Well as they say, all good things come to those who wait…

Browsing eBay last week, spotted the RF85mm f2 for £269!! At that price I didn’t even think, just hit the button!!

It arrived Monday, I fully expected there to be a reason for it being so cheap but having scrutinised it I cannot see any. It’s flawless. I added the JJC lens hood courtesy of Amazon (£15)
Hopefully weather permitting I’ll be out shooting this weekend.
The only reason it caught me eye (other than the price) was if I do get the R10 the 85 will give the same view as 135 on full frame.
135 f2 with IS does sound fun.

Actually I’d like to compare that set up with my EF135/2 on my RP

I imagine it will be close, very close.

Late update:
At the very last minute (airport long stay car park) I decided to leave everything behind in the boot except the LX100. It proved to be the right decision. The LX100 was perfect, small, unassuming and fast. Not once did I wish I’d brought more kit, a longer lens, a flash etc etc.
The LX combined with my phone was perfect. Came back with some great snaps for the family holiday photo album (photo book)

Hopefully we are off again in 5/6wks, this time I’ll pair the LX to my phone - couldn’t work out how to last time, I’ve since bought the extended owners manual.

Doormat said:

Of all the lenses I own (own a lot) the 17-55 is by far the one that always leaves me underwhelmed. It’s big, heavy and only has a short zoom range, but worse is that no matter which body I use it on, the files are always meh!! So I usually end up putting it back and reverting back to the 18-55 is stm
Small, light and crazy good IS.

I really want to like it, but it never delivers anything that justifies hauling it’s bulk around all day.

Maybe I got a bad copy ??

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I think DPReview tested the 17-55 on the M6 II and the samples indeed look meh - quite soft and without details on the 32mp sensor. Plus the lens with the EF adaptor is quite a brick.

AUGS said:

Before you send this back, and I'm sure you would have considered it, but are you working inside the minimum focus distance in those test shots?
From TDP: https://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-EF-200mm-f-1.8-L-USM-Lens-Review.aspx
"Obviously, 2.5m (8.2') is this lens' MFD (Minimum Focus Distance) - a rather long distance for this focal length. MM (Maximum Magnification) is therefore low."

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Naw, it takes the same kind of soft photos at any distance. Besides, the camera should have said that it couldn't find focus if it was shorter than the MFD, not locked on focus the way it did.

Update: I ended up canceling my order after waiting almost 3 months. Canon USA does a new pre-auth every 30 days to make sure your card is still active but it expires after a few days. It turns out that I'm able to get most of what I need for my product photography with a regular macro lens and powerful strobes. Sure it would be nice to do some perspective correction in camera and do some selective focus stuff but I'm able to get good enough results to get the job done without it so I decided I could live without it.

Could be a viable option for me instead of the 300mm f/2.8 we probably never will get. Especcialy with a high MPIX body. Would be very interested.

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Thank you for the reply, much appreciated!

Skyscraperfan said:

...

One change I really love is climate change, because in Germany it is VERY cold in winter. The last winter was pure horror.

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Ignoring all the other baloney....

Try not to be ignorant about the effects of climate change. It does not warm up the entire Earth as if you just raised the temperature of an oven a degree or two. It is average rise in temperature for the Earth, but some places will average being colder, others warmer, but one thing everyone gets is more SEVERE weather. Global warming means more water vapor in the air. This results in increased energy in the atmosphere; increased energy means more intense storms, wet regions becoming wetter, dry regions becoming drier, with the increase in resulting floods and droughts.

It does look kind of nice

The TS-e 17L takes on a new lease of life with mirrorless mounts, the ability to use rear mounted drop in filters.
View attachment 210363
View attachment 210362

I brought the RF 24/1.8 mainly for indoor low light use, and the interior of the Vatican was my primary use for the lens on my recent trip to Italy.

"Vatican Museum Map Hall" – There is plenty art along the walls in the Vatican Museums, but the ceilings are often even more impressive.

EOS R8, RF 24mm f/1.8 Macro IS STM, 1/60 s, f/10, ISO 1250

"Vatican Museum Corridor" – Some corridors are almost an overload of artistic expression.

EOS R8, RF 24mm f/1.8 Macro IS STM, 1/80 s, f/7.1, ISO 1250

"St. Peter's" - Beautifully decorated interior of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. So. Much. Gold.

EOS R8, RF 24mm f/1.8 Macro IS STM, 1/60 s, f/8, ISO 6400

neuroanatomist said:

Thanks! That one is my favorite, as well.

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Great shot, and proof of how useful a genuinely portable 400mm lens is !

thanks for the effort, but I dont think any of that will work.

Morning all. I am considering a photographic trip to Africa at some point in the relatively near future (maybe mid next year) and at this time am tossing up between a trip to Uganda for primates or a trip to Botswana with Pangolin Safaris. Question is, has anyone here done a trip with Pangolin and if so what was your experience?

koenkooi said:

The R5 only has oversampled 4k at 30fps, or if you enable the 1.6x crop mode, you can get 60fps.
On the R6II 4k60 is oversampled in fullframe mode.

So if you want FF 4k60, the R6II will give you better quality footage and it also doesn’t limit you to 30 minutes per clip.

I’m judging this from an R5 and R8, the R8 has the same sensor and digic as the R6II.

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Thanks, as I suspected. Have had 2 R5:s and 2 R6 but sold them off a while ago. I remembered the Video some what fuzzy.

Then I'll get the R6 mk II. Thanks again

Here's an example using the meike CPL. In this case used with a EF 16-35IIL, a ef 8-15mm Fisheye L and the mighty ef 11-24mm L.
Curiously, the fisheye has a similar angle of view as the 11-24L (at 11mm) once it is de fished in Lightroom. However...the corners are way more mush than the 11-24L. But the fisheye can go a very lot wider.

