*Canon EOS-M: Almost there, kinda.

canon eos-m

The last few years have seen a very large push in the photographic landscape toward smaller, lighter, high performing mirrorless interchangable lens compact system cameras. Most of the major camera manufacturers have produced something in this new segment. As Panasonic started the whole party off with the G1 a few years back, Olympus, Sony and Samsung jumped in quickly thereafter. Pentax and Ricoh have even had some interesting ideas since. Nikon and Canon watched this segment closely I’m sure, and calculated their entry into the mirrorless ring. Nikon took a different tack, creating a very small (comparatively) sensor system and Canon came up with this, the EOS-M. A few weeks ago, and after what many saw as a response to very poor reception and subsequent lack of sales since its introduction, Canon dropped the price of this APS-C sensor, mirrorless compact camera through the ground and I bit. Here are my thoughts on the camera itself, the Canon approach and where I think they need to go in the future with this…

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*Lensbaby’s sweet, ‘Sweet 35’

It’s here.  This, more than any other Lensbaby optic I’ve personally used, changes the Lensbaby from a fun tool, into a productive, creative asset.  Not that any of the other Lensbaby optics are bad, quite the contrary, I think that the Lensbaby system is and has always been a wonderful addition to my photographic arsenal, it’s just that up until now, one big challenge with any of the Lensbaby optics has been the inability to alter the size of the sweet spot via aperture adjustment quickly on the fly…  Now, you can bring all of the cool, selective focus effects into concert with the adaptability and exposure tuning qualities of a more standard lens.  Read on for a quick video and image samples…

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*Lensbaby Scout!

image © Lensbaby Inc. 2010

My blog may seem as if I’ve become nothing but a Lensbaby honk of late.  Let me say, I’ve been lucky enough to have made friends with the fine folks at Lensbaby.  That, and they’re my local, hometown lens manufacturer right here in Portland.  I am a softy when it comes to supporting the local folks, so in a word, yes, I like seeing a local, forward thinking optical company do well.  They are also very cool people making very unique, affordable optics, and they asked me if I would play around with this new lens.  I love all things photography, so I was excited to get my hands on yet another brand new Lensbaby product to play around with.  As if the recently released Tilt Transformer wasn’t enough, Lensbaby has developed the Scout to further diversify their optical offerings.  More after the jump…

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*Micro 4/3 and Sony NEX Lensbaby Tilt Transformer is HERE!

*image used courtesy of Lensbaby

 

As announcement after announcement come in, excitement in the photographic industry rarely hits the pitch that it does when Photokina rolls around.  Lensbaby has used this stage to announce their first micro 4/3 and Sony NEX dedicated offerings in the form of a combined Tilt Transformer and Composer for each of the subsequent mounts.  Being that I do not have, nor have access to a NEX 3 or 5, I’ll be writing about my experience with the micro 4/3 mount Lensbaby Tilt Transformer/Composer combo.  Combining the optical playground that is the Lensbaby Composer with the ability to replace the composer element and mount any Nikon F mount lens to gain a multitude of tilt-able options is just what we’ve needed to see in a micro 4/3 mount, a versatile, affordable, different and really, really fun option.  Read on for a few test shots and examples…

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*Mirrorless Mania! Which camera should I get?

I have been receiving quite a few emails lately asking which mirrorless interchangeable lens compact cameras I would suggest, so I figured I would give a quick rundown on who I feel would benefit from each of the current stock out there and which I feel are the “best” choices.

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