Samyang Set To Announce New Lenses On March 21st

That’s what they posted on their Facebook page:

New stuff from Samyang coming soon, really soon. Stay tuned!

Samyang/Rokinon/Bower lenses are manual lenses, but with excellent optical performance at a more than competitive price. These lenses are so good that the 24mm f/1.4 [shoplink 6265](price & specs)[/shoplink] got the same DxOMark score as Canon’s highly regarded EF 24mm f/1.4L [shoplink 237](price & specs)[/shoplink]. The Canon is sharper and has less distortion but the Samyang produces less vignetting and chromatic aberration are better controlled at all apertures. But then: we are comparing a $669 lens with a another one that costs well over $1700 (the Canon 24mm).

Maybe they will announce new lenses with auto-focus? Rumor has it that Samyang will soon produce lenses with AF.

[via PR]

Canon EOS C100 Dual Pixel Auto-Focus Real World Test

It is not since long that the Dual-Pixel CMOS AF unblocking firmware update for the C100 (Adorama | B&H) and C300 (B&H | Adorama) is available to the public, and Newsshooter reader Frank Redward already tested this feature and made a video about it.

Some excerpts:

The AF speed is so quick it puts the Panasonic GH2 and GH3 to shame.

I expected single-shot AF to work well. What I didn’t expect was that tracking focus is now quite possible and reliable. When subjects move past the camera you can maintain focus. Focus can also be held while zooming with lenses that are not Parfocal. This makes the whole experience of using stills zooms more similar to an ENG lens – all through the wonders of DUAL Pixel CMOS AF. DSLR lenses were never designed to work like this but it works because the Dual Pixel CMOS AF is just so fast.

Canon’s Dual Pixel CMOS AF is fantastic and works for me. It’s not 100% perfect but compared to what else is around it is amazing. It turns the C100 into a powerful real world shooting work horse. As an operator it adds a level of security and speed that’s very reassuring.

Canon’s Dual Pixel CMOS AF technology was first featured on the EOS 70D[shoplink 14246](price & specs)[/shoplink]. For some good 70D deals see here.

[via newsshooter]

EOS C100 Dual Pixel

Sigma Patent For 28-85mm OS Lens For Mirrorless Cameras

Sigma Patent

Will there soon be another lens for the EOS M system? The patent was spotted by Egami (translated).

At least Sigma is working on an image-stabilized 28-85mm f/3.5-5.6 lens for APS-C mirrorless systems. Exciting news, though I am a bit puzzled because of the 28mm – rather unusual for a crop sensor camera.

  • Patent Publication No. 2014-44246
    • Publication date 2014.3.13
    • Filing date 2012.8.24
  • Example 1
    • Zoom ratio 2.84
    • Focal length f = 29.01-50.00-82.48mm
    • Fno. 3.63-4.59-5.78
    • Angle of view 2ω = 53.08-31.21-19.16 °
    • Image height Y = 14.20mm
    • 92.04-103.13-116.62mm overall length of the lens
    • Inner Focus (Group 4)
    • Anti-vibration (group 2)

Sigma Patent

Magic Lantern Coming To The Canon EOS 5D Mark III (firmware 1.2.3)

Magic Lantern

Another great achievement by the Magic Lantern team. They now developed a version of ML that should work on Canon EOS 5D Mark III [shoplink 254](price & specs)[/shoplink] with firmware version 1.2.3 ( the latest version).

Says Alex of ML:

Not alpha, not beta, nor zeta, just a bleeding edge that happens to work for me. It might work for you or it might not.

(note that my standards are fairly high, so what I call bleeding edge, others may call semi-stable or whatever)

So despite this is a very first port of ML to the 5D3, it seems to be a fairly usable version, with some improvements too, like the elimination of the need to mod the boot flag (Alex warns there are still issues with portions of Magic Lantern including the HDMI output in this version, better to be careful).

The whole story with installation instruction can be read in the ML forum.

[via planet5d]