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Lensrentals tears down a Canon RF 100-500mm F4.7-7.1 lens to solve the mystery of a cracked element

22 Jan

Roger and Aaron are back at it again for Lensrentals, this time with a teardown of a Canon RF 100–500mm F4.7–7.1 lens with a little secret inside.

As Roger tells it, Lensrentals has come across ‘several’ copies of Canon’s RF 100–500mm F4.7–7.1 lens with a cracked element inside. He believes this crack occurs during shipping, but notes that ‘if you’ve ever rented from [Lensrentals], you know how we pack […] Nothing should break in shipping.’ As such, he did what he usually does when he can’t get an answer from the outside, he tore the lens down (with the help of Aaron, of course).

The large crack, seen through the rear elements of the lens. Click to enlarge.

Upon taking a closer look, Roger suspected the cracked element was inside the image stabilization module of the lens, due to the crack appearing to move when the lens was shifted around. He explains that while Canon was known for physically locking down IS units in its EF lenses, that practice has become less commonplace with RF lenses due to improved engineering measures. Naturally, he assumed this lack of lockdown could be the culprit for the cracked element in shipping.

As it turns out though, that wasn’t quite the case.

Roger and Aaron went through the usual routine, starting at the front of the lens. Despite easily removing the filter barrel and front optical group, they hit a roadblock with the light baffle inside. So, ‘like the cowards [they] are,’ Roger and Aaron turned the lens around and started to take it apart from the lens mount side.

A close-up view of the ribbon cables neatly tucked away inside the barrel of the lens.

Along the way, the pair ran into the usual array of screws, ribbon cables and sensors. But it wasn’t all that bad to take apart, thanks to the lens’ modular construction. Roger particularly appreciated how Canon managed to integrate almost all of the ribbon cables into the barrel of the lens, meaning there was little need to trace and mark down where every cable was supposed to be routed to:

‘I get accused every so often of being a Canon fanboy (or Sony, or Sigma, etc.). I’m not, but I’ll readily admit I’m a Canon lens construction fan; these are a pleasure to work on compared to most brands.’

A comparison of how the internals of the lens look when zoomed out versus zoomed in. Click to enlarge.

With the rear barrel off, Roger and Aaron took a look at the intricacies of the zoom section of the lens. Roger notes ‘everything moves in an impressively complex fashion’ and is almost overbuilt in some areas. Specifically, Roger points out that the front barrel moves along six heavy-duty rollers (as opposed to three in most other zoom lenses), each of which has custom-fitted nylon bearings to ensure the tightest fit possible while still offering a smooth glide. To this, Roger says ‘This is why nice things cost more; a lesser lens has three same-size small nylon bushings over screws.’

A close-up of one of the nylon bushings precisely fitted to the guide rail. Click to enlarge.

Another detail Roger noticed is that the two optical groups responsible for zoom operate independent of one another. That is, rather than both optical groups extending together with the barrel, the rear zoom optical group moves into the barrel, but isn’t doing so at the same rate as the front optical group.

From there, it was on to the inner barrel to see if the duo could get to the broken element. Before getting to the IS module though, Roger noted the use of springs to hold the rear baffle in place. He says Canon has been using more and more tensioning springs in its lenses over the years, ‘which suggests they originally thought it was a good idea, found out they were correct and increased usage.’ This particular lens has ‘over a dozen springs.’

A look at the tensioning springs used to hold the rear baffle tight. ‘It’s a complex little bit of engineering for a baffle,’ says Roger. Click to enlarge.

Eventually, Roger and Aaron hit the IS module, which Roger describes as ‘a pretty robust unit.’ He elaborates:

‘In older lenses, we sometimes saw IS units that were encased in a ‘cage’ of plastic bars, which broke sometimes. This is not that at all, it’s heavy-duty interlocking plastic shells with multiple screws and tension springs. We could (OK, we did) shake the heck out of it. It just rattled a bit, but there was nothing but solidness here.’

A close-up view of the ‘robust’ IS unit inside the RF 100-500mm F4.7-7.1 lens. Click to enlarge.

However, as you can see in the above image, there was no crack in sight. So it was on to more disassembling to get to the problematic element. After removing countless cams, spacers, screws and more, Roger and Aaron were able to find the cracked element — a thin, single element that sits right behind the aperture assembly and is also the forward focusing element.

Note the aperture assembly in front of the cracked element. Click to enlarge.

Still confused as to how the element cracked, the pair measured and tested everything around the element and determined there’s no way it could’ve impacted anything inside the lens. So, what could’ve caused it to crack? Roger doesn’t really know.

