The Zeiss Distagon T* Otus 55mm f/1.4 lens has been DxOMarked. Results are pretty good, as expected for a $4000 Zeiss lens. They write:
Without doubt Zeiss has achieved their goal of producing the finest fast standard prime available on the market today for full-frame DSLRs, but at a shade under $4000, image quality like that doesn’t come cheap.
Snow goose in flight, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico, USA. Canon EOS 7D, EF 200-400mm f/4L IS 1.4X@ 400mm (credits: Richard Bernabe, image used with permission)
Richard Bernabe, an internationally renowned landscape, wildlife, and travel photographer, published a review the Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS 1.4x lens, a professional “toy” that sells for ridiculous $12,000 (Amazon | Adorama | B&H). He used an EOS 7D and an EOS 5D Mark III for his shootings.
About the auto-focus he writes:
The 200-400mm f/4L offers lightening-quick, smooth, and incredibly accurate auto-focus capabilities for Canon EOS cameras. The lens focuses so fast and so effortlessly, that you literally cannot see it happening in the viewfinder
The lens is “pretty damned sharp – both with the extender and without” and “is impervious to almost any weather Mother Nature can throw at you“. From the conclusion:
Is the lens “worth” it? Who the hell knows? It will be worth it to some photographers and certainly not worth it to others. As a professional nature and wildlife photographer, it’s the lens I’ve waiting on for a long time. It’s the ultimate wildlife lens, period. But I already knew that two years ago before I ever got my hands on it. The only question was whether Canon delivered a clunker or hit a home run with the finished product. It appears to be the latter.
Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS 1.4x price check: Amazon | Adorama | B&H
A new little free application –ImageArtist, developed by Michael Lee – to watermark your photos with your name (or any other copyright information). The application is for Windows only, and works only with photos taken with Canon cameras:
ImageArtist automatically extracts the owner’s name from an image’s metadata and losslessly (ImageArtist employs a lossless JPEG algorithm for no image degradation!) stamps it, along with the year, onto an image copy. An owner’s name is entered into Canon cameras via EOS Utility, ZoomBrowser EX, or ImageBrowser EX.
No installation is required. An easy way to quickly put a stamp on your pics.
The EF 50mm f/1L can be found on eBay for around $4000 (click here) – which is much more than the original retail price :-(
Ken Rockwell posted a review of the Canon EF 50mm f/1L lens. The lens was discontinued by Canon in 2000. This lens is considered “rare” by someone, and it has a hell of a bokeh. First a short description of the lens taken from Wikipedia (see also the short video below for an overview):
The […] EF 50mm f/1.0L USM is a professional L series autofocus lens. On the used market sells for as much as double the original retail value. It was the fastest SLR lens in production during its lifetime. This lens has a metal body and mount, and plastic extremities. It also features a wide rubber focus ring that is damped, a distance window with infrared index, and the ability to set the focus range from 0.6m to infinity, or 1m to infinity. In common with the EF 85mm f/1.2L USM it uses an electronic “focus by wire” system and requires power from the camera in order to manual focus. The 8-blade diaphragm and maximum aperture of f/1.0 give this lens the ability to create extremely shallow depth of field effects and to support low light situations. The optical construction of this lens contains 11 lens elements, including two ground and polished aspherical lens elements. This lens uses a floating front extension focusing system, powered by a ring-type USM motor. The front of the lens does not rotate, but does extend when focusing.
This highly advanced 50mm f/1.0 is a thoroughly relevant and modern lens for all kinds of shooting. It’s the one Super-Lens you can use for photographing anything and everything in any light. Technically it performs far better than it should, and used at its limits, which are the very limits of photography itself, it can help give unique renditions that other photographers with more limited tools will not be able to duplicate.
About the reason to get “this masterpiece”:
Used at larger apertures, gives a unique look which cannot be duplicated any other way […]
For ultra-low light, f/1.0 is 1/2 to 2/3 stops faster than common f/1.2 lenses. In fact, this f/1.0 lens as about as much faster than an f/1.2 lens as an f/1.4 lens is faster than an f/1.8 lens […]
Subject Isolation: no other 50mm lens can isolate a subject from its surroundings as strongly as can this lens […]
The video below (by YouTube user peachy dismay) is recommended if you want to see how shallow the depth of field of this lens is, and to have a comprehensive overview.
Dave Dugdale from Learning DSLR Video wanted to know, and put a genuine Canon LP-E6 battery vs a Watson LP-E6. He found that the Watson must have a chip built in since the 5D Mark III can register it and track the performance. Contrary to the Canon manual saying you can recharge whenever you want, the Watson manual says to recharge only when the battery is dead. This could mean that the Watson battery has less charging cycles.
In his tests a new Watson LP-E6 lasted 1 hour and 9 minutes, a one year old Canon LP-E6 lasted 1 hour and 28 minutes. Consider that the Watson is about half the price of the Canon (or even less).
What’s your experience? Are you using third party batteries (I do)? However, be aware of counterfeit batteries: Canon has a page dedicated to this issue.
Steve’s Digicam reviewed the Canon EOS 70D (price & specs), Canon’s latest mid-range APS-C DSLR with the awesome Dual Pixel AF. Some excerpts from the conclusion:
Canon’s introduction of the EOS 70D brings some new and exciting technology to the table. The revolutionary new Dual-Pixel CMOS AF gives the camera some abilities that are not possible on other dSLRs
great features […] combine with 103 Canon lenses (as of July 2013) to give you one of the most versatile and impressive collections of lenses available
Leading the way in the 70D’s new technology is the innovative 20.2-Megapixel Dual-Pixel CMOS AF imaging sensor. This sensor has greatly improved the camera’s video and Live View shooting
It has a fantastic feel in your hands, solid and sturdy with a comfortable slip-resistant grip. Shooting in any situation is has been made possible with the 3.0-inch, 1.04-Million dot Clearview II LCD screen. This incredibly sharp touch LCD screen flips and rotates to allow you to shoot over, under and around just about anything. Touch operation with the screen is as easy and accurate as the latest smartphones and tablets […]
Our performance tests for the 70D were fantastic. Amazingly, the camera is able to capture its first image after being turned on in just 3/10 of a second, so you will never have to miss the action
Canon’s new sensor has greatly improved the video capabilities of the 70D over any other EOS camera to date. It allows the camera to operate like a camcorder, giving you a fantastic continuous AF system, smooth shifting of focus while recording with an STM lens
And finally:
The Canon EOS 70D is a powerful dSLR camera with some new technology that has changed what we can expect from this class of camera. It’s new Dual Pixel CMOS AF has greatly increased the Live View and video recording performance, giving you options and abilities we have not seen before on a dSLR. This new technology did not hurt the image quality or performance in any way either, as the camera excels in both. […] This is a fantastic camera for anyone looking at upgrading from an entry-level camera or looking to jump right in with their first dSLR model.
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