Canon and Sony News for Nov 2011
4th Notice on the damage from the flood in Thailand
December 1, 2011
This is to advise you of the latest situations of Nikon (Thailand) Co., Ltd., a consolidated manufacturing subsidiary of Nikon Corporation in the Rojana Industrial Park in Ayutthaya Province located in Central Thailand, which is suffering damages from the flood.
1. Latest situations
Water pumping-out by the Rojana Industrial Park authority around Nikon (Thailand) Co., Ltd. has completed on November 26. Following this development, we are putting all our energy into restoring infrastructure and production equipment of the factory aiming for some part of factory operation to resume from January 2012. Alternative and limited production at our partner factories in Thailand has started earlier than expected, and we have started shipment of certain digital SLR cameras and interchangeable lenses since November 30.
2. Estimated impact to our business performance
The impact of the flood to our business performance for the financial period ending March 31, 2012 is estimated, within the scope of our current findings and understanding, to push down net sales by 65 billion yen and operational income by 25 billion yen due to sales opportunity loss. While this estimation remains unchanged from our announcement on November 4, we assure you to immediately advise new findings once it is judged there will be an important change for it. We are continuing our minute investigation on the damage to the buildings and production equipment/tools from the flood.
3. Recovery
We have set up support and recovery system under the Emergency Headquarters for Disaster Control headed by the president and continuing our endeavor for recovery and normalization of production as early as possible. Our plan to resume production of digital SLRs and interchangeable lenses to the normal level of volume by the end of March 2012 remains unchanged.
We deeply apologize you for any inconvenience cause by the disaster such as short supply of our products.
The Canon Professional Network has posted two videos about the new Canon EOS-1D X:
CPN: EOS-1D X on film: Pt. 1 – Autofocus explained
CPN: EOS-1D X on film: Pt. 2 – CMOS sensor and image processing explained
DxO Optics Pro 7 is now shipping.
B&H is accepting DxO Optics Pro 7 preorders.
Note: Until the proper discounts for version 7 are in place, just order v6 and take the free upgrade option promised by DxO.
Version 6 owners not qualifying for the free upgrade can upgrade to v7 at a discount by logging onto the DxO Labs Store under the "Upgrades" tab. The Standard upgrade is $49 and the Elite is $149. (thanks Steven)
Available in mid-December, the just-announced Speedlight SB-910 replaces the Speedlight SB-900. Learn about the Nikon Speedlight SB-910 here:
Nikon USA Press Release
Nikon USA Product Page
Nikon.com Product Page
Preorder the Nikon Speedlight SB-910
Scuba diver Markus Thompson discovered a Canon EOS 1000D at the bottom of Deep Bay, BC.
The camera, being undersea for a year, was of course a complete loss. The pictures contained on the SD card, however, were not. With the help of the Google+ along with some idetifiable details in the recovered pictures, Marc was able to locate the owner.
See pictures of the camera and read Markus' post here. (thanks Rob)
Adobe has posted Adobe Drive 3.0.1 Update (Windows | Macintosh)
"This update provides key fixes and improvements in performance, metadata handling, the Adobe Drive Connect UI, and other areas."
Full release notes are available here.
Francesco Marzoli’s Camera Raw 6 User’s Guide is available for free download from X-Rite.
Canon USA Professional Services (CPS) has a new website. I'm not sure how long this has been up, but ... the new site has a much more "professional" look to it.
Sample pictures have been added to the following reviews:
Canon EF 400mm f/2.8L IS II USM Lens Review
Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 EX DC OS HSM Lens Review
LightingDiagram.com allows quality lighting diagrams to easily be created and edited. The diagrams can be downloaded free for personal use. Note that Internet Explorer is not supported.
From Gitzo:
Thanks to its unique expertise in composite materials, Gitzo developed a new High Performance basalt fibre tube. The new tube comes from a radical innovation of the Poltrusion process, the aerospace technology used by Gitzo to manufacture its composite tubes in one single step, starting from the raw fibres.
Fibres are wet in the special resin and then pulled through a high temperature core that generates the tube as we know it. This works perfectly with 6X carbon fibre tubes, while basalt fibres absorb a smaller quantity of resin and this reduces tube density and performance. To overcome this physical limit of basalt fibres, it has been developed a new technology (DRI) to boost a higher quantity of resin into the fibres and increase the tube performance up to 22%, depending on the tube diameter. Besides the High Performance tube, the new Gitzo Basalt Collection offer new sizes and a new look. Basalt tripods are available in Series 1 - 2 and 3 in standard and compact height.
The range also includes a new monopod and a microphone boom, both in a convenient 6 section compact size. The new basalt introduces a new colour scheme: black and flame orange, inspired by the basalt itself, a black rock that comes from the Earth lava core.
The basalt collection is completed by three centre ball heads in the new black and flame orange colour scheme to perfectly match basalt tripods and monopod. Basalt fibre tripods, monopod and boom come with the same features of the top of the range 6X models, such as G-Lock, ALR, Ground Level Set, Power Disk, third ground level leg spread and self locking feet among the others. Basalt tripods come with a smart Gitzo display cleaner and a convenient anti dust bag for storage and packing.
Learn more at Gitzo.com.
Samyang Press Release:
Samyang AE 8mm 1:3.5 Aspherical IF MC Fish-eye CS
Utterly new lens with an integrated microprocessor compatible with Nikon DSLR cameras.
Kraków, November 25th 2011 - Delta Company, the sole distributor of Samyang products for Europe is about to release new lens - Samyang AE 8mm 1:3.5 Aspherical IF MC Fish-eye CS with the Nikon mount. This new, improved version is to replace the previous model without a microprocessor.
Samyang AE 8mm 1:3.5 Aspherical IF MC Fish-eye CS has been fitted with an electronic circuit, and just like other AE models allows for full control of exposure parameters from the camera level, and makes it easy to use i-TTL flash automatics. Owing to the integrated microprocessor, the light measurement system is effective in all photography modes and for all types of Nikon DSLR cameras. AE line additionally records exposure parameters and focus value in the Exif format.
Samyang 8mm 1:3.5 Aspherical IF MC Fish-eye CS is the high-class wide-angle lens designed for DSLR cameras with APS-C/DX sensor. This really is a sophisticated optical construction based on ten lenses arranged in seven groups, including one hybrid-aspherical lens which reduces chromatic aberration level. All lenses are covered with multi-layered, anti-reflexive coating of new generation. Optical parameters are thus of the highest-possible quality.
Warranty
Samyang AE 8mm 1:3.5 Aspherical IF MC Fish-eye CS lens is covered by 36-months warranty.
Price
Samyang AE 8mm 1:3.5 Aspherical IF MC Fish-eye CS – EUR 325 gross
Looks like humor is infiltrating the customer reviews of the Sigma 200-500mm f/2.8 APO EX DG Ultra-Telephoto Zoom Lens at Amazon.com.
John Reilly (neuroanatomist) is back with his AF Microadjustment Tips.
I have not had time to review all of the new Lowepro Lens Cases yet, but this Lowepro Lens Case Size Chart (Excel .xls format, provided by Lowepro) should make selecting the right case easier.
B&H carries Lowepro Lens Cases. (thanks Luis)
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