Archive for September, 2010
Stop teasing me!
I know, I know. We keep talking about it and nothing happens. 99% of the stuff that comes in regarding this lens I put to the side.
However, a great source has finally spoken up in regards to a replacement. I’m not putting CR3 on it because I don’t have a specific date.
What I am told is the lens is coming “sooner rather than later”. There’s 2 possible announcement dates.
It sounds like it will be launched alone like the EF 70-200 f/2.8L IS II was. It’ll either be announced before the end of the year, OR just before WPPI which starts February 17, 2011.
It’s not confirmed it’s going to be an IS lens, though if it wasn’t. I’d be completely shocked.
This is officially the best confirmation I’ve received in regards to this lens.
You will know more the second I know more.
cr
Yes, I wrote a Leica review
Please don’t give me heck for it, Leica and Canon can get along. Rest assured no Nikon review will ever appear here.
I did this because people ask me why I use one, so this seemed like a good way to tell them. It’s more of an experience review than a technical review of the camera.
I also did this because it’s a 1 of a kind camera, there is no other full frame camera like it. There should be more of them, and Canon should make one.
If you read it, I hope you enjoy it.
Read the review
cr
I have a bit more information
It seems that both Canon and Nikon are aiming for very high megapixel flagship cameras near the end of 2011, somewhere in the 35-45 mpx range.
This exceeds original reports of a 32mp sensor inside the 1Ds Mark IV.
Before either of these cameras launch, I suspect both Canon & Nikon will release big megapixel cameras to come above the D700 & 5D Mark II. Think in the 28-32mp range. This would match up with some stuff I’ve been told in the past.
cr
This and That
I have some loose information about what and when we can expect new cameras and lenses. It’s a collection from various folks.
There will be no new products that will hit the shelves before the end of 2010. There could be an announcement before 2011 however.
Another good source has suggested we will see a replacement to the 5D Mark II before a 1Ds Mark IV. It’s 50/50 with sources as to whether it’ll be a camera added to the lineup or a direct replacement of the 5D Mark II. This announcement will bring about “2-3 lenses”.
I’m beating a dead horse here, but the still expected lenses are a 24-70 upgrade, a replacement to the 180mm macro and a new prime of some kind. Lenses are always difficult to nail down far in advance.
A lot of people have said 2011 will be a big year for innovation from Canon. As we’ve seen from some of their concept products, that could very well be true.
A 7D replacement won’t hit us until 2012.
I’ve been informed to say good-bye to DIGIC IV. Expect the 60D to be the last new body with the DIGIC IV processor (outside of a replacement entry level Rebel).
As for a mirrorless camera system, I have nothing to report of any value. We’re all still shuttering from the last rumor.
cr
A higher end Selphy?
Canon's Concept Dye-Sub
Canon didn’t bring along their 120mp APS-H sensor, their giant sensor or their 4K camera, but they did bring a new concept in dye-sub home printing.
Features:
- Print quality of professional inkjet and high end photo labs.
- Multiple aspect ratio printing: 5×7.5, 1:1 and 16:9
- High quality photobook creation right from the printer.
- Easy roll paper and cartridge ink.
The folks at Canon were pretty excited about the quality of the product, it was unknown at this time if it was a product coming to market any time soon.
Printing books at home easily would be very cool.
Canon EOS 00D
The Canon 00D's and 400 DO from the inside
Every 2-3 months I receive an email with a picture of a Canon 00D attached. “omg a new Canon camera? what is 00D?!”. I smile a little and return the email explaining what it is.
There’s a whole bunch of 00D’s to the left there. They get carted around to trade shows along with the innards of lenses as a cool display. The 400 DO is also opened up for the whole world to see. Lenses and lens construction never get old to me.
Swag
l
Brochures, Brochures, Brochures
I love brochures, I don’t care what they’re for…. cars, furniture, cameras, it doesn’t matter. We just don’t see enough of them anymore. I think Canon Canada still gives out the EOS catalogue from 1997 to dealers.
However, you can still find them at big trade shows and I try to be selective in what I do take. These things get heavy.
Who had the best? Are you shocked it was Leica? Although that Canon EOS system catalogue is very nice. That little bag you see there is Zeiss candies, they taste about as good as a lens would. Lensbaby gave away stickers.
I shouldn’t be too harsh on Canon Canada , they did give me a lens cloth once.
cr
A state of the union of sorts
With Photokina here, this marks the end of some kind of calendar, so I’ll do some new years resolutions of sort.
