NEW - Canon EF-S 35mm f/2.8 Macro IS STM

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built-in Macro Lites that allow photographers to carefully arrange macro lighting without using special equipment.

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PREORDER FROM B&H PHOTO  $349.99- available June, 2017

New Compact and Lightweight EF-S Macro Lens Opens Up a World of Photographic Possibilities and Helps Capture Close Subjects with Incredible DetailMELVILLE, N.Y., April 6, 2017 – Compact and lightweight, the new Canon EF-S 35mm f/2.8 Macro IS STM, announced today by Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, is the widest-angle Macro offering in Canon’s popular EF-S lens series. The new lens is designed to help both entry-level and advanced amateur DSLR photographers discover the incredible possibilities of macro photography. Capable of capturing close-up subjects with incredible detail, Canon’s new EF-S macro lens is also the first in the series to feature built-in Macro Lites that allow users to control lighting with ease.“Macro lenses are an amazing way to explore the worlds that exist all around us, and the new Canon EF-S 35mm f/2.8 Macro IS STM lens is the ideal starting point for amateur photographers eager to capture incredible, up-close details on the go,” said Yuichi Ishizuka, president and COO, Canon U.S.A., Inc. “Whether capturing a delectable dessert or the subtleties of a backyard flower, users will be challenged to find new colors and shapes that turn everyday moments into art.”The new Canon EF-S 35mm f/2.8 Macro IS STM captures stunning images and is a terrific companion lens for entry-level users eager to expand beyond their existing Canon EOS DSLR kit lens. Capable of shooting as close as 30mm from the end of the lens to the subject, aspiring photographers can get up close to a fruit or flower for an entirely new perspective, while capturing high-quality images with beautiful background blur. Additional technologies built into the new Canon EF-S 35mm f/2.8 Macro IS STM lens include:

  • Popular 35mm focal length (56mm equivalent) and wide f/2.8 aperture
  • Hybrid IS system offers up to four stops* of shake correction
  • Smooth Movie Servo AF with Lead Screw-type STM ensures quiet AF operation
  • Full-time Manual Focus

https://youtu.be/k9-9TQBW57sIn a first for the EF-S lens series, the new Canon EF-S 35mm lens sports built-in Macro Lites that allow photographers to carefully arrange macro lighting without using special equipment. With built-in LED lights on each side of the lens, users can create compelling shadows on either side of a subject or adjust the intensity to give images a sense of dimension. Once the scene is set, the lens uses superb rendering performance to capture high contrast, sharp images.While specialized for high magnification photography, the Canon EF-S 35mm f/2.8 Macro IS STM is still a versatile option for day-to-day use, easily capable of capturing portraits, landscapes or snapshots. As the latest addition to the lineup of EF-S lenses, Canon continues its commitment to providing a wide-range of affordable lens options for photographers of all levels.The Canon EF-S 35mm f/2.8 Macro IS STM lens is scheduled to be available in June 2017 for an estimated retail price of $349.99.

PREORDER FROM B&H PHOTO  - available end of June, 2017

Sample Images

Specifications

Principal specifications
Lens type Prime lens
Max Format size APS-C / DX
Focal length 35 mm
Image stabilization Yes (4 stops)
Lens mount Canon EF-S
Aperture
Maximum aperture F2.8
Aperture ring No
Number of diaphragm blades 7
Optics
Elements 10
Groups 6
Special elements / coatings Glass-molded aspheric element
Focus
Minimum focus 0.03 m (1.18″)
Maximum magnification 1×
Autofocus Yes
Motor type Stepper motor
Full time manual Yes
Focus method Internal
Distance scale No
DoF scale No
Focus distance limiter No
Physical
Weight 190 g (0.42 lb)
Diameter 69 mm (2.72″)
Length 56 mm (2.2″)
Sealing No
Colour Black
Filter thread 49.0 mm
Hood supplied Yes
Tripod collar No

Looking for a New Lens? - Canon 55-250 STM

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EF-S 55-250mm f4-5.6 IS STM _no cap_FRA_tcm13-1086694The best budget telephoto lens! After getting your new camera and kit lens you may want to look for another lens. As lenses are the best investment one suggestion would be the Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM. After the 18-55 or 18-135mm kit lenses this covers the other half of your range allowing you the focal length and distance you need to get your shot. For the price and sharpness it's the best in the market, and a far better choice than the older Canon 70-300mm usm that's still packaged with camera bundles. [gallery td_select_gallery_slide="slide" ids="11917,11933,11915,11922,11920,11934,11931,11932,11929,11928,11919,11914"] amazon-logo_transparentBH-logo-480x250 

Buy it today at Amazon or B&H!

Optional lens hood ET-63 can be found on Amazon here or B&H here to prevent lens flare and glare from other lights.

