Camera Labs

I like seeing that the 40mm pancake will indeed be produced, and will be EF. There are times I select my 50mm 1.8 "Mark I" primarily for its compact size, and find myself wishing it were a bit wider, but not quite 35mm.

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Canon 7D/5D/40D/1D2N; Nikon F6, FM3A, & Coolpix A; Canon 40mm Pancake, 135L, 50L, 35L, pre-II 50mm 1.8, 100mm 2.8L Macro, 10-22mm EF-S, 28-135 EF, 400mm 5.6L; Nikkor 50mm 1.2 AI-S, 50mm 1.4G, 50mm 1.8D, 16mm 2.8D Fisheye, 180mm 2.8D, 100-300mm 5.6 AI-S; Tokina 17mm & 100mm 2.8 Macro

OK, back from the lenses to the camera.

The more often I read the specs the more I like it. I even found the manual: http://gdlp01.c-wss.com/gds/5/030000769 ... m-c-en.pdf

If I compare the evolution:

500D -> 550D: Better screen, slightly higher resolution, microphone jack, 30p Full HD movie, AF in Live View by pressing the shutter button | = nice things but nothing spectacular, no *real* improvement in ISO performance, just a slight advantage at 1600 and above
550D -> 600D: nice articulated screen, master flash control, more possibilities of controlling the video mode | = nice things, no improvement in image quality, lost the "display off sensor"
600D -> 650D: much improved AF, AF on the sensor, first time AF works in video mode and it can do it pretty well!, "display off sensor" comes back (now above the viewfinder), noticably faster (5fps!), Digic V probably offers much improved high ISO noise performance (at least in JPG), touch screen (you are not forced to use it if you don't like it but I think it can be pretty handy, especially zooming in the playback mode could be much faster and I like the feature "touch the screen in live view and the camera focusses on that point and shoots a picture" - no more time needed for moving that annoying white square!), stereo mic


Short: WOW! The first real improvement and the first time I have the feeling "I want that! I could even 'need' those upgrades!" (my thought on both the 550D and the 600D were something like "Well... nice... If I didn't already have the 500D I'd go for it."). The 650D is the first crop camera that makes me think of upgrading from my 500D. OK... I'm saving my money for the 5D3 + BG + 24-105mm IS + a CF card + whatever... and after that I guess the next time I can afford something the 700D / 70D or even the 750D / 80D could be released

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Canon EOS 500D + Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Canon EF 24-105mm 4L IS USM + EF 100-400mm 4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 100mm 2.8L Macro IS USM + Sigma 12-24mm 4.5-5.6 EX DG HSM + Canon Speedlite 580 EX II + Nissin Speedlite Di 466

I will admit that this camera has is a little tempting to be an upgrade from my XTi rather than a 5DIII.
It packs a lot of really nice features into something that costs a lot less than the 5DIII.
Tempting, but at this point I am still saving up for the full frame camera.

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Canon Rebel XTi, BG-E3 Grip
Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II, 24-105mm f/4L, 50mm f/1.4, 70-300mm f/4-5.6 DO, 85mm f/1.8
Sigma 150mm F2.8 EX Macro
Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II
Canon 430EX II
Opteka 13mm, 21mm, and 31mm extension tubes

Something like "OK, NOW the 5D3 seems to be quite old - when will the 5D4 be released? AF in the video mode, touch screen, higher speed..."

Nah - I will get the 5D3 as soon as I have the money. Still I don't say I won't get another crop camera for higher reach. And this time even a xxxD looks interesting again!

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Canon EOS 500D + Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Canon EF 24-105mm 4L IS USM + EF 100-400mm 4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 100mm 2.8L Macro IS USM + Sigma 12-24mm 4.5-5.6 EX DG HSM + Canon Speedlite 580 EX II + Nissin Speedlite Di 466

I just bought the 40mm EF lens at a local seller. It is certainly a tiny, interesting lens, and does, indeed, make a 5D seem very small. Whether it will perceived by others as less threatening remains to be seen; I look forward to my first public walkabout with this combination.

The field of view is about what I expected, a nice compromise between a 35mm and 50mm. This kens should be good for gatherings with friends at restaurants, at which times I find a 50mm just a bit too long.

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Canon 7D/5D/40D/1D2N; Nikon F6, FM3A, & Coolpix A; Canon 40mm Pancake, 135L, 50L, 35L, pre-II 50mm 1.8, 100mm 2.8L Macro, 10-22mm EF-S, 28-135 EF, 400mm 5.6L; Nikkor 50mm 1.2 AI-S, 50mm 1.4G, 50mm 1.8D, 16mm 2.8D Fisheye, 180mm 2.8D, 100-300mm 5.6 AI-S; Tokina 17mm & 100mm 2.8 Macro

Hey Rexgig,

I've been looking for reviews of that lens, but haven't found any yet.

Compared to both your 50mm's and 35mm, how sharp is it @ f2.8 and stopped down a bit?

Does it have full-time manual focus?

It just looks interesting, and I still have a bit of room in my camera bag.

I'm a Win XP user running Lightroom 3 as the front end for Photoshop CS4.

I'm now looking seriously at getting a T4i/650D to upgrade from my XTi/400D.

While Photoshop CS6 now supports the T4i (as of June 20's posting of 7.1 of ACR for CS6), LR 4 has dropped XP compatibility and now requires Vista or Win 7.

Having to buy CS6 - or a new PC to run LR 4 - would make the cost of upgrading to the T4i prohibitive. I could use Canon's Digital Photo Professional to export individual T4i RAWs to PS as TIFFs, but I've gotten very fond of LR 3's noise reduction. LR 3 can read DNG files, so if DNG Converter works on T4i RAW files, it could batch-convert them to DNGs and I could continue to use LR 3 as a front-end for PS CS4.

