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Posts Tagged ‘Lens’

Venus Optics’ 100mm F2.8 Ultra Macro lens is now available with Pentax K mount, new stepless EF mount version also available

14 Nov

Venus Optics has announced its popular Laowa 100mm F2.8 Ultra Macro APO lens is now available for Pentax K mount cameras and is also available in a stepless aperture version for Canon EF mount.

When the Laowa 100mm F2.8 Ultra Macro APO lens was announced back in 2018, it was supposed to be available for Pentax K mount systems alongside Canon EF, Nikon F and Sony FE mounts. However, the K mount version never came to fruition, with Venus Optics even announcing RF and Z mount versions back in April of this year before any news of the K mount version came out.

A macro shot of the aperture coupling on the new Pentax K mount version of the Laowa 100mm F2.8 Ultra Macro APO.

Now, the wait is over. As with the previous versions of the lens, the Pentax K mount version is constructed of 12 elements in 10 groups, features an aperture range of F2.8-F22, uses a seven-blade aperture diaphragm and has a maximum 2x magnification ratio. The lens features an automatic aperture coupling lever, which allows the lens’ aperture to be controlled through the camera, but if you prefer a more hands-on approach, you can adjust the aperture using the manual aperture ring as well.

In addition to the Pentax K mount model, Venus Optics has also released a variation of its EF mount model that features manual stepless aperture control. This video-oriented version of the lens makes it easier to get just the right exposure and the inclusion of a 13 aperture-blade diaphragm over the seven-blade aperture diaphragm in the automatic aperture EF mount version should make for even smoother bokeh.

Below is a sample gallery of images taken with the Laowa 100mm F2.8 Ultra Macro APO lens by photographer Thomas Shahan, provided by Venus Optics:

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Both the Pentax K mount and Canon EF mount stepless manual focus versions of the Laowa 100mm F2.8 Ultra Macro APO are available on the Venus Optics online shop and through authorized retailers for $ 449.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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This $95 lens attachment turns the world around you into a globe using a little glass marble

11 Nov

We’ve come across a number of weird lenses and lens accessories over the years, but the Soratama from Zenjix certainly stands out from the crowd, for better or worse.

The lens attachment features a 72mm filter thread and is designed to go in front of nearly any lens you can find step down/up rings for. It uses a single sheet of glass with what is effectively a clear marble to turn the world around you into a little globe of sorts.

These globe-style shots aren’t new, per se, but unlike photos that use larger glass orbs, this attachment is smaller and means your hand won’t be in the image. We can’t attest to image quality, but the above video shows what kind of shots are possible with the Soratama. There are multiple versions of the Soratama being sold on eBay, starting around $ 95 with shipping.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Pergear releases $165 12mm F2 lens for APS-C mirrorless camera systems

11 Nov

Budget photo accessory manufacturer Pergear has announced the release of its new 12mm F2 wide-angle APS-C lens for Fujifilm X mount, Micro Four Thirds (MFT) mount, Nikon Z mount and Sony E-mount camera systems.

The new manual-focus lens is constructed of 12 elements in 9 groups, including two aspherical and two high-refractive elements. The 12mm focal length offers a full-frame equivalent of 18mm on Fujifilm X mount, Nikon Z mount and Sony E mount cameras and 19mm on MFT mount cameras.

The lens features an aperture range of F2 through F22, a ten-blade aperture diaphragm and a minimum focusing distance of 20cm (.66ft). It measures in at 66mm (2.6”) diameter and 59.5mm (2.34”) long, and weighs only 300g (.66lbs).

The lens costs $ 165 for all mount options (Fuji X, MFT, Nikon Z and Sony E) and comes with front and rear lens caps, a lens bag and a mini air blower.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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This is Why You Need a Camera Lens Protector

10 Nov

Nothing rattles the photography community faster than talking about lens protectors. Some swear by it, while others wouldn’t touch it with a 10-foot pole. What is the rage about, and what is the approach you should take with lens protectors? We will discuss all of them in this article. What is a Lens Protector Lens protectors are pieces of glass Continue Reading

The post This is Why You Need a Camera Lens Protector appeared first on Photodoto.


