Pimp My Canon EOS 6D: Mosaic Engineering Anti-Aliasing Filter

Mosaic Engineering Anti-Aliasing Filter
The VAF-6D filter

The Canon EOS 6D (price & specs) is selling very well, and it is on the way to become a highly popular camera. Canon’s entry level full-frame DSLR has a lot of good points: noise performance (even better than the Canon EOS 5D Mark III (price & specs)), the price (currently available at $1899  – Amazon | B&H | Adorama – for the body only, and $2499 – Amazon | B&H | Adorama – for the 6D with the EF 24-105 f/4L IS lens), outstanding image quality, and then. But everything comes for a price, and Canon made some compromises on the EOS 6D, foremost not featuring the advanced AF system of the EOS 5D Mark III, and holding back the excellent moiré and aliasing filters sported on the 5D Mark III.

Indeed, the EOS 6D, while having a very high image quality (on par with the EOS 5D Mark III), suffers from much more moiré and aliasing artifacts than its bigger sibling. That’s where the Mosaic Engineering anti-aliasing comes into play. They develop such filters for Canon and Nikon DSLRs since long. Now they made one for the Canon 6D, the VAF-6D. They made a video (spotted by DSLR News Shooter) to show the capabilities of the filter.

These are the first video clips demonstrating our new VAF-6D – which corrects the HD video aliasing and moire artifacts of the Canon 6D!

By the way, as with all our VAF-series filters, there’s no significant light loss with this filter: The variation in exposure among the different segments in the video, is due to the highly variable lighting – very wild partly-cloudy skies that day! Beautiful skies, though – so we didn’t want to overexpose them… To give the most valid comparison, we purposely kept the aperture and other imaging and processing parameters exactly the same among all the shots, so the video brightness varies with the cloud cover.

The filter doesn’t appear to lower resolution. There is, however, a small drawback when using the filter. Dan Chung from DSLR News Shooter reports:

There is also a shift to the back-focus setting of the lens, which means that the distance scale will be rendered inaccurate. Early versions of the filter for the 5D mkII also had very soft and dark corners with wide angle lenses. Mosaic claim to have improved both back-focus shifts and wide angle performance with a new second version for the 5D mkII. The 6D version should share these improvements but I haven’t tested it.

Mosaic Engineering’s filter isn’t really cheap. It costs $365 and can be ordered in their online store. We have to wait for more test to see if the EOS 6D with the filter can hold up to more expensive full-frame gear, like the EOS 5D Mark III. In any case, Mosaic Engineering’s filter is welcome accessory that will be of great interest for all those photographers and videographers who own an EOS 6D and want to get rid of moiré and aliasing artifacts. Even if the filter isn’t really cheap, for people on a budget it makes a good alternative to a $3150 5D Mark III, when bundled with the EOS 6D .

Canon EOS 6D price check: B&H Photo, Adorama, Amazon USA, Amazon Canada, Canon Canada, Canon USA Canon EOS 5D Mark III price check: B&H Photo, Adorama, Amazon USA, Amazon Canada, Canon Canada, Canon USA [DSLR News Shooter via nofilmschool]

Yongnuo YN568EX Speedlite Flash Hands-On Review

Yongnuo YN568EX Speedlite

If you need a good flash for your photographic work but can’t afford one of Canon’s professional SpeedLites (Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT, Canon Speedlite 580EXII, Canon Speedlite 430EXII), you may be interested in the featured review about the Chinese manufactured Yongnuo YN568EX Speedlite Flash, which comes at a price of $159/€159/£100. The Yongnuo YN568EX Speedlite is available on Amazon US | Amazon DE | Amazon UK | Amazon FR, and on eBay.

  • Model: Yongnuo YN568EX Circuit Design: Insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT)
  • Guide Number: 58 (ISO 100, 105mm) Flash Mode: M, Multi, Sc, Sn, S1, S2
  • Zoom Range: 24, 28, 35, 50, 70, 80, 105mm Vertical Rotation Angle: -7~90 degrees
  • Horizontal Rotation Angle: 0~270 degrees Power Supply: 4×AA size batteries (Alkaline or Ni-MH are usable, batteries are not included)
  • Lighting Times: 100~1500 times (AA Alkaline cell used) Recycle Time: Approx 3s (AA Alkaline cell Used)

Lighting Rumours reviewed the Yongnuo YN568EX Speedlite Flash and they were very impressed by this flash, particularly by the build quality and the feature set:

[…] the YN568EX is a million miles away from that YN460 in every aspect, build, features, consistent output and recycle times. To me this shows that Yongnuo do kind of listen to the photography community, taking on board what’s been suggested and acting on that. For sure, there are some things that are missing, such as an external power hook up, and I’d rather had seen a 3.5mm jack over the 2.5mm one, but that’s a minor issue.

