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Leica announces APO-Summicron-M 35mm F2 ASPH

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Leica announces APO-Summicron-M 35mm F2 ASPH

Leica has announced the release of the APO-Summicron-M 35mm F2 ASPH. The compact 35mm F2 is the closest-focusing M-mount lens, with a minimum focus distance of just 30cm (11.8″).

The optical formula of the 35mm F2 includes 10 elements in 5 groups, with 4 aspherical surfaces. Six elements use anomalous partial dispersion glass to help reduce chromatic aberration. The lens has 11 aperture blades. A screw-on metal hood is included, and the lens is threaded for 39mm filters.

The APO-Summicron-M 35mm F2 ASPH is now available for $8195.

Press release

The New Leica APO-Summicron-M 35 f/2 ASPH. Sets New Benchmarks with Maximum Performance in a Remarkably Compact Size

March 4th 2021 – Leica Camera once again pushes forward to new heights of imaging excellence with the launch of the APO-Summicron-M 35 f/2 ASPH. Like its legendary sibling, the APO-Summicron-M 50 f/2 ASPH., this new 35 mm achieves maximum imaging performance without compromise in one of the most popular focal lengths for photographers throughout history. The result is a lens whose detail rendition will maximize the fullest potential of today’s imaging sensors while poised, futureproof and ready for the technology and resolving power of future sensors. The APO-Summicron-M 35 f/2 ASPH. is the only M-lens with a close-focus distance of just 30 centimeters, unlocking new possibilities.

The 35 mm focal length has always been a staple of the Leica M-System, and now this longstanding lineage of Summicron-M lenses has its new flagship offering the highest possible image performance, an extremely close focus and diminutively compact housing.

The exceptional performance of this lens is made possible by its elaborate optical design combined with its high-precision manufacturing at the Leica factory in Wetzlar. This state-of-the-art engineering earns the Made in Germany quality stamp of approval it bears, yielding an optical instrument that can stand the test of time to deliver decades of use and infinite possibilities. The ten lens elements are divided into five groups. Three elements feature aspherical surfaces (one of them on both sides) for minimizing distortion, while six elements are made of glasses with anomalous partial dispersion, which not only reduce distracting chromatic aberrations to almost zero, but also provide apochromatic correction – a quality rarely found in lenses of this focal length. The resulting images exhibit crisp corner-to-corner sharpness and accurate color fidelity at all apertures and focus distances, both near and far.

The APO-Summicron-M 35 f/2 ASPH. also delivers outstanding results close up, closer than any 35 mm M lens of the past and present, thanks to a floating lens element that ensures consistency at all distances; all the way down to its newly achieved minimum focus of 30 cm. The focus ring turns a full 300°, for precisely accurate and smooth focusing throughout the entire range from its close-focus distance all the way out to infinity. Via the rangefinder, the lens can be focused as close as 70 cm – at which point a slight haptic resistance can be felt in the focus ring, clearly communicating its position to the user. This touch of engineering is key to maintaining a similar feel and usage like all other modern M lenses, so users can still be familiar and comfortable with longstanding street photography techniques such as hyperfocal distance and “shooting from the hip.” At distances between 70 and 30 cm, when the focus ring is rotated beyond that noticeable detent, the photographer can choose to focus via the camera’s rear LCD in Live View mode, the Visoflex electronic viewfinder, or the Leica FOTOS app.

The construction of the lens hood in combination with highly effective anti-reflective glass coatings makes the APO-Summicron-M 35 f/2 ASPH. extremely resistant to any type of stray light – allowing the photographer to shoot into the sun or other sources of light without fear of flare or ghosting. Common optical flaws such as chromatic aberration and distortion are corrected to the point of barely being noticeable. This imaging prowess and edge-to-edge contrast rendition creates an especially pronounced and lovely bokeh at open aperture. Seeing as the aperture is almost perfectly circular, owing to its eleven blades, this effect is also retained when the lens is stopped down for maximum depth-of-field.

Even more than any other M-lens, the APO-Summicron-M 35 f/2 ASPH. only has to be stopped down for creative purposes. The rendition quality at the center and edges of the image is of such fidelity that there is no scope for further improvement by stopping down. Though many lenses of the world today augment their performance by being larger and heavier by design, the top-performing APO-Summicron-M 35 f/2 ASPH. is both compact and lightweight. With its classic reportage focal length, this is a lens for every photographic situation that can be used on any current and future model of the M series, as well as the Leica SL2 and SL2-S. The APO-Summicron-M 35 f/2 ASPH. is available to order today at Leica Stores, Boutiques and Dealers for $8,195.00.

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Canon's latest feature costs $120 and is meant for school photographers

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Canon's latest feature costs 0 and is meant for school photographers


Image: Canon

Canon has announced a new ‘Cropping Guide’ firmware update, which aims to make framing portraits easy and consistent. The feature costs $120 per camera and is available on the EOS R50, R10 and R7.

According to Canon’s website, the function includes four guides with built-in borders for standard print sizes. The guides are designed to work whether you’re shooting in landscape or portrait and to let you frame both headshots and full-body portraits.

