The long-awaited Pentax 645D digital medium-format camera will be available in May 2010.
Posts Tagged ‘moved-permanently’
Mar
09
2010
Canon Digital IXUS 105 Review
Canon’s extensive range of small and stylish IXUS cameras shows no sign of flagging, with the IXUS 105 joining the family for 2010. Also known as the PowerShot SD1300 IS, the 105 is an affordable model that stays true to the core values of simplicity and classic good looks. The IXUS 105 marries a 12 megapixel sensor to a 4x wide-angle lens and is available in no less than five different pastel colours. Gavin Stoker takes an in-depth look at the Canon Digital IXUS 105.
Mar
09
2010
Tamron developing SP 70-300mm F/4-5.6 DI VC USD zoom to celebrate their 60th anniversary
Nikon users will be first in line to get hands-on with Tamron’s newest full-frame telephoto zoom. As the alphabet soup surrounding the focal length in its name suggests, it’s jammed full of features, including their proprietary Vibration Compensation (VC) technology, which they claim gives you an extra four stops to play with when hand-holding. Focusing is powered by Tamron’s first ever ultrasonic autofocus motor, which promises faster, quieter focusing. If the autofocus isn’t doing what you want and you don’t feel like dancing around until it finds the right spot, you can simply adjust the focus ring and the lens automatically shifts into manual mode for precision adjustments.
Tamron also spent some serious time working on the glass elements in the lens, opting for a combination of low-dispersion glass as well as their new XLD, which the press material compares to fluorite. The press release doesn’t give up any pricing or release date info, but, as we mentioned before, Nikon users will get it first, with Canon and Sony mount models to come later. We’ll let you know as soon as we get our hands on one. For now, take the jump for the rest of the nitty gritty details.
- Focal lenght: 70-300mm (full frame) or 109-465mm (APS-C)
- Maximum Aperture: F/4-5.6
- Minimum Aperture: F/32-45
- 17 elements in 12 groups
- Minimum focusing distance: 59.1-inches
- 9 diaphragm blades
- 62mm filter size
- Weight: 27 ounces
- Maximum magnification: 1:4
- Flower-shaped lens hood included
Mar
09
2010
Apropos of Nothing
I was originally going to include in the previous post a few paragraphs about Studebaker, a maker of carriages and wagons founded in the 1850s that eventually made a successful transition to making automobiles (the company lasted more than a century, until 1966). Although I let one reference in the last paragraph stand, I ultimately decided to cut the Studebaker bits from the post. However, there was one thing I came across in my research that’s just too cool not to show you:
This is a satellite picture of a public park called Bendix Woods in New Carlisle, Indiana, near South Bend. (The top of the picture is oriented west.) Built in 1926, it has the distinction of being the first dedicated automobile test track in the world built and maintained by a car company. One of the features of the track is a “sign” composed of 5,000 pine trees spelling out the name of the company, which can be seen to the upper right of the track; while the South Bend automaker still existed, this was known as one of the largest advertisements in the world. Here’s an aerial view, date unknown. Evidently the “sign” was damaged by a severe storm in 2004, so both pictures probably predate that.
And a detail.
Apropos of nothing—I just thought this was interesting.
Mike
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Mar
09
2010
The Future of Leica
Some while back, Michael Reichmann of The Luminous Landscape posted “An Open Letter to Leica” subtitled “A Modest Proposal for Reinventing the M Series.” Not long after, Michael published a response by Thom Hogan of ByThom.com under the title, “Thom Hogan Considers—What’s Next for Leica.” Both Michael and Thom speculated about what sort of products they think Leica needs to offer in the future—to quote Michael’s article, he’s answering the question, “what should the next M series Leica be like?” A perfectly sensible question.
Far be it from me to argue with either Thom or Michael. (And I’m not; their opinions stand for themselves.) But as Michael said, “the ideas that I’m putting forward are worth a public debate.”
So here’s my modest little contribution to the debate. I think the future of Leica is now.
As the great Inigo Montoya would say, ‘let me ’splain’
I’m neither a Leica insider nor a Leica user (well, I’ve been using an M7 right lately, but it’s not mine, it’s a loaner from a friend). And I’m only basing the following on logic, which can easily lead us astray. But here’s where logic takes me:
1. Old, traditional camera company falls on hard times, is sold by its founding owners (the Leitz family) who don’t want to preside over its demise, changes hands several times, flirts dangerously with bankruptcy.
2. Passionate and independently wealthy enthusiast buys company.
3. New owner sinks big money into said company. I mean big—according to rumors, on the order of a hundred million euros or more. Again, I’m not an insider, so I don’t know this for a fact, but that’s the story.
4. After some rough water and a few mistakes along the way, the new owner’s team comes up with an outstanding and highly sensible 3-tiered range of products. There is:
a. The Leica M9, a “full-frame” digital replica of the historical company’s best-known and best-loved (and, yes, iconic) product. Also, it’s exactly what most enthusiasts wanted. Also, it’s the second iteration of the concept, fixing the flaws and addressing the drawbacks of the first generation.
b. Below that, the Leica X1, a premium semi-compact with a large APS-C-sized sensor and a beautiful fixed lens. Astutely judged as, if you’ll forgive the phrase, a casual camera for the serious user. Or as a smart (in both senses) fashion accessory for the casual user. Just as astutely, positioned so as to complement but not compete with the main product. Affordably* priced at ~$2k.
c. Above the M9, the all-new Leica S2, a clean-sheet camera system conceived from first principles. Well positioned to appeal to not one but two markets: the type of pros who need to be concerned about their image, particularly fashion shooters of various descriptions, and very-well-heeled amateur enthusiasts who want the latest and the best and the most prestigious. (An S2 on your shoulder is the only thing guaranteed to make an M9 owner envious!)
