Canon lost trial in patent infringement cause (sensor technology)

Canon Rumors Color Calibration
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Company Intellectual Ventures accused Canon of patent infringement. Canon lost. Two image sensor patents are concerned: US6,221,686 “Method of making a semiconductor image sensor” and US6,023,081 “Semiconductor image sensor.”

Delaware Intellectual Property Litigation published a document with the motivations (see pages 11-19).

By Memorandum Opinion entered by The Honorable Sue L. Robinson in Intellectual Ventures I, LLC, et al. v. Canon Inc., et al., Civil Action No. 11-792-SLR (D.Del., May 18, 2015), the Court granted plaintiff’s alternative motion for a new trial regarding infringement of U.S. Patent Numbers 6,121,960 (“the ‘960 patent”) and 5,754,348 (“the ‘348 patent”) after concluding that defense counsel in his closing argument improperly played the role of expert witness by inferring from factual testimony that the accused devices did not meet the claim limitations arguments.  The court found such argument to be contrary to a pre-trial agreement that defendant would not present any evidence of non-infringement, including evidence of a lack of a subjective intent to infringe, particularly given that the Court previously barred certain testimony from plaintiff’s witnesses on the topic during the trial.

[via Image Sensors World]

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM hands-on review

50mm F/1.8
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Photography Bay posted a short hands-on about the new Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM lens, initial thoughts and sample photos inlcuded. The conclusion nails it:

If you are a Canon shooter and you don’t have a 50mm lens in your bag, the new EF 50mm f/1.8 STM is the next lens you should buy. It’s useful enough and affordable enough that everyone should consider picking one up.

Head over to Photography Bay for the review. The new Nifty-Fifty is in stock and sells for $125 at Amazon | B&H Photo | Adorama | DigitalRev (ships world-wide).

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM availability check for your country: B&H Photo, Adorama, Amazon USA, Amazon Canada, Canon Canada, Canon USA.

EF 50mm f/1.8 STM specifications (taken from Adorama’s product page):

  • Compact, Lightweight Fixed Focal Length Lens: ideal for everyday photos, and with a large f/1.8 aperture, a perfect lens for low-light photography and creative background blur.
  • 80mm effective focal-length: when attached to an APS-C camera optimal for portraits and photos of fast moving subjects such as children and pets.
  • A stepping motor (Gear-type STM): supports the Movie Servo AF function in providing smooth and quiet continuous AF during video recording, as well as when shooting photos.
  • Improved exterior design: includes new focus ring placement making it the most compact Canon 50mm lens.
  • Metal mount: helps provide stability and ruggedness.
  • Optimized lens placement and coatings: help deliver outstanding color balance, while minimizing ghosting and flare.
  • Circular aperture (7 blades): helps deliver beautiful, soft backgrounds. h
  • Minimum focusing distance: of 14in (0.35m); maximum magnification of 0.21x

The technology behind the Canon EOS 5DS and EOS 5DS R – Interview with developers

5ds

Canon Asia posted an interview with the deveolpment team behind the Canon EOS 5Ds and EOS 5Ds R. An excerpt:

Question:What was the reason for not changing the AF sensor? Was it because the performance of the system on the EOS 5D Mark III was good enough?

Answer: Yes, you are right. The EOS 5D Mark III and the EOS 5DS series share exactly the same principles of forming an image on the focal plane. It can handle any number of pixels as long as the level of accuracy is maintained. The existing AF sensor is perfectly fine since it has a sufficiently high level of detection performance.

[…]

Question: What changes were made to the existing firmware following the upgrade of the pixel count to about 50 megapixels?

Answer: The huge amount of data has a significant impact on the firmware. In order to ensure speedy and smooth data processing under such conditions, advanced and complex processes are needed, such as parallel processing while switching between the memory spaces. As there is limited space in the built-in memory of the camera, it is important to consider how this space can be utilised most effectively.

Read the interview at Canon Asia.

