Got fifteen hundred bucks burning a hole in your pocket, and a hankering for a new Olympus pro-spec lens? The Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 40-150mm f2.8 PRO might fit the bill, the first telephoto in the company's PRO range to be dust, splash, and freezproof.
Smartphones come in all varieties, and while some focus on dominating one sort of functionality more so than the rest, photography is a fairly solid feature that gets attention from makers across the board. Improvements are continually made in the realms of both software and hardware, and several smartphones have cropped up in recent times that take photography to the next level (the Lumia 1020, for example). If you don't have one of the latest and greatest handsets, however, that doesn't mean you can't boost your smartphone's photography ability to the next level.
Earlier this week, rumor surfaced from an unnamed source that Nikon planned to reveal an updated AF-S 400mm f/2.8 lens, something that was expected to accompany a new mirrorless camera. The camera arrived on Tuesday, and following that the maker has taken the wraps off its new lens offering.
Olympus has had a run of success with its OM-D series of cameras, not least the E-M5 we reviewed last year, and now there's the new OM-D E-M10 to carry that torch, a model the company claims rivals APS-C DSLRs while being considerably smaller. In fact, at 63.9mm deep and 516g with the new 14-42mm EZ kit lens, the OM-D E-M10 is even smaller than the body alone of Canon's EOS Rebel SL1. We caught up with Olympus ahead of the new camera's launch to find out what makes the E-M10 so special, what the company had to do to pack so much into so little space, and to see the new lenses - including an updated version of the surprisingly popular fish-eye body cap lens - to go along with it.
Samsung has revealed a new smart camera, the Samsung NX30, running the company's SMART 3.0 software for easy uploads of its 20.3-megapixel images to Dropbox, Flickr, and social networks. Launching officially at CES 2014 next week, the NX30 has an APS-C CMOS sensor with Hybrid Auto Focus, up to 9fps continuous shooting, and an ISO 100-25600 range, along with both a 3-inch swiveling AMOLED display and a tilting 1024 x 768 electronic viewfinder. There are also two new lenses to go along with the new camera.
Though we've seen the Sony "Lens Camera" devices appear connected to smartphones before, today a set of press photos suggests that the user might be able to use these devices without a companion smart unit at all. Where before we'd assumed that it was the smartphone - or tablet - that allowed a Sony Lens Camera to be controlled, today a set of photos that very much appear to be press-quality (aka real from Sony, more than likely) show a couple of users working with these devices without being physically attached to the smartphone in hand.
As tipped all the way back near the middle of July, Sony's Lens Cameras (DSC-QX10 and DSC-QX100) once again appear to be upon us. These cameras are appearing in press images this afternoon courtesy of Sony Alpha Rumors both on their own and attached to the Sony Xperia Z and Sony Xperia i1, aka Honami. The DSC-QX10 as well as the DSC-QX100 will be working only when working with a Sony smartphone, meaning they've got their own hardware inside not normally found in the body of a replaceable lens system.
This week the team at ZEISS have announced that they'll no longer be branding their lens family with the name of their founder. Though we're not sure how Carl will look upon this decision himself, we'll light a flash bulb in this two-word brand's memory for sure. Carl Zeiss AG and ZEISS will move forward with the one dominant word from here on in - and a history of the brand has been recounted by the company as well, splits and reformation and all.
There are a handful of camera lenses that you can get for the iPhone, which allow you to take a number of unique photos using a fisheye effect or better macro focus. Olloclip is one company that offers these types of lenses, and they've come out with an accompanying iPhone app that corrects distortion in photos created by the add-on lenses.
As awkward and dumb as it looks, people take photos and videos with their iPads whether you like it or not, and Photojojo -- the company behind a line of popular smartphone camera accessories -- is taking advantage of that fact. They have released the Photojojo telephoto lens that you can attach to your iPad or iPad mini.
Sigma has unveiled a handful of new lenses that will join the company's current lineup of Art lenses, which are designed to be high-quality alternatives of the competition, like Canon and Nikon lenses, but with a slightly lower cost than you would normally see with these companies. The four new lenses that Sigma announce are a 30mm f/1.4 DC HSM, 60mm f/2.8 DN, 30mm f/2.8 DN, and a 19mm f/2.8 DN.
