Photography News: Approaching the Holiday Deal Season

By the time this Photography News has been published, I will be wrapping up a lecture here in Prague on photographing Sri Lanka. If you missed it, not to worry – many of the photos and stories will find their way into the pages of Photography Life in the future. Why do I mention this? Sometimes a looming deadline forces us to dive into our archives. Just yesterday, I found myself culling a number of shots that had been gathering digital dust since I took them. Among them was this successful fishing attempt by a White-bellied Sea-Eagle.

Recent Announcements

This week brought several announcements significant enough to deserve their own articles. First up is the arrival of the successor to Sony’s first generation flagship, the a1 II. You can read more about the Sony a1 II in our article The Evolution of a Beast. And such a beast needs proper feeding. In the case of a camera, the best food is an exciting new lens. The Sony FE 28-70mm f/2 GM definitely fits the bill.

Compared to this heavyweight, the newly announced APS-C lenses with Canon RF mount from Sigma look like they’ve stepped right out of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Although at the moment, there are only six Sigma APS-C lenses for the RF system, so we’re still waiting for Dopey to show up.

Now onto the other recent announcements:

• Voigtlander APO-LANTHAR 50mm f/3.5 Limited: This lens already existed, so what’s new? The color – to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Cosina Voigtlander lenses, Cosina is releasing three limited edition colors (limited to 250 units each): olive, gray and navy. The 50mm f/3.5 features modern optics (8 elements in 6 groups, 4 of which are made of anomalous partial-dispersion glass) wrapped in a classic design reminiscent of the 1950s. It is, of course, manual focus. It also has a traditional aperture ring, weighs a mere 235 g / 0.52 pounds, and is compatible with M-mount rangefinder cameras.
• Leica M11 and Noctilux-M 50 f/1.2 ASPH.: A similar story to the lens above. “When was the last time you fell in love?” Leica asks. If you’re a fan of glossy things, after clicking the link above, your answer might be “just now!” The glossy black edition celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Leica M-System will be available for $9,195 (camera) and $8,295 (lens). That’s a total of $500 more than the standard versions, which is actually rather tame by Leica special edition standards.

The Rumor Mill

Canon: What to dream about next?

If you’ve pre-ordered the flagship EOS R1 or already have an EOS R5 Mark II in your camera bag, your desire for a better camera might be taking a long, deep nap. Well, except maybe for the rumors of a Canon R3 Mark II with global shutter.

Dreams of lenses, however, are something else. A long-awaited lens has been the rumored Canon 200-500mm f/4. However, a rumor just surfaced that it might turn out to be something completely different – namely a 200-500mm f/5.6. Does this mean that the dream of a 200-500mm f/4 with a built-in teleconverter is melting away? Personally, I’m not convinced. I have a feeling that the resolution of this story is not far away. I can feel it in my bones. Or maybe it’s just the snowflakes swirling outside my window?

Via Canon Rumors and Lens Rumors

Budget “Plena”? Confirmed!

If your heart beats for portrait photography, you’ve probably heard of the Nikon Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena. This ultra-sharp lens with stunning bokeh is amazing, but it’s not exactly budget-friendly. Even after the current $200 discount, it still costs $2,297, which is no small sum.

Viltrox recently announced (then un-announced, then re-announced) their own 135mm f/1.8. While initial reports suggested that it would only be available for Sony E-mount, it now appears that a Nikon Z version will follow! And the price? If we judge by the current price for the Sony, it should be around $764.

Via Nikon Rumors

Good Deals and New Sales

As we approach Black Friday, sales are heating up, especially when it comes to storage. Some hard drives and memory cards are usually on sale at all times of year, but the prices right now are most likely the lowest you’ll find. Starting with hard drives:

• LaCie 2TB Portable USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C (now $180, was $350)
• LaCie 1TB Portable USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C (now $105, was $200)
• Samsung 4TB T7 Shield Portable SSD (now $270, was $500)
• Samsung 2TB T7 Shield Portable SSD (now $150, was $285)
• Samsung 1TB T7 Shield Portable SSD (now $100, was $170)

And then memory cards:

CFexpress B cards

• Angelbird 2TB AV Pro MK2 CFexpress 2.0 (now $510, was $960)
• Angelbird 1TB AV PRO CFexpress 2.0 (now $200, was $300)
• Lexar 512GB Professional DIAMOND Series (now $360, was $530)

SD cards

• Lexar 256GB Professional 1800x UHS-II SDXC (now $110, was $200)
• Nextorage 512GB NX-F2SE Series UHS-II SDXC (now $95, was $150)
• Lexar 512GB Professional SILVER PLUS UHS-I (now $50, was $120)

There are also some Peak Design sales on gear that doesn’t normally get a discount. Personally, I almost never use a traditional camera strap, and whenever I have my camera backpack with me (which is almost always), I carry my camera clipped to the Peak Design Capture Camera Clip (was $75, now $60). If I’m traveling super light with just a camera and lens, I rely on the Peak Design Slide Lite Camera Strap (was $60, now $48). Thanks to its quick-release design, I occasionally use it for purposes it probably wasn’t intended for. Like hanging my camera from a branch while shooting from high up in a tree, anchoring my kayak while photographing eagles in Sri Lanka, and so on. Truly a versatile accessory.

Finally, B&H is continuing their holiday sales and adding new ones every 24 hours. You can visit this page to see the newest deals.

Other Pages of Interest

National Geographic is known for the outstanding quality of its photography. The December issue of National Geographic Magazine highlights the best images of the past year. If it didn’t make it to your mailbox, don’t worry. You can view them online at Pictures of the Year 2024 on the National Geographic website. Even better, The Stories Behind the Camera reveals the circumstances under which these images were captured, complete with behind-the-scenes photos and short videos.

Today I went to the bookstore to pick up The Life of Birds by David Attenborough. But, as is often the case, I fell in love with another book. Its author, the brilliant painter Jan Dungel, is an artist I introduced to you back in May. Today I finally had the chance to leaf through his large-format book, Birds – Colors of the Forest (265 x 375mm). I’d like to add that each copy of this limited edition is personally signed by Jan Dungel himself.

To wrap things up, I have another book for you. This time you don’t have to go to a bookstore or order online. Just make yourself a cup of coffee and make yourself comfortable. The book in question is a 150-page online catalog of the winning images from the International Landscape Photographer of the Year competition. Once you’ve browsed through it, don’t forget to check out our Photo Theme Challenge below, where you’ll find more stunning images.

Photo Theme Challenge, Week #77

Last week’s theme was portrait orientation, and you can see the results in this thread. Thank you to everyone for your submissions! This week’s theme is purple, and you can submit your results in this thread by Saturday, November 30, 2024!

Week #76 Results

Let’s check out some of the shots we received for the “portrait orientation” theme, starting with JohnK’s photo:

Here, the portrait orientation complements the beautiful rising of the trees very nicely.

Next, let’s take a look at DL84’s photo:

The great rising mountains in this shot dwarf the small houses, and the portrait orientation accentuates this by allowing them to be minimized in the tiny corner.

Finally, we have AndrewGusew’s photo:

Here, portrait orientation gives some comfortable negative space above the large spire and thus accentuates the tiny moon and bird.

Thanks everyone for submitting their photos in the challenge, and we hope to see more next week in the purple theme.