In his conclusion, Roger says:

‘My first thought, given that it’s winter, was perhaps temperature shock, moving from sub-zero trucks to warm indoors or something. But I’ve asked several people more knowledgeable than I and none think that’s a possibility. The ones that cracked are all early copies from a similar serial number range, perhaps there were some flawed elements early on. Maybe it’s just a statistical anomaly; we have a lot of copies and stuff happens. Or maybe it’s something we do or something with shipping. Nobody else has reported this. It’s worth looking into further, there are a number of things we’ve noticed before anyone else just because we have a lot of gear and a lot of repairs and inspections. But it may be an oddity that never happens again.’

Whatever the case, Lensrentals has sent all of its data and broken lenses to Canon, who already has a team assigned to more thoroughly investigating the issue. Roger says ‘Canon is always proactive about investigating these things and [is] one of the few companies willing to publicly say when they actually have a problem.’

Broken element aside, Roger says the rest of the teardown is what he’s come to expect from Canon RF L series lenses:

‘It’s filled with very robust construction, neatly and clearly laid out in a modular manner. It’s a very well-built and sturdy lens with cutting edge technology.’

To conclude, we’ll let Roger’s Rule of Broken Parts speak for itself: ‘the hardest to get to part is the one that’s broken.’

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Adobe Camera Raw vs. Nikon ViewNX-i and Capture NX-D: Which should you be using?

19 Jan

Introduction

Recently, I kicked off a new series of articles comparing the software provided by camera manufacturers with one of their most popular third-party alternatives, pitting Canon Digital Photo Professional head-to-head against Adobe Camera Raw. Now, I’m back with the second in the series, in which we’ll take a look at how Adobe’s raw processing rivals that offered for free with Nikon’s cameras.

Nikon ViewNX-i version 1.4.3’s user interface.

There’s a bit more to discuss this time around, as Nikon offers a choice of two different raw processing apps for free — the somewhat inconsistently-named ViewNX-i and Capture NX-D. As in the previous article, I’ll be limiting discussion mostly to each application’s user interface and image quality in the interests of keeping things to a readable length, and won’t be addressing features like image management, tethering or printing.

The ground rules

In this article, I’m comparing Adobe Camera Raw 12.4 alongside Adobe Bridge 10.1.1 versus Nikon ViewNX-i 1.4.3 and Capture NX-D 1.6.3, all of which are their current versions. My computer is a 2018-vintage Dell XPS 15 9570 laptop running Windows 10 version 1909.

To level the playing field as much as possible, I’ve once again aimed to reproduce the look of already-processed images from our galleries, without any prior knowledge as to the recipes behind them. I’ve chosen images from the Nikon Z6 for use in this comparison, since it’s similar in price and resolution to the EOS R used in the first article, and has been around long enough for Adobe to fine-tune its support.

Adobe Camera Raw version 12.4’s user interface.

To avoid getting too far into the weeds, sharpness and noise reduction were left at their defaults, while lens corrections were enabled for all three apps where possible.

Adobe Camera Raw doesn’t allow built-in corrections to be disabled at all. ViewNX-i doesn’t allow you to change whether or not distortion correction is enabled, and just abides by what’s set in the raw file. Only Capture NX-D allows corrections to be enabled/disabled (although even it prevents disabling distortion correction for certain lenses).

Images processed in ACR were saved at JPEG quality 11, just as used in our galleries. For NX-i and NX-D, I saved at JPEG quality 86, producing similarly-sized files.

The main differences

Click or tap for the full-sized ACR version; here for ViewNX-i version

Of course, the most immediately obvious differences between ACR and NX-i / NX-D are their camera support and price tag. You already paid for NX-i and NX-D when you bought your Nikon camera, so it’s effectively free. While it only supports Raw files from the company’s own cameras, you can expect full Raw support for every Nikon camera to be available pretty much immediately upon release.

By contrast, ACR comes with a recurring subscription fee. While it supports a vast range of cameras from many manufacturers – including every single interchangeable-lens Nikon camera made to date – that support can sometimes take a while to arrive after the release of new models.

It’s also sometimes more limited than that in first-party software, especially for Coolpix compacts. While Adobe offers ‘camera matching’ profiles for almost every Nikon ILC, for example, it’s not available for a fair few compacts, including the relatively recent Coolpix A1000.

As for the differences between ViewNX-i and Capture NX-D, we’ll describe those in more detail when we look at NX-D on the next page. Suffice it to say that NX-i is the simpler, more approachable of the pair, however.

ACR is a little cleaner, but NX-i is approachable too

Click or tap for the full-sized ACR version; here for ViewNX-i version

For the remainder of this page, we’ll focus solely on ViewNX-i. Although its interface isn’t quite as modern as that of ACR, it’s still pretty clean overall, with relatively few controls on offer. Some features like sharpening are combined into a single easy-to-use slider, while others like noise reduction are controlled entirely automatically.

