Travis made the video on top and sent me the following text (Thanks!): “Here is a video shot entirely with a hacked GH2(34 mb/sec no adverse affects settings) and the new m4/3s [shoplink 23110]25mm F1.4[/shoplink] and [shoplink 23577]45mm F1.8[/shoplink] lenses. Every clip was shot in 720p @ 60 FPS so that I could do slow motion for some of the clips. With streaming videos you can’t tell the difference between 720p and 1080p. In fact it is pretty hard to tell the difference between 1080p and 720p in the original files.
There is only one clip in the entire video that was color graded in post processing. See if you can pick it out. The rest of the clips were either in Vibrant mode with all auto settings or in shutter priority mode with the smooth profile(-2 sharpness and noise reduction).
I had the 14mm F2.5, 20mm F1.7, 25mm F1.4, 45mm F1.8, and 14-140mm lenses with me. However, the 25mm and 45mm lenses were the only ones that could give me the shallow depth of field I was looking for in this video. It is not ultra shallow like a full frame camera can do but I think it gives a nice affect.
The 25mm F1.4 is a must have lens for video. It is simply fantastic for nice sharp videos with rich color. The 45mm F1.8 is great too. However, neither of these lenses have image stabilization so you need to have a steady hand to shoot hand held videos like these.
I got the 25mm F1.4 from H and B digital last week. They had great customer service and their next day air shipping was a reasonable price. I got the 45mm F1.8 from Samys.com. They are an equally good company for customer service but their next day air shipping is more expensive since they are on the other side of the country from me. It was well worth the $1060 for these lenses though. They really legitimize the m4/3s format because they now have almost a complete set of lenses across all of the necessary focal lengths.”
How the GH2 is still top dog for video quality (EosHD).
SLRmagic just sent us this: “There is a photo of the Spotting Scope mounted on the GH2 for digiscoping of wildlife videography. It is a prototype but it is close enough to what the final version will look like. The effective focal length is 420-1260mm. In 35mm terms it is 840-2520mm. We recommend using this scope at lower magnification for best results. Due to long focal length a tripod should be used to reduce camera shake. The SLR Magic 12-36×50 spotting scope has extra low dispersion optics for the best image quality. The micro four thirds version comes with an adapter that has to be bought at the time the spottting scope is purchased. The adapter is an objective that is compatible with the spotting scope and will mount directly in mFT mount. Traditional spotting scopes require a universal adapter wich require complicated horizontal and vertical alignment. Depending on the brand it is a trial and error process as universal adapters are actually not so universal since there is another trial and error process as to which lens and which eyepiece to match with the camera. Some adapters have a hole cut out for setting adjustment. We have decided to leave that out to prevent light leak for the best image quality as well as less controls so the bird photographer can just concentrate on shooting. Ours is an all in one solution aimed for ease of use and at an affordable price for leisure bird photographers. The 50 size is good for portability. The scope looks big but it is actually quite compact as the built-in metal lens hood is fully extended in the photo. The lens is weather sealed and weather resistant but we will not advertise it that way as the camera mounted to it is not! Some readers suggest it is a rubber scope with duct tape. We usually prefer metal body but we made a rubberized outer design to protect the scope from accidental fall, light rain drizzle, and comfort when used in cold weather. Please kindly tell your readers we are offering the first 30 units at a discount as we wish to have some sample photos from our customers. People interested may email us for details and price at support@slrmagic.com.”
These are the links to the other current lenses:
SLR magic 11mm f/1.4 lens you can preorder on [shoplink 22154 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]
Toy Lens 26mm f/1.4 lens on [shoplink 18603 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]
SLR Magic 35mm f/1.7 MC lens on [shoplink 14881 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]
Noktor 50mm f/0.95 lens on [shoplink 25691 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]
Adobe announced a new update for Lightroom and Camera RAW. You can download it here: http://www.adobe.com/downloads/updates/. Finally following m43 cameras are supported:
Techradar (Click here) had a small chat with Mark Thackara (national marketing manager, consumer products for Olympus UK). They talked about the new Nikon mirrorless system: “There will be the usual debates about the various performance pros and cons relating to image quality, flexibility and so on, but my view is that it will be the overall system that is vital to success and battle lines are drawn“. And “It is not size however that Thackara believes will be paramount to compact system success, but the quality of the system as a whole“.
The probably most interesting news is coming via Imaging Resource (Click here). They interviewed MR. Masahiro Suzuki (General Manager R&D, Nikon). He said the Nikon 1 system development started four years ago; just before the Micro Four Thirds announcement. They worked quite a long time on it!
Redrock announced the new LiveLens MFT’s control touchpad that allows the full control of EF lens aperture! The aperture ring can be open and closed in increments as small as 1/3 stop. (Imaging Resource). That is definitely a more advanced (but also much more expensive) solution than using the manual Kipon adpater ([shoplink 20746 ebay]click here to see them on eBay[/shoplink]).
P.S.: And Birger will also announce a new product soon (Maybe a new Eos to m43 adapter?).
SLRmagic sent out a press release for the new 12mm f/1.6 Noktor lens.
PRESS RELEASE:
“Here are samples of the Noktor HyperPrime 12mm F1.6 by SLR Magic. For the first time ever we decided to design a lens based on a public vote. Many people helped us on this forum http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1041&message=36104678 . We would like to thank all who has participated in the thread on Aug 2010 by putting their “most wanted micro four thirds lens” into production.
We had requests such as:
1) 12mm Wide Angle Prime 2) Make the aperture as wide as you can for creative possibilities 3) Low distortion 4) Macro 5) Round aperture opening 6) Depth of field scale 7) $500- Budget
It sounded like a lens no one has ever seen before but here is what we have to offer!
1) 12mm Wide Angle 2) F1.6 Max Aperture (Best performance is at F4 but we were told to make this lens as wide aperture as possible) 3) ~2% distortion (optical distortion correction for natural perspective when taking photos of people) 4) 0.15m Minimum Focus Distance 5) 12 Step less Aperture Blades for always round aperture opening like a cinema lens for better compatibility with GH2 and AF-100 6) Depth of field scale included 7) $499 MSRP
Here are some sample photos to compare bokeh quality at different aperture openings. We have attached one full sized photo sample as well. The Noktor HyperPrime 12mm F1.6 by SLR Magic will ship around the end of October 2011. Kind rgds., Andrew Chan SLR Magic Product Manager”
And those are the full size image samples at different apertures (Click on it to enlarge):
There are no available preorders yet but you will find them soon on eBay. These are the links to the other current lenses:
SLR magic 11mm f/1.4 lens you can preorder on [shoplink 22154 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]
Toy Lens 26mm f/1.4 lens on [shoplink 18603 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]
SLR Magic 35mm f/1.7 MC lens on [shoplink 14881 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]
Noktor 50mm f/0.95 lens on [shoplink 25691 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]
