Canon Launches EF 70-300 f/4.5-5.6L IS USM Lens

London, 26th August 2010 – Canon today announces the latest addition to its renowned L-series of professional lenses, the EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM, designed to answer growing demand for a high performance zoom lens which offers outstanding mobility and versatility. The EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM offers a 4.3x telephoto zoom range of 70-300mm, with a variable aperture of f/4-5.6.

The compact (143mm) design also features the build quality that photographers have come to expect from Canon’s acclaimed L-series lenses. With its impressive focal range and travel-friendly size, the EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM is ideally suited to professionals and advanced amateur photographers wishing to capture portraits, nature and action shots in superb detail.

Canon signature image quality
Thanks to two ultra-low dispersion (UD) elements and a floating lens group, the
EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM captures stunning high-contrast, high-resolution images with low levels of chromatic aberration throughout the zoom range. The lens makes use of Canon’s Super Spectra coatings, reducing ghosting and flare to ensure the highest possible image quality and minimising the requirement for extensive post processing.

Canon’s advanced optical Image Stabilizer (IS) provides photographers with a four-stop IS advantage, enabling the capture of sharp images even when shooting at maximum zoom or in low light conditions, by allowing the use of slower shutter speeds than would usually be possible with handheld shooting.

An eight-blade circular aperture also offers excellent bokeh ideal for portraiture, producing a more pleasant background and creatively isolating the subject.

Autofocus (AF) is fast and quiet thanks to a ring-type USM AF motor, combined with the independent lens CPU and advanced AF algorithms to enable accurate, reliable focusing in all conditions. As with all Canon L series lenses, full time manual focus override is possible, allowing photographers to manually focus, even when the AF motor is engaged. With a minimum focusing distance of 1.2m (3.9ft) throughout the zoom range, photographers can achieve sharp results, even when close to the action.

L-series – robust performance in all conditions
Honouring the L-series heritage, the EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM offers exceptional build quality, ideal for daily use by professionals and advanced amateurs. The lens includes environmental protection, allowing photographers to shoot in harsh conditions - even in the extremes of the desert or rainforest. Canon’s new Fluorine Coating also makes cleaning the lens easier, preventing smears or streaking.

Professional accessories
As part of the L-series range, the EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM is supplied with a lens hood ET-73B and lens case LP1424 as standard. In addition, an optional, dedicated tripod mount C (WII) can be directly attached to the lens. This allows it to be stabilised easily and the camera switched quickly from vertical to horizontal and back, without having to reposition the camera body on the tripod, perfect for fast-paced action with a variety of subjects.

Source: dpreview.com

Portable GPS Tracker

This must be one of (if not the) coolest spy gadgets I’ve ever reported on. It’s sort of a cross between a USB memory stick and a GPS receiver and what it does is store where ever you take it on the flash memory.

The Portable GPS Tracker is pretty small so you could either always carry it on you or use it in 007 spy mode by planting it on a person or vehicle you want to monitor. You may be wondering how you retrieve the stored info and secret routes, well that’s where it gets really cool.

Once the tracker has done it’s travels and it’s back in your possession you simply connect it to you PC and download the data. This data can then be plotted on Google Earth, Mapquest, maps.google.com and Virtual Earth to show exactly where it’s been, how long it took and how it got there.

I just think this is so cool (may of said cool a record number of times in this post) it obviously has the spy functionality of tracking somebody else but to me it is even more useful for tracking your own holidays and backpacking adventures. So not only can you bore visitors with your holiday snaps you can also show them exactly where you went.

Source: coolest-gadgets.com

Kinect Controls Windows 7

Some of you might remember when we covered the Gmail Motion a few days ago. I was told that Gmail Motion was essentially a big joke for April Fool’s Day, and that there isn’t a system where you can send emails by doing a “slapping a stamp” hand motion.

I think it is interesting that on the Gmail Motion video, it describes the keyboard and mouse as “outdated technology”. I suppose that if we are looking at the gesture-based technology of Minority Report as present instead of futuristic, then yes, the keyboard and mouse should be the equivalent of five-and-a-quarter inch disks.

Evoluce has figured out how to combine the Kinect for gesture-based computing on Windows 7. I believe that it comes in handy for the Media Center and other programs, especially for Microsoft Office and PowerPoint. There is a video of it after the jump.

I don’t really see a future where we sit in front of our desktops or laptops and make sign language in front of it all the time. However, I do see a future that combines keyboard, mouse, and a few select gestures. I think we have a long way to go before we can do the Tom Cruise, but at least we’ll be without the Minority Report gloves.

You should be able to get this particular software from Evoluce for about $30, without all the hardware.

Source: coolest-gadgets.com

Sony BDV-EF200, BDV-L600 and BDP-S780 Blu-ray systems outed

Two new home cinema systems and 3D upconverting Blu-ray player unveiled.

Sony has just pulled the wrappers off of three new Blu-ray systems. The BDV-EF200 and BDV-L600 are complete Blu-ray 2.1 home cinema packages, while the new BDP-S780 Blu-ray player can upscale your bog-standard 2D pics into glorious 3D.

The BDV-EF200 and BDV-L600 both pack in Sony’s Bravia Internet Video software, so you can access the likes of YouTube and BBC iPlayer direct. There’s also the chance to tap into and rent films from Lovefilm, as well as get the latest headlines via Sky News’s dedicated TV app.

Both packages come with Sony’s S-Force 3D virtual surround sound tech, as well as two HDMI ports and even an iPod dock for checking out tunes and clips stashed on your Apple jukebox. The BDV-L600 can be wall-mounted or stood vertically too.

If you’re not after a full-on home cinema system, then the BDP-S780 is an ace compromise. It comes with 3D up-conversion skills, Skype access and Wi-Fi, not to mention noise reduction tech to ensure low quality web video is upscaled and looks the part.

Source: t3.com

Nikon D5100 UK release date set for April 21st

Long-awaited DSLR update inbound imminently Nikon has finally unveiled the sequel to the much-loved D5000 DSLR; the D5100. The camera, which will launch on April 21st for a base price of £669.99, boasts a lot of the features that make the D7000 a winner older brother so successful while offering a slew of new ones.

The cam features the same 16.2-Meg CMOS image sensor as in the D7000, as well as the same EXPEED 2 processor. The Vari-Angle LCD display is 17 per cent thinner than on the D5000, gifting the cam overall dimensions of 128x97x79mm.

New features include a Special Effects mode, which lets you add a range of properties to images and video, such miniature Mode, a Night Portrait mode with up to 102,400 sensitivity, Silhouette Mode, Colour Sketch mode and a Selective Colour Mode.

Nikon D5100

Source: t3.com