Canon Medium Format Gossip, Again (but it’s just gossip)

Canon Medium Format

Again some gossip surfaced suggesting Canon might step into the medium format realm. It’s now years that such rumors surface, more or less at regular intervals.

The rumor says that Canon is sending questionnaires to selected users, asking them their thoughts about medium format sensors, and all the consequences it implies (lenses etc). In the last months there were similar rumors that Nikon (also considered unreliable) and Sony might develop a 50MP, medium format sensor, and my first thought was: there will soon be a similar rumor about Canon. Since this will start making the rounds soon I don’t want you to miss my point of view.

I consider this rumor as absolutely unreliable (I would like to use another term but I am too polite :-). I got the same rumor but didn’t publish it due to my strict policy about rumors. I only post rumors that are double (if not triple) checked and/or come from sources I know to be reliable. Other sites have a 4-tier system for rumors, where level 1 is the least reliable and level 4 can be considered as good as granted. Rumors published here on Canon Watch have to be at least at tier 2.

This rumor is more on the side of “wishful thinking” or “let’s make some buzz”. As far as my knowledge goes, there are no such plans in Canon’s hidden files. I may be wrong, obviously.

[CR and others]

Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM Review (Photozone)

Photozone.de reviewed the Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM, a budget-friendly tele lens. I like the first sentence in the review:

If you are looking for the best tele lenses around, you don’t really need to look further than Canon

Build quality is “fine for a lens in this class thanks to decent quality plastics“. In the conclusion they write:

The Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM gives you lots of bangs for your bucks. The biggest strength remains to surprisingly high level of resolution across the range. The low level of chromatic aberrations (CAs) are also contributing to the subjective quality perception. Image distortions remain moderate at all settings whereas vignetting is a bit on the high side at max. aperture. A more significant weakness is the rather mediocre bokeh (quality of the out-of-focus blur).

I also like the last sentence of the review:

Well done Canon … again!

The Canon  EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM sells for $349, an excellent choice for the budget-oriented photographer.

Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM price check: B&H Photo, Adorama, Amazon USA, Amazon Canada, Canon Canada, Canon USA

Specs (taken from B&H’s product page):

Long-reaching zoom lens provides a 35mm-equivalent focal length of 88-400mm, covering portrait-length to telephoto perspectives.
Optical image stabilization helps to minimize the appearance of camera shake by up to 3.5 shutter speed steps to benefit shooting handheld in dim lighting and with greater zoom magnifications.
The STM stepping focus motor produces near-silent, smooth, and quick autofocus performance that is well-suited to video applications.
One ultra-low dispersion element helps to reduce chromatic aberrations and distortion while also contributing to greater image sharpness, contrast, and clarity.
Enhanced lens coatings minimize flare and ghosting in order to produce true colors with maintained contrast.
A minimum focusing distance of 2.8′ throughout the zoom range and a maximum magnification of 0.29x at the telephoto end enables working with close-up subject matter.
A seven blade circular aperture helps to produce an aesthetic out-of-focus quality to benefit selective focus and shallow depth of field imagery.
[via photozone]