- Learn more about digital SLR video. I MUST become far more versed in this area, and I will. I will be buying a 60D as soon as I can and really getting down to it. I get a lot of questions about it that I cannot answer.
- Go to more trade shows and report from them. I will be going to the Henry’s show in Mississauga for sure (a large photo show in Canada). I will also be looking into attending CES in January. Photokina 2012 is a definite.
- I only had one day there this time, but I tried to cover as much as possible. I write pretty short articles and try to be straight to the point. There’s lots of places around you can read 85 page articles about a piece of gear, I don’t think you need me doing the same thing.
- Stay focused on rumors, that’s why you’re all here. I will work harder to bring more profiles and reviews in the coming weeks and months during the slow periods.
- Fix the server issues I have at Canon Rumors. I am currently working on that issue right now. I hope to have it resolved once and for all. I am exhausted worrying about it.
- More sponsored giveaways. There’s lots of great stuff we’ve given away in the past, I want to do more of that and I will.
- I am going to be far more diligent in returning emails. I’ve been lazy about that in the past. No more!
I have a few more things from Photokina 2010 to write about and I’ll be doing that later today.
Link Love
If you haven’t visited Steve Huff’s web site, please do so. He mostly talks about Leica stuff, but there’s some great real world articles about people and photography.
He’s a passionate guy and I think the first Leica dedicated blog.
http://www.stevehuffphoto.com
Back to the rumors soon, the glow of Photokina will fade quickly. Don’t expect Canon to wait too long in announcing more products.
cr
Get your 60D, you won’t be disappointed.
Adorama has the EOS 60D in stock.
Link: 60D Body Only: $1099
Link: 60D w/18-135: $1399
If you have any questions about the 60D, feel free to send me an email.
cr
I love seeing this.
7" x 17" View Camera
I had a great talk with Keith from K.B. Canham Cameras. They’re an Arizona based large format camera maker.
The one in this image was a beautiful 7×17 camera they have made. Mounted on the front of it was a very exclusive Schneider lens. If the barrel of a lens is gold, it probably costs a lot. If I remember correctly, the lens had a large enough image circle to work on a 24″ back. The bellows for that 24″ camera extended out about 2 meters. They didn’t bring that camera along for the trip.
They were positioned at the Kodak booth where they’ve become partners in the distribution of Kodak sheet film.
I asked Keith if the market for the cameras was growing or not. He said before the economic downturn, they were extremely busy. They expect growth to happen again, once things improve.
I’ve never shot with one, but I’d love to. I love the 7×17 format. I don’t think I’d be married long if I came home with a 3rd camera system.
http://www.canhamcameras.com/
Speaking of Kodak
a
New Portra 400 (That photo never gets old)
I went over to Kodak to see if there was a new film, I think they launched the new Ektar 100 around the last Photokina. Sure enough, there was some new Portra 400. It’s a great film.
If you want the film look, shoot film. Go grab a $5 film rebel and mount your 85L to it and get some of this stuff.
Apparently Kodak remains committed to marketing and producing film. It’s great to hear.
Samsung had a big presence
Samsung NX100
I must admit, I do not pay a lot of attention to the Korean electronics giant when it comes to photography. Maybe it’s because I’ve never gotten along with their TV’s. Samsung has stated they want to own the mirrorless market, and they looked very aggressive with their massive booth.
I played around with the NX100, I must say I didn’t really like the feel of it in my hands. It was far too smooth. They need to add some rubber or leather to the body. It was well laid out and the buttons had a nice feeling to them. I’ll be looking forward to seeing the image quality.
We seem to talk a lot about M 4/3 & Sony, never Samsung. Is it different in Asia perhaps?
I Love Gitzo
Rotating Gitzo orb of coolness
Gitzo had a great booth showing off ALL their wares. I learned yesterday that they have a Safari line of tripods. They’re accented in an earthy green. They’re nice and seem well sealed. I have enough tripods, so I will not be buying another.
They also showed the Athena you see in the image above. It’s a “self levelling electronic device”. In the demo, the 5D Mark II inside it was rotating in full 360.
The one knock I have against Gitzo is their lack of a TRUE Arca style mount. Their ballheads are nice, but they’d be a lot nicer if they added that to the lineup. I won’t buy a Gitzo ballhead because of that fact. They do have an Arca adaptor, but it’s a less than perfect solution.
