Canon and Sony News for Nov 2020 (Page 2)
The Sony FE 28-60mm f/4.5-5.6 Lens Review is mostly completed. This time the lab test results are following the field testing. Stay tuned for those.
This tiny, affordable lens is a good performer.
Initially, the Sony FE 28-60mm f/4.5-5.6 Lens is only available in a kit with the Sony a7C. This kit is in stock at B&H | Adorama | Amazon USA | WEX
Eventually, the Sony FE 28-60mm f/4.5-5.6 Lens will be individually available. B&H says preorders start Feb 15th. Adorama is not saying. Amazon USA is taking preorders now with Feb 1st listed as the release date. WEX is taking preorders.
I like frogs, and I know that I'm not the only photographer who does. If one owns a big, expensive supertelephoto lens, it is easy to use it for any subject that comes along, including skitish frogs. However, most of us will not find photographing frogs high enough on the justification list for the purchase of such a lenses.
Fortunately, there are two very affordable long focal length frog photography lens options available. Canon's RF 600mm F11 IS STM and RF 800mm F11 IS STM Lenses are able to nicely capture these subjects from non-threatening distances.
These lenses are simple to use — F/11 and be there simple. Having a single aperture setting available simplifies exposure settings, and the relatively deep depth of field makes keeping the subject in focus easy. These are aspects that casual photographers and beginners, including kids, can appreciate.
A larger version of this image is available on Flickr.
ISO 160
5472 x 3648px
I've wanted to see the Canon RF 70-200mm F4 L IS USM Lens beside the Canon RF 70-200mm F2.8 L IS USM Lens, so I got around to creating a mockup today.
While both of these lenses are considerably smaller than their EF counterparts, the RF f/4 lens is considerably smaller (and lighter) than the RF f/2.8 version. Most of us prefer the smaller and lighter (and less expensive) aspects of f/4, the f/2.8 aperture's ability to transmit twice as much light to the imaging sensor and create a stronger background blur should not be overlooked.
Here are the specifications: Canon RF 70-200mm F4 L IS and RF 70-200mm F2.8 L IS USM Lens Comparison.
Order the Canon RF 70-200mm F4 L IS USM Lens from B&H | Adorama | Amazon | WEX
When Canon introduced the RF 600mm F11 IS STM and RF 800mm F11 IS STM Lenses, a primary shortcoming was recognized. The F11 in the name gave many of us reason to pause – who would want a lens that only opens to f/11?
When shooting birds at relatively close distance with a long focal length, it is challenging to keep the entire head and bill in focus, and a narrow aperture is the solution. This lens is built for that specific solution, and bird photography is a good use for this lens.
The f/11 fixed aperture brings significant benefits, including light weight, compact size, and low price, and these features meet a range of other needs. Those not able to (or do not want to) carry heavy gear around, those not able to afford the expensive glass, beginners, kids, etc. are loving this lens and its 600mm sibling. These new RF lenses fill that niche.
The Canon EOS R5's animal eye AF performs incredibly well with this and other bird subjects. While the f/11 max aperture reduces the camera's AF area (and pushes ISO settings up), there was no need to select a specific AF point to keep this little green heron's eye in focus within that area. Simply frame and shoot. The bird turned its head? Frame and shoot. It's game-changing.
A larger version of this image is available on Flickr.
ISO 5000
8192 x 5464px
From Canon USA:
Canon Announces the macOS Full Production Version of EOS Webcam Utility Software
With over 1 million downloads across the globe with 300,000 of them in the United States alone, the next chapter in the EOS Webcam Utility software story has been written. Continuing to fulfill the very apparent need of our customers, Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, today announced the full production version 1.0 of the EOS Webcam Utility Software for macOS as well as version 1.1 for Windows. Now officially out of beta, macOS users, as well as Windows users, have access to the software, which converts compatible Canon EOS Interchangeable Lens (ILC) and PowerShot cameras into high-quality webcams for video conferencing and streaming.
Rooted with ease and convenience at its core, the EOS Webcam Utility software is a direct result of the market shift that Canon identified; and, adhering to the needs of our customer base, Canon designed a software that produces high-quality video streaming. Now compatible with 43 Canon EOS ILC and PowerShot cameras, including the new EOS M50 Mark II, the complete list of compatible Canon cameras includes:
Another common conversation theme within the beta software forums was compatibility with third-party applications. As of announcement day, the new production version of the software has been tested* with various video conferencing applications as well as streaming applications** including:
Moreover, customers have desired to record a high-quality video file onto the memory card in their camera while video conferencing or streaming, and we listened. This can now be achieved*** by simply pressing the record button on the camera and not through the software.