DNG Converter has the same 7.1 version number as the new ACR but is a month older - and thus predates Canon's announcement of the T4i.

The readme file at the download page for DNG Converter 7.1 does not list the T4i as a supported camera. However, it also says that some cameras not listed may work but haven't been fully-tested - which may have been a way of avoiding announcing the T4i before Canon did.

So I've installed DNG Converter 7.1. What I need is to get my hands on a T4i RAW file to see if it can convert it.

Would some kind person who has a T4i please post one of its RAW files here so I can see if DNG Converter 7.1 can convert it to a DNG?

Hi Philnick,

May I wish you a warm welcome to the CameraLabs forum.

I rather suspect you'll be out of luck but who knows? Try this CR2 file (31.7 MB courtesy of IR) and let us know how you get on.

Bob.

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OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

A very nice person in the discussion under the T4i preview at DPReview.com posted the following link in response to my putting up the same request there. Here's the link:

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/c ... -t4iA7.HTM

That took me to a full array of RAW (and JPEG) files taken with the T41/650D at every ISO.

I downloaded the ISO 100 and 25600 RAW files - set DNG Converter 7.1 to compatibility with ACR 5.4 (CS4) - and made DNGs that LR 3 opened with no problem. Then I started Bridge CS4, which had no problem with them either and fed them directly into Photoshop Extended CS4's ACR and from there into PS itself.

Verdict: Success! DNG Converter 7.1 is compatible with the T4i.

I have yet to compare sharpness. It does have full-time manual focus.

The fun factor is quite high!

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Canon 7D/5D/40D/1D2N; Nikon F6, FM3A, & Coolpix A; Canon 40mm Pancake, 135L, 50L, 35L, pre-II 50mm 1.8, 100mm 2.8L Macro, 10-22mm EF-S, 28-135 EF, 400mm 5.6L; Nikkor 50mm 1.2 AI-S, 50mm 1.4G, 50mm 1.8D, 16mm 2.8D Fisheye, 180mm 2.8D, 100-300mm 5.6 AI-S; Tokina 17mm & 100mm 2.8 Macro

Lensrentals did a quick test of the 40mm pancake. On their test, it looks decent for sharpness.

Now if the UK price wasn't numerically higher than the US price before exchange rates considered, I might half seriously consider one.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

OK, using the 40mm EF Pancake lens, I shot some "quickie" hand-held images of a Scott Clan tartan* necktie, at 2.8, 4.0, 5.6, 8.0, and 11, with my 580EX II set on E-TTL. I then repeated this series with a colorful Pendleton wool vest. (waistcoat for you Brits.) By simply looking at the 5D's LCD, I viewed the results. Unsurprisingly, 2.8 is not as sharp as 4.0, and 5.6 and 8.0 look quite good. By 11, sharpness declines a bit. I will view these later on my IPad. The 5D's LCD is old technology, and certainly no way to really judge an image.

This was not intended to be a serious test, just a preliminary look.

Inside the store where I bought the lens, I had noticed that 2.8 was not necessarily the sharpest, but allowed a relatively lower shutter speed, and therefore less motion blur. I would judge 2.8 as acceptably sharp when shooting three-dimensional subjects, but would try to stop down a bit whenever feasible. In really low light, my 35mm 1.4L or a 50mm will be better choices.

A nice feature, for me, is that the 52mm filter thread is a size shared by many Nikkor lenses. While I do
not typically use a "protective" UV filter, there are often reasons to use filters for other reasons, and I already had several 52mm filters.

*For those who pay attention to such things, I am Scott "Scots-Irish" on my mother's side, dating to the land grant period in Texas, in a time when we called ourselves Texians, and an indeterminate Louisiana mixture on my father's side.

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Canon 7D/5D/40D/1D2N; Nikon F6, FM3A, & Coolpix A; Canon 40mm Pancake, 135L, 50L, 35L, pre-II 50mm 1.8, 100mm 2.8L Macro, 10-22mm EF-S, 28-135 EF, 400mm 5.6L; Nikkor 50mm 1.2 AI-S, 50mm 1.4G, 50mm 1.8D, 16mm 2.8D Fisheye, 180mm 2.8D, 100-300mm 5.6 AI-S; Tokina 17mm & 100mm 2.8 Macro

I guess the price will drop in the future. Maybe not too much and maybe not too soon but I can wait a bit Same as with the 5D3.

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Canon EOS 500D + Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Canon EF 24-105mm 4L IS USM + EF 100-400mm 4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 100mm 2.8L Macro IS USM + Sigma 12-24mm 4.5-5.6 EX DG HSM + Canon Speedlite 580 EX II + Nissin Speedlite Di 466

Typical US price $200 (without tax). Typical good UK price £219+ (tax included). Exchange rate currently £1 = $1.56. We used to joke when they used 1:1 ratios, but this is the first time I've seen it go beyond that.

Just saw digitalrev sell it for £180 delivered all taxes included...

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

I paid US $199.99, plus the applicable state and local sales taxes.

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Canon 7D/5D/40D/1D2N; Nikon F6, FM3A, & Coolpix A; Canon 40mm Pancake, 135L, 50L, 35L, pre-II 50mm 1.8, 100mm 2.8L Macro, 10-22mm EF-S, 28-135 EF, 400mm 5.6L; Nikkor 50mm 1.2 AI-S, 50mm 1.4G, 50mm 1.8D, 16mm 2.8D Fisheye, 180mm 2.8D, 100-300mm 5.6 AI-S; Tokina 17mm & 100mm 2.8 Macro