Photo Rumors

Canon files patents for 50mm f/1.4, 85mm f/1.2, 85mm f/1.8, 100mm f/2, 135mm f/2 and 200mm f/2 lenses

By PR admin | Published: December 15, 2011

Canon filed patent 2011-253050 in Japan for the following prime lenses:

50mm f/1.4 lens

85mm f/1.2 lens

85mm f/1.8 lens

Posted in Canon| Tagged Patents| 18 Comments

Spyder 3 Elite giveaway winner

By PR admin | Published: December 15, 2011

The winner of the Datacolor Spyder 3 Elite display calibration system giveaway is Brian Coffey (pending verification). Congratulation!

If you did not win, the Spyder 3 Elite currently has $30 mail-in rebate.

Posted in Other| Tagged Photo Rumors giveaway| 1 Comment

Today only: free $50 gift card from Amazon with the purchase of selected cameras

By PR admin | Published: December 14, 2011

Buy Select Cameras, Get a $50 Amazon.com Gift Card

Through December 14, 2011, purchase select cameras and get an Amazon.com Gift Card worth $50. Simply add both the camera and the gift card from the list below to your Shopping Cart, and we’ll automatically deduct the price of the gift card at checkout.

Posted in Deals| 3 Comments

Carl Zeiss: revenue tops 4 billion EUR mark for very first time

By PR admin | Published: December 14, 2011

Carl Zeiss reported a record revenue of EUR 4.237 billion for the fiscal year 2010/11:

Posted in Zeiss| 11 Comments

Olympus announces M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3 EZ lens

By PR admin | Published: December 14, 2011

Amid its financial woes, today Olympus announced a new weather sealed powerzoom M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3 EZ lens (35mm equivalent: 24–100mm). The new lens will be available in mid-January 2012 for $499.99.

Posted in Olympus| 15 Comments

MIT’s new camera can do 1,000,000,000,000 frames per second

By PR admin | Published: December 13, 2011

“You can think of it as slow motion,” Andreas Velten, a postdoctoral researcher who is a member of the design team, said during a recent technical presentation. “It is so much slow motion you can see the light itself move. This is the speed of light: there’s nothing in the universe that moves faster.”

Read the entire article at NYTimes. Here are two videos that captured traveling light shot at one trillion frames per second:

Posted in Future of Photo Equipment| 19 Comments

Will Fuji buy Olympus?

By PR admin | Published: December 13, 2011

It seems that Bloomberg gave an answer to my question from few weeks ago – apparently Fujifilm is considered as a possible buyer of Olympus:

“Fujifilm, which makes equipment for medical scans, has been reported as a possible bidder for Japanese camera maker Olympus Corp. Yamamoto, who also is a board member at Fujifilm, declined to comment on a possible buyout of Olympus today.
Fujifilm Chief Executive Officer Shigetaka Komori said last month it was too early to discuss Olympus issues while the third-party panel was still probing the fraud at the camera maker.”

Posted in Fuji, Olympus| Tagged Olympus scandal| 30 Comments

Olympus to announce a new 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3 macro lens with powerzoom tomorrow

By PR admin | Published: December 13, 2011

Olympus is rumored to announce a new powerzoom 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3 macro lens on December 14th, 2011. The expected specs are:

Focal length: 12-50mm
Aperture: f/3.5-6.3
Close focusing: 0.35 meter (0.98 ft)
Macro: 0.2 to 0.5 meter (0.66-1.6 ft)
Filter size: 52
Ring: Focus and Aperture ring
Zoom: Powerzoom button on the left side of the lens
AF: Super fast AF and silent focusing

Price is expected to be around $400.

Posted in Olympus| 7 Comments

What else is new? (Sigma PG-31, BenQ GH700)

By PR admin | Published: December 13, 2011

New power grip PG-31 for Sigma SD1 DSLR:

The Sigma Corporation is pleased to announce the release of the Power Grip PG-31, specially designed for Sigma’s SD1 digital SLR, the camera that ensures high resolution and breathtaking image quality.
The PG-31 is a specially designed battery grip which upgrades the battery power of the SIGMA SD1 by holding two dedicated BP-21 battery packs. This caters for large-volume photography and photography in field. The PG-31 also incorporates a shutter button and therefore becomes a grip for vertical photography when attached to the SD1, providing a more assured grip.

New BenQ GH700 camera: 21x super zoom with BSI CMOS Sensor: