News tagged with "lens"

Leica has announced the Elmarit-S 45 mm f/2.8 ASPH lens for its medium format S system. With an angle of view equivalent to a 35mm lens on full frame, it offers a classic moderate wide-angle field of view. Like several of the other S lenses it'll be available in two versions, either with or without an in-lens 'Central Shutter' (that allows flash sync at shutter speeds up to 1/1000 sec). At the same time, Leica is offering firmware updates for its S, S2 and S2-P cameras to give 'optimum functionality' with the lens. The Elmarit-S 45 mm f/2.8 ASPH will be in dealers this month at a price of £4650, or £5500 for the CS model.

Mount adapters are incredibly useful for their ability to make lenses from one manufacturer usable with camera bodies from another. But do they have any impact on image quality? LensRentals' Roger Cicala, not one to take manufacturer's claims at face value, investigated. Knowing that slight mis-alignments between a lens and even its native mount can cause softness in images, the added complexity with a lens adapter in the mix seemed likely to cause more problems. His findings are indeed interesting. 

Fujifilm has announced the FUJINON XF23mm F1.4 R, a premium fast wideangle lens for its X system mirrorless cameras. It offers the same moderate wideangle view as the fixed-lens X100S, but with an extra stop of brightness. The overall design approach is similar to the company's recent XF14mm F2.8 R, with distance and depth of field scales for manual focusing, and fully optical (rather than digital) correction of distortion. The 23mm F1.4 will be available in October 2013 with an SRP of $899.95 / £849.99. Click through for the full press release. 

Canon has released a version of its EF-S 55-250mm F4-5.6 lens that uses its STM stepping motor. STM lenses are designed for movie recording, with the goal of providing smooth and silent focusing. Unlike its predecessor, the STM version of the 55-250 has internal focusing. You'll be able to pick up the 55-250 STM lens in late September for $350. It's also a safe bet that the 55-250 STM will come bundled with Canon DSLRs in the near future.

Zeiss has posted a blog article that talks about the inception and development of its latest line of lenses, led by the 55mm F1.4 that was first shown at Photokina last year. Titled 'No Compromise', it explains how the company is aiming to meet the demands of the latest high resolution sensors, to satisfy the needs of both professional photographers and ambitious hobbyists. Click through to read more, and the link to the original article.

Alongside the enthusiast-oriented DMC-GX7, Panasonic has announced the Leica DG Nocticron 42.5mm F1.2 - the fastest autofocus lens ever created for the Micro Four Thirds system. If you're getting a sense of deja vu that's because Panasonic actually announced this lens already (sort of) at last year's Photokina tradeshow in Cologne, Germany. But what was then a dummy lens behind glass now appears to be a real product, albeit one without any firm availability date or pricing information. 

Fujifilm has updated its X-mount lens roadmap to include a 50-230mm F4.5-6.7 OIS lens as part of its more affordable 'XC' series. The 75-350mm equivalent tele-zoom joins the 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 XC and the ten existing or announced high-end XF series lenses in Fujifilm's lineup. The company also highlights the three Touit lenses available or planned by Zeiss for the X-mount system. The Fujinon XC50-230mm F4.5-6.7 OIS appears in the fourth quarter of 2013 on the roadmap.

We've all been there - your friend Carl is over by the fridge, getting some ice, and there you are with an expensive new Carl Zeiss lens, and you're describing it to someone, and Carl keeps saying 'What? What did you say? Do you want ice?' It's confusing. No wonder then that German lens manufacturer Carl Zeiss has decided to officially drop the 'Carl' and will henceforth be known simply as ZEISS. According to the manufacturer's blog, the decision was taken to 'create consistency' across its brand communications. Click through for more details (and no more terrible Carl puns, we promise).

Panasonic has announced the Lumix G 20mm F1.7 II ASPH, a revised version of its classic fast pancake lens for Micro Four Thirds. The H-HS020A, as Panasonic likes to call it, features a metallic exterior and slightly reduced weight, and will come in a choice of silver or black finishes. The optical design appears to be unchanged, with 7 elements in 5 groups including 2 aspheric elements; not a bad thing as its predecessor is one of our favourite lenses. The 20mm F1.7 II will be available in late July at a price of $399/£349.