The selection of controls available to the user is sometimes a bit odd, though. For example, I’d wager that most NX-i users won’t have the first clue what “axial color aberration” means, nor will they find any tooltip explaining it if they hover over the control. Yet several more common (and easily-understood) attributes like distortion and vignetting corrections cannot be controlled by the end-user.

The selection of controls available in ViewNX-i is sometimes curious. For example, there are controls for more obscure functions like aberration and diffraction, but none for more easily-understood variables like distortion and vignetting.

The good news is that, with fewer controls on offer, Nikon gives you access to everything up front. Editing functionality isn’t hidden behind buttons or under menus. Nor is it strewn across multiple tabs of controls, as in some applications.

Instead, you’ll find all available editing tools grouped together in a single, relatively short scrollable panel. And sliders move smoothly rather than in large steps, so making fine-grained adjustments is easy.

Like ACR, modern features like support for 4K displays, touch-screens and pen control are pretty good, although if you switch between 4K and Full HD displays — especially while NX-i is running — you’ll often have to resize panels or perhaps even restart the application entirely so it redetects the screen resolution before you can get to work.

ACR is still the speed champ, but ViewNX-i isn’t that far behind

Click or tap for the full-sized ACR version; here for ViewNX-i version

ViewNX-i isn’t quite as fast as ACR, especially when it comes to previewing changes as controls are adjusted. Still, it trails Adobe by only around a third in terms of final rendering times, which is much better than some rivals. All six images in this preview took ViewNX-i around 26 seconds to batch-process, compared to 19.5 seconds for ACR.

And while image previews aren’t adjusted in near real-time as in ACR, they never take more than a second or less to catch up to your changes, and render in a single pass. The accuracy of that preview isn’t perfect when viewing full images, so for the finest adjustments you’ll want to switch to a 1:1 view instead, but it’s certainly good enough to get you close.

Unfortunately, there’s no indicator to show when the preview is updating, which is a bit frustrating when making more subtle adjustments.

ACR gives you much more control, especially over shadows and highlights

Click or tap for the full-sized ACR version; here for ViewNX-i version

As noted previously, ViewNX-i offers a smaller selection of controls than does Capture NX-D, and the same goes doubly when compared to Adobe Camera Raw. A particularly surprising omission in an app aimed at less-experienced users is the lack of a one-click auto control to help get everything in the ballpark. Much like ACR, ViewNX-i includes slider control over brightness, contrast, shadows and highlights.

NX-i also has D-Lighting HS and Color Booster sliders, the latter replacing the separate saturation/vibrance sliders offered by Adobe, and providing a choice of people or nature modes for some control over skin tones. Sharpening control is likewise limited to a single slider with no fine-tuning possible. And Nikon’s app lacks ACR’s sliders for texture, clarity, dehazing or black-points and white-points entirely, as well as its noise reduction and curves controls.

The D-Lighting HS slider makes it really easy to recover shadow detail, but I found its interactions with the shadow protection and contrast sliders in particular to be a bit difficult to predict and control. With D-Lighting HS set in the upper half of its range, as little as a 2-3% change in the contrast slider could have a pretty major effect overall and badly block up deeper shadows. This was particularly true of the shots inside the aircraft hangar, as well as the backlit model shot.

The fixed noise reduction is too heavy-handed by far

Click or tap for the full-sized ACR version; here for ViewNX-i version

With less challenging scenes, though, I thought ViewNX-i did a pretty good job in most respects. It yielded pleasingly lifelike color with relatively little effort, and I found myself preferring its rendering of foliage and skies in particular over those of ACR.

The fly in the ointment is that its noise reduction – which, remember, can’t be disabled – is quite heavy-handed. This is particularly noticeable in portrait shots, where much fine detail is lost in things like hair or thread patterns in clothing, and skin can end up looking unnaturally plasticky. This, more than anything else, will push more experienced photographers to either Capture NX-D or a third-party alternative like ACR.

ViewNX-i’s default noise reduction can lead to slightly plasticky-looking skin.

If your shot doesn’t have much noise to start off with, though, ViewNX-i can extract about almost as much detail as can ACR. (And can appear a little crisper at default settings, thanks to slightly stronger unsharp masking).

Final thoughts on ViewNX-i

Click or tap for the full-sized ACR version; here for ViewNX-i version

Less experienced photographers might, perhaps, find ViewNX-i to be a bit less intimidating than Capture NX-D or Adobe Camera Raw, and it’s certainly capable of providing decent results if you can live with its noise reduction performance. Performance is decent too, especially in terms of final rendering, although Adobe still takes the win handily in this respect. But for many, the limited controls on offer and the heavy-handed noise reduction will push them to Capture NX-D or a third-party alternative instead — and rightly so.

