The ILC video king gets tougher – and
brawnier
Panasonic’s Lumix GH2 is prized by
videographers, not least for a firmware hack that boosted ISO performance and
HD video quality with an absurdly high bit rate. So with the GH3, its latest
flagship interchangeable lens compact, Panasonic baked the video boost into the
stock firmware – providing an extended ISO of 25,600 (12,800 in the normal
range) and 1920 x 1080p video bit rates up to 720Mbps.
Panasonic
Lumix GH3
The GH3’s bigger, heavier, magnesium-alloy
body is dust – and weather-sealed, as is a new 35 – 100mm f/2.8 OIS lens
(equivalent to the classic 70-200mm focal range). Built-in Wi-Fi lets you
transfer photos wirelessly to your computer or the Lumix Club service to
facilitate backup to the cloud and posting to social networks.
One
of the largest ILCs on the market, the GH3 weighs in at a hefty 16.6 ounces –
without a lens attached.
One unwelcome addition? A $400 price jump –
the GH2 cost $899 when it launched in 2010.
|
Info
·
Panasonic Lumix GH3
·
$1,299, body only, street
·
Shop.panasonic.com
|
Shine the light
“Ultra Macro” ILC lens promises 4X to %X
magnification
Yasuhars
Nanoha x5
When shooting at magnifications higher than
1:1, you typically need expensive and complicated equipment and lighting. Enter
the Yasuhara Nanoha x5, a quirky II.C lens that offers up to 5:1 magnification.
Available in Micro Four Thirds and Sony E
Mounts, the lens has 10 glass elements arranged in seven groups. A removable
lighting module holds three USB-powered LEDs – a necessity, considering the
lens’ slow f/11 maximum aperture. An included USB battery pack is powered by
two AAs, or you can simply plug into a computer. Included plastic holders allow
you to hold your subjects in place directly in front of the lens.
|
Info
·
Yasuhars Nanoha x5
·
$500, street
·
Internationalsupplies.com
|
Wide eye
Sigma launches new lens lines with a fast,
wide prime
This speedy 35mm is the first lens to be
released under Sigma’s new classification that designates lenses conceptually
as either “Art,” “Contemporary,” or “Sports” (through they’re not limited to
these uses).
The full-frame 35mm f/1.4 Art lens is
comprised of 13 elements in 11 groups, with a minimum focusing distance of
about a foot. The rounded nine-blade diaphragm has a minimum aperture of f/16,
reflected in the comically limited markings for depth of field on the distance
scale.
Sigma
35mm f/1.4 “Art” lens
It sports a brass bayonet mount, and the
outsized focusing ring is adorned with a rubberized grip. An optional USB dock
lets you plug lenses into your PC, enabling you to use Sigma’s Optimization Pro
software to update firmware and adjust its focus parameters.
|
Info
·
Sigma 35mm f/1.4 “Art” lens
·
Price not yet announced
·
Sigma-global.com
|
Very nice Zeiss
German lensmaker debuts fast, gorgeous tele
Legendary lensmaker Carl Zeiss has been
steadily releasing lustworthy manual-focus primes aimed at video shooters, and
this 135mm f/2 appears to be no different.
Very
nice Zeiss
The apochromatic design uses special
low-dispersion glass elements to minimize chromatic aberration, and the T*
anti-reflective coating combined with a lacquer treatment on the elements’
edges help resist reflections and stray light. The all-metal barrel is sure to
be sturdy (if not weather-resistant), and a 2680 rotation angle
should allow for extremely precise focusing. A nonrotating filter ring allows
the use of polarizers and such.
News feed
Climb lampposts no more! The Tree-pod, a
ladder-like tripod from Fishbone, allows you to snap pics from 11 feet off the
ground.
Transform your photos into comics with the
free iPhone-only app, Manga-Camera. The app features more than 20 frame and
filter options and connects to social meida platforms for easy sharing.
Some 605 signed Ansel Adams prints from the
1968 UC Berkeley centennial turned up in the university’s Bancroft Library,
where fifty of the previously unseen photos are now on display.
Sony invested $645 million into Olympus,
pumping life into a company mired in financial woes. The fiscal life preserver
could mean Sony sensors in Olympus bodies, or Olympus lenses on Sony bodies.
Back up your photos faster than ever than
ever (up to 380MB/s) with LaCie’s new Rugged USB 3.0 Thunderbolt Series hard
drives.
Inside tech
Close
up
With a magnification range of 4:1 to 5:1,
the Nanoha x5’s depth of field is tiny – even in its limited aperture range of
f/11-32 it produces an exaggerated, rectangular bokeh. It requires precise
camera placement; the 8-11mm focal range is so small you’ll likely need to
adjust the magnification ring between 4X and 5X to focus.
Color
for Newbies
Calibration made easy
While color-profiling your monitor can be
both a delicate and daunting task, it’s crucial to getting the most out of your
images. With the ColorMunki Smile ($99, street; xritephoto.com), X-rite hopes
to take the scary out of color science, distilling its profiling technology
into a stripped-down software wizard for novices. Automatically detecting
multiple monitors, the software uses digital animations to guide you through
automatic calibration of LED and LCD displays.
The
lowdown
Out with the new
Rather than pursue the new XQD format,
SanDisk announced that it will develop memory cards based on the new CFast 2.0
standard. This uses the existing SATA-III interface, theoretically limiting
data throughput to 600MB/sec, much slower than SQD’s 1000MB/sec limit. Still,
SanDisk says such cards will be fast enough to record 4K video at 30 fps.
