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Images have leaked of what appears to be the upcoming DJI Mini 4 Pro drone. It offers some pretty significant upgrades over the Dji Mini 3 Pro (buy here), including 4K video at 100fps and omnidirectional obstacle avoidance.
It also offers features typically only found on more more expensive enterprise and high-end consumer drones, such as waypoint flight with 20KM HD video transmission. It’s an impressive set of skills for a <250g drone.
DJI made a not-so-subtle teaser about an impending DJI Inspire 3 drone announcement a few days ago. That announcement is expected later today, although a brochure has leaked showing off all of its specifications. It will contain a full-frame sensor capable of shooting 8K footage at up to 75fps and 4K at up to 120fps with no cropping. It’ll include both CinemaDNG and ProRes RAW codecs, with up to 14+ stops of dynamic range.
It will also offer timecode support through a dedicated 3.5mm port to sync it up with other cameras and includes a 1TB DJI ProSSD for recording all your footage to. With a flight time of 28 minutes, 6-direction obstacle avoidance, a dedicated FPV camera, a max range of 15km, and a selection of 18mm, 24mm, 35mm and 50mm lenses to pick from, it’s certainly going to turn some heads.
A video from Ordinary Filmmaker has popped up on YouTube with information about an upcoming Panasonic camera. It’s not the S1 II announcement that many of us were perhaps expecting but an update to Panasonic’s video-centric camera, the S1H. Yes, that’s right, it seems the next camera on Panasonic’s list will be the S1H II. Normally, such videos don’t get much attention from us, but he has been right before.
Amongst the highlights of the leak are a 50-megapixel(ish) resolution sensor capable of shooting 8K video at up to 60 frames per second and 8K and 6K ProRes RAW. Of course, the headline feature is Panasonic’s new phase-detect autofocus system, first introduced on the S5 II. And yes, that’s coming to the S1H II as well.
It appears Sigma’s not the only one with a 50mm f/1.4 announcement this month. In fact, they’re not even the only ones announcing one for Sony E mount cameras. It looks like Sony’s getting ready to announce one, too. It’s the new Sony 50mm f/1.4 GM and the latest rumours suggest it’s coming on February 21st.
Despite an announcement being a little over a week away, though, a photo of the new lens has leaked. Of course, it has. They always do these days. There aren’t many specs about the new lens yet, although there are a few, and there are some new ones we can see from the image itself.
After a little bit of a specs leak last week, photos of the upcoming OM System M.Zuiko Digital ED 90mm f/3.5 Macro IS PRO lens have now leaked, along with a price. There doesn’t seem to be anything in the way of new specs, but a selection of images shows what the lens looks like on its own, in a full macro rig with flash, its various accessories, along with some examples apparently shot using the lens.
The lens is still expected to be announced tomorrow, although there’s no word on exactly when it’ll be available or start shipping yet. According to the latest leaks, though, it’s expected to have a price of 231,000 yen in Japan. This seems pretty high, as that equates to around $1,750. That’s an awful lot of money for a macro lens of this focal length and aperture.
Development of the OM System M.Zuiko Digital ED 90mm f3.5 Macro ISO Pro (wow, what a mouthful!) was announced back in September 2022 in a road map update. The spot was actually allocated a year earlier, in September 2021, in a previous road map update. Until very recently, though, there was no real news on when we might hear an announcement. Then, a couple of weeks ago, that changed.
OM System released a firmware update on January 20th for the E-M1 Mark II, E-M1 Mark III, E-M5 Mark III, E-M1X and OM-5 cameras. This firmware was specifically (and only) to ensure compatibility with the M.Zuiko 90mm f/35 Macro lens. No announcement date was available then, but now OM System has announced an event on February 8, and specs for the new lens have leaked ahead of that announcement.
Well, yesterday’s rumours of an upcoming Canon EOS R8 and EOS R50 announcement seem a little more real today. And there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that Asobinet is reporting a leaked spec sheet for the Canon EOS R8, telling us pretty much all of the main vital information on the camera. The bad news, though, is that it appears the Canon EOS R8 will not contain an in-body image stabilisation system.
It is, however, expected to contain a 24-megapixel sensor with 4K resolution footage at up 60 fps with 6K oversampling. It’ll shoot HD at up to 180ps and you’ll be able to shoot (presumably raw) stills at up to 40 frames per second. One has to assume that 40fps stills are with the electronic shutter, but still, it’s pretty impressive.
The Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art has been a staple among the gear collections of many photographers since its release back in 2014. It’s no accident, either. It’s an excellent lens offering fantastic results. But today, it has one big flaw. It’s designed for DSLRs and not mirrorless cameras. Sure, you can use adapters, and there is an E-Mount version, but it’s still just basically the DSLR lens with an adapter bolted onto the end.
It looks like Sigma’s looking to finally replace this lens, however, with a 50mm f/1.4 DG DN Art lens designed specifically for mirrorless cameras. Naturally, this means Sony E and Leica L mounts. As is often the way, a few specs of the new lens have leaked in advance of an official announcement, but there’s no word yet on whether this lens will be the first of Sigma’s rumoured expansion into Z mount.
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.
It looks like Venus Optics is set to release a new Laowa lens next week, according to product announcement images. And leaked photos and specs say that it’s going to be a 19mm f/2.8 ultra-wide lens for Fuji GFX medium format cameras. This isn’t the only lens Laowa makes for Fuji GFX or even the widest angle, but it does add a whole extra stop of brightness over the Laowa 17mm f/4 Zero-D GFX.
The new lens is rumoured to be the Laowa 19mm f/2.8 Zero-D GFX, and it’s expected to cost about the same as the 17mm mentioned above. Despite having a wider aperture, though, it’s also expected to be significantly lighter, weighing only 546g vs the 17mm f/4’s rather hefty 829g. There is also another ultra-wide GFX lens from Laowa, the 15mm f/4.5R Zero-D Shift Lens, but we’ll get back to that later.
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe
Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.
John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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