Gear Update
Feel like you’re missing something from your Canon kit bag? Maybe you can find it in our Gear Update
01 Canon RF 14-35mm F4L IS USM Go wide with your EOS R-series camera £1749/$1699 www.canon.co.uk
THE NEW Canon RF 14-35mm F4L IS USM offers as a slower, wider and more affordable alternative to the pro Canon RF 15-35mm F2.8L IS USM in Canon’s line-up of Rf-mount ultra-wide zooms. As you’d expect from one of Canon’s L-series lenses, the 14-35mm is fully weather sealed and it boasts a sophisticated optical path, with 16 elements in 12 groups featuring sub-wavelength structure coatings to control flare and ghosting. As an image stabilized (IS) lens, it’s capable of 5.5-stops of stabilization as standard on any Rf-mount body – this IS can be useful for a lens with ‘only’ f/4 as its widest aperture.
02 Parrot Anafi Ai A drone that can fly itself £TBA/ $TBA www.parrot.com
PARROT’S LATEST drone, Anafi Ai, is making headlines thanks to its ability to fly BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line Of Sight) using 4G cellular coverage. There’s a 48-megapixel sensor on the main camera capable of 4K 60fps recording. Operating for up to 32 minutes and at 34mph, the Anadi Ai should have the potential to pick up a good deal of footage. Two collision sensors either side of the main camera build a 3D image of surrounding objects to enable autonomous flight.
03 Lexar Professional Cfexpress
Type B USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Reader The fastest-ever Cfexpress card reader £TBA/$70 www.lexar.com
LEXAR HAS released a new super-fast memory card reader for Cfexpress Type B cards. Its big selling point is its USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 interface, which enables read speeds of up to 1700MB/S. But there’s just one, rather large, problem. While this card reader may be USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 capable, chances are your computer is not. Hardly any computers have Gen 2x2 ports, and while the reader is backward compatible with more commonplace USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, you’ll then lose the Gen 2x2 speed advantage. The only other ‘solution’ is to connect to a USB 4 port, as featured on the latest Apple M1 Mac computers.
04 Zhiyun WEEBILL 2 The first camera gimbal with a flip-out touchscreen From £509/$549 www.zhiyun-tech.com
THE ZHIYUN WEEBILL 2 is a reinvention of the WEEBILL S DSLR gimbal, with a flip out touchscreen and trend-setting ‘industrial’ design. The new 2.88-inch flip-out screen is rotatable and retractable, and offers adjustments. When used with the Video Transmission Transmitter AI, a live view of the scene being captured.
Laowa 14mm f/4 Zero-d 05 Laowa’s latest wide-angle prime lens £499/$499 www.ukdigital.co.uk
VENUS OPTICS has launched Laowa 14mm f/4 Zero-d lens for full-frame Canon DSLRS. The mirrorless version of the lens was launched last year, but now the design has been reconfigured to suit the longer back-focus requirements of DSLRS. As the ‘Zero-d’ name suggests, image distortion is almost non-existent, despite the super-wide angle of view. The manualfocus lens offers a short 14.5cm minimum focusing distance, making macro-like images possible. The 13-element, 10-group optical design features two extra-low dispersion elements and two pieces of aspherical glass.
06 Sekonic L-398A Studio Deluxe
III 70th Anniversary Edition An homage to classic light meters £TBA/$TBA www.sekonic.com
THE L-398A Studio Deluxe III 70th Anniversary Edition is a tribute to the ‘Studio Deluxe’ meter first launched in 1956. That being said, the L-398A meter is still perfectly effective today, both for stills and cine-photography. Like other handheld light meters, the Sekonic does something that in-camera light meters can’t – as well as measuring ‘reflected’ light in the normal way via its Lumigrid, it can also measure ‘incident’ light with its Lumidisc. The metering cell is in a rotating head which can be turned in any direction. This burgundy and rose gold special edition will come with unique extras like a Japanese Lacquer Box with Cushion, a leather case and strap, plus a 70th Anniversary Edition plate.