Red attempts to shake up the industry with modular Scarlet and Epic systems November 13, 2008
Posted by tcbp in : News & Rumors , add a comment
Red has announced a bevy of new gear, a core part of much of it being a new modular camera system much like I have talked about before. I don’t know if this will shake up the industry like they and so many of their fans expect. They have some very avid fans but I’m not wholly convinced that their modular system would give me a DSLR I’d rather use. It looks bulky, ergonomically questionable, and the prices are quite high. For example the 24 megapixel Scarlet FF35 module (same size of sensor as the A900, D700, 5D Mark II, etc) is expected to cost $12000. Still, I’d be excited to have a chance to give one a shot and I think the compatibility with Canon and Nikon lenses (through adapters) is a really smart feature (hopefully they offer full compatibility with all features).
I hope they get some of these out and they can be tried out by some people and even see some reviews. It will be interesting to see how their sensors stack up against Canon, Nikon and Sony but I think it’s going to be a hard sell to people in the still photography industry.
Sigma buys Foveon November 11, 2008
Posted by tcbp in : News & Rumors , add a commentThis is the kind of news about the photo industry that intersets me!
Sigma now owns Foveon and its three-layer X3 sensor technologies. This is something I saw some rumors about only a few days ago (too busy to keep up) and is a really interesting revelation. I don’t know what this means for both of them as I have long thought Foveon to be a troubled company and that Sigma was struggling to get everything on track (with woes about QC and delays on cameras that ultimately receive lukewarm reactions). I don’t know if this means more money for development for Foveon or not, but they have long struggled to keep up and in spite of the potential for their sensor I’ve yet to see it really happen for them. They do have many technical troubles to tackle but I hope they can continue to develop and improve their sensor.
Trip to Long Island, NYC, Photo Plus expo and more October 23, 2008
Posted by tcbp in : News & Rumors , add a commentTomorrow my friend and I are heading down to Long Island to visit a friend of mine and we’ll all be going in to NYC on Saturday to check out the PhotoPlus expo. I don’t plan to be lugging a lot of gear around with me but I haven’t entirely decided what to bring. I’ll have some pictures to post either way and will put up at least one post about the trip once I’m back.
Better late than never: Photokina reaction
Posted by tcbp in : News & Rumors , add a commentPhotokina came and went… a while ago at this point. I wanted to comment on what was interesting but have been too busy to get around to it… until now.
Nikon suggests bad taste is worth at least $650 (D60 Black Gold edition) September 26, 2008
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Nikon has had a long relationship with the gold finish, from their boxes to bands on their lenses. Perhaps it was only a matter of time before they spilled a can of their favorite tacky color all over one of their digital SLRs. This is not the first time someone tripped in Nikon’s factory while carrying a can of gold, see here and here. I’m sure there are other examples but why exactly are they celebrating the D60?
The rumors about this have been around for a little while now (in typical Nikon fashion) but I wasn’t sure I really believed it would amount to anything. This is supposed to be a standard Nikon D60 with a $50 paint job on the shutter button, mode dial, camera name badge, strap lugs and maybe a few other places (how about a gold lens mount?).
So for those of you out there deciding between the D60 and the XSi, if you really like gold inexplicably splattered across the things you own, I think your decision just got a lot easier. The rest of us will just continue to scratch our heads.
Olympus teases a micro 4/3 “rangefinder” and a Photokina update September 22, 2008
Posted by tcbp in : News & Rumors , 2 comments
Olympus has teased an interesting new camera based on the micro 4/3 format which looks an awful lot like a rangefinder. This camera, unlike the Panasonic G1, is what excites me about the micro 4/3 format. It opens up the possibility for a revival of the many more affordable compact rangefinders from decades ago with great prime lenses and image quality that you can carry anywhere. I really like the looks of this and am very curious to see what it develops in to and where the micro 4/3 system goes as a whole.
