Canon Set To Make An Announcement On February 24, 2022?

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Canon might be ready to announce new gear on February 24, 2022. What will get announced?

Canon announced on their official Weibo account (image on top) that the company is set to make an announcement on February 24, 2022. No hints about what could get announced. Is it one of the rumored telephoto lenses, or maybe a new mirrorless camera?

All Canon rumors are listed here. Let your speculations run wild in the comment section.

Canon RF 5.2mm f/2.8L Dual Fisheye Lens Review

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Here is a new Canon RF 5.2mm f/2.8L Dual Fisheye lens review.

At a glance:

  • RF-Mount Lens/Full-Frame Format
  • Aperture Range: f/2.8 to f/16
  • Captures Stereoscopic 3D 180° VR imagery
  • Two Ultra-Low Dispersion Elements
  • Super-Spectra & Sub-Wavelength Coatings
  • Fluorine Coating
  • Weather-Sealed Construction
  • 7-Blade Diaphragm

Coming from immerVR, the Canon RF 5.2mm f/2.8L review below covers a lot of information about the lens.

We review the brand new Canon RF 5.2mm f2.8 L Dual VR180 lens on the Canon EOS R5. We compare it to other virtual reality cameras and show images shot through the HMD Meta Quest 2 (formerly: Oculus Quest 2) to show the perceived difference in image quality. Furthermore, we tease our upcoming VR app suited for watching VR180 and VR360 images.

You can order the Canon RF 5.2mm f/2.8L Dual Fisheye at $1,999: B&H Photo and Adorama. World-wide orders: [shoplist 67558]

Canon RF 5.2mm f/2.8L hands-on videos can be found here. More about the lens after the break.

rf 5.2mm f/2.8L
The RF 5.2mm dual fisheye on a Canon EOS R5
Click here to open the rest of the article

Luminar NEO Has Been released, Get It Now With Discount

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Skylum released their new Luminar NEO photo editing software.

The new Luminar NEO can be purchased immediately: Luminar NEO release discounts and offers are available here.

Press release:

Luminar Neo —Create the photos you imagined.

Your photos are precious. That’s why Luminar Neo puts them in the spotlight.

NEW YORK, NY -February 17, 2022—Skylum announces Luminar Neo, our newest AI-driven photoeditor, is now shipping. Luminar Neo introduces several unique AI technologies to the market: RelightAI, Powerline Removal and Dust Spot Removal. These technologies significantly change the way photos are edited, allowing creative professionals to tell visual stories in new ways while making it easier to bring their unique ideas to life.

“There is a fine line between the photo you took and the photo you imagined. Often, small details make the difference. InLuminar Neo, we’ve built an editor to helpyou create the photo you imagined.” —Ivan Kutanin, Skylum CEO

Luminar NEO release discounts and offers are available here.

Experience the power of the Luminar Engine

The Luminar Engine was built from the ground up to help creatives do more. Using artificial intelligence it analyzes your photos to unlock new, AI-driven editing possibilities:

RelightAI builds a precise 3D Depth Map of the 2D image to provide quick, targeted control of scene lighting, allowing artists to:

  • Independently adjusting lighting and color warmth for far and near objects across the scene.
  • Help easily fix portraits where the foreground subject is underexposed.

RelightAI isolates problem areas for correction, leaving the rest of the image untouched. Combine RelightAI with other scene aware tools and photographers can precisely adjust the lighting of any photo.

Remove Dust Spots —Automatically identify and seamlessly remove small artifacts, like dust spots, from every photo with the help of AI.

RemovePower Lines —Uses AI to automatically identify and effortlessly remove power lines from landscape photographs to create a pristine image free from clutter.

Layers —Combine different images into unique compositions and include new elements from built-in overlays and object libraries.

Presets —Instant style changes designed by professional photographers of every stripe. Or, build and save your own unique looks for reuse on future shoots.

Performance Gains*

Luminar Neo is significantly faster than LuminarAI for complex photo editing tasks. Driven by the new Luminar engine, artists can now enjoy the following performance gains.

macOS

  • Image export time now 86% faster
  • Switching time between effects now 35% faster
  • Switching time from Catalog mode to Edit mode now 15% faster
  • RAW opening process time now, on average, 61% faster
    • RAF (Fuji) 75% faster
    • CR2 (Canon) 53% faster
    • NEF (Nikon) 58% faster
    • ARW (Sony) 51% faster
  • Peak memory consumption when exporting images now 18% lessWindows
  • Switching from Catalog mode to Edit mode now 17% faster
  • RAW opening process time now, on average, 20% faster
    • RAF (Fuji) 24% faster
    • CR2 (Canon) 31% faster
    • NEF (Nikon) 28% faster
    • ARW (Sony) 42% faster
  • Adding a new folder to the Catalog now 69% faster

*Tests were conducted by Skylum in February 2022 on such devices: MacBook Pro 2020, M1 CPU, 8Gb Ram, macOS 12.2 version and Dell Latitude 5500, Intel Core i7-8665U CPU, 16Gb RAM, Windows 11 Pro version. Each test series was repeated three times. The arithmetic mean of the results was obtained by comparing the same actions in Luminar AI(v1.5.0) and Luminar Neo(v1.0.0).

Seamlessly mirror photos between desktop and mobile

Luminar Share transfers photos between Luminar Neo and your mobile devices. Once connected, easily find and edit your mobile photos, directly in Luminar Neo. Our photo mirroring technology allows you to see your Luminar Neo edits on your mobile device in real-time, making it easy to share and optimize them for social media.

