Apr
29

Canon EOS Rebel XSi / 450D Preview at DPReview

Rebel XSi

DPReview has posted a hands on preview of the new 12.2 megapixel Canon Rebel XSi.

As a prelude to our full Canon EOS 450D / Digital Rebel XSi review we have just posted our hands-on preview of the 450D. This is the latest in line of the popular ‘Digital Rebel series’ of compact digital SLRs and features a twelve megapixel CMOS sensor with Live View and dust reduction. Other headline changes include a 3.0″ LCD monitor, SD/SDHC storage, High ISO noise reduction and a range of other features handed down from the EOS 40D. Our ‘hands-on preview’ articles are essentially the first half of a review which will at least give you a taste for the design and operation of the camera, full review to follow within the next two weeks.

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Oct
16

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!

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Jun
21

A couple new EF and EF-S mount lens reviews

Here are a few new interesting review of 3rd party EF and EF-S mount lenses, from Photozone

The Tamron 18-250 looks like a great new version of the older hyperzoom. It looks actually useable! The two macro lenses from Sigma and Tokina add some good choices to the macro range.

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Mar
05

New Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro Review

Photozone has updated their review of Canon’s EF 100 mm 2.8 Macro lens. Here’s their conclusion:

“The old EF 100mm f/2.8 macro lens had a superb reputation but Canon managed to keep up the performance of the USM successor despite of the introduction of a true IF design allowing to keep a constant lens length throughout the focus range. Mechanically this is a drastic improvement due to the absence of any moving outer parts that could suck in dust or wear out more easily. On top of that the USM implementation in this lens is excellent - compared to conventional macro lenses in this range it is a speed daemon here and a near silent one. Optically the lens resides on a very high level with little to nothing to be desired. HIGHLY recommended!”

This is a great lens either for Portrait or Macro use and with a USM motor will AF quickly. Be sure to check out the review if you are thinking of picking up this lens.

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