slr

Report: new high-end Canon SLR imminent

Canon on Wednesday began shipping its EOS-1D Mark III, a high-end SLR (single-lens reflex) camera geared for photojournalists, photographer and consultant Rob Galbraith said on his blog Wednesday.

Galbraith quoted Canon spokesman Chuck Westfall as saying the 1D Mark III will arrive at dealer sites as soon as Thursday and that supplies should be steady after that.

The 1D Mark III is expected to cost at least $4,000 with no lenses. It's weather-sealed, can shoot as fast as 10 frames per second and has a new, more sensitive image sensor.

Digital camera shipments up 6 percent

Digital camera shipments increased 6 percent to 4.9 million in the first quarter of 2007, market researcher IDC said Wednesday.

Top leaders were Canon at 21 percent of the market, Sony at 16 percent and Kodak at 13 percent. Samsung jumped from 4 percent in the year-earlier quarter to 11 percent this year, propelling it to a fourth-place finish, IDC said.

Kodak fared better, with shipments increasing 5 percent--the first growth in five quarters, attributable to its emphasis on compact cameras costing between $200 and $300, IDC said. Nikon, though, didn't fare as well.

"Nikon was seventh … Read more

Buy a lens hood? Heck, print it for free

For those entering the realm of SLR cameras and their interchangeable lenses, lens hoods can improve your shots by screening out glare from the sun or other light sources. But those hoods, when not included with the lens, can cost tens or even hundreds of dollars.

But you can get them for free, as long as you don't mind a little arts and crafts action.

Paul Mutton's www.lenshoods.co.uk Web site has hundreds of lens hood designs available for free download as PDF files. Anyone can print the PDFs (preferably on thick, dark paper), do a … Read more

Pentax 'pancake' lens to hit full-stack status

Pentax's emphasis on compact SLR cameras and lenses yielded its "pancake" lenses, tiny lenses so thin they can be mistaken for the camera body cap that's put on just to keep the dust out.

The Japanese camera maker has released three such models, but it began showing a fourth here at the Photo Marketing Association trade show.

The new lens is a 35mm F/2.8 macro, said John Carlson, imaging systems product manager, in an interview here. He declined to offer details on price, availability date, or how closely the macro lens will be able … Read more

Sony shows new SLRs, expands lens range

LAS VEGAS--The ability to change lenses is one of the chief advantages of SLR cameras, and Sony is trying hard to build out that part of its SLR line. The company already has introduced 21 lenses, and it plans to sell more than five new lenses this year, the company said here at the Photo Marketing Association trade show.

At a news conference Thursday, Sony described three of the lenses in some detail--a 24-70mm F/2.8, a 70-300mm F/4.5-5.6 and an 18-250mm F/3.5-6.3. But at its booth, it showed eight new models.

The … Read more

Call a Sherpa: Sigma's 200-500mm lens

LAS VEGAS--When it comes to SLR cameras, there are big lenses with a long focal length, there are fast lenses with a wide aperture to gather lots of light, and flexible lenses with a wide zoom range.

Squeezing all three into the same lens is tough, but Tokyo-based lens maker Sigma has done just that with a model with a 200-500mm zoom range. It's got a wide aperture, F/2.8, for taking higher-speed shots.

But there's a catch: the lens weighs 40 kilograms, or about 88 pounds.

The company is showing off a prototype here at the … Read more

Olympus shows off next-gen top-end SLR

LAS VEGAS--Olympus began showing off its next-generation top-end SLR Thursday, a successor to the E-1.

Olympus has been short on details other than to say the camera will ship this year. In addition, the company said the new model would be rugged and weatherproof for the demanding conditions of professional photographers.

The camera prototype was on display at the Photo Marketing Association trade show here. It featured a main camera body and a detachable grip for taking vertically oriented shots and--if other manufacturers' products are anything to go by--for housing more batteries.

Lensbabies makes the jump to medium-format cameras

LAS VEGAS--Lensbabies, a manufacturer of lenses that focus selectively on small portions of an image, has made the jump to medium-format cameras.

The company's Lensbaby 3G model now is available for Pentax 67 and Mamiya 645 camera bodies, the company announced here at the Photo Marketing Association trade show. Medium-format cameras use film or an image sensor larger than with conventional SLR cameras for higher-quality images.

The three-year-old Portland, Ore.-based company announced the new $380 models at the Photo Marketing Association trade show here Wednesday. The 3G model for SLR cameras is a notch cheaper at $270 for … Read more

Panasonic, Leica tout monster SLR zoom

LAS VEGAS--Panasonic and its lens-making partner, Leica, announced a zoom lens with a whopping 14-150mm range Wednesday at the Photo Marketing Association's trade show here. The $1,000 lens is due to ship this month.

The lens, formally graced with the name of Leica D Vario-Elmar 14-150mm/F3.5-5.6 Asph. Mega O.I.S., is a member of the Four-Thirds system. That means it can attach to digital SLRs from Panasonic, Leica and Olympus. It also means its focal length equivalence is 28-300mm on a 35mm film SLR camera.

The lens offers some direct competition to Nikon's … Read more