/\/\ ef 11-24mm @ 11mm f4


/\/\ ef 11-24mm @ 15mm f4


/\/\ ef 8-15mm fisheye at 8mm F4


/\/\ ef 8-15mm fisheye at 8mm F4, de-fished in Photoshop.


/\/\ ef 8-15mm at 11mm F4


/\/\ ef 8-15mm at 11mm F4 De-fished in Lightroom...which is weird because it's a wider angle ofview to the defished 8mm shot! Something funky is occurring with the Lightroom Fish eye profiles.


/\/\ ef 8-15mm at 14mm F4 defished. This angle of view is very similar to the ef 11-24mm @11mm.

/\/\ ef 8-15mm at 15mm F4 unforected. At 15mm, the fish eye sees a lot wider angle of view than the ef 11-24mm can at 11mm.

All of the above images use a 2 stop CPL, fully polarised and have exactly the same settings applied to each lens, because the filter is a drop in and there for static between lens changes.
The EF 11-24mm lens is a huge and heavy beast...but it is spookily sharp wide open. I have never seen an ultrawide this sharp before. It has dark corners / vignetting wide open at F4. I used to have the original Sigma 12-24mm EX DG lens (backj when it was launched) and it's nearly as wide as the 11-24mm. But this Canon variant is a lot sharper and the corners are usable wide open.
The wee little Canon ef 8-25mm fish eye is also an astonishing little lens. Ignoring the weight and size difference...optically it's a little sweet heart. Very sharp wide open and mind blogglingly wide. Yes it really can do a full 180' view. Defished, it's the widest one can get on the Canon mount. It is rediculously wide...however the corners are smearly and mushy. Looking over some older de fished photos, Adobe seemed to have tampered with tier current profile for the 8-15mm lens and it's a lot more smeary in the corners than it used to be in a previous LightRoom build.

AcaPixus said:

Does anyone recall or have an idea how long time there generally is between Canon files a patent for a lens until they announce it or start marketing it - if ever.

I am enthusiastic about that 9-18 mm to finally replace my venerable Sigma 12-24 mm Ex

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Could be 1-2 years or never from filing. Keep in mind that we don’t find out a patent was filed until it publishes, which is 18 months after the filing date. Sometimes a lens comes out before or soon after a patent publishes.

The most important thing to note is that only a very small percentage of patents actually become products.

dirtyvu said:

what i'm wondering is this. USM is still loud. but not having owned Nano USM, is it quieter? is it a lot quieter? I think all my lenses are either USM or STM. for RF, I have 85 1.2 which is USM. I have the 35, 24, and 16 which are STM. I have 100 2.8 and 70-200 2.8. forgot what those are...

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Nano USM is so quiet, the sound of the cams and elements moving around inside can be clearly heard. The RF100L and RF100-500L don't make distracting focus noises, even when using the internal microphone. They still make noise, but it's not the type of sound that makes everyone think "Hey, that's a focus motor."

Also, the STM motors in video mode are fairly quiet as well. Glacial, but quiet.

We’ll be honest, the first time we heard about the L-mount alliance, it didn’t really move the needle for us. Since then, we have started to see the benefits of the mount and how its helping the member brands. It has probably had the most benefit camera wise for Leica with their SL series. Panasonic

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DhlcadR6 said:

I think you missed the point. It's so strange that Samyang/Rokinon are not selling their Korean made RF autofocus lenses in China despite the "lack of IP protection" in China.

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a Korean company selling in China is still a Korean company and has to respect Korean laws.

I have just bought a camera described as:

Canon 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS NANO USM EF-S Zoom Lens

Is this different to the one listed as compatible for Focus bracketing?

Canon fanboi or not (and I love my a6400), it's always nice when a major manufacturer shows love to high-end APS-C. I'm also glad that Sony has moved on from the 24MP sensor that's been at the heart of the a6x00 line since 2014.

I'm a stills shooter, so to me, this looks like mainly an incremental improvement over the 4-year-old a6600. That's to be expected, as the mirrorless marketplace has matured. I'm sure the AF and subject tracking have improved as would be expected with 2-1/2 generations of Moore's Law, not to mention the tremendous advances in "AI" over the past few years. The video improvements look impressive, but I can't comment beyond the raw specs because I rarely shoot video.

The main question in my mind is whether these improvements will be compelling enough for a6600 users to upgrade en masse.

The second question is whether Sony will replace the a6100 and a6400 based on the this sensor and processor. 6200 is the only number still available in their current numbering scheme, unless they want to go to 50's.

Personally, I can't see Canon ever releasing a RF 50mm f1.4. I hate the ef version of the 50mm f1.4 USM...it's soft and low in contrast wide open. it's AF is slow and the build quality is really cheap and nasty. I've had two of these fall apart on my. I would choose the old ef 50mm f1.8 metal mount (for the 90's) over this lens any day.
While the ef 50mm f1.2 L get a lot of bad rap (for good reason) it still has amazing contrast wide open, it's flare control is exceptional. It has very nice rendering and it's built like a tank. It's also still relatively small.
However, would I ever get the fantastic RF 50mm f1.2L? Probably not...I just don't use a 50 that often, I'm more of a 35/85 combo guy and a 24/50 guy.

ArtM said:

Yes!! FedEx apparently found it and it was delivered today. Its very fast focusing. Only had an hour or two to try it out. This was with the R3, rf135 at about 12 feet away. Not the best picture but does give some bokeh info, in front and behind.View attachment 210167

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Awesome! And great shot! I might get out for a portrait shoot this weekend. Samples will follow if I do.