Derek | Roberts Raw! Camera News, Advice, And Learning

posts by Derek

About Derek

Our resident web guru, Derek graduated from Ball State with a BFA in Visual Communications. When not in the office slaying CSS dragons, jousting social media windmills, or working on the blog, he's also a fine artist, working in oil paints and photography. He's an Olympus shooter, and swears by his trusty tank of an E-3.

Sony Announces Drop-Dead Gorgeous Update to Bloggie Camcorder

So, while we kinda liked the quirky little original Bloggies, we’ll forgive you if they weren’t quite your thing (especially if a camcorder in the color “Eggplant” weirded you out a bit). But, we have to say, there’s a lot to like about the refresh to the Bloggies, and it starts with “ooooh” and ends with “aaaah.”

I mean, really, take a look at this metal-clad bit of gorgeous over here. This is everything the last gen wasn’t, and borrows heavily from their T-series CyberShots. Which is not a bad thing.

Under the hood, you’re looking at an f2.8 “wide angle” lens with the pocket-cam standard 4x digital zoom. Hard specs aren’t listed yet, we don’t know exactly how wide the lens is, and we also know it’ll have internal memory this time (a much better idea all around than its predecessor’s Memory Stick hangups) in 4 and 8GB sizes, but no suggestion as to how many minutes of footage those will hold.

We do know it’ll do 1080 HD in MP4 format, and can take 12.8 megapixel still with its CMOS sensor. We also know that it’ll have a touch interface, and easy sharing to YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, and Picasa. The software is preinstalled on the device, and the USB plug is also built-in this time, making this a full-on Flip competitor now.

And, of course, it’s Sony, who is one of the biggest names in consumer video and who have been cranking out absolutely stellar HD-ready devices for the past couple years, so we have little doubt it will return anything but wonderful video quality.

The 4GB will be about $180, the 8GB about $200. We’ve heard black and silver, but could swear we saw pink kicking around too. Still, even without pink, they seem safer color than the last model’s silver, orange, and purple.

Canon’s New XF100 and XF105 Camcorders Are Professional, Also Small

If you’re a pro in the market for a new camcorder, you might be interested in Canon’s newest announcements. The nearly-identical twins known as the XF100 and XF105 claim to be Canon’s smallest pro cams to date, and still feature the XF codec from the XF300 and XF305 (for those who’d forgotten, that’s an MPEG-2 4:2:2 50Mbps video codec, it is). Both models record to hot-swappable CF cards, 10x Optically Stabilized HD zoom lenses, DIGIC DV III processing engines, infrared low-light recording, and features to help align two of them for use in recording ridiculously high-quality 3-D footage.

The two models are differentiated merely by the XF105 having HD-SDI output and genlock in/SMPTE time code terminals.

You can read Canon’s full press release after the jump.

Olympus Releases All Black E-P2 Kit, Jody Grober Is The Likely Audience

If there’s one thing my boss is good at, it’s helping pros get the equipment they need. If there’s a second thing, it’s complaining when cameras don’t come in “professional” black. So, Jody Grober, this kit is for you.

At its heart, it’s the same E-P2 with 17mm f2.8 pancake prime that’s been available for a while. So, you’re talking 13 megapixels, a 3″ LCD, full-time LiveView, Olympus’ dust-reduction system and in-body sensor-shift image stabilization, and those find-them-fun-or-hate-them-passionately art filters (including multiple exposure.) And they’re adding the previously optional FL-14 flashgun to the package. And the lens and flash are now black.

Think you can handle that? Good. Estimated pricing is about the same as the current kit without the flash, so, basically you get the black paint and the flash for free. Can’t beat that, now can you?

Coming, er, sometime?

Olympus M.Zuiko 75-300mm Reaches 600mm Equivalency

Like zoom? (Zoomy!) You know you do, come on… And that’s why you’re excited by Olympus’ new M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 75-300mm f4.8-6.7. Because, for those of you not hip to the game, on the Four-Thirds and Micro Four-Thirds system, there’s a crop factor of 2x, meaning a 300mm lens will appear to have the same zoominess a 600mm did on 35mm film bodies.

