Liquid Lens Patent by Canon (and video)

Ever heard about liquid lenses? It may be the next big thing in optical engineering. Basically, liquid lenses work by applying an electric voltage to an electrolytic solution (that’s the liquid) in order to curve its surface (called meniscus). You probably are already thinking: Hey, that means no moving parts! And you are right. Liquid lenses have a series of advantages over traditional lenses. Beside not having moving parts (and thus less mechanical parts), they  respond quicker to electrical signals, they do not have a motor (you thought that USM was the big thing? Think again) and they are naturally much more silent. Just one quick note: Not having a motor means they need less electrical power, and that means the battery charge will last longer. There is a 10 minutes video at the end of the post that explains the technology. Fun to watch and good examples. Ok, let’s see the patent (it was very tiring to read :-)).

Click here to open the rest of the article

Scott Bourne and the 5D Mark III

This is the most hilarious review about Nikon’s D800 I’ve ever read. Scott Bourne reviews it, and while doing the review he praises the EOS 5D Mark III. Funny. Needless to say: he also considers the AF of the 5D Mark III superior to the AF featured on the D800. The lower price tag is also demystified, since having a 36MP sensor means having bigger files, and that means you eventually have to invest in new computer equipment: […] you better also plan on buying more and larger hard drives, a faster computer and more and larger memory cards. The files coming off the camera are at least 40 megabytes. Do the math! […] that means you’ll need three times the hard drive space and three times the camera memory. Add that to the cost of the camera and it’s not quite the bargain it appears to be compared with the 5D MK III. Also – get used to going for coffee while your images import.

About the Auto-Focus: The Nikon D800 also has a few small problems. Its autofocus doesn’t work as expected. It seems to do an initial grab and then fine tune. The AF on the D800 is in my opinion, inferior to the AF on the 5DMKIII.

[via photofocus]

Discounted Tamron Lenses at B&H

Selected Tamron lenses get a $100 mail-in rebate at B&H. The rebates expire 6/30/2012. The following lenses are offered:

  • Tamron SP 70-300mm Di VC USD Lens, $349 after the rebate – click here
  • Tamron AF18-270mm Di II VC PZD AF Lens, $549.00 after the rebateclick here
  • Tamron SP AF60mm f/2 DI II LD 1:1 Macro Lens, $424 after the rebate – click here

See below for pics and specifications of the lenses.

Click here to open the rest of the article

EOS 5D Mark III DXO-Marks published, and then not – PUBLISHED

Update 2: The scores are online again. Nothing changed.

Update: the scores have been posted in DPreview forum. Here they are. The measures reported for the EOS 5D Mark III are the same I saw: 2239 ISO – 11.7 EVs DR – 24 bits color depth, overall score 81. This measures look strange to me, especially when compared to the 5D Mark II and Nikon’s D800:

  • 5D Mk II – 1815 ISO – 11.9 EVs DR – 23.7 Color Depth, overall score 79
  • D800 – 2835 ISO – 14.4 EVs DR – 25.3 bits Color Depth, overall score 95

 

Just a quick note that the posting of the EOS 5D Mark III DXO-Marks could be a matter of minutes. I saw them just 10 minutes ago but now it says that scores are not available. I wont tell you the overall score i saw, could have been a typo. :-)

Stay tuned!

To Upgrade or Not To Upgrade, part 1: 5D Mark III vs 5D Mark II

VS 

It’s a month and a half that the EOS 5D Mark III has been announced, and a lot of people is questioning if they should upgrade from their actual cameras. In this post I try to compare the Mark III with its predecessor, the EOS 5D Mark II, and to outline the main differences between the two cameras. In the second part (in a few days, hopefully) I will compare the 5d Mark III with the EOS 7D.

The EOS 5D Mark III is a completely redesigned camera (also in its internal assembling), with a new AF-system (the most advanced available on a DLSR), a sensor that has one megabyte more resolution than the Mark II and a new CPU. Let’s first see the core specifications:

Click here to open the rest of the article