Without customers sharing their points of view, experiences and preferences via the EOS Webcam Utility software user forums, the software would not have reached this level of success. Moving forward, Canon will continue to lean on customers, listen to the market and create innovative solutions that fulfill customer’s needs – while continuing to offer high quality, digital imaging equipment and solutions.
To download the full production version of the EOS Webcam Utility software version 1.0 for macOS and version 1.1 for Windows and learn how to use it, visit https://www.usa.canon.com/support/eoswebcamutility.
The new software will be available worldwide and available for download directly from the Canon website in each region.
If you’d like to ask questions or provide feedback pertaining to the production version of EOS Webcam Utility software for macOS, please visit our newly created forum https://Canon.us/forum-eoswebcamutility.
*Tested to confirm the EOS Webcam Utility is selectable as a video source and the video feed is displayed properly with macOS 10.15(Catalina), 10.14(Mojave), and 10.13 (High Sierra). The macOS version may affect the usability of the application(s). For more detail, please visit our https://www.usa.canon.com/support/eoswebcamutility
**Subscription to a third party service required. Subject to third party service provider’s terms and conditions.
***Restrictions may apply depending on camera specifications, such as maximum video recording time
Neither Canon Inc. nor Canon U.S.A., Inc. represents or warrants any third-party product or feature referenced hereunder. All referenced product names and marks are trademarks of their owners and are hereby acknowledged.
When the conditions at a destination are not as we expected or as we hoped they would be, we tend to get discouraged. However, when those circumstances are unusual, we can capture images that look different. With the extreme number of images being captured today, different is very positive.
The massive wildfires in the western USA were timed with the elk rut in Colorado this year, and the resulting smoke was not a welcome aspect of this Rocky Mountain National Park trip. While the smoke eliminated sky and sunlight color at sunrise and sunset and prevented clear viewing of the milky way and stars, the look of wildlife images captured under a late morning sun was different — and improved. As seen here, the harsh shadows were strongly reduced, and the background has an interesting low contrast appearance that makes the closer subject stand out in the image.
This image is an 86MP panorama captured with the Canon EOS R5 and Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS III USM Lens. At this moment, the bull came in too close for a 600mm lens to capture the composition I wanted.
When over-focal-lengthed for a situation, attempt to capture the composition's in-motion portion in a single frame. For wildlife and portrait photography, the in-motion part usually includes the head and may include the entire body. For landscape, the in-motion subjects may be a stream or an ocean. After capturing the in-motion portion of the composition, quickly capture the desired additional pieces of the frame in subsequent images, ideally using the same focal length (easy with a prime lens), the same focus distance (switching the lens to MF after the first capture makes this easy), and, preferably, the same exposure settings (manual exposure makes this easy but brightness differences can be resolved when editing the individual RAW files). If there is potential subject motion not contained in the first frame (the back legs of the bull in this example), the immediate second frame should capture that potential motion.
Later, stitch the images together using your favorite image processor. The image shared here was manually merged in Photoshop. The images were stacked, and the hard edges between the frames were removed using a layer mask with a soft-edged brush painting black over the edge of the top image mask.
Another teaching point from this image is the camera position. By photographing from down low, more of the elk is shown against the mountain vs. the meadow and the already-large animal is made to appear even larger.
An exceptional subject always helps overcome any shortcomings in an image. Shown here is, among the animals I've photographed, my all-time favorite set of antlers. The overall size is huge with good mass, the points are long, and the symmetry is impressive. I can't wait to see what this bull grows next year.
A larger version of this image is available on Flickr.
ISO 400
10591 x 8192px
From Sony:
Sony Opens Registration for “Creative Space” Online Creator Event
Free Event for Visual Creators will be hosted December 5th – 6th
SAN DIEGO – November 10, 2020 – Sony Electronics Inc. today opens registration for the second annual “Creative Space” — a digital event open to all levels of photographers, videographers and all other forms of imaging enthusiasts. Taking place throughout the day on December 5th – 6th, the digital event will bring together an extraordinary community of visual creators eager to learn, get inspired and connect with like-minded creators from all over the world.
Creative Space offers the opportunity for participants to learn from and connect with some of the imaging industry’s biggest names, offering many opportunities to expand their own individual network and win any of a host of great prizes provided by Sony and their event partners from the industry. This event is open to all guests, at no cost for attendance.
To register for this event, please visit www.alphauniverse.com/creativespace.
Apple has announced the new M1 processor, arriving soon at B&H in the:
Apple 13.3" MacBook Pro with Retina Display (Late 2020)
Apple 13.3" MacBook Air with Retina Display (Late 2020)
Learn more at B&H Explora.
