For those of you who have been itching to try the new Content Aware Fill and Puppet Warp features in Adobe Photoshop CS5, today’s your lucky day. CS5 became available for purchase through the Adobe website, and you can now download a 30-day free trial of the software just to play around with the amazing new features if you’re not sure yet you want to upgrade.
If you’ve tried it out already, do you think the new features live up to the hype?
If you have deep pockets, Nikon has a wonderful new $6,999.95 lens for you. They’ve just announced the new Nikon AF-S 200-400mm f/4G ED VR II, a super telephoto lens for sports, nature, and travel photographers. Nikon claims that the latest Vibration Reduction technology, VR II, provides the equivalent of an extra four stops of light, which is one stop more than the previous version of this lens released in 2003. Additional improvements include Nikon’s proprietary Nano Crystal Coat, which reduces ghosting and flaring, and Automatic Panning Detection and an Active VR Mode, which allows the lens to be used at unstable locations such as in a moving vehicle.
The old lens is still being sold for ~$6,000 online, but you can expect the price to plummet once this lens is available in late May 2010. For more information on this lens, check out the press release put out by Nikon.
In his recent Twitter Q&A session regarding House being filmed with a 5D Mark II, director Greg Yaitanes answered a question about differences of the new setup by saying, “focus was hard with these lenses but more “cine-style” lenses are being made as we speak.” Lo and behold, new cine lenses are being announced!
Carl Zeiss has just announced the first set of prime and zoom lenses designed specifically for HDSLR cameras. The new Compact Prime CP.2 and Lightweight Zoom LWZ.2 lenses have interchangeable mounts and can be used on F (Nikon), EF (Canon), and PL (traditional cine camera) systems.
The primes range in focal length from 18mm to 85mm and can be used on full frame cameras, while the zooms are limited to crop sensor bodies. Here’s an interesting quote from the press release:
The trend of filming in high definition using a digital SLR camera is unstoppable. Moviemaking today is unthinkable without this technique, whether for independent filmmakers, television producers or professional still photographers who wish to expand their services.
Pricing was not unannounced, but the lenses will be available starting June 2010.
This morning Apple introduced the latest version of their photo editing software: Aperture 3. The $199 program ($99 for existing users) adds over 200 new features to the previous version, including the Faces and Places features that were popular in the latest release of iPhoto. In addition, there is now a Brushes feature that allows you to “paint” adjustments onto photographs, much like the feature that was added to Adobe Photoshop CS4. The new version will also run in 64-bit mode, which Apple claims will allow it to run an “order of magnitude” faster.
The mystery of the disappearing Canon lenses deepens. Today, Canon announced the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens. The first version of this lens is among Canon’s most highly regarded (and expensive) lenses, so if this second version delivers on all its improvement claims, then it’s sure to be another home run.
Here are some of the important improvements you should be aware of:
Canon claims that the new lens has been redesigned for better strength and durability without a significant increase in weight. The weight is increasing from 3.24lb/1.47kg to 3.28lb/1.49kg, and increase of about one percent.
The internals of the lens have been redesigned and added to, leading to less chromatic aberration and higher contrast and resolution. Canon has pretty lofty goals for this lens, and claims that it will become “the leader of Canon’s L-series lenses,” a title arguably attained by the first version.
The algorithm behind focusing has been improved, leading to faster AF speeds. In addition, the minimum focusing distance of this lens has been reduced from 4.6ft/1.4m to 3.9ft/1.2m, which allows you to get significantly closer to your subject than you could before. This give the new lens the same minimum focusing distance as the f/4 versions of the 70-200mm.
A common complaint with the first version of the lens was that the auto/manual focus switch gets bumped easily. Some photographers worked around this problem by covering up the switch with tape. While it’s unknown whether this particular annoyance has been resolved in the new lens, the “UI” of the lens has been redesigned, and the thickness of certain components such as the switch panel has been reduced, leading to a sleeker-looking lens.
The lens will be available at the end of February 2010, with the price reportedly set at £2,799.99, or roughly $4,500.
It looks like the rumors going around about big Canon announcements are starting to come true. However, Canon is acting somewhat unusual in announcing such a significant lens so quietly before CES, which starts Thursday. Even more curious is the fact that Canon will not be attending PMA next month, which is where pro-oriented gear is usually announced.
Regardless, we expect more announcements coming from Canon in the near future (possibly the 24-70mm f/2.8 IS?), so stay tuned!
