Photography Bay

Digital Camera News, Reviews and Tips

 

Canon EF 300mm & 400mm f/2.8L IS II USM Lenses Now Available

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Canon EF 400mm f/2.8L IS II USM Telephoto Lens

The Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II and 400mm f/2.8L IS II lenses have been available at times in limited quality; however, it looks like B&H has them both available now.  Hit the links above for details.

Note that the 400mm lens is listed as “available for pre-order” which generally means that B&H expects it to be in stock and shipping out to customers within the next few days.

Canon 500mm, 600mm & 200-400mm Lenses Delayed…Again

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Canon 600mm f/4L IS II

The Canon 500mm f/4L IS II and 600mm f/4L IS II lenses were announced in February 2011, with availability initially set for May and June for the respective lenses.  In May, the availability date for these lenses was pushed back to December 2011.

Canon dropped a press release yesterday to simply say that availability is “yet to be determined” for these lenses – presumably to make it official that Canon will miss the December ship date.  As for the 200-400mm f/4L IS lens, it’s TBD as well.

Official word from Canon is in the press release below. [Read more…]

Canon’s Announcement Next Week Won’t Be a DSLR or Lens [Updated – Maybe/Maybe Not]

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Canon at CES

Just hours after I passed along rumors of a Canon DSLR announcement scheduled for Tuesday, October 18, I received a tip from someone (who has a near perfect track record) that Canon would not be announcing a new camera or lens next week.  However, the tipster also confirmed there would be an announcement [Read more…]

Nikon 18-105mm Lens Update?

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Nikon 18-105mm

Nikon Rumors has been keying in on a new DX format lens for a few weeks now.  It seems like it’s one that won’t go away.  So, as they say, “where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”

Recently, I received word of an updated version of Nikon’s DX 18-105mm VR lens.  I didn’t pass it along because it seemed like an odd lens to update; however, as the rumormill has continued to churn, there could be something to this.  And, the 18-105mm has been a big kit lens for a couple of generations or so of DX format DSLRs.  So, maybe there’s something to it, maybe not.

Feel free to share your thoughts below.  If you have any confirming or denying details on this rumor, feel free to drop a line via the contact form.

Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 II DC OS HSM

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Sigma 18-200mm II DC OS HSM

Sigma has announced a new superzoom lens for Canon, Nikon, Sigma, Pentax and Sony DSLRs.  The Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 II DC OS HSM features new FLD low dispersion glass elements and SLD (special low dispersion) glass elements, which should improve the overall image quality, as well as correcting chromatic aberration.

The is the second version of this lens.  As a quick refreshers, the “DC” means that it is made for APS-C (aka “cropped”) sensors and not full frame DSLRs. [Read more…]

Canon Bringing Back Lens Aperture Rings for HDSLR Video

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Canon Lens Aperture Ring

Anyone who has shot video with a Canon DSLR recognizes that smooth iris pulls are impossible while recording with Canon’s EF lenses.  In one of the more interesting patent applications of late, Canon revealed that it is working on new lenses with aperture rings for adjusting aperture settings during video capture. [Read more…]

Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/4 VR II Lens Patent

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Nikon 70-200mm f4 VR II

A lens missing from Nikon’s lineup recently appeared in a published patent application at the USPTO.  Canon’s 70-200mm f/4L and 70-200mm f/4L IS lenses have been popular lenses over the past few years.  The original f/4L was so popular that Canon decided to make an IS version and keep both lenses in the lineup.

Now, it looks like Nikon will be jumping on this popular lens size… [Read more…]