Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
Well, this one’s come just in time for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, huh? While Canon seems to be dumping EF, Nikon isn’t abandoning the F mount.
Nikon has now announced their new AF-S 120-300mm f/2.8E FL ED SR VR lens, costing a whopping $9,496.95. It looks like an absolute monster of a lens, but ideally suited to shooting the kinds of sports they’re going to be having in Tokyo this year, as well as all the usual sporting events.
Well, this is one all the Z mount shooters have been waiting for. Nikon has now finally announced the Nikon Nikkor Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S for Nikon Z mount mirrorless cameras. And, surprisingly, it’s $200 cheaper than the F mount version for Nikon DSLRs.
It’s been a long while since the Leica Summilux 90mm f/1.5 ASPH lens was first rumoured way back in 2017. Finally, last week, things looked a little promising as a few images of the lens had been leaked. But with the serial number of the lens shown falling into 26 known lenses that had been published in the Leica Pocket Guide (1953-2018) nobody was quite sure if it was actually coming soon.
Today, though, it’s official. Leica has now announced the new Leica Summilux 90mm f/1.5 ASPH lens. The fast long prime is designed primarily for shooting portraits with a very shallow depth of field. But it s not cheap, by any stretch of the imagination, coming in at a hair under $13,000.
Canon recently announced the new RF 85mm f/1.2L USM DS lens for the EOS R mirrorless system. But what exactly does DS mean? Sure, it means “defocus smoothing”, but what effect does that actually have on the image? How does it make the bokeh look? Well, Canon has put out a video showing exactly how it looks.
Along with the development announcement for the 1DX Mark III, Canon has also announced availability for two new lenses. These aren’t EF mount, though. They’re RF mount for Canon’s EOS R mirrorless system. They’ve been mentioned before, but now they’re official. The Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM and Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM DS lenses.
Canon did already release an 85mm f/1.2L lens for the EOS R system, although this new one adds what they’re calling “Defocus Smoothing” which they say helps to soften and smooth bokeh when working at wider apertures, improving the aesthetic of super shallow depth of field shots.
I want to take you back in time. To a brighter, happier time. It’s September 2016, the largest swinging bell in the world sits silently in Cologne Cathedral as Photokina is as noisy as ever in the Koelnmesse just down the road. Irix is showing off a prototype for a new 45mm f/1.4 lens. It was a very sexy looking lens, although here we are, three years later, still no closer to an actual announcement for its availability.
What Irix has done, though, is announce the impending launch of the Irix 45mm T1.5 cinema lens. According to their press release, this is the third full-frame cinema lens Irix has made, adding to the 150mm T3.0 1:1 Macro (the only one they currently list on their website) and the upcoming 11mm T4.3.
Tokina’s line of 11-16mm f/2.8 lenses for APS-C DSLRs have been pretty regularly recommended for years. They weren’t perfect, but they were rather good for what they cost. Tokina has now announced an update to this lens, in the form of the new Tokina atx-i 11-16mm f/2.8 CF for both Nikon and Canon.
The new lens promises increased clarity and sharpness as well as greater contrast, coatings to prevent flaring and ghosting and aspherical and low dispersion elements to combat chromatic and other aberrations.
Nikon has today officially announced the new Nikon D6 flagship DSLR. Well, they’ve announced the development of it, anyway. That’s pretty much all they’ve announced, though. There are no specs or details available other than the name and that it’ll be an FX-format full-frame DSLR.
But what’s possibly even more interesting is that they’ve also announced a new long f/2.8 zoom lens aimed at sports photographers, too. The AF-S Nikkor 120-300mm f/2.8E FL ED SR VR is coming.
Samyang has added an 8th lens to their autofocus lens range for Sony FE mount. The new ultrawide Samyang 18mm F2.8 FE is a lightweight and super wide-angle lens that covers the entire sensor of Sony’s range of full-frame mirrorless cameras. The lens weighs only 145g without the lens hood or cap, which Samyamg says makes it the smallest and lightest 18mm super wide AF lens on the market.
Chinese manufacturer, Yongnuo, has announced a new version of its 35mm f/1.4 lens for Canon DSLRs. It remains largely unchanged from the existing 35mm f/1.4 model for Nikon and Canon in design, except for the addition of the “Ultrasonic Wave Motor” (UWM) which should offer faster and quieter focusing performance than the previous model.
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube and Facebook.
can change a lens mid-rappel, swap a memory card while treading water, or use a camel as a light stand.
To see more of his work please visit his studio website blurMEDIAphotography, or follow him on Twitter, 500px, Google Plus or YouTube.
JP’s photography is available for licensing at Stocksy United.
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