Official Canon EOS 1D Mark III Autofocus Fix on the way
Rob Galbraith has updated his June 19th article about the 1Dmk3 AF performance issues with some new information from Chuck Westfall, who is Canon USA’s Director of Media and Customer Relationships.
Beginning October 17 in the U.S. and presumably other regions as well, Canon began informing EOS-1D Mark III owners that a fix for the camera’s AI Servo autofocus problems has been developed. Chuck Westfall, Canon USA’s Director of Media and Customer Relationship, says that Canon USA staff at their factory service centres, call centre as well as pro market field representatives have been briefed on the fix and are able to speak about it to EOS-1D Mark III shooters.
We spoke with Westfall this morning about what customers are being told regarding the fix. What we’ve learned has been rolled into an update to our June 19 article analysing EOS-1D Mark III autofocus performance.
Take a look, great news for the 1D mark III owners.
Photozone.de reviews Canon EF TS-E 90mm f/2.8
Check out the full review here.
If you don’t know what a Tilt Shift lens is:
The Canon TS-E 90mm f/2.8 is one of the more unusual lenses in the Canon lens lineup - it is one of three tilt-shift (TS) lenses.
Shift lenses allow you to compensate perspective distortions (converging verticals) by shifting the optical path off its horizontal axis. By doing so the projected image (rectangle) on the film/sensor plane gets distorted to a trapezoid negating the original effect. You may argue that you can also apply perspective correction via an imaging application these days. This may be true but you’re doing so at cost of image quality because a stretched image portions rely on interpolated data.
Unlike most other shift lenses Canon TS-E lenses also offer a tilt feature allowing to alter the focus plane. On normal lenses the focus plane is parallel to the film/sensor plane. By tilting the lens you can coincide the focus plane to the layout of your main subject in your scene which may not be parallel to the film/sensor plane (Scheimpflug effect). This way you can optimize your depth-of-field although you’re not increasing it. If you tilt and/or shift the lens it has quite a bizarre look.
And the verdict is a good one, these lenses are usually built very well.
The Canon TS-E 90mm f/2.8 is an interesting lens for those seeking the maximum of perspective and depth-of-field control - at a price of around ~1250 US$/€. Technically the lens is about as good as it gets including excellent resolution, absent CAs and zero distortions. When choosing neutral TS settings the lens shows only marginal vignetting at f/2.8 but the more you push the TS feature to the max the problem increases accordingly (1.5EV at the most extreme setting). The build quality is exceptionally high. A drawback by design is the lack of an AF motor so you’ve to rely on your manual focusing skills here.
Check it out!
Canon EF 200mm f/2L IS and 800mm f/5.6L IS in development!
A press release from Canon here talking about these two new lenses.
CANON U.S.A. TO EXHIBIT TWO NEW TELEPHOTO LENSES UNDER DEVELOPMENT AT PHOTOPLUS EXPO
LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., October 15, 2007 – Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging, today announced the development of two all-new telephoto lenses for use with its EOS SLR cameras: the EF200mm f/2L IS USM*/** and the EF800mm f/5.6L IS USM*/**. The Company will exhibit prototypes of the new lenses at PhotoPlus Expo (booth #318), taking place at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City, October 18 to 20.
The new Canon EF200mm f/2L IS USM and EF800mm f/5.6L IS USM, both of which are L (luxury)-series lenses incorporating a high-performance Image Stabilizer, feature optical systems utilizing special optical materials such as fluorite to correct chromatic aberrations, making possible high-resolution, high-contrast shooting performance.
The Canon EF200mm f/2L IS USM, targeting users who seek a brighter lens for portraiture and indoor sports photography, realizes a large aperture of f/2. The EF800mm f/5.6L IS USM, expected to deliver telephoto performance surpassing the current top-of-the-line EF600mm f/4L IS USM super telephoto lens, is being developed in response to requests from users working in the fields of sports and news photography who are looking for a high-performance lens that offers a longer focal length.
“These new lenses demonstrate that Canon is continuing to respond actively and flexibly to the wide-ranging needs of professional and advanced amateur users, with the aim of contributing to the expansion of photographic possibilities for SLR cameras,” said Yuichi Ishizuka, senior vice president and general manager, Consumer Imaging Group, Canon U.S.A. “Canon’s EOS System is the premier brand of Digital SLR cameras, and we take great pride in offering the world’s largest selection of interchangeable autofocus lenses.” ***
As these new lenses are currently under development, pricing and availability information is not yet available.
I can’t wait to see the pricing, and the (hopefully) downward pressure on some existing glass.
Here’s the direct links to the large size images of the lenses:
200/2L IS : here
800/5.6L IS: here
Use flickr to promote and monetize your photography
Here are two great lists of reasons every photographer should be using flickr to promote themselves, make money from their photography, grow their celebrity and improve their skills.
36 Reasons Flickr is a Photographer’s Ultimate Tool
52 Ways To Monetize Your Photos
These are both a great read for any level of photographer, from a seasoned pro to a newbie with their first camera.
Check out my flickr page, here: Josh Wheaton Photography.
Canon 1Ds Mark III coming soon
Rob Galbraith has a look at the upcoming flagship DSLR from Canon in this article.
Canon 40D Preview
Take a look at DPReview’s preview of the Canon EOS 40D, Canon’s latest pro-sumer DSLR here.