Olympus E-1 – Is 5MP DSLR From 2003 Good Enough For Today?

Robin Wong:

With all the rage of new cameras capable of shooting 8K videos, ridiculously high Megapixels, even smartphones these days have 100MP cameras, I thought it was time to revisit where it all started for Olympus – their first ever Digital SLR E-1. This is a 17 years old camera (released in 2003) and has only 5MP image sensor, though that is a Kodak CCD image sensor that was well-praised for its incredibly beautiful color rendering. A dinosaur DSLR with only 5MP, 3 AF points and barebones function/features, can the Olympus E-1 survive in 2020? I brought the E-1 out for a full day shutter therapy session and here in this video I share my experience and many, many fresh images from my street photography session! For those of you who prefer to read – here is an accompanying blog article: https://robinwong.blogspot.com/2020/0…

f0.7 – Ultrafast Lenses – Legends, budget options, modding, and testing

Media Division writes:

In this crazy experiment we push the limits of lens speed by modding a camera to fit a massive Zeiss Biotar f0.73 lens. Along the way, we are going to take you to the dark side of the moon the realm of the legendary Zeiss Planar f0.7 lens and explain how it helped Staley Kubrick to shot Barry Lyndon in candlelight. We are going to go to the basics to explore the possibilities and to expose the limitations of ultrafast lenses. We look into the possibilities that you have to shoot ultrafast yourself, and what budget options there are. Here we test the Kipon Ibelux 40mm f0.85, the SLR Magic 25mm T0.95… and we boost a Vintage Canon FD f1.2 below f1. We compare shooting ultrafast lenses with shooting at high ISO and of course… using both in combination. Special thanks to Lyndon Gaul and the Marmalade for partnering with us.

Sigma announces what they claim to be the world’s BEST 85mm f/1.4 lens

Preorders:
85mm f/1.4 FE preorder at BHphoto, Adorama, FocusCamera.

Sigma says this is the best quality 85mm f/1.4 lens on the market: It will outperform the Sony GM lens and it’s more compact and a lot cheaper. Here is the full video where CEO Yamaki explains why this lens is that good:

Reviews and news:
Product page at Sigma. Presentation at Explora. Hands-on at Dpreview.

Video reviews:

Poll:

Sony registered a new camera in Taiwan: And this might be the new Sony A5/6 entry level cam!

Sony registered a new camera code in Asia. And this seems to be the new Sony A5 (or SonyA6) camera! Here is what we know so far from this model (via SAR).

FACTS (What we know from the Sony Taiwan official registration):

  • Battery is NP-FZ100,
  • USB is Type-C.
  • it has a singl SD card slot
  • It has both a mic-in and a headphone jack
  • Wi-Fi (11a/b/g/n/ac) and Bluetooth

SOLID RUMORS: This is what I know so far about this model from TRUSTED sources:

  • It’s a new Full Frame E-mount camera
  • It’s an entry level model
  • It’s something COMPLETELY new in the lineup (no A7 or A9) model.
  • I don’t have confirmation on the name yet but I suspect it will be named A5 or A6
  • Announcement around mid September (if Covid19 doesn’t mess this up)

UNCONFIRMED: This is what we I heard from new sources (unreliable yet):

  • It has no EVF
  • very compact A6xxx kind of size
  • price around $1,000 (which makes it the cheapest “new” camera in the lineup). Of course the first generation A7 and A7II are priced below $,1000 but they weren’t that cheap when announced.