Also, on a Photokina note, I will not be posting every new announcement, product or other bit of news here. This isn’t meant to be a new site but I will post things that may interest me personally for various reasons. I promise, there will be more photos soon, I’ve just been very busy lately. Once Photokina is over I will post a sort of wrap up/impressions post as well as what opinions I take away from the three major mid range full frame DSLRs released or announced recently: the Nikon D700, Sony A900 and Canon 5D Mark II.
The Leica S2 is an interesting release though. I really don’t expect the Leica S2 to be anywhere near what most people would consider affordable and I think the Nikon, Sony and Canon cameras will have a more significant impact on the majority of the consumer market as a result. Still, the Leica is an interesting camera with a 30×45mm sensor and a relatively compact body to house it.
Canon makes the 5D Mark II official September 17, 2008
Posted by tcbp in : News & Rumors , 1 comment so far
Before I mention the obvious about the new Canon camera I should make a pity comment for the Sony A900 which I forgot about. The A900 is an interesting camera for Sony, only pushing a few more megapixels than this new Canon. I don’t know how it will fare against the similarly priced Nikon D700. Resolution isn’t everything as far as I’m concerned and I suspect the D700 is going to feel more balanced and thoroughly thought out. The A900 kind of went under my radar. I knew it was coming and I was very curious about where the full frame war would lead but it really did not grab my interest. Nikon beating everyone out there was noteworthy, the long rumored A900 not so much by the time it finally dribbled past Sony’s lips, and the real wild card after that point was whatever the hell Canon was going to do. (more…)
Leica announces a new 50mm Noctilux, now f/0.05 faster! (also there’s a new M8.2 now) September 15, 2008
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Leica has announced a new version of the Noctilux, replacing the old and slow f/1.0 version with a new and significantly faster f/0.95 version. It took them 48 years to match Canon’s old 50 f/0.95, so I’m surprised they didn’t just one up them a bit and go for a 0.94, but nobody ever really knows that Leica is thinking.
Look to spend somewhere in the neighborhood of $11000 for this lens, which was probably released to make sure that the new M8.2 (over $6000) has something to come home with to avoid feeling lonely.
No sign of a Leica micro 4/3 rangefinder system but I’m still hoping they’ll do something interesting with it.
Canon spares Canon Rumors September 12, 2008
Posted by tcbp in : News & Rumors , add a commentI’ve removed the old post and am just going to leave this one up to say I’m happy to see that Canon has decided to stop the legal move against Canon Rumors over use of their name (and who knows, probably over leaking that closely guarded information about the pink 5D Mark II).
Panasonic announces the first micro 4/3 camera… the G1
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After the announcement of the micro 4/3 system I was curious what form the new cameras would take. I hoped to see a resurgence of the rangefinder form factor (the small back focal length and elimination of a traditional optical viewfinder being friendly for such a form factor). Instead, Panasonic has delivered the G1 which looks an awful lot like an SLR.
The SLR form factor is familiar and friendly for many people, so I suppose the decision does make some sense. Still I had hoped they might change things more than internally and go for a new look entirely. The (now nonexistent) prism bulge is still there, accomodating a flash and at the rear the electronic viewfinder. The pop out and swivel rear LCD is nice, I always liked that feature on my G3 and a lot of people have requested it now that SLRs offer live view. Unfortunately that feature comes with the familiar risk of some sort of connection failure though the hinge and the resultant useless screen. The EVF in this camera is interesting in that it uses an LCoS based display technology (same as used in Panasonic’s high end video cameras) and may finally provide a tolerable, maybe even nice EVF.
The thing that concerns me the most about this is the resolution. Twelve megapixels in a 4/3 sensor is the same density as over 46 megapixels on a full frame DSLR (roughly 24×36mm sensor). That’s a lot, and if people are hoping to get the great low light, high ISO performance of an SLR in a smaller size, they’re probably not going to find it here.
I’m not sure of a price on this at this point, but overall this camera doesn’t match a P&S in compactness and likely will fall behind other entry level DSLRs with APS-C sized sensors in image quality, so it doesn’t really grab my attention that much. It’s a boring blend of both categories of cameras without really exploiting the strengths of either. If the price is right I might be able to recommend it to someone, but at this point I’m on the fence.