Happy new year everyone!! Ewwww. This is a late one! Well, as you can see, this is the first 2013 update. A lot of things effectively changed my real life since December 2012, preventing me from putting time into this project until now (new job, broken computer, lots of windsurfing and sunbathing etc.). Back in November I had a lot of plans for the site. One was settling with a professional local photography company to get more equipment pictures, which didn't happen because they didn't get in contact as promised and I didn't keep up going on their nerves. Another plan was a graphical revision. The non-table content was optimized for small-scale screen compatibility (netbooks, ipads ...), but I guess, if you use those devices you already noticed. I also decided to switch back to the News being the default starting page of the project. The Technoclopedia was starting with the mission statement by default since 2 or 3 years and I guess everyone is informed. If not, see About. There also was a plan to change the design of the news a bit, but actually what I just found didn't look much better. So I just left everything as it was and only added the social bookmarks above. Use them to get in contact, even if it's just for a thumbs-up or say-hi. I only get to know a fraction of my visitors, which is a pity. I'd appreciate some more interaction here. And yeah, I was too lazy to keep confirming the use of the old addy over at no-ip.com (canon-eos.serveblog.net), so as announced in October last year this address no longer works. There were a few other plans as well, that I actually forgot about.
All right, that's it for today. I'm about to sort all the 2013 news and will update the project accordingly until the end of this year.
Stay tuned.
PS: The Canon EOS Technoclopedia got a funding campaign going on Indiegogo. Check it out and please take a moment to support it!! The minimum funding there is 10€. If that's asked too much and you still want to do something, read on here. Even sharing the Indiegogo campaign link on facebook and other social networks or on your homepage or blog will help.
DSLR Additions processed:
- Canon EF-S 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 IS STM (announced in 03.2013)
- Canon EF-S 55-250mm F4.0-5.6 IS STM (announced in 08.2013)
- Canon EF 200-400mm F4.0L IS USM Extender 1.4x (announced in 05.2013)
- Bower 24mm F3.5 T-S ED AS UMC (first recognized in 07.2013)
- Carl Zeiss ZE-I, ZS-I and ZS-IR versions of their SLR lenses (announced in 06.2013)
- Dörr 8mm F3.5 Fish-Eye CS
- Elicar 300-600mm F4.1-5.7 V-HQ IF ED Macro (officially announced in 08.2013)
- Mitakon 35mm F1.9, 85mm F2.0 I + II and 135mm F2.8 (old news, as far as I get it they are all from 2010)
- Monochrom 41.5mm Pancake (introduced at Photokina 2012 ?)
- Opteka 85mm F1.8 (launched in 03.2013)
- Rokinon 16mm F2.0 (announced in 08.2013)
- Samyang 16mm F2.0 ED AS UMC CS EOS (announced in 06.2013)
- Sigma AF 18-35mm F1.8 DC HSM A(rt Series) (announced in 04.2013)
- Sigma AF 24-105mm F4.0 DG OS HSM A(rt Series) (announced for 09.2013 (came a little later))
- Sigma AF 30mm F1.4 DC HSM A(rt Series) (announced in 01.2013)
- Tamron AF 150-600mm F5.0-6.3 VC USD (announced in 11.2013, coming 01.2014)
- Walimex Pro 16mm F2.0 ED AS UMC CS
- Walimex Pro 24mm F3.5 T-S ED AS UMC
- Aquatech Delphin Sport Housings for EOS 1D X and 1D C
- Aquatech Elite Sport Housings for EOS 7D, 5D Mark II and 5D Mark III
- Equinox housings for EOS 700D, 70D, 1D X and more
- Ikelite housings for EOS 700D (introduced 04.2013), 70D (introduced 09.2013) and 6D (introduced 12.2012)
- Nauticam NA-70D, NA-7D and NA-1DX
- Nimar 3D 700D and 70D
- Patima 600EX-RT (introduced 06.2013)
- Sea&Sea MDX-70D (announced for 11.2013), MDX-6D and RDX-100D (announced for 10.2013)
- Seacam silver EOS5D MKIII
- Sealux CC5D3
- SPL A Series housings for EOS 6D and 1D X and a cross-compatible Splash Series housing for EOS 5D II + 5D III + 7D
- Zillion ZAP-KissX7 (for EOS 700D) and Zillion Surf Edition housings for EOS 5D Mark III and 1D X
- further announced are Aquatica 70D, Sealux CC6 (EOS 6D, announced since 2012), Subal CD4X (for EOS 1D X, announced since 2012)
EOS M Additions processed:
VDSLR Additions processed:
Surveillance Additions processed:
Flash Additions processed:
Test Additions processed:
- SLRgear:
- Photozone:
- DxO Labs:
- Popular Photography
(old tests from ~2003 ±1 revived from Archive.org):
- Popular Photography (currently available online, 2009 - 2013):
- more:
Files added to the library: 528 new + .pdf replacements for .mht, .doc, .jpg and other types
- Feel free to call me a Pack Rat. I just hit the 3000 mark.
What else happened worth a mention?
- DxO published the test results for the Canon EOS-M. Look and cry.
- Lomography raised funds via Kickstarter to get the production of a new Petzval lens going. The lens will come in the classic brass barrel design for C/EF and N/F mounts. The first batch is announced for December 2013.
