Roberts Raw!

› archive for ‘Announcements’

Nikon Announces New Entry Level DSLR: D3200

Another day, another entry in the nonstop march of device obsolescence. Today we have the D3200 from Nikon, which displaces their D3100 as the go-to entry-level DSLR. Unlike the D3100, however, this new entry isn’t just a minor spec update to keep things fresh for another year. oh no. This time we see a massive 71% increase in resolution, jumping from 14.2 megapixels all the way up to 24.2 megapixels. And, despite that bump in resolution, it also milks out an extra frame a second, pushing the number up to four. Sure, the rest of the spec sheet looks pretty similar: ISO 100-6400 native, 1080p HD recording, a 3″ LCD with 921,000 dots, a DX-crop sensor, a guide mode for those of you just starting out, manual controls plus a plethora of scene modes, a lack of built-in autofocus motor (you’ll need to use lenses marked “AF-S” if you want to autofocus with this camera), and optional connectivity for a wifi transmitter and GPS. But, can’t we agree that the jump in megapixels is somewhat notable for a camera that comes in at $699.95, including an 18-5mm VR lens? You bet.

And, the D3200 will be available in both black and red, and you can get yourself in on some preorder action here: http://robertscamera.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=d3200



Nikon Announces New FX AF-S 28mm f1.8G Wide-Angle Prime

 

Today Nikon has also announced a new entry to it’s seemingly ever-expanding Nikkor lens line-up. This time it’s a refresh for their 28mm prime, keeping the f1.8 but bumping it up to the modern G (no aperture ring) spec, along with all the other modern Nikon techs you’d expect at this point (nano coating, integrated silent-wave AF-S motor, M/A switch, etc). As always, the name says most of it (“AF-S 28mm f1.8G”), but there’re a few things we can mention for the curious. It’s an FX lens, which means it’ll mount on both FX full-frame systems, and on DX ones (with a field-of-view equivalent to about 42mm in old terms, which is somewhat less exciting a focal length.) It sports a minimum aperture of 16, giving it a 71/3 stop range. It’s got a 67mm filter thread, which should make most people happy, what wit that being a very common size these days. There’s a rounded 7-blade aperture diaphragm in there to round out your bokeh. And otherwise, that’s about all you need to know. You can check out the MTF chart and construction diagrams below, or you can just hop over to our site and get your name in line to get one when they come out:

http://robertscamera.com/photo/lenses/for-slrs-dslrs/primes/wide-angle/af-s-nikkor-28-1-8-g.html



Canon Announces New EOS 5D Mark III. Adds To Line-up, Not Replaces.

 

In 2005, Canon revolutionized the DSLR world by announcing the world’s first “affordable” full-frame DSLR, the sub-body, 12 megapixel  EOS 5D. Then, in 2008, they revolutionized the digital video market with the release of the high-resolution 21 megapixel EOS 5D Mark II with full HD video capabilities. So, you can probably forgive the third entry into the series for having some troubles finding new ground to break, and settling for just updating everything from the last entry to be based on newer technology. And that’s exactly what the EOS 5D Mark III is, an evolutionary update to the EOS 5D Mark II, an idea which is further reaffirmed by it sitting in the line-up in addition to the older body, not replacing it.

So, what’s on offer here on this 25th anniversary of the Canon EOS system? Well, it’s still full-frame, as you’d expect, and as such is compatible with the entire EF lens line-up, but not the EF-S lenses. The sensor sees a mild bump up to 22.3 megapixels from the older 21.1, the processor gets upgraded to the new DIGIC 5+, the AF module gets updated to the same 61-point “High-Density” one first announced for the EOS-1D X, native ISO hits 100-25,600 native, with an extended range of 50-102,400. They’ve also quietly slipped in a new “”iFCL” metering mode (“Focus, Color and Luminance”) that not only reads the light at each location, but also takes into consideration the data from focus points at that same spot (which sounds very similar to Nikon’s long-standing 3d Matrix Metering’s approach to things). The body sees some additional weather-sealing, bringing it further inline with the pro-body calibre the 5D series has become, a 3.2″ 1,040,000 dot LCD, and dual-slots CF and SD cards. Oh yeah, and there’s still that 1080p 30fps video thing. Remember when people thought HD video on a DSLR was just a novelty?

