CPN has posted a new article by Syl Arena, talking a closer look at Canon’s New Radio Speedlite Flash System.
From Sigma Corporation of America:
Newly designed telephoto zoom lens with Sigma’s own Optical Stabilizer system at street price of $1099
Ronkonkoma, NY, March 30, 2012 – Sigma Corporation of America, a leading researcher, developer, manufacturer and service provider of some of the world's most impressive lines of lenses, cameras and flashes, is pleased to announce that its newly upgraded 50-150mm F2.8 APO EX DC OS HSM telephoto lens is now available for the street price of $1,099.
The 50-150mm F2.8 APO EX DC OS HSM telephoto lens is the successor to the 50-150mm F2.8 APO EX DC II HSM. The updated lens now features Sigma’s own proprietary Optical Stabilizer (OS) technology, which offers the use of shutter speeds approximately four stops slower than would otherwise be possible. The lens design utilizes an inner-focusing and inner-zooming system that provides convenient handling and this, along with the OS feature, makes it favorable for high-performance, handheld, close-up photography. Additionally, the Hyper Sonic Motor (HSM) ensures quiet and high-speed auto focusing, while allowing full-time manual focus capability.
The Sigma 50-150mm F2.8 APO EX DC OS HSM Canon mounts will be available next week, while the Nikon and Sigma mounts are expected to be available by the end of April.
“This lens is a great addition to our lineup of telephoto lenses, and will be a fantastic tool for portrait, landscape and nature photography,” said Mark Amir-Hamzeh, president of Sigma Corporation of America. “This is our tenth telephoto lens with Optical Stabilizer technology and provides another option for photographers looking to produce high-quality images.”
Six SLD glass elements provide exceptional corrections for all types of aberrations and provide high-quality imagery throughout the zoom range. It also has a rounded, nine-blade diaphragm that creates an attractive blur to the out-of-focus areas of the image.
The lens’ Super Multi-Layer Coating reduces flare and ghosting and ensures sharp and high contrast images even at the maximum apertures. The addition of Sigma’s 1.4x EX DG APO and 2x EX DG APO teleconverters produce a 70-210mm F4 autofocus telephoto zoom lens and a 100-300mm F5.6 autofocus telephoto lens, respectively.
B&H just started accepting Sigma 50-150mm F2.8 APO EX DC OS HSM Lens preorders.
Are Your Canon PowerShot G1 X RAW images soft? If so, I may know why.
G1 X RAW files, when processed by Canon Digital Photo Pro v3.11.10.0 with the "Viewing and savings RAW images" preference to "High quality" (the default), are rendered very soft.
This is the same problem I currently have outlined on the Canon EOS 5D Mark III Review page. The G1 X RAW images are being affected by the same software flaw the 5D III images are affected by.
Canon has been notified. The workaround is to set the "Viewing and savings RAW images" preference to "High speed". Or use another RAW converter.
In a forum post, Kirk Baker, Senior Software Engineer, has released Photo Mechanic 4.6.9 Beta 1.
Version 4.6.9 Features
Canon has posted EOS 1D Mark IV Firmware v1.1.1. Note: you must select your OS to get the firmware download option.
Firmware Version 1.1.1 incorporates the following change.
Optimizes the camera’s exposure accuracy when using EF 24mm f/2.8 IS USM and EF 28mm f/2.8 IS USM lenses, which are scheduled for release in June 2012.
If these lenses are used with an EOS-1D Mark IV camera that has not been updated with the new firmware, the image may be overexposed depending on the subject and shooting scene.
As I mentioned recently, I used the Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS II USM Lens with the Canon EF 2x III Extender as a lightweight, handheld bird photography lens in Florida in early March and found the results to be quite impressive.
The Canon EF 800mm f/5.6L IS USM Lens served as my primary tripod-mounted birding lens for this trip (the perfect full frame choice), but the 300 L II, along with a 1.4x III and a 2x III filled the handheld and wider focal lengths needs. And did so remarkably well.
My initial comment stirred many inquiries about the 300 II + 2x III combination. I'm not a big extender user, but the Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS II USM Lens is so amazingly sharp that the with-extender results are still remarkable. And I had no problems handholding the with-2x-resulting 600mm f/5.6L IS USM Lens.
I have uploaded a sample picture from this combination for your review. The Brown Pelican image was captured near sunset at f/8 (f/5.6 results are not as sharp), 1/250 with a handheld Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III in RAW format using the Neutral Picture Style (lower contrast for better histogram). The JPG sample was processed in DPP using the Standard Picture Style, sharpness set to "2" (low) and saturation set to "1".
