Another patent for the already announced Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM has been spotted. This should further confirm that the lens is telescopic and isn’t an internal zoom. This is a slightly different than the RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS patent posted back in January.

Japan Patent Application 2019-045555

• Focal length: 72.00mm~ 134.99mm ~ 194.94mm
• F number: 2.91 ~ 2.91 ~ 2.98
• Angle of view: 16.73° ~ 9.11° ~ 6.33°
• Image height: 21.64mm
• Lens length: 172.73mm ~ 219.96mm ~ 231.71mm
• Back focus: 14.37mm ~ 18.40mm ~ 28.12mm

When looking at the length of a lens in a patent, you need to remove the flange distance from the equation. In the case of the RF mount, that is 20mm. This makes the RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM 152.73mm long, which makes it almost 2 inches shorter than the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS III USM. You also would have to account for the length of the EF to RF adaptor if you’re using the EF version of the lens on your EOS R, which would make the native RF mount lens nearly 3 inches shorter.

The Canon USA Store is having a big 15% off sale on refurbished gear this weekend. Included in the sale is a lot of great deals on the EOS M gear.

Use the coupon code FRIEND15 during checkout to see the discounted price.

• Canon EOS M50 $530
• Canon EOS M50 w/15-45 IS STM $611
• Canon EOS M5 $381
• Canon EOS M5 w/15-45 IS STM $484
• Canon EOS M6 $381
• Canon EF-M 22mm f/2 STM $169
• Canon EF-M 28mm f/3.5 Macro IS STM $203
• Canon EF-M 55-200mm f/4.5-6.3 IS STM $237

All refurbished items come with a full Canon USA warranty.

There are still lots of popular items in stock, you can check them out here.

Canon News has uncovered a patent application for a quad pixel autofocus image sensor.

Canon News explains Japan Patent Application 2019041178:

This patent application from Canon deals with a quad pixel autofocus sensor.  Right now Canon is using dual pixel autofocus sensors, but if you ever tried to use an EOS R or an EOS M in landscape orientation to focus on a horizontal line you’ll quickly realize that the phase detect sensors just go in one direction, and have little sensitivity in the other 90 degrees offset direction.

This patent application indicates that Canon has split the pixel into 4 pieces, and also offsets the microlenses as you go further out from the center.

The sensor they are describing in this document seems to be a 20.7MP sensor, with 83 million focus detection points!  The pixel size seems to be 4 micrometers, which would make that approximately 22mm on the width (5575×3725) or in other words an APS-C sized sensor.

It’s possible that Canon is looking at decreasing pixel density and moving to quad pixel autofocus in the future. Let’s call it QPAF.

Canon uses 180nm tech for its APS-C sensors that can incorporate copper wiring. This is probably fine for a 20mp image sensor. There would be a loss of efficiency splitting the pixels further, and may lead to Canon dropping the pixel count on APS-C sensors. This would only matter if we actually do see QPAF sensors in the future.

The-Digital-Picture has completed their review of the brand new Sigma 28mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art, another great lens in the Sigma Art series.

28mm has always been my favourite travel and walkaround focal length, it’s probably why I love the Leica Q (and now Q2) so much. I’ve always wanted Canon to make an EF 28mm f/1.4L, but I’m likely in the minority.

From the review:

The most notable differentiator among the Art series prime lenses is the focal length. When 24mm is too wide and 35mm too long, the Sigma 28mm f/1.4 Art Lens is the right answer. With its superior image quality, the 28mm option will often be the best choice over the other two and over the competitor brands as well. This focal length avails general purpose use and the ultra-wide f/1.4 aperture, unsurpassed by any 28mm DSLR or MILC lens currently produced, extends that use to seemingly any light conditions while providing the strongest 28mm background blur possible. Read the full review

At $1399, the Sigma 28mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art isn’t a cheap lens, but it looks like it’s worth the price of admission. For folks that don’t want to own both a 24mm or 35mm prime, you should give 28mm a try, I think a lot of people will be surprised how much they like the focal length.

There have been mentions of a new EOS R body coming in Q4 of 2019 or Q1 of 2020. The new body has been rumored to be the high megapixel body, and not an EOS-1D X style mirrorless camera.

We’re now being told that no new EOS R body will begin shipping in 2019, and it will fall into early 2020. There is still an off chance that an announcement could come in late 2019, but we think Canon will hold off until the CP+ show next February.

I don’t think this should come as much of a surprise, as Canon needs to get those 6 new RF lenses to market before another EOS R series body hits the marketplace.

