Canon Patent: 24-70mm f/2.8 Image Stabilized Lens

There has been a rumor about a Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 IS lens surfacing last year, now Egami (translated) spotted a related patent (referring also to a 28-80 f/2.8 IS lens). This could be a very exciting lens!

  • Patent Publication No. 2013-182246
    • Publication date 2013.9.12
    • Filing date 2012.3.5
  • Example 1
    • Zoom ratio 2.75
    • Focal length f = 24.70-36.42-67.88mm
    • Fno. 2.91
    • Half angle ω = 41.22-30.71-17.68 °
    • Image height 21.64mm
    • 164.87-172.85-196.79mm overall length of the lens
    • BF 39.07-44.44-54.56mm
    • 20 pieces of 13-group lens configuration
    • Four four-sided aspherical
  • Example 2
    • Zoom ratio 2.76
    • Focal length f = 24.70-34.88-68.18mm
    • Fno. 2.91
    • Half angle ω = 41.22-31.81-17.61 °
    • Image height 21.64mm
    • 165.79-174.26-199.67mm overall length of the lens
    • BF 38.47-42.81-58.00mm
    • 20 pieces of 15-group lens configuration
    • Three 3 aspherical surface
  • Example 3
    • Zoom ratio 3.22
    • Focal length f = 24.70-39.67-79.43mm
    • Fno. 2.91
    • 41.22-28.61-15.24 ° angle of view
    • Image height 21.64mm
    • 161.98-171.74-200.99mm overall length of the lens
    • BF 38.35-46.17-57.64mm
    • 20 pieces of 13-group lens configuration
    • Four four-sided aspherical
  • Canon patent
    • 5-group zoom of positive and negative positive positive and negative
    • Antivibration (fourth lens group)

Canon EOS M and EF-M 11-22mm IS STM Issue (with firmware 2.0.2)

EF-M 11-22mm f/4-5.6 IS STM Review

Canon EF-M 11-22mm f/4-5.6 IS STM
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A Canon Watch reader (thanks MdB) wrote me an email reporting a strange issue he and another user are having with the Canon EOS M and the EF-M 11-22mm f/4-5.6 IS STM lens. MdB writes:

The problem: If you turn the camera on whilst the lens is already extended the M will not fire off a shot at all. If you turn the camera on and then extend the lens it works perfectly fine. If you turn the camera on with the lens already extended you have to retract the lens and then re-extend the lens and the camera will start shooting again.

The issue appears to show up even with the latest firmware (2.0.2). I tested this on my EOS M and the 11-22mm and could not replicate it.

Does someone here experience the same issue? Would be glad if you can post it in the comments. Thank you.

Five Consumer Directors Premiere Their Short Films at Project Imaginat10n Film Festival

Canon USA press release:

Canon U.S.A., Ron Howard and Bryce Dallas Howard Discover Five Consumer Directors to Premiere Their Short Films at the Project Imaginat10n Film Festival

10 Films Inspired By User Submitted Photographs Will be Packaged by Canon as “A Ron Howard Presentation” – The Winning Consumer Directors and Five Celebrity Directors: Eva Longoria, Jamie Foxx, James Murphy, Georgina Chapman and Biz Stone

MELVILLE, N.Y., September 19, 2013 – Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, two-time Academy Award® winner Ron Howard, and Bryce Dallas Howard, one of Hollywood’s most versatile actresses and director of the 2011 short film “when you find me,” have announced the five winning consumer directors of the “Project Imaginat10n” film contest, which gave filmmakers of all skill levels an opportunity to showcase their creativity and storytelling abilities. Five celebrity directors also took part in the same creative exercise: Eva Longoria (film and TV actress), Jamie Foxx (Academy Award® winner), Biz Stone (co-founder of Twitter), Georgina Chapman (designer and co-founder of Marchesa) and James Murphy (founder of LCD SOUNDSYSTEM).

Click here to open the rest of the article

Canon EOS 70D Auto-Focus Test and Comparison with Sony A77

EOS 70D

Canon EOS 70D
B&H Photo, Adorama, Amazon USA, Amazon Canada, Canon Canada, Canon USA

The folks at DxOMark published a test of the Canon EOS 70D‘s auto-focus and compared it to the Sony A77‘s AF. While being interesting the comparison with the A77 was done using different lenses, the excellent EF 40mm f/2.8 STM for the Canon and the DT 16-50mm f/2.8 OSS SSM for the Sony. In the conclusion they write:

The Canon EOS 70D is an attractive proposition for both stills photographers and video users. The new Dual Pixel CMOS AF cleverly solves the problem of the redundant viewfinder based phase detection AF system when recording video and neatly avoids the patented trans-missive mirror solution adopted by Sony.

As well as retaining an optical viewfinder, the Dual Pixel CMOS AF sensor with its total of 40 million pixels used for image capture shows a small but palpable increase in lowlight performance and higher levels of sharpness than previous APS-C cameras from the firm.

[…]

For video enthusiasts, this camera is one of the best choices available on the market currently and at least is a viable option to the entirely likeable and very capable Sony SLT models