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Panasonic generates X series electronically focused lenses

Isn’t there something missing? Naw. It’s just in a collapsed state. Similar to the design of Olympus’s M.Zuiko 14-42 I and II, Panasonic’s LUMIX G X VARIO PZ 14-42mm/F3.5-5.6 ASPH./ POWER O.I.S. stores itself for enhanced portability and compactitude. Yup, compactitude.

This new designation, X, indicates this and the LUMIX G X VARIO PZ 45-175mm/F4.0-5.6 ASPH./POWER O.I.S. are electronically focused, you know, like camcorders or point and shoots. The GF3x, when it ships, will be a good, wholesome GF3 bundled with the X 14-42.

 

More photos after the break.

 

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Sony Adds 3 E Mount Lenses, a New A-to-E Adpater, and New EVF

In addition to the two nex NEX bodies, Sony is further expanding its NEX system with a few news lenses, a new Alpha mount adapter using the same pellicle technology as their SLT Alphas, and a new FDA-EV1S external viewfinder with the vastly improved 2 million dot (anyone tired of reading that yet? I’m certainly tired of typing it, anyway) OLED 0.5″ display buried inside.

The most exciting of the three lenses is probably the one bearing the name of Mr Carl Zeiss instead of the Sony brand, and this one is the CZ Sonnar T* E 24mm f1.8. See pros, I told you there’d be some nice stuff to perk up that NEX-7 here.

The other two lenses are both Sony branded, and are both “OSS,” indicating they add in-lens stabilization to the mix. The first is the E 50mm F1.8 OSS, which works out to a 75mm 1.8 portrait prime. The other s the more pedestrian E 55-210mm F4.5-6.3 OSS, which exists as the consumer-level telephoto compliment to the 18-55mm kit lens.


If you’ve got a bunch of Alpha or Minolta A glass around, but don’t like the crippled AF functionality offered by the current mount adapter, Sony’s new mount adapter has the solution to your woes. It has Sony’s SLT semi-translucent mirror built in, which can direct a portion of the light to an autofocus sensor, which is also built in. It is named, in a rare moment of lucidity for the camera industry, the LA-EA2, or “Lens Adapater, E to Alpha, revision 2.” Craziness.



One New Alpha Lens: DT 16-50mm f2.8

This is a quickie before we move on to the NEX/E-system announcements from today, but in addition to two Alpha cameras (the SLT-A65 and SLT-A77), Sony has added one lens to its Alpha line-up, in the form of the DT 2.8/16-50mm SSM. As always, the name says it all, if you know the code. Slipping on my Super-Special-Secret-Sony Decoder Ring here, I can tell you that DT means this is for APS-C bodies only, no full frame. As such, it’ll always be subject to a 15x crop and winds up looking the same as a 24-75mm. The f2.8 constant aperture is self-explanatory and shows that this is a serious lens despite being crop-only. The last part, SSM, just lets you know it uses super-sonic motor focusing, for fast and quiet AF.



Its time to polarize!

If i had a nickel for every time someone asked if they need a polarizing filter…i should change my name to Jefferson.  The thing about polarizing lenses is that you really do need them, when you need them.  I should change my name to Cryptic Jeff.  A polarizing filter is designed to do one thing very specifically and it is truly (so far) the only way to achieve the effect.  I say “so far” because software is becoming more competent every day and could, at some point in the not to distant future, replace the need for optical filtering.  The image to the left is from my recent trip to the National Street Rod Association’s annual hot rod event.  Using a polarizer is a must for an event like this.  The ability to cancel out the reflective value and allow the color of the paint to show will make a HUGE difference in the look of your image.

For a fancy description of what a polarizing filter does to the light that makes your image see this incredibly boring wikipedia article.  For those of us that cant call MIT our Alma Mater, a polarizing filter allows certain wavelengths (colors) of the visible light spectrum to come through the lens and bounces other wavelengths away.  These filters are very effective at reducing reflections and this is why polarized lenses are used in sunglasses.  Here is the tricky part though, you can purchase $10 sunglasses or $200 sunglasses and there is a major difference in how efficient the glasses are at polarizing the light.  The same holds true for lens filters.  A high quality filter (which will cost more than a few Jeffersons) is going to deliver consistent results across the entire field of view of the lens.  This is especially important when using wide angle lenses.

