Life through a lens

News in digital SRL cameras never end: just a day after the launch of the Canon EOS 50D, Nikon announced its new D90, a valid substitute of the previous D80. The new D90 features a new 12.3 megapixel DX CMOS sensor, an extended ISO sensivity, the new EXPEED processor that allows to obtain greater speed and increase the quality of Live View mode and Face Detection System. Furthermore, it is able to take HD movies and it has most of the features that appears on the "old" D300 (relaced recently by the new D700). 

Together with this D90, Nikon launched also a new lens, the DX AF-S Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 ED VR, which will be sold with the D90 kit package.

The price of this new DSRL is of about 999$ body only and 1299$ for the body + 18-105mm. 

Personally, I don't know very well Nikon's DSRL, but at first sight this D90 seems to be a very good camera, with so many features that doesn't appear on the Canon EOS 50D (like the movies mode, for example) at the same price.

The benefit of this two new DSRL is that of a lower price for the earlier models, like the Canon 40D and Nikon D80.

Some links:

- Nikon Europe official press release;

- Nikon D90 dedicated page;

- hands-on preview on DPReview;

- preview of the Nikkor 18-105mm VR.

Today Canon offically announced the new EOS 50D, a DSRL with a 15 megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor that will take the place of the EOS 40D. The new features of this camera are in its heart: it has the new Digic 4 processor that improve the noise reduction and allows a greater speed in continuous shooting. Furthermore, the ISO speed increase up to 12800 in H2 mode. The other big news is the 3" LCD display with 900000 points and three AF in Live View mode. 

The launch of this new EOS 50D is combined with the launch of the new EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS, a powerful zoom lens, designed exlusively for those cameras with APS-C sensors, like the 50D, 1000D, 450D and earlier models. It has the same new image stabilizer that appears on the 55-250mm that allows to reduce by 4 stops the shutter speed.

The price of the EOS 50D is predicted to be of about € 1299 body only and it will be sold from october 2008.

Some links:

- the official Canon press release of the EOS 50D;

- the technical specs of the EOS 50D;

- some photos of this new DSRL;

- the review of the EOS 50D by DPReview;

- the official Canon press release of EF-S 18-200mm IS;

- the new EF-S 18-200mm IS by DPReview;

The story of this shot is strange. I was walking on a mountain road, wondering about life and photography, when I saw a group of nice violet flowers standing just in front of me. In by backpack I had the camera with my 55-250mm mounted, so I dediced to try a macro shot with that non-macro lens. After a couple of shots, just when I was going to leave the flower, a bee (or bumblebee) "landed" on it and started to do something, probably impollinating. What a wonderful occasion! But it was so difficult to follow the movements of the bee, and I was forced to set the AI Servo on my camera. 

The AI Servo is used when the subject is in movement, so the camera focus every time the subject change its position. To improve the precision of the focus, I used only one AF point, the central one. Because of my lens is not a macro lens, I was forced to stay at one meter from the flower, so I had to zoom on it, shooting at 250mm. It's incredible, here, the sharpness of the scene: consider that the shutter speed was only 1/80 and ISO 100. This is the miracle of the 4th-generation Canon IS. 

Like always, I shot in RAW mode and then, in the digital darkroom process, I worked a little bit on the image. For completeness, I want to show you the original shot: now you can evaluate the real power of post-production that is that of improve photographs.

My new Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS really looks fantastic. The extreme power of the zoom and the large range of focal lenghts, make this lens surely the best in what concern the rate quality/price. The optics is constructed with UD glass lenses that assure low dispersion of light and low chromatic aberrations. Furthermore, they are caracterized by the Super Spectra treatment that assure that no ghosts artifacts will enter in your frames.
I've made few tests to evaluate the power of the image stabilizer, [indispensabile] at large focal lenghts, and I made a comparison between this new lens and the standard 18-55mm one.
Now, let us see the power of the zoom. All this pictures was made by shooting in P program and ISO 100, in order to evaluate the focal extension.

Focal lenght: 55mm.