lenses

Sony announces trio of prime lenses, only tells Europe

I received a brief e-mail tonight, July 26 at 2 a.m. ET from my contacts at Sony: "On Tuesday, July 27 at 12:00 p.m. BST (British Standard Time)/4:00 a.m. PDT Sony Europe will announce three new lenses to be introduced in the fall of 2010. Although these models will also be introduced in the U.S. market, no announcement is being made at this time. The U.S. announcement will be made at a time that is closer to the models' market introduction. We apologize for the short notice, but wanted you to … Read more

Basic EXIF graphing

We possess some basic knowledge about photography and photo editing, but occasionally we encounter a photography-related program that we don't fully understand. Fortunately, one of us is married to a photographer, and he comes in pretty handy when we have questions. So it went with ExposurePlot. We understood that the program displayed EXIF info for groups of images in a bar graph format, but we didn't understand why.

"I don't understand why, either," said our photographer-husband as we looked at ExposurePlot together. The Overview tab of the program was displaying four bar graphs depicting the … Read more

Dial A for adaptive eyeglasses for the masses

It's costly when you have to regularly change your prescription lenses, particularly with heavy computer use leading to astigmatism. So the idea of adaptive lenses whose strength can be adjusted with a twist of the dial on the side is certainly a novel and inspired one.

Adlens' adaptive-lens eyeglasses have hollow lenses with a clear plastic sheet stretched across on the inside. Twist the dial, and fluid pumps in between the sheet and lens, creating a high refractive index. More fluid means more curvature, which means more powerful lenses. When the oil is pumped back out, the lens curvature … Read more

Gaga's Bad Romance video inspires bad eye trend

In a classic case of life imitating art, more and more girls around the world seem to be all gaga over circle contact lenses that make one's eyes look like an anime character on crack--a look now famously embraced by Lady Gaga in her music video Bad Romance (below).

This trend, described by The New York Times last week (one girl the paper interviewed owns and wears 22 pairs) and lamented by eye-care specialists across the news media, has the potential to scratch corneas and lead to a rise in eye infections and corneal ulcers that in turn could … Read more

Got glaucoma? Put a little vitamin E in your lens

The eye condition glaucoma, which afflicts some 67 million people and is second only to cataracts as the world's leading cause of blindness, is often treated with eye drops that relieve the unusually high pressure inside the eye.

Contact lenses with vitamin E, however, just might deliver more medication to treat glaucoma almost 100 times longer than current lenses, says Anuj Chauhan, a chemical engineering professor at the University of Florida in Gainesville who helmed the research team investigating this new treatment:

"The problem is within about 2 to 5 minutes of putting drops in the eye, tears … Read more

Samsung's NX lens lineup for 2010

Joining Sony in the fantasy-road-map department, Samsung finally, sort of, announced availability and dates for the first lenses for its as-yet-to-ship NX10 camera. However, of course, Samsung hasn't released pricing information for its NX lenses.

Lens Availability 30mm f2 pancake January 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 OIS January 50-200mm f5-5.6 OIS January 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 (no OIS) Spring 20-50mm f3.5-5.6 compact zoom Second half 2010 20mm f2.8 pancake Second half 2010 18-200mm f3.5-6.3 OIS tbd 50mm f2.8 macro tbd

I find it very interesting that Samsung is planning to ship a non-OIS … Read more

Optics start-up LensVector raises $30 million

LensVector, a start-up in Mountain View, Calif., that hopes its optical components using solid-state electronics will replace moving parts in consumer camera technology, said Thursday that it's raised $30 million in a third round of funding.

Institutional Venture Partners led the funding round, joining existing investors Menlo Ventures, Samsung, Silicon Valley Bank, Mitsui, and Kodak. IVP general partner Norm Fogelsong has joined the LensVector board, the company said.

"This financing will allow us to scale our manufacturing capacity and better serve this growing demand from our customers," Chief Executive Derek Proudian said in a statement. LensVector now … Read more

Hands-on preview: Olympus E-PL1

The first round of interchangeable-lens cameras offered a lot to appeal to enthusiasts, but at prices upward of $800, not quite a no-brainer for point-and-shooters in search of an upgrade. The bigger sensors in these models can generally deliver better photo quality at somewhat higher ISO sensitivities than the smaller snapshot models and they support video capture, but the alternative has been the moderately larger dSLRs with action-friendly optical viewfinders and kit prices starting at a significantly lower $600. Even the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1, which delivers the right set of performance and features for these folks in a compact, attractive design, comes in at an ouch-worthy $900 or so. Olympus' sleek E-P1 and E-P2 have attracted a lot of attention, but without a built-in flash they're simply not the right camera for snapshooters, especially at their relatively high prices. So Olympus is trying again to lure this lucrative audience to its Micro Four Thirds camp, this time with the more consumer-friendly designed and priced E-PL1.

At $600 for a kit with the 14-42mm (28-84mm equivalent) lens, a boxier but not unattractive aluminum body that's definitely smaller than a dSLR and this time with a pop-up flash, this latest model might just be a contender. (Unfortunately, I only had a preproduction model to play around with, so I can't address key aspects like performance and image quality.)

If you're one of the crowd attracted by the low price, though, keep in mind that even though both Olympus and Panasonic make compatible lenses for the system, because it's much newer there are still a lot fewer choices in Micro Four Thirds lenses than for dSLRs, and they tend to be more expensive than their SLR-compatible counterparts. For example, Olympus' 14-42mm lens lists for $299, while both Canon and Nikon's staple dSLR 18-55mm lenses run $199. The Micro Four Thirds lenses and bodies are more compact, though, and people are historically willing to pay more for less bulk.

While the elder E-P models mimic a traditional film design, the E-PL1 takes its design cues from digital cameras like the Canon PowerShot G series and Panasonic Lumix LX models. It will come in blue, champagne gold and silver and black, and the black and silver model still has a somewhat retro look. The plastic and aluminum body doesn't feel quite as tanklike as the E-P models, but it feels sturdy, with a relatively large, comfortable grip. Still, I found it just a tad slipperier to hold than I'd like, especially with winter-dry hands.

Some basic specs compared to its linemates:… Read more

Samsung finally makes NX10 official

Updated 1/21/10: added a few details to chart and analysis based on B&H's price of $699.99 at the end.

It's been 9 months since Samsung first displayed its interchangeable-lens camera under glass; though now officially announced, in preproduction, and slated for availability this spring, there still isn't a whole lot of information available. Unfortunately, that includes price, which is key for this segment. Also still unknown are any real details about shooting performance, such as burst rate and shutter speed range. Samsung's only claim about autofocus is that it's "fast and decisive."

The most significant potential downside is the proprietary new lens mount--the Samsung NX mount. That alone has disappointed the small but vocal legions of Pentaxians who've been counting on Samsung to deliver an interchangeable-lens model to support their lenses (a reasonable assumption, given Samsung's dSLR relationship with Pentax). Samsung really could have used the support of these fanboys; now it has no built-in boosters to help with marketing. Although there's a plan to supply a Pentax K-mount adapter, it won't support autofocus. At launch, Samsung plans to offer three NX mount lenses: an 18-55mm f3.5-5.6, 50-200mm f4-5.6, and 30mm pancake.… Read more