Canon and Sony News for Sep 2017 (Page 3)

 Tuesday, September 19, 2017

The team at LensRentals has produced a humorous series of videos explaining why Lens Rentals is different than their competition. One such example can be seen above.

If you're looking to rent gear in the near future, LensRentals is an excellent choice. To support this site, navigate to the appropriate product review and click the Rent button.

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Posted to: Canon News, Sony News   Category: LensRentals News
Post Date: 9/19/2017 11:48:47 AM ET   Posted By: Sean

B&H has the Lensbaby Composer Pro II with Sweet 80 Optic available for preorder.

The Lensbaby Sweet 80 Optic (without Composer Pro II) is also available for preorder.

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Posted to: Canon News, Sony News   Category: Preorders
Post Date: 9/19/2017 11:22:51 AM ET   Posted By: Sean

From the SmugMug Films YouTube Channel:

The roar of the engine. The curves of the body. The power behind the wheel. Easton Chang captures the heart, soul, and beauty of automobiles through his photography. Get an eyeful of gorgeous cars through his lens, but buckle up tight first.

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Posted to: Canon News, Sony News   
Post Date: 9/19/2017 6:47:54 AM ET   Posted By: Sean

From Profoto:

The Profoto A1 might be the smallest flash we’ve ever made, but it’s still built to the same impossibly high standards we’ve set ourselves over the last fifty years.

Our focus with the A1 was to create a flash that delivers a truly high quality of light, which is why it features a round head which delivers light that's both natural and beautiful with a pleasing soft-smooth fall-off, that blends seamlessly with the ambient light.

Thanks to a smart magnetic mount built into the head, light shaping tools and modifiers can be clicked on and off quickly and easily. Within seconds you're being creative with light, shaping it. It also has a zoom function that allows you to make fine adjustments to the spread of light by simply twisting the zoom ring on the head, and for accuracy it has a modeling light built-in to the head – so you can see what you're going to get before you press the shutter.

We made it our mission to make A1 the first on-camera flash that's easy to use from the box. The user interface is simple and intuitive with a large high-contrast display at its center. The less time you spend learning and fiddling, the more time you'll spend shooting. And that's ultimately what counts. Despite its size, or lack of it, the A1 punches above its weight in a good number of key areas.

Battery life is key when a photographer is right in the thick of the action, because the last thing they need to have to stop mid flow to change the batteries. The A1 has its own Li-ion high capacity battery built-in which lasts up to four times longer than AA batteries with no performance fade. So, you can shoot for longer with confidence.

And this is a flash that can keep up with you because it recycles four times faster than other on-camera solutions – that's every 1.2 seconds at full power. Put simply, you'll never miss a shot.

And while it's true to say the Profoto A1 is our very first on-camera solution it's also just as effective off-camera as a standalone unit, and integrated into a larger system of lights. That level of versatility is possible because Air Remote is built-in, which means the A1 offers seamless connectivity with freestanding lights like another A1 or bigger Profoto lights like the B1X.

And with AirTTL you'll get a perfect exposure super-fast. Better still, you can lock the exposure with a single 'click' while still being free to fine tune that exposure in manual, giving you even greater control.

So, this is so much more than our smallest flash yet. This is shooting on the move, shooting with confidence and shooting with light shaping excellence. This is shooting off-camera and for the first time with Profoto, on-camera. This is the Profoto A1 – the world's smallest studio light.

Features A1

  • Round head with soft, smooth and natural fall off.
  • AirTTL and HSS for a beautiful professional image fast.
  • Smart magnetic click-on mount for A1 Light Shaping Tools.
  • 5 dedicated A1 Light Shaping Tools available.
  • LED modeling light integrated to the head.
  • Air Remote built-in.
  • Rechargeable and exchangeable Li-Ion battery.
  • 1.2s recycling time.
  • TTL/MAN switch.
  • Built in motor-zoom with hand control.
  • Auto focus (AF) assist.
  • Large Hi-Res display
  • Support for Canon, Nikon and later for Sony

Specifications

Profoto A1 Flash Specifications

B&H has the Profoto A1 Flash available for preorder.

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Posted to: Canon News, Sony News   Category: Profoto News
Post Date: 9/19/2017 5:37:36 AM ET   Posted By: Sean
 Monday, September 18, 2017

B&H will be closing for the upcoming Rosh Hashanah holiday. If you need something soon, order it now to avoid a delayed shipment.

SuperStore & Offices
B&H will be closed starting at 1pm ET on Wed Sep 20 through Sat Sep 23.
We will reopen at 9:30am on Sun Sep 24

Online Orders
Online checkout will be available until 6:45pm Wed Sep 20.
Regular checkout will resume at 8:15pm Sat Sep 23.

