The British Journal of Photography has a great review of the new Nikon AF-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.4G Lens.  It’s the first Nikon 35mm f/1.4 lens to offer autofocus, and is quite respectable, though it has a few shortcomings, like slight axial distortion and some vignetting.

Lexar has released an update to its Dual-card USB 2.0 reader, using USB 3.0 for higher throughput.  In my experience, people that shoot video on their DSLRs are the ones who most benefit from higher throughput on card readers, so if you fall into that camp (and don’t already have the firewire CF reader, and have a USB 3.0 port available) head on over to Lexar and pick up the new USB 3.0 reader.

via Rob Galbraith

I hadn’t yet heard of the Cinedeck EXTREME, but it looks to be a fairly cool and useful tool.  There’s a press release over at Broadcast Newsroom which talks about a documentary shot by Evolve IMG Films in which the Cinedeck was used.  The Cinedeck is an external recording device that has a 7″ “high res” preview/focus/playback monitor.  It boasts an internal solid-state hard disk, and accepts HDMI, HD-SDI, and LAN camera inputs.  According to the press release, Evolve IMG used it to record from both their Alexa and a Canon 5D.  It stores recorded video as Uncomressed 4:4:4 or 4:2:2 HD, Apple ProRes, Avid DNxHD, or CineForm DI files.  You can find more information on the Cinedeck Here (all-flash somewhat non-intuitive website… bleh), and the Broadcast Newsroom article here.

Vincent Laforet has gotten very excited about a little gadget from Freelance Audiovisual Services call the Lockit Buddy.  Essentially, it plugs into your camera’s mic input jack, and writes Timecode information to the right channel, and your reference audio to the left.  It handles all the impedance and level conversions for you.  The embedded timecode should work out of the box if you’re editing with Avid, and there’s a tool called FCPauxTC by VideoToolshed that will strip out the TimeCode data and create an auxiliary time code track for you to use in Final Cut Pro.

I saw brief mention of this thing quite some time ago, but apparently now it’s been rolled into a real product line.  It’s an inflatable studio-on-the-go.  As little as 40″x15″ when folded up, it blows up in to a room that’s 20 feet long by 15 feet wide and 13 feet tall.  Air is supplied by an industrial fan that is supposedly very quiet.  The maker’s FAQ also mentions that the surfaces are not matte, but not reflective enough to cause issue, just make sure you bring a backdrop with stands as well as your blow-up studio.

I must confess that I’m more than a little skeptical.  I have a hard time seeing any respectable photographer telling his or her client that they’re going to be bringing a studio in the form of a huge blow-up room.   It doesn’t help that most of the photos of the product itself are badly photoshopped and that the only quotes the maker has are from generic tech pundits and not professional photographers.

Then again, I’d love to be wrong.  Here’s to hoping this thing is awesome.

via Rob Galbraith

Phase One has made some waves lately, making bold steps to become a major force in the world of medium format photography.  Today that trend continues as they announce a new 80 Megapixel back, due out in April.  The new back has a dynamic range of 12.5 f-stops, and has a 16 bit color depth.  The LCD on the back is “mutitouch” capable, to help you pan and zoom around an image as well as use the back’s menus, and the back has a new USB 3 connection, as well as firewire 8 for tethering and offloading your data.  It looks like the new back will fit a range of Phase One, Mamiya, and Hasselblad cameras, as well as the Contax 645.  Check out the datasheet for more info.

Rob Galbraith is reporting that shipments of the much-waited-upon radio triggers for Nikon from Pocket Wizard are on the way to US Dealers, beginning today.

Zacuto has introduced the “Z-Cage”, which sort of appears to be the Swiss Army knife of DSLR mounts, that will allow you to attach and position virtually everything you might need for a run-and-gun shoot. It’s certainly a bit of a departure from the traditional rails mounts, which may be both a good and bad thing.  Good in that it’s always a good thing to think outside the box and make something that solves problems for people, bad in that I’m not sure this particular problem hasn’t already been solved with the tradition rails mounting systems, of which Zacuto already makes several variants.  What do you think?

via Rob Galbraith

At CES, Polaroid and Chase Jarvis announced a collaboration in which Jarvis will create and curate artistic content, presumably using Polaroid’s just-announced “grey label” product line, which includes an instant mobile printer, digital camera and camera glasses.  Jarvis will also be advising Polaroid on “product endeavors”.

Personally, I would have been much more excited if Chase had announced a collaboration with The Impossible Project.

A new online service called  GuruShots allows you to inexpensively hire a professional to critique your photos.  Simply sign up, upload the photos you’d like critiqued, choose which professional photographer you’d like to hire to critique your work, and fill in a few details about the photos you’re submitting. Your first critique is free, each additional is reasonably priced, and there are price breaks for multiples.  The critique you get back is nicely broken down into categories like lighting, impression, subject, etc., and contains useful notes from the pro explaining the scores they’ve given and any suggestions they may have for improvement.

This service launched in response to its founders’ frustration in finding meaningful critiques of their own photography via online discussion boards, especially when you have no way of determining what sort of experience the person giving the critique has when using those forums.

According to ‘Brodcast’ in the UK:

“Sony is to introduce an ‘affordable 35mm camera’ as it looks to move in on the market currently dominated by Red Digital Cinema’s Red One. … Details were thin on the ground but Sony did reveal that once completed the new shooter will offer a shallow depth of field, PL mount and cost less than the Arri Alexa.”

Sony’s always been a little scattershot IMO, but they might stumble into something big, here.

The fine folks over at DSLR News Shooter had a chance to check out Teradek’s new “Cube”, a wireless transmitter/receiver system that works over wifi and sends HD video from an HDMI port on your favorite HD video camera to a computer.  Honestly, I wasn’t terribly impressed with the videos on the DSLR News Shooter site, but was rather impressed by the demo videos on Teradek’s website.

Electronista is reporting on Red shipping their new Mysterium X sensor in the Red One body to the public, and can be had after a deposit is made and a week or so’s wait.

Photography Blog is reporting on a new HD digital video camera by Panasonic that uses a micro four-thirds sensor and has interchangeable lenses.  It also uses up to two high-capacity SDXC memory cards for up to 12 hours of 24mbps video.  Cost is supposed to be around €4,900.  The unit will be demoed at IBC, and available in December.  Apparently, it was also shown off at NAB in April, and I missed it.

*Updated Sep 13 @ 9:16 – Originally credited to Electronista.  Sorry Photography Blog!

DPReview is reporting on a new cinema-style lens for use on the modern crop of HDDSLR cameras from Canon and Nikon:

Carl Zeiss has introduced the Distagon T* 1,4/35 wide-angle lens in Canon EF (ZE) and Nikon F (ZF.2) mounts. This manual focus lens, with its large f/1.4 aperture, is made up of 11 elements in 9 groups. With an equivalent focal length of 50mm on APS-C cameras, it can be used on both digital and analog SLRs. Priced at €1385.71, the lens will be available in the first quarter of 2011.