Articles from May 2010
Just posted: our look behind the scenes of in-camera lens corrections. It's become increasingly common for manufacturers to design cameras that perform some degree of lens correction. So what are manufacturers playing at? Why are they releasing lenses with distortion, what effect does it have, and should dpreview review the distorted or the corrected output? We spoke to a series of leading camera and lens makers, as well as the creators of leading RAW converters to find out just what's going on.
Voigtländer has announced the European price and availability of its Apo-Lanthar 90mm F3.5 SL II close focus lens in Canon, Nikon and Pentax mounts. Announced in February 2010, the lens is priced at €549 for all the three mounts. In the UK market it is priced at £487.62 for the Canon EF mount and £464.12 for the Nikon Ai-S and Pentax KA mounts. The lens has been redesigned with a smaller body while maintaining the same optical construction and 50cm minimum focusing distance of the previous, SL version.
Topaz Labs has released the latest version of its DeNoise noise reduction plug-in for Adobe Photoshop. It incorporates the company's latest 'IntelliNoise' noise reduction technology that aims to remove noise from images while maintaining detail. It is available as a free upgrade for existing users or $79.99 for first-time buyers.
Color technology specialist X-rite has announced two free online color workflow demonstrations for Adobe Camera Raw using its ColorChecker Passport color calibrator. The one hour demos will cover a number of topics including creation of camera profiles and color editing in Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. They will take place on April 15 at 13:00 EDT (17:00 UTC) and 15:00 EDT (19:00 UTC).
Carl Zeiss has introduced a set of cine prime and zoom lenses that offer interchangeable mounts for use with video enabled DSLRs. With a choice of Canon EF, Nikon F and Arri PL mount for professional cine cameras, the CP.2 compact primes offer a choice of 18mm to 85mm focal lengths with maximum apertures ranging from T2.1 to T3.6 and can be used on full frame cameras such as Canon 5D Mark II. The LWZ.2 lightweight zoom lenses cover the 'ANSI Super 35' image area (24.9 x 18.7mm) that is a fraction larger than APS-C sensors (24 x 16mm). The lenses will be available from June 2010.