Here is the sample: JPG (11.0 MB) | RAW (26.4 MB)
License granted for personal gear-evaluation purposes only.
I will add this full size sample picture to the Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS II USM Lens Review for more-permanent reference.
B&H has the still-elusive Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS II USM Lens (and Canon EF 400mm f/2.8 L IS II USM Lens) in stock at this moment.
The Canon Speedlite 600EX Flash, without the "-RT", is showing along with the -RT model on Canon UK website (compare).
Apparently the 600EX will also be available without the RF feature in some regions. Check your local region to see if you will have access to this model. (thanks Ben)
Canon USA has issued an official response to the 5D III IS noise issue:
“We have acknowledged that when using the camera with specific lenses, there is an abnormal noise during IS operation when the shutter button is pressed halfway (or remains pressed halfway), and we are now considering the countermeasures. We will let you know about the countermeasures as soon as they are finalized”
The two affected lenses are the Canon EF 200mm f/2.0L IS USM Lens and the Canon EF 800mm f/5.6L IS USM Lens.
Note that image quality is not affected by the abnormality. Also note that this noise does not occur during Live View including during video capture.
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4.1 Release Candidate is now available for download.
New Camera Support
Fixed Issues
The last two posts at Lightroom Journal are worth reading.
Confirmed: The Canon EF 200mm f/2.0L IS USM Lens' image stabilization system makes a modestly-disturbing churning sound when used on the Canon EOS 5D Mark III in AI Servo AF mode. The same sound is made briefly when the shutter release button is released in One Shot AF mode.
I do not know if this is a problem or not. IS appears to be working properly and the images created during the strange sound are quite sharp. I'll let Canon know (others may have already done so).
Tom Hogarty, Lightroom Product Manager, has announced in a blog post that an update to Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 is expected to be released as early as this week.
Especially good news is that, along with many bug fixes, this update will add support for Canon EOS 5D Mark III RAW files.
Taking a new approach to padded dividers in backpacks is TrekPak. (thanks Jeffrey)
Taking a new approach to camera body plates is Custom SLR with their M-Plate.
Clarification: the M-Plate Kickstarter project is funded and he M-Plate is now available from Custom SLR.
Please note that we are rapidly approaching B&H's passover closing - plan your purchases accordingly:
B&H will be closed Friday April 6th in observance of Passover and will reopen on Sunday April 15th at 10:00AM EDT. Orders must be placed by 4:00PM EDT on Thursday April 5th in order to ship before the Holiday. Orders placed after this time will ship when we reopen.
Nikon ViewNX 2.3.1 is now available for download: USA | Europe
Modifications enabled with version 2.3.1:
• Support for the Coolpix S30 has been added.
• When images to which voice messages recorded using the Leave a message and Leave a reply options built into the COOLPIX S30, have been attached are transferred with Nikon Transfer 2 Ver. 2.3.1, the two voice messages are transferred as a single audio file. The audio file will be created with the same file name as the image, but with the extension “.wav”.
From Canon U.S.A.:
CANON U.S.A. ANNOUNCES GOOGLE CLOUD PRINT™ SUPPORT FOR SELECT PIXMA PRINTERS
LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., March 27, 2012 – Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, today announced that the PIXMA MG8220 and MG6220 Wireless1 Photo All-In-One (AIO) inkjet photo printers now support Google Cloud Print™ 2 allowing users to print from Gmail™ and Google Docs™ on a mobile device and from the Google Chrome™ browser for Mac, Windows, Linux, and Chrome devices. With Google Cloud Print, you can print from wherever you are, from applications you use every day. You can even share your home and work printers with anyone you choose. The PIXMA MX892 Wireless Office AIO inkjet printer is also scheduled to provide the same support in May.
“We are excited to work with Google on the addition of this connectivity feature on our PIXMA printers,” said Yuichi Ishizuka, executive vice president and general manager, Imaging Technologies & Communications Group, Canon U.S.A. “In today’s world, we understand that consumers are always interested in additional connectivity options to print their important photos and documents and we are more than happy to be able to deliver this new feature to our users today.”
"We designed the Google Cloud Print service to make it easy to print to a home or work printer directly from any app or device that you use every day," said Mike Jazayeri, Product Management Director at Google. "It's exciting to see that the latest range of Canon printers are Google Cloud Print ready, offering people a seamless printing experience."
For further details on Google Cloud Print™ and the compatible PIXMA printers, please visit
B&H carries Canon PIXMA Printers.