Please check out our other articles as they come out in this series, and of course the article from yesterday about the #3 on our lists. Craig’s #2: Canon EOS R8 Camera Picking the runner-up was probably the hardest part (really not that hard) of making the list. Part of it was getting over personal

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Since the launch of the EOS R system, the Speedlite situation for the system has been a bit of a mess. Currently, the flagship Speedlite EL-1 isn’t expected to ship again until May of 2024, while it’s compatible the entire EOS R lineup, it’s also prohibitively expensive for a lot of shooters. The Speedlite EL-5

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Just over 1 year after the launch of his first Kickstarter which raised over a half million dollars on crowdfunding platforms, camera reviewer & Youtuber Michael The Maven has announced a second Kickstarter for his MAVEN filter line, which expands his patent-pending Color Coded, Magnetic Filter ecosystem with 17 new filter products set to launch

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One of the disappointments for me with the RF-S system is the normal kit zoom range from 18-45 instead of 15-45mm. In this patent application, Canon sets out to create a 15-45mm that hopefully isn’t plagued with the same quality assurance issues as its older EF-M brother. I swear I went through 5 copies until

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Richard and I decided to do one of those “Best of 2023” lists for Canon’s new gear that was announced in 2023. As most of you know, Canon had a pretty busy year product-wise, while they didn’t make every segment of our community happy, they did release a lot of great products. Craig’s #3: Canon

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This is a curious patent from Canon. These are without a doubt higher-end lenses and are certainly for APS-C and not for Super-35 or Canon Cinema. Canon specifically mentions that these types of lenses would be advantageous for video as the center of gravity doesn’t change. Fixed-length zoom lenses are known in which the overall

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In this patent application, Canon is illustrating some smaller primes. Since these designs are relatively simplistic, they could be good “bang for the buck” lenses as long as you are not expecting pristine resolving power, as they don’t optically fill the entire image circle but rely on software stretching. Canon’s entire purpose with this patent

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Bryan at TDP has test charts up for the 200-800. IQ is very similar to the 800 f/11 but 2/3 of a stop faster. You can pick at the charts and say maybe the center contrast is a bit lower and the peripheral acuity is a bit better, but given that we are looking at single samples, the differences are well within typical sample variation (and Roger is not going to test 800mm lenses ). The good news is that the lens is consistently sharp throughout the zoom range, only falling off a bit at 800mm.

In these two patent applications, Canon is exploring adding haptic feedback into the grip surface of the camera. These are two separate patent applications but discuss similar functions, so I’ll lump them all in here. When I first read this I didn’t think much about it because Canon has done these patents before, until I

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When the Canon EOS R3 was announced, it came as a bit of a surprise. It was Canon’s first foray into a “professional” camera body for sports shooters, photojournalists and the like. Canon was adamant that the EOS R3 was not their flagship, and that would be coming in the EOS R1, which is scheduled

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When we were first discussing the series of patent applications on motorized tilt-shift lenses for the RF mount, one of my musings was the ability to use this to automate stitching and various shooting at different shifts and tilts. It appears in this patent application that Canon had the same idea (if I gave it

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Hello friends (especially AlanF and usern4cr)

I've been following threads comparing the RF 100-500 with and without the RF 1.4x, with the RF 800/11, as well as threads elsewhere. Shooting from the same distance with an R5 I expected that the resolution of the RF 100-500 would be better with the RF 1.4x. I just received a new RF 1.4x and after shooting a few tests, I was surprised to find the RF 100-500 performed better when cropped than with the RF 1.4x. I wonder if there is a problem with my testing or if my RF 1.4x is somehow substandard. Your thoughts would be appreciated.
I shot a test chart and a toy penguin at about 10m in bright sunshine, the test chart on a sturdy carbon fibre tripod with 2 second delay with manual focusing; the penguin by hand kneeling ont the ground using EFCS and eye tracking (a real world situation) . My first trial using electronic first curtain shutter suggested possible vibration, so I repeated the test chart photos with electronic shutter. The photos were both processed in DXO Pure Raw2.
Comparing the test chart in Lightroom with the 500mm photo at 150% and the 700mm photo at 107% showed the 700mm photo to be softer. This improved when I added quite a bit of clarity.
The penguin photos when viewed at 196% and 143% (for the 500mm and 700mm) showed similar levels of detail.
The first photo shows the test target and penguin at 500mm uncropped.
The second shows the test target viewed at 150 and 107%.
The third photo as with #2 but added clarity in the 700mm photo.
The final photo shows the penguins viewed at 196% and 143% with no additional editing.
Your thoughts please!