Shipping
Orders placed before 11am Wed Sep 20 will be processed prior to the holiday closing.
Orders placed after this time will be processed when we reopen on Sun Sep 24.

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Posted to: Canon News, Sony News   Category: B&H News
Post Date: 9/18/2017 2:53:28 PM ET   Posted By: Sean

For several years I've been looking for a program or plugin that was able to convert my photos into a realistic looking pieces of painted artwork. A few months ago, I finally found a solution that gave me the results I was hoping for.

The solution – called Topaz Impression – is software that can be used as a standalone program (accessed via Topaz Studio) or as a plugin for Adobe Photoshop and/or Lightroom.

With tons of presets and the ability to personalize those presets for your own unique look, Impression gives you another tool to improve sales conversions with your clients. Take your shot, process with Impression, then have your converted image printed on canvas for an impressive result.

You can see a before/after example of a shot I took recently atop this post with additional processed examples shown below.

Topaz Impressions Example 2

Topaz Impressions Example 3

Topaz Impression Example 4

While the retail cost of the software may seem a bit steep, I think it is well priced considering the convincing quality of the images I've processed with the software. Fortunately, for a short time you can save 40% (through Sept. 29, 2017) on the software making it a really great deal. [Sean]

Purchase Topaz Impression

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Posted to: Canon News, Sony News   Category: Photo Tips and Stories
Post Date: 9/18/2017 11:53:25 AM ET   Posted By: Sean
 Saturday, September 16, 2017

It was late (about 10:30 PM) and I still had a nearly-4-hour drive home. But, I couldn't help myself and made another stop in Jersey City/Newport. I had been in New York City since early afternoon, walking many miles with a heavy pack as I finalized my scouting in the Brooklyn Bridge Park area around Dumbo. The date was September 11th and the goal was to get at least a high quality image of the city with the Tribute in Light illuminating vertical miles of the night sky.
 
I hope to share an image captured from the primary-selected location later, but periodically the tribute lights are turned off to allow the attracted-by-the-light birds to disperse. I had my initial location images and, not knowing how long the lights would remain off, I decided to pack up and head for a completely different view of the city.
 
The attraction from of this different location? Along with a great city skyline view including the tribute lights being visible closer to the ground than from my first destination, seawalls reduced the wave action on the Hudson River, producing a cleaner reflection in the image and providing interesting leading lines. What I could not have planned for was the black-crowned night heron choosing to roost on a nearby piling. A sidewalk lamp provided just enough foreground illumination for the bird and wall to be brightness-balanced with the city lights in a set of four images bracketed up to a 1 minute exposure at f/11, ISO 100. And, the bird remained motionless long enough to be sharp in one of those frames.
 
After photographing here for nearly two hours, I decided that I had this location covered, including alternative framing using two camera/tripod setups. It was 12:15 AM when I packed up and headed to my car. Then I saw a slightly different angle that I needed to capture. I unpacked a camera and captured one more set of images. As it turns out, that last set was my favorite from the entire trip, the one I am sharing here.
 
A key for composing this image was to use a camera position that was level for both tilt and roll. While the city buildings being rendered rather small in the frame and the tallest building, One World Trade Center, having a tapered shape and being positioned close to the center of the frame, can take a slight camera tilt without looking bad, the bold-in-the-frame pair of bright lines running up the border of the frame were completely unforgiving. Any camera tilt up or down results in those lines tilting inward or outward (respectively) from perspective distortion, appearing unnatural.
 
To create this final image, four 1-stop-bracketed images were processed in Photomatix and the result was polished in Photoshop.
 
For this daytrip, I was focused on getting the best-possible image quality from known-excellent gear. For me, that meant a MindShift Gear BackLight 26L loaded with a pair of Canon EOS 5Ds R bodies and three lenses, the Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L III, Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II and Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II.
 
Yes, I also have the f/4 versions of all three of these lenses and carrying those would have meant a lighter load. While the f/2.8 aperture was not important to me for the amount of light it could take in, I like the lights in a cityscape to become starbursts and wider aperture lenses typically render more prominent starbursts than their narrower max aperture counterparts when used at narrow apertures. The f/2.8 lenses were my choice primarily for that reason alone. The overall focal length range covered by these lenses was ideal for my pursuit. I used all three (and I had the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM Lens in the car if needed).
 
For support, I used the RRS TVC-34 and RRS TQC-14 Carbon Fiber Tripods with RRS BH-55 and RRS BH-40 Ball Heads used respectively. Really Right Stuff gear is among the best made and these particular models are simply excellent.
 