Just posted: Our review of the Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 STM lens. In the latest of our lens reviews brought to you in partnership with DxOMark, we take a look at Canon's slimline 'pancake' prime for its APS-C and full frame SLRs. It's one of the smallest and cheapest lenses currently on the market, and includes a stepper motor for silent focusing during movie recording. But does its small size and low price result in compromised optics? Read our review to find out. 

Another interesting patent has been discovered by Japanese blogger Egami, which shows a new method devised by Canon to adjust the shape of meniscus lens that seems different from the more straightforward method used by competitors. Canon's method uses the same 'electrowetting' principle as existing designs but does so to create a series of pumps, allowing faster and more precise control over the resultant lens.

Sony's RX1 fixed 35mm full frame compact has received the prestigious Camera Grand Prix 2013 title, while Sigma's 35mm F1.4 DG HSM was named lens of the year. The awards, organized by the Japanese Camera Journal Press Club have a history of recognizing what prove to be historically significant cameras. Meanwhile, the Editors Awards were given to the Canon EOS 6D and Sigma's DP Merrill series of compacts.

Panasonic has issued a firmware update for its Lumix G X Vario 12-35mm F2.8 ASPH Power OIS fast standard zoom for Micro Four Thirds cameras (H-HS12035). Version 1.2 improves the stability of the optical image stabilisation during movie recording. It's available to download now from the LUMIX customer support site - click through for the link.

Panasonic has created the Lumix G Vario 14-140mm F3.5-5.6 ASPH Power OIS, a second-generation 10x zoom for Micro Four Thirds cameras. The lens offers a smaller, lighter, less-expensive alternative to the original G Vario HD 14-140mm F4.0-5.8 ASPH Mega OIS. The latest version features three aspheric and two ED elements and an internal focus design with linear stepper motors to make the most of the faster focus processing of the latest Micro Four Thirds bodies.

Just posted: Our hands-on preview of Fujifilm's latest telephoto zoom lens, the Fujinon 55-200mm F3.5-4.8 R LM OIS. Designed for the company's X-system mirrorless cameras, it offers an 83-300mm equivalent angle of view, and a relatively fast maximum aperture. It also includes optical image stabilisation and two linear stepper motors for quiet focusing. Click through to read our detailed preview for more information. 

Nikon has filed a patent covering the idea of a password-based security system for lenses. The patent lists the high value of lenses as a reason for the innovation - the camera would refuse to shoot with a lens unless the correct password was entered. This is an attempt by the the company to prevent resale of stolen gear. (via Nikon Rumors)

Metabones has announced the schedule for the Micro Four Thirds version of its innovative 'Speed Booster' lens adapter has slipped to the second half of 2013. Like the existing version for mounting Canon EF lenses on Sony NEX cameras, the forthcoming version will allow the use of full-frame lenses, reducing the focal length by a factor of 0.71x and increases the maximum aperture by 1 stop. The Micro Four Thirds version will give a 1.4x overall 'crop' - giving a similar field of view to APS-C stills cameras and the Super35mm video format.(via 43rumors)

NAB 2013: Canon has announced the development of a 35mm prime lens in its Cinema EOS range. It is designed to be used on movie cameras with image sensors up to 35mm full frame in size, and includes a range of features optimized for movie shooting. The company has not finalized its specifications and pricing, but says it will release further details in due course. However as the Cinema EOS primes offer T-stops that correlate closely with existing L-series primes, it seems likely the 35mm will be approximately T1.5, and of course use the EF mount.

Just posted: Our review of the Fujinon XF 14mm 1:2.8 R lens. Fujifilm has been steadily building up its X-system of rangefinder-inspired mirrorless cameras since its launch in January last year, and the 14mm F2.8 is the fifth lens in the family. It's a 21mm-equivalent ultra-wide prime that's designed to match the full field of view offered by the X-Pro1's optical viewfinder. Like the other XF primes it has an aperture ring on the lens barrel, but it also includes an improved manual focus ring with distance and depth of field scales. Fujifilm makes some grand claims for its optical performance; click through to see if it lives up to them in our detailed review.

SLR Magic has announced its Monster Lens II spotting scope for Micro Four Thirds cameras. The optic mounts directly on the camera body, allowing users to shoot distant images, commonly referred to as 'digiscoping'. The 12-36x50 ED lens gives an equivalent optical zoom range of 840-2,520mm and aims to keep image quality high with extra-low dispersion optics and multi-coated glass elements. It will be available from June 2013 at a suggested retail price of $799. Click through to to read more.