In the conclusion they write:

[…] very very impressed with the Yongnuo YN568EX. The build quality and feature set are excellent, even more so when you consider its price. Sure, there are some flaws but I have to give due credit to Yongnuo for the work they’ve put it on this; they have moved up in the world from those YN460 days. Yongnuo are starting to give the big guns a run for their money.

Pro:

  • Great Feature Set
  • Price
  • Build Quality
  • Audio Ready Beep
  • Canon/Nikon Wireless Control

Cons:

  • Build Quality (Internal Components)
  • Not a Master
  • No External Battery port
  • Head swivel mechanism not great
  • 2.5mm Sync port.

There are a lot more information about the Yongnuo YN568EX Speedlite in Lighting Rumours’ review.

Update (it’s a deal) – Microscope Camera Adapter For Canon EOS SLR/DSLR

Microscope Camera Adapter For Canon EOS SLR/DSLR

Update: it turned out it is deal, retail price was $400!

Don’t know how many of you may need this, but it is not expensive and it may be fun to use, opening new creative photographic possibilities. Amazon has the AmScope Canon SLR/DSLR Camera Adapter for Microscopes for $89.90 (click here). It comes with 23.2mm, 30mm and C-mount adapters, it fits almost all kinds of microscopes including compound and stereo microscopes.

  • Compatible with Canon SLR/DSLR cameras
  • Magnification Power: 2X ; Material: metal ;
  • Canon cameras with this 2X adapter have a magnification powers between 12X and 15X depending on the CMOS sizes of the cameras
  • T-mount Connection Standard 23.2mm
  • Work on Monocular (Eye Tube), Binocular (Eye Tube) or Trinocular Photo/Video Port
  • Manufactured under ISO 9001 Quality Control Standard
  • Excellent Five (5) Year Factory Warranty

There is a video to watch on Amazon’s product page (scroll down to the reviews).Microscope Camera Adapter For Canon EOS SLR/DSLR

Microscope Camera Adapter For Canon EOS SLR/DSLR

Microscope Camera Adapter For Canon EOS SLR/DSLR

[via amzmall]

Are You In London During Fashion Week? (you may win an EOS-M w/18-55mm)

Are You In London During Fashion Week

If you happen to be in London during the upcoming London Fashion Week (from February, 15th, at Somerset House in London) you have the chance to win an Canon EOS M (price & specs) mirrorless camera with an EF-M 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM lens and a Canon SpeedLite 90EX flash. Canon is also giving away 25 pairs of tickets for the Fashion Week.

So, what do you have to do? Shot yourself in your favorite street style and email the picture to [email protected].

The makers of stylescrapbook.com will select the winners. These are the conditions:

The competition is only open for people present in London during Fashion Week as Canon are not covering any transport costs.

Please click HERE for the Terms and Conditions + more details about the competition.
The winners will be announced on The Canon UK Facebook page on Tuesday 12th of February and the competition closes on Friday 8th of February.

Don’t miss your opportunity!

[via stylescrapbook]

Ibelux Announces 40mm f/0.85 Lens For EOS-M System

40mm f/0.85 Lens For EOS-M System

This new and fast Ibelux 40mm f/0.85 lens was displayed at the CP+ exhibition in Japan. It's made by Kipon and the German company IBE. Among other mount types it will be released for the Canon EOS M (price & specs) around July 2013 (other mounts: E, MFT, M, and X). Price hasn't been announced yet but it is expected to be between 950 and 1200 Euro. For the time being this is the fastest lens ever released for a modern digital mirrorless system. German company IBE (click here) has a long history of high quality video lenses, so there shouldn't be surprises with the optical quality of this lens.

You can save this search on Slidoo to get notified when it will be available on eBay.

[via mirrorlessrumors]