For the record, 600mm is a lot.

I mean, 600mm is often the longest lens any manufacturer will make in a 35mm line-up.

So yeah.

As always, the name really tells you most of it, like that this lens is a little slow at 6.7 on the long end. What the specs don’t tell you is it weighs less than a pound and is a little over 4.5″ long as pictured. Yeah, seriously. Not even 5″ traveling size gets you 600mm equivalent. And, it looks pretty nice to boot.

Estimated retail? $900 or so. But you’ll pay it, because you know you love the zoooooooom!

Olympus Announces m.Zuiko 40-150mm f4-5.6

For all you Micro Four-Thirds fans, Olympus has a couple new ones today for you, starting with this new M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 40-150mm f4.0-5.6 which ways all of 6.3oz and, like in the big-brother Four-Thirds line, compliments the kit 14-42mm to make a fully covered 28-300mm equivalent range in only two compact lenses.

Now, I used the Zuiko 40-150mm that came out back with the E-410, and it was a nice lens. Compact and light, and fairly sharp. A bit slow, sure, but it was like a fifth the size of the 50-200mm I replaced it with (a lens that was so big in comparison I nicknamed it the “Leviathan”). So, I have every faith this newer, more compact model with the same range and f-stops will be a rather similar performer, and will be just fine for general use.

Also, it reportedly uses a silent motor, so it can autofocus during movies with being heard over the din of your memories.

Estimated retail when it starts trickling in? About $300 bucks.

Canon Creates Monster Sensor, Largest CMOS Going

So, see that diagram there? That diagram shows the size differences between common sensor sizes and Canon’s newly announced 202mm x 205mm CMOS beast. Here’s a clue, that whole black area is the new sensor, not a frame. That red area is Phase One’s biggest medium format sensor. Seriously. Click it to see it larger, and all conveniently labeled.

This new CMOS is apparently being made from a 12″ wafer, and the final usable area still measures at about 8″ square. It’s really kind of huge. Canon is also saying it works in situations with 1/100th the light as a DSLR can operate in. Can you say ‘yowza’?

Like Canon’s other bit of silicon bragging recently, no word when or even if this’ll ever see use, more or less in what. For now, we just get to respect their mad-tinkering ways. Go go engineers!

It's The Big One, Obviously.

Sony Announces 35mm, 85mm, and Zeiss 24mm Primes

Sony has also announced three new primes, one of which carries the Zeiss branding. As usual, the names of the lenses really tell you all the pertinent bits, and so, without further ado, those names are:

F2.0, 24 mm Carl Zeiss Distagon T* ZA SSM lens
F1.8, 35 mm Sony DT lens
F2.8, 85 mm Sony lens

The two Sony-branded lens are quite economic (although beware that the DT designation means it will only work on their crop bodies, A800 and 900 series users need not apply), at $200 for the 35mm, and $250 for the 85mm. The Zeiss carries a Zeiss-worthy price tag and will set you back a cool $1,250 when it hits the market.

Sony Introduces Alpha A580 and A560 DSLRs

While not the most exciting cameras Sony trotted out today, Sony’s upgrades to it’s 500-series DSLRs are still very solid. They use the dual-sensor system for Live View Sony is renowned for using to date, so even in Live View you get to keep the phase-detect AF. But, that AF module has been upgraded now to 15 points with 3 of them being the better cross-type points.

The A580 will sport a 16 megapixel sensor, and the A560 a 14 megapixel one. They’ll both record 1080i HD video with audio either via intenral mic or via an external phono jack.

Continuing Sony’s trend of putting all its new features into every camera going forward, these DSLRs will support the Sweep Panorama, 3D Sweep Panorama, Auto HDR, and Handheld Twilight modes first introduced on other models, such as the NEX line.

And the “Smart Teleconvertor” digital zoom button has been replaced by a direct movie button. Good call, Sony. Good call.

