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Nikon announces development of 85mm f/1.2 S and 26mm f/2.8 pancake lenses for Z mount

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Nikon has announced the development of two new Nikkor Z mount lenses. There’s a fast Nikkor Z 85mm f/1.2 S mid-telephoto portrait lens and a 26mm f/2.8 pancake lens. Both lenses are designed for full-frame Nikon mirrorless cameras but they will, of course, work on APS-C bodies, too, with a narrower field of view. Beyond the focal length and apertures, not much else has been said about the new lenses yet.

We don’t know when they’re going to be released nor how much they’ll cost, although there are a few things we can pick up from the images. Things like the fact that the 85mm f/1.2 will take an 82mm screw-on filter and it doesn’t look like the 26mm f/2.8 takes filters at all.

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Paul C. Buff announces Celestial, a portable strobe with HSS and TTL capability

Paul C. Buff lighting company, producers of such lights as the Einstein, AlienBees and DigiBee lighting products, has announced a new strobe called the Celestial. What makes this light special? Well, in the grand scheme of things, not much. But in the Buff lineup, it means they’ve finally got a small portable strobe that supports High Speed Sync and TTL flash metering – only a decade behind the competition.

It’s a 500Ws strobe with a light output that Buff says is “similar to the 640Ws Einstein” strobe, with a 12-stop brightness range. It has a recycle time of only 1.5 seconds and syncs with shutter speeds all the way up to 1/8,000th of a second. It also features a “160 Watt equivalent” LED modelling lamp.

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Panasonic finally goes Phase Detect Autofocus with the new Panasonic Lumix S5 Mark II

Panasonic shooters have only been begging for it for about a decade, and Panasonic finally seems to have delivered. Panasonic has today announced the new Panasonic Lumix S5 Mark II (and S5 Mark IIX), and this finally marks Panasonic’s entry into the world of Phase Detect Autofocus. And no, it’s not just when shooting stills, either. Panasonic shooters finally have good autofocus when shooting video.

The Panasonic Lumix S5 Mark II replaces the Panasonic Lumix S5, launched only just over two years ago in September 2020. The full-frame L mount mirrorless camera has been one of Panasonic’s most popular over the last couple of years, thanks to its good balance of price vs performance. As with all Panasonic cameras, though, video autofocus performance was always an issue.

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This foldable vlogging rig fits in your pocket

For those of you who like packing light but still want to make the best from your phone cameras, SmallRig has announced a pretty cool gadget. The SmallRig P20 is tiny, yet versatile universal smartphone filmmaking rig. Aimed at vloggers, but also other video creators who use their phone, this foldable and portable gadget fits in your pocket and goes anywhere with you.

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Viltrox launches its 75mm f/1.2 autofocus portrait lens for Fuji X cameras

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Teased at the end of November with a little bit of a photos leak, Viltrox has now officially announced their new 75mm f/1.2 autofocus lens for Fuji X mirrorless cameras. The new lens adds to Viltrox’s existing 13mm f/1.4, 23mm f/1.4 Mark II, 33mm f/1.4, 56mm f/1.4, and 85mm f/1.8 Mark II but marking a new milestone in maximum aperture at a very bright f/1.2.

It offers a full-frame equivalent field of view to around 112.5mm, with full autofocus support on Fuji X mount cameras. It houses 16 elements in 11 groups inside an aluminium alloy enclosure. The HD Nano multi-layer helps to repel dirt and moisture with low-dispersion elements helping to squash chromatic aberration and other potential issues.

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Leaked spec sheet for upcoming Panasonic Lumix S5 Mark II says phase detect AF is definitely coming

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Well, it looks like the announcement is going to be coming quite soon. After the recent photo leak, a complete set of specs for the Panasonic Lumix S5 Mark II has also been leaked. Also, we now know what the differences will be between the S5 Mark II and the S5 Mark II X. The big news though is that, yes, Panasonic finally seems to be putting Phase Detect Autofocus into a mirrorless camera.

This is good news for the future of Panasonic shooters, who’ve often complained about Panasonic’s proprietary DFD tech that only works with Panasonic lenses – and it not really working at all, really, when shooting video. The addition of phase detection autofocus appears to be the single biggest difference between this and the original Panasonic Lumix S5, but there are a couple of others.

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Photo leaks of upcoming Panasonic S5 Mark II ahead of February release

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Panasonic is getting ready to announce a new S5 Mark II L mount mirrorless camera. Building on the popularity of the original S5, the new camera might actually come with a whole new autofocus system. Panasonic recently introduced Phase Detect autofocus for the first time in their AW-UE160W/K PTZ camera. The big hope right now is that we’ll start to see PDAF also coming to Panasonic’s L mount range.

Not only is there supposed to be a new Panasonic S5 Mark II, but it’s also being reported that we’ll see an S5 Mark II X, too. Exactly what the differences will be between the two models is unknown, as no specs for either have really leaked yet, but what has leaked is a photo of what is reported to be the upcoming S5 Mark II.

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A real-world test of the new Canon Speedlite EL-1 professional flash

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The Canon Speedlite EL-1 flash was announced late last year, and like many of you, I saw the price tag and thought that I would save some money and keep using my old Canon 600EX-RT flashes. Let’s face it, at $1099 each, these things are not cheap. But about a month ago, I decided to pull the trigger and purchase two of these flashes. Even though I typically use 6 flashes when shooting events, I had a very specific use for these two new flash heads. But that would be getting ahead of myself, so let me tell you a little about these newer flashes.

The first thing I noticed when unpacking the Speedlite EL-1 is that it is noticeably larger than the previous Canon flash heads. I believe that a big part of this is the fan which is integrated inside the Speedlite EL-1. Yes, there is a fan in these to help keep them cool, even when being used heavily.

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Colbor release a low-budget RGB version of their modular CL60 LED lights

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Colbor has announced the new Colbor CL60R, it’s an RGB version of the CL60 and CL60M LED lights released in August. We got to check out those versions in person in September at IBC 2022 in Amsterdam. Now, the new RGB version has landed, with the same modularity but a lot more colour options and at least one very cool new feature.

The cool new feature may seem like an odd choice for a light designed for video and something more commonly found on disco lights instead – although the Aputure Amaran SM5C features this ability, too. It has a built in audio-sensitive system that allows the colour and light react to music or other sounds going on around it.

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Kondor Blue releases its new “Mondo-Ties” cable management system for video and cinema rigs

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Kondor Blue has announced its newest product. It’s an unassuming little clip with big quality-of-life improvements for filmmakers, live streamers and others who potentially have to deal with a lot of cables. It was developed in collaboration with YouTuber Armando Ferreira (Mondobytes), and it’s called Mondo-Ties. It’s essentially a 1/4-20″ mounted cable tie. It screws into the 1/4-20″ sockets on your cage or other hardware and holds your cables so they’re not flapping all over the place.

It’s a little thing, but it’s a very elegant solution to a common problem. Personally, I often end up using hook & loop strips to strap cables to each other and my camera rig, but that can make disassembly and reassembly a lot more time-consuming. Mondo-Ties, though, as you can see in the video below, is very quick to tweak, making it very efficient on set.

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