But, I’m sure what you really want to know, since this will sit above it’s aging brother and below the EOS-1D X flagship, is just how it measures up in relation to those. Well, thanks to the incredibly fancy new web technology known as “tables,” I can show you:

Spec EOS 5D Mark II EOS 5D Mark III EOS-1D X
Sensor Type Full-Frame Full-Frame Full-Frame
Megapixels 21.1 22.3 18.1
Processor DIGIC IV DIGIC 5+ Dual DIGIC 5+
AF Points 9 61 61
Cross-Type AF Points 9 20 20
Continuous Shooting 3.9 fps 6 fps 14 fps
ISO (Native) 100 – 6,400 100 – 25,600 100 – 51,200
ISO (Expanded) 50 – 25,600 50 – 102,400 50 – 204,800
Meter 35-zone 63-zone iFCL 252-zone
LCD 3″ 920,000 dot 3.2″ 1,040,000 dot 3.2″ 1,040,000 dot
Viewfinder 98% .71x magnification 100% .71x magnification 100% .76x magnification
HD Video 720/1080 720/1080 30fps AVHCD 720/1080 30 FPS AVHCD
Sutter Life 150,000 150,000 400,000
Memory Cards CF CF/SD CF/CF
UDMA Support UDMA UDMA-7 UDMA-7

Whew. That make everything clearer? yes? Good. As always, there are some more features buried in there too, like multiple exposure, HDR, an intelligent auto scene selector, and more. For the full nitty-gritty, we recommend hitting the press release after the jump. Or, if that sounds like $3,499 worth of awesome to you, hit the link here to jump over and get on our preorder list for one when they start shipping with an anticipated date of next month.

read more



Monthly Photo Contests Put On Hold

So, you’ve all probably noticed our running of the monthly photo contests lately has been a bit… er… bad. We’re sorry. We can’t actually say enough how sorry we are. The problem is, we’ve gotten ourselves busy with an unexpected and totally cool project that we’ve all been working our butts off on, and we let this slip through the cracks. And that’s bad. But, we’re still too busy with the Super-Cool Secret Project to run the contest the way it needs to be done. So, for now at least, we’re calling an end to the monthly photo contests. We’re sure they’ll come back someday, we just can’t tell you when that’ll be.

Judging has begun for entries to the last contest, and all pending entries have been approved and are up. We’ll announce the winners on here once we have them.



SanDisk Creates 128-gigabit Wafers with 3-bits Per Cell

We don’t often talk memory on here, but considering most of our cameras would be pretty well just really high-tech paperweights without modern NAND memory technologies, we thought maybe we’d stp and talk about SanDisk’s new breakthrough. Notably, they’ve found a way to make a smaller, thinner (and we’re talking “thinner” for something that already has to be defined in nanometers here) wafer that’s smaller than an American penny but can hold 128GB and stores 3-bits per cell instead of the usual two, making it possibly the highest specced NAND of its type announced right now. Why do you care? Some analysts are saying it might only cost $0.28 per gigiabyte to manufacturer these new wafers, which means the progress of larger cards with faster speeds for less money is continuing unabated, that’s why. And, that’s gotta make you happy, right?

Press release after the jump, for all the nerdy details.

read more



Marsh Madness at Goose Pond with Sigma’s David Fitzsimmons due for good weather

I know that I’ve been looking forward to the return of Marsh Madness since it was decided that Roberts and Sigma would be going out again, and it keeps getting better. There’re two days to choose from (Saturday the 25th  and Sunday the 26th- I’ll be there, working, for both of them) each with two, four hour seminars. Each day is limited to twenty attendees, so we’ll be working in smaller groups than last year. Yet again, we’re going to have a mess of Sigma lenses. New this year, we’ll also have an assortment of Gitzo and Manfrotto tripods and monopods for use as well. If you’ve never used a monopod, well, they have their uses.

 Trust me.

 We can also expect the weather to be a little warmer – the forecast is calling for 49F and sunny on Saturday.

 I’m excited as all get out for more time out at the preserve, and the opportunity to see some rare birds. Spotted as recently as Monday this week there was a surprise appearance of an Asian Hooded Crane which appears to be travelling with the Sandhill Cranes. No guarantees that it’ll be hanging out for ten more days.

 In any case  Sigma Pro photographer, David Fitzsimmons and Bird Watcher’s Digest Editor, Bill Thompson will help make this another great trip for Roberts, Sigma, Gitzo, Manfrotto, and most importantly, the attendees.

Give us a ring at 800-726-5544 to sign up.

Tickets are $149.00 and include two 4 hours seminars, lunch, and a Roberts gift card, as well as first-come-first-serve chances to borrow gear and tripods.