Wide angle lenses have a very large field of view which means the light that makes that image is collected and bent into the camera lens at a steep angle.  High quality camera lenses are built to correct for optical aberrations that occur as a result of the light being manipulated in this manner.  Low quality filters are not.  A cheap polarizing filter will not provide a consistent effect across the entire field of view of the image.  Instead you will be left with the effect in one area while the rest of the image remains unaffected.  Keep in mind a cheap polarizing filter for an average sized consumer lens can set you back about $50-70 .  Typically you will invest another 25-35% for a pro-grade filter like the B+W or Hoya HD brands.

So, while most photographers think of using polarizing filters for landscape shooting because it produces a rich blue sky with nice contrast in the clouds,  it is also minimizing unwanted reflections and glare in your scene.

The image to left is shot with exactly the same camera settings, lens, camera body, position of camera, etc as the image to the right.  The only difference is the use of a polarizing filter on the image to the right.  Note how the reflection of the sun is not completely hidden.  No polarizer will do that.  Pick your battles.  More importantly, notice how the beautiful color of the classic Corvette comes through with a properly used filter.

Both of the following images were shot with a polarizing filter, but the filter was set to different position in its rotation.  The top image was set to reduce glare on the hood of the car.  In this case the color wasnt being drastically affected by the reflection of the sky, but the reflection was extremely annoying to see.  However, notice the glare on the side of the truck to the right side of the image.  Because  these two surfaces are perpendicular to each other, you cannot polarize to reflection on both surfaces simultaneously.

The image below shows the reflection on the hood of the car but omits it on the truck.

As always, click on any image to see it larger.



Nikon Announces New 40mm DX Micro Lens

Nikon today announced a new addition to it’s DX crop-frame lens line up, the AF-S DX Micro-NIKKOR 40mm f/2.8G. As a DX lens, this is designed for the crop factor bodies, and will only work on an FX full-frame body if you’re willing to accept a more than halving of your available megapixels. But, if you shoot DX, this is an effective 60mm f2.8 macro, filling a gap on the short macro end that has been a niggle in the DX line-up for a while. It’s got a maximum magnification ratio of 1:1, although I don’t know if that’s native or after the crop factor. If it’s native, that makes the effective reproduction 1.5:1, which is pretty swank for a lens that’ll cost under $300. The AF-S indicates the inclusion of an internal silent focus motor, and gurantees it’ll work even with the smaller bodies like the D3100 and D5100, which otherwise lack an AF drive motor.

You can of course preorder one from us by hitting the external link.



Olympus Rounds Out Pen Announcement With Two Long-Awaited Metal Lenses and a New Flash

Finishing off the Pen extravaganza Olympus seems to be throwing today are a pair of metal-clad “professional” primes for the Micro Four Thirds system that Olympus has been promising for some time, and a new flash unit.

 

The lenses are the M.Zuiko Digital 12mm f2 ED and the M.Zuiko Digital 45mm f1.8 ED. Both feature Oly’s MSC tech which’ll make them better for video focusing than the first generation M.Zuiko lenses were, and the elegant looking metal construction gives them a bit more of a serious air than the other lenses as well. With Micro Four-Thirds’ 2x crop, their effective field of views will be 24mm and 90mm respectively, making them good choices for street/landscape work and portraits. Also respectively.

The flash is the FL-300R. The R means this works with Olympus’ remote flash system, and can be controlled by many on-board flashes as well as older models like the FL-500R. It’s got a GN of 19m at ISO 100, and has a pretty decent tilt range, but no swivel. It also sports what I’ll forever consider the traditional “tourist” aesthetic.

The 14mm will run around $800, the 45mm around $400, and the flash around $160.



VR II vs VR II: Too Many Twos

Photo By Nikon USA

This is a topic of some real concern among a lot of our customers, and it’s not adequately explained by Nikon anywhere, so, we’re taking it upon ourselves to help make sense of this Nikon VR II nonsense that’s confusing so many people.

Here’s what’s happening: Nikon has recently started making revisions to some of its most popular lenses, and so far exclusively to popular lenses featuring its VR technology. Thus, something like the AF-S 70-200mm f2.8 IF-ED VR gets an update and becomes the AF-S 70-200mm f2.8 ED VR II. The II at the end is added to indicate this is the second version of the 70-200mm VR lens. Makes sense.