Preview: Effortlessly remove portrait backgrounds

Using human aware algorithms, Portrait Background RemovalAIcleanly isolates subjects and removes backgrounds with just one click. When needed, edges can be refined quickly.Coupled with layers, this tool enables creators to build unique compositions using multiple photos without the tiresome manual process of masking.

Preview: Context aware, AI driven masking

When opening an image, Luminar Neo identifies many items, like theskies, bridges and flowers. Artists can select and use several of these elements to generate precise AI-powered masks using MaskAI.

MaskAI is truly useful for advanced editing:

  • Accurately control the transparency of a layer for composited imagery.
  • Use a mask to target how a tool is applied, limiting its effect for precise results.
  • Combine multiple AI-powered masks together for complex editing.

Availability

Luminar Neo ships on February 17th, 2022 with RelightAI, Presets,Layers and other powerful new tools. Portrait Background RemovalAI and MaskAI are planned for the first free update to Luminar Neo, scheduled for release in the spring of 2022. Luminar Neo will be available as a stand alone application in the App Store for macOS and the Microsoft Store for Windows as well as a plugin for Lightroom Classic and Photoshop and as an extension for Apple Photos.To learn more about Luminar Neo and sign up for updates, visit http://skylum.com/luminar-neo.

Canon Patent: RF 80-240mm f/3.5 Zoom Lens For EOS R System

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Here is another Canon patent application. This one is for a RF 80-240mm f/3.5 zoom lens. This is not the first patent we feature today.

Canon patent application 2022-29115 (Japan) discusses optical formulas for a RF 80-240mm f/3.5 zoom lens.

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a compact and lightweight zoom lens having high optical performance in the entire zoom and the entire focus range, and an image pickup device and an image pickup system having the same.

In recent years, the image pickup device has been miniaturized, and the image pickup device used in the image pickup device has a high pixel count. Further, the optical system used in the image pickup apparatus is required to have high optical performance, and to be compact and lightweight. In order to satisfy these requirements, a zoom with positive, negative, positive, positive, and negative refractive power first to fifth lens groups arranged in order from the object side to the image side to reduce various aberrations. A lens has been proposed (see Patent Document 1).

In order to reduce the size of the zoom lens, it is effective to adopt a telephoto type power arrangement and increase the positive refractive power on the object side and the negative refractive power on the image side. However, if the refractive power of each lens group is increased, the fluctuations of various aberrations due to zooming and focusing become large, and it becomes difficult to satisfactorily correct the various aberrations with a limited number of lenses. Therefore, in order to achieve both the optical performance of the zoom lens and the miniaturization, it is important to appropriately set the refractive power of each lens group, the lens configuration, and the position of the focus group.

An object of the present invention is to provide a compact and lightweight zoom lens having high optical performance in the entire zoom and the entire focus range, and an image pickup apparatus and an image pickup system having the same.

Example 1

  • Focal length: 72.00-194.00
  • F value: 2.92
  • Half angle of view: 16.72-6.36
  • Image height: 21.64
  • Overall length: 185.00-255.23
  • Back focus: 16.68-70.96

Example 2

  • Focal length: 72.00-194.00
  • F value: 3.5
  • Half angle of view: 16.72-6.36
  • Image height: 21.64
  • Overall length: 185.00-255.16
  • Back focus: 15.63-65.11

Example 3

  • Focal length: 80.29-232.85
  • F value: 3.5
  • Half angle of view: 15.08-5.31
  • Image height: 21.64
  • Overall length: 222.75-325.37
  • Back focus: 11.49-64.12

More Canon patent applications are listed here. Some particularly interesting patent applications we think might get into production are these:

[via asobinet]

Canon EOS R5 And EOS R6 Firmware Update 1.5.1 Released (corrects issue of previous release)

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Canon released a new firmware update for the EOS R5 and the EOS R6. The firmware update corrects an issue some users had with the previous firmware version.

Firmware Version 1.5.1 incorporates the following fix:

1. Fixes an issue that in rare instances, the camera may become inoperable when shooting in the Servo AF setting while operating the <AF-ON> button.

Download the firmware update from Canon USA:

Canon Patent: RF 30-600mm f/4-8 Zoom Lens For The EOS R System

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Another day, another Canon patent for an RF lens .

Canon patent application 2022-29145 (Japan) discusses optical formulas for a RF 30-600mm f/4-8 überzoom lens.

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a zoom lens capable of achieving both a high zoom ratio and good optical performance while being compact, and an image pickup apparatus having the same.

However, in Patent Documents 1 and 2, although the zoom lens has a high zoom ratio and high optical performance, it does not satisfy the demand for miniaturization. In order to achieve this, it is important to properly set the zoom type and the moving lens group during zooming.

An object of the present invention is to provide a zoom lens capable of achieving both a high zoom ratio and good optical performance while being compact, and an image pickup apparatus having the same.

Embodiment

  • Focal length: 30.50-585.00
  • F value: 4.00-8.00
  • Half angle of view: 35.35-2.12
  • Image height: 21.64
  • Overall length: 309.33-489.09
  • Back focus: 29.33-102.45

Is this a zoom lens like the Sigma 60-600mm f/4.5-6.3? Wonder if this lens patent will ever hit the shelves.

More Canon patent applications are listed here. Some particularly interesting patent applications we think might get into production are these:

[via asobinet]