You can choose to attend either of our two days: February 25th or 26th. Events both days will run from 8am until 6pm.



Lensbaby Announces New Edge 80mm Optic

Lensbaby today has increased its swappable optic system (or, as Nick and I like to call it, the “Swaptic” system) by one with the introduction of the $300 Edge 80 optic. The Edge 80 is an 80mm f2.8 12-blade aperture optic that follows in the Sweet 35′s footsteps with a built-in aperture ring (instead of Lensbaby’s characteristic magnetic drop-in rings), which clearly aims it at a more dedicated or professional class of shooter where taking the time to fuss with aperture discs would be a turn-off for the system. It’s just an optic, which in Lensbaby’s world means you’ll need an actual lens container, like the Composer, Composer Pro, Scout, Control Freak, or Muse to lock it into before you can use it. Once you have any of those lenses, though, the Edge 80 and a whole slew of other optics become available, making it an intriguing and unique way to develop a sort of system within a system.

The Edge 80 offers a flatter field of view than the other high-end optic, and is an ideal portrait lens on both full-frame and crop bodies (half body on FF, and at about 120mm equiv on crop it makes a good head-and-shoulders length). It offers a minimum focusing distance of about 17″, apertures from f2.8-22, and a 48mm front thread for filters.  Anyone thinking about the Lensbaby system, but not sure if the “novelty” toy camera/tilt-shift look is worth a dedicated lens can try out the Edge 80′s simulator to see just what it’d be like in use: http://www.lensbaby.com/optics-edge80-simulator.php

 



Olympus Reboots OM Series For Digital, OM-D E-M5 Is Retro Looks With Future Tech

That slice of friggin’ gorgeous right there is Olympus’ long-awaited entry into the professional market with its ground-breaking Micro Four Thirds interchangeable lens compact series. These cameras, unlike DSLRs, lack a mirror assembly, which cuts down on noise and drastically cuts back on size. Instead of the mirror, they rely on a live view feed to compose your images, often with the rear LCD. They offer most of the advantages of DSLRs in a package that can be notably smaller, especially in the lens department.

But, up until the past year or so, they’ve had a few weak areas. Auto-focus speeds, since they lack phase-detect AF, have been a mixed back, leaning towards slow. a problem which Olympus has soundly put to rest with the focus speeds of its third generation Pen bodies (E-P3, E-PL3, E-PM1), whose AF perform rivals–if not bests–my D700′s.

And then there’s been the matter of that live view thing. A lot of pros don’t like the idea of composing with an LCD, which forces you to hold the camera in an unsteady away-from-the-body stance, and can have issues in daylight. Some bodies have had built-in EVFs (electronic viewfinders), or optional ones, but they’ve been so-so to merely good. The OM-D E-M5 seeks to solve that as well, building in a new breed of high-resolution EVF with an impressive 120fps refresh rate. We’re still looking for the specs on res, but if they haven’t stepped back from their last optional ones, then the enhanced refresh rate should make this start rivaling an actual prism viewfinder.

So, what else is up with this new beast? One, it looks like a film SLR. A lot like it. But it’s small. Tiny. Not much bigger than the E-PL3 (and only then because of the viewfinder), and smaller than the Panasonic G3 overall. It’s made of magnesium, and sees the return of Olympus’ much-renowned weather-sealing (just look back through this blog to all the times I used my naked E-3 in the rain if you’re curious about how good that reputation is). The body is fully weather-sealed, as is the grip. The sealing is only complete, however, with a weather-sealed lens. of which there are few currently. The recently-announced 12-50mm is one. The newly announced 60mm f2.8 macro (true 1:1) is another. And more will likely be coming.

Additionally, there are dual control wheels on the top deck, like most advanced DSLRs, stylishly reworked to match the classic aesthetic. Above the viewfinder and below the hot-shoe you’ll find Olympus’ advanced accessory port, so this’ll continue to support awesome accessories like the LED macro light. The available HLD-6 grip is modular, and you can install a chunkier front grip, a vertical grip, or both. Both extra grips have a release and command dial built onto them. Like the NEX system, a small slip-on flash is provided, but none is built-in otherwise.

Specs on the E-M5 are equally swank past the body. It’s got a 16.mp Four Thirds sensor (2x crop), a revamped AF system that can read the image at 240fps during continuous drive to work its contrast-detect magic, 3D tracking (a la Nikon) added to the AF system, a world’s-first 5-way in-body IS system (horizontal, vertical, pitch, yaw, roll), 9fps in continuous high mode, a 3″ 610,000 dot multi-touch OLED tilt-screen, a TruePic VI image processor, ISO 100-25,600, and the usual compliment of Oly art filters. You get scene modes as well as PASM, and of course there’s raw support too.