The framing guides are clearly meant for professionals shooting high-throughput portraits; think school photos, sports events, or corporate events where everyone in the company has their picture taken. Driving this point home, Canon’s press release mentions that it’ll show the feature off at the School Photographers Association of California trade show early next year.

canon-four-crop-guidelines
The feature lets you choose between four guidelines, with some offering lines for different-sized heads like you’d find in a school, and others leaving room for pieces of equipments like balls and rackets.

Image: Canon

There is one caveat for anyone looking to add the function to their camera: you have to send your camera to a service center to activate it. That could be a problem if you only have a single camera body, though that’s likely not the case for most working photographers. Also, a lot of mass portraiture work happens in cycles; schools and sports leagues all tend to have pictures taken at the same time of year. Canon also sells versions of the EOS R50, R10 and R7 with the feature pre-installed at a $120 markup from the normal models’ MSRPs.

Still, it’s hard to ignore that Panasonic and Sony sell similar features delivered via an immediate firmware download. There are some other differences, too: Canon’s framing guide is only available on its APS-C cameras, while Panasonic and Sony limit their versions to more expensive full-frame cameras like the Lumix S5 II, a7 IV and a9 III.

Panasonic’s solution, called Lumix Volume Photography, also goes further than just including frame guides; it also integrates with Opticon scanners, letting you bake a student’s information into the photo file for easier sorting. However, it also costs $199, versus Canon’s $120 and Sony’s $150.

Lumix-volume-photography-scanner
Panasonic’s firmware upgrade for volume photographers includes a suite of features meant to make their jobs easier.

Image: Panasonic

There will be people who balk at any mention of paying for new features, and you could argue that it’s a slippery slope leading to cameras riddled with microtransactions or subscriptions. Ricoh started selling an $80 software graduated ND filter feature for some of its cameras earlier this year, but surely we don’t want that to become the new normal.

On the other hand, this specific function is something that most people buying these cameras will never want or use, so why should they pay for the development work that went into it or have to navigate around it in their menu system? Let the professionals who will almost immediately make the money back in time saved fund it instead of baking it into the price of the camera.

However Canon’s regular customers feel about paid functions, the company will likely only pay attention to how the pros respond. As we saw with Sony’s a1 II, pricing for professional products is based on how much the market will bear rather than the types of value calculations hobbyists make. If you’re a professional who shoots portraits, we’d love to hear from you in the comments. Would you or your company pay for this feature, and would its availability be a big factor in you choosing which camera to buy?

Press Release:

Canon Launches New Cropping Guide for Select EOS Cameras, Empowering Customers to Capture Beautifully Optimized Photos

MELVILLE, NY, December 9, 2024 – Canon Inc., the parent company of Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, announced today a new Cropping Guide feature that will be available via a firmware update for the Canon EOS R50, EOS R10 and EOS R7 camera models that allows users to more easily frame their subjects through the use of four tailored on-screen guides. The new feature will be available December 9th from Canon USA for the price of $120 USD. For customers who have previously purchased one of the camera models compatible with the feature, they can send their device to a Canon Service Center and it will be returned with the Cropping Guide feature installed. For those new customers interested in the above mentioned models, the option to purchase them pre-loaded with the feature (for an additional cost) will be available via Canon Direct and other dealers starting December 9th.

The new Cropping Guide feature provides on-screen guidelines that help shooters position subjects with precision, helping to ensure consistent and professional results while saving time on editing. It allows for Canon users to position the frame at the time of capture so that post-production and editing can be kept at a minimum. Lastly, the Cropping Guides can be applied to horizontal or vertical framing scenarios, allowing for a wide range of shooting situations.

Canon will showcase its new offering to visitors to the School Photographers Association of California (SPAC) trade show from January 21-25 in Las Vegas, NV at the South Point Hotel and Casino at Booth #715. This new feature is specifically designed for school photography, sports events, or any scenario in which subjects need to maintain a consistent position.

Availability

Cropping Guide will be available December 9th. For additional information about the software, a list of compatible cameras and how to access the Cropping Guide, please visit here.



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Gear of the Year – Richard's choice: Leica D-Lux8

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Gear of the Year – Richard's choice: Leica D-Lux8


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There’s a lot of gloom surrounding cameras and photography, in the past year or so. The devastating impact of smartphones on mass-market cameras seems to be being followed by a wave of AI-generated images that threaten to wash photography away as a creative form, if you believe those prognosticators with half-empty glasses. And yet it’s hard to think of a year in which I’ve found it so difficult to choose a piece of gear to call out, because so many of them have been so good.

Having chosen Nikon’s Z8 last year, the obvious decision this time round would be Canon’s EOS R5 II: a camera that’s almost unbelievably good at almost anything you might ask of it. The Nikon’s Z6III’s performance comes with a small footnote, but overall it’s also sensationally capable and costs over 40% less.

On the lens side of things, Sony has made a usefully small full-frame F2.8 zoom and Sigma has developed what is essentially a full-frame version of its 18-35mm F1.8, creating the world’s first AF F1.8 zoom for full-frame in the process. Then there’s Fujifilm: not content with updating probably the best kit lens on the market (albeit with a loss of speed and reach at the long end counteracting the gain of width at the other), it’s also replaced its premium standard zoom with a much smaller, lighter optic.