The fly in the ointment is before Nikon started updating these lenses, it quietly and less publicly revised its actual VR system used in all VR lenses. The new system offers a theoretical 4 stop advantage, while the original VR system could only promise 3. What did they name this new, improved technology? Why, VR II, of course.

So, what you end up with is this odd scenario where all current mark II lenses use the new and improved VR II technology, but there are a good number of lenses that use VR II technology for their first revision. Since the mark IIs are so well-reviewed, there’s a lot of excitement when a lens becomes a “VR II.” And a lot of ensuing confusion when it’s just the second-generation tech, and not a second-generation VR lens.

Still confusing? Fair enough. Let’s take a look at a sample Nikon product page here and break it down. In the graphic below, I’ve highlight the key things to note. The name of the lens series is highlighted green. The current revision of that lens series is highlighted reddish-pink. Any mention of the second generation VR technology giving you 4 stops instead of the old 3 stops is noted in blue.

Now, if you look, what you’ll notice is this:

  • If the “II” appears in the Product Name, it indicates it’s the second version of a lens that happens to have VR tech.
  • If the “II” appears in the Description, it indicates that it uses the 4 stop second generation VR technology.

Since we’re all about helping out, I went through the current selection of 24 VR-enabled lenses Nikon offers and figured out which ones use which technology, and I present the results to you below.

 

VR - Nikon VR (Vibration Reduction) Image StabilizationVibration Reduction, engineered specifically for each VR NIKKOR lens, enables handheld shooting at up to 3 shutter speeds slower than would otherwise be possible, assuring dramatically sharper still images and video capture.

VR II - Nikon VR II (Vibration Reduction) Image Stabilization Vibration Reduction, engineered specifically for each VR NIKKOR lens, enables handheld shooting at up to 4 shutter speeds slower than would otherwise be possible, assuring dramatically sharper still images and video capture.

Notice that both revisions of the 300mm VR use VR II tech, despite only the newer being named VR II. That’s why this distinction is important to understand, right there. to review:

“VR II” in a Product Name means the second version of a VR-enabled lens

“VR II” in any Description or Spec means second-generation VR technology offering 4 stops advantage instead of 3.

We hope that helps.



Panasonic Announces Leica DG Summilux 25mm f1.4 for Micro Four Thirds

Panasonic yesterday announced the Leica (anyone else confused as a result of this partnership?) DG Summilux 25mm f1.4 prime for Micro Four Thirds systems, marking their second release for the line-up. The Panasonic pres release says for its G system a lot, but it’ll also work on all the Olympus Pen bodies thanks to that standardized mount. Otherwise, there’s not much to say the name doesn’t give you. This is a Leica optic and bears that reputation behind it, and the 25mm focal length equals 50mm apparent on M43, making this effectively a 50mm f1.4, a good fast, standard prime. Pricing and availability aren’t know yet, so, we’ll get back to you.



Canon Announces Version II Of Its Popular EF-S 55-250mm f4.5-5.6 IS

The One on the Right is the New One

So, yesterday Canon got around to releasing the highly anticipated replacement to its popular EF-S 55-250mm f/4.5-5.6 IS telephoto zoom, named, appropriately, the EF-S 55-250mm f4.5-5.6 IS II.

As far as things go, there’s not a whole lot I can tell you about it without getting ahold of a sample. It’s got the same 12 elements in 10 groups, one of which is an UD (ultra dispersion) element to help handle chromatic aberrations and ghosting, it’s got in-lens IS for up to 4 stops of steadiness, and obviously covers the same focal range with the same aperture values. Biggest thing to note is it just looks more professional now, dropping the plasticky silver accents in favor of a cleaner, dappled black barrel with the one silver accent ring.

As you might expect, the first version is going to be phased out over time, and new kits announced from this point onwards will likely use the II as the second lens for two-lens packages.

That is all.



Nikon AF-S Nikkor 50mm f1.8G Now In Stock

If you’ve been saving up your moneys and patiently waiting for Nikon’s new, pocket-book friendly nifty fifty, the AF-S Nikkor 50mm f1.8G… well, you’re in luck. It’s in stock now. And, I think that’s all that needs to be said. What? Post a bit short? OK, fine. But I tried to end it with civility, remember that.

Ahem.

Saved my pennies and I saved my dimes

For I knew there would be a time

When I would buy a brand new fifty-prime.

Thank you everybody, and good-night!




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