John Aldred, Author at DIY Photography

Canon patents haptic shutter button that vibrates when you lock focus

Jan 24, 2023 by John Aldred 2 Comments

I’m quite surprised that it’s taken this long for something like this to appear. Even just in patent form, it’s taken quite a while. To have not seen it in an interchangeable lens camera yet has always struck me as a little odd given the prevalence of this feature in smartphones and countless other devices – especially given the need for silent shooting in many genres, like weddings and events.

Still, Canon has patented (Japanese Patent #2023009356) a vibrating shutter button. It provides haptic feedback, vibrating to let you know when you’ve locked focus on a subject. In all other respects, it’s a perfectly normal shutter. When you half-press it, though, and it nails focus, you get physical feedback, letting you disable your audible confirmation and still be sure your subject’s in focus.

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First photo leaks of Sigma’s upcoming 50mm f/1.4 DG DN Art for mirrorless

Jan 24, 2023 by John Aldred Leave a Comment

The first image has leaked of Sigma’s upcoming 50mm f/1.4 DG DN Art lens for mirrorless cameras. Along with last week’s leaked specs, it looks like we could be getting very close to an official announcement. The older Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art for DLSRs has been a regular fixture in the bags of many photographers over the years. Photographers who’ve been begging for Sigma to update it for mirrorless systems.

It looks like this probably won’t be the lens that Sigma uses to expand into the Nikon Z space, as the rumours only suggest the usual Leica L and Sony E mounts so far, but it’s nice to see the lens finally appearing. But now we can see that it appears to have an actual aperture ring which shows a range of f/1.4 down to f/16. Whether or not it’s clicked or stepless, we’ll have to wait and see.

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Panasonic VP says Micro Four Thirds is the gateway for smartphone users to real cameras

Jan 20, 2023 by John Aldred Leave a Comment

In a recent interview with DPReview, Yosuke Yamane, Vice President of Panasonic’s Entertainment and Communication business and director of its imaging business unit, spoke about a number of topics in Panasonic’s future. It covers, amongst others, things such as stills vs video, phase-detect autofocus and the role that AI will play in the future of photography. But what was particularly interesting to me was how he spoke about Micro Four Thirds.

What made it interesting to me is the fact that, like many people reading this, I’m a Micro Four Thirds shooter. Granted, I only use MFT for video, but how he describes it – and presumably how Panasonic sees it – is a little different. MFT does offer some obvious benefits for photographers due to its diminutive stature, but that small size also presents other implications. In essence, he described it as a gateway to larger systems.

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ProGrade Digital officially announces 3rd generation 1TB CFexpress cards

Jan 20, 2023 by John Aldred Leave a Comment

It looks like last October’s post was a little premature. Despite appearing on the B&H website, it looks like ProGrade’s 3rd-generation 1TB CFexpress Type B cards hadn’t been officially announced by the company themselves. Well, now, they have.

ProGrade Digital has announced their newest 3rd-generation 1TB CFexpress Type B cards, boasting read speeds of up to 1,700MB/sec, burst write speeds up to 1,500MB/sec and sustained write speeds of up to 1,300MB/sec. But why the delay between listings appearing in October and an official announcement now? Well, ProGrade explains that, too.

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OM System firmware update leaks impending 90mm f/3.5 Macro lens announcement

Jan 20, 2023 by John Aldred Leave a Comment

The expectation that OM System will release a long focal length (long for Micro Four Thirds, at least) macro lens has been around for a while now. A macro lens in the 90-105mm region popped up on the lens roadmap way back in September 2021, and development of a 90mm f/3.5 Macro was announced in a September 2022 roadmap update. Now, thanks to a firmware update for the E-M1 Mark II, E-M1 Mark III, E-M5 Mark III, E-M1X and OM-5 cameras, we know it’s on the way soon.

While OM System has not made an official release announcement about a new macro lens, the notes for the new camera firmware updates state that they’re pretty much only to ensure compatibility with the new M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 90mm F3.5 Macro IS PRO lens. B&H has been quick to jump on adding a listing on their site, although it reveals no details beyond those made during the development announcement.