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Xiaomi announces retractable lens technology for future smartphones

06 Nov
Xiaomi has introduced its self-developed Retractable Wide-aperture Lens Technology at its annual developer conference. Image credit: Xiaomi

Chinese technology company Xiaomi has officially kicked off its annual Mi Developer Conference (MIDC 2020) in Beijing. During the conference, Xiaomi has showcased numerous new technologies and breakthroughs, including retractable wide-aperture lens technology for smartphone devices.

If you have been following along with new smartphone announcements over the last few years, you’ll have noticed a strong emphasis on improvements in image quality, camera performance and lens quality. Drawing inspiration from traditional camera and lens design, Xiaomi has developed new Retractable Wide-aperture Lens Technology. This advancement in design lodges a compact optical structure in the smartphone, which can be extended when necessary.

Xiaomi promises that this new design will result in a breakthrough in performance. The company states, ‘This design allows the retractable telescopic camera to have a larger aperture to increase the amount of light input by 300%, as well as showcase better performance in portrait photography and night photography compared to currently-used camera structures.’ Further, the design incorporates a new image stabilization technology which ‘offers a larger anti-shake angle’ and increases sharpness by 20%.

The telescoping design has the primary benefit of allowing a camera not in use to be compact and easy to slip into a pocket, while still offering optical zoom when in use and capturing photos. In the case of a smartphone and its camera design, it’s even more critical to consumers that the device remain thin, compact, and lightweight.

Retractable lens designs have most frequently been seen in fixed-lens compact cameras, such as the Sony ZV-1 seen above. By utilizing a retractable lens design, engineers can strike a balance between performance when the camera is in use and a compact form factor when you aren’t capturing images.

Photography advancements from Xiaomi have been fast and furious this year despite the impact of the pandemic. This August, Xiaomi introduced its 3rd-generation under-display camera, which promised a high-quality, hidden camera under the smartphone’s display. This technology relies upon a revised pixel arrangement solution, allowing light to pass through gaps between the sub-pixels in the display.

Xiaomi’s advancements in camera technology don’t exist solely in the future. To celebrate its 10th anniversary this summer, Xiaomi launched the Mi 10 Ultra smartphone. This device incorporates a quad-camera array, including a long telephoto lens which offers a 120mm equivalent focal length and includes a 48MP image sensor. On the wide end of its camera array, there is a 12mm equivalent focal length and 20MP image sensor.

The Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra smartphone, introduced this August, highlights the company’s fast-paced camera technology advancements with its 12mm and 120mm cameras. Click to enlarge.

It remains to be seen what the real-world performance of a telescoping lens in a smartphone will be, but Xiaomi intends to utilize its new camera technology in upcoming smartphones. The company’s goal is to deliver ‘professional photography to hundreds of millions of smartphone users around the world’ with its expanding portfolio of image technology improvements.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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7Artisans has a new 18mm F6.3 pancake lens for APS-C mirrorless cameras

01 Nov

Chinese lens manufacturer 7Artisans has released a new 18mm F6.3 pancake lens for APS-C camera systems.

The ultra-compact fixed-focus lens is constructed of six elements in four groups. Its 18mm focal length is roughly a 27mm equivalent on most APS-C sensors, it has a minimum focusing distance of 35cm (1.1ft) and it weighs just 51g (1.8oz).

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The lens is being offered for Canon EF-M, Fujifilm X, Micro Four Thirds and Sony E mount camera systems. It’s available to purchase for on Amazon and other authorized 7Artisan retailers for $ 69.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Iconic scenes in The Mandalorian were filmed using a Canon 5D Mark III and Nikon lens

31 Oct

The second season of the hit Disney+ series The Mandalorian premiered today and there is fascinating photography associated with the production of the Star Wars spinoff show. For starters, some scenes in the show were shot using the Canon EOS 5D Mark III DSLR camera.

As Digital Camera World points out, not only were scenes shot using the Canon 5D Mark III, but an adapted Nikon 28mm lens was used and the camera operator was John Knoll, co-creator of Photoshop and current effects supervisor and chief creative officer at Industrial Light and Magic (ILM).

