Want To Win A Canon EOS 6D? Read Here How To

Win A Canon EOS 6D

Adorama started a best shot contest, you can win a Canon EOS 6D (or Nikon D600) as final price.

It is easy to take part to the contest, these are the rules:

We are constantly impressed by the photographic talents of our customers, so we’re asking you to show us your best shot of 2012. Everyone is welcomed to participate and no purchase is necessary. Simply post your image to the AdoramaPix Facebook wall and send a high resolution image to [email protected]. So what are you waiting for? Your talent could win you a pro DSLR.

Entries are due by March 17th, 2013. Contest details are available on our blog.

Get Started

*PS: All submissions should be posted to the AdoramaPix Facebook page or emailed to [email protected]. If you’re not on Facebook just email us your image and say that in your email. We will post the image on our wall with your credits.

Win A Canon EOS 6D

The price of the EOS 6D has gone down to $1899  (Amazon | B&H | Adorama) for the body only, and to $2499 (Amazon | B&H | Adorama) for the 6D with the EF 24-105 f/4L IS lens.

Canon EOS 6D price check: B&H Photo, Adorama, Amazon USA, Amazon Canada, Canon Canada, Canon USA

One Canon Park To Become The New Home Of Canon U.S.A. In Melville, New York

Canon's press release:

MELVILLE, N.Y., February 18, 2013 – Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, is proud to announce the new address of its new Americas headquarters. One Canon Park, located in Melville, New York will consolidate nearly 1,400 Canon employees into one central location. Nearly half of all Canon U.S.A. employees have relocated to the Melville headquarters while the remaining employees will complete the move in March. The new headquarters will serve all North and South American countries and will be one of Canon's three worldwide headquarters, with the other two located in London and Japan.

“We are so proud to be moving to our brand new, state-of-the-art headquarters at One Canon Park,” said Seymour Liebman, executive vice president, chief administrative officer and general counsel, Canon U.S.A. “One Canon Park will be a symbol of not only our dedication to our employees, but also our dedication to the Long Island community we have called home since 1971.”

Remaining on Long Island was always a top priority for the company to help retain the highly skilled and dedicated workforce. One Canon Park is a 700,000 square-foot facility and is located approximately 16 miles east of the current headquarters in Lake Success, New York.

The mailing address will be: One Canon Park, Melville, NY 11747.

 

EOS M Rumor: Auto-Focus, New Body, New EF-M Lenses

EOS M Rumor 

A new EOS M rumor showed up: Canon may not be able to improve the auto-focus performance of the Canon EOS M (price & specs) in a concrete manner through a firmware update. Although here at Canon Watch we got different information, this is a possible scenario.

The  issue concerns what makes the EOS M’s AF so sluggish. If the cause is a hardware design flaw then there is little you can do. If, on the other hand, the slow AF is due to poor software (firmware) implementation, then there is hope. I am still thinking that the poor AF is a software issue. The firmware update should be announced very soon, stay tuned.

I really hope Canon can in some way repair their halfhearted effort when designing and building the EOS M. Don’t get me wrong, the EOS M has a lot of good points, its overall performance is solid, the high ISO/low light performance is among the best in its category, image quality is outstanding, the small body is rugged and solid. But most of the competitor’s AF systems easily outperform the EOS M’s AF. To get the point: AF on the EOS M sucks when the subject is even slowly moving or when there is low light, the worst case being both conditions given. How much improvement can be expected if the issue is on the software side? There could be a dramatic improvement, something that puts the EOS M back in the same league with its competitors. The most plausible improvements the new Canon EOS-M firmware will deliver are: better hunting in low light, better tracking, and generically faster AF.

Next, there will be a new EOS M body. This is rumored since a while. And for sure the next iteration of the EOS M will have a better AF. Canon cannot ignore the fact that the AF on the EOS M was a major deal breaker for many potential customers. The new EOS M is rumored to be a more pro oriented camera body, and to have a view-finder (hooray!). That Canon is working on a new EOS M body does not only make sense, it is also indirectly confirmed by the fact that Canon always stated they are committed to the EOS M system.

Another thing that is already officially assured is the fact that Canon will release more EF-M lenses for the EOS M ecosystem. This was announced a few weeks ago by Masaya Maeda, Managing Director and Chief Executive, Image Communication Products Operations at Canon. So it is definitely more than a rumor, it is a statement made by a top Canon executive. We do not know what kind of lenses Canon is planning to add to the EOS M ecosystem, but most probably there will be a new zoom lens, another fast prime (50mm is rumored) and possibly a telephoto lens. The lack of lenses for the EOS M is a limiting factor and Canon has to broaden their offering here.