Hypothetically speaking: Let's say that you visit your daughter at college. She is on the track and field team but will not be running the time trial event occurring while you are there due to her having overtrained. You, of course, brought a camera kit, but without expectation of your daughter running, you packed light.
Upon arrival, you learn that she is going to do "a few laps." Fortunately, your light kit included the Canon RF 70-200mm F2.8 L IS USM Lens, an impressive lens that is sports-capable, and you were able to capture some nice pics of your daughter on the track. Since you were actively photographing, you also captured some nice pics to share with her teammates.
The 20-fps drive mode meant that the perfect body position could be captured in every pass, despite the relatively short optimal framing window the 70-200mm focal length range offers. Perfect body position except that you were positioned near the starting line where your daughter glanced at her watch as each lap was completed. Eye detection AF meant the framing was the photographer's primary remaining job to be concentrated on during the race. Well, their primary job until having to process the over 1,000 in-focus images delivered by the Canon EOS R5's 20 fps drive mode in a short time.
The image quality at 20 fps was superb until the sun began to set. Then the flickering stadium lighting began to show some mild banding in your full electronic shutter images. Fortunately, only the last lap was affected by this condition (which could have been avoiding by using the still-fast mechanical first curtain shutter).
After the time trial ended, cool-down runs were over, and the team meeting was finished, your daughter says, "Hey Dad, can you take a team photo?" Your only valid response to this question is "Sure!" As you care about your images, you are not willing to make this a simple snapshot. That these kids have worked hard for years to make this team makes a good team photo especially important.
Your first assessment is the available lighting. This one is easy. The sun set a long time ago, and the only lights available (you did not bring strobes) are the four large stadium lights, two evenly located on each side of the field.
You know that the image background is very important and decide that the home stadium seating provides a clean, non-distracting background, along with giving the image a relevant location.
To get balanced lighting and a symmetrical background, you move the 19-member team down to the centerline of the soccer field inside the track. As mentioned already, and as is frequently the case, the stadium lighting was the flickering type. The Canon EOS R5 and R6 can avoid that issue for you, but a 1/100 second shutter speed is slow enough for the flicker to not cause a problem without using the flicker avoidance feature.
The team was very cooperative with great attitudes. Upon seeing how the double-cross lighting with the stadium background looked in the image review, the excitement increased, and additional photo requests begin flowing in: individuals, with friends, with boyfriends, with roommates, silly photos, tough and serious poses, etc.
The RF 70-200 was again the perfect lens option. The widest focal length is long enough to force adequate subject distance to eliminate group photo perspective issues, including the people in the front row appearing much larger than those in the back row (keeping the rows close to each other also helps in this regard). The individual and small group images were also easily captured by this focal length range.
Your dinner was late this evening.
After spending many hours processing and uploading the images to a private SmugMug gallery for the teammates to access, you wonder if it was such a good idea to take the camera in the first place.
Of course, it was.
OK, maybe I am not hypothetically speaking in this case. However, this scenario is a quite common one — be ready for it. Consider using the same lens and easy subject-on-night-sports-field strategy for your athlete subjects.
ISO 1250
5464 x 8192px
With a Sony a7C in hand, it is time to set up the camera for use. Following are the 28 steps I took to make an out-of-the-box Sony a7C ready for use.
- Charge battery
- Download and install Capture One (for Sony) and/or Sony Imaging Edge (unless your current favorite RAW image processing software supports this camera)
- Insert charged battery and power on the camera
- Set the time zone, date, time, timeformat
- insert memory card (don't forget to format it)
- Scroll through all of the menu tabs to configure the camera as follows:
- Camera Menu 1, Tab 1: Quality: RAW
- Camera Menu 1, Tab 1: RAW File Type: Uncompressed (unless taking advantage of the about-50% smaller RAW file size)
- Camera Menu 1, Tab 2: Long Exposure NR: Off
- Camera Menu 1, Tab 2: Lens Comp.: All Off
- Camera Menu 1, Tab 3: Bracket Settings: ->0>+ (makes selecting images for HDR processing easier)
- Camera Menu 1, Tab 4: Priority Set in AF-S: AF
- Camera Menu 1, Tab 4: Priority Set in AF-C: AF
- Camera Menu 1, Tab 4: Focus Area: Flexible Spot: S
- Camera Menu 1, Tab 4: Swt. V/H AF Area: AF Point Only
- Camera Menu 1, Tab 5: Face/Eye AF Set.: Face Dtct Frame Disp: On
- Camera Menu 1, Tab 8: Spot Metering Point: Focus Point Link
- Camera Menu 1, Tab 11: DRO/Auto HDR: Off
- Camera Menu 1, Tab 11: Creative Style: Neutral, Sharpness = 1 (This provides a lower contrast histogram. I usually process with the Natural creative style in Capture One)
- Camera Menu 2, Tab 5: Release w/o Lens: Disable
- Camera Menu 2, Tab 5: Release w/o Card: Disable (why is this not the default?)