Nikon ViewNX-i

Pros Cons
  • Available free with your camera
  • Excellent support for Nikon’s cameras from launch day
  • Realistic color with minimal effort
  • Impressive shadow recovery from D-Lighting HS
  • Decent performance, albeit still not as good as ACR
  • Only supports Nikon cameras
  • Lacks many controls offered by ACR and other rivals
  • Selection of controls doesn’t make sense for less-experienced shooters
  • No one-click auto control
  • Can’t use distortion correction if it wasn’t enabled at capture time
  • Denoising robs fine detail and can’t be disabled
  • Interactions between controls can prove challenging

Adobe Camera Raw

Pros Cons
  • More modern user interface
  • Supports a vast range of cameras from many brands
  • Great performance and accurate real-time preview
  • Great image quality overall
  • Holds onto more fine detail than ViewNX-i
  • Does a great job with highlights/shadows
  • Recurring subscription fee with no perpetual license option
  • Camera support can take a while to arrive
  • Less pleasing color than Nikon’s software by default
  • Leaves significantly more noise in images by default

And with our Nikon ViewNX-i vs. Adobe Camera Raw comparison complete, it’s time to see how Capture NX-D fares against its third-party rival. Continue reading on the next page!

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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TTartisan celebrates Year of the Ox with a bright-red version of its M-mount 50mm F0.95 prime lens

18 Jan

TTartisan has announced a new special-edition version of its fully-manual 50mm F0.95 Leica M mount lens to celebrate the Year of the Ox.

The lens is optically identical to its more monochrome siblings, featuring eleven elements in eight groups including one double-sided aspherical element, one ultra-low dispersion element and five high-refractive elements. It features an aperture range of F0.95 to F16, offers a minimum focusing distance of 70cm (28“), uses a 14-blade aperture diaphragm and has a 67mm front filter thread.

What sets this lens apart is its bright red paint job and a custom-engraved lens cap with a stylized silhouette of an ox. TTartisan says it’s only produced 500 units, which will be sold by retailers around the world.

The lens measures 89mm (3.5″) long, 72mm diameter and weighs 687g (1.5lbs). While it’s available at various retailers, Photo Rumors has it listed for $ 909 (international shipping included) — a roughly $ 132 premium over the black and silver version of the lens.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Samsung announces Galaxy S21 series, including 8K capable, 108MP Galaxy S21 Ultra

14 Jan

Samsung has announced its latest flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21 Plus and the Galaxy S21 Ultra. The S21 and S21 Plus are essentially identical phones, save for their screen size and other minor differences. The S21 Ultra is designed to be not only the best phone in Samsung’s diverse lineup of Android smartphones, but Samsung believes it’s the best phone available.

Samsung Galaxy S21 and S21 Plus

The S21 and S21 Plus cost $ 800 and $ 1,000 respectively. This is $ 200 less than their predecessor’s launch prices last year. As The Verge points out, the 6.2″ S21 and 6.7″ S21 Plus have given something up in order to reach this lower price point. While both phones continue to deliver 120Hz refresh rates, something Apple’s latest iPhone 12 models don’t offer, the displays no longer have the subtle curved edges of the Galaxy S20. Further, resolution has decreased from 3,200 x 1,440 to 2,400 x 1,080. In terms of internal components, RAM has decreased from 12GB to 8GB.

Build quality has changed as well. Whereas the S20 had an aluminum back panel, the smaller S21 uses plastic on the back and doesn’t include an ultra-wideband radio. The larger S21 Plus does have this connectivity feature, allowing for relatively superior compatibility with Samsung’s new Galaxy SmartTag, the Korean company’s new Tile competitor.

Another cost-saving measure is that Samsung will no longer be including a charging brick or headphones in the box. Like Apple, the company says it’s for environmental reasons. It’s only been three months since Samsung poked fun at Apple for no longer including a charger with the new iPhone models.

In addition to making cuts to reduce the price of the S21 and S21 Plus, Samsung has made improvements as well. While the quality of the materials has changed, the design looks very nice. On the inside of the new models is the latest Snapdragon chipset, which promises improved performance. The fingerprint sensor has Qualcomm’s new 3D Sonic Sensor Gen 2, resulting in improved speed. Both models feature 5G integration, supporting mmWave and sub-6GHz networks, so the new phones will be faster in that respect too, assuming you are in an area with support for 5G.

The two-tone design of the Galaxy S21/S21 Plus works around the camera protrusion. The camera system is basically the same on these models as it was last year. The S21 and S21 Plus each include a 12MP wide-angle camera, 12MP ultrawide camera and a 64MP telephoto lens. The front-facing camera is 10MP, although the S21 Plus has ditched the depth sensor.

While the hardware is unchanged, there have been some adjustments to software. There’s a 30x ‘Space Zoom’ mode, a ‘Director’s View’ mode for recording video allowing easier swapping between lenses, and additions to the ‘Single Take’ mode. Further, the default image processing no longer excessively smooths faces, although if that’s your style, it remains an option.