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The XLR V3 drone sets a new drone speed record of 224mph in the Arizona desert

Jan 19, 2023 by John Aldred Leave a Comment

For most of us, if our drones can break 50mph, we’re pretty impressed. Even the popular DJI Mavic 3 only manages up to about 47mph in ideal conditions. For <250g drones like the Autel Evo Nano (review here) and DJI Mini 3, even hitting 30-35mph is a bit of a struggle. Imagine, though, if you had a drone capable of shooting 224mph. For one man, Ryan Lademann, there’s no need to imagine. He built one.

He created the XLR V3, which he took out into the Arizona desert to put it to the test and made it into the Guinness Book of World Records for “fastest ground speed by a battery-powered remote-controlled (RC) quadcopter”. He hit an average speed of 224mph with a maximum speed of 257.25mph. The attempt was made in November of last year but was finally just confirmed by Guinness.

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Tokina’s SZ Pro 300mm, 600mm and 900mm reflex lenses finally coming to stores in February

Jan 19, 2023 by John Aldred Leave a Comment

In November, Tokina announced three new reflex lenses in the SZ Pro lineup. They had focal lengths and apertures of 300mm f/7.1, 600mm f/8 and 900mm f/11. What makes these so special compared to all of the reflex lenses Tokina’s released in the past? Well, these are the first designed specifically for APS-C mirrorless camera systems. This means no more adapters and they can also make the lenses smaller.

At the time of the initial announcement, the lenses were available via Indiegogo, where they raised a pretty meagre $16,100. But Tokina has announced that they’re going on general sale on February 3rd. There are only three mount options available at the moment, including Sony E, Fuji X and Canon EF-M. I’m still hoping that we’ll see Nikon Z and Canon RF versions at some point.

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Capture One explains its confusing new “Loyalty Program” and it’s not amazing but it’s not terrible, either

Jan 19, 2023 by John Aldred 4 Comments

In December, Capture One announced that they were ditching their annual release cycle, changing its perpetual license model and switching primarily to a subscription model with more frequent releases. It’s a good compromise between only offering infrequent updates vs the lifelong subscription model of companies like Adobe and Autodesk. Capture One was offering the best of both worlds.

The only question that remained was over the announced “Loyalty Program” (or “Loyalty Scheme”, as it was called then) for Capture One users. The details hadn’t been published yet, although we knew it would be replacing the standard upgrade pricing system available under previous versions. Well, now, Capture One has published exactly what it all means and how it impacts you, the user.

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Nikon’s Super Telephoto Z lenses get a firmware update for linear focus ring rotation

Jan 18, 2023 by John Aldred Leave a Comment

Nikon’s Nikkor Z super telephoto lenses are fantastic pieces of kit, there’s no question. For what they cost, you’d expect them to be pretty spectacular, too. Like most modern autofocus mirrorless lenses, though, they use a focus-by-wire system when manually focusing. Focus by wire lets you make big adjustments by turning the ring quickly or fine adjustments by turning it slowly. A fantastic innovation for photographers, not so much for filmmakers.

So, Nikon has released new firmware for their 400mm f/4.5 VR, 400mm f/2.8 TC VR, 600mm f/4 TC VR and 800mm f/6.3 VR lenses to bring linear focus to the focus rings of those lenses. This lets them be used in video rigs with follow-focus units with the certainty that they’ll nail the target every time.

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Voigtlander announces the ultra-bright Nokton 50mm f/1.0 and Super Wide-Heliar 15mm f/4.5 lenses for Nikon Z

Jan 18, 2023 by John Aldred Leave a Comment

Cosina has announced two new lenses for the Nikon Z mount mirrorless system. One is an extremely impressive-sounding Voigtlander NOKTON 50mm f/1.0 Aspherical full-frame lens. A standard field of view with an ultra-wide and bright aperture that’s anything but standard. The other is the Voigtlander SUPER WIDE-HELIAR 15mm f/4.5 Aspherical lens, which is also full frame, offering an extremely wide field of view.

The lenses aren’t entirely new. The Nokton 50mm f/1.0 is already available in Leica M mount. The Super Wide-Heliar 15mm f/4.5 is also available for Sony E mount. But the addition of another mount expands the possibilities for Nikon Z mount shooters – even if they are both manual focus lenses.

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