- Camera Menu 2, Tab 7: Grid Line: Rule of 3rds Grid
- Camera Menu 2, Tab 10: Audio signals: Off (How to turn off the loud and usually-annoying AF beep sound)
- Playback Menu, Tab 3: Display Rotation: Off (use full LCD for image review)
- Setup Menu, Tab 1: Delete confirm: "Delete" first
- Setup Menu, Tab 3: Touch Panel/Pad: Touch Panel+Pad
- Setup Menu, Tab 3: Touch Panel/Pad Settings: Touch Pos. Mode: Relative Position; Operation Area: Whole Screen
- Setup Menu, Tab 5: Copyright Info: Write Copyright Info: On, Set Photographer: {name}, Set Copyright: {name}
- My Menu: Format; Silent Shooting; SteadyShot; Face/Eye AF Set; Live View Display
I make additional menu and other setting changes based on current shooting scenarios, but this list covers my initial camera setup process.
To copy this configuration means you intend to shoot similar to how I shoot - including in RAW-only format. While my setup works great for me, your best use of this list may be for tweaking your own setup.
If you can't remember your menu setup parameters, keeping an up-to-date list such as this one is a great idea. Anytime your camera is reset-to-factory state for some reason, such as when being serviced, you will be ready to restore your setup quickly while ensuring that you do not miss an important setting. If you purchase another same or similar camera, you will be able to set it up quickly.
More Information
Order the Sony a7C at
B&H |
Adorama |
Amazon |
WEX.
Rent the Sony a7C from
Lensrentals.
From Sony Global:
Sony Launches Drone Project
Tokyo, Japan – Sony Corporation (“Sony”) today announced that it has launched a new project for drones in the field of AI robotics.
The recent proliferation of drones has contributed greatly to the delivery of previously unseen images, as well as to workflow efficiency and energy savings in the industrial sector. Sony has assigned the "Airpeak" brand to reflect its aspiration to contribute to the further evolvement and the creation of the unprecedented value through its imaging and sensing technology as well as 3R technologies (Reality, Real-time and Remote) in the drone area.
Airpeak will support the creativity of video creators to the fullest extent possible, aiming to contribute to the further development of the entertainment industry as well as to improved efficiency and savings in various industries. Airpeak will also promote this project to enable drone-use with the highest level of safety and reliability in the environments where this has been difficult in the past.
Sony will continue to post project-related information and obtain feedback from drone users through co-creation activities to prepare for the launch of the project in the spring of 2021.
The company soon plans to begin seeking for the partners in the professional space who can collaborate on the project.
Just posted: Canon RF 85mm F2 Macro IS STM Lens Review.
This lens is going to be very popular.
I still need to create the standard product images for this lens. Expect them up as soon as I can get the hood.
Get in line now! The Canon RF 85mm F2 Macro IS STM Lens is available for order at B&H | Adorama | Amazon USA (in stock at premium price)| WEX
Save the tax, use the B&H Payboo payment card (at B&H, I use this card exclusively)
Rent the Canon RF 85mm F2 Macro IS STM Lens from Lensrentals.
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With a very early alarm in the past and the road lottery ticket on the windshield, a friend and I drove the lead vehicle deep into Denali National Park this morning. We were focused on photographing the Denali peak at first light, but with color in the sky and fog in the foreground, I couldn't resist pausing for a few moments to capture this image.
This scene is one of the many reasons the Canon RF 100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM Lens is part of my standard landscape kit. With the mentioned goal remaining a high priority, this was a jump out of the car, sit, shoot, and jump back in the car scenario. With no time for tripod setup, the Canon EOS R5 and RF 100-500 combination IS was counted on to make the shot sharp, and it did.
When driving by a scene that calls for a photo, I often regret not heeding that call. The captured image is usually worth far more than the very little time and effort the stop typically requires. This was one of the latter cases. Within three minutes of stopping, we were back on the road.
A larger version of this image is available on Flickr.
ISO 200
8192 x 5464px
Canon has made Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM Lens firmware update version 1.0.7 available for download.
Firmware Version 1.0.7 incorporates the following fixes and enhancements:
- Fixes a phenomenon, in rare cases, the IS mechanism may cause the image to jump.
Canon has made Canon EF 400mm f/4 DO IS II USM Lens firmware update version 1.0.9 available for download.
Firmware Version 1.0.9 incorporates the following fixes and enhancements:
- Fixes a phenomenon, in rare cases, the IS mechanism may cause the image to jump.
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