General photography news

[BerserkerCatSplat]

All Blacks locations are to be shuttered in August.

I suppose that's good news for camera shops that don't suck.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Good riddance, I was never a fan of Black's (the camera shop haha).

Bad prices, small selection, and useless staff pretty well sums up every visit I have ever made to one. Much like Vistek minus the selection come to think of it.

I guess what Blacks had going for them was that they were in malls. I'm not sure what else they really had to offer.

One more thing - make sure to go to blacks DOT CA and not .com when you're checking for deals

[blitz]

Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt
Good riddance, I was never a fan of Black's....Bad... and...useless ...pretty well sums up every... Blacks... I'm not sure what else they really had to offer.

[Mitsu3000gt]

^^^ When I was writing that I definitely felt like I needed to clarify which Blacks I was talking about haha.

[D'z Nutz]

[blitz]

New Leica Q announced.

http://leicarumors.com/2015/06/10/le...nnounced.aspx/

Looks like a Sony RX-1 on steroids, Bigger but with EVF and faster lens. Probably the first result of the closer relationship between Panasonic and Leica. Sounds pretty awesome and only $4250 US.

[Mitsu3000gt]

No surprises but Sony announced updates to 3 of their most popular cameras today:

Sony RX 100 IV:

20.1MP 1" Exmor R BSI stacked CMOS Sensor
BIONZ X Image Processor
Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* f/1.8-2.8 Lens
24-70mm (35mm Equivalent)
1440k-Dot OLED Tru-Finder Pop-Up EVF
3.0" 1229k-Dot Multi-Angle Xtra Fine LCD
Full HD Video in XAVC S, Clean HDMI Out
Built-In Wi-Fi Connectivity with NFC
ISO 12800 and 10 fps Continuous Shooting
Manual Control Ring & Built-In ND Filter

Sony RX 10 II:

20.2MP 1" Exmor RS BSI CMOS Sensor
BIONZ X Image Processor
Internal 4K XAVC S Video & S-Log2 Gamma
Carl Zeiss 24-200mm f/2.8 Lens (35mm Eq)
Slow Motion Video at 960 fps
3.0" 1228K-Dot Tilting Xtra Fine TFT LCD
XGA OLED Electronic Viewfinder
Built-In Wireless and NFC Connectivity
Low-Light Sensitivity to ISO 12800
Super Sonicwave Motor for Fast Autofocu

Sony A7R II:

42MP Full-Frame Exmor R BSI CMOS Sensor (first of it's kind)
BIONZ X Image Processor
5-Axis SteadyShot INSIDE Stabilization
399 Phase-Detect AF Points & 5 fps Burst
Internal 4K XAVC S Video & S-Log2 Gamma
Weather-Resistant Magnesium Alloy Body
Built-In Wi-Fi Connectivity with NFC
Adapters now allow for full AF with non-Sony lenses

[rage2]

The videos for those new Sonys are sick. 960fps!



The 4k samples are shabby either. Wonder when Nikon will start adopting them. Fucking Canon sucks for video haha.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by rage2
The videos for those new Sonys are sick. 960fps!

The 4k samples are shabby either. Wonder when Nikon will start adopting them. Fucking Canon sucks for video haha.

Yeah the new 42MP BSI sensor should be pretty awesome. Probably the most likely candidate for the D810 successor at the moment with a modest megapixel bump and a decent performance bump. The D810 isn't even a year old yet though, so I'm not sure they will be using any of Sony's latest high MP full frame sensors until mid-2016. Sony also has 48MP and 54MP full frame sensors in their parts bin.

The D5 should land this year, but those sensors are usually Nikon designs fabricated by Resnas rather than Sony.

I'm curious to see what the performance is like out of these 1" stacked CMOS sensors as well, which should give a fairly noticeable increase. Sony sure has the P&S market nailed - the only thing missing is on-sensor PDAF, which they use in several other of their cameras.

[seer_claw]

Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt
No surprises but Sony announced updates to 3 of their most popular cameras today:


Sony A7R II:

42MP Full-Frame Exmor R BSI CMOS Sensor (first of it's kind)
BIONZ X Image Processor
5-Axis SteadyShot INSIDE Stabilization
399 Phase-Detect AF Points & 5 fps Burst
Internal 4K XAVC S Video & S-Log2 Gamma
Weather-Resistant Magnesium Alloy Body
Built-In Wi-Fi Connectivity with NFC
Adapters now allow for full AF with non-Sony lenses

I think I might be getting a new camera, I like my A7 but this one really seems like a great step up. Only thing is the price, the A7 is so cheap in comparison.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Sigma 24-35/2 ART (full frame) lens will be announced tomorrow.

