Vizelex Light Cannon from Fotodiox (Lens Turbo clone?)

First we had the Speed Booster (first Leica R to MFT adapter is shipping)  then we had the [shoplink 38940 ebay]Lens Turbo[/shoplink] (coming soon) and now we have a third new adapter offering a 0,72x focal length conversion and 1 stop increase: It’s the Vizelex Light Cannon from Fotodiox Pro (available here at Fotodiox). What I am not sure about is if actually that Vizelex is based on (or has the same) Lens Turbo design or if it’s a completely new lens. These are the full details and the focal length multiplier is the same from the Lens Turbo:

 

The Vizelex Light Cannon from Fotodiox Pro is an advanced lens mount adapter that not only attaches a Nikon Lens (including G & D type) to a Micro 4/3 (MFT) camera body, but has added light focusing optics which makes the lens wider by a 0.72x factor and increases the maximum aperture of the lens by 1 stop. This effectively allows use of your 35mm lenses on a crop sensor camera and not lose the angle of view normally associated with lens mount adapters (ie, 50mm lens stays roughly a 50mm lens equivalent).

Additionally, this light focusing optic gives a faster than normal aperture, turning a f/2.8 into the equivalent of a f/2.0; perfect for shooting in low light situations, when you need a faster shutter speed, or want a lower ISO sensitivity! The blue dial on the adapter is an aperture adjustment dial which allows the iris to be adjusted on even the Nikon G & D lenses; on older Nikon lenses with a aperture dial on the lens, the blue dial on the adapter can act as a depth of field preview lever allowing you to switch back and forth between wide open and stopped down to a certain f-stop.

As with all Fotodiox Pro series adapters, these adapters have been specially crafted to endure professional use. The leaf spring design in the adapter holds the lens tight to the camera body ensuring there is no play between the camera and the lens. The all metal design and polished surface is designed to guarantee a smooth mounting and long lasting experience. With unique styling, the lens mount adapter maintains a professional appearance. Although the lens will fit physically, automatic diaphragm, auto-focusing, or any other functions will not operate correctly while using this adapter. Because of this “stop-down mode” will need to be used when metering since the lens does not have the ability to have its aperture controlled by the camera body. You can shoot with manual mode or aperture priority mode. Infinity focusing is guaranteed.

Adapter Type Vizelex Light Cannon – Nikon G Lens to Micro 4/3 system
Infinity Focus Yes
F-Stop Gain 1-Stop
Crop Factor Gain 0.72x
Aperture Control Yes via Adapter
Material of Construction Brass with Stainless Steel Finishing
TTL flash metering Yes
Manufacture Fotodiox Inc.
Warranty 24 Months

 

The adapter is priced at $159.95.

P.S.: The Leica R to MFT adapter is finally in Stock at Metabones (Click here). You can use some great Leica lenses with it:

  • [shoplink 38869 ebay]28mm F2.8 Elmarit-R (here on eBay)[/shoplink]. This becomes f/2.0 on the Speed Booster
  • [shoplink 38870 ebay]35mm F2.8 Elmarit-R (here on eBay)[/shoplink]. This becomes f/2.0 on the Speed Booster
  • [shoplink 38871 ebay]50mm F2.0 Summicron-R (here on eBay)[/shoplink]. This becomes f/1.4 on the Speed Booster
  • [shoplink 38872 ebay]90mm F2.8 Elmarit-R (here on eBay)[/shoplink]. This becomes f/2.0 on the Speed Booster
  • [shoplink 38873 ebay]28-70mm F3.5-F4.5 Vario-Elmar-R (here on eBay)[/shoplink]. This becomes f/2.5-3.5 on the Speed Booster

Competition news: New Fuji X-M1 targets the E-PL5 and GF6.

We got some news from the competition. The Fuji X-M1 has been announced (price and specs at Amazon & full news and review report at MirrorlessRumors). It’s the first time Fuji will play a role in the advanced entry level segment. The camera is made to compete in the same segment as the [shoplink 33622]Olympus E-Pl5[/shoplink] and  ($599) and the [shoplink 37832]Panasonic GF6[/shoplink] ($599). The X-M1 is a little bit pricier ($699 body and $799 for the kit).