While the World Trade Center building attack being memorialized by the Tribute in Light was extremely tragic, the lights themselves are beautiful and add a great element to the New York City skyline. On each September 11th, when the Tribute in Light becomes visible in the night sky, south Manhattan and the New York City perimeter become especially inspiring for photographers. I no longer remember the 4:15 AM arrive-home time and how tired this trip made me the next day, but I'll long remember the time there and the images captured, reinforcing the "Never Forget" slogan.


A larger version of this image is available on Flickr.

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Posted to: Canon News, Sony News   Category: Photo Tips and Stories
Post Date: 9/16/2017 8:00:00 AM ET   Posted By: Bryan
 Friday, September 15, 2017

From the LensRentals Blog:

So, a while back I wrote a not quite complete article on UV filters. To do that, I had to buy new testing equipment and learn to test filters. This was not what I wanted to do when I grew up. But somebody has to do it, and I did get to buy new toys.

More importantly, Tyler (Who handles the purchasing) asked me why, many years ago, I chose the Circular Polarizing filters that Lensrentals stocked. A better person than me would have confessed that I’ve never known the first thing about Circular Polarizers; that I just bought the most expensive to be our ‘best’ and the cheapest to be our ‘basic.’ But instead, I just said, “Well, we should do some scientific-type testing and a more thorough evaluation now.”

Read the entire article on the LensRentals Blog.

B&H carries Circular Polarizing.

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Post Date: 9/15/2017 2:49:29 PM ET   Posted By: Sean

From the Canon Digital Learning Center:

Gone are the days when engaged couples would sit for a professional studio photo to use in newspaper wedding announcements. Engagement photography is on the rise in the United States, as couples use social media to promote their upcoming weddings in a creative way. Couples use the photos in "save the date" cards, slideshows and even animated GIFs. Learn how you can give the future bride and groom the second happiest day of their lives with a fun engagement photo shoot.
Read the entire article on the Canon Digital Learning Center.

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Post Date: 9/15/2017 10:02:27 AM ET   Posted By: Sean

From Tamron Europe:

September 15, 2017, Saitama, Japan -Tamron Co., Ltd. (President & CEO: Shiro Ajisaka), a leading manufacturer of optics for diverse applications, announces the development of a new ultra-telephoto 100-400mm F/4.5-6.3 Di VC USD zoom lens (Model A035) for full-frame DSLR cameras. The advanced optical design of Model A035 includes 3 LD (Low Dispersion) lens elements for greater aberration reduction and Tamron’s original eBAND Coating for superior anti-reflection performance. At 1,115g (39.3 oz) the new lens is the lightest weight in its class and features magnesium material in key areas of the lens barrel to improve weight reduction, strength and portability. The Model A035 delivers fast and precise autofocus performance and consistently powerful VC (Vibration Compensation) benefits thanks to the high-speed Dual MPU (Micro-Processing Unit) control system that is found in the latest Tamron lens models.

Model A035 is fully compatible with Tamron’s 1.4X tele converter that multiplies the lens’s focal length, and the Tamron TAP-in ConsoleTM which enables lens customizations for focus adjustments, VC mechanism adjustments and more. Additionally, an Arca Swiss compatible tripod mount is available as an optional accessory.

This combination of features and optional accessories join to create a lens that photographers everywhere will enjoy using in various shooting situations, including low-light conditions that require handheld operation as well as those where convenient attachment to a tripod is preferred.

PRODUCT NAME

  • 100-400mm F/4.5-6.3 Di VC USD (Model A035)

DATE OF LAUNCH

  • Launch planned by the end of 2017

Main features

  • 3 LD (Low Dispersion) lens elements effectively compensate for axial chromatic aberrations, a potential issue for ultra-telephoto lenses, and other various aberrations
  • eBAND (Extended Bandwidth & Angular-Dependency) Coating, with superior anti-reflection performance to eliminate flare and ghosting, provides flawless, crystal clear images
  • High-speed Dual MPU (Micro-Processing Unit) control system delivers quick and highly responsive autofocus performance and outstanding vibration compensation
  • Lightest weight (1,115 g / 39.3 oz.) lens in the ultra-telephoto zoom lens category
  • Optional accessory tripod mount is Arca Swiss-compatible
  • MOD (Minimum Object Distance) of 1.5 m (59 in) and maximum magnification ratio of 1:3.6
  • Moisture-Resistant Construction and fluorine coating for enhanced weather protection
  • Fully compatible with tele converters and TAP-in ConsoleTM

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Post Date: 9/15/2017 7:05:47 AM ET   Posted By: Sean

From the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom YouTube Channel:

Learn how to blaze through photos quickly! In this week's Lightroom Coffee Break, Ben Warde explains how to utilize 1:1 previews.

