Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/10/05
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I just got back from Photokina yesterday evening, and have some pictures at
http://www.archiphoto.com/Various/PKina04/index.htm
There were lots of interesting items, including the 22MP Mamiya
digital camera, the Zeiss rangefinder, the E-300 Olympus and others.
Leica was not among the interesting exhibitors, as the main new
thing, the Digi module for the R9 was known before. Also, with the
Digi module the R9 is about the same size as the 22MP Mamiya XD, and
not likely a whole lot cheaper. The XD should make makers of high end
MF digital backs sweat, as well a put downward price pressure on the
Canon 1Ds MkII.
The Zeiss camera was not yet up to production standards, so any
impressions have to be tempered by that. It had a nice viewfinder,
although not hugely better, IMO. The finish was poor, and it
certainly didn't feel like a high quality item. We'll have to wait. I
tried a couple of the lenses on my cameras, and took some shots. I
don't know how much relevance the results will have, but I haven't
developed them yet. I talked a while with Dr. Hubert Nasse of Zeiss
about optical design, and specifically these lenses which he says
were designed by Zeiss (and manufactured by Cosina). It was extremely
interesting. The 15/2.8 and 85/2, both relatively huge, are
manufactured by Zeiss in Germany. The display in the photos on my
site was at the Zeiss booth, while the hands-on was at Hasselblad. I
later saw Dr. Nasse again at a private room at Cosina, with
Kobayashi-san. The prices are apparently likely to be in the 60% of
Leica range. For that the present impressions of mechanical quality
are marginal.
Digicams were of course everywhere, but the most interesting designs
were at Fuji, which showed a variety of very innovative
configurations, even though their production offerings are rather
dowdy. Cameras are getting a lot more responsive and generally more
pleasant to use.
--
* Henning J. Wulff
/|\ Wulff Photography & Design
/###\ mailto:henningw@archiphoto.com
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