Question for you now is:

Considering the Fuji's price and features: Do you think this is a camera that can seriously compete against the GF6/E-PL5?

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New GH3 firmware to be released in July!

Panasonic just announced a new firmware for the GH3 (Click here to visit the page). it will be released in July. These are the firmware fixes:

– “Low Light AF” is added that makes it possible to set focus on the subject in low-lit situations (-3EV). This function is popular in GF6/G6.
– “Silent Mode” is added which suppresses electronic shutter, shutter sound, operation sound and flash emission with a single setting.
– “Exposure Comp. Reset” is added which resets the setting of exposure compensation to ±0 whenever the camera is turned off or the shooting mode is changed.
– Connection problem with Apple Mac computers via Wi-Fi is fixed.

I really like that new “silent mode”. Great firmware update!

(UPDATED) E-P5 focus peaking does work!

For a short time Robin Wong (Click here) scared us a bit with that sentence in his first part of the ongoing E-P5 review:

Unfortunately, I have to drop a bomb this early: the focus peaking did NOT work with the CCTV lens. When using a manual lens with no electronic contacts, I find NO way to activate the focus peaking! Believe me I have tried digging all the menu system and press all buttons, and if I am wrong in this I would GLADLY be corrected (this is the one time that I wish I am wrong, believe me). Focus Peaking on the E-P5 does not work with manual lenses. I could not use the CCTV lens to test the focus peaking, hence I chucked the idea of using the CCTV lens altogether. So much for an interesting, unconventional plan to do a review differently this time!

UPDATE: But the good news is that Pekka Potka gave us an answer about Robin’s issue:

“Robin is simply wrong here. Focus peaking works perfectly well with all manual lenses. Electric contacts are not needed, but of course FP can not be actuated then by turning focusing ring. It can be assigned to at least three different buttons, just pick your choice. Another matter is if a lens too soft to be able to give any sharp details at all…”

UPDATE_2: Robin Wong officially apologized. Editor’s note: Don’t worry Robin, nobody is perfect and we still like you a lot :)

Damn, got a shock for a while :)

Links to all newly announced Olympus stuff:
E-P5 Black at Amazon, Adorama, Bhphoto and Samys. In Europe at Amazon Germany, Amazon UK and at Wex UK.
E-P5 White at Amazon, Adorama, Bhphoto and Samys. In Europe at Amazon Germany, Amazon UK and at Wex UK.
E-P5 Silver at Amazon, Adorama, Bhphoto and Samys. In Europe at Amazon Germany, Amazon UK and at Wex UK.
E-P5 Black with 17mm f/1.8 lens and VF-4 at Amazon, Adorama, Bhphoto and Samys. In Europe at Amazon UK.
E-P5 Silver with 17mm f/1.8 lens and VF-4 at Amazon, Adorama, Bhphoto and Samys. In Europe at Amazon UK.
E-P5 White with 17mm f/1.8 lens and VF-4 at Amazon UK.
E-P5 Black with 14-42mm lens at Amazon Germany, Amazon UK and Wex UK.
E-P5 White with 14-42mm lens at Amazon Germany and Amazon UK.
E-P5 Silver with 14-42mm lens at Amazon Germany, Amazon UK and at Wex UK.
17mm f/1.8 Black at Amazon, Adorama, Bhphoto and Samys.
45mm f/1.8 Black at Amazon, Adorama, Bhphoto and Samys. In Europe at Amazon Germany.
75mm f/1.8 Black at Amazon, Adorama, Bhphoto and Samys.
VF-4 viewfinder at Amazon, Adorama, Bhphoto and Samys.

Schneider confirmes development of lenses for mirrorless system.

