Canon press release:

Canon U.S.A. Celebrates an Award-Winning Start to 2014

Company Receives Industry Recognition for Environmental Honors, Energy Efficient Printers, and Innovative Imaging Products

MELVILLE, N.Y., August 7, 2014 – Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, is honored to be recognized by top industry organizations and publications for award-winning products and efforts in 2014. From environmental efforts to help minimize its carbon footprint, to industry-leading imaging products, Canon has been honored by many top accolades for its efforts both in the market and in the office.

The Canon Americas Headquarters was awarded LEED® Gold certification, a recognition of design, construction, operations and maintenance of high-performance green buildings. Located in Melville, N.Y., the facility stands as a model for environmental stewardship and innovation and serves all North, Central and South American countries. Interbrand and Newsweek also acknowledged Canon for its environmental sustainability efforts. Canon was placed 26th out of 50 on Interbrand‘s Best Global Green Brands 2014, and 125th out of 500 on Newsweek‘s 2014 Green Rankings, placing the company in the top 25 percent for this year’s Newsweek‘s list. Additionally, Canon Inc. has been placed on Fortune Magazine’s 2014 World’s Most Admired Companies List as sixth overall globally in the computers category. And, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce honored Canon with its Global Intellectual Property Center’s 2014 IP Champions Award for its “Anti-Counterfeit Consumer Awareness Campaign” that highlights the dangers of counterfeit electronic goods.

“Canon has always sought to stand as an example with both its products and practices. Customer support and environmental initiatives are two areas where a company may not see a direct financial return, however we remain dedicated to both of these areas as they serve a greater corporate responsibility and yield great personal satisfaction for our organization and staff,” said Kotaro Fukushima, senior director and general manager, Corporate Communications Division, Canon U.S.A. “Canon is also proud and extremely pleased to have secured numerous awards in the first half of 2014. We will continue to strive to listen to and meet the needs and demands of our customers for the rest of 2014 and into the future.”

CPN Europe published a technical article about Canon’s new Digital Photo Professional 4.0, Inside Canon Digital Photo Professional 4.0:

Digital Photo Professional (DPP) version 4.0 is the latest release of Canon’s free RAW image management and editing software, and this incarnation is heralded as the first major update since the software was launched. Canon has responded to feedback from Digital Photo Professional users and incorporated feature requests and suggestions into version 4.0 to create a better looking package that offers a smoother, faster workflow. In this article CPN writer George Cairns examines how DPP 4.0 is better equipped to support your photographic workflow – as you import, browse and develop large numbers of RAW images – and investigates new features, such as the ability to make selective hue, saturation and luminance adjustments for eight colour gamuts.

The good news is that “support for more models will be added in due course“. When DPP 4.o was announced, the disappointment was big since for the time being DPP 4.0 (officially) supports only Canon’s latest full-frame cameras. However, you can already use DPP 4.0 with some newer Canon APS-C cameras (Rebel SL1/EOS 100D,  Rebel T4i/650D, EOS M, EOS 70D, Rebel T5i/EOS 700D) if you follow these simple instructions.

You can download DPP 4.0 here. Note: when you download DPP 4.0 you have to enter the serial number of your Canon DSLR. I downloaded DPP 4.0 from the EOS 5D Mark III support page using my EOS 70D’s serial number.

Read the article at CPN –>

Note: This is a fake tutorial – nothing shown in the video above is to replicate

Take the video above as humour or whatever you want to take it for, but in no case follow the instruction given in the video. It a perfect way to totally destroy your camera equipment. In the video a Canon EOS 5D Mark II is “cleaned” (= totally damaged).

Better to have a look at this cool accessory for removing sensor dust.

[via PetaPixel via No Film School via DIY Photography]

Canon Asia posted the first 2 parts of an article about the history of Canon’s EF lenses (I think there will be a third part).

• The history of Canon EF lenses, part 1: The Dawn Era – Birth of the Fully Electronic Mount
• The history of Canon EF lenses, part 2: The Growth Era – Advent of the Digital Age

How it started:

In March 1987, Canon released the “EOS 650”, the first Canon camera that was built in with a professional AF system. This also marked the birth of the EF lenses. I can still recall that prior to the launch of the EOS series, the biggest concern among Canon users was whether Canon would make changes to the existing FD mount standards. Until then, the FD mount adopted by Canon cameras before the EOS series had commanded tremendous support among both professional photographers and advanced amateurs. The view of the majority was that developing an AF system was unlikely to necessitate a change in the mount standards. However, contrary to the popular anticipation, Canon chose to break away from the traditional FD mount with the adoption of a brand new EF mount standard for its EOS series. This decision led to distress among users who possessed a large number of FD lenses, some of whom even saw it as an act of “betrayal”. Today, many years after its launch, it is almost impossible to find any user who would disagree that the decision made by Canon then was correct.

 

The object in the picture above is a new accessory for cleaning your DSLR’s sensor (remove dust on sensor). It’s actually the same principle of a vacuum cleaner, packaged into a lens shape.

The accessory is made by Chinese manufacture Nisshin Seiko, and for the time being it is available only for Canon mounts. Yes, you mount the “cleaner” on your DSLR as you would do with a lens. The accessory comes with a red ring that in some way resembles Canon’s “L” lenses.

The retail price is 3,500 Yen/210 Yuan/$34. For the time being it is not available in the USA.

Update: via DCFever I found the following video on YouTube (spoken in Japanese). It appears that the “vacuum cleaner” is (also) produced by the Japanese company Fujin.

[xjrumo.com via The New Camera]