July 31
Nikon introduced the 85mm f/1.8 S lens for the Z cameras (they also did a bug fix firmware update for the Z6 and Z7 to version 2.01).
July 30
Sony Reports Quarterly Earnings. Sony has once again reorganized its many component parts into "logical" divisions. Actually, to some degree, the new divisions make more sense than any previous organization they've used. The net result, however, is to bury some key data deeper away from where most can see it. Article on sansmirror.com
July 29
Mirrorless Notes. Some random notes about mirrorless at the moment. Article on sansmirror.com
July 25
Do You Need "That" To Be Better? Today's announcement of the Sony RX100 Mark VII (I abbreviate this RX100m7) has me raising a question to camera makers that I've been seriously pondering for some time: do I need that to be better? Article on dslrbodies.com
July 23
What is Tack Sharp? You hear the term all the time, what does it mean? Unfortunately, different things to different people. Article on dslrbodies.com
Canon earnings report: "...the level of camera inventory was high due to a slowdown in sales. We will, however, work to lower this to an appropriate level by the end of the year..." Canon mostly talked about how low-end consumer DSLRs were the source of their contraction issues.
July 22
More Sampling is Always Better. It seems that the Sony A7Rm4 has raised the same questions I get every time we get cameras with more pixels: have we out-resolved lenses? Are more pixels useful? Article on sansmirror.com
July 18
The Full Frame Game is Fully Afoot. Sony’s announcement of the A7Rm4 seemed a little early—cameras won’t be available for almost two months—but that’s not totally unexpected. The full frame mirrorless game now has six players, and trying to get a quiet period where you can garner all the attention is going to get tougher and tougher. Article on sansmirror.com
Fujifilm announced two more consumer-friendly lenses, the 16-80mm f/4 for the APS-C cameras, and the 50mm f/3.5 for the medium format cameras.
July 16
Sony Adds Pixels to the A7R. Sony this morning announced the A7R Mark IV (I abbreviate this as A7Rm4). In essence, this camera appears to take the Sony Semiconductor 26mp APS-C Exmor sensor and scale that up to full frame, producing approximately 60mp. Article on sansmirror.com. A7Rm4 data page.
July 15
I'm busy helping my mom this week, so there won't be much in the way of posts (if any). Thus, I thought I'd try something a little different: a new teaching point!
July 11
Sigma's Different Approach to Full Frame. Sigma today announced a number of interesting things—FE and L mount lenses, and the DC DN primes now in EOS M mount—but the product that probably caught the most curious attention was the development announcement of the Sigma fp camera. Article on sansmirror.com. fp camera data page. 35mm f/1.2 data page. 45mm f/2.8 data page. 14-24mm f/2.8 data page. (Other Sigma lens data pages updated to reflect EOS M mount lenses.)
July 10
Canon Matches Camera and Lens Better. I've been a harsh critic of Canon's mismatched RF products: low-end bodies and high-end lenses. Today, that problem began its inevitable demise. Article on sansmirror.com. 24-240mm lens data page.
July 8
Let's Dip into the Hype and Myths. A number of things that are being said that need deeper examination rather than absolute acceptance. Article on sansmirror.com
Pro Gear Revisited. Earlier, I wrote about what I felt constituted full frame mirrorless pro gear. Today I'll take up the crop sensor portion of the mirrorless market. Article on sansmirror.com
July 1
The 20 Year Anniversary. June 15th marked the twenty-year anniversary of Nikon's announcement of the D1, the camera that most feel kicked off the DSLR era. The camera actually didn't ship to customers until early 2000, but a number of us got a chance to use it briefly in 1999. Article on dslrbodies.com
The Coming Cameras. I like to do a "thought piece" every now and then premised on what I did through most of my career in Silicon Valley: look five to ten years out and try to understand what developing or new technologies could be used to solve current user problems. Article on dslrbodies.com
Are You Following Your Heart or Head? It's a simple thing, really: if you're confused about what to do and are contemplating changing gear, do you know whether you're following your heart or your head in your thinking? Article on dslrbodies.com