It seems to be unavailable at my usual local and online shops here in Japan. They were supposed to be available 11/29, but now the page says it is Out of Stock or Backordered. I sold my EF Mark III version a week ago, so it seems I'm going to be without for a while. If anyone else in Japan has been able to score one or knows when or where this lens will be available, please let me know.

ETA: I did finally get my hands on one (I went with the black). I put in an order with my local shop around Dec. 10. I was told Canon would be shipping them on the 27th, but it arrived a little early on the 25th. It was kind of funny- there was another guy there at the exact same time buying the exact same lens as me. We high-fived and congratulated each other as we were trying out our new toys.

Well, that is certainly an interesting strategy you have there. I tend to buy everything new, but have the benefit of writing the costs off on my taxes since I have a business (IT business primarily, but I have a photography business that I umbrella under my IT business). I am sure my wife would understand this. However, she's a minimalist, and I am not. She gets upset when I get more stuff.

TOTAL DISASTER!!! :-D

OK, so while trying to get the R5 MkII to recognize ANY of my wi-fi SSID's, I tried all the excellent advice you guys have sent my way. I've upgraded the router and repeater to the latest firmware. I've reassigned channels. I tried my iPhone hot-spot (which the MkII DID recognize, which is good to know, but doesn't actually help me practically.)

So while I was working last night, suddenly it seemed like my NAS (big disk array on my LAN) died. All my Word's and Excel's started freaking out. PC's ipconfig reported the usual network was down replaced by... something I didn't recognize. The PC couldn't log into the admin pages of the router, repeater, disk array, or connect with the Linux computer, laptops etc. Tried rebooting the PC. Tried rebooting the router. All dead. All my photos, all my everything... gone.

But the internet still worked at least.

I was thinking about what it could be. One laptop could talk to the disk array fine so nothing lost after all. But how many changes did I make that I'd have to back out?

I opened up my iPhone to check for SMS, and it was still on the Personal Hotspot page. Well, I don't need that I guess, and the split second I turned it off, the PC came back to life.

Basically the main computer had decided to use the iPhone as its internet connection when I plugged in the USB to charge the phone, and dropped its connection to the LAN...

I'm an old guy and this was like a top 5 computer yikes for me in my life.

I have an appointment for the main Canon service center in Ginza (the Fifth Avenue of Tokyo) Friday afternoon, but I can just try a walk-in too, which worked for me last week when I verified the flash shoe connector cover really was supposed to be that hard to get off.

neuroanatomist said:

Hmmmmm. I’m a little tempted.

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It's ⅔ the weight of rf 600mm f4 (I think about 600 because image quality seems to drop after that).

neuroanatomist said:

Except for the f/2 part...

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blackcoffee17 said:

The Samyang 12mm is a well regarded astro lens and the F2 is a huge benefit there, together with the minimal coma.

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But then there's TTArtisan 10 mm f2, at UWA I usually ended up in situations that AF is not needed...

Exploreshootshare said:

Sigmas offering is f2.8 so the Samyang is one stop faster. Canons lens starts at f4.5 so the difference is over 2 stops (2 1/3 stops exactly?!). There is a huge difference if you want to shoot the night sky or cities at night time.

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At night I do prefer tripod&slightly slower shutter. Since I'm well aware I couldn't do low iso+high SS shooting.

R1C with built in NDs and minus IBIS makes a lot of sense. Not really "below C400" but a different category and hybrid flagship.

Not sure which sensor would they use for Cinema EOS camera positioned below C400 with which specs sufficient for Cinema range. Perhaps smaller C400 minus some I/O and with same card/recording capability as C80.

I think it is time to have proper stills camera functionality and basic cinema functionality in a flagship hybrid camera (R1C) now that the technology is there and folks also obviously want R5C successor.

Comet Tsuchinshan-atlas and the Milky Way 10/24/2024.

R8 is gone

Note that not all tripods are on sale at B&H, contrary to today's Black Friday announcement.

I think this is a nice comet lens. This shot was taken 10/20/2024 from a remote place in West Virginia. Daylight setting with no color adjustment. Not tracked.

So you don’t prefer a pelican style bag for travel?

Buy the mk 2, the prices of these should get lower as the RF lenses become more available.

