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› archive for July, 2012

Westcott’s X-Drop System Gives You Good Travel Backgrounds

So, here’s a product I wasn’t aware had come out until today (bad web inventory manager not telling me), but it’s a new X-Drop background kit from Westcott. Now, I don’t often get excited about new backgrounds. It’d be like getting excited by a new ramen flavor. But, this is something new. More like a new type of bowl noodle, really.

If any of you have ever done location portraits, you know having a good background can be… a challenge. And, real background kits have those big stands and bigger cloths or papers that make set-up a pain. More portable options are costy. So, here’s a new idea: a 5×7′ telescoping presentation-style easel that stretches the lightweight background tight. Westcott is making nine colors, three of which are reasonable (black, white, and chroma green), and three of which were clearly scraped from a retro-Victorian scrapbook. You can buy a kit with any of the nine colors, a case, and the stand for less than $100, it’ll weight 3 whole pounds, and collapse into a 36″ x 6″ case. And, you can fit two other backdrops in the case, which’ll set you back $60 each. And all the backdrops are washable muslin. This is really pretty much the most exciting thing I can remember seeing in backgrounds for some time, and I’m seriously considering adding a white kit to my own lighting baggage because, well, at that price and size, why not? Then, I don’t have to worry about cloning out imperfections from their wall later, you know?

Hit the external link below to check them out for yourself.



Sony Adds 55-300mm Kit Lens

 

So, if you’ve ever done lens shopping for an affordable telelphoto to go with the 18-55mm that comes with many DSLRs, you know that there are two standard options: the 55-200mm that continues your range seamlessly, and the 75-300mm that gives you more reach, but skips 20mm in the middle. Well, today Sony has decided that having to decide between the two is a bit silly, and has announced a new 55-300mm f4.5-5.6 zoom for its Alpha line of DSLRs. It’s intended to be the perfect compliment to the kit zoom, and combined they cover an apparent focal range of 27-450mm, or virtually every focal length you’ll ever want, unless you shoot ultra-wide. It’s got the Smooth Action Motor inside, which means it’s an ultrasonic ring-type built-in motor, instead of Sony’s older body-driven screw motors. Minimum focusing distance and magnification are both more or less typical for this class, coming in at 4.5 feet and 0.27x respectively. The lens should be available in September, and will cost a mere $300 to get into your kit bag.

Sony Introduces Versatile, High-Quality Telephoto Zoom Lens for Alpha A-Mount Camera Line

High-Speed, Quiet DT 55-300mm F4.5-5.6 SAM Telephoto Zoom Lens to hit Retail in September

SAN DIEGO, Jul 25, 2012 – From flattering portraits to faraway wildlife and fast-action sports, nearly every subject can be captured beautifully with the new SAL55300 telephoto zoom lens, the latest addition to Sony’s A-mount lens lineup.

Optimized for use with ? A-mount camera models with APS-C sensors, the compact, stylishly-designed interchangeable lens is an ideal addition to the camera bag for any Sony photographer.

“The new SAL55300 lens is a perfect complement to our acclaimed line of Alpha A-mount cameras with Translucent Mirror Technology, allowing consumers to capture distant, faraway subjects with razor-sharp focused images and Full HD videos,” said Mike Kahn, director of the alpha business at Sony Electronics.  “With a versatile 55-300mm, 5.5x magnification range, fast, quiet performance and an attractive price tag, it’s a welcome addition to our alpha A-mount system.”

The new SAL55300 lens features a whisper-quiet Smooth Autofocus Motor (SAM) and an advanced optical design to get the best from the high-speed performance and high resolution sensors common to Sony’s A-mount camera lineup.  Additionally, it contains an ED (Extra-Low Dispersion) glass element, commonly featured on premium Sony G Lens models, that reduces color aberrations, improves image quality and provides excellent contrast and corner-to-corner sharpness.

Pricing and Availability
The new SAL55300 A-mount interchangeable lens for A-mount cameras will be available in September for about $300 at Sony retail stores (www.store.sony.com) and other authorized dealers nationwide.

 



Elinchrom’s Ranger Quadra Packs Kick It Up A Notch With Li-Ion Batteries

It’s no secret that I love my Ranger Quadra kit. I can think of only a few photo sessions I’ve done without it since I picked it up. My basic theory has become if I’m bringing my camera, I should probably bring my Quardas. I have not been disappointed.

