B&H Gear News Roundup: August 29, 2014

• Olympus broke out the new PEN E-PL7 camera and black 12mm f/2.0 lens
• Fujifilm announced the compact X30 camera
• Ricoh unveiled the new Pentax K-S1 DSLR
• GoPro's latest accessory was announced—for four-legged cinematographers
• Zoom announced its iQ6 iOS Microphone
• B&H made its own splash with The Canon Lens Experience

 

 

 

The New Olympus PEN E-PL7 and 12mm f/2.0 black lens

 

With the new PEN E-PL7 camera, Olympus has replaced both its older E-PL5 and E-PL6 Micro Four Thirds mirrorless cameras. Available in Black or Silver (body only) or as a Black or Silver kit with the Olympus 14-42mm lens, the new E-PL7 features a speedy 8 fps shooting speed, 81-point autofocus grid, and, like the larger OM-D cameras, a three-axis in-body image stabilization system to help keep your images free of camera shake. It also comes with Wi-Fi connectivity in order to transmit your 16MP Live MOS sensor captured photos wirelessly to a computer or mobile device. Full HD movies are at your fingertips as well.

The biggest curiosity of the E-PL7's retro-modern design is the decidedly modern "flip-down" screen that helps you to (gulp) compose and capture that perfect self-portrait. Prepare yourself for 16MP selfies making an appearance at a social media location near you.

(If someone writes a book about you, it is called a "biography." If you write about yourself, it is an "autobiography." Therefore, is the proper term for the selfie an "auto-portrait?")

Accompanying the camera is a slew of accessories, including a leather body jacket in Black, Brown, or light Brown. Announced with the camera, and adding to the impressive line of Olympus cameras is the Black version of the M.ZUIKO Digital ED 12mm f/2.0 lens with a 35mm equivalency of 24mm. For more information about the new PEN E-PL7, black 12mm lens and other new products from Olympus, check out this B&H Explora post.

The New Fujifilm X30

The replacement for the Fujifilm X20 has arrived and it’s called: X30. Available in Black or Silver, this new mirrorless camera features a 12MP 2/3" X-Trans CMOS II sensor and an EXR Processor II to deliver the data to your memory cards. This compact camera is built for speed, with a 0.06 second focus time, a shutter lag of only 0.015 seconds, and 12 fps shooting speed.

 

If it is great, there is no need to fix it―the X30 keeps the same 28-112mm f/2.0-2.8 lens of its older brother, the X20. The wide aperture is great for shallow depth-of-field work, as well as low-light shooting.

 

You just said it was the same lens, right? Well, what is that second ring that I see on the X30's lens? The X30 has added a second control ring to the lens. The first ring is for manual control of the zoom, just like the X20, but the second ring is a mutli-function input, capable of not only adjusting aperture or shutter speed, but you can press the control ring button and expand the functionality of the ring to adjust ISO, white balance, and the different film-simulation modes for which Fujifilm is known.

 

On the back, a large 3.0" 920K-dot tilting LCD screen helps you compose and display your images. For more traditional shooting, you may compose your images by looking into the enhanced Real Time OLED viewfinder with a 2.36M-dot resolution and 0.65 magnification factor. Do not sweat the lag between real life and the viewfinder image; it is only 0.005 seconds. For more information on the X30, visit this B&H Explora post.

The New Pentax K-S1 DSLR camera

 

Ricoh Imaging has just announced the newest member of its expanding DSLR line, the Pentax K-S1 digital SLR that features an all-new 20MP sensor, new PRIME II Image Processing Engine, and a feature shared with its big brother, the K-3, an anti-aliasing filter that allows you to toggle the anti-aliasing filter's effect either on or off, providing support for both the high-resolution abilities of a filter-less design, as well as advanced moiré protection. 

 

Separating this camera from those that came before is a new take on user interaction and functionality: glowing LED lights around the camera's shutter release, handgrip, and rear controls. Not just for decoration, these LEDs help the shooter navigate menus and modes selection.

 

Bored with your old, stale, black DSLR? Are those flashing LEDs not bling-y enough for you? This new Pentax comes, in kit form with an 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens, with a battery of color options with hip names like Cotton Beige, Denim Blue, Dusk Gold, Dawn Purple, Linen Brown, Midnight Black, Moon Silver, Sunset Orange, and Tweed Gray. You can also get it in boring Black, White, or Blue. If you don't need a lens, because you have an arsenal of K-mount Pentax lenses in your kit bag already, you can get the K-S1 without a lens in Black, White, or Blue. For more information on the Pentax K-S1, read this B&H Explora post.

The New GoPro Fetch

 

GoPro action-camera users, sorry, the latest accessory from GoPro is not for you. It is for your four-legged best friend. The GoPro Fetch is a dedicated camera mount for filming the K9 adventures of your favorite pooch. A lot of thought obviously went into this design, since it features two mounting locations to get a variety of filmmaking perspectives—from your dog's chest or back. The padded harness is washable and has no problem going for a swim while attached to your pet. The harness is adjustable to accommodate dogs from 15 to 120 pounds. There is also a quick release to remove the camera and rush your K9's award-winning motion picture to post production.

Parallels Desktop 10 for Mac

 

For those Mac lovers who occasionally have to dip into the Windows/PC world, Parallels keeps making things easier for you. The newest release, Parallels Desktop 10, runs your Windows documents and programs faster than ever while using less of your Mac's computing power. You can even run multiple virtual environments simultaneously.

 

Are you a Mac user but still want some specs? Your Mac's virtual machines will use 10% less memory than previous versions of the software, documents will open 48% faster, and Office 2013 documents open 50% faster. All of this translates into conserved power and less battery drain for your machine.

 

Saving hard drive space for selfies from your new Olympus, Desktop 10 also automatically economizes your virtual disk space—maximizing available storage. For more information, click here.

 

Zoom iQ6 iOS Microphone

 

The iPhone is a powerful tool for all kinds of artists. One area where it comes up short is in quality sound recording. Not to worry! Zoom, a company known for its field recorders, has just announced the iQ6 Stereo X/Y Microphone for Lightning-equipped iOS devices. This new microphone, featuring the same condenser mics found on the extremely popular Zoom H4n, records audio to your latest-generation iPhone or iPad in up to 16-bit/48kHz resolution. The two microphones can be individually angled to provide a wider or narrower reception field for different recording tasks.

 

Controlling the gain is a large central dial; LED lights give you a visual representation of your recording levels. The iQ6 also has a 3.5 mm headphone jack for monitoring or external recording. The iQ6 works with Zoom's free Handy Recorder mobile application that further expands its functionality with features like reverb, compression, and EQ. For more info on the Zoom iQ6, jump over to this B&H Explora post.

 

The Canon Lens Experience

 

B&H Photo made a bit of its own news this week when it rolled out the very cool Canon Lens Experience. The interactive website features exquisite photography combined with interviews, techniques, tips, and perspectives from the photographers who captured the images. Set some time aside and open the link on a big screen and enjoy the images while soaking up the inside information about each photograph.

 

After you are finished admiring the images, don't forget to scroll down to collect even more knowledge about the beautiful Canon lens line and a comprehensive encyclopedia of information about photography as it relates to the all-important lens.

More news:

 

• Ferrania, an Italian company, announced that it would re-start production of 35mm and 120 film in September. Read more about it and watch an interesting old "film" about the company’s manufacturing process at PetaPixel.
• Instagram released a new time-lapse creation app called Hyperlapse. Learn more about it at Fstoppers.

 

... and that's your news for the week of August 25th, 2014.