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
Posted by tcbp in : News & Rumors , add a comment
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
Posted by tcbp in : News & Rumors , add a comment
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.
The camera of the future August 30, 2008
Posted by tcbp in : Rants & Raves , 2 commentsA lot of us mouthy photo bloggers have our opinions about what the camera of the future should be, or what features we’d like to see in our dream cameras. Since I haven’t posted anything like that yet, I figured it was time to waste everyone’s time and make my own insignificant addition to this already saturated topic.
The mid-range full frame war - where are we now? August 27, 2008
Posted by tcbp in : News & Rumors , add a comment
Since the last post on this a lot has happened:
- Nikon announced the D700 (beating Canon to the punch on the full frame updates) and it is pretty darn nice for $3000
- SLRs now shoot video (in HD!) thanks to the Nikon D90
- Canon announced two new cameras… but neither are full frame
- Rumors have changed on the new full frame model
The 5D Mark II/3D/6D/7D will now most likely have a DIGIC IV processor since the just annonuced 50D has this new electronic brain. There are also rumors of it sporting 21 megapixels. That’s a lot of pixels… more than I really want or need. Hopefully it will have some improvements in the high ISO area over the 40D (a 21 megapixel full frame sensor is the same pixel density as an 8 megapixel APS-C sensor like in the 30D or 40D). Some people even seem to think the 5D Mark II will have full weather sealing, HD video capabilities and a 100% viewfinder. We’ll see…
Your SLR is now a camcorder
Posted by tcbp in : News & Rumors , 1 comment so far
Nikon has again pushed the boundaries of what features an SLR can and should have by adding HD movie recording capabilities (up to 1280×720 at 24fps) to an SLR. This successor to the D80 sits in between Canon’s XSi, 40D and 50D in some ways, but as mentioned offers up one feature none of them can match in any capacity. The D90 will sell for $1000 or $1300 with the newly announced 18-105 VR kit lens.
I’ll let DPreview carry the load of telling you the gory details on this new body and lens:
The kit lens sounds like quite a nice range for the starting photographer, and is a great sounding kit with the D90.
I’m very curious to see the performance of the movie mode in this camera. I personally don’t find movie mode a very big selling point or differentiating feature for myself, but I still suspect it could come in handy at times. Interesting quirks of the D90’s HD mode include a 5 minute max recording time for a clip 720p (20 minutes in other modes) and no AF during movie mode.
Walking the abandoned Rochester subway (photo gallery) August 24, 2008
Posted by tcbp in : Photography , 1 comment so far
Yesterday I finally walked the length of the abandoned subway in Rochester from the west end all the way to the exit under Dinosaur BBQ. It was a pretty warm day but other than the dusty and sometimes smelly air, the subway was cooler and more comfortable than walking along above the streets.
From the west entrance to the east entrance the subway is over a mile long, and runs under Broad Street for a good deal of the distance but also passes under the Gannett building and the Library. Much of the subway is completely pitch black and the only light is from what we brought with us. By the time we reached the Broad Street bridge we had been in the subway for a little over an hour and were surprised to come upon a pretty big group of people. They were a group of martial artists and they were filming scenes for some martial arts movie.
Check after the jump to read more about the trip and see the photos (more…)
Canon learned a Nikon trick (it’s real now and the specs were spot on)
Posted by tcbp in : News & Rumors , 2 comments
In a truly Nikon-esque move, seemingly concrete (yeah right) information on the 50D has appeared on the world wide interwebs.
Supposed specs include 15.1 megapixels, a high res VGA LCD screen, ISO up to 12,800 and a DIGIC IV processor. It actually all sounds rather impressive so hopefully it’s a sign of good things for a 5D Mark II (although I still hope that comes in a fancier body).
There also seem to be a lot of rumors of an 18-200 IS on the way, which makes sense since that’s a popular range Nikon and Sigma are covering.
Update: I had a link to the Canon site containing the information but it is now password protected. If I see a copy of it elsewhere I’ll put up a link to that but I won’t be actively looking for it.
Another update: Bob Atkin’s has a “preview” based on the specs and images which were leaked