I own one of these and love it. The camera is no comparison to any of our Canon cameras of course but it's really good.

Berowne said:

Michelstädter Rathausbräu? I am always on tour (official - dienstlich) in Süd-Hessen, and of course also in the Odenwald, i will have a look, perhaps for lunch - but no beer on duty.

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Genau! (My wife drives me home after the "visit".) German industrial beer has become so boring, due to standardized taste, that I'm always happy to find a good craftbeer. The same happened in Alsace, beer was brewed for the "Parisian taste", meaning less hops, less malt, less bitterness (less taste). Now we have about 200 small breweries in Alsace producing a beverage which can again be named "beer". This happy development came from the USA, where the big ones produced some cat-piss, more and more customers started to reject. That's when craftbeers were born, later on they came to Europe.
PS: Long live Leica!
PPS: Rathausbräu sells beer in bottles to take home! No excuse!

I think that is pretty much the only explanation I have at this point unless that is somewhow a gray market camera, which I inherently doubt.

neuroanatomist said:

There was never a MkII for the non-IS version, and Canon kept the non-IS in the lineup, whereas for the IS version there was a MkIII and an RF.

Same reason the 500/4 II goes obsolete years later than the 600/4 II, even though those lenses launched concurrently.

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We had that discussion elsewhere: I guess we'll never see a new 500mm f/4 prime in future from Canon, since the EF 600mm Mk III is already only 50 g heavier than the first EF 500mm prime, the f/4.5 L USM lens with 3 kg, introduced in 1992. Now the RF 200-500mm f/4 is announced, which surely is the next nail in the 500 f/4 prime coffin. Maybe they'll bring later a simpler RF 500mm f/5.6 on the marked, as patented recently. If they could offer such a smaller prime on a decent price level, I guess it could be a success and a good competition against Nikon's Z 600mm f/6.3.

yankiefrankie said:

For certain sports and wildlife shooting pre capture is a game changer. You get shots you would not have been able to get otherwise without shooting non stop trying to anticipate something is about to happen.

As I said in my post, when the R6ii was released there was no R1 or R52 close to being released. The R3 was the premier sports camera in the canon lineup. It would have made sense to release the crappy precapture implementation of the R6 as a firmware update to the R3. It would have made good marketing sense. People who were in the market for the R3 and really needed pre-capture my opt for the cheaper R62 just to get the feature. It turns out that the feature was garbage anyway, as implemented, but you wouldn't know that until you used it a bunch of times.

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Perhaps, but companies usually do not add new features to existing hardware, especially when new products are on the roadmap, as it gives an incentive to upgrade and give the company more money.

AlanF said:

The current EF 400mm f/4 DO ii actually has a front element of 95mm - I once measured it. The f number is a bit higher than 4 and the focal length just under 400mm. A bit more shaving of the f-number and focal length could produce a cheaper front element. But, the fashion now is for longer narrower lenses.

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Of course. I should have indicated ‘calculated’ threshold. The from element of my 600/4 II is 142mm in diameter, not 150mm.

I am really trying to decide if I want to get a Z and keep my older 70-200 2.8 for my BU R3 or for when my son is using it as a second shooter at events or if I just save the cash and get a second non-Z for the dual setup since they are on sale right now.

Benjamin_L said:

Pre capture on a custom button is most likely the most requested feature

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Such a feature would have been nice, but I never found it on the R1. Being able to assign the M-Fn3 button to Pre-capture would be ideal for my setup.

Weighing just 10g, DJI Mic Mini delivers powerful performance in an ultra-light body, allowing content creators to carry less and capture more. DJI, the global leader in civilian drones and creative camera technology, today announced DJI Mic Mini. This ultralight, compact, wireless microphone offers powerful performance for content creators. DJI’s latest microphone offering, DJI Mic

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Anyone still looking to grab the RF200-800 Canon US is showing them in stock.

I got mine today and managed to get it to lock up and forget some of my resent settings changes while trying to calibrate the eye tracking.

I like combination of lights and shadows. Nicely done, dpc.

SmallRig has launched a bunch of accessories for the Canon EOS R5 Mark II, these include cages and brackets. We have already been more than happy with these sorts of SmallRig accessories and use them almost daily. SmallRig Canon EOS R5 Mark II Accessories

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