I already linked about a few hacks around the Instax.
This time it is a flying Instax, on a drone, by Trent Siggard:
Category: Links
Nikon Z7 teardown
LensRental, after doing it for the EOS R, tore down a Nikon Z7 to show what’s inside:
This is not marketing department weather resistance. This is engineering department weather resistance. Anything that can be sealed has been sealed. I’m impressed, and I will say for future cut-and-paste blurbs: this is as robustly weather sealed a camera as we’ve ever disassembled.
Remember this is a ~USD$3,500 camera body, which the build quality impressed.
What’s inside the EOS R
Lensrentals has a teardown of the Canon EOS R Mirrorless Camera. Nicely engineered camera, albeit nothing out of the ordinary.
It was rather a boring disassembly, really, about what we should expect for Canon doing a Canon 6D Mark II quality mirrorless camera. It’s neatly laid out and nicely engineered inside. One thing that struck me is that it’s not very crowded inside there, or as we like to say “they left a lot of air inside”.
Yashica is not back
As I guessed a year ago, Yashica isn’t back. Petapixel has reports that Yashica’s “Unexpected” Y35 Camera is Worse Than Anyone Expected
While the concept may be novel and fun for people yearning for the look and feel of film cameras while having the convenience of digital, execution appears to have been lacking.
I personally didn’t believe the idea was any good. It seems that it is not even good in its making.
Instax hacks
PetaPixel has two articles about hacks on top of the Fujifilm Instax instant camera.
An Instax Camera with the Leica M lens: a prototype using the SQ10 as a base, where the M lens mount replaces the lens, to produce square images. The hybrid model of small sensor and Instax printer make this work, as the coverage of an M lens is insufficient for even Instax Mini. Still the image quality is seriously limited by the quality of the sensor and the “printer”.
Combining a Hasselblad 500 and an Instax Mini 9: the Instax mini act as a film back for the Hasselblad.
We were really happy with our first tests. The full frame of the film is exposed and the images are sharper than we’ve ever seen on this type of film. There are still a few ongoing issues with light leaks and with focusing because of the slight difference in focal plane length.
Interesting to see the creativity in that area.
Sigma & L-mount
As previously stated, Sigma is part of the L-mount initiative. Not only as a lens vendor. In a press release, Sigma state they’ll develop an L-mount camera:
All future interchangeable-lens camera systems developed by SIGMA will feature the L-mount. SIGMA does not plan to develop new cameras equipped with an SA-mount.
Whether they’ll use the Foveon sensor technology or not is a question that is not answered there. I think they make the right choice here to not create their own mount.
About that EOS R control ring
One of the new features of the EOS R is the control ring. Similarly found on the Canon PowerShot G7X, a ring that you can use to control things, at the tip of the lens. Like the G7X, the ring does click when rotated and can be heard. According to Canon you can get it disabled (YouTube):
“This clicks will make a slight audible sound as you rotate the ring. For critical video shooters concerned about the possibility of recording this sound, Canon service technicians can modify your RF lens and remove the click stops for a fee.”
That’s right. Not with a button like on the G7X MarkII but sent back to the service center.
The meaning of ISO
DPReview tells usYou probably don’t know what ISO means — and that’s a problem to explain what ISO (sensitivity) mean in the world of digital photography, compared to film, and why it is different.
This brings us to the biggest problem with using a clumsy metaphor for film sensitivity as the way of setting image brightness in digital: it means we aren’t given the tools to optimally expose our sensors.
Digital photography cameras are built on film photography. While some things are similar, when it comes to the image capture, things are totally different leading to a design that is often suboptimal at best.
How film commercial processing and scanning is done
Jay from The Slanted Lens on YouTube visits Richard Photolab, a photo processing lab in Valencia, CA to give us an overview on how film processing and scanning is done:
Rumour: Canon full frame mirrorless
Canon Rumors has something about a rumoured Canon full frame mirrorless:
We have now confirmed from a couple of good sources that a full frame mirrorless camera is well into its development cycle, as the camera is being used by select Canon pro photographers.
One of the biggest unanswered questions about Canon’s upcoming camera is whether it will feature a native EF lens mount. Allowing Canon photographers to seamlessly use their entire existing arsenal of Canon lenses would be a huge boon to the camera’s ability to disrupt the market.
I wrote previously whether a SLR mount on mirrorless would make sense?
The answer is a NO.
What I see, if that camera actually exists, is an EF-M mount for full frame, possibly compatible with the actual EF-M downward (full frame on APS-C) but not the other way due to coverage, similarly to the EF-S mount cameras, that can use EF mount lenses. Like for the EOS-M, I also see an adapter available for EF lenses.
Time will tell if that gets to be beyond a rumour. At this time I have no speculation about its specs.