Digital Camera News and Reviews

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

Dpreview.com has reviewed the cheapest lens in the Canon EOS line up, the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens, but does not mean that the lens is necessarily bad.

Dpreview ends up giving the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens a “Highly Recommended (just)” rating due to the fact that it produces excellent images when you stop it down and no lateral chromatic aberration.
The only downsides are that lens have a very poor build quality, the bokeh could be prettier and some vignetting.
This lens seems like an excellent choice for new photographers wanting to experiment with bigger apertures.
Read the full review of the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens here.

Buy the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II from BH Photo.

Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM

SLR Gear has tested the Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM super telephoto lens. This lens has an excellent reach for wildlife photographers and I’m really envious of Canon users because there is no such lens for Olympus.

SLR Gear ends up giving the Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM lens a very good review. The lens is able to produce sharp pictures, but not as good as the newer high end lenses from Canon. The lens also lack image stabilization and that can be a downside when you are out photographing.
Overall this seems like a very good wildlife lens if you can live without image stabilization and do not need faster apertures.
Read the full review of the Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM lens here.

Buy the Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM lens from BH Photo.

According to CNN Canon has decided to make a new policy for their workers. They are encouraging their workers to head home earlier so they can spend time with their family and maybe produce some babies.
This is due to the fact that the birthrate in Japan is very low at just 1.34 child per family. Since workers in Japan spend so much time at work (12 hours per day is not uncommon) they get little time to take care of their family and thus little time for making love. Canon hope this can change the negative birth rate trend. Another reason for this policy is that economic recession make it hard for Canon to spend money on overtime.
Lets hope this policy spreads throughout the world including my own country

Canon EOS 40D DSLR

Canon has updated the firmware for their Canon EOS 40D DSLR camera to version 1.1.1. The new firmware fixes a malfunction that happen with the EF 85mm F1.2L II USM lens, an error that happens during direct printing and more.

You can download the firmware version 1.1.1 for the Canon EOS 40D DSLR camera here.

Information from Canon:
Firmware update Version 1.1.1 incorporates the following fixes and improvements.
1. Fixes a malfunction that in rare occurrence causes a low battery indication to be displayed when using the EF 85mm F1.2L II USM lens. Depending on the battery check timing of the camera, the battery level displayed on the camera’s LCD data panel may shows Battery will be exhausted soon or Battery must be recharged, even though the battery capacity is sufficient.
2. Fixes a malfunction that in rare occurrence causes an Err 06 Self Cleaning Sensor malfunction to appear on the camera’s LCD monitor and LCD data panel, even when the Self Cleaning Sensor Unit is operating normally. This message may appear depending on the timing of when the camera is switch to the ON position.
3. Fixes a malfunction that prevents correct colors from being printed when direct printing. RAW images captured using the camera’s custom Picture Styles (Emerald, etc.), which have been downloaded from Canon’s Web site and registered under User Def. 2 or User Def. 3.
4. Modifies the level of subject brightness that causes the AF-assist beam to fire when using an external Speedlite.
5. Enables an external flash connected to the camera’s synchro terminal to fire even when the camera’s built-in flash is popped up.