The Fujifilm 16-50mm F2.8 R LM WR II would probably be my choice in any other year. Its lightweight re-imagining meant it was small enough for me to take on a five-day hike across North Wales, and helped me assemble one of the best galleries I think I’ve ever shot.

“It’s just exciting to see anyone introduce an enthusiast compact”

And yet instead of any of these worthy winners, I’m going to choose a camera whose merits come with some appreciable caveats and that I’ll spend much of this article appearing to criticize.

Let’s get this straight out of the gate: in many respects the Leica D-Lux8 is refresh of a seven year old camera. And its price tag of $1599 lands somewhere between fanciful and absurd.

And yet, in an age when second-hand Panasonic LX3s often attract 40% of their original price on eBay, despite their wonky skin tones, outdated performance and 2008-vintage batteries, it’s just exciting to see anyone introduce an enthusiast compact.

Leica D-Lux8 top controls
The D-Lux8 has a pleasantly photo-focused interface, with shutter speed, aperture and exposure comp dominating the controls. Yet it doesn’t quite manage to feel like a zoomable X100.

Photo: Richard Butler

And while the D-Lux8 shares the bulk of its hardware with the LX100 II, it gains one of the most photo-focused user interfaces I’ve had the good fortune to use in the seventeen years I’ve been writing about cameras.

It also gains a much less distracting viewfinder, which I also appreciate, and its AF tracking, while not coming close to the standards of modern mirrorless cameras, is also improved.

There’s a nagging doubt whenever I’ve used a recent D-Lux or LX100 of why it doesn’t feel even more special, given its dial layout and aperture ring suggests it should feel like a smaller X100, but with a zoom. Personally I think the added lag of waiting for the motor-driven zoom to respond helps to distance your input from the camera’s reaction. Or it could just be that the photos don’t look as good, thanks to its less sharp lens, deeper minimum depth-of-field and absence of Film Simulation fairy dust.

L1020074
Leica D-Lux8 @ 26mm (58mm equiv) | F2.8 | 1/60 | ISO 800

The D-Lux8’s image quality isn’t always up to the standard of, say, the Fujifilm X100 series, but its portability means you get photos in situations in which you might not have otherwise brought a camera. But, unlike a phone, makes you feel that you played a part in getting the photo.

Photo: Richard Butler

But the 8’s new interface is delightfully shutter speed and aperture focused. There aren’t many custom buttons and you don’t need a great many: it’s a good-looking little camera that focuses your attention on taking photos. And that’s something I’ve really missed.

Maybe there’s still time for another blossoming of enthusiast compacts, now they’re starting to find an audience, retrospectively. Or maybe I just need to accept that my own preferences don’t match those of the wider market.

But even if the D-Lux8 doesn’t herald a new Spring for the serious compact, it’s not a bad note for the category to go out on. Price aside, it’s a lovely little camera.

Leica D-Lux8 sample gallery

Sample gallery
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Canon makes Super35 global shutter sensor available to third parties

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Canon makes Super35 global shutter sensor available to third parties


Canon’s LI5070SA sensor delivers 4K at up to 60p with no rolling shutter, with Canon suggesting ‘Cinema’ as one of its potential applications.

Image: Canon

Canon has made a 4K/60-capable Super35 (∼APS-C) video sensor with global shutter available to third-party buyers.

The 10.3MP sensor added to the product page of its industrial equipment and semiconductor business unit is 27.4 x 15.3mm, making it a 1.34x crop, relative to a full-frame stills camera, but in a roughly 16:9 aspect ratio.

Its 4288 x 2398 pixel count is clearly designed for delivering 4K footage. We’d usually expect Canon to have already offered it in a camera, if it planned to, before offering it to external users.

Canon sold a 4K/60 Super35 ‘GS’ global shutter version of its EOS C700 camera, back in 2017, though available specs suggest its sensor was slightly smaller, so presumably wasn’t the same as the one now being offered to external companies. Notably, Canon claimed its dynamic range was one stop lower than the progressive scan Super35 chip in the regular C700 model. There’s still a chance this new chip will underpin a successor to the C700 GS.

Canon LI7080SA progressive scan super35 sensor
An image of Canon semiconductor’s LI7080SA sensor: a progressive scan Super35 sensor that closely resembles its global shutter cousin.

Image: Canon

At present, we’re not aware of any other consumer camera maker using Canon sensors. Specialist industrial / security camera makers such as Illunis have used its sensors to make high-speed and high-resolution cameras for applications such as aerial photography and machine vision applications, but we’ve not seen its 120MP or 250MP APS-H chips in consumer cameras, including those from Canon itself.

Canon said it was developing a DSLR based on its 120MP sensor, back in 2015. Prototypes based on EOS 5DS bodies appeared at trade shows, but no final product ever emerged.

Canon’s semiconductor business also offers a “full-frame” global shutter sensor. Again this has a roughly 16:9 aspect ratio and proposed uses include microscopy, factory automation and traffic surveillance. This sensor has been available since early 2023.



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