I am not sure if this is what came of the 24-70/2 rumors or not (hopefully not). Small zoom range and no OS are deal-breakers for me but I'm sure there will be enough people excited about it. If it's really good, you can have your 24, 28, and 35mm prime equivalents all in one lens with F2.

[msommers]

What a stupid focal range Could have been awesome for astro stuff!

[taemo]

glad to see that the GR II announcement was underwhelming, no major changes over the first GR,
Wi-Fi and NFC, increased shutter speed at max aperture and such.

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/167...gr-feature-set

the GR is a perfect little camera as it is, only thing I would like to see is maybe a FF version or better sealing on the lens/sensor.
and maybe a 50mm tele-converter

[Mitsu3000gt]

Yeah, bit of a weak announcement for sure. Zero interest from me, anyway. Not quite wide enough (needed to be at least 20mm IMHO), and not quite long enough (50-70mm would have been nice), and no stabilization, which is extremely useful in that range.

If someone makes a 24-70/2.8 with top notch optics and stabilization I will be on board at $2500 or less. Rumors are both Nikon and Canon have them coming in the near future, and there has a been a Sigma rumor of the same for a while now, which hopefully wasn't just this lens.

The GRII anouncement was super weak as well. Exact same camera with WiFi, NFC, 1/2500 max shutter, slightly bigger buffer, wireless flash with Pentax units, and WB tweaks. No sensor improvements or anything else.

Canon also announced a G3X camera (1" sensor superzoom compact), 24-600mm F2.8-F5.6 lens, 20MP sensor from the RX 100 III (NOT stacked like the RX100 IV), no viewfinder, and $1,000-$1,250 USD (optional hot shoe EVF for another $250). I guess they forgot to check what Sony was working on haha. Pretty weak offering in light of the RX10 and RX 100 IV, especially for the price.

[msommers]

Isn't the Tamron 24-70 with their stabilization supposed to be quite good?

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by msommers
Isn't the Tamron 24-70 with their stabilization supposed to be quite good?

Meh, the reviews are so mixed. There seems to be huge sample variation with that lens, and their build quality is not quite up to the Nikon/Canon/Sigma ART standards. It vignettes quite a bit more than the OEM's, has worse bokeh, and 24mm has a very significant amount of mustache distortion (about -5%). It also is a bit of a breather, dropping to around 60mm on the long end at close distances which is pretty significant for a 24-70. It focuses slightly slower than the OEM's. Performance is weaker in the middle of the zoom range which is unusual for a zoom. Some websites have good reviews for it, and then you read on forums and some people say they went back to their OEM Nikon/Canon variants. I just don't think it's quite 'there' yet, which is why I would be excited about a Sigma ART version, or one from the OEM's. It doesn't have that universal praise of a killer lens.

I think it's probably worth the $1100-1200 they charge for it, but I also think the OEM's are worth the ~$600 premium over the Tamron if stabilization isn't a deal breaker. I would take pass on the Tamron and prefer to have best if I was already paying $1000+.

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Originally posted by msommers
What a stupid focal range Could have been awesome for astro stuff!

It's an f/2 zoom that covers 3 of the most popular wide primes. Seems reasonable to me.

[taemo]

yeah pretty impressive lens since it's fixed f/2 aperture. now if only they could do something with the size

reminds me so much of the Hexanon 21-35mm f/3.4-4 out on the M mount. still costs quite a but (around $1800 iirc) but really versatile for travel.

a dual 21-35 or 28-50 fast lens would be swell for travel.

[msommers]

Originally posted by BerserkerCatSplat


It's an f/2 zoom that covers 3 of the most popular wide primes. Seems reasonable to me.

This is all about me, Trevor. Get outta here

25 and 28 are definitely common for people, I suspect for even wedding people this could work well. Was hoping it would be widest between 17-20mm. Could probably replace my 16-35 then! But I wonder if a bulbous front would of been needed. Who knows, good for some folks I'm sure.

[taemo]

if this was a 17-35 or 21-35 f/2 lens that works on FF, expect the price to be 2-3x more and probably a gigantic bulbous front lens