Of course they maintain the 3″ vari-tilt LCDs and internal sensor-shift image stabilization of the Alpha line up. The controls has been jiggered a bit to hopefully be even more ergonomic, and so forth.

We’re unsure if the A580 is slated for a US release, but the A560 will be available sometime early next year. So, don’t worry current 500 series owners, you’ve got a few months yet to save up your pennies and dimes for the next upgrade.

Sony Introduces Alpha A55 / A55V and A33 DSLRs with Semi-Transparent Pellicle Mirrors

Once again Sony is reworking an already tried idea and claiming it as its own (the last time it did this was with the dual-sensor live view DSLRS, actually pioneered by the Olympus E-330), and once again we’ll probably let them get away with it because what they’re doing is admittedly quite cool. This time they’re reviving an idea Canon apparently tried in the 60′s of using a semi-transparent mirror. The idea was a third of the light went through the viewfinder, and 2/3 through to the film, and the mirror didn’t have to flip. It also meant the viewfinder was dark and the shots needed 1/3 stop more exposure, but hey, kudos for trying.

The Sony is a bit different. As you might know, Sony’s goal has been to make live view as seamless a process as possible, and they’re dedicated to bringing the faster, mirror-requiring phase detect auto-focus speeds to a system that normally requires the use of slower contrast-detect. Their first solution was the previously mentioned dual sensors. If you turned on live-view it shifted the mirror to bounce the light not through the viewfinder, but onto a secondary imaging sensor for live-view output. This allowed the mirror to continue bouncing part of the light into the same auto-focus sensor the camera used in regular mode.

This new solution uses a mirror that’s mostly transparent, it’s only enough of a mirror to redirect enough light into the auto-focus sensor for it to work. The rest barrels straight through the mirror and onto the sensor. This means that an optical viewfinder isn’t possible, and Sony gets around this by using a new time-multiplexed electronic viewfinder with a resolution equivalent to 1,152,000 dots (Canon and Nikon’s high-end offerings only have 921,000 dots on their 3″ screens, for comparison). What you’re left with is an SLR style camera with full-time Live View and full-time phase-detect auto-focus. Sony’s calling the tech “SLT” or “Single Lens Transluscent.” Sounds good to us.

So, these SLTs are neat in concept, and Sony doesn’t let it slide to gimmick by backing them with a host of the usual DSLR features. The A55V will have a 16 megapixel sensor, a GPS module, and thanks to that non-flipping mirror it can shot those 16mp images at 10 frames a second. (There’ll be an A55, too, we hear, but not in the US, and it won’t have the GPS). The A33 is only a paltry 14 megapixels, no GPS, and can only crank along at 7 frames per second. They both use those high-end EVFs, and both sport 3″ 921,000 dot center-hinged tilt-swivel LCDs on the back. And of course they have SteadyShot sensor-shift image stabilization.

The SLT tech also lets them have full 1080i HD movies modes with full-time auto-focus, so that’s a win.

They’ll both also feature those shiny new Sony features the high end compacts and NEX cams have been using, like Sweep Panorama, 3D Sweep Panorama, Auto HDR, and Handheld Twilight modes.

They’ll record to Memory Stick or the much more reasonable SD/SDHC/SDXC.

These two models will reportedly start shipping sometime in October, the A55V will be $750 body only, $850 with an 18-55. The A33 will be $650 body only, $750 with 18-55mm.

Canon Creates 120 Megapixel APS-H Sensor

Well, Canon has announced an APS-H (their 1.3x crop sensor used in the 1D series) with a jaw-dropping 120 megapixels. And, if that wasn’t showing off enough, they say it can have the data pulled off it at a rate of 9.5 frames a second. Double-yowza. As for when this’ll be economically feasbile commercially, who knows, a lot of websites are saying we won’t see it in our lifetimes, but obviously Moore’s Law suggests something closer to 3 years from now before it even becomes viable commercially. But, whatever, Canon’s pulled it off now, whether they ever sell it, and that’s quite an accomplishment in its own right. Bravo, big red.

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