SanDisk and Canon Deals Live at Adorama (refurb S100, EOS 70D w/ 18-55mm and Pro100 Printer, SanDisk Extreme SSD)

Adorama has some interesting deals going on:

  • Refurbished Canon PowerShot S100 (12MP, 5x Zoom, 24mm wide angle lens) for just $194 (click here), regular price is $429
  • Canon EOS 70D Digital kit with EF-S 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 IS STM Lens and Canon Pro100 printer – it’s yours for $1185 (click here) after $400 mail-in rebate – all you have to do is to add the Canon Pro100 printer. Moreover, 4% rewards.
  • SanDisk Extreme II 240GB Solid State Drive (SSD), SATA 6 Gb/s Interface, Up to 550 MB/s Sequential Read, on sale for $199 (click here) instead of $229.95 – offer expires 10/13/2013
  • SanDisk Extreme II 480GB Solid State Drive (SSD), SATA 6 Gb/s Interface, Up to 545 MB/s Sequential Read, on sale for $359 (click here) instead of $459.95 – offer expires 10/13/2013

EOS 70D Sample Shots

Canon EOS 70D Sample Shots with Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 (and other Canon lenses)

EOS 70D Sample Shots

dc.watch.impress (translated) posted a set of samples shot with the Canon EOS 70D and various lenses, among them the awesome Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM (price & specs). The other lenses are the EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 (price & specs), the EF 8-15mm f4L Fisheye (price & specs), and the EF 70-200 f/4L IS (price & specs). I was particularly curious to see the performance of the Sigma 18-35mm with the 70D – not bad at all! :)

EOS 70D Sample ShotsEOS 70D Sample Shots

 

Nauticam Announces Underwater Housing for Canon EOS 70D

Underwater Housing for Canon EOS 70D

Nauticam announced an underwater housing for the fabulous Canon EOS 70D, the NA-70D. Price will be $3300, estimated shipping: October 1, 2013. Features of the underwater housing:

Feature Advantage
Rugged housing body milled from solid aluminum 100m depth rating and built to last
Patented port locking lever Easy and safe port mounting, solidly locks port in place
Knobby command dials Can be operated even with thick gloves on
Patented housing locking latches Secure but easy to use
Rubberized handle grips Comfortable and placed for optimum access to controls
Lens release button Easy changeout of lenses without removing camera from housing
Drop in camera tray No need to preset controls, just drop in and it is ready to go
Fiber optic ports Optical TTL with Inon and Sea&Sea strobes
3 Bulkhead ports For optional HDMI or sync cable bulkheads
Viewfinder, 0.66x Enhanced 180º and 45º viewfinders optional
Laser cut stainless steel handle brackets For extra stability when using heavy lighting. Now even lighter weight!
Light mounting balls 2 handle mounted balls standard, mounting balls for housing optional
Tripod mounting points Important for macro video shooters
Control labeling Easy to find and understand control functions
Integrated Electronic Vacuum/Leak Detection System Status of the watertight security of the housing at a glance

NA-70D Controls (advantages/usage underwater):

  • Sensitive two stage shutter release (easy to gauge half press; gives fine control over the shutter release)
  • AF-ON Lever (strategically placed for easy thumb focus or thumb focus lock)
  • Front Command Dial directly under shutter release (change aperture effortlessly)
  • Rear Command Dial at left side next to thumb (change shutter speed without removing hand from grips)
  • Multi Controller Pad controls the 8 way selector (easily change focus area, even diagonally)
  • Manual Zoom/Focus Knob (zoom/focus the lens without a reach)
  • ISO Paddle at right thumb (very quick ISO changes; ISO has become a key control, especially for video)
  • Info Button brought out to left thumb (calls up the important info screen, in playback mode toggles histogram)
  • Playback button paddle at left thumb (makes reviewing images easy)
  • Q button paddle at left thumb (zoom, check critical focus, pan without removing hand from grip)
  • Mode dial (switch from P to Av to M modes easily)
  • AF Mode, Drive Mode and Metering Mode push buttons (easy to change with Canon’s push-turn style)
  • Focus Expansion Button (change focus area style quickly)
  • *, and Focus Points button accessible with right thumb (change focus points, lock exposure, plus zoom during live view)
  • Depth of Field Preview accessible with right thumb (programmable to several different functions)
  • Menu button near left thumb (access to all camera options)
  • Movie/Still mode lever (effortless switch from still to movie shooting)
  • Start/stop video on right thumb paddle (start video without inducing camera shake)
  • On/off  switch automatically aligns (no need to preset camera)

