image courtesy: eoshd

“Both of these shots were taken with the same lens at 24mm. One is not a full frame camera! ” (NEX-7 top / Canon 5D Mark III bottom. Lens: Sigma 24mm F1.8)

So, eoshd started his Speed Booster testings. Almost identical field of view! “The Speed Boost effect on aperture is highly evident too. On the NEX 7 the camera reports the maximum aperture as F1.3 and it is certainly brighter.” Also the “depth of field is as shallow on the NEX 7 as the 5D Mark III despite the difference in sensor size.”

Do we really need a Fuji Full Frame now? At the end of his post eoshd says: “This is a groundbreaking product for photographers and cinematographers alike.” Just click here (eoshd website) to read much more and see more comparison pics!

In another post he explained how the Speed Booster works: “If your sensor is smaller than full frame, shrink the image that the lens throws to fit over it. That is the principal behind the Metabones Speed Booster which essentially gives you the full frame look and a brighter image all at once…” He says, among the others, that with this adapter:

• A 24mm wide angle like the Canon 24mm F1.4L becomes a 24mm wide angle on the FS100, with the same shallow DOF and field of view as on the 5D Mark III
• A F1.2 aperture on a Canon lens becomes F0.90, a significant 1 stop brighter image in low light
• Depth of field becomes shallower – the same as it would be on full frame

Read the whole text here.

Metabones Press Release:

Petersburg, VA, USA, January 14, 2013 – Metabones® and Caldwell Photographic jointly announce a revolutionary accessory called Speed Booster™, which mounts between a mirrorless camera and a SLR lens. It increases maximum aperture by 1 stop (hence its name), increases MTF and has a focal length multiplier of 0.71x. For example, the Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II lens becomes a 59mm f/0.9 lens on a Sony NEX camera, with increased sharpness. The faster F-stop allows for shallow depth-of-field and a lower ISO setting for decreased noise.

Speed Booster is also particularly pertinent to ultra-wide-angle SLR lenses. The combined focal length multiplier of Speed Booster and an APS-C mirrorless camera is approximately 1.09x, making the combination almost “full-frame”. Full-frame ultra-wide-angle SLR lenses largely retain their angle-of-view on an APS-C mirrorless camera when Speed Booster is used.

The optics of Speed Booster is designed by Brian Caldwell, PhD, a veteran of highly-corrected lens designs such as the Coastal Optics 60mm f/4 UV-VIS-IR APO Macro lens with exemplary MTF performance (focusing done with visible light requires no correction whatsoever for the full spectrum from UV to IR).

Speed Booster serves double-duty as a lens mount adapter, from Canon EF lens (but not EF-S) to Sony NEX, with auto-aperture, image stablization, EXIF and (slow) autofocus support for late-model (post-2006) Canon-brand lenses. It will be available in January 2013 from Metabones’ web site and its worldwide dealer network for US$599 plus shipping and applicable taxes and duties.

Other mount combinations will follow shortly afterwards. Leica R, ALPA, Contarex, Contax C/Y and Nikon F (with aperture control for G lenses) will be supported, as will Micro 4/3 and Fuji X-mount cameras. Support for other mounts will be added in the future.

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Amazon 14mm cancellation

First of all, what happened with the 14mm at Amazon? Here is a mail from a FR-reader: “I just got off of a very lengthly conversation with amazon.The final feedback I received was that Amazon discovered a mis-match with the manufacturer product number  and cancelled all orders so that customers did not receive the wrong product. They are researching the problem. Appears to be an Amazon error. Question, did they order using the wrong product number????? Problem and strong customer complaint has been escalated.”

X100s

Whatdigitalcamera Fuji X100S First Look Preveiw at CES 2013

Which camera do you think is the best at the CES according to digitalcamerareview.com. It’s the X100s! Click here to see the top five!

dcwatch at the CES. X20 and X100s click here for the translated version.