It’s also no secret that I love lithium-ion batteries. They have better power, charge faster, and don’t suffer from “memory” problems like other rechargeable battery types. In fact, lithium-ions really only degrade under two conditions: excess heat (regulated by their chargers, which is why li-ion chargers tend to be costy), and time. They’re basically the best battery we’ve come up with as a society. And now, you can pick up some lithium-ion batteries to replace the lead acid ones your Quadra Rangers came with.

Why would you want to? Well, according to Elinchrom’s documentation, here are the pros:

  • Works with all Ranger Quadras sold (original and RX)*.
  • Shorter: Lead Acid – 8.27” – Li-Ion 7.28” = just under an inch shorter
  • Lighter: Lead Acid – 3.75 Lbs. – Li-Ion 1.61 Lbs.= 2.2 Lbs lighter.
  • More shots (fast/slow recycle): Lead Acid – 110/150 – Li-Ion 280/320 = 170 more shots per charge.
  • Recharges faster (80%/Full): Lead Acid – 1hr/2hr. – Li-Ion 45m/1.5h.= 15/30 minutes faster.
  • Recycles 15% faster than Lead Acid.

There are a few gotchas you should be aware of. One is that thanks to the temperature thing, lead acid will still be a better choice when you’re shooting out in the Arabian desert. Also, the battery indicator in the pack can’t read the lithium-ion’s status, so a more accurate indicator has been put on the side of the battery itself. And, lastly, while these will work with the original Quadras and the newer RX ones, there are a very few heads that will need modified to be compatible. To find out if your head is among those, here’s the instructions:

  1. make sure the head isn’t plugged in
  2. Carefully remove the flash tube, use a paper towel to keep your finger grease and moisture off it
  3. Look in the smaller hole you can now see
  4. If you see ‘Elinchrom 50.0044.01″ printed in there, you’ll need a modification.

At this time, we don’t know what the modification is, nor how to get it. We’ll report back. But for now, if you have one of those heads, we wouldn’t recommend throwing your cash at a new battery yet. For the rest of you, the links below will get you to the goods. The battery will set you back about $375, or $500 if you want the charger (you do). An extra charger if your cats chews through yours will run you $160.

http://robertscamera.com/quadra-li-ion-battery-and-charger-set.html

http://robertscamera.com/quadra-li-ion-battery.html

http://robertscamera.com/quadra-li-ion-battery-charger.html



EOS M Is Canon’s New Mirrorless Body

 

Well well well, I guess this particular rumor mill was getting a bit hard to ignore. I woke up this morning and lo and behold, the oft-rumored Canon mirrorless system was a real thing. The first body is dubbed the EOS M, and you’ll find the lenses for the new system labeled EF-M. As with other mirrorless systems, your DSLR EF and EF-S lenses won’t work on this without an adapter, and you’ll have to start collecting your glass from scratch for best performance. Canon is the last of the biggies to jump into the burgeoning mirrorless market, so, let’s see what they have to show for the delay.

First off, the sensor in the body is APS-C, of Canon’s beloved 1.6x crop factor. So, that puts it on the high mid-end for sensor size (the Pentax and Sony models have larger 1.5x ones, Panasonic and Oly have smaller 2x, and Nikon has the smallest at 2.7x). You’ll find 18 megapixels, a DIGIC V processor, and the new Hybrid phase/contrast deteect autofocus syetm, along with a  3″ 1 million dot touchscreen. If that calls to mind Canon’s newly announced T4i, you’re on the right tack. The EOS M is essentially the same camera, sans mirror and viewfinder. It has a shutter range of 30 to 1/4000 second, and ISO from 100-12,800 native (25,600 pushed). It’ll chug along at 4.3 frames per second continuous, and records HD with a stereo mic, and takes SD/SDHC/SDXC.  It takes a new battery, called the LP-E12. All good there. In fact, for many all I had to say was it’s a tiny T4i and they were already sold. Canon’s image quality at the Rebel level has been nothing but well-reviewed the entire time I’ve worked at Roberts, and I don’t suspect they plan to stop with this generation.

