Is the Mark III What I've Been Waiting For?

In the middle of the night last night, those sneaky folks at Canon unleashed the new 5D Mark III.

This is something I expected to see last year at NAB, but folks were saying that development was delayed in part due to the devastation caused when the tsunami hit the island of Japan.

Fast forward a year later.  In the meantime, I have had the opportunity to shoot with a 5D Mark II as well as with a 7D.  Pretty pix, all right, but I had a laundry list of things that would cause me to "dislike" the cameras if they were Facebook friends.  For example:

• Hate the "clicky" iris control that doesn't allow me to roll my iris around without it showing up as camera shake.
• Really?  12 minute clips lengths?  I shoot docs.  EVERY interview is longer than 12 minutes.
• No audio controls or meters?   Really?  
• Audio input is a stereo mini?  Who am  I, Jenna Marbles?  

So along comes the Mark III.    I haven't touched one yet, but the good news according to Canon is that they have fixed 50% of my gripe list.

• Mark III has a 30 minute clip length.  Ok.  I can live with that.
• Mark III has audio controls.  Hello, can you say professional features?  

So I will join the jostling throng at NAB to get my hands on the demo model  for .3 seconds.  Will I buy it?  Dunno.  At $1,000 more than the 5D Mark II, I think Canon just hasn't quite made enough improvements to justify the cost.  If it was the same price or a couple hundred more than the Mark II, I would be buying one of these ASAP.

Missing Stacey!

It's been a few weeks now since anchor Stacey Bell left the studios for the final time at WJW Fox 8.   Now Tracy McCool is settling into her role next to the inimitable Bill Martin.  I am certain that eventually, I will find that Tracy has taken Stacey's place in my news-viewer heart.   But, first, about Stacey.....

Right now, I am still missing Stacey.  Too often today, local TV news presents the latest random nonsense dug up from Reuter's "Oddly Enough" file as if it's legitimate content.  It's not.  It's nonsense.  The Smoking Toddler, the Werewolf Boy, all of these stories are nonsense, not anything that really matters to local viewers. 

It may be boring, it may not test well with the consultants,  but what we need to hear is what our local elected officials are doing about our streets, our sewers, and our water.  That really matters to our lives.  Sorry, but The Smoking Toddler doesn't matter.   (And by the way, that's not to say that the kid shouldn't knock it off.)

So what does this have to do with Stacey?   Because Stacey knew it was nonsense.  Her mere silence at the end of such tripe spoke volumes.  Her quick pitches to Mr. Goddard after such stories were silent, sort of non-judgmental judginess about the newsworthiness of the preceding story.   She knew.  And we knew that she knew.  Just the look on her face made it clear.

Miss ya Stacey.  And your silence.