Canon 5Ds R vs Sony A7RII vs Nikon D810 comparison

The folks at fstoppers posted an exhaustive and educated comparison between the Canon EOS 5Ds R, the Sony Alpha a7RII, and the Nikon D810. The Alpha a7RII being the underdog in the pack. The Alpha a7RII is not the winner here. As noted by many other sophisticated review sites, the a7RII simply is a product that’s not fully mature yet, and hence not a tool for those who are seriously into photography. From the conclusion:

The truth is that technology is so good now that you could use almost any current camera to get amazing professional results. A few more megapixels or a stop of dynamic range isn’t going to effect your pictures at all.
The Sony A7RII is a great camera. If you don’t already have a lot of money invested in a camera system and 2.8 lenses aren’t a necessity right now, the A7RII may be a fantastic choice. I just didn’t feel like the Sony was able to outperform the DSLR competitors in an area other than 4k video recording. That leads me to conclude that the A7RII isn’t actually better than the D810 or 5DSR, it’s just a really great smaller option.

If you have to read one comparison like this one, then read fstopper’s review. The 16 minutes video above is a very good overview about the review. You may be interested in an opinion piece about the a7RII I wrote some time ago.

eos 5ds r
Canon EOS 5Ds R

Canon EOS 5DS: B&H Photo, Adorama, Amazon USA, Amazon Canada, Canon Canada, Canon USA | Canon EOS 5DS R: B&H Photo, Adorama, Amazon USA, Amazon Canada, Canon Canada, Canon USA

Impressing Canon ME20F-SH footage shot in absolute darkness (Canon ISO 4.5M camera)

oktostore on Vimeo posted footage shot with Canon’s ISO 4.5 Million camera, the Canon ME20F-SH. As with previous footage (see here too), the results are truly impressing. Be sure to have a look at mark 4:10 (shot in absolute darkness) and at 5:18 (infrared).

Below is a video with an interview with Canon about the ME20F-SH.

Canon Dual Pixel AF with Tamron SP 35mm and SP 45mm f/1.8 primes (both shipping)

Short video by Dustin Abbott showing Canon’s Dual Pixel CMOS AF used on the new Tamron SP 35mm f/1.8 VC and Tamron SP 45mm f/1.8 VC. It’s not as silent as Canon’s STM lenses, but for the rest it seems to work good and smooth. Dustin Abbott also posted an exhaustive video review of both lenses. Dual Pixel CMOS Auto-Focus is featured on the EOS 7D Mark II and Canon EOS 70D, and on Canon’s Cinema cameras. Tamron’s new primes captured a lot of attention since they were announced. For a good reason. The SP 35mm f/1.8 Di VC USD and the SP 45mm f/1.8 Di VC USD are affordable, and have weather sealing and image stabilisation. That’s a lot of bang for $599. Both lenses are now shipping.

Tamron

Canon EOS C300 Mark II impression by LensRentals

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The folks over at LensRentals posted a first impression about the Canon EOS C300 Mark II. When talking about performance, they write:

Surprisingly, the thing that impressed me most in my time with the Canon C300 Mark II had nothing to do with resolution, bit rate, or dynamic range. Digital video technology has improved so much in just the last few years that those specs, while enormously important, aren’t enough on their own to make me choose one camera over the other. There are simply so many great digital cinema cameras on the market right now that it takes a wholly original feature to make a camera stand out. In the case of the Canon C300 Mark II, that feature is autofocus. Read the review at LensRentals.

What makes the auto-focus so powerful is Dual Pixel CMOS Auto-Focus technology, featured also on the EOS 7D Mark II and Canon EOS 70D. Below you see two test videos shot with the C300 Mark II. You may also be interested in a C300 Mark II white paper Canon recently published.

Canon C300 Mark II (B&H Photo | Adorama) specs at a glance:

  • New Canon 8.85 Megapixel CMOS Sensor
  • Dual Canon DIGIC DV5 Image Processors
  • Canon XF-AVC H.264 Codec
  • Internal 4K/2K/Full HD Recording
  • Twin 3G-SDI Outputs for up to 30p 4K
  • Full Manual Control
  • 1.77 Megapixel Color OLED EVF With Adjustable 60o Tilt Angle
  • Uses All Canon CN-E Cinema Prime and Zoom Lenses
  • Uses All Canon EF and EF-S Photo Lenses (Including Specialty Tilt-Shift and Other Models)
  • Built-In Mono Microphone
  • Removable LCD Monitor and Control Panel with XLR Inputs
  • Removable Hand Grip
  • Improved Low-Angle Camera Handle Extension
  • Built-in Dual-Band Wi-Fi for Remote LiveView Display and Camera Control

 

Tamron SP 35mm f/1.8 Di VC and SP 45mm f/1.8 Di VC video review

Tamron’s new primes captured a lot of attention since they were announced. For a good reason. The SP 35mm f/1.8 Di VC USD and the SP 45mm f/1.8 Di VC USD are affordable, and have weather sealing and image stabilisation. That’s a lot of bang for $599.

In the video above, photographer Dustin Abbott takes a close look at the build quality of the new Tamron primes, the SP 35mm f/1.8 Di VC USD and the SP 45mm f/1.8 Di VC USD, and compares the them with their main competitors. Dustin Abbott posted also an image gallery on his blog.

In the video below, he is examining Tamron’s claims about the lenses’ performance. Do the lenses stand up in real world shooting? Resolution, image stabilization, flare resistance, close focus performance, chromatic aberration control, and autofocus are tested.

Tamron

[via Dustin Abbott]
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Canon EF-M 22mm f/2 STM review, it’s a no-brainer (photozone)

Canon EF-M 32mm F/1.4 STM EF-M 22mm Canon Lenses

Well known lens testing site Photozone reviewed the Canon EF-M 22mm f/2 STM pancake lens.

Canon did a good job once more. The Canon EF-M 22mm f/2 STM may be a tiny lens but it is an impressive performer nonetheless. The center quality is great throughout the relevant aperture range and the borders are also very impressive. There’s some softness in the image corners at large apertures though and this is somewhat emphasized by a bit of field curvature. Stopping down lifts the corner performance significantly. […] Image distortions are negligible and lateral CAs are well controlled. In critical scenes you may spot some purple fringing at f/2 but that’s rather normal for a such a large aperture lens. On the downside the vignetting is on the high side even when stopped down. The bokeh is Okay for a moderate wide-angle lens but you will notice some smearing effects in difficult scenes. Read the review.

The EF-M 22mm f/2 STM is a razor-sharp lens, and the one of the two interesting lenses for the EOS M system (the other one is the EF-M 11-22mm f/4-5.6 IS STM). At $160 it’s definitely a no-brainer. It’s my prefered lens on the EOS M3. Canon Watch’s EOS M3 review is here.

Unfortunately for us, Canon managed to release just four lenses for the EOS M system. However, there is a rumor suggesting Canon may soon announce a score of new EF-M lenses.

Canon EF-M 22mm f/2 STM: B&H Photo, Adorama, Amazon USA, Amazon Canada, Canon Canada, Canon USA

EOS M3

[via Photozone ]