Tokina Opera 16-28mm F/2.8 Review (Photography Blog)

Tokina Opera 16-28mm f/2.8
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Tokina Opera 16-28mm f/2.8 at a glance:

  • EF-Mount Lens/Full-Frame Format
  • Aperture Range: f/2.8 to f/22
  • Three Aspherical Elements
  • Three Low Dispersion Elements
  • Multi-Coating
  • Silent Drive DC Motor Autofocus System
  • 9-Blade Diaphragm
  • Built-In Lens Hood

Photography Blog reviewed the Tokina Opera 16-28mm F/2.8 lens for full frame DSLRs.

From their conclusion:

Sporting a more modern design that made its debut on the Opera 50mm f/1.4, this lens is well-suited to Canon and Nikon’s high-end full-frame DSLRs in both styling and size. 

Less appealing is the slightly sluggish, audible AF system, the inability to fit a traditional filter system, and the lack of any weather-sealing, whilst the push/pull focal clutch mechanism is satisfyingly retro but less convenient than automatic manual focus over-ride.

Image quality is very good. Chromatic aberrations are well controlled and bokeh is surprisingly appealing when shooting at 28mm. 

The only real optical issues are obvious vignetting and some barrel distortion at at the 16mm wide-angle focal length, a slight lack of centre sharpness when shooting wide-open at f/2.8 throughout the zoom range, and rather poor corner sharpness between f/2.8-5.6.

Read the review…

Tokina Opera 16-28mm f/2.8: [shoplist 56658]

Apple Used An Unreleased Canon 8K Cinema Camera During WWDC 2019

canon 8k cinema camera
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Something Canon related happened yesterday at Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2019, and it appears to be a Canon 8K Cinema camera.

YouTuber Jonathan Morrison live streamed from WWDC 2019 and at a certain point (around min 10:55 in the video below) he talks to an Apple rep who says “there is an unreleased 8K Canon camera over there”.

The unreleased 8K Canon camera was used to capture 8K resolution footage to showcase the performance of the new Pro Display XDR. In the video you can see the Canon 8K mounted on a robotic arm while sending 4:4:4 ProRes 8K raw video via an Atoms Shogun to the Apple display.

The Canon 8K camera in the video is most likely the upcoming Canon EOS C300 Mark III, expected to be announced in 2019.

KamLan 50mm f/1.1 II Lens for Canon EOS M Released

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The KamLan 50mm f/1.1 II lens for mirrorless systems has been officially released. It sells at $159.99 and can be pre-ordered at Adorama or KickStarter

The “Kamlan 50mm F1.1 MK2 APS-C lens” has a super large, bright f/1.1 aperture with 11 circular aperture iris that allows for great results in extreme low light conditions and also the ability to create beautifully creamy backgrounds. Brand new optical design can help you get great sharpness in all aperture range.

One of the key strengths of the Kamland 50mm f/1.1 MK2 is its high degree of color accuracy and richness. Unlike some normal large lenses, it does not introduce too much color cast to images but instead delivers a neutral, accurate color rendition even wide open. You can easily create great 3D effect and rich sense of atmosphere for your images.

Kamlan 50mm F1.1 MK2 features with dual high index of refraction  element groups. It can calibrate the spherical aberration effectively. The result is your images will be sharp from minimum distance to infinity.

Further extending the flexibility of the lens is the ability focus down to just 0.4m (1.3ft), allowing you to fill the frame with your subject and throw the background dramatically out of focus.

Kamlan 50mm F1.1 MK2 features a larger diameter element with  high index of refraction glass to help eliminate the onion rings. The whole defocus area is smooth and creamy.

kamlan 50mm
kamlan 50mm
[via 4/3 Rumors]

Canon Is Not Giving You A “Professional Photographer” Certificate If You Buy A Camera Over $599

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A few sites brought a news they obviously got wrong.

Satirical site The Babylon Bee reported that Canon will hand out a “professional photographer” certificate with any camera that costs more than $599.

The faked press release states:

If you spend at least $599 on a camera, you’re instantly transformed into a professional photographer, and now you have the documentation to prove it. In a lot of professions, you have to take classes or practice for years before you truly become a professional, but not in photography. Just buy one of our budget to mid-range cameras, and you’re in.”

Well, some people took this for real ;-)

Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L Developers Answer Questions (interview)

Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L review
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Canon RF 85mm at a glance:

  • RF-Mount Lens/Full-Frame Format
  • Aperture Range: f/1.2 to f/16
  • Blue Spectrum Refractive Optics Element
  • One UD Element, One Aspherical Element
  • Air Sphere Coating
  • Ring-Type Ultrasonic Motor AF System
  • Customizable Control Ring
  • Rounded 9-Blade Diaphragm

Canon Europe posted an interview where the developers of the Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L lens for EOS R systems answer 10 questions.

Canon Europe spoke to product planning expert Kaishi Kawai of Canon’s Image Communication Business Operations (ICB) Optical Business Group; optical design pro Satoshi Maetaki, manager of Canon’s ICB Optical Products Development Center; electrical designer Masami Ichinose, senior engineer at the ICB Optical Products Development Center; mechanical designer Yasushi Murakami of the ICB Optical Products Development Center; and BR Optical Element and DS Coating Design expert Tomohiko Ishibashi of the Optics Technology R&D Center.

Some excerpts from the interview:

Can the bokeh get any creamier?

Tomohiko: “The strong bokeh produced by the large aperture of the Canon RF 85mm F1.2L USM is one feature of the lens. However, lenses with significant chromatic aberration suppression tend to have slightly clearer bokeh contours.

[…]

Is the autofocus up to the L-series lens standard?

Masami: “The Canon RF 85mm F1.2L USM lens uses the same ring-type ultrasonic motor (USM) as on the super telephoto lenses, which has the most powerful torque of any Canon lens, making focusing extremely fast despite the large optics.”

Why is the Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM longer than its EF mount counterpart?

Satoshi: “In terms of optical design, the total length is measured from the focal plane (the position of the imaging sensor or film). If you compare the EF and RF mounts, the lens mount is closer to the sensor on the RF mount than is the case with the EF mount. Because of this the EF version of some lenses can be shorter as the extra distance is taken up by the longer distance between the lens mount and the sensor in a DSLR camera. This naturally makes the RF version longer in total length to compensate for the difference in sensor-to-mount distance.

Read the interview….

Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L: [shoplist 56632]

Canon EOS R full frame mirrorless system: [shoplist 52287]

Canon EOS R for Astrophotography Coming?

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Does Canon have an EOS R model dedicated to astrophotography on their agenda? This is what a new rumor suggests.

A Canon EOS R model for astrophotography is plausible, at least. A mirrorless camera makes astrophotography easier for some aspects. No mirror mechanism. However, the same can be achieved on virtually any modern DSLR by using live view and locking the mirror.

As far as we know there is no Canon camera dedicated to astrophotography and with a full frame sensor. The most recent Canon DSLR dedicated to this peculiar kind of photography is the Canon EOS 60Da.

The EOS 60Da uses a specially made infrared blocking optical low-pass filter that allows the light normally blocked by a typical DSLR’s filter to be captured by the camera’s sensor. An EOS R dedicated to astrophotography would most likely feature a modified full frame sensor, i.e. different for those seen so far. Or might this astrophotography-wise EOS R just be the rumored high resolution EOS R model?

While being a rumor that might come to reality, the source gave it a low rating. There is also the fact that actually there are no native RF lenses suited for astrophotography, so take it with a grain of salt.

Photos shot with the Canon EOS 60Da are listed on Flickr.

Source: Canon Rumors