Photoscala.de (google translation here) analyzed the latest Schneider financial report. Like so many other companies also Schneider announced that they will step out from the compact camera (fixed) lens business. And they confirmed that they want to focus on producing high quality lenses for Full Frame and for Mirrorless system cameras. As we reported before here on 43rumors their three MFT lenses will hit the market with at least a six month delay because of production problems. I think they should skip the 60mm f/2.4 macro release. We already have a good Olympus 60mm macro lens. It would be much better they do a MFT version of one of their great existing primes:

[shoplink 27395 ebay]Xenon 16mm f/1.2 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 27387 ebay]Xenon 25mm f/0.95 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 27389 ebay]Curtagon 35mm f/2.8 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 27391 ebay]Componon 50mm f/1.4 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 27390 ebay]Xenon 50mm f/1.9 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 27394 ebay]Xenar 50mm f/2.8 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 27388 ebay]Xenar 75mm f/3.5 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 27392 ebay]Xenotar 80mm f/2.8 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 27393 ebay]Xenar 180mm f/2.8 (Click here to see on eBay)[/shoplink].

My favorite would be the 16mm f/1.2 Xenon! Great for street photography!

Two new Panasonic announcements: 2k4k/60fps Sensor and superproof micro SDHC memory cards.

We had two new Panasonic announcements this week:

Akihabaranews reports that Panasonic is releasing a micro SDHC memory card with 6 “Proof” performances: waterproof, static electrical resistance, magnetic resistance, X-ray resistance, and heat resistance on July 13. It also has “fuse” function that protects the device from heat and fire generation if the micro SDHC memory card happens to generate anomalous heat.

Image Sensor World reports about a new Panasonic 2k4k/60fps Sensor.

Not as exciting as the Fuji sensor partnership but these super proof micro SD cards are really nice!

 

a little bit of everything…


Panasonic LUMIX DMC-GF6 Product Introduction Video

Samyang 16mm f/2.0 and 300mm f/6.3 Reflex lenses announced (Dpreview).
GF6 review at Techradar.
Panasonic Lumix LF1 review at Trustedreviews.
Olympus Lens Cap 15mm f/8 – Review at Photozone.
Panasonic LF1 First Shots at Imaging Resource.

ThePhotoSoup: “I just received my copy of the new Olympus 75mm f1.8 in black. I’ve posted a couple of [cell phone] images on my Google+ Panasonic GH3 community here: https://plus.google.com/communities/110723552030778537272 . Also, as I just mentioned in the previous sentence, we have an active community on Google+ dedicated to the Panasonic GH3. Maybe you can let your readers know.

Ainga:I am a street photographer running a photography site called: aingaframes.com. Recently, a collection of photos were uploaded taken by the often forgotten Panasonic GF2. Although the camera is obsolete in comparison to some of today’s best M43 offerings, this little beast is still capable of very high quality images.  I think your readers will be delighted to learn the quality and the capabilities of a tiny, inexpensive M43 Panasonic camera. The images from this link are all taken with a GF2 and the 20mm 1.7 pancake lens in the great city of Hong Kong: http://aingaframes.com/blog/2013/5/28/hong-kong-photographic-journal-by-photobomb

Anonymous: There aren’t many Steadicam Merlin 2 tests with the GH3, and some people may be wondering how it turns out. Check out my video while really testing it out for the first time! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96sUTUtJL6o I also used the Bower 7.5mm fisheye, but applied the Fisheye Fixer originally created for the GoPro cameras (in Final Cut Pro X). If anyone wants to know how it turns out, the above video is an example of how it lineates the Bower lens curvatures.

Nick:Hey mate, I thought you and your readers might be interested in two galleries of work I shot a few nights ago in Taksim, Istanbul, using the EM5 and CV Nokton 25mm (plus a couple with the m.ZD 45mm. This is by far the most challenging conditions I’ve ever shot in – almost all the shots are at 3200/6400iso and f0.95, not to mention very nervous and twitchy subjects and the obvious heavy police presence… Luckily the night I was there stayed non-violent and Gezi had more of a carnival atmosphere than anything else; even the riot police were willing to chat with demonstrators. Hopefully it stays that way…
In colour: http://peopleandotherstrangecreatures.wordpress.com/2013/06/14/the-colour-of-taksim/
In B&W: http://peopleandotherstrangecreatures.wordpress.com/2013/06/14/the-shades-of-taksim/