But, all’s not quite perfect. The camera lacks a built-in flash, which isn’t unusual for mirrorless. However, it also doesn’t include a tiny one, and you’ll have to spring $150 for the news 90EX Speedlite if you want one. Also, it does lack an electronic viewfinder. Again, not uncommon, but other systems also got called out on this and added support for them as accessories, so, we can’t exactly let the last entrant to the developed market slide without pointing out that this model, at least, won’t be supporting a viewfinder. It’s impossible to conjecture about future models at this time. And the last ding is the same one every mirrorless system has to deal with: lenses. A good body is a good start, but what’ll really decide how well Canon does in this new market is how quickly they can get their lenses line-up bolstered.

At launch, you’ll have a choice of two lenses, a 22mm f2.0 STM, and an 18-55mm 3.5-5.6 STM IS. Well, I say choice, but really, the 22mm pancake will come in a kit with the body. The end statement is pretty clear, Canon is targeting its first mirrorless offering at the biggest mirrorless demographic. namely, people wanting to step up from point-and-shoots, but not wanting DSLR complexity. We know after such a long wait, many of you will be upset this isn’t aimed at being a pro camera, but, be patient. With the exception of Fuji’s fairly niche X system, no one else has lead with a pro model yet, because that market is still owned by DSLRs. For a first mirrorless camera, the EOS M makes perfect sense, offering the image quality of a T4i in a body that looks and works like a PowerShot.

The EOS M with a 22mm kit will run $799.99, the 18-55 STM will set you back $299.99, the Speedlite 90EX will cost $149.99, and there will be a mount adapter so you can strap on your 70-200mm, and that’ll run $199.99. Release date for all of that mess is slated for October, and as of this writing you can preorder them all at the links below. You can read the press release and see more pictures after the jump. Whew.

Kit: http://robertscamera.com/photo/interchangeable-lens-compacts/interchangeable-lens-compacts-and-evils/eos-m-digital-camera-with-ef-m-22mm-f-2-stm.html

18-55: http://robertscamera.com/ef-m-18-55mm-f3-5-5-6-stm-is.html

Mount Adapter: http://robertscamera.com/ef-eos-m-mount-adapter.html

Speedlite 90EX: http://robertscamera.com/speedlite-90ex.html

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How Often Do You Foursquare?

We’re just curious, because we’re thinking about trying some new things to engage with you guys. So, we want to know, just how often do you use Foursquare?

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Panasonic Also Intros New 45-150mm Lens

 

That right there is Panasonic’s newly announced G Vario 45-150mm f4-5.6 ASPH. Mega O.I.S. lens, and, I really don’t have a lot more to say past that. It’s a 90-300mm equivalent second kit lens with image stabilization, and internal focusing to keep polarizer and grad filters from going wonky, and it’ll come in black or silver. Presumably it has a price and release date, but like the other announcements, Panasonic hasn’t given us the yet. So, ta-da!



Panasonic Announces DMC-LX7 Professional Compact

 

In case you’re new to the field, we should probably give you some background on Panasonic’s LX_ series point-and-shoots. Since their introduction, these have been incredibly popular, and routinely well-reviewed professional cameras that originally broke the mold set by Canon’s own G series point-and-shoots. Unlike Canon (and to some extent, Nikon’s) approach, Panasonic chose to make a compact with all the pro features, but they shoved it all into a slim form-factor that more resembles a mid-end deck-of-cards point-and-shoot in design. The result is a camera that has most of the same features of a low-level DSLR, but which can still fit in a decent pocket. Needless to say, they’ve done well with the idea.

And the newest entry into that series comes in the form of the LX7. If I’ve been confused in the past by Panasonic taking features away from upgrades, that is certainly not the case here. Somehow they’ve managed to squeeze even more goodness into an already outstanding camera. So, now that I’ve sold this up, what do i have to back it up?

To start with, there’s a fairly large compact sensor in there (1/1.7″) with a staid and quality-concerned 10.1 megapixels on it. Panasonic goes so far as to say that this sensor has a 1.5dB improvement in signal-to-noise over the LX5′s. What that means in terms of ISO performance in stops I don’t know yet, but that’s certainly a very hopeful boast. The native ISO range is 80-6400. if that’s not enough, you can push it to 12,800, but instead of just cheating the exposure curve, the camera will switch to using pixel-binning for it. It’ll halve your resolution, but drastically improve noise perormance at that push setting,.