Mirror Vibration Control System (image credit: Canon) – a) Down Cam Gear, b) Up Cam Gear, c) Mirror-driving Motor, d) Sub Mirror Bound Suppression Mechanism, e) Main Mirror f) Down Spring, g) Down Cam Gear, h) Up Cam Gear, i) Main Mirror Balancer, j) Mirror-driving Motor

Want to have a look at the EOS 5DS and EOS 5DS R features? The user manuals for the Canon EOS 5DS and EOS 5DS R can be downloaded at Canon Europe. Canon’s new EOS 5DS and EOS 5DS R are available for pre-order:

Aquatica announce A5Dsr housing for Canon EOS 5DS, EOS 5DS R and EOS 5D Mk III

a5dsr

Aquatica announced a new housing compatible with the new Canon EOS 5Ds and EOS 5Ds R. and with the EOS 5D Mark III. The Aquatica A5Dsr housing will sell for $ 3,399.

Press release:

Aquatica housing for the Canon 5Ds, 5Dsr & 5D Mk III is being introduced!

The Aquatica Team is proud to introduce to you the new Aquatica A5Dsr housing for the upcoming Canon 5Ds, 5Dsr and the existing 5D Mk III. Scheduled for shipping around July 1st.

THE DESIGN

Our Design team has refreshed the housing design for the 5D line of cameras with new improved operational ergonomics. This precision housing follows in the steps of a very time proven lineage of underwater camera housings for the constantly evolving 5D camera line up. Aquatica has been on top of the 5D program since they introduced the original one a decade ago, much like the 5D camera did, our housing has evolved into a fine imaging tool that mirrors the constant evolution of technology and the input of highly respected professional’s image makers from around the world.

IKELITE TTL OPTION & EXPOSURE CONTROL

Now offering original internal TTL circuitry from Ikelite as an option, this 5Dsr housing edition brings creativity to a new level, strobe exposure control is right there, were it is supposed to be, you can now tweak your lighting exposure or even go fully manual right at your fingertips. Controlling the amount of light entering your camera is paramount to the success of any image maker, and the A5Dsr housing controls for aperture, shutter, ISO and strobe exposures are all a “hands on the grips” approach. Every one of these is positioned to be intuitive, eliminating confusion and making the housing a natural extension of the photographer.

a5dsr3

[via DPG]
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In2white is a 365-Gigapixel Panorama of Mont Blanc, shot with a Canon EOS 70D

Italian photographer Filippo Blengini contacted us to share an amazing project he led and contributed to realise. In2white, the project’s name, produced the largest panoramic photo ever made.

The team led by Filippo Blengini spent 2 weeks on 3.500 meters (around 11.500 ft) to shot 70,000 photos of the Mont Blanc (Europe’s highest mountain), for a total of 35 hours (most of the time at -10 degree Celsius). The 365 gigapixel, high resolution photo can be viewed (and zoomed in) here. Can you spot the climbers?

The project was realised in 2014. The team then spent around 2 months for post-processing the 46 terabytes of footage they have shot. You may wonder what gear they used: a Canon EOS 70D, a Canon EF 400mm f/2.8 II IS, and a Canon Extender 2X III.

Filippo and his team mates describe the concept:

How to celebrate Her Majesty the Mont Blanc? We just wished to represent it as it shows to our eyes : major beauty, astonishing magnitude, pure elation.

We were brave, crazy and ambitious enough to think about a gigapanoramic picture, to seize every single detail of the mountain. We are Filippo and Alessandra, passionate of mountain, beauty and photography: here’s our concept, our tribute to the Mont Blanc.

But we were not alone in this challenge: we built a Team of dreamers and passionates from all over the World, that shared with enthusiasm our same vision and embraced our project.

Below you can watch a short video about the making of the 365-Gigapixel panorama photo.

[via Filippo Blengini via In2white]

Notice to our readers – working on site [Update]

Update: it’s done. Hope everything works fine for you.

Hi all, just a short post to tell you that I am working on a new layout for Canon Watch, along with some fine-tuning and bug fixing.

I apologise for any inconvenience you may encounter. I am trying to keep things as smooth as possible but some downtime and maybe a quirk or another (which I missed) may show up.

Thanks for your understanding!

Steve