Nikon announces a pair of Z mount lenses, including the Nikkor Z 85mm f/1.2 S

Nikon Also Announces the Ultra Slim and Lightweight NIKKOR Z 26mm f/2.8 Pancake Lens Melville, NY (February 6 2023) – Today, Nikon Inc. has announced the highly anticipated NIKKOR Z 85mm f/1.2 S, a professional-level ultra-fast prime lens that exemplifies the powerful potential of the Nikon Z Mount for those capturing stills or video footage, whether it

See full article...

Canon teases Canon EOS R8 and Canon EOS R50 announcement happening this week

Canon will announce a bunch of products on February 8, 2023. In North America, the announcements will happen at 10AM EST on Wednesday, February 8, 2023. The following gear will be announced. Canon EOS R8 Canon EOS R50 Canon RF 24-50mm f/4.5-6.3 IS STM Canon RF-S 55-210mm f/5-7.1 IS STM

See full article...
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user

Optyczne has analysed the R6 II

Optyczne.pl, the mother site of lenstip, is one of my favourite sites as it does rigorous measurements on bodies and sensors, AF etc. The R6 II has scored very highly on AF accuracy, and its sensor resolution is good https://www.optyczne.pl/index.html?test=aparat&test_ap=485 It appears to have no low pass filter in the vertical direction and a weakened one in the horizontal. The result is that its 24 Mpx sensor outresolves the 30 Mpx 5DIV, which has very strong low-pass filters, but at the expense of some Moire. I know from experience that the 5DIV's resolution suffers to get rid of any Moire. The R5 also asymmetric low-pass filtering but in tens of thousands of my bird photos I have never seen any Moire in the feathers.
  • Like
Reactions: 5 users

Canon will soon announce the Canon EOS R8 and Canon EOS R50 along with two new kit lenses

It looks like the rumors over the last few months are coming to fruition shortly. Canon will announce two camera bodies very soon alongside the recently uncovered Canon RF 24-50mm f/4.5-6.3 IS STM. The long rumored Canon EOS R8 will be announced, along with the Canon EOS R50. If we’re going by the information in

See full article...

R6 beginners video

I've started using my R6 to take video of my daughters dancing/singing on stage (they have many performances, so after I get all the stills I want, I sometimes I do video to document the show for family viewing). I don't want to get too deep into video, but I do want to grab any low hanging fruit available to me to get better than full-auto video. Like in stills, I guess some people must actually shoot straight to JPEG but pick settings to get it done pretty well in camera by tweaking modes like Portrait or Landscape. For video, I'm sure most of you shoot CLog...I want to avoid that if possible and be like a JPEG stills shooter who uses the camera presents...but for video. The challenge is mostly due to stage lighting.

For stills, I spot meter and underexpose by about 1 stop to avoid blowing out the skin tones. Processing the raw files is then pretty easy after I get the first image done the settings carry over very well to everything else. Ballpark is to increase exposure 1 stop, pull down highlights to -50, boost shadows to +50 and go from there. I tried a similar approach using Lightroom to edit video (because it's all I had at the time) but found the same settings didn't work that well and I couldn't push and pull things very far before they look totally distorted.

I did just download the free version of Resolve, so I won't be limited to editing video in Lightroom...that might help with the post processing...I hope. Mostly I want to avoid color grading which seems necessary of you shoot Clog. But I'm a total beginner and don't know what I don't know.

Any help is appreciated.

Sony moves most camera production to Thailand

Sony has moved most of its camera manufacturing to Thailand due to geopolitical forces. US-China trade relations have been contentious for quite some time and it appears that Sony is being proactive in case there are further trade challenges between China, the EU and the United States. From Nikkei The Sony Group transferred production of cameras sold

See full article...

Canon releases financials for the full year 2022

Canon has released their financials for the full year of 2022. Things are going well all things considered. I guess the YouTubers continue to be wrong about the market. From Canon Financials As for the camera market, despite concerns that consumer spending will decline, thedemand of users, which mainly consists of professionals and enthusiasts –

See full article...
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users

Need help - R5, how to turn on and off AF points?