In front of the sensor you still get Leica-branded glass, in this case a 3.8x zoom that starts at 24mm equivalent and has a max aperture range of f/1.4-2.3. That blows both the Canon PowerShot S95 and the Olympus XZ-1 out of the water, and neither of those two were slouches in the compact lens innovation arena. The lens is 11 elements in 10 groups, five of them are aspherical, and this is the first time Panasonic has used an ED element in a compact. The lens is also threaded to accept 37mm filters.

That not enough to have you excited? OK then. There’s also a dedicated aperture ring, dedicated ring for changing photo aspect ratio, and a new lever on the back for enabling a built-in ND filter and for controlling manual focus. More? How about a 3″ LCD that finally makes it up to 920,000 dots, and has 11 steps of brightness control? And all the usual niceties, like a dual-axis virtual level, 1080 HD video with stereo mic, full manual controls plus a compliment of scene modes, iAuto, and a bunch of effects modes, HDR and pano stitching in camera, continuous shooting at either 11 or 5 fps (depending on whether or not you need continuous AF), SD/SDHC/SDXC support, and so on.

Now that I’ve gone over all the awesomeness, I sadly have to mention we don’t have pricing or availability for this yet, either. But, I’ll be keeping my ears to the ground, no worries. Because, really, now I kinda want one for myself.



Panasonic Announces G3-Successor, DMC-G5

 

Just because Olympus’ flagship OM-D E-M5 is currently eating all the other m4/3 cameras’ press lunches doesn’t mean Panasonic isn’t updating its own lines, it seems. Among other announcements today, we’ve got a replacement for the G3, in the form of the G5. Supposedly this is because 4 is unlucky in some Asian countries, but maybe they just didn’t want to compete with the TV network, the old Mac desktop, and that freaky and unloved Pontiac Aveo-clone. But I digress.

The G-with-no-f-and-no-h series bodies more or less got the m4/3 craze started, so, they’ve got about the longest lineage of any current models. And, they’ve always kept the same basic form factor: a compact, DSLR-like body with an electronic viewfinder. That’s still the case, as you can see. Although the grip is chunkier now, which will be good or bad depending on how you weight hand-cramps versus size.

Inside, you’re looking at a 16.2 megapixel Four-Thirds sensor (2x crop factor) hooked up to a revised Venus processing engine that’ll also let you pull 1080p video off the sensor. No surprises there. The native ISO range is a bit odd, at 160-12,800, but certainly no slouch. Shutter speeds top out at 1/4000, but hey, that’s pretty awesome for a consumer camera, and only one stop shy of most pro models.  The LCD sees some nice upgrades, and is a 3″ tilt/swivel model that steps up to both 920,000 dots (finally), and is also touch. There are more effects and HDR modes, as you’d expect at this point, in addition to the usual scene modes, iAuto (once again updated), and the usual PASM manual stuffs.

More interesting is the addition of a rocker-switch on the top by the shutter button. If you have a power zoom, this rocker can be used to zoom that (instead of having to use the one on the lens barrel), but it can also be used like an adjustment wheel for other features otherwise, which is a boss little idea. Also in the good idea camp: the eye-proximity sensor for switching between the LCD and the viewfinder is back. While it can be a bear on battery if you let the camera bounce off of your chest or hip, it really does make using a dual-view method camera a lot less fidgety to have that sensor.

Otherwise, it’s the usual. It takes SD/SDC/SDXC, has a stereo mic for video, hotshoe for additional flash when the built-in one isn’t enough, and a virtual level. All and all, it’s a nicely specced camera, especially since it’s effectively an entry-level model. Whether it’s a good deal for the price I can’t tell you, as price and kit options haven’t been released yet. So, once we know more, we’ll get back to you.



Olympus Updates Firmware For OM-D E-M5

 

Should you be among the handful lucky enough to currently own Olympus’ critically-acclaimed m4/3 flagship OM-D E-M5 camera, you’ll be extra smug today once you know there’s a shiny new firmware update waiting to improve your camera’s performance when waking back up, displaying the active focus point when in low-speed continuous drive with continuous AF on, and some underwater modes when used with the 12-50mm (you did buy it in the kit, right) I don’t need to give you any links, because all you need is the software that came with the camera to check for the update and get it installed. Just remember to make sure it’s well-juiced and don’t unplug anything before you’re told to, or you could quickly have a well-coveted paperweight instead of a world-class compact shooter.