‘Psst, buddy, wanna buy a loss leader?’
It makes utterly no sense to me when I encounter various hosers on sundry forums opining that “Canon should buy Leica” or “Panasonic should buy Leica” or somesuch similar nonsense. What, do they mean with its angel? Leica lost four-point-something million euros last year. Should Canon say, “sure, we’ll buy Leica, just as long as Herr Kaufmann is included in the deal, and he promises to continue sinking tens of millions of euros from his family’s personal fortune into what will no longer be his company”? How does that make any sense at all, to anyone? The answer to “X should buy Leica” is not only “No—no, it shouldn’t,” and it’s not even “Shut up,” although both those responses are perfectly reasonable ones. It’s that the perfect guy already bought Leica. Leica’s owner is a seriously rich guy who loves the marque and is a passionate photography enthusiast and is willing and able to lose huge boatloads of money lovingly nurturing the company and grooming its product line. Nobody could fantasize a better owner for Leica than Leica already has.
And that’s where I come down on this “future of Leica” thing. You’re holding out for the future? The current cameras just aren’t good enough? So, what, you’re going to hold off and wait until the next time somebody sinks €100 million into a money-losing company and comes up with an ideal product lineup?!?
Really?
My opinion: the future is now. Right now. 2010 is 26 years past 1984
The company has already given us more than anybody ever had a right to expect—more than reasonable people were even hoping for ten and twenty years ago. Leica can’t make enough M9’s and X1’s to even keep up with demand. B&H won’t even let you pre-order an X1 (I think that means their current pre-orders exceed the number of units they’re expecting in their next shipment—I’ll try to check on that).
Finally, before anyone brings up the obvious: yeah, time will go on. History didn’t end in 1992. Newer products will continue to replace older ones. Even Studebaker, once the largest maker of wheeled vehicles in the world, couldn’t sell horse-drawn buggies past 1919. The years do keep coming. With luck, the current ownership of Leica will prosper, and its team will come up with products in the future that will be appropriate to future conditions. But…this is the golden hour. Where Leica is concerned, for all practical purposes, the future’s here.
Mike
*Money being relative. No one wants or needs a $35,000 Rolls-Royce. The people to whom a premium, high-prestige camera brand appeals are the kind of people who can easily afford $2k for a camera. If you think it’s too expensive, then it’s just not for you.
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Mar
09
2010
New Advertising Campaign for Nikon
Nikon has launched a new advertising campaign throughout Europe, featuring commercials filmed with the Nikon D3S itself.
Mar
08
2010
Jeff Bridges: 2010’s Best actor and avid photographer
Ever since he graced the big screen as The Dude in The Big Lebowski, Jeff Bridges has held a special place in our hearts, but you might not know that he’s also quite a photo buff. Back in 2008, he told us about his passion and his weapon of choice, the Widelux. He keeps his own personal site updated with lots of moody, wide-format black-and-white images, most of which are taken behind the scenes of his movies. Check out our gallery for some examples of his work. You’ll also find work from other celebs like Viggo Mortensen, Brett Ratner and the Eva Mendez.
Mar
08
2010
What’s This: Ballast Hook
What It Is: A feature on some tripods, this hook lets you hang bags of stones or other weighty objects from a ’pod to help stabilize it.
Where It Is: Attached to the bottom of the tripod’s center column. it may not be readily visible—some, such as this spring-activated hook on Gitzo’s leveling tripod, retract into the center column.
How It Works: By hanging heavier objects from the hook, you add stability to lighter tripods, plus help virtually any tripod remain steady against wind or slight bumps.
How To Use It: Rather than carrying a bag of rocks, keep an empty plastic sack in your camera bag and, whenever the situation calls for a steadier tripod, stuff it with whatever is at hand (stones, sand, even water), then hang it from the hook. You can also use the hook to suspend your camera bag above wet or muddy terrain.
Mar
08
2010
JOBO Goes Belly-Up
Reader Chris Lucianu points out another pertinent news item from photoscala.de. Last Friday, insolvency proceedings were initiated against the assets of JOBO AG and JOBO Labortechnik GmbH, of Gummersbach, in the North Rhine-Westphalia area of Germany. JOBO made a wide range of darkroom devices, mainly color paper and film processors.
I haven’t used a JOBO in many years, but the paper processors were a staple of home color printers, photo schools, and low-volume custom darkrooms. The devices were fairly Rube-Goldbergian, and not entirely in a good way—at the Corcoran, for example, where I did my brief turn as lab manager, the poxy magnets were forever falling off of the tubes, and there seemed to be no technology known to humankind that would stick them back on more than temporarily. This problem was reportedly later fixed.
JOBOs with Expert drums also made very good sheet film processors for either color or black-and-white.
The processors did a good job, but they weren’t fun to use. They were basically glorified tanks of temperature-controlled water, and the rooms in which they resided were typically warm, humid, and usually more than a little smelly. To use one, what you did mainly was…wait.
JOBO was founded in 1923 and was a third-generation-owned family business.
By the way, if you’re one of the those digital natives who think it’s quaint how we’re always going on about antediluvian technologies and their gradual expiry, I hope you’re looking into the future too, because this is a constant—when I was a kid there were older guys who’d go on and on about how they did things in the old days (for one thing, photo papers were always better in the old days—now, then, and forever), and some day you’ll be hearing about the last inkjet printer or the last digital camera with a reflex mirror being discontinued or whatever, and you’ll be going on about how you remember when a million pixels was such a big deal it needed a new word, