We’ve been fans of Aaron Johnson’s comic strip ‘What the Duck’ for years. ‘WTD’ is one of the best satirical comic strips in the world, and it’s published here every week, as well as being included in our weekly newsletter. Barbed, topical and always amusing, we hope you enjoy WTD as much as we do. Click through for this week’s strip.
We’ve completed the third in our series of underwater/rugged camera reviews, this time covering the Nikon Coolpix AW110. This camera is loaded with features, including a GPS system with maps and landmarks, plus Wi-Fi that gives the ability to control the camera from your smartphone. Click the link to read the review, and don’t forget that we’ll be comparing all six cameras in a few weeks.
DxOMark has been busy testing lenses for the Sony NEX system, and has just published an article detailing which lenses score best on the NEX-7. As part of our ongoing collaboration, we’ve added the test data for most of Sony’s own E-mount primes to our lens widget, which you can use to assess their performance and compare them against each other. We’ll be adding Sony’s zoom lenses and third-party primes very soon, but for now you can explore the test data for the Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* E 24mm F1.8 ZA, E 20mm F2.8, E 30mm F3.5 Macro, E 35mm F1.8 OSS and E 50mm F1.8 OSS. Click through for the links.
We’re working on Sony’s flagship compact camera, the 24MP RX1R, and as part of our usual testing we’ve updated our preview with noise and noise-reduction analysis, and our standard page looking at dynamic range. This is in addition to our studio comparison scene pages, and a real-world samples gallery showing just what the RX1R – which lacks an AA filter – can do. Click through for a link to our updated preview.
Pentax has announced firmware updates to two of its tiny Q-series interchangeable lens cameras, the original Q and last year’s Q10. Firmware version 1.13 for the Q and 1.02 for the Q10 add support for the PENTAX-07 Mount Shield Lens, and bring ‘improved stability for general performance’. Click through for links to download the new firmware.
Metabones has introduced Nikon G-type versions of its Speed Booster lens adapter for Micro Four Thirds and Sony NEX cameras, which include a control ring for aperture setting with lenses that don’t have aperture rings of their own. The Speed Booster itself is a lens adapter that that reduces the focal length by a factor of 0.71x, and increases the maximum aperture by 1 stop, effectively allowing lenses to give very similar angle of view and depth of field control on APS-C mirrorless cameras as they do on full frame. The Nikon G-type adapters are available to buy now for $ 429 from Metabones’ website.
Pentax Japan has unveiled a new colour variation of its Marc Newson-designed K-01 mirrorless camera, with a white body shell, blue grip covering, and black accents. There are no spec changes or updates compared to the existing K-01, which was announced early in 2012 and available in black, silver, or yellow. So the camera sports a 16MP APS-C CMOS sensor, in-body image stabilisation, 3″ 912k dot LCD, and the same K-mount as the company’s SLRs. It comes with the ultra-slim smc PENTAX-DA 40mm F2.8 XS pancake lens, and will go on sale in July.
Canon’s new 70D features a ground-breaking ‘Dual Pixel CMOS AF’ sensor which splits every single pixel into two photodiodes for on-chip phase detection autofocus, promising greatly improved AF performance in live view and movie mode. Canon has created a sample video, called ‘Handmade’, shot with the 70D, which showcases the new AF technology, alongside another short video feature going behind the scenes. Click through to watch the videos.
Sigma has posted an informative article on its blog by photographer Jack Howard, sharing tips on how to photograph fireworks. The article comes just in time for the 4th of July celebrations in the USA, but is equally relevant to various festivals, year-wide, all over the world. Tips include obvious pointers like making sure you have a good, sturdy tripod, but also more detailed advice about how to set up your camera’s exposure and focus modes, as well as how to trigger exposures. Click through for a link to the article at blog.sigmaphoto.com.
Just posted: Our real-world samples gallery shot with the Pentax Q7. The latest in Pentax’s series of tiny interchangeable lens cameras, the Q7 is the first to offer a larger 1/1.7 inch 12MP BSI CMOS sensor. We’re working on a full review, and as part of the process we’ve been out and about taking plenty of sample pictures on the Q7 in a range of different situations, to see how it performs. Click through for a link to the our gallery.