The much-rumored replacement for Canon’s aging EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L has officially arrived. Announced in 1998, the original trombone-style lens is replaced by a traditional rotating zoom design and boasts a number of optical enhancements. It’s scheduled for December availability at a price of $ 2199. Read more
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Larry Becker discusses the new Canon EOS 7D Mark II DSLR. He explores the camera’s many high-performance features, including its dual DIGIC 6 processors, 20.2MP APS-C sensor, full HD video capture, and fast, accurate autofocus. He also demonstrates many of the “hidden” features that make this camera a welcomed update to the groundbreaking EOS 7D.
Are you ordering one? Or maybe you already have one on pre-order?
I know a few photographers that do weddings and shoot sports and action that are really excited about the focus and drive on this new Canon body. What are your thoughts?
The post Canon EOS 7D Mark II – Hands-On Review by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.
Richard Franiec is now offering a Canon G7 X custom grip, joining the examples he makes for the Sony RX100 series, Panasonic Lumix GM1 and other small camera models. Like his other products, it’s machined from high-grade aluminum alloy and attaches to the camera’s front plate with 3M VHB transfer tape that can be safely removed without leaving residue. Read more
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
I almost didn’t purchase the Canon EF 8-15mm f/4L Fisheye USM lens. I remember a conversation when I bought it a few years back on Google+ with my good pal Gordon Laing where I was really debating buying it. It was in pre production and I had an order in with B&H but it hadn’t shipped yet. At around $ 1,400 the lens felt expensive for what I worried might be an oddball lens, a lens useful for making a few high impact fisheye shots but not good for much else.
I’m happy to say that I did buy the EF 8-15mm fisheye lens and that I couldn’t be more happy about that decision.
My main dilemma with the EF 8-15mm fisheye was that I already owned the excellent EF 24mm f/1.4 lens and EF 14mm f/2.8 lens, and so I felt like I had the whole wide angle world covered. Now I find that I use this lens at 15mm much more than either my EF 24mm f/1.4 lens and EF 14mm f/2.8 lens and get what feels to me to be a remarkable more normal non fishy looking wide angle shot. Yes, you can tell it came from a fisheye lens at 15mm, but barely and I love the slightest degree of distortion I get there artistically speaking.
Of course I have way more fun shooting this lens at 8mm and have found that beyond traditional fisheye subjects, this lens has opened up a whole new world to me when it comes to shooting more abstractly — especially with architecture. I find these days my EF 14mm lens stays in my bag and instead I put on my EF 8-15mm fisheye lens for almost every ceiling photo I take.
I find this lens gets me my highest impact shots. Shots that make you go wow and make people notice.
On a full frame lens this lens gives you a perfect circle at 8mm. I love the square crop format and frequently shoot it at 8mm and then crop square afterwards.
The lens is super sharp and great if you want to get the entire ceiling of Chihuly’s amazing sculpture at the Bellagio like in the photo with this post.
While it’s not the best portrait lens, it can be fun to use as well with photographing people in new and creative ways (like this version of the human eye that I used it on).
As a reminder, my analysis of my Canon gear is being done in partnership with Canon and I am receiving compensation for this work with them.
Thomas Hawk Digital Connection
Canon has taken the wraps off its new 50-1000mm CN20x 50 IAS H E1/P1 cinema lens, expanding its cine-servo offerings with what the maker says is the first-ever lens boasting a combined 20x magnification, integrated 1.5x extender, and a removable servo drive. The lens is targeted specifically at nature and sports television productions, as evidenced by its far from enthusiast-friendly $ 78K price-tag. Click through for more details
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
It doesn’t get any more bokeh than f/1.2.
The first thing you notice when you hold the EF 50mm f/1.2L USM lens for the first time is how significant the weight of this lens is over the less expensive EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens or EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens(both also excellent 50mms lenses). You can feel the quality as you weigh it in your hand. A big, solid, piece of glass allows this super fast f/1.2L lens to get the shallowest depth of field possible.
If you are going to be shooting in the darkest of environments, this is the lens for you. I use this lens a lot at night time parties or indoor events, where getting closer than you need with the EF 135mm lens is not a problem. I use this lens to take amazing photographs of paintings in museums and other places where you want a near perfect technical image at closer range. It’s a wonderful portrait lens of course.
I like to take this lens with me if I’m going out to dinner at a restaurant or out for cocktails as it does a remarkable job at capturing food/cocktails in low light. As an aside, the cocktail in this post that I photographed with it is called the verbena and is a secret drink off the menu at the Cosmopolitan Chandelier bar in Las Vegas. The cocktail contains an edible flower called a Szechuan button that you chew before drinking the cocktail. It actually alters your tastebuds and feels like an explosion of pop rocks in your mouth as your entire mouth goes numb. As you sip your cocktail after chewing the flower you taste it in a whole different way. I’d definitely recommend checking it out at the Cosmopolitan on your next trip to Vegas.
Back to photography, the only drawback of this lens is the price. You do pay up a bit for quality here. It’s not that this lens is not worth the money (a little over $ 1,500), it is, it’s just that the EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens is such a fantastic value when you compare the two (at around $ 400). While I like this lens much more than my EF 50mm f/1.4, if you are on more of a budget, you may find that the EF 50mm f/1.4 lens is the better 50mm lens for you to buy. On the other hand, if you really must own the best at 50mm lens, this is it.
It should be noted that at f/1.2 this is currently the fastest (lowest aperture) lens in production by Canon but that it shares this distinction with the EF 85mm f/1.2 USM lens, another excellent Canon portrait lens that I do not own yet, but that is on my list to consider soon.
