HOLY SHIT! New cameras! From Fuji and Olympus and stuff, I think! They're bigger, better, more powerful than before. World peace is nigh. Some of them are great, but I hate others. This product will save that company, the other product will surely sink the other one. They are mainly black and digital. There are also new lenses, I think. That's basically the hole on the front where light comes in.
The long standing rumors that someone will announce a product that lets you feel more deeply, to see more intensely, and to more easily translate those into actual pictures seem, alas, not to have come true.
The consensus is that there were some engineering problems along the way, and it may be 1 to 2 more quarters before these products are ready. We may see something for Christmas, but more likely nothing will be officially announced until 1Q17.
yeah, yeah, but you've read all the announcements, haven't you ? Go on, admit it.
ReplyDeleteEvery single one! And not one would help me take better pictures, damn it! Unless by "better" we mainly mean "heavier"?
Deletewell... actually I came here to wash the DigitalHuffReview residue off my retinas, and I got it... just spent a pleasant half hour on Karel Kravis's web site. Really nice stuff. Er... he must have a really, really Good Camera though. I'd better get back to finding the One for me.
DeleteI actually think that a Fuji GFX body might very well help me take better photos.
ReplyDeleteOf course, I generally use my cameras in an idiosyncratic way (long-exposure photos made at night using low ISO settings), so it's difficult to know whether one will work well for me until I put it through its paces in the field.
But I'm watching my pennies these days, so unless Fuji has priced it very attractively, it may be too spendy for my budget. 8^(
I don't blame us for gear acquisition syndrome. It's the damn cameras, they should just come out and say: we suck, unless you spend more than 1600$ for the body alone. I know this sentiment won't be shared by you, I came to this conclusion after trying many sub-1600$, and they either sucked at image quality, or handling.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the laugh.
I visited Photokina for the first time this year. There are a lot more things than camera announcements. I'll just write down a few notes of what struck me.
ReplyDelete1: Sure, there are the classic large boots of the big players and a crowd touching the latest iteration of whatever their camera of choice happens to be. The big players also have things which get less attention, yet are important. For example, Canon had a working 8K video system prototype. The information here is that it works in the lab today, so the cameras will be available within 2 years. That, in turn, is very important info for photographers working in news or sports, as these cameras make them completely irrelevant: each frame is good enough for billboards.
2: There are a lot more than cameras to be seen: printing, photofinishing, accessories, etc... One large part was devoted to video. I have mixed feelings about that part, as the main customer for these devices appear to be lone bloggers. There was actually lots of effort put on catering to that market. And they came: I say people walking with video cameras on their head talking to a mike as they strolled the alleys and people putting themselves and a tripod in a corner to give "an interview of themselves at photokina". Now, the surprising part here is that they were working alone: don't they have a friend to operate the camera for the interview? Probably not, and consequently there is a huge market for devices for filming oneself: body mounted selfie sticks and drones which fly around you automatically. Really. There is probably a lesson about that and all bloggers actually paid to give a conference on, basically, "how to be successful" actually had a team to help them. I still don't know what to think about that.
3: There are pictures exhibited at photokina (videos too). A large part of the exhibition was composed of pictures which correspond to what can be called "500 pix favourites", as expected. There were a few different pictures which I found interesting, for example pictures of Unicef on the fate of children. There were pictures presented by art schools (students' projects), which I found of surprisingly low quality. Basically: self-centered and indulgent.
4: The crowd is different that what I would have expected: younger and with more women. Even if the majority of visitors is male, I would say about half is below 30 and many of these come with their significant other. There are also art students (or I gather from their dress...) and these are at least 50% female. The lone bloggers were all male, though.
Being on the spot is quite different than reading about it on photo sites. It was quite interesting.