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This Canon 5D Mark II has shot over 2.2 million photos

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On the used camera market, the question you always see is “How many actuations does it have?” It’s a perfectly reasonable question to ask. It’s no more weird than wanting to know how many miles the used car you’re about to buy has done. The more it’s done and the more it’s been used, the less life there’s likely to be left in it, right?

While some manufacturers don’t post the numbers publicly, pretty much all cameras come with some kind of expected shutter life count. These days, that number hovers somewhere between 100K and about 300K depending on the level of camera you buy. The Canon 5D Mark II was rated to 150K when it was released back in 2008. But this one, acquired by YouTuber FoxTailWhipz has over 2.2 million actuations and is still going strong.

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Meike has released an autofocus adapter to let you use Canon EF/EF-S lenses on Nikon Z bodies

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No matter which team you shoot for, it seems that the Canon EF mount has sort of become the de facto universal standard for (almost) all of them. Kind of like the lens equivalent of a Bowens mount. And if the camera you’re using doesn’t have a native EF mount, whatever mount you do have can be easily adapted. Now that adaption seems to have come to Nikon Z cameras, thanks to Meike.

Meike’s new MK-EFTZ-B adapter lets you mount Canon EF and EF-S lenses onto Nikon Z bodies with full autofocus support and aperture control from the camera body. It even appears to support Canon’s IS lens stabilisation system, too, according to Meike’s description of the product on their website and also transmits EXIF data along to the camera body.

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Google Photos is corrupting older images but here’s how to fix it

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It appears that Google Photos is having a bit of a moment. It seems that it’s corrupting some older images stored on the service dating from 2013 to 2015, according to reports from users. The phenomenon shows up as what looks like digital tears (as in rips through the image, not liquid that comes from your eyes) across the image, as you can see in examples posted to the Google support forums.

Quite a few people have reported the issue. As well as post on Google support, there are also a number of Reddit threads with more examples. There is some good news, though. It looks like Google is already on the case and some users have had their images fixed without them having to do anything. But, if you’re facing this issue and it doesn’t get automatically fixed, there is a way to do it yourself.

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7Artisans teases new 12mm T2.9 cine and 4mm f/2.8 drone lenses on Chinese social media

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7Artisans has been showing off a couple of new APS-C lenses on Chinese social media platforms. One is a very wide angle ultra lightweight 4mm f/2.8 lens designed for use on drones while the other is a slightly less wide (but still pretty wide) 12mm T2.9 cinema lens. Both lenses appear to be manual focus lenses but beyond that, there isn’t much information available about them yet. We do know what mounts they’ll be available for.

Despite reportedly showing the new lenses off on Chinese social media, the two lense shave yet to make an appearance on the 7 Artisan website. But from the images teased, we can see that the 12mm T2.9 cine lens will be available in Sony E, MFT, Fuji X, Nikon Z, Leica L and Canon RF mount. The 4mm f/2.8 drone lens, though, will only be available for Sony E, Fuji X, MFT and Canon EF-M mounts.

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Sony FX30 APS-C cinema camera coming Sept 28th – ZV series & A7R V camera announcements expected next month

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Sony has posted a teaser to YouTube for a new product being announced on Wednesday, September 28th at 10am Eastern (3pm UK time). Sony hasn’t specifically said what’s coming, except for the fact that it’s a new camera and that it’s part of the cinema line. Right now, though, all rumours seem to point towards it being the Sony FX30.

There hasn’t been a massive amount of leaks on the FX30 yet, and nothing has really been confirmed, although it’s expected to essentially be an FX3 with the same body and almost exactly the same specifications, including 4K 120fps, but with a smaller 26-megapixel sensor. All we know for sure though, is that Sony is definitely announcing a new cinema camera of some kind in two days.

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I saved $250 by making my own DIY contrast filter holder for the Omega B66 enlarger

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Have you ever had a repeated inconvenience that finally makes you say to yourself “okay, I’m done with this garbage”? Well, that’s the exact feeling I had with using contrast filters on my enlarger. Anytime I wanted to use a contrast filter, I needed to use tape to hold it in place while I was printing.

The design of some Omega enlargers requires a removable “cradle” that holds the filters underneath the lens. After a bit of searching online, I found that B&H Photo sells a replacement filter holder for B series enlargers for the low low price of $269. Even used, these things are expensive. eBay had a few listed that were selling for about $79. Unwilling to part with my hard-earned cash for such a frivolous purchase I was left with the only other option- to build one myself.

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Canon issues service notice over lockups with Canon XF605, EOS C70 and EOS R5c cameras

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Canon has issued a slightly odd service notice. Well, it’s not that odd for Canon XF605 owners, as it relates to a problem specifically targeting that camera. What’s a little odd is that they’ve also included the Canon EOS C70 and Canon EOS R5c in the service notice, too. Canon says they’ve confirmed the “possibility” of them being prone to the same issue although there are no actual reports of it happening in the real world (yet).

Still, if you’re shooting an FX605, an EOS C70 or an EOS R5c, there are certain situations in which various settings and actions performed on your camera may cause it to lock up and become inoperable. There’s no word on whether or not simply powering the camera down and back up again (or pulling the battery) resets the function, but a new firmware is available already for the XF605 and they’re working on updates for the other two.

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Capture One for iPad now supports both wired and wireless tethered shooting

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When Capture One for iPad was released in June, there was no option to tether your camera to your iPad. They promised it would be coming soon and now they’ve made good on that promise. The latest v1.10 update for Capture One for iPad now supports tethering your camera to your iPad while shooting. And it does it wired through a USB cable or wirelessly over WiFi.

The new update lets photographers shoot directly into Capture One on the iPad to be able to see a large preview of your shots as they’re being taken and you can apply a preset to them by default to get a good idea of how the final image is going to look. You can also use your iPad to remotely trigger your camera without having to touch it at all – very handy when you’ve got a camera mounted in a hard-to-reach location.

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Loawa has released another macro lens – the 58mm f/2.8 2x Ultra Macro APO for mirrorless cameras

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When it comes to macro lenses, the name that springs to mind most these days is Laowa, produced by Venus Optics. Now, they’ve added another new one to their lineup, the Laowa 58mm f/2.8 2x Ultra Macro APO designed specifically for mirrorless cameras. Like Laowa’s other lenses, it’s a manual focus lens, and this one comes in four full-frame flavours. Sony E, Canon RF, Nikon Z and Leica L mounts.

The new lens offers a 40.9° field of view on full-frame sensors and focuses all the way from 2:1 magnification to infinity, making it suitable for not just macro but also portraits or a general walkaround lens. It features an apochromatic (APO) design to suppress chromatic aberration as well as 3 ED and 3 Ultra-High Refractive Index lenses for maximum sharpness.

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The better you get at photography, the more difficult it becomes – but that’s not a bad thing

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I’ll admit that this is something that I haven’t really thought of before, but after having watched this excellent video from aows, I think it explains why I often change the topics I like to shoot. His argument is that the more you do photography, the more images you shoot, and the better you become, the more difficult it becomes. It seems odd, but when you think about it, it makes a lot of sense.

The reason it gets harder is that you’re following that advice often told to photographers. Stop competing with other photographers. The only photographer you need to compete with is the photographer you used to be. And this is basically the problem. As you learn more, get better and your work improves, you’re setting your own bar higher. It gets more and more difficult to best yourself.

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