(Update) More Canon EOS 70D Test Videos and Sample Pics

Thanks John (2 times) for pointing me to this!

Update: Polish site optyczne posted sets of sample pics taken with the EOS 70D at all ISO speeds. Some of the test scenes (bottles and pencils) have been used to test the EOS 650D, so you can compare them (scroll down to the sample pics).

Japanese site Digitial Life Innovator (translated) posted another video testing the Dual Pixel CMOS Auto-Focus of the Canon EOS 70D. There are also sample pics (original files available for download). I wasn’t able to understand (from the machine translated Japanese text) if they had a pre-production model of the EOS 70D (think so). However, the pics are all “out of the box” JPGs, and I think the image quality is impressive. They extracted frames from the video and made them available in a Flickr set.

It appears as if Canon made everything right with the EOS 70D. After long a true innovation by Canon. I bet the EOS 70D will sell very well, there is too much to love in this camera.

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

EOS 70D
Canon EOS 70D, EF-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM, 1/160, f/5.6, ISO5000, +1 EV (image credit: Digital Life Innovator)

 

Sigma 30mm f/1.4 DC HSM Lens Review (ephotozine)

Sigma 30mm f/1.4

ephotozine reviewed the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 DC HSM lens, a fast prime that’s interesting especially for Canon APS-C shooters. In the conclusion they write:

During this test, we did have issues with inaccurate focusing, which may be down to a flaw with the samples provided for review, and were able to resolve using the Sigma USB Dock. Presuming this problem isn’t widespread, then this lens is a great choice for owners of Canon cameras, after a high quality, standard lens with a fast maximum aperture.

The Sigma 30mm f/1.4, part of Sigma’s “Art” line-up,  retails for around $500/€490. The reviewers liked the good sharpness and build quality of the Sigma. However, they noticed that sharpness towards the edges is deteriorating, and some chromatic aberrations at maximum aperture. The review comes with test charts and sample pics.

Sigma 30mm f/1.4 DC HSM price check: B&H Photo, Adorama, Amazon USA, Amazon Canada, Canon Canada, Canon USA

Lens specs after the break.

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Silent Upgrades – Internal Changes on Gear that are not Announced

Roger Cicala
A 6 month old Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 on the left, and an 18 month old copy on the right (image courtesy of lensrentals.com)
What are “silent upgrades”? These are internal changes that a manufacturer may apply without announcing them. The picture above shows two copies of the EF 85mm f/1.8 lens (price & specs) – the changes are immediately visible. Roger Cicala at lenrentals.com – a guy who disassembled lots of lenses – wrote a post about this issue. Often these silent upgrades are due to a change in subassembly suppliers, just to make an example. Good read if you want to know how manufacturers operate (and why).

Canon EOS 70D Moire Test (video, DicaHub)

Korean site DicaHub (translated), after having provided the second independent Dual Pixel CMOS AF test I know about, produced another video to show and test how the Canon EOS 70D deals with moire artifacts. A pre-production model of the EOS 70D was used, along with the EF-S 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 IS STM. Is stunning the right adjective here?

Canon EOS 70D pre-orders: B&H Photo, Adorama, Amazon USA, Amazon Canada, Canon Canada, Canon USA

Image courtesy: dicahub.com

Magic Lantern RAW Workflow Video Tutorial (and a beautiful video made with EOS 5D3)

Neumannfilms posted a video tutorial about how to use the Magic Lantern hack to get raw video from a Canon EOS 5D Mark III. You can download the RAW file, the H.264 comparison shot, and the raw2dng.exe file here. A tutorial on how to install Magic Lantern can be found here. They say:

The quality is really amazing in this raw video. I would compare it to shooting 1080p moving cr2 files which is the file type that you get with doing raw photography in the Canon cameras. So just having this option in the Canon 5D Mark III and other Canon cameras is just huge. Even if you’re only going to use it twice a year to shoot greenscreen work, having the option in the camera instantly bumps up its worth at least a few thousand dollars.

Neumannfilms produced the video below, Summer in Oregon, which shows what you can do with the Magic Lantern RAW hack.

[cinescopophilia via creativeplanetnetwork]

Canon EOS 70D Preview and new Dual Pixel CMOS Auto-Focus Tests (dicahub)

Korean site Dicahub (translated) had the chance to test a pre-production model of the Canon EOS 70D. They provide two videos where they tested the Dual Pixel CMOS AF of the EOS 70D. The video above is interesting: see how the EOS 70D keeps the focus on the subject running towards the camera. The Dual Pixel CMOS AF really works great, it is impressive. Sample shots are also available (click here). They also posted a size comparison between the Canon Rebel SL1 and the Canon EOS 70D. More video and sample pics after the break.

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