Canon 50mm f/1.8 STM Lens

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UPDATE: Now Shipping - Mine will be here tomorrow (Friday May 21) Follow on Facebook & Instagram for updates, first look and review.BUY from B&H Photo 50mm f/1.8 STM or Amazon 50mm f/1.8 STM $125Rumored last week and discussed on our weekly podcast, now officially announced. This is a successor to the incredibly popular 50mm f/1.8 often called the nifty-fifty or plastic fantastic because of it's cheap plastic mount.  The new STM version offers a metal mount in a slightly smaller size and 7 aperture blades for smoother bokeh in the background.   All while keeping the cost the same as the current 50mm f/1.8.  I preordered mine from B&H and will have lots more to share when they start shipping May 21st. I do expect it to be noticeably sharper, especially when shooting at the wider apertures.canon50mmSTMCanon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM Standard Telephoto Prime Lens Specifications Summary

  • Compact, lightweight, fixed focal length standard lens for EOS cameras
  • Large f/1.8 maximum aperture
  • 80mm effective focal length when attached to EOS cameras with APS-C sensors
  • Canon STM gear type stepping motor technology provides quiet autofocusing to support Canon’s EOS Movie Servo AF function
  • Improved exterior design including new focus ring placement makes it the most compact Canon EF 50mm lens ever
  • New metal mount for stability and ruggedness
  • Super Spectra Coating for minimized ghosting and flaring
  • Circular 7 blade aperture (The current 50mm f/1.8 has just 5 blades and as a result the bokeh is often shaped like small fuzzy pentagons.)
  • 14-inch minimum focusing distance
  • 0.21x maximum magnification

BUY from B&H Photo 50mm f/1.8 STM or Amazon 50mm f/1.8 STMYour use of my links helps support this site and the work I do.They have a lens hood for the news lens too and B&H has the cheapest price at $26.95 Honestly for the more recessed design of this lens, a lens hood is not critical but if you would like to provide more protection and decrease your chance of sun flares you should buy.   Canon is selling a UV filter too. I will just remind you that I rarely recommend UV filters for protection and I certainly wouldn't spend the time or money to put one on a $125 lens.  Read more about filters you should have here.The new STM lens will be better than the current f/1.8, I am 100% sure of that. The real question is how will this lens compare to the Canon 50mm f/1.4 USM.  The 50mm f/1.4 is not exceptionally sharp wide open and needs to be stopped down to f/1.8 or f/2 to get better results putting these two lenses on similar footing.  USM focusing system is different but not really better than STM though USM does provide a more direct manual focusing system experience.   For easy autofocus during video the new STM version is going to be best.  I am struggling to come up with a strong argument for many to pay $200 more for the USM version. I will be testing the Canon 50mm f/1.8 and the new Canon 50mm STM along with the Canon 50mm f/1.4 soon. Subscribe to my newsletter, of stay up to date with Photorec.tv announcements on the Facebook page, Twitter or Instagram.  I also suggest you Subscribe to my Youtube channel.

Review Canon 55-250 IS STM Lens

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This is the newest version of Canon’s 55-250 lens, it replaces the 55-250 IS II which replaced an  even old 55-250 IS. I want to just touch on the highlights of the 55-250 IS STM lens and answer the question - is it worth the extra money versus the 55-250 IS or are you better off saving a little more and getting the 70-300 IS USM?  So this is partly a review and partly a Canon EF 55-250 IS STM vs Canon EF 70-300 IS USM vs Canon EF-S 55-250 IS II Battle. Very light emphasis on battle.

Quick Glossary of Terms.

  • IS: Image Stabilization - internal gyroscopes stabilize the lens when you are hand holding and allow you to shoot at slower shutter speeds without handshake causing blur in your images.

  • USM: Ultra Sonic Motor - A focusing system used by many canon lenses that offers quick focus and with some lenses full time manual focus.  This isn’t true of the 70-300 IS USM - it is not full time manual focus.

  • EF-S: Lens mount sized for Canon’s crop sensor cameras (APS-C) Examples include Canon T5i and Canon 70D.

  • EF: Lens mount appropriate for Canon’s full frame cameras like the 6D and 5D Mark III. Will also work on APS-C cameras

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The highlights -

  • Arguably the headline feature of this lens is now that this is an STM lens it means silent autofocus - this is a big deal if you are using it with a camera that allows continuous auto focus during video like the T5i or 70D it also makes a difference in smoothness of autofocus during video with T5i - The T5i really needs those STM lenses to achieve smooth focus and you can see a large difference in focus capabilities. The 70D is more capable in focusing, it is less dependent on the STM lenses but you still see an improvement and smoothness and speed and of course noise of focus.   The Verdict? The lens is completely silent - No sounds from focusing or the IS system.  The old 55-250 IS II does make noise and in quieter conditions the IS system of the 55-250 IS and the 70-300 IS is recorded by the cameras mic making them less desirable to use for video work, at least with IS on.