Dpreveiw hands on (click here). For some more hands on impressions click here. How split image focusing works at dpreview.com.

eoshd.com posted his thoughts about the new X100s. They say it’s a significant upgrade to the X100, which was a great cam, but “the terrible AF and fly by wire manual focusing technology spoilt it, and the video mode was very much an afterthought… On the new model the AF system for stills is now one of the fastest around and manual focus is much more responsive… To be honest I find it strange that all this good stuff has been reserved for the $1200 [note: $1300] X100S, and Fuji have based their much more important interchangeable lens system around quite outdated technology, since the X100S seems like generation 2 from Fuji and comes only a few months after their new X-E1 which has none of the essential new AF or MF upgrades that the X100S brings to the table.” Read more at eoshd.com

Also photographybay is at the CES and posted his hands-on review here.

digitalcamera X100s first impressions video

X20

digitalcamerainfo X20 first impressions.

You’ll read a lot of beautiful words also in this hands on review at dslrphoto.com. Let’s hope we can see soon some images shot with this cameras… can’t wait for it!

X-E1

Mike Kobal compared the NEX6 and the X-E1 (sava $123 at Adorama vor the bundle). Just one sentence from the conclusions: “As a purist with no interest in video, the choice is easy. Fuji X-E1.”

Mike Kobal’s portrait of the day shot with the X-E1 and the 35mm lens. Its bokeh, he says “can be incredible and easily mistaken for something we thought only possible with a full frame sensor.” See his shots and read more here.

It’s the old dilemma, X-PRO1 or X-E1. Here is another one that tries to give an answer to this question. Take a look at it here.

“The only thing I have left to say is go out, and buy the Fuji X-E1.  This is one of those cameras where you really, REALLY get your money’s worth.  The X-E1 is a fantastic little camera, and priced very reasonably allowing many, many photographers out there to easily obtain stellar image quality for not put yourself “in the dog house” price.” Read why findingrange comes to this conclusion here.

X-PRO1

Fuji X-PRO1… more to learn. IS1 and IS2… read the difference between these two options to activate the Optical Image Stabilization on the 18-55mm lens.

Fuji X-PRO1 winter street photography in London (click here).

X-PRO1 street shooting in Iran at stevehuffphoto.com

Prague in December. Click here to see the pics.

See the pics here of the X-Pro 1 at the 2012 Pushkar Camel Fair – Rajasthan, India

New year fireworks shot handheld with the X-PRO1. See the results here.

Fuji X100

camera.co.uk posted his X100 review. Read the Good and the Bad here.

“The X100 really has impressive metrics for a compact camera. Its sensor manages to outperform that of the Sony NEX-5, and thus takes first place in the mirrorless rankings. The interesting part though is that it also manages to outperform or rival mid-range DSLRs such as the Nikon D90 and the Canon EOS 60D, thanks to its well-handled noise and good color management, but above all thanks to a truly decent low-light performance.” That’s an extract of the conclusions of the DxOMark review here. There is also a short comparison with the Nex-5, the Nikon D90 and the EOS 60D.

Best Cameras 2012 (MirrorlesCentral)

Which where the best cameras in 2012 according to Mirrorless Central? In the category Still Photo Cameras the winner are the Fuji X-PRO1 and X-E1. See the video here.

Fuji X10

A German Fuji X10 (18% price drop) video review can be seen here.

Accesories and more

Protect your Fujifilm X100, X100s and X-Pro1 lenses with the S-Cap. Read this article here.

Who’s the winner of Fujifilms studend award of December? See it here at ephotozine.

PREORDER

X100S: AmazonUS / Adorama / B&H

X20: AmazonUS: silver and black version / B&H: silver version – black version / Adorama: silver version – black version

Europe: UK: Wexphotographic X100s for £1099 / X20 silver and black for £599

Or sign in www.slidoo.com , decide your parameters, save your search and get notified when it’s available. It’s easy!