To support the new OM-D (OM Digital) line, which Oly is seeing as a step-up form it’s existing Pen series, there’re two new lenses and a new flash announced too. The lenses are both primes, a 75mm f1.8 telephoto (150mm equiv), and a 60mm f2.8 macro (with a magnification scale instead of a distance one). The new FL-600R flash has a GN of 36 at ISO 100, a built-in LED so it can be used for lighting video, and wireless control so it doesn’t even have to be on your camera.

The OM-D E_M5 will be available starting at $999.99 body only, in silver or black. $1,099.99 will get you it in a kit with non-weather-sealed 14-42mm II, or $1,299.99 for a kit with the weather-sealed 12-50mm power zoom.

Interested in getting your hot mitts on one of the new OMs? We don’t blame ya, but we do suggest you hit the link below to get on our preorder list. Or, hit the jump for pictures of everything and the press release.

http://robertscamera.com/om-d-e-m5-body-only.html

read more



Canon Adds Four More PowerShots to Line-up

Not quite content with it’s other entries this season, Canon has further expanded the old annual offering of digital compacts by another four models. Now in ye olde line-up are the PowerShot ELPH 320 HS, ELPH 530 HS, SX260 HS, and their second offering in the all-weather market, the PowerShot D20.

From most to least interesting:

The PowerShot D20 is Canon’s second effort at a waterproof camera, and for their second go they’ve wisely gone the styling route Casio also took, and away from the oddly bulbous D10. It’s waterproof to 33 feet, shockproof to 5 feet, and freeze-proof to 14 degrees F. Beyond that, you’re looking at a 12.1 megapixel HS CMOS sensor with a DIGIC IV processor, a 5x optical zoom, GPS, and a 3″ touchscreen display. It’ll come out at right around $349.99

The SX260 HS has a 20x zoom that starts at 25mm equiv, strapped to a body a mere 1.29″ thick. The same sensor from the D20 is on-board here, so, no surprises to be had, but the processor gets a boost to a DIGIC V. Other features are 1080p video, GPS, and a continuous shooting mode of 10.3fps… for 10 frames. So, it’ll be a good second, baby. You’ll be able to have it black, green, or red for $349.99.

Down the line, we have the ELPH 530 HS, a .78″ thick box with a lens and shutter button strapped to it. With this magical box, you get a 12x zoom lens, 10 megapixel HS CMOS sensor, DIGIC V, and a 3.2″ touchscreen LCD. Oh, and did we mention it’s wi-fi enabled, letting you share pictures right from it to Flickr, Facebook, your phone, etc? Oh, well. it is. It’ll be in black or white for $349.99 (noticing a pattern here…)

Last, the PowerShot ELPH 320 HS is the “not the best, but not the worst” middle ground that’s actually the hardest to blog about. it’s well-enough specced to be attractive, with a 16.1 megapixel sensor, DIGIC V, 3.2″ touchscreen LCD, and the wi-fi inside, but otherwise doesn’t have any features that stand out. Still, for the retail price of $279.99, in black, silver, blur, or red and with those features, maybe it doesn’t need to stand out any more.

Press release and images after the jump.

read more



Canon USA announces refresh of 24-70 f/2.8 and two stabilized wide primes for still and video


Today Canon gives us a glimpse of wider world of Image Stabilized lenses. Where the Micro-Four Thirds enthusiasts, Sony D-SLR, SLT, and NEX systems’ users (and the dwindling crowd Four Thirds users) were treated to in-body stabilization from the sensor’s mobility, the two biggest names in professional imaging have not offered much in the way of image stabilization for their full frame bodies, not faster than f/4.0 anyway.

So we get to drool a bit over the EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM (pictured here), the EF 24mm f/2.8 IS USM, and the EF 28mm f/2.8 IS USM (pics after the break).

Why would you want IS on the wide angle? Our illustrious Web Guru (and recovering Four-Thirds user), Derek, says that there was a lot of good to be said about being able to just pick up your rig and shoot one-handed at all focal lengths. Also with the prevalence of HD video recording on D-SLR bodies having IS to smooth out your jittery cam-hands is a plus.

After the break, there’s a few comparison tables and MTF charts. By the way, those MTF charts should give you an indication about how much better this new 24-70 will be than the old.

read more




Switch To Mobile Site