Good morning,

I have the R5 now for almost a year and it is indeed a fantastic camera. However, by whatever reasons the AF points disappeared and I only see them, when I focus to nowhere and then can point the camera to my motive. After I shot the picture, the AF points disappear immediately. I also can't move the AF points with the curser or any other button.
They are stuck in the middle of the screen/view finder.

I have installed the firmware 1.6, before the problems appeared. I am sure, it is not a firmware problem.

Is there anybody who can explain to me, how to turn something on to see the AF points constantly and can make them move?

I am grateful for any information.

Auto aperture above auto iso for video?

I have used a Canon R5 for a month for video and photography. And recently, I started making real-estate videos.

The houses I shoot have dark spots, primarily when shooting towards a window, which results in digital noise and grain.
I use the C1Tv setting with auto aperture and auto iso. But I want to keep the iso down to prevent digital grain and noise.

I see that when using auto aperture and auto iso. The iso is upped first, and then the aperture. Lower the aperture to its lowest setting first and then the iso. I would like it to be the other way around.

Is there a setting that prioritises auto aperture above auto iso for video?

Patent: Canon is actively developing fast mirror lenses

Mirror lenses have a bad wrap, as most of the implementations out there are for long and slow lenses, this patent discovered by asobinet shoes that Canon has been working on fast aperture mirror lenses. Whether these ever make it to market remains to be seen. Canon 300mm f/2.4 Mirror Lens Canon 400mm f/5 Mirror

See full article...
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user

BCN Lens Ranking: Canon #2 (Barely)

I see Photo Rumors has posted the latest mirrorless interchangeable lens BCN rankings for 2022. Sony #1 with 16.4%, followed by Canon with 15.9%, Sigma and Tamron #3 and #4 with just two-tenths of a percent separating them. Nikon at 13%.

Thoughts:
  • Before declaring Canon d00med, note that we are talking 1/2 percent difference.
  • Yes, I know this is Japan only.
  • I am a little surprised that Tamron ranks so close to Sigma.
  • It would be interesting to know what fraction represents M lenses vs. R lenses.
  • I'm kind of impressed that Canon ranks so high in mirrorless given that their lens lineup is not fully filled out yet.
  • The same could be said for Nikon.
  • The fact that Sigma and Tamron suck up nearly 30% of the market could help explain why Canon is not making it easy for them to use the R mount.
  • Pursuing that thought a little further, Sony could be losing one heck of a lot of sales to Sigma and Tamron.

Let the fights begin!

Old British Penny

I recently found a 1963 British penny, from before decimalization I have no idea why I have it. It may have been in my parents' home, but I have no idea why they would have one. My first trip to England was in 1976, after this coin had been retired. Shilling coins were still in circulation since they were used along side 5 new pence coins. I have been trying out my EF lenses adapted for the Fujifilm 100S, so I decided to try that combination to shoot the coin. The diameter is about 1 1/4 inches, so the larger sensor allowed would fit the coin at 1:1. The lens is the 100mm f/2.8 non-L macro, shot at f/11. I've cropped it, but I could see no vignetting in the original shot. The date is shown as a 100% crop. The whole coin shots are about 16% size.
fuji1236.jpg
fuji1241.jpg
1963.jpg
  • Like
Reactions: 2 users

R7 and the Viltrox Speedbooster

Yesterday was Chinese new year and I took the chance to test the Viltrox Speedbooster and my R7 in a difficult but controlled setting



If been at this specific event now for several years and so I know what to expect:

  • Un-numbered seats and arriving late, so no chance to get an optimal position
  • Amateurs at the controls for light and sound
  • Plenty of commotion in the rows in front of me, basically always a head or full body blocking at least part of the scene
  • Hysterical rush to the stage of mamas swinging video devices to record the drama when (their) kids are performing
  • Hundreds of people in the room who will raise their mobile as high as possible over their head to film a scene

In the past I would have brought my 1DxII and two lenses, the 135L 2.0 and the 300L 4,0 using only one lens for the evening depending where I would have to sit.