As I wrote before, you can live with the EOS M’s AF. I do. It won’t make you happy, but it isn’t as terrible as some reviews suggest. In my very own experience the EOS M is a photographic tools that can give you great images. Sure the AF needs some tweaking, experimenting, and the right lens. AF is fastest with the EF-M 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM (price & specs) (sometimes almost acceptable), particularly in Flexizone Single mode, then comes the EF-M 22mm f/2 STM (price & specs), a lens with very good optical perfomance. When using EF and EF-S lenses with the EF/EF-M adapter (price & specs) the AF becomes almost unusable (surprisingly I had some fast focusing with the EF 50mm f/1.8 (price & specs)).

As some of you probably know, the EOS M was with me when I travelled Myanmar last year. I was happy to have a light-weighted camera that gave me APS-C sensor image quality and the creative possibilities of a DSLR. And beside the poor AF, the rest of the experience was totally positive. I particularly liked the combined use of the control wheel and the touchscreen. Canon made it right here: settings can be changed easy and fast, most settings are just a few touches away. It is a pity that lots of reviews are only blaming the sluggish AF and ignore the many good point of the EOS M. The EOS M made it through extreme hot temperatures with humidity often around 95%, sandy and dusty places, roads, and street parties. It saw rain, I didn’t have a real camera bag, it was simply in my day-pack. I didn’t handle it with to much care (a camera is here to be used). Everything always worked, nothing broke, the sensor is still ok (no dust spots). A solidly built camera.

The price of the EOS M with the EF-M 22mm f/2 STM lens is now down to $679 on Amazon (click here), and to $699 at B&H (click here) and Adorama (click here).

Canon EOS M price check: B&H Photo, Adorama, Amazon USA, Amazon Canada, Canon Canada, Canon USA Canon EF-M 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM price check: B&H Photo, Adorama, Amazon USA, Amazon Canada, Canon Canada, Canon USA Canon EF-M 22mm f/2 STM price check: B&H Photo, Adorama, Amazon USA, Amazon Canada, Canon Canada, Canon USA

EOS M rumor 

EOS M Rumor [via CR]

New Arrival: Samyang 24mm F3.5 Tilt Shift Lens

Samyang 24mm F3.5 Tilt Shift

Available for pre-order at B&H: the Samyang 24mm F3.5 Tilt Shift Lens for $999 (click here). The lens was announced at Photokina 2012. The press release:

Samyang Optics is about to release a new lens with the perspective control function — Samyang T-S 24mm 1:3.5 ED AS UMC. The official product presentation will take place on September 18th 2012, during international photographic Photokina fairs held in Cologne.

New Samyang T-S 24mm 1:3.5 ED AS UMC is a wide-angle, full-frame lens fitted with the perspective control and tilt-shift functions. Its unique optical and mechanical construction makes it an ideal tool for architecture and landscape photography. The product will be also extremely useful when convergence of the lines in the frame is required. Owing to the mechanism of optical axis tilt, focus depth operation brings utterly new quality and possibilities, enabling photographers to shape the image according to their individual needs, both on digital and nalog carriers.

Optical design of Samyang T-S 24mm 1:3.5 ED AS UMC comprises of sixteen lenses arranged in eleven groups, including two aspherical lens and two lens made of ED glass with low dispersion factor. Thanks to this solution, the lens perfectly reproduces detailed elements and gives splendid image plasticity, also with the T-S function on. Each optical component of the product was covered with multi-layered, anti-reflective UMC coatings, which provide great light transmission factor, high contrasts and render only natural colors of the photographed scene. With sophisticated optics and developed T-S function, Samyang T-S 24mm 1:3.5 ED AS UMC is currently the most advanced lens produced by Samyang Optics and may compete with similar lenses of other brands.

Tilt-Shift function

Tilt-Shift function in Samyang T-S 24mm 1:3.5 ED AS UMC allows for smooth and individual adjustment of the focus plane angle by +/-8.5 and enables parallel shift of the optical axis by +/-12 millimeters. To make Tilt-Shift function even more seamless, both the lens mount as well as Tilt-Shift section may be rotated on the optical axis. The Tilt-Shift section may be rotated left by 90 degrees (with 30 degree adjustment), while mount of the lens may be rotated both in left and right direction by 90 degrees, also with 30 degree adjustment.

Samyang T-S 24mm 1:3.5 ED AS UMC will be available with mounts for Canon EF, Nikon F, Pentax K and Sony A. We welcome everyone to visit us at Photokina at our booth A025 in the hall 2.1.

Samyang T-S 24mm 1:3.5 ED AS UMC Specifications

Aperture Range F3.5-22
Optical Construction 16 elements in 11 groups / 2 aspherical elements
Minimum Focus 0.2m
Filter thread 82mm
Maximum Diameter 86mm
Angle of view 83.5° (35mm full frame)
Length 110.5mm (Nikon F mount)
Tilt movement +/-8°; rotates 90° relative to shift movement
Shift movement +/-12mm; rotates +/- 90° relative to lens mount

A Bit Of Everything