Our exclusive affiliate partner Adorama has launched their Memorial Day weekend sale.  There is a lot on sale in photography, computers and electronics.

My favourite deal isn’t related to photography. The Hifiman HE5se planar headphones are $400 off, and can be had for only $299.

Check out all of the Memorial Day weekend deals at Adorama

Peak Design has launched their 9th Kickstarter campaign and it looks like it’s going to be another rousing success. This time, Peak Design is launching its travel tripod. Designed to be both compact and sturdy as well as easy to use.

This is one of the rare campaigns on Kickstarter that I have pledged, this one looks too good to pass up.

We don’t promote a lot of Kickstarter campaigns, as too many go unfulfilled, but you don’t have to worry about Peak Design delivering on a product.

Check out the Peak Design Travel Tripod

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We’re told that three new fast L primes will be announced for the RF mount in early 2020. They include an RF 24mm f/1.4L USM and an RF 135mm f/1.8L along with an undisclosed dedicated macro lens which will be a “first of its kind macro lens”, though no details of what that means was given. I wouldn’t read too much into the latter.

The three new lenses are scheduled to be announced before CP+ in 2020, but as always, take lens scheduling with a grain of salt.

A lot more lenses are planned for 2020, we could see as many as 8 new RF lenses in 2020.

Canon has finally released information about their RF lens control ring modification that was announced alongside the EOS R last year.

The service is a reasonable $79 USD. This service would likely benefit some video shooters. There’s no mention of what it would cost to put a modified lens back to its stock form.

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A patent uncovered by Northlight shows the optical formulas for zooming tilt-shift lenses has appeared over at the USPTO.

The patent appears to mention two separate and interesting tilt-shift lens technology.

The first, the patent shows two internal shift modules. This would help to maintain image quality when tilting the lens. The patent shows a 50mm f/4 design with the two shift modules.

The second part of the patent shows off new zooming tilt-shift lens designs.

Both a  24-100mm f/4 and a 30-80mm f/4 are included as embodiments.

Canon TS-E 24-100mm f/4 embodiment:

• Focal length: 24.74mm – 49.55mm – 99.94mm
• F-number: 4.13 – 4.31 – 4.42
• Half angle of view: 41.17° – 23.59° – 12.21°
• Image height: 21.64mm – 21.64mm – 21.64mm
• Total lens length: 159.00mm – 174.75mm – 200.33mm
• BF: 43.99mm – 55.44mm – 69.75mm

Canon TS-E 30-80mm f/4-6.3 embodiment:

• Focal length: 31.15mm – 55.06mm – 129.92mm – 39.12mm – 83.69m
• F-number: 4.52- 5.96 – 6.08 – 5.97 – 6.07
• Half  angle of view: 34.78° – 21.45° – 9.45° – 28.94° – 14.49°
• Image height: 21.64mm – 21.64mm- 21.64mm – 21.64mm – 21.64mm
• Total lens length: 168.22mm – 182.25mm – 205.02mm – 173.45mm – 192.88mm
• BF: 55.33mm – 69.40mm – 89.40mm – 61.34mm – 78.11mm

These designs are for the EF mount, but we suspect any updates to the wide angle tilt-shift lenses or even going the zoom route will be for the RF mount.

Northlight has uncovered a USPTO patent for various fast prime optical formulas, included in the patent is the design for an RF 135mm f/1.8L. A lens we definitely think will be released sometime in 2020.

Canon RF 135mm f/1.8L USM embodiment:

• Focal length: 133.0mm
• F number: 1.80
• Half angle of view: 9.2°
• Image height: 21.6mm
• Overall length of lens: 150mm
• Backfocus: 18mm

This patent also includes designs for an RF 85mm f/1.2L USM (which is already announced) along with an RF 100mm f/1.4 fast prime. We think the 135mm f/1.8 is more likely to come than a RF 100mm f/1.4.

A new optical formula patent for a wide angle RF mount zoom has appeared. This one shows the formula for a couple of Canon RF 17-35mm f/4-5.6 designs.

The lenses in the two embodiments aren’t all that much smaller than an EF counterpart, and it looks like zooming is slightly external.

Canon RF 17-35mm f/4-5.6

• Focal length: 17.50mm 27.00mm 33.95mm
• F-number: 4.00 5.03 5.80
• Half field angle: 51.03° 38.71° 32.51°
• Image height: 21.64mm 21.64mm 21.64mm
• Lens total length: 121.00mm 118.39mm 121.18mm
• BF: 20.00mm 30.99mm 38.92mm

Canon RF 17-35mm f/4-5.6

• Focal length: 17.50mm 27.00mm 33.95mm
• F-number: 3.94 4.92 5.69
• Half angle of view: 51.03° 38.71° 32.51°
• Image height: 21.64mm 21.64mm 21.64mm
• Total lens length: 122.00mm 119.11mm 121.87mm
• BF: 20.00mm 31.62mm 40.07mm

Once all of the fast zooms ship this year, I think it’s safe to assume we’re going to see f/4 variants soon after.

New features and enhancements in the May 2019 (version 8.3) release of Lightroom Classic

Flat-Field Correction

You can now reduce shading, or lens cast, from your digital photos using the Flat-Field Correction feature. Shading can occur from a variety of different lenses and can result in both asymmetrical vignettes as well as color casts introduced by certain lens characteristics.

Flat-Field Correction is available in the Library module. To apply the correction, select all your photos in a natural interleaved order and choose Lightroom > Library > Flat-Field Correction.

For detailed information, see Flat-Field Correction.

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Press Release:

Profoto, May 15, 2019: We are never fully satisfied with the products we make. We always strive to take steps forward, whether they be baby-steps or strides. That is why we not only will create ground-breaking products. But we’ll also continually evaluate and improve those products. Like we have done with the launch of Profoto A1X, the A1’s new and improved sibling. It has a little more of everything that made its predecessor a success. An even more powerful battery, faster recycling and Sony compatibility are some of the 30 and more updates that we have made to the product. Or put in other words – more when it matters.

Preorder the Profoto A1X at Adorama

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Specification lists have become a rare thing for the rumor mill if an announcement isn’t imminent, so we tend to take most of them with a huge grain of salt.

We’ve been sent a few suggested specification lists for the Canon EOS 80D replacement, one we’re calling the EOS 90D to keep things easy. There has been some talk that this will be the last of the higher-end APS-C DSLRs to come from Canon. While we cannot confirm this to be true, I think the writing is on the wall.

Canon EOS 90D Specifications: (Rumored)

• 32.5mp APS-C DPAF Sensor
• Dual DIGIC 8
• Dual SD card slots
• 10fps still shooting
• ISO range of 100-51,200
• 45 AF points (no word on the number of cross-type points)
• 4K video at 24/25, 30 and 60fps (No word on DPAF in 4K recording)
• 3.2″ rear articulating LCD
• Dust and moisture sealing
• Built-in wifi and Bluetooth
• $1399 USD price at launch
• Coming late August 2019

This does seem like a move up from the EOS 80D but doesn’t really feel like an EOS 7D Mark II update. As much as we’d like to see an update to the EOS 7D Mark II, all signs point to that not happening. Things can change though.