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Best take away product from Photokinia

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Just wondering now that Photokinia is coming to a close in a few days and most if not all products have been announced. What is maybe the most interesting news or release so far in your mind. I'm still in the air on this one
 

Bob

Administrator
Staff member
Not sure if I am ready to take any of them "away".
I would like to see these season for about a year.
Most of these announcements were premature.
I for one, think that Photokina should go away since it does nothing but confuse marketing departments. Announcements should be timed according to the best interest of the announcers in mind.
-bob
 

cmb_

Subscriber & Workshop Member
I'll repeat what I said in another thread. If you look at the options we have now: Medium Format from Sinar, Phase, Hassy, Leaf (with lowering prices), Leica S2-M8-R10 (on-the-way), Nikon D3-D700-D300, Canon 1 Series - 5DII, Lenses from Zeiss for both Nikon and Canon, we really have choices without having to sacrifice on image quality and can find the functionality to fit our needs. This all in the last 2 or 3 years. Remember Guy, it was not too long ago that you were bolting on lenses from numerous manufacturers with adapters trying to eek out reasonable image quality (or sometimes even just acceptable image quality). Look at your options now. Just think what we will have in another two years!
 

jonoslack

Active member
HI Guy
Two things - both of which are based on taking a leap from the accepted path:

1. the Leica S2
I'm really impressed with the concept (I was really sceptical when it was just leaks). It seems to be the perfect portable setup - not for me I'm afraid!

2. micro 4/3
Although the two products announced so far (Panasonic G1 and Oly camera) don't look like the business, I think the concept has a great deal going for it, and there is scope to make the perfect carry about camera without having to sacrifice much in terms of image quality.
 

Lars

Active member
As always, best takeaway is in the beer stands. :)

Seriously though:

- Sony A900, for dramatically changing the price level of the DSLR market. Canon followed with the 5DII, but that must have been planned far in advance.

- Canon 5DII, for its video capabilities. A friend of mine who is a pro nature videographer is all over it. It's a start of something new.

- Leica S2 is of course high-profile but I doubt it will have any major impact on the market in general. Leica will follow its time-honored tradition and price itself out of anything but a microscopic market. However other DSLR manufacturers might follow Leica's lead here, which is the real importance of the S2.

- m4/3, for its potential. Bodies and lenses must materialize for it to be a real contender.

- Leica Noctilux-M: Really a niche product, but by bringing out a new Noctilux Leica kind of reminds the market of what photography really is about.

All in all, dramatic changes to the market have been initiated these last few weeks, all benefitting the photographer.
 

Ben Rubinstein

Active member
For me it's CS4, actually to be more accurate, the new Bridge and ACR 5 with dodge and burn. Shooting is just half of the story, the rest, at least for me, is done in bridge and ACR and the new versions have got me very excited. Anything that makes my workload faster and easier is something to get excited about.

I think from a hardware point of view PMA might turn out more exciting personally. Hopefully PMA will equal the D3x and newer nikon primes which might cement my changeover from Canon. M4/3 will hopefully have matured into more than one psudeo SLR which isn't actually that small. The new Oly looks far more what the format has to offer together with new pancake primes.

For me the only thing that will bring out the wallet is CS4, everything else is either to insubstantial or inconsequential to this wedding photographer stuck in a economic downslide that has already started showing up on the bookings.
 
W

wbrandsma

Guest
I visited the show on Tuesday and the best thing to take away in my opinion is the Canon EOS 5D Mark II (and I don't even own or want a dSLR). Incredible high ISO performance. The Canon booth was the most busiest of all (especially were you could try the 5D Mk II), and only the Hasselblad booth came close.
 

Lars

Active member
Hmm I missed one technology that - as a concept - is quite interesting: Fuji's latest iteration of sensor tech (I think it's called "Super CCD EXR").

The part that caught my attention is "Dual capture": The camera would make two exposures which are merged for expanded dynamic range - essentially an HDR merge on the fly.

This technology can extend the DR very far into highlights, making for truly photographic images. If such a camera were combined with a file format that supports unclipped color channels such as HD Photo (or raw for that matter), then we could finally see digital that can match negative film in highlight DR. I'm just so tired of seeing clipped highlights.

Here is a link (half-way down the page)
http://www.photographyblog.com/index.php/weblog/comments/photokina_2008_final_thoughts/
 
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