SLR Magic HyperPrime LM 50mm T0.95 @ Steve Huff

Steve Huff has gotten his hands on a copy of the new SLR Magic 50mm T/0.95 Hyperprime and within hours of recieveing it he has already updated his website such is his excitement with this lens! His initital impression is that it's superior to the leica Noctilux in terms of build quality and sharpness, that's astonishing news, if this lens costs any less than the leica (not difficult!) then it will automatically be good value! www.stevehuffphoto.com/2012/01/23/world-exclusive-1st-look-slr-magic-hyperprime-lm-50mm-t0-95-for-leica-m-mount/

Olympus OM-D incoming!

Olympus has begun a teaser campaign for it's upcoming OM-D camera that will become the range topper for their mirrorless cameras. There was a time when Olympus themselves hailed the E-400 series of SLRs as the new OM so I think that speaks volumes about the future of that product line!

Details remain somewhat sketchy but it seems the high end camera will have a 16mp sensor, a high resolution EVF and a magnesium body. It's also certain to be weather sealed following the recent release of the new weather sealed zoom lens. I'm sure it will be a beautiful thing and I hope the sensor can do the rest of the body justice, I used to have an E-420 and while the sensor wasn't so great the camera was very well made and a joy to operate, the finish and perception of quality blew away equivalent Nikon and Canon bodies at the time.

There is a leaked image of the camera over at 43 Rumours which doesn't give away too much but you can see the camera will have a large amount of external controls and retro design touches.

Apparently the camera will be announced officially announced on the 8th of febuary.

Kenko (Tokina) display cool little 400mm mirror lens at CES - PLEASE be good!!

 

Kenko/Tokina displayed a new T-mount 400mm F/8 mirror lens at the 2012 international CES that looks very interesting! The aperture is pretty slow but this helps the lens to be very compact and from looking at photos of the lens attached to a camera it looks small even by mirror lens standards and could possibly be the smallest 400mm lens I've ever seen! Having a T-mount this lens will be adaptable to just about any camera you can think of but will it deliver anywhere like decent IQ?

It seems a lot of people relying on google translate have come to the incorrect conclusion that the T-mount to Micro 43 and T-mount to NEX adapters were the big story when obviously the lens is the big deal! Likewise the $200-250 price estimate applies to the lens and not just the adapter! There is no current release date although it looks like they are aiming to have it on the market some time this year.

I'm very interested by this lens so hopefully it will perform quite well optically but I wont get my hopes up, there are some great mirror lenses out there but not many!

 

Photo from DC.Watch

Sigma to announce two new lenses for Micro Four Thirds AND Sony NEX!

 

Tomorrow Sigma will announce two new lenses for the Micro Four Thirds system and the Sony NEX system, these will be the first third party autofocus lenses available to users of M43 cameras.

There's a 19mm F/2.8 and a 30mm F/2.8, neither of them are particularly exciting in terms of specs but we can forgive that considering how unique they are for the time being, no doubt they are designs that were relatively cheap and easy to make but there's nothing to say they won't give stunning IQ and at least Sigma haven't gone for a really safe bet with a superzoom like Tamron have done with their debut NEX offering.

Sigma make some really fantastic lenses so while I agree these don't look earth shatteringly impressive I have confidence they will combine good value with strong image quality so I'll be looking forward to some reviews and samples!
 

Canon unleash the PowerShot G1 X on the world, the world doesn't flinch.

 

Canon has announced the PowerShot G1 X (what is the obsession with "X" at the moment?) and I'm not sure how I feel about it and it seems a lot of you aren't sure either.

It is based around a sensor that is between micro 43 and APS-C in size and the body is a larger version of the design utilized by the most recent G series cameras. It has a fixed lens with a 28-112mm equivalent range (why not 24mm??) and the maximum aperture range varies between a respectable F/2.8 at the wide end a somewhat slow F/5.8 at the long end.

The camera has a basic optical viewfinder, not and EVF or hybrid which is a bit of a disappointment. I have also noticed that the lens doesn't have a filter thread and that you have to fit an adapter before you can use filters, the PowerShot Pro1 used a similar system and it seems Canon haven't learned from past mistakes because just like with the Pro1 you cannot use the filter adapter and the lens hood at the same time because they both use the same fitting to attach to the lens, there must have been a way around this problem!

I think Canon really should have gone for an interchangeable lens model, I'm sure one is in the works but everyone knows they sell well by now so there's no need to test the water with a fixed lens model, it would help if the fixed lens allowed for a very compact camera but it's actually significantly larger than the Panasonic GX1 with the new pancake zoom attached so where's the benefit of having a fixed lens?

I am certain it is a very good camera but the competition is so hot at the moment that this camera seems a little underwhelming, it will be a very good photographic tool for sure but coming from Canon it should be the best of the best and I don't feel like it is.