- HandeVision managed to cause a little sensation this year. Being a coop between german IB/E Optics Eckerl and chinese Shanghai Transvision Photographic Equipment (which Kipon belongs to), they presented prototypes of an HandeVision Ibelux 40mm F0.85 at CP+ back in February. This Ibelux has now been announced for February 2014 to get released - including a version for EOS-M. So far the facts as of writing this. Now to the actual surprise leads the following statement:
"We are currently working on our next project, the wide-angle IBEGON lens. With Sony releasing the new full-frame mirrorless A7/A7R camera, we have designed a high-speed telephoto APO mirror lens called the IBECAT, named for its sharp image capture, its lightweight construction and fast glass. Additional lenses are in development for full frame mirrorless cameras, including a tilt-shift lens and a compact fixed focal length lens.
We are focusing our efforts at expanding our line of full-frame mirrorless and DSLR detachable lenses in 2014 and are constantly developing ways to satisfy demand of professional photographers for faster, sharper lenses." [
source]
- Metz didn't bother to release another flash during 2013. Well, for them there isn't much left to aim at I guess. But they introduced the MBM Wide Angle Diffusers for some of their AF models.
- Quantum Instruments with its line of Qflashes among other equipment was acquired by Promark International, effective as of 07.2013. Promark announced to continue the Quantum product lines, including development and service.
- Samyang's 10mm F2.8 ED AS UMC CS has been re-sheduled for q1 2014.
- Effective since 09.2013 Sigma offers a mount exchange service for all their existing and upcoming Art, Contemporary and Sport Series lenses. The choices are limited to Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Sigma and Sony mounts. It further sounds like the lenses' OS functionality is part of the modification, independently from the mount's / camera's preference of providing the OS with the body or the lens. Sigma will charge between 200,- and 325,- € per lens, depending on its focal length (the shorter the less).
- Yongnuo announced the RF-603 Mark II back in 08.2013 to be released the same month - nothing happened so far.
- Although smiled upon by many I continue to list TIPA and EISA Awards.
The TIPA 2013 selection includes the Canon EOS 100D, EOS 6D, EOS 1D C and the EF 24-70mm F2.8L II USM, the Sigma AF 17-70mm F2.8-4.0 DC OS HSM Macro C and AF 35mm F1.4 DG HSM A, the Metabones Speed Booster and the Nissin Digital MG8000 Extreme.
The EISA 2013 - 2014 selection includes the Canon EOS 100D, EOS 6D and the EF 200-400mm F4.0L IS USM Extender 1.4x and the Tamron AF 70-200mm F2.8 SP Di VC USD and AF 90mm F2.8 SP Di VC USD 1:1 Macro.
Curious / funny stuff?
- Of course!! First to mention, the Lynny Lens System!! All new, never seen before, super affordable superbullshit. Ok, it's old news that started back in 2012 or even earlier but in 2013 the story continued even worse than I'd have expected. So here you go.
When I received the first word from that guy in 2012 I wrote him back requesting a test set for a review. I was curious whether he was still working with 0815 video converters to make up for his experimental lomo 85mm F1.4 magic. Yes, in his email he indeed claimed to achieve F1.4 wide open - with a filter size of only 37mm. Even more magic here. I didn't receive a set, nor did I find hints on the quality issues (infact he had just played around with a bunch of Neewer video converters in his first 5 beta versions). But what happened in 2013 is even harder to believe. Lynny Lens went crowd funding with Kickstarter, received tons of money (over 5000$ ... what the hell is wrong with you guys???), got caught in legal issues for infringing patents owned by Lensbaby (Surprise!) and announced a delay of unknown to develop a new, never seen before system without the patent infringement issue. Did I already say "Magic!"?
- Elicar also seem to have worked their way into this category. Their long awaited 300-600 is a nice addition to the market. But their pricing policy makes me smile everytime I stumble about a trace of that lens. Still I like and respect Peter for his supportive nature, optimism and pioneering will and wish them all the success they deserve.
- Zeiss is going to drop the Carl from their lens labels. The current models will not be affected, but any new series released in the future will just be labeled ZEISS. Big news. Can anyone else see the Differenze Linguistiche popping up? Korean Samyang, French Angenieux, Japanese Canon, American Bower ... German ZEISS. Would be fun with Schneider-Kreuznach, too. Anyway, the Otus still seems to carry the Carl, at least as shown on the pictures available online.
- None of the ex-soviet optical companies offer any new lens. Haha ... da news ...
Misc Site Changes:
- I've never been too excited about the quality of Fred Miranda Ratings1 and finally decided to remove most of their references from the main listings. Some references might still appear in the printer friendly pages, but even there might disappear over time as well.
- As already hinted at above I had another run on archive.org and archive.popphoto.com to revive some of their older test reports. I don't take those SQF measurements too serious, but they consistently offer real world measurements for focus throw (approximations), focal length, aperture and magnification with almost all reports released since 2001. Focus Throw is now available in the main listings, the rest only appears in the print page for each lens.
- The speedlite listings got a rework to provide more detailed information about flash head tilt and swivel, HSS, RPT and master / slave capabilities (incl. groups and channels).
- Footnotes were deleted from the main listings. Instead, they are now available via pop-up by clicking on the notes themself. Since the table headers don't scoll away, this should ease site usage a bit more by means of always keeping those cross-references available without the need to scroll to the bottom and probably back to the entry you were looking at.
- Fixed the design (frame border reworked).
Last updated: 2013-12-26
