Project 1709 – Canon Starts Cloud Storage (and sharing) Service For Your Photos

On September 17th Canon announced it will start a cloud storage solution that let you upload, organize and share your precious pics. It’s beta for the time being, and only on invite. Strong integration with Facebook. Consumers interested in the beta can register at www.Project1709.com.


Project 1709 – key features

  • Store a lifetime of your images
  • Find any image when you need it
  • Access all your photos anytime, everywhere
  • Enjoy and make the most of your photos
  • Improve your photos to make them the best they can be

Press release:

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[Photokina] Zeiss Announces Deveopment Of Three Primes For Full Frame DSLRs

The new Distagon T* 1,4/55.

Zeiss announced it will develop a new lenses family aimed at high resolution full frame DSLRs.

Carl Zeiss is heralding a particularly powerful new full-frame SLR lens at photokina 2012.  Dr. Michael Pollmann, Consumer Lenses Product and Program Manager in the Carl Zeiss Camera Lenses Division, is addressing strengths and technical details of the new high-end SLR lens family in a Q&A.

The lenses are expected for Autumn 2013 (sigh) and will cost around $3000 since “the lenses are more demanding in terms of material selection and construction than our previous ZE and ZF.2 lenses“. The lenses will be available also for the EF bayonet (ZE).

What does “uncompromising image quality” mean?

The new lenses will achieve extremely high image quality throughout the entire picture including edges even at maximum aperture. At the same time, chromatic aberration is extremely low.

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[Patent] Canon Files Patent For 14mm f/2.8 Lens (better coating, low refractive index)

14mm f/2.8

Egami (translated) spotted another patent filed by Canon. This time it is for a 14mm f/2.8 lens with improved coating (tubular coating):

It seems it is possible to realize a low-refractive-index low reflectivity by the structure below the diffraction limit, even without the uneven surface of the coating. 14mm F2.8 is what I want you to adopt all means patent coating of the lens as the front lens is large, yet is protruding.

Cross-sectional view
  • Patent Publication No. 2012-159723
    • 2012.8.23 Release Date
    • 2011.2.1 filing date
  • Example 1
    • F = 14.3mm focal length
    • Fno. = 2.89
    • Half angle ω = 56.6 °
    • 14 images in 10 groups lens configuration
  • Existing coating roughness
    • In daily use, dirt or dust may adhere, could not wipe, sex or bad Mentenasu productivity and manufacturing process
  • Canon patent
    • (Coating applied to one surface of a lens) thin film layer
    • Having a plurality of tubular spaces are arranged parallel to the tube
    • Maximum opening diameter of the tubular space below 400nm
    • The inorganic oxide materials (silica, titania)
[via Egami]

[Hack] Magic Lantern Now Works On The EOS 7D Too

Magic Lantern running on an EOS 7D

While not yet available, Magic Lantern is running on the Canon EOS 7D.

Yes, that’s true. Our young team member g3gg0 did the impossible, and solved the 7D puzzle within days of receiving the camera […]

Background: Trammell Hudson started to port Magic Lantern on 7D three years ago. While he was able to run user code using the firmware update procedure, he was not able to run it in parallel with Canon firmware – which was required for Magic Lantern to run as an add-on software, without replacing the main firmware. Since then, we had little or no idea about how to solve this puzzle, until last week, when g3gg0 had an Aha! moment and discovered how to load Canon firmware from autoexec.bin code.

The first analysis shows that porting is straightforward (more or less), and most features will work without major code changes, as Magic Lantern does not have to run on both DIGIC processors. Basic features such as zebra and focus peaking are already working, so you may expect an alpha version to be available soon.

Great news for all Canon 7D shooters who want to enhance their gear.

[via planet5d]

[Deals] Canon Sales On Ebay (60D, T4i/650D, G12)

There is a bunch of discounted Canon related items available on eBay. I only list reputable, top rated sellers. Let’s see the items on sale:

  • The EOS 60D is sold for
  • A Rebel T4i/EOS 650D starter kit, including 18-55mm lens, memory card, tripo, bag and more is yours for
  • The Rebel T4i/EOS 650D body only options comes for
  • Canon PowerShot G12 Digital Camera with Deluxe 16GB Accessory Kit, bag etc for
  • Canon 200DG Deluxe Gadget Bag with Opteka 8GB SDHC Memory Kit is sold for