The Samsung Galaxy S21 and S21 Plus models will be available starting January 29 and are available for preorder now. The S21 and S21 Plus include 128GB of internal storage. If you’d like 256GB of storage, it adds $ 50 to the price of each model. The S21 is available in Phantom Gray, Phantom White, Phantom Violet and Phantom Pink colorways, with the latter two having a rose gold two-tone design. The S21 Plus is available in violet, black, silver, gold and red, with the latter two colors being made to order and shipping in 3-4 weeks, as of writing.

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra

The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is the star of the show. Where the S21/S21 Plus are a mix of cost-cutting measures and improvements, the S21 Ultra is all about pushing hardware forward. The Ultra has a price to match, starting at $ 1,200.

For your money, you get a large 6.8″ OLED display with 120Hz refresh rates at full 3,200 x 1,440 resolution, something the S20 Ultra couldn’t do. The S21 Ultra includes 12GB of RAM, a 5,000mAh battery and offers storage capacity up to 512GB. The Ultra also includes the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor. In terms of user experience, beyond promised speed improvements, the S21 Ultra is compatible with the Samsung S Pen, although it is an optional extra and many customers will likely want a compatible case with a holder for the pen as well.

The Galaxy S21 Ultra offers similar top-level camera specs as the S20 Ultra, including 100x zoom, a 108MP camera and 8K video recording, but there’s more to it than that and some important differences to consider. For example, the S21 Ultra includes more rear cameras than the S20 Ultra. The S21 Ultra has a 12MP ultrawide camera, 10MP camera with 3x zoom and a 10MP camera with 10x zoom. Previously, the 10x zoom was digital zoom, rather than optical.

Further, the primary image sensor is larger in the new model, although Samsung hasn’t stated by precisely how much. CNet writes that Samsung promises ‘more than three times the dynamic range of the S20 Ultra.’ Like the S21/S21 Plus, the S21 Ultra includes the same new software features for photo and video as well.

As mentioned, all these features come at a high price. The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra starts at $ 1,200 with 128GB of storage. 256GB and 512GB models are also available at $ 1,250 and $ 1,380, respectively. The S21 Ultra is available in Phantom Black, Phantom Silver, Phantom Titanium, Phantom Navy and Phantom Brown, with the lattermost three color options being available as ‘made to order’ options, which currently adds 4-5 weeks to expected shipping time. The S21 Ultra in black and silver will ship by January 27. For those interested in the Phantom Black color, Samsung published a video specifically about designing this color.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Hands-on with new Sony FE 35mm F1.4 GM

13 Jan

Hands-on with new Sony FE 35mm F1.4 GM

It’s been a long time coming, but Sony has finally announced a G Master series 35mm lens for its full-frame mirrorless system. The new FE 35mm F1.4 GM is Sony’s 39th full-frame E-mount lens, and does not replace the older Zeiss-branded optic. It should and – spoiler alert – does outperform it in most respects, according to our testing.

Click-through for a closer look at Sony’s newest full-frame prime lens.

Size and weight

The Sony 35mm F1.4 G Master handles and looks quite a bit like its 24mm F1.4 GM cousin, which is to say the design is both compact and lightweight. Weighing in at 524g (1.1lbs), the new lens is lighter than its Zeiss-branded predecessor (630g) and smaller, too. The older lens measured 112 x 78.5mm (4.4 x 3.1″) compared to 96 x 76mm (3.8 x 3.0″) for the new ‘GM’. This isn’t a huge difference, but it is noticeably shorter when mounted onto an a9 or a7-series body.

The front filter thread is smaller, too: 67mm compared to 72mm.

Build quality and sealing

Despite its surprisingly lightweight design, this lens feels incredibly well-built. In line with other GM-series lenses, the FE 35mm F1.4 GM is rated as ‘dust and moisture resistant’, which basically means you can take it out into the elements from time to time, though we’d recommend you avoid subjecting it to lengthy exposure to dust, mud or rain (and don’t expect it to work underwater…). A rubber gasket around the mount also helps to protect moisture and gunk from entering the body and getting onto your camera’s sensor. A fluorine coating on the front element should make water or dirt easy to clean off.

Minimum focus

The FE 35mm F1.4 GM boasts a minimum focus distance of 27cm (10.6″), which works out to a maximum magnification of 0.23X. This is about average for a lens of this type, but Sony claims that image quality in its close-up range should be extremely good. Meanwhile, twin XD (‘extreme dynamic’ – Sony really likes adding the word ‘extreme’ to things) linear AF motors are designed to deliver accurate and silent focus across the focus range. Thanks to the combination of these motors and a single focusing group, focus is nearly instantaneous, making the lens suitable for fast and erratic subjects.