If you watched the first season of The Mandalorian and felt like scenes were reminiscent in overall appearance to the original trilogy of Star Wars movies, there’s a good reason for that. While modern technology and computer-generated imagery plays a large role in the production of The Mandalorian, showrunner and series creator Jon Favreau wanted to retain the look and feel of classic Star Wars films. As fans of the franchise are likely aware, the original Star Wars trilogy relied heavily upon physical models to film many of its iconic scenes.

Here you can see the Canon 5D Mark III camera mounted on a rail toward the right edge of the frame. The model of the Razor Crest ship is surrounded by foam board and desert imagery is being projected onto the board.

To recapture the spirit of the older Star Wars movies with The Mandalorian, Industrial Light and Magic created the titular character’s spacecraft, the Razor Crest, in its studio. John Goodson, a longtime ILM model maker created the ship using a 3D printer and tinfoil and Knoll built a 50-foot motion control rig.

In the video above, you can follow along with the team at ILM as they created the Razor Crest ship. This includes its beginnings as concept art to it being physically built and filmed as a practical miniature. We also see Knoll at work filming the first motion control shots at ILM in 15 years. It’s a fascinating look at how iconic objects, such as a protagonist’s ship in a Star Wars series, are created and brought to life.

Of creating the Razor Crest model for filming as a practical miniature, Knoll says that it’s important to strike a balance with the size of the model. You want it large enough that its details hold up when close to the camera, but not so large that it’s difficult to create a dynamic motion shot when running it along a rigged track. Ultimately, the team settled on a model around 24″ long.

The team used a Nikon 28mm lens on the Canon camera. And the man behind the controls? The creator of Photoshop. The production is a blend of photographic history.

Goodson remarked that one of the biggest differences between scenes shot using computer generated graphics versus a scene shot using miniatures is that when using a physical model, you are limited by the availability of mounting points for objects. There are certain angles and shots you simply can’t achieve when using models. However, that look and certain types of motion are also ingrained in people’s memories of older Star Wars movies. The team at ILM worked very hard to make sure that shots of the Razor Crest model evoked that same look as old shots. From the perspective of this Star Wars fan, they nailed it.

(Via Digital Camera World)

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Venus Optics unveils Laowa 15mm F4.5 ‘Zero-D’ Shift lens for full-frame cameras

30 Oct

Venus Optics has announced the release of the Laowa 15mm F4.5 Zero-D Shift, a new lens that takes the crown as the widest shift lens for full-frame camera systems.

The lens is constructed of 17 elements in 11 groups, including two aspherical elements and a new lens coating. It has a 110-degree angle of view, offers a 65mm image circle and can shift +/-11mm on full-frame camera systems (+/-8mm when adapted for medium format cameras, such as Fujifilm GFX and Hasselblad X1D cameras).

Other specifications include a five-blade aperture diaphragm, a 20cm (7.8”) minimum focusing distance and a 360-degree rotation function with clicks every 15-degrees to offer more flexibility when adjusting the shift of the lens. Venus Optics has also developed a specialized lens support that holds the lens towards the front of the barrel so you can keep the lens’ optical axis stable when making your shift adjustments.

Below are a collection of sample shots, provided by Venus Optics:

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The Laowa 15mm F4.5 Zero-D Shift is available to pre-order today for Canon EF, RF, Nikon F, Nikon Z and full-frame Sony E-mount camera systems for $ 1,199 on Venus Optics’ website. The Canon EF and Nikon F mount versions will be available in late November 2020, while the Canon RF, Nikon Z and full-frame Sony E-mount versions won’t be available until February 2021.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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The Lensbaby Spark 2.0 lens makes you squeeze and tilt it to focus

30 Oct

Lensbaby has announced the Spark 2.0 lens and its design draws inspiration from the original Lensbaby launched in 2004. The new lens allows you to adjust the ‘sweet spot’ of focus by physically bending the lens across a wide range of angles. You can adjust where the spot of focus is across the entire frame.

The Spark 2.0 is a 50mm lens with a maximum f/2.5 aperture. With respect to the angle of tilt, Lensbaby states that it is 46mm. The manual focus lens can focus as close as 15″ (38cm). The lens includes a pair of elements in a single group and its total weight is 6.5 oz. (184g).

