your engineers down?  Stainless steel is not rocket science!

In case you were wondering, I checked, there are stainless steel bolts available in Italy.

The Solution:

So if this happens to you – before you can buy your own stainless steel replacement bolts -

• always wash the legs ASAP with fresh water and extend so they can dry
• pull all the joints apart – including all bolts and nuts, and clean everything (NOT the gaskets) with a de-ruster like WD40
• go to the bicycle store and get winter formula chain lube – it’s thicker and bit more resistant to the wet
• lube all bolts and nuts – and squirt just a little into the clamp spring
• then reassemble
• repeat as needed until you get all potentially corrode-able parts replaced

PS – the springs are going to fail – order a complete new spare set of lever join mechanisms to carry as a spare

Beauty and the Beast

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I have been working with Caroline and Southwings, with the generous help of pilots Tom Hutchings and Lance Rydberg, to create aerials of the Gulf Coast for National Audubon Society.  The goal has been to document the post-BP Deepwater Horizon disaster impact and more broadly Gulf coastal erosion.  It’s easy to focus on the damage, the insidious harm we seem so determine to unleash on the Earth, but it’s also critical to juxtapose that against the spectacular beauty that is this planet.  And sometimes there is no more perfect place to embrace that beauty than from above.

I post these images as a huge “thank you” to Caroline and Tom and Lance for the opportunity they have given me to see the rare and grand beauty that is the American Gulf Coast.