Manual focus

For manual focus fans, the response of the manual focus ring is linear, i.e., 5 degrees of movement of the focus ring will always change focus by the same amount, regardless of how fast or slowly you rack the control. The manual focus ring also turns with a nice smooth motion. This is all great news for video, where you need to be able to accurately and repeatedly position focus manually between fixed positions.

A customizable focus hold button on the lens barrel can temporarily disable autofocus – quite useful when paired with ‘touch tracking’ AF in video – but it need not be restricted to this function. It can be assigned to any custom function available to the other custom buttons on Alpha series bodies. The faux mechanical aperture ring can be set to move in fixed ‘clicky’ detents, or ‘de-clicked’ for smoother, stepless adjustment: again, a useful feature for video work. The only downside we could find for video shooters was some noticeable focus breathing when rack focusing.

Optical construction

Sony is proud of the design of this lens, describing it in our briefing as offering ‘overwhelming image quality in a compact and mobile package’. The image quality part of that comes courtesy of a complex optical design, comprising 14 elements in 10 groups, including two ‘XA’ (extreme aspherical) elements, with one such element positioned at the front of the lens. One ED (extra-low dispersion) element, positioned in the middle of the optical layout, helps focus light rays of varying wavelengths (or colors) at the same focal plane. All of this fancy glass should pay off in excellent sharpness across the frame, and very good control of longitudinal chromatic aberration (often seen as purple or green fringing in front of and behind the focal plane, respectively).

Eleven rounded aperture blades provide a near-circular aperture even as you stop the aperture down, which should ensure attractive bokeh and out-of-focus highlights. Meanwhile, Sony’s ‘Nano AR Coating II’ is designed to control flare and ghosting.

Image Quality

We’ve had some time to shoot two copies of the Sony 35mm F1.4 GM and have come away impressed by what we’ve seen. The lens is sharp wide open, resolving hairs with high contrast that are just one pixel wide at F1.4. Longitudinal chromatic aberration (LoCA) is well-controlled but modestly present. While it won’t bother you at an image level, you may notice it upon close inspection at high magnification when shooting wide open. It’s largely a non-issue once you stop down to F2. In this regard it’s far better than many lenses of its type, significantly outperforming the Sony 35mm F1.4 ZA, the Sony 35mm F1.8, and the Sigma 35mm F1.4 Art, but falling behind the industry leading Canon 35mm F1.4L II.

Bokeh, which along with LoCA, was one of the Achilles’ Heels of the 35mm ZA lens, is smooth and pleasing, with circular out-of-focus highlights showing no patterning or onion rings, well-controlled cat’s eye effect, and no mechanical truncation of bokeh at image edges or corners that can otherwise lead to ‘busy’ bokeh in these image areas.

Flare and ghosting are well controlled; we found it hard to induce contrast-killing flare or unsightly ghosts in the image when pointing the lens directly into the sun. Twenty-two point sunstars are well-defined as you stop down. Overall, optical quality is particularly impressive when you consider the size and weight of the lens.

Price and availability

The Sony FE 35mm F1.4 GM will be available in mid-February at an MSRP of $ 1400.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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BCN+R data shows digital camera sales in Japan were down 40% year-over-year

12 Jan

BCN Retail (BCN+R), a Japanese analyst firm that collects daily sales data of mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras from both online and in-person points of sale in Japan, has published (translated) a summary of its 2020 camera sales data, confirming camera sales were down in the Japanese market due to an already-shrinking market further compounded by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

According to BCN+R’s data, digital camera sales dropped 40.4% year-over-year (YoY). This is over double the 16.8 percent drop BCN+R recorded in 2019 (compared to 2018). BCN+R’s data shows digital camera sales were down from the onset of 2020, but dramatic decreases in March and April align with when the first spike in cases of the novel coronavirus started spreading across the globe. The YoY decrease peaked in April and slowly declined until September.

Apologies for the low-quality chart. It’s all BCN+R has shared.

October proved to be the month with the smallest YoY decrease, which could be attributed to the release of numerous mirrorless cameras being released in September and October, most notably the Sony a7C (September 15), Canon EOS M50 Mark II (October 14) and Fujifilm X-S10 (October 15). The original Canon EOS M50 has continuously proven to be the most popular cameras in Japan for quite some time, so it’d make sense its successor would sell well, too.

We’ll wait to see what the end-of-year numbers from less region-specific sources (CIPA, etc.) are before making any comprehensive overviews, but it’s clear from BCN+R’s data that the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic managed to make a shrinking market even smaller than it was on track to be, even if the Japanese market alone isn’t indicative as to the state of the industry as a whole.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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DPReview TV: Nikon Z7 II review

09 Jan

The Nikon Z7 II has the same great ergonomics as its predecessor, but has more processing power, dual card slots, 4K/60p video, improved autofocus and more. Chris and Jordan tell us why it’s a solid choice for many shooters.

