Samyang 12mm f/2.8 Fish-Eye Lens For Full-Frame DSLRs Announced

Samyang 12mm f/2.8 Fish-Eye

[via SonyAlphaRumors]

Samyang just announced a new 12mm f/2.8 Fisheye Full Frame lens.

Samyang press release:

Samyang Europe announces the upcoming Autumn release of the full-frame Samyang 12mm 1:2.8 ED AS NCS Fish-eye lens. The new model is yet another product of the Korean manufacturer and its widest 35mm film format lens. The lens will be officially introduced during Photokina fairs in Cologne on September 16th 2014.

Samyang 12mm 1:2.8 ED AS NCS Fish-eye is a bright, super wide-angle fish-eye lens designed especially for full-frame cameras. It offers the image area in 24 x 36mm format and the diagonal angle of view of 180 degrees. In terms of the optics, it is one of the most advanced “fish-eye” lenses. The product’s sophisticated optics consists of 12 lens elements arranged in 8 groups. This includes three elements made of low dispersion ED glass and two aspherical lens elements to ensure perfect image depth and minimized chromatic aberration. Samyang 12mm 1:2.8 ED AS NCS Fish-eye is the third lens of the brand (along with 10mm f/2.8 and 12mm f/2.0) with highly effective nanocrystal anti-reflection NCS coating applied together with standard UMC coatings. Owing to this solution and the fast aperture ratio (f/2.8) the lens can be used as a perfect tool in diverse lighting conditions, as it provides great focus, high contrast and natural colour reproduction even with the fully opened aperture. The premiere of Samyang 12mm 1:2.8 ED AS NCS Fish-eye is like a dream coming true for professional photographers and filmmakers who seem to have an increasing demand for this type of lenses since the release of 8mm and 7.5mm models, which are considered to be the best “fish-eye” lenses on the market.

Samyang 12mm f/2.8 Fish-Eye

Pics and samples after the break 

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Canon and WWF Share Arctic Climate Change Research Results

Arctic Climate Change

Canon press release:

Canon and WWF share results of research into the impact of climate change in the Arctic
LONDON, 3rd September 2014 – Canon Europe, world leader in imaging solutions, and WWF International have released findings from two of their research programmes recording the state of the environment and climate change in the Arctic. As part of its role as Conservation Imaging Partner, Canon sponsored WWF International’s recent scientific expeditions to the islands of Svalbard (April 2014), near Norway, and Laptev Sea in Russia (August 2013).
The WWF-Canon & Norwegian Polar Institute’s expedition to Svalbard this year aimed to collect critical data about Europe’s most westerly polar bear population and how the locations of their dens for giving birth are changing. Just three of the 29 adult females encountered by the research team had a cub born that year. Although the researchers cautioned against reading too much into that fact, it is known that in other parts of the Arctic, disappearing sea ice is affecting the bears’ reproductive success.

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Zeiss Otus 85mm f/1.4 Officially Announced

Zeiss 85mm f/1.4

Zeiss officially announced their new 85mm f/1.4 Otus lens (pre-order at B&H for $4,490). Sample pics shot with the new Zeiss Otus 85mm f/1.4 can be seen in Zeiss’ Flickr album.

Press release:

With the Otus 1.4/85 ZEISS is expanding its high-end lens family. The Otus 1.4/55, an SLR standard lens, already set new global standards in what is means to achieve perfection. The expectations for the 85-mm focal length are just as high. This new member of the Otus family is an outstanding and fast all-around lens that accepts no compromises.  ZEISS will present this new world-class lens for the first time to the public at Photokina in Cologne from September 16 to 21.

Close-up of the Otus 1.4/85

Close-up of the Otus 1.4/85

The Otus 1.4/85 offers peerless image quality, even with an open aperture. As a short telephoto lens with an 85-millimeter focal length, this new member of the Otus family shows its strengths especially when people are center stage. Thanks to the longer focal length of this lens, photographers can keep a decent distance from the subject. At the same time, the lens is highly versatile: it excels in general studio work, as well as for fashion, advertising, product and architectural photography. Even photographers who are looking for a powerful companion for nature photography will find it in the Otus 1.4/85 – the edges of the picture can be used for compositional purposes at all f-stops. Photographers who had a chance to test exclusively this new flagship from Germany’s leading optics specialist were enthusiastic. Using the Otus 1.4/85 in combination with a full-frame SLR lets a photographer master all shooting situations and achieve effects that until now have only been known from the medium-format range: unusually high contrast, unusually high depth of field, impressive three-dimensional effects and sensational quality.

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