Once the new lenses begin shipping, it’s likely there will be another boost in sales for the EOS R and EOS RP bodies.

The same source said that a “higher-end” DSLR will be coming in 2019, but they didn’t know for sure what it would be, as Canon is keeping everything quite close to its chest.

It’s been a long while, but Canon USA has once against put their refurbished gear on sale at 15% off!

Simply use the coupon code FRIEND15 at checkout to see the discounted price.

Cameras:

• Canon EOS 77D $611
• Canon EOS 6D Mark II $1104
• Canon EOS 5D Mark IV $2294

Lenses:

• Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L $2039
• Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L III $1495
• Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS $747
• Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L $534
• Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L II $1053
• Canon EF 24mm f/2.8 IS $407
• Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II $1291
• Canon EF 24-70mm f/4L IS $611
• Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS II $747
• Canon EF 28mm f/2.8 IS $373
• Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L II $1251
• Canon EF 35mm f/2 IS $407
• Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L $985
• Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 $272
• Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM $89
• Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II $1427
• Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L IS $815
• Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II $1359
• Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 $285
• Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS Macro $611
• Canon EF 100-400mm /4.5-5.6L IS II $1495

All Canon USA refurbished items come with a full one year warranty, will appear as brand new.

One of the more positive YouTubers out there Armando Ferreira has posted a video about his impressions of the Canon EOS R with the Atomos Ninja V as a second camera to the Canon Cinema EOS C200.

He touches on one of the biggest issues a lot of the internet world seems to have with the camera, and that’s the nearly 1.7x crop when shooting 4K. However, when compared to the Super35 sensor of the Cinema EOS C200, the crop isn’t all that different.

Using a 24mm lens, the FOV of the two cameras are pretty close to one another.

• Canon Cinema EOS C200 w/24mm lens: 36mm
• Canon EOS R w/24mm lens: 41mm

Armando does stress this is only his opinion, and obviously, other shooters may feel differently.

He’s also quite impressed about how closely the footage between the Cinema EOS C200 and EOS R match up. He only seems to have to tweak saturation and contrast slightly to match the EOS R footage to the output from the C200.

We’re told that Canon will make their announcements for NAB on or around April 3, 2019 (depending on your location). NAB begins on April 6, 2019, and runs through April 11, 2019.

We’ve heard a few subtly conflicting reports on what Canon is going to announce, but here is the latest.

The long-rumoured CN-E PL mount prime lenses will be called “Sumire” we’re told.

Read more…

DXOMark has released their review of the Canon EOS R image sensor. I’ve never really put much stock in the testing at DXOMark, but there are a lot of people that do. The EOS R, which has a nearly identical image sensor, but different DIGIC version (DIGIC 8 vs DIGIC 6+) to the EOS 5D Mark IV actually scored 2 points lower at 89. The EOS 5D Mark IV scored a 91.

From DXOMark:

Although we’ve not directly compared the two Canon 30MP full-frame CMOS sensors side-by-side in this review, it’s not surprising that the results for the EOS R are very close to that of the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. Both appear to use a similar sensor, with some of the differences likely attributable to the increased number of AF points available in the EOS R.

While not possessing the low noise levels of the Nikon Z 6 and Sony A7 III, which have slightly lower pixel density and BSI architecture in their favor, the EOS R’s sensor is one of Canon’s best. It comes very close to the one used in the pro-level EOS 1Dx Mark II, particularly in its low light, high ISO capabilities.

With a low noise floor, the dynamic range of the Canon 30MP sensor greatly improves over its predecessors. The EOS R is much more capable of handling high-contrast scenes, thus allowing a photographer faced with protecting highlights at capture to lift shadows in post-processing without incurring some of the noise penalties. Read the full review

The review is mostly positive for the image sensor in the EOS R, and after using the EOS R for some time, I’ve found no issues with the quality of the image sensor. I’m one of those crazy people that doesn’t care about dynamic range though, which can bring about some fun conversations at parties.

Nokishita is reporting that the next body from Canon could be a replacement for the EOS Rebel SL2/200D, which was announced in June of 2017.

DS 126761

• Digital camera (single lens reflex or RF mounting machine)
• Made in Taiwan or Made in Japan (Oita Plant)
• Wi-Fi · Bluetooth equipped (WM 600)
• SKU: 3454C001AA, 3454C002AA, 3454C003AA, 3458C001AA, 3461C001AA
• Battery: 7.2 V 1040 mAh (LP – E 17)

We’ve been told that an all-new 24mp sensor is ready to go,  and it’s possible we’ll see it in the next APS-C DSLR.