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  • Introduction
  • Design and handling
  • Dual memory cards
  • Sample images
  • Displays
  • Autofocus
  • Burst shooting and buffer
  • Image quality
  • New subscriber challenge!
  • Video performance
  • Time-lapse
  • More sample photos!
  • Who's it for?

Nikon Z7 II sample gallery from this episode

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Update: The end of an era: Olympus confirms it’s completed the sale of its imaging business to JIP

05 Jan

Editor’s Note: (Tuesday, January 05, 2021 at 10:29 AM): We have added additional details about the transition, provided to us by an Olympus spokesperson.

Olympus has confirmed in an announcement on its website that it’s completed the transfer of its imaging division to OM Digital Solutions, the subsidiary of Japan Industrial Partners Inc. (JIP) that now controls the Zuiko and OM brands.

Olympus first agreed to sell its imaging business back in June 2020, when it announced JIP would be the new stewards of its camera brands. Further details were unveiled in September 2020, when Olympus laid out the framework for how the transfer would take place.

This new announcement, embedded above, confirms the transition has been completed as expected, effective January 1, 2021. In it, Olympus says Shigemi Sugimoto has been named President and CEO of OM Digital Solutions under JIP. It’s business will be ‘digital cameras, interchangeable lenses, IC recorders, etc. centered on mirrorless interchangeable-lens cameras.’ The company starts out with 37 billion yen ($ 360.9 million) and has 2,000 global employees at inception.

The announcement says sales and research and development will take place at the OM Digital Solutions Co. building in Takakuramachi, Hachioji-shi, Tokyo, while production of equipment will take place at factories in Dong Nai Province, Vietnam.

We’ve also learned OM Digital Solutions has licensed the use of the Olympus brand name. So, in addition to the OM and Zuiko branding, the cameras will continue to be released under the Olympus brand ‘for the foreseeable future.’ This won’t always be the case, but an Olympus spokesperson told us they are ‘unable to provide the exact duration of its use, at this time.’

The Olympus spokesperson also clarified details of the transition, saying OM Digital Solutions ‘will retain Olympus leadership and capabilities in Research and Development, Production, Sales and Marketing.’ The roadmap will also remain unchanged under the new owners, according to the spokesperson. ‘Services, repairs and warranties will continue, and customers will receive full support for future purchases,’ as well.

OM Digital Solutions CEO and President, Shigemi Sugimoto, is quoted in the announcement saying (via machine-translated text) ‘[OM Digital Solutions] will continue to supply high-quality and highly reliable products [and] will continue to develop unique products for the creation of new value.’

What exactly this new endeavor entails remains to be seen, but we’ll get our first preview of Olympus’ brands under JIP in the form of a new website that will go live tomorrow.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Lensrentals’ most popular gear: Canon once again dominates with Sony, Nikon far behind

01 Jan

It’s the end of the year and that means Lensrentals has once again rounded up a list of the most popular camera bodies, lenses and accessories rented from Lensrentals and LensProToGo customers in 2020. Although this year has been, shall we say, different than most, the macro-level look at the most popular rental gear hasn’t changed much. That said, there are a few interesting trends emerging based on the 2020 data.

As it has been since 2017, the Canon 24–70mm F2.8L II lens takes the top spot of the most popular item to fly off Lensrentals’ shelves. Following it is the Canon 5D Mark IV, Canon 70–200mm F2.8L IS II, Sony a7 III and Canon 70–200mm F2.8L IS III. It isn’t until sixth place that we see a change of places. Instead of the Ronin-S, Canon’s 35mm F1.4L II lens snatches up sixth place.

A list of the most popular individual pieces of gear for 2020. Click to enlarge.

As has been the case for a number of years now, Canon absolutely dominates the list of most-rented gear. Canon holds 7 of the top 10 (70%) items and 13 of the top 20 (65%). Lensrentals also note Canon easily took the top spot for new releases in 2020, suggesting people seem more comfortable renting newer Canon gear compared to new offerings from other brands. To that end, Lensrentals’ data also shows that RF mount lenses rent at eight times the rate of Nikon Z mount lenses—a rather staggering statistic considering the new mirrorless mounts were released at the same time and have roughly the same number of lenses available for both mounts.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise, but there’s been significant growth in mirrorless camera and lens rentals. This backs up essentially all other data showing the migration away from DSLRs is undoubtedly happening. Another interesting trend is third-party lenses, such as those offered by Sigma and Tamron, are on the rise.

An ordered list of the most popular brands by rental market share. Click to enlarge.

All in all, across the board, the top five rental brands are Canon, Sony, Nikon, Sigma and Blackmagic, respectively. The only change in the top five compared to 2019 is Blackmagic, which overtook Panasonic for the final spot.

The full blog post from Lensrentals is a great read, so be sure to visit via the link below to ingest all the data there is to offer.

