Attention Canon 5D users: KNOWN MIRROR ISSUE

If you have a Canon 5D camera, Canon has announced on their web site that there is a known issue with the mirror.

“We have discovered that, in rare instances, the main mirror of some EOS 5D Digital SLR cameras may detach due to deterioration in the strength of the adhesive.”

In a previous post, I talked about how my mirror came off in the middle of a shoot.  Assuming that I simply have bad luck with digital cameras, I shrugged it off and shipped the 5D off to the Canon factory repair center as soon as I returned home.  I decided to do a little bit of googling about the issue and up popped the site from Canon, with their mea culpa.  They will fix the issue, free of charge, including shipping.  Call the 1-800 number on the web page listed below for service.

Click on the screen shot to be directed to Canon’s support page and good luck!

Screen shot of Canon's Support Page for the 5D Mirror issue

Canon 5D Mirror Falls Out

Just another day at the office when… what the… suddenly the camera jams and given my history with Canon bodies I just figured, well, the 5D is fried… AGAIN.  But no, not just fried:  the mirror had come off of it’s plate and cracked in two.  Nice.

I haven’t contacted Canon yet – of course the body is out of warranty, and, again, of course, I was in the middle of nowhere when it failed so no pro replacement available.  Sigh.  Have a backup, of course, but I’m so tired of cameras falling apart.

Here’s the picture.  More to come…

Canon 5D mirror falls out

Portland Photographer Susan Seubert shoots with an iPhone

Sometimes it’s just fun to mess around with new(er) technology.  I was one of the legions of photographers who loved to use an SX-70 Polaroid camera to make images.  Now I am able to use an iPhone application to make those kinds of images.  The application I use is called Polarize and it allows one to preview the effect before one saves it.  Although I miss the tactile quality that the Polaroid offers, making photos with an iPhone can be equally rewarding.  I still use a small instant camera that a friend brought to me from Japan : it’s a Fuji equivalent of a Polaroid and spits out business card sized prints. This morning I was taking some photos in the beautiful morning light with the iPhone.   Here are a few of my favorites from the last couple of months.  Enjoy!

my cat, Steiglitz (sic)

The tree outside my hotel room in Washington, D.C.

The National Museum of the American Indian

Susan Seubert Photographer shoots Maui for National Geographic Traveler

It is with great pleasure to announce that an online photography gallery of images about Hawaii was recently posted to the National Geographic Traveler web site.  The story is about “Undiscovered Maui” and will be running in the March issue of the magazine.  Macduff Everton and I both contributed images to the story and I am pleased to share a byline with him.  In this web gallery, his image is taken from the inside of an outrigger canoe, and the rest of the photographs were made by me. 🙂  Click here to see the gallery of images and here to see the story by Andrew McCarthy.  What made this assignment so incredible was having the opportunity to meet the good people of Kahakuloa.  Each and every person in this small town nestled in the cliffs of the northern tip of Maui demonstrated true aloha spirit in the most genuine way.  The premise of this story is absolutely true and it’s best experienced by taking time to talk story with the locals.  They have a long history to share with us and we have much to learn from them and their culture.  One of the most memorable moments of the shoot was meeting Richard Ho’opi’i.  Not only did he give us an enormous amount of his time as we sat in his back yard and listened to his history of growing up and learning na leo ki’eki’e, (falsetto), he generously gave us a private concert in the little green church that is nestled in this picturesque village of only a few hundred people.  His wife runs the pink ice cream stand in the village.  If you travel there, stay a while, enjoy the stories and experience the aloha that these warm people so generously offer.

Click here to be taken to the web gallery of images on National Geographic Traveler's Web Site

I shot my images with a Canon 5D, a Canon 5D Mark II, and a Hasselblad.  I processed the digital files using Adobe’s Lightroom.

Multimedia Photographer Susan Seubert, underwater with the whales

During whale season in Maui, one can head out to calm waters and listen to the whales call to one another.  We swam out to a popular snorkel spot on Ka’anapali Beach called Pu’u Keka’a, otherwise known as Black Rock, where the lava forms underwater valleys that collect the sonar that the Humpback Whales use to communicate.  Breathing lightly through the snorkels, the whale calls are unmistakable and make me wish for more pro equipment to collect them!  The reef is alive with snapping shrimp and sometimes there are lots of people, but some days, the winds are calm, few people have swum around the point, and one can simply float in the water, ears just beneath the surface and be suspended in a completely different world.  It’s truly amazing and I recommend it to anyone comfortable enough to dangle in the open ocean.  The person in this multimedia piece is my husband who had stopped to listen.  He was too close to the reef, and I had swum out to deeper waters to try and get away from the snapping noise and was able to lay that sound over his image using iMovie.  Although this isn’t the best recording of whale calls, I hope that you enjoy it nonetheless.  I used a Canon SD1000 Digital Elph in a WP-DC13 Waterproof housing for both the video and the audio.

Multimedia Photographer Susan Seubert and the Kona Winds

Sometimes the Kona winds pick up, the light is dramatic and I imagine what it must be like in the desert, minus the ocean of course. All of these images, both motion and still, were shot with the Canon 5D Mark II and a 24-105mm IS USM lens.  I was a bit concerned about the sand getting into the camera, as it was blowing pretty hard, but so far, there’s no indication that any grains penetrated the body, lens or mount.

whale watching with Canon Image-Stablized Binoculars

A wind blown beach, but beautiful and dramatic nonetheless.

An equally dramatic sunset with a view of the island of Lana'i

Maui Photographer Susan Seubert, enjoying the whales

On mornings like this one, the surface of the ocean is glassy, the winds have died down and the sun is still behind the West Maui Mountains but is, from this vantage point on Ka’anapali Beach, lighting up the island of Lana’i in such a way that every valley on the windward side is placed in high relief.  On the horizon, an approaching storm front is gray and foreboding, but there’s a calm here at the ocean’s edge that betrays the oncoming weather.  The smooth waters reveal what appears to be holes in the ocean surface where whale spume appears like steam vents.  Just beyond the reef point, a mother humpback whale boosts her newborn calf out of the water, apparently teaching it how to breach.  This is the sort of morning that calms my heart and makes me so very grateful to be here, now.

maui morning

This photo was taken much later this morning, after the trade winds had picked up.  I took it from a stand up paddle board, about 50 yards off shore.  I was using a Canon Poweshot SD1000 Digital Elph in a water housing.  The combination of swell and wind didn’t allow for much picture taking, but I got a good view of a pod of breaching whales and a very nice run-in with a very large turtle. 🙂