There is another f/1.0 lens that Canon made, but that lens is no longer in production that I’ve never tried.
As a reminder, my analysis of my Canon gear is being done in partnership with Canon and I am receiving compensation for this work with them. More on Canon prime lenses here.
Thomas Hawk Digital Connection
From the outside, Canon’s PowerShot G7 X enthusiast compact looks like the S-series models that came before it, but inside it’s an entirely different story. The G7 X offers a 20MP 1″-type BSI CMOS sensor, a 24-100mm equiv. F1.8-2.8 lens and built-in Wi-Fi with NFC. We’ve made a substantial update to our First Impressions Review of the G7 X including a writeup of our shooting experience and performance tests. Read more
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
With the increasing affordability of digital full frame cameras, there’s been speculation about the future of APS-C as an enthusiast format. But with the launch of the 7D Mark II, Canon has made it pretty clear it believes there’s still a high-end market for crop-sensor formats. We spoke to Bettina Hansen, a photographer who regularly shoots Canon and has experience working with the original EOS 7D to see what she made of the new camera
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Canon introduced the new 7D Mark II recently to a lot of fan fair and hype. But does it live up to all of that? Some of the things that are really exciting include:
In this video from B&H Photo Video, Larry Becker goes over some of the features that have sports and action photographers really excited, and a few you may not have heard about yet. Learn all that and more, just watch the video and click through to the B&H site if you want more info on pricing and technical specs.
The post First Impressions of the New Canon 7D Mark II are out! by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.
The very first Canon DSLR I ever purchased, about a decade ago, was the Canon EOS 10D. The very first Canon lens I bought was the EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM zoom lens.
While my photography has advanced considerably over the past decade, this was an excellent starter set up for me. It was a decent DSLR for me (for the time) with a lens, which gave me a very wide range. Ultimately I upgraded bodies and got into more expensive Canon L series prime lenses, but this early set up gave me an opportunity to really experiment and try to figure out if this was a pursuit that I was going to invest more time and energy into.
About the same time I bought my original EOS 10D and EF 28-135mm lens I also purchased a set of Ping golf clubs. I thought golf was going to be something that I’d end up being interested in. I paid too much for what at the time were top of the line clubs. Unfortunately, I never did take up golf seriously and I have a very expensive set of unused Ping golf clubs that sit in my basement today. Maybe someday one of my children will take up golf.
The point of that story is, that if you are starting out with digital photography, you need something that is solid and good enough to take awesome photos, without investing $ 10,000 into your new hobby. This is why I suggest the EOS 70D and EF-S 18-135mm STM lens as an entry point for people starting out. The EOS 70D is one of Canon’s most popular DSLRs, but it’s much cheaper than the primary body I use, my EOS 5D Mark III. Although I do encourage people to use prime lenses, most people starting out don’t want to buy 5 different prime lenses with 5 different focal distances — that can get very expensive quickly.
The EF-S 18-135mm lens is a strong, high quality lens that you can use with the EOS 70D and shoot everything from wide angle landscapes, to telephoto shots of your kid’s baseball game or school play. With just a bit more range than my first EF 28-135mm lens, it’s a great way to start out. Although I don’t personally shoot a lot of DSLR video, many people do and it’s nice to have such high quality video as another option with this set up.
The photos in this post were all taken with this camera and this lens on my recent trip to Las Vegas.
Because the EOS 70D is a cropped sensor, this lens actually has even more reach than a 135mm lens on a full frame. A cropped sensor is 1.6x times smaller than a full frame sensor — full frame sensors are the same size as traditional 35mm cameras.
Practically speaking, what you see when you look through a camera with a cropped sensor at 50mm would be equivalent to what you would see at 80mm on a camera with a full frame sensor. For this reason, if you are shooting sports or wildlife or other subject matter where you want longer reach, the cropped sensor delivers more reach.
Full frame sensors, in my opinion, do better in low light and at high iso settings and are preferable, but they are also more expensive and might not be as necessary for someone starting out.
One of the fun things that I like doing with a zoom is zooming while my shutter is open on a long exposure shot. This creates an interesting double exposure zoom sort of effect that I use in some of my photographs. The disadvantage of this zoom is that it is not as fast (low aperture number) as some of the prime lenses.
If you end up starting with this sort of a combo, you might also want to consider the excellent value you get from a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II or EF 50mm f/1.4 USM prime lenses. Both of these lenses represent excellent value and are some of the least expensive prime lenses you can buy. You’ll have no problem using the EF-S 18-135mm lens during the day, but at night, or in a much lower light situation, you’ll appreciate being able to put on a faster 50mm prime lens that will work better in less light.
For many photographers the EOS 70D is all the camera you will ever need. Some of the best photographers I know are content to shoot with this body and never upgrade from here. To see some of the best work done with this camera body, check out these photos on Flickr all taken with the EOS 70D. Because this camera will be enough for some folks, I think this is a good place to start.
I personally use my EOS 70D as a second camera — a good backup to use in case something goes wrong with my EOS 5D Mark III and a camera I can keep at my office in case I feel like taking a break during the day and walking around town and shooting. I think it works especially well for street photography given the range you can get with the EF-S 18-135mm lens.
As your passion for photography grows though you will want to consider upgrading to a Canon EOS 5D Mark III and some of the prime lenses that I will review in some upcoming blog posts.
As a reminder, my analysis of my Canon gear is being done in partnership with Canon and I am receiving compensation for this work with them.
Thomas Hawk Digital Connection
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