B&H carries Adobe Photography Plan subscriptions.

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Post Date: 9/15/2017 5:33:37 AM ET   Posted By: Sean
 Thursday, September 14, 2017

NEW YORK, September 12, 2017 – Sony Electronics, a worldwide leader in digital imaging and the world’s largest image sensor manufacturer, has today announced several updates related to their Sony Imaging PRO Support organization.

Sony’s organization to support working professional photographers and videographers now features a domestic 24/7 call center and new walk-in service centers in New York City and Los Angeles. Additionally, Sony Imaging PRO Support has launched a full in-the-field technical team to support professionals across all of North America. The team is providing in-the-field service and on-site depot support at major sporting events, media events and shows across North America, offering camera cleanings, evaluation loaners, education and seminars.

Also announced today is the launch of Sony Imaging PRO Support Canada, offering all of the benefits of the program to pros throughout the Canadian market.

Membership to Sony’s Imaging PRO Support organization has grown over 40% year over year in North America, while consistently striving to minimize customer costs and maximize efficiency and turnaround time for all repairs and services.

“Our team is fully committed to building an ecosystem that supports the needs of digital imaging professionals today and tomorrow,” says Sony VP Neal Manowitz. “We are focused on reducing downtime, removing costs and improving overall satisfaction. New walk-in locations, a 24/7 domestic hotline and a field team supporting event depots are just a few of the many steps we are taking to provide the best-in-class solutions for professionals.”

These updates come on the heels of the introduction of Sony’s new flagship a9 camera earlier this year. Featuring the world’s first full-frame stacked CMOS sensor with 24.2MP of resolution, blackout free, completely silent shooting at up to 20 fps4 with full autofocus, a 693 point focal plane phase detection AF system and more, the a9 is revolutionizing the professional imaging market.

Existing benefits of the Pro Support program including dedicated email and call support, expedited three-day repair turnaround time, evaluation loaners, up to three free camera and lens maintenance services per year, complimentary shipping fees for repairs and access to a variety of exclusive members only events held throughout the year.

B&H carries the Sony a9.

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Posted to: Canon News, Sony News   Category: Sony News
Post Date: 9/14/2017 9:32:24 AM ET   Posted By: Sean

From the Canon Digital Learning Center:

As a wedding photographer in New Jersey and New York City, having shot hundreds and hundreds of weddings throughout my 18-year photography career, I've tried out quite a few camera systems in my time. Don't get me wrong; I've always been a Canon baby. Even to the point of learning on and owning my own Canon A1 film camera that my mom passed down to me. I worked my way up from the EOS 10D, and then the EOS 40D, the EOS 5D, and then going to the EOS-1D Mark IV, EOS-1D X, and now EOS-1D X Mark II that I currently shoot with. There are some needs as a wedding and event photographer that are mandatory in a camera body, and other wants that are crucial, but really make your life a whole lot easier.

I recently had the chance to review the EOS 6D Mark II on a real wedding at Mallard Island in Long Beach Island, New Jersey. The location is a beautiful Jersey Shore wedding venue, and the wedding day went just as you would expect a typical wedding day to go. It really allowed me the opportunity to see how the 6D Mark II handled different parts of the wedding day. After getting a feel for the camera, I evaluated it into the top six categories that I consider when choosing a camera to shoot with on a wedding day.

Read the entire article on the Canon Digital Learning Center.

B&H carries the Canon EOS 6D Mark II.

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Post Date: 9/14/2017 9:13:22 AM ET   Posted By: Sean
 Wednesday, September 13, 2017

As promised, image quality results from the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III have been added to the Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG OS HSM Art Lens page.

We recently shared the test results for this lens mounted to a Canon EOS 5Ds R, but some older 24-70mm lenses have not been tested on this camera. Thus, the 1Ds Mark III results fill in some blanks:

Sigma vs. Canon version I
Sigma vs. Sigma non-OS
Sigma vs. Tamron VC

The Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG OS HSM Art Lens is in stock at Amazon and WEX and available for preorder at B&H and Adorama.

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Posted to: Canon News, Sony News   Category: Camera Gear Review News
Post Date: 9/13/2017 9:47:58 AM ET   Posted By: Bryan

From Nikon:

Changes from Version 2.3.0 to 2.3.1

  • Added support for the D850.
  • Added support for the D850’s new White balance > Natural light auto option.

Download: Picture Control Utility 2.3.1

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Posted to:    Categories: Nikon Software Updates, Picture Control Utility
Post Date: 9/13/2017 7:21:36 AM ET   Posted By: Sean
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