Well, here’s a bit of a shocking story. It looks like the Lexar brand of memory cards, USB flash drives and storage drives is being discontinued by parent company Micron. I personally use Lexar cards for all my cameras, but I guess it’s time to move on to SanDisk, the biggest brand in the world.

According to PetaPixel:

We’re hearing that huge business from other revenue streams had made Lexar’s consumer-facing business relatively insignificant.

“Apparently Amazon and Google have been buying so much flash memory from them that there is no need for push for the retail side of things,” one industry retail source tells PetaPixel.

From Micron

Micron Technology today announced that it is discontinuing its Lexar® retail removable media storage business. The decision was made as part of the company’s ongoing efforts to focus on its increasing opportunities in higher value markets and channels.

The Lexar portfolio includes memory cards, USB flash drives, readers, and storage drives for retail and OEM customers.

Micron is exploring opportunities to sell all or part of the Lexar business.

The company will continue to provide support to existing customers through this transition period. Customers should contact their Lexar sales representative to discuss specific requirements.

I’d like to thank our team members and partners for their contributions to the Lexar business. As difficult as this decision is, the company is making this adjustment in its business to ensure it continues to be well-positioned for the future.

If you can’t stand the thought of not buying Lexar memory cards anymore, B&H Photo still has a ton of them in stock.

Alongside the Canon EOS 6D Mark II and Canon EOS Rebel SL2/200D/X8, Canon will finally announce the follow-up to the PC-E1!

While we have no specifications, it’s safe to say that the PC-E2 will also omit 4K and dual SD card slots.

Full disclosure: I had no idea the PC-E1 existed.

Velvet 85 is an 85mm f/1.8 SLR and Mirrorless camera lens with 1:2 macro capabilities. This lens brings the ethereal glow and crisp vintage look of Lensbaby’s popular Velvet 56 lens to photographers clamoring for a portrait-friendly 85mm focal length. Velvet 85 builds on Velvet 56’s ability to create buttery smooth skin tones with the added compression and beautiful bokeh found in high-quality 85mm lenses. Velvet 85 is a must-have for anyone looking to capture artistic soulful portraits. Shoot at bright apertures to create soft, dreamy images with underlying sharpness and detail or stop down to darker apertures to capture a classic, film-like quality in your portraits. Evoking the image style and construction quality of classic portrait lenses of the mid-20th century, Velvet 85 features the heft and smooth, dampened manual focus of these early lenses in an all-metal lens body.

Velvet 85 Lens Specs

• 85mm focal length
• f/1.8-16 • 62mm filter
• 1:2 Macro
• 12 blade aperture
• Focuses from 9.5” from front element to infinity
• Metal lens hood included with Velvet 85 lenses for mirrorless cameras only
• Dimensions (DSLR) 89mm at infinity to 132mm at Macro, mm diameter
• Dimensions (mirrorless without hood) 103mm Infinity to 145mm at Macro
• Weight ~ 530 grams

The lens will begin shipping on July 11, 2017 at a price of $499 USD.

For a gallery of images from the lens and more information, visit lensbaby.

Below is the full specification list for the Canon EOS Rebel SL2/200D/X8, which is coming on June 29, 2017 (EST).

Canon EOS Rebel SL2/200D/X8 (Google Translated)

• Number of effective pixels: 24.2 million pixels (Total number of pixels: 25.8 million pixels)
• DIGIC 7
• Dual pixel CMOS AF
• AF Points: 9 points – Center Cross-type
• VF Coverage: Approximately 95% up / down / left / right
• Viewfinder magnification: 0.87 times
• Back Liquid Crystal: Touch Panel Compatible Vari-angle Liquid Crystal (3.0 inch, 1.04 million dots)
• Continuous: Up to 5 frames / sec (up to about 3.5 frames / sec when servo AF is set for Live View shooting)
• Standard ISO: 100-25600 (extended ISO: 51200 [H])
• Shutter speed: 1/4000 to 30 seconds, Valve, strobe synchronization Maximum shutter speed 1/200 seconds
• Video: Full HD, 5 axis electronic image stabilization
• Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth
• NFC installed
• Battery: LP-E 17
• Images per charge: 840 pictures (when viewfinder shooting)
• Media: SD / SDHC / SDXC card (UHS-I card compatible)
• Size: 122.4 x 92.6 x 69.8 mm
• Weight: 406 g (body only – black), 453 g (including battery and SD card), 407 g (body only – white), 409 g (body only – silver)
• UK price: 579 pounds body (black), 18-55mm III kit (black) 649 pounds, 18-55mm f/4-5.6 kit (black, white and silver) 679 pounds

Dire Studios have updated ShutterCount to version 3.0. Included in the update is the ability to read the shutter actuations on all of the recent Canon DSLRs as well as adding the ability to count the number of times live view and video instances have taken place.

From Dire Studios:

Live view and videos.

The app displays the count for still photos by default — purchase the optional Live View Pack to get additional counters (and the Distribution Chart) that also cover videos. The Live View Pack is available as an in-app purchase on macOS and iOS for select Canon models.

Read more…