We have finally confirmed that the Canon RF 35mm f/1.2L USM is indeed coming in the first half of 2024. There have been some false positives over the years, but we’re as sure about this as we are about anything. There were conflicting reports as to whether or not it would be an f/1.2 or

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In this patent application, Canon describes setting lens barrel button functions based on the orientation of the camera body. The idea that they are batting around is that as you change the orientation and you are hand holding a heavy lens, the buttons can be then in an awkward position when you are trying to

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While waiting impatiently for the 200-800, I have been fiddling with extension tubes on the 800 f/11. The first set I got was from Vello and they were pretty sloppy. Today I got a set from Meike and they are better. Not wonderful, but definitely usable. the weather has been fairly dark and the shots below were taken in between rain showers at ISO 6400 on the R7. There was enough light for correct exposure at 1/320 s. I used both tubes in tandem for 31mm of extension and now my close focus is in the neighborhood of 14-15 ft, which definitely helps with magnification. So far the results are noticeably better than standing back with the 1.4 TC added to get similar magnification. Here are a few samples slightly cropped and downscaled to 4k to fit the site and they make nice backgrounds for a 4k monitor . Processing was LR enhance followed by a light pass with Topaz Denoise for final cleanup and a bit of sharpening. Other adjustments pretty routine.

TTArtisan released an intriguing 10mm F2.0 for APS-C systems. It’s manual focus and manual aperture but it’s 10mm F2.0 so there’s that. Because there are no electronics, Canon ignores it as if it does not exist and so it’s available for the RF mount. Unfortunately, it has a fair amount of tangential astigmatism which makes

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Hey, I know first off it has to be software compatibility, but it's now 2023. The file names in the canon camera are 8 character IMG_#### and they flip at 9999.
would it be that huge of an issue if they upgraded the camera firmware to increase the Seq # from 4 digits to 7 or 8 digits? With Digitial files names this would be great help for sport shooters? etc.. I use the seq # to know how many flips of the shutter I've taken per camera. I use format R62A####. But then use a third-party app to rename files adding 3 leading numbers to my files before I import them into my edit software. Just a thought?

How soon before drone footage of the Mona Lisa?
Cameras getting it from all sides.... smart phones, and now super high quality drones.

Maybe some of you are also parents and can help out. What are/were your most used lenses for your small kids, say 1-3 years old?

I didn't think about kids at all when I bought my previous lenses, so I'm planning to change that for any future purchases. What I should look out for in the future, what should go on my watch list? What's practical?

I have the RF 24-105 f4L, RF 15-35 2.8L, and the RF 100-500L. They're great and cover a lot of range. The 100-500L can do nicely isolated portraits, but even 100mm is long indoors (Europe, small rooms) and only f4.5@100mm.
So I mainly use the RF 24-105 F4L, but my kids images often aren't that much better or different to those my wife takes with her iPhone (at ~24-48mm). I feel like I maybe I should look out for a faster lens, but I'm not really sure.

I appreciate any input you might have.

A substantial number of people want a new 50 f/1.4, but they can't agree on price levels / specs. Probably never going to happen.
Everyone and their mother knows @roby17269 has unhealthy desires for a 35 f/1.2, but the rumor now is f/1.4 with is = unhappy Roby
Some people have posted about 50 and 180 macros. With 85, 35, 24 one half macros, the 50 seems unlikely. I guess 180 is likely sometime...
More than a few want mid-priced super tele primes.
Lately, I am interested in a fisheye.

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I've been listening to the petapixel podcast this week and there is some speculation about the R1 about 30 minutes in.

Their editor-in-chief (Jaron Schneider) mentioned that he heard rumors that Canon had an FF global shutter sensor ready to go a year ago, but was struggling with "something" in the rest of the camera.

He says he also believes that the issue to be throughput, i.e. Canon's current image processing pipeline can't deal with the volume of data coming off the sensor (which might make sense if every pixel also has to be DPAF, so you are looking at twice the amount of sensor data coming off the sensor than a traditional sensor).

Further he has also heard that Canon was "extremely disappointed and upset" that Sony launched the A9III with a global shutter, and finally he (and Gordon Laing from Camera Labs agrees) thinks that Sony launched the A9III so early is to steal Canon's thunder about an upcoming GS sensor-based camera launch.

No idea what to make out of it, but interesting to hear their opinions.

A couple of patent applications caught my eye over the last week – and of course, with me traveling and living out of a suitcase right now I filed it in my head to revisit. These two patents show some unique pixel structures that we are not used to seeing from Canon. Keep in mind

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In this patent application (Japan 2023-178037) Canon is describing a tilting EVF for a mirrorless camera. I had the EVF-DC1 for the EOS-M system and loved the tilt function of the EVF. It gave a different perspective and shooting angle and was a useful feature. In this patent application, Canon is describing the connection ribbon

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Bought my wife an R7 for Christmas. Before I wrapped it, I pulled the battery out of the box, so I can charge it and she can have a ready-to-go camera, when she opens it.

Glad I did.

Stuck it on the charger and got the dreaded blinkblinkblinkblink from the LED. Did some exhaustive internet research (30 seconds on Google) and found that it sometimes takes a few tries before it will take a charge. I did more than “a few tries”. No dice. Got the brain fart to try it in my R5 charger. Nothing. Tried my R5 battery in the R7 charger, it worked fine. Came to the conclusion that the new battery is pooched.

I know they are shipped completely flat, but is it a common occurrence for them not to take a charge, when brand new? Is there any way to “jump start“ the thing? (Preferably without burning my house down).

(Props to B&H - I sent Support an email and within a half hour -on a Sunday night, no less- I got a shipment notification. The new battery showed up yesterday and is blinking away happily in my R5 charger as we “speak”)