The following lenses are supported by the housing (not the complete list):

  • Tokina AF 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 AT-X 107 DX
  • Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM
  • Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 AT-X 116 Pro DX
  • Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM | C
  • Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM
  • Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
  • Canon EF 180mm f/3.5L Macro USM
  • Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM
  • Canon EF 8-15mm /4L Fisheye USM
  • Canon EF 8-15mm /4L Fisheye USM & Kenko 1.4X Pro DGX
  • Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye
  • Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM
  • Canon EF 17-40mm /4L USM
  • Sigma 15mm f/2.8 EX DG Diagonal Fisheye
  • and more….

Underwater Housing for Canon EOS 70D

Read the whole press release after the break.

Click here to open the rest of the article

More Canon EOS 70D Dual Pixel Auto-Focus Test Videos

The real technological highlight and the biggest innovation of the Canon EOS 70D is the Dual Pixel CMOS auto-focus. That’s not to say the EOS 70D falls short as a stills DSLR, but the new AF is a real game changer. We have seen many test videos, but the performance is so amazing that I think a few more won’t bother you, especially if you are into videography and want to learn more about the 70D’s AF.

The video above (by YouTube user canonplex, thanks to the reader who sent the link) shows a different view on the 70D’s AF. The two videos below [via dicahub] were taken while driving at 100 km/h (approx 60 mph) and pointing the AF to the road sign. Note that the AF area is larger as the sign (while far away from the sign) and until the road sign comes close it was not sure if the AF was focusing on the right spot – indeed, it did, and it did whit great precision. The video were taken using a production model of the EOS 70D and a Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Macro 1:1 VC lens, M mode video and f/2.8 were set. The tracking of the Dual Pixel CMOS AF is amazing!

Canon EOS 70D price check: B&H Photo, Adorama, Amazon USA, Amazon Canada, Canon Canada, Canon USA

Canon EOS 70D Auto-Focus Test and Comparison with Sony A77

EOS 70D

Canon EOS 70D
B&H Photo, Adorama, Amazon USA, Amazon Canada, Canon Canada, Canon USA

The folks at DxOMark published a test of the Canon EOS 70D‘s auto-focus and compared it to the Sony A77‘s AF. While being interesting the comparison with the A77 was done using different lenses, the excellent EF 40mm f/2.8 STM for the Canon and the DT 16-50mm f/2.8 OSS SSM for the Sony. In the conclusion they write:

The Canon EOS 70D is an attractive proposition for both stills photographers and video users. The new Dual Pixel CMOS AF cleverly solves the problem of the redundant viewfinder based phase detection AF system when recording video and neatly avoids the patented trans-missive mirror solution adopted by Sony.

As well as retaining an optical viewfinder, the Dual Pixel CMOS AF sensor with its total of 40 million pixels used for image capture shows a small but palpable increase in lowlight performance and higher levels of sharpness than previous APS-C cameras from the firm.

[…]

For video enthusiasts, this camera is one of the best choices available on the market currently and at least is a viable option to the entirely likeable and very capable Sony SLT models

 

Canon EOS 70D vs EOS 7D vs EOS 5D Mark III Comparison (video)

Exhaustive Canon EOS 70D vs EOS 7D vs EOS 5D Mark III comparison by Tony Northrup. Interesting because as far as I can judge from personal experience the EOS 70D (which I am playing around since a few weeks) is the new Canon APS-C flagship and for the time being there is no reason to get an EOS 7D instead.

Table of contents:

* Frames per second: 1:33
* Buffer and memory cards: 2:46
* Focusing: 9:07
* Image quality: 11:28
* Video: 22:43
* Other opinions: 30:44
* Odds & Ends: 35:00
* Winners & Losers: 36:15