  • So the STM version is smoother and quieter in focus. Do photographers (not videographers) care?  I took all three lenses 55-250 IS II, 55-250 STM and the 70-300 IS USM to a recent cycling race and was really pleased with the speed of the STM in focusing on faster moving subjects,  noticeable improvement over the 55-250 IS II.  I was photographing some of these riders in servo mode as they were headed right toward me and the lens was quick enough to keep them in focus for more sharp shots than I expected.  Compared to the 70-300 IS USM the number of in focus shots was about the same.  One difference and this may be due to the slightly longer range provided by the 70-300, when that lens, the 70-300 loses focus it can really struggle to get it back.  I see less delay and struggle from the 55-250 STM. Verdict - the 55-250 STM is as capable as the more expensive 70-300 IS USM and yes, photographers (not videographers) should care.

  • Image Quality- The STM is sharper across the board - nothing amazing but a noticeable improvement across the range and these improvements bring it in line with the 70-300 and in some cases beats the 70-300. I was especially surprised by the results out at 250 and 300. The 55-250 STM was sharp enough that you could compensate for the decreased range by cropping the image/increasing the image size and you in many shots I still had a sharper image from the 55-250 even after that increase. Verdict - The 55-250 STM beats the 70-300 IS USM often enough that I see very few reasons to continue to recommend the 70-300 IS USM.

  • Build quality - The new version feels solid in the hand - offers full time manual focus if you half press the shutter, neither the older 55-250 IS II or the 70-300 IS USM offer full time manual focus. And compared to the 55-250 IS II the focusing is now internal, the older version had some rotation during focusing which made it difficult to use a circular polarizer. The new version solves that frustrating issue. Verdict: It is a budget lens and build quality reflects that but it does feel solid in hand and well constructed - focus ring is larger. 70-300 IS USM does offer two versions of IS - standard and a version for panning with action. 70-300 IS USM is also an EF lens, useable by full frame cameras, it also has a metal mount vs plastic with the 55-250 STM.

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In Summary you have a lens that has improved enough it makes the more expensive 70-300 IS USM obsolete - obsolete might be a strong word as the 70-300 does give you slightly wider apertures at those longer focal lengths and is still the cheapest/longest option from Canon that works on a full frame but ultimately I think this new 55-250 IS STM is a better value and it is a no brainer purchase if you want more zoom when buying a T5i or 70D because of the current $150 discount.  And it certainly is worth the small increase in price over the earlier 55-250 models. Videographers that use autofocus and want zoom - this is a no-brainer purchase - it does the job very well.

Support this site and my work.  Buy the 55-250 IS STM from Amazon | B&H

Save $150.00 on Canon EF-S 55-250mm STM Lens for every 1 Qualifying Canon EOS Digital SLR Camera you purchase offered by Amazon.com. Enter code RBYIJDFJ at checkout.

New Canon Announcements - T5i (700D), SL1 (100D), 18-55 STM

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Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM

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Cannon announced several products yesterday- the T5i (700D), the SL1 (100D), the 18-55 STM and the SX280.  The 18-55 STM is arguably the most exciting of the bunch.  The previous 18-55 EF-S IS II lens, commonly refered to as the kit lens was sold with the T4i, T3i and earlier Rebels.  It is not a bad lens but certainly not exciting. (What makes a lens exciting- Video Coming Soon)  The new, STM version of this lens looks much improved in image quality and of course offers the silent AF during video.*Note  - Do not confuse the 18-55 EF-S STM lens with the 18-55 EF-M STM lens currently available on Amazon, that lens only mounts on the EOS-M camera, it will NOT work/mount on the Rebels like the T4i and T5i. The Improved 18-55 now offers STM and an extra aperture blade!Differences between the 18-55 EF-S (non-STM) and the NEW 18-55 STM

  • STM version has 7 rounded aperture blades (smoother background blur/bokeh) non-STM has 6 blades
  • STM offers Full Time Manual Focus - likely similar to the 18-135 STM trick
  • Improved sharpness, especially in corners and better contrast with updated lens coatings
  • Silent Autofocus - we will have to wait and see if it is truly silent like the 18-135 STM or only kinda quiet like the 40mm STM

*The usefulness of the full time Auto Focus depends on your needs and use scenarios.  Capturing your children and informal family events it works well enough and can be handy for a more camcorder like experience.  For anything that needs to look a bit more professional I really don't recommend that you rely on auto focus, there is just too great a chance that the camera will decide to focus on something other than your subject or needlessly refocus even if your subject hasn't moved.  This refocusing during the video is distracting and not professional.  Manual focus or basically tuning the auto focus off after getting initial focus is fine for many situations.  I talk a bit more about this in How I Shoot My VideosThe 18-55 EF-S STM Lens will be available April 30th  - Preorder for $249 from AmazonShould you buy?  If you are a parent and you want a decent lens that can double duty for good stills and silent video it is something to consider.  If you want to grow as a photographer your money is likely saved for other lens options.   Not sure if this lens is right for you? leave me a message here or on facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/Digital.Photo.RecommendationsI'd be happy to share my opinion. Please remember the more information you can give me about you and your photography skills, hopes and dreams, the more accurate a recommendation I can provide.