This time I brought only the R7 and the EF 70-200 L II 2.8. The 2.8 would have been a touch to slow, but this time I mounted it with the Viltrox Speedbooster assuming that F 2.0 should do the trick.

ISO 12800 is something which my 1Dx II handles very well but it is the maximum I’m willing to risk with a crop camera like the R7. So I went with Auto ISO limited to 12800, Time nailed to 1/500 and variable F settings. Result was an evening with nearly constant F 2.0 and occasional warnings about not enough light. I upload two pictures, I used Lightroom to export them at only 2 Megapixel from CRaw to JPG but did not apply any further development. Both are taken at:

Exif.jpg

With the Viltrox delivering the right F value with 2.0 but the wrong focal length which was 200mm rather than 142mm

2023.jpg


2023-2.jpg

Both pictures I would probably not have been able to take without the Viltrox. The Snapshot Portrait would not have required 1/500 but it was so dark that I would have had trouble to find proper focus with a slower lens (In fact with the equipment I had available 2 years ago I would not even have thought it possible to make such a shot. This was a scarcely lit theatre audience) . The second picture from the stage had very fast movement inside, 1/250 would have resulted in movement blur.

I was very happy with my gear when I took those pictures, until everything fell apart…

I had made the mistake to configure my R7 as similar as possible to the 1 DX II to allow for a fast learning curve with the camera. That was a mistake. I use C1 for landscape, C2 for portrait and C3 for sport. The free programmable buttons I use to switch between One shot and Servo etc… Learned this evening that I need to rethink the layout. I need a fast way to toggle the eye tracking off and on and I need a fast way to switch spot measurement off and on while also using this to suggest the starting point for AF while allowing the focus tracking afterwards to do its magic.

What had happened:

During the show they used a strong HDTV beamer to project the background image for the show, but not from behind on a translucent background but from front and therefore also onto the performers. The background picture almost always had some twinkling moving little stars which seemed to be highly attractive to the face recognition and especially eye focus algorithms of the R7 so focus constantly wandered off.

When there were no sparkling little critters another effect kicked in. Eye detection seems to go first towards the biggest eye, then to the most shiniest. I assume the algorithm believes that the biggest eye must be the closest. Bad luck if the eye you want is that of a small child but the camera sticks constantly on the painted eyes of the lion dancers costume in the background.


So conclusion for me, the Viltrox gets a constant place in the bag (which means carrying two adapters around) and I need to study my R7 al little more to improve what I put in the my Menue Tab and especially how to better set up the buttons I can configure
  • Like
Reactions: 3 users

No Canon Interest in astrophotography?

Has Canon no interest in astrophotography?
They are certainly lacking behind compared to other brands like Nikon and especially Sony in this category (see link below).

Canon users still use the old 6D or modified 6D models or the now discontinued Ra for astro, while Sony are getting more and more popular. I recently bought the R5 and quite a lot of RF lenses, and I love the R5, BUT for astro Canon need to get back in the game!

We need a new Canon R6a and a high quality fast RF zoom astro lens (faster than the f/2.8 15-35mm, like f/1.4 14-21mm.
PLEASE….

  • Like
Reactions: 1 user

RF Lenses

I have been getting conflicting answers to the following questions. Is it necessary to turn off IS on the RF lenses when using a tripod, I am using an R6 camera? I have been told yes for sure and no, it is not necessary with the RF lenses.
I have tried to contact Canon, it is very difficult to talk to a real person and ask a question.

The Canon RF 135mm f/1.8L IS will be available globally on January 26, 2023

One of the most anticipated lenses for the Canon RF mount is the soon-to-be-shipping Canon RF 135mm f/1.8L IS USM. Initial stock levels we are told will be pretty good, but all preorders likely won’t be met from the big retailers. Canon RF 135mm f/1.8L IS USM Canon RF 135mm f/1.8L IS USM $2099

See full article...

Filter

Forum statistics

Threads
37,423
Messages
973,043
Members
24,778
Latest member
eleison24

Gallery statistics

Categories
1
Albums
29
Uploaded media
372
Embedded media
1
Comments
25
Disk usage
1 GB