The Pentax K-5 was a big hit when it was released back in 2010, as it was a follow-up to the popular K-7 with many improvements in overall image quality and hi-ISO as well. Pentax saw fit to improve upon the K-5 and have brought about the new K-5 II; however they didn’t just stop there, they have also delivered the K-5 IIs (S for Sharpness?) which lacks an Optical Low Pass Filter (aka: Anti-Aliasing Filter) for preserving critical sharpness and overall image detail right in the camera. I have spent time with both cameras simultaneously and have prepared my thoughts and findings for you all. Head on past the break for the full review.
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For the people that love their roller bags, Think Tank’s new Logistics Manager 30 is designed with what they’re called, “endless interior layout options.” Its dimensions are 13.75”W x 27.5”H x 8.25 – 10”D: which means that there is really a heck of a lot of space in there. The bag is being billed to not only hold a camera and lenses, but also lighting and accessories. This is one of the first bags where we’ve heard that lighting can be inserted with no issues. Speedlites we can understand, but monolights? From the looks of it, it seems like the Logistics Manager 30 might be the big bag that could.
Despite the bags enormous size, it still remains to be TSA-approved for travel. It includes a roller hangle, side pockets, organizer pockets, a tripod cup, rain cover, front organizer pocket, and accessory bags built in.
And the price? You’ll be losing a cool $499 for all this storage space. The bag is available now at Amazon.
In the mirrorless camera world, there is currently loads and loads of excitement behind Zeiss’s new lenses. To refresh, we previously reported on the announcement of the 32mm f1.8 Touit and 12mm f2.8 Touit back around Photokina and shortly afterward, we got to see them up close and personal. These lenses will be made for Fujifilm X mount and Sony E mount (NEX)–leaving Micro Four Thirds out in the cold.
Now back up a second–Touit isn’t part of any of Zeiss’s typical naming conventions. But today on the Zeiss Lens blog, the company explained why the name came out. According to the company, “Touit stands for good visibility, agility, mobility and diversity, qualities which also aptly describe the new ZEISS lenses for mirrorless camera systems.” The cited that this took inspiration from car manufacturers naming certain series of cars after types of wind.
More importantly, how do you pronounce Touit? Apparently, you say, “Do it.” Crazy cool, huh?
Alright Canon fans–time to breathe…everything will be okay. Planet 5D found a report from DxOMark stating that when it comes to pure sharpness, the Canon 5D Mk III and Nikon D800 aren’t so far off from one another. To come to their findings, they test each camera with loads of lenses and when good glass was paired with the 5D Mk III, there was almost no difference between this camera and the its Nikon competitor. In fact, they go so far as to say that sometimes Canons’ 5D Mk III outdid the D800–and once again with good lenses.
But what about the D800E? That is the camera that was designed to take full advantage of the resolution. According to the report, “In future tests, it will be interesting to see if the Sony sourced sensor in the Nikon D800E variant with its altered (zero strength) OLPF (Optical Low-Pass Filter) is significantly more efficient at resolving detail or if it’s as a result of the differences in fill-factor (affected by RGB filter transmission, micro-lens design and circuitry) between the Canon and Nikon sensors.” So we’ll just have to wait and see.
What does this mean in real life? Well, it confirms that if you’re purchasing these cameras, you really should be springing for the better glass. When I first bought my Canon 5D Mk II, I purchased the nifty 50 with it–and in looking back I really shouldn’t have. Sure, it’s a nice starter lens, but in the end if you really want to take the full advantage of your camera’s capabilities you should go for higher end glass. If you’re sending your images to the web, who the heck cares? Most people can’t tell the difference. If you’re printing large or shooting for NASA though, then you might want to consider the findings.
Photo by Ryan Brenizer. Used with permission
It’s a brand new year, and that also means that you’re probably prepping for a whole new wedding season. To boot, since the days are getting longer you’re probably also wanting to work with natural light more often and taking further advantage of the golden hour. But if you’re starting to think about some upgrades, maybe you should consider some of the latest and greatest that many companies have been putting out as of late.
This is our Wedding Guide for 2013.
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NAB 2013 is showing us lots of cool stuff–and the latest is the Novo from Radiant Images (which was actually released back in February). Specifically being marketed as taking away lots of the limitations that a GoPro has, the Novo also will use C-Mount lenses (but no word on the sensor size) Micro Four Thirds users should be very familiar with these as many of them love to hack them onto their cameras. But we’ve also previously done a round up of which lenses are actually worth trying. But beyond that, you can take off the auto-exposure function because you can adjust the aperture of the lens manually. Radiant Images also will unveil brand-new accessories available for the camera, including a wireless follow-focus system and a wireless video solution.
The Novo has an aluminum body that is being billed as 20 percent thinner than the GoPro Hero3, and includes three bottom and two front 1/4-20 mounting points. Also, four buttons on the front (REC, PWR, WiFi & AUX) are assignable to several functions depending on the application. The Aux button turns the auto exposure on/off, but can also be utilized for other functions, such as digital zoom. And just like the Hero, it incudes things like the LCD touch screen, power backpack and WiFi connectivity for wireless camera control and can shoot, “cinema-quality 2K and 4K resolution.”
We’re going to try to get one in our palms as soon as we can–so stay tuned!