Image credit: Lothar Adamczyk

Lensbaby founder Craig Strong recorded a user guide video for the Lensbaby Spark 2.0, which can be seen below.

The original Spark 1.0 lens came out in 2012 and had a fixed f/5.6 aperture. The Spark 2.0, on the other hand, comes with the Sweet 50 lens attached, which has an aperture range of f/2.5-f/22, with its respective sweet spot size increasing as you decrease the aperture.

Image credit: Sharon Covert

Strong notes that you may need to enable shooting without a lens in your camera’s settings to shoot with the Lensbaby Spark 2.0. He recommends shooting in aperture priority mode. While your camera won’t communicate electronically with the lens, the camera will read the amount of light coming through the lens and set the exposure settings accordingly.

To focus the Spark 2.0, you squeeze the lens. If you pull the lens straight back toward the image sensor, the sweet spot of focus will remain in the center of the frame. As you tilt the lens, its area of focus moves toward the edge of the frame.

Image credit: Lee Manston

The Spark 2.0 is the first flexible Lensbaby lens available for mirrorless camera systems. The Spark 2.0 is available for a wide array of lens mounts: Canon EF (DSLR), Canon RF (mirrorless), Fuji X, Micro 4/3, Nikon F (DSLR), Nikon Z (mirrorless), Sony E (mirrorless) and Pentax K (DSLR). The Lensbaby Spark 2.0 ships with the Sweet 50 and costs $ 200 USD. You can view and purchase additional optic swaps here.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Researchers create 100 billion FPS 3D camera with lens that mimics human eyes

28 Oct

A study recently published in Nature Communications details the creation of an ultra-fast 3D camera capable of recording at 100 billion frames per second. The development comes from Lihong Wang and his team at Caltech, where the researchers developed this new camera using the same foundational technology found in Wang’s previous 70 trillion frames per second project.

The newly detailed camera produces what the researchers call ‘single-shot stereo-polarimetric compressed ultrafast photography’ (SP-CUP), a technology that records video at insanely fast speeds in three dimensions. This is made possible, in part, by creating the camera to perceive the world in a way similar to how a human sees — with two eyes, or in the case of the camera, with a halved lens that simulates looking at the world with two eyes.

The result is a camera that records video at insanely fast speeds in three dimensions. The technology is able to capture ‘non-repeatable 5D … evolving phenomena at picosecond temporal resolution,’ according to the study, referring to space, time of arrival, and angle of linear polarization. The study goes on to explain:

Disruptively advancing existing CUP techniques in imaging capability, SP-CUP enables simultaneous and efficient ultrafast recording of polarization in three-dimensional space. Compared with available single-shot ultrafast imaging techniques, SP-CUP has prominent advantages in light throughput, sequence depth, as well as spatiotemporal resolution and scalability in high-dimensional imaging.

Wang and his lab first detailed the 70 trillion frames per second camera back in May, explaining that such speeds were capable of capturing the fluorescent decay from molecules and waves of light as they traveled.

That particular camera technology was called compressed ultrafast spectral photography (CUSP), and it followed Wang’s past work on similar technologies, including the phase-sensitive compressed ultrafast photography (pCUP) device, Caltech had explained in a release.

With the newly detailed SP-CUP technology, the camera captures stereo imagery — 10 billion images in the blink of an eye — using a single lens that has been halved in order to capture two different slightly offset channels of the subject. This is similar to how the human eye works, enabling humans to perceive depth. The image data can be processed to create 3D content, which itself exceeds the capabilities of the human eye by including data on the polarization of light.

The sum total of this new photography technology opens the door for various scientific applications, including research in the field of physics. In particular, Wang sees the potential use of this camera in exploring the mystery of sonoluminescence, a phenomenon in which sound waves produce small bubbles in liquids that, when they collapse, produce tiny bursts of light.

Wang explained:

Some people consider this one of the greatest mysteries in physics. When a bubble collapses, its interior reaches such a high temperature that it generates light. The process that makes this happen is very mysterious because it all happens so fast, and we’re wondering if our camera can help us figure it out.

The study titled ‘Single-shot stereo-polarimetric compressed ultrafast photography for light-speed observation of high-dimensional optical transients with picosecond resolution’ is available in Nature Communications.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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