NEWS & NEW PRODUCTS

Heading the news in this issue is Pentax’s next- generation version of its medium format D-SLR, the third Alpha 7 model from Sony, new monitors from Eizo, the winners of the 2014 TIPA Awards, and much more. As usual, we publish a calendar of the important imaging events happening locally and overseas over the coming months. For the latest news from the imaging industry visit www.avhub.com.au

Having just celebrated the production of 100 million EF/EF-S mount lenses, Canon has announced two new models to help build on this number. Both are wide-angle zooms; one for its ‘APC-S’ format D-SLRs and one for its D-SLRs with the full-35mm size sensors.

The new EF-S 10-18mm f4.5-5.6 IS STM model has an effective focal range of 16-29mm and is the latest addition to Canon’s line-up of lenses with stepping motors designed to provide smoother autofocusing when shooting video. It has a 14-element optical construction and employs both aspherical and ultra-low dispersion (UD) types to correct for distortion and chromatic aberrations respectively. It also has a built-in optical image stabilisation which is claimed to give up to four stops of compensation for camera shake when shooting hand-held. The minimum focusing distance is 22 centimetres. The new EF-S 10-18mm zoom weighs in at 240 grams and accepts 67 millimetres diameter screwthread filters.

The new EF 16-35mm f4.0L IS USM zoom is Canon’s first wide-angle zoom for use with full35mm sensors which has built-in optical image stabilisation. Again, the correction range is put at four stops. The 16-element optical construction includes three aspherical types (created via glass moulding) and two made from UD glass. Other features include a nine-blade diaphragm to give smoother out-of-focus effects, Canon’s USM ultrasonic AF drive and fluorine coatings on both the front and rear lens surfaces to minimise ghosting and glare. The new EF 16-35mm wide-angle zoom weighs in at 615 grams and accepts 77 millimetres diameter filters.

For the record, the 100 millionth EF lens was an EF200-400mm f4.0L IS USM Extender 1.4x. While the mount was introduced in 1986, the last ten million EF lenses were produced in just 11 months.

For more information visit www.canon.com.au