My main tripod is a GT3541LS, it works for every occasion.
http://www.gitzo.com
Topaz Labs (This is not an ad)
I had the pleasure of running into the guys from Topaz Labs. I was enjoying a fine German meat product on one of the many patios and we started chatting. I think received a very cool demonstration while eating dinner (more on that in a sec).
I learned of Topaz Labs and their software from ads appearing on this site.
After they demoed the various plugins, I came away pretty impressed. It’s software that’s priced for everyone. There’s a lot of plugins for Aperture and Lightroom that cost more than the programs themselves!
This software will work for everything from Elements to iPhoto to Lightroom and Aperture.
http://www.topazlabs.com/
The Demonstration (iForce)
One of the folks involved with Topaz Labs also has a side project for the iPhone. If you’re into magic at all, this app is extremely cool.
Creator Greg Rostami jumped up from his dinner and came over to my table and for the next 5-10 minutes, he performed a magic show with his iPhone. I was entertained, as were some of the patrons of the restaurant.
The programming for this app is pretty clever use of the iPhone hardware.
I said I’d find something wacky at Photokina, I didn’t realize it was going to be a magic app for the iPhone.
Download iForce $2.99 from iTunes
Greg’s Site: http://www.rostamimagic.com/
Howabout some Photography? The Red Bull Illume Competition
The Winning Image
We buy and talk about all this photography equipment a lot, howabout using it to create amazing images? Mission accomplished with the Red Bull contest.
I was introduced to the Red Bull action photography contest at the show (where have I been?). The winner received a Leica S2! After seeing his image, he should have received 2 of them.
Check out the site and all the amazing photographs.
http://www.redbullillume.com/
So that was a lot of stuff in a short amount of time at Photokina. I’ll write a wrap-up of the event in the next day or so and give some opinions of the good and bad from our favourite brand, Canon.
cr
Sigma was unimpressive
The number 1 reason I went to Sigma was to the see the 85mm f/1.4. I think a lot of people are chomping at the bit to get their hands on it. The lens appears in the catalogue they were handing out, however it was nowhere to be found. The lens is apparently shipping in November.
The new stuff they announced yesterday morning was also behind glass and could not be touched.
It’s rare I hear good things within the industry about Sigma. The booth wasn’t impressive, the two people that I spoke to that were demoing the lenses couldn’t actually answer anything about them. One of the folks didn’t even know Sigma HAD an 85 f/1.4.
I don’t want to sound too harsh about Sigma, some of their product is very good. There’s just a missing element in their service.
Attack of the Novoflex Man at ThinkTank Photo
Deanne from ThinkTank
I went over to ThinkTank Photo to talk to Deanne about some bags for the lens rental business. As always, they were more than helpful and we had a good talk.
While we were chatting, a gentleman from NovoFlex was filming the demonstration. Some kind of focusing steadycam contraption (That’s the technical term).
I’m a big fan of ThinkTank products and the people.
http://www.thinktankphoto.com
http://www.novoflex.com/en/home/
Lensbaby introduces the Tilt Transformer
The Lensbaby Booth
It’s not a Canon related announcement, but it’s pretty cool nonetheless. Lensbaby introduced the Tilt Transformer. The product is for the M 4/3 and Sony A NEX mount.
You crave creative freedom, so enjoy it in abundance with Lensbaby’s new Composer with Tilt Transformer. Use the Composer with Tilt Transformer to access the Lensbaby Optic Swap™ System. Remove the Composer Focus Front™ and you have the Tilt Transformer, which lets you tilt any Nikon mount lens on Micro 4/3rds or Sony α NEX cameras to create the sweetest slice of focus in photography.
There was no official word on added compatibility with other systems.
Unfortunately, Lensbaby will not be bringing any of their products to the Leica M mount.
http://www.lensbaby.com
The New Schneider Tilt Shift Lenses
The 90 f/4 Makro Tilt Shift
If Canon’s Tilt-Shift lenses weren’t big enough or expensive enough for you. Schneider-Kreuznach has you covered. The lenses were huge. The demo of the tilt-shift macro was very cool.
It’s good to see a third party manufacturer that introduces stuff for Canon that isn’t just an overlap of existing Canon products.
http://www.schneiderkreuznach.com/
More to come in a few hours.
cr
Flying back to my honeymoon
I’m heading back to France to be with my family, I had a good time at Photokina. In 2012, I will definitely be there all week. There’s so much to cover.
I’ll post more from the show later today.
Thanks to everyone I met there. The guys from akam.no, digifotopro.nl and Canon Norway were all great.
cr
