Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/10/06
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Henning - very much enjoyed your gallery - I'm very jealous - will have to think about a trip to the next one. ernie At 05:20 PM 10/5/2004, you wrote: >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 > |[ ]| http://www.archiphoto.com >_______________________________________________ >Leica Users Group. >See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information