DSLR

Lensbabies, a Portland, Ore.-based maker of an unusual flexible lens that selectively focuses only on particular areas, has expanded sales channels to cover "nearly all key markets," the company said Tuesday.

The company distributes products directly to retailers in the United States and Canada, but now has secured partnerships with others to distribute products in Germany, Japan, Russia, Greece, New Zealand, South Africa, Singapore, Norway, Thailand and many other countries, the company said.

The lenses work on a variety of SLR (single-lens reflex) cameras.

Chuck Westfall, Canon's spokesman and all-knowing camera tech expert, has promised to address questions about how well his employer's new high-end EOS-1D Mark III digital SLR handles autofocus--but you'll have to wait until next month.

In June, photographer and consultant Rob Galbraith raised concerns about the new $4,500 camera's autofocus abilities on his blog, but Canon has remained mum about the issue.

Westfall could provide a response in August, though, in a monthly column he writes for a photojournalism publication, The Digital Journalist.

"I'll have more on EOS-1D Mark III autofocusing in the … Read more

Sony has promised a new digital SLR this year and another the next, and some believe the first is coming soon.

The Photoclub Alpha site on Thursday said the first new Alpha and a range of new lenses appears "imminent," based on images of the new cameras and lenses posted on Sony's Web site.

Sony entered the digital SLR (single-lens reflex) market in 2006 with its Alpha 100 model, but it got a running start by acquiring the SLR assets of Konica Minolta. The company said in March the next Sony SLR would be an advanced amateur model this year, with a professional-grade model in 2008. … Read more

Well, at least according to the Digital Photography School readership. These guys polled their readers and put together a list of the most popular Canon, Nikon, and third-party lenses. Scientific? Nah. But you could do worse than using their list as a guide for accessorizing your dSLR.

Oddly, the Nikon f/1.8 50mm lens tops the list. It's an inexpensive, predigital lens, but not exactly a general-purpose option that would attract large numbers of users. This probably says more about the site's readership than lens popularity overall.

But now I'm curious. Talk back and tell me … Read more

Panasonic plans to announce new digital cameras and high-definition video cameras at a July 17 event in New York, according to an invitation.

The company didn't share further details. But perhaps we'll see more about the new lower-end Panasonic digital SLR geared toward consumers.

Panasonic's current DMC-L1 is a midrange SLR (single-lens reflex) model with a midrange price, but the company could use something to go up against the models from Olympus, Canon, Pentax and Nikon that cost hundreds of dollars less.

Olympus announced a $400 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens Tuesday for digital SLR camera owners who like to do more than just squint at distant wildlife.

Because of the properties of the Four Thirds system lens mount and image sensor Olympus helped develop, the lens behaves somewhat like a 140-600mm lens on a traditional film SLR (single-lens reflex) camera. It also means the lens will work on SLRs from Panasonic and Leica, which build Four Thirds cameras.

The Zuiko ED 70-300mm supertelephoto lens, whose aperture ranges from F/4.0 to F/5.6, will be available in September, Olympus said. … Read more

Canon SLR (single-lens reflex) owners now have an answer to Nikon's 18-200mm ultrazoom--as long as they're willing to buy a non-Canon lens.

Japanese lensmaker Sigma this week announced it's begun selling its 18-200mm ultrazoom for Canon SLR cameras.

These lenses are flexible, but typically have lower image quality than zoom lenses with narrower ranges or "prime" lenses with a fixed focal length. They're convenient, though, and often are called "vacation lenses" because they're popular with people who don't want to carry a big, heavy bag of better lenses.

Sigma'… Read more

So far, most of the reviews of Canon's high-end EOS-1D Mark III digital SLR have been highly favorable, as befits a $4,500 camera from the leader of the pack. But this week, Rob Galbraith, one of the privileged few to get an early look at the camera, issued a scathing review of its autofocus abilities.

In a Tuesday post, Galbraith said that under some circumstances, the 1D Mark III's autofocus can have trouble focusing initially on a subject, doesn't track moving subjects well and can lose focus. The problems cropped up when the weather was warm … Read more

Apple's update to its operating system Wednesday didn't just fix a security hole. Mac OS X 10.4.10 now also supports raw images from the latest digital cameras, including the Canon's vaunted EOS-1D Mark III.

The update also endows Macs with the ability to decode raw images from the Panasonic DMC-LX1 and LX2; the Leica M8, D-LUX 2 and D-LUX 3; the Fujifilm S5 Pro; and the Nikon D40x.

Raw images are taken directly from higher-end cameras' image sensors without any in-camera processing. They're roughly three times bigger than JPEGs, require processing by software to … Read more