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The PhotoPlusExpo show which takes place around the end of October each year in NYC is possibly the largest consumer oriented photo show in the US. Most of the major equipment manufactures have a presence there as well of dozens, if not hundreds, of smaller “niche” vendors showing everything from wedding albums to plastic cameras. Though it’s a show that rarely debuts new gear, it can often be the first place as which recently announced equipment can be seen and examined by the general public.
Of course the biggest manufacturers have the biggest displays and this year was no exception with Canon, Nikon and Sony showing a significant presence along with Pentax (now part of Ricoh) and of course Leica.
Bob Atkins
Bob Atkins
Bob Atkins
At the Canon display the new EOS 1D X was center-stage. The camera is not yet in production so all the samples were effectively prototypes, but they were at least cosmetically identical to the camera which will start being sold around March of 2012. They also had the bare chassis on display which was amazingly light for a metal structure. It’s made of a lightweight magnesium alloy which is very strong. While the cameras were fully functional, Canon really didn’t want anyone using their own memory card to record images since some of the internals of the camera might not be fully up to the final specifications of the production cameras.
Bob Atkins
Bob Atkins
The star of the show at Nikon was the new Nikon 1 mirrorless interchangeable lens camera system.
Bob Atkins
Whichever way you turned there was a large poster with the Nikon 1 on it and they had a live model display with, you guessed it, live models holding and fondling various different Nikon 1 cameras and lenses. It looks like a really interesting system. One of the major features is that it’s very fast. Very little shutter delay and fast focus. Much better than a P&S camera and rivaling most DSLR systems. With a relatively small sensor (2.6x multiplier) image quality can’t really match that of a crop sensor or full frame DSLR, but is certainly better than any P&S camera and for many people may be more than good enough.
At Pentax (now part of Ricoh), the new “Q” was the highlight. The Q is essentially a high end P&S camera with an interchangeable lens. It’s very cute with a nice control layout and easy handling. It’s also the smallest interchangeable lens digital camera. However it does use a P&S sized sensor, so while the image quality ranks right up there with the best of the pro level P&S cameras (like the Canon G12), it’s still not quite up to what you could get from a larger sensor camera like the Nikon 1 or one of the Olympus pen series digital cameras (which use the four-thirds size sensor).
Bob Atkins
Bob Atkins
The big three film makers were present (Kodak, Fuji and Ilford), though none of them were really pushing film sales. In fact Kodak were giving away free film, and when I passed their exhibit, there was no line! I remember maybe 5 or 10 years ago, you had to stand in line for 15 minutes to get your free roll of Ektar. This year you could get 35mm or 120 rolls of B&W and color negative film, no no slide film as far as I could see. I passed on the free film myself since I still have dozens of rolls “maturing” in my refrigerator.
One major player in the photo market conspicuous by their absence was Olympus, which was disappointing since I had wanted to take a closer look at the Pen series of mirrorless digital cameras. They had a large advertising banner on display outside the show, but no presence inside as far as I could tell.
Bob Atkins
Bob Atkins
The major independent lens makers had their wares on display, with Sigma and Tamron having a significant presence. No new lenses were announced so there was nothing particularly new to report on. Of course there were the usual hints that something interesting in the works which might well show up early in 2012, but no real details on what those interesting new designs might be. Tokina had a small presence at the THK (Tokina, Hoya, Kenco) exhibit and Vivitar had a small display of their low cost mirror telephotos and their line of fast manual focus lenses (35/1.4, 85/1.4 etc.). I hope to get the chance to take a look at some of those lenses soon, since they are significantly less expensive than the manufacturers AF models.
Bob Atkins
Bob Atkins
Film cameras? What’s a film camera? You could be forgiven for thinking that photography was now 100% digital, but there were a few film offerings at the show. Of course Leica were there, but film cameras from Holga were on display as well as a line of large format cameras from Shen Hao. Polaroid were still hanging in there too! I suppose Canon might have had the EOS-1n hiding somewhere in their display, but I can’t say that I noticed it (or looked for it). Film is now (judging from the show) and “art” medium, not a medium for practical everyday “normal” photography.
I’m not going to go into details of all the software companies at the show. There were lots of them, most offerings filters and tweaks to integrate with photoshop to make your brides look more beautiful or your colors more bold or to create effects not seen in nature. I can’t say any of them interest me too much so I didn’t spend much time looking at them.
Bob Atkins
If you are familiar with the “action camera” market, GoPro is a name you will recognize, but they weren’t at PPE 2011 as far as I could tell. However a new competitor in the same market space was displaying. Delkin were showing their new “WingManHD” sports/action camera. If you’re not familiar with this class of camera they are basically small digicams with pretty much full auto operation. They typically come with a waterproof housing and a mount to strap them onto a helmet, bicycle, surfboard etc. With a very wide angle lens (150 degrees or more) they need no focusing and can record your exploits while skiing, surfing, biking and auto racing. The WindManHD can record 1080HD video, 8MP stills (at selectable time intervals) and has a small LCD screen on the back for viewing and reviewing images. Price around $250.
Ughh... Can't believe I missed out on free film.. I hope they do it again next year. Went with an agenda though, so not much time to stop at all the booths I would have liked.