The Top Rented Photo and Video Products of 2020

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Gear of the Year: Carey’s choice – Sony a9 II

31 Dec
Photo: Dan Bracaglia

We were being out-paced by a semi-truck on a dirt road off an Idaho interstate in a mad gambit to skip an hour’s worth of stop-and-go traffic. As the 18-wheeler rounded a corner far ahead of us, leaving our sight, I felt a bit of humility. Mostly relief. Though if we’d wanted, we could easily have kept up with the truck in the little Subaru we were bouncing around in.

It was nice to take comfort in the certainty that every photo I would take on this trip would be reasonably exposed and perfectly focused.

But earlier, we’d been tailing the truck a bit closer and all the dirt it kicked up made us feel like we were crash-landing on the Red Planet in a Martian storm. The subsequent realization that we’d left our cell phone reception back by the highway also encouraged a little more caution.

Visitors visit parts unknown in Craters of the Moon National Monument. Processed and cropped slightly in Adobe Camera Raw.
ISO 100 | 1/500 sec | F8 | Sony FE 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 GM @ 141mm.

We were on our way back from Bozeman, Montana, from a DPReview video shoot on a farm. In normal times, road tripping to parts unknown is one of my favorite activities, and the ensuing uncertainty is honestly part of the appeal. But the additional uncertainty of the pandemic weighed on me a little bit. Every rest stop, every carefully vetted Airbnb stay was a risk, necessitating masks and buckets of hand sanitizer.

So it was nice to take a small bit of comfort in one thing – the certainty that every photo I would take on this trip would be reasonably exposed and perfectly focused. I had Sony’s a9 II with me, and free from worrying about whether or not the camera would do its job, I came away with some of my favorite photographs I was able to take this year.

Why it matters

It may not have bird detection, but the a9 II’s tracking is just solid.
ISO 100 | 1/1000 sec | F5.6 | Sony 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 GM @ 100mm

Back when I wrote our review of the a9 II, I said it had the best autofocus performance money could buy. Canon’s subsequent EOS R5 and R6 cameras have come close to closing the gap, and they have pretty awesome animal detection algorithms. But the a9 II’s tracking just works incredibly well, pretty much all the time; it’s tenaciously sticky and tracks anything I put the AF point over, and the camera can track human eyes that are absolutely tiny in the frame.

As a tool for the type of work I wanted to do, the Sony a9 II did the job.

It’s also easy to forget that there are plenty of cameras out there for which we don’t recommend using subject tracking all the time. Heck, even Sony’s a7R IV, which, on paper, features the same implementation, can struggle with fast action. (Admittedly, this could be the massive resolution, but if the AF can’t keep up, what’s the point of all those megapixels?).

The clouds roll into Mount Rainier National Park. Processed in Adobe Camera Raw.
ISO 125 | 1/160 sec | F8 | Sony FE 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 GM @ 137mm

Shooting with a camera that has the most dependable subject tracking I’ve used really freed my mind to focus on composition and capturing a variety of moments. As the camera tracked my chosen subject and kept it in critical focus, I could easily experiment with my composition with my eye to the finder and end up with an image I was happy with.

No camera is perfect, but this one is pretty darn good

I have to admit, one of the great frustrations of my job is that in over five years of living, breathing and testing cameras, there isn’t one camera that does everything exactly the way I want. Yes, I know that might be the most #firstworldproblem ever. Maybe I’m just too picky.

Great eye detection means the a9 II didn’t get tripped up at all by the foreground elements in this Montana farm photo. Processed in Adobe Camera Raw.
ISO 100 | 1/160 sec | F2.8 | Sony FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM @ 70mm

The Sony a9 II, for all its impressiveness, still has some interface lag, convoluted menus and a handful of other quirks. It’s overkill for many people, while others would value more megapixels or slightly greater dynamic range over the a9 II’s speed and AF tracking. Oh, and the touchscreen kind of stinks.

You’ll also notice that the images presented here are processed through Adobe Camera Raw (original JPEGs in the gallery below). Sony’s JPEG engine has some of the best detail retention and noise reduction on the market, but I just felt like some images needed a more personal touch to really replicate what I saw in front of me as I hit the shutter button. That would admittedly be an issue were I a full-time sports shooter on a tight deadline.

The road ahead will always be windy and more than a little uncertain. Processed in Adobe Camera Raw.
ISO 100 | 1/500 sec | F8 | Sony FE 24-70mm GM @ 24mm

But as a tool for the type of work I wanted to do, it did the job. It may not be a camera that I fully enjoy the experience of using, but the confidence it inspires is hard to overstate. And that made all the difference on an uncertain road trip in these uncertain times.

And lastly, happy new year to everyone reading (and thanks for reading this far). Here’s to hoping for some slightly more certain times ahead, and thank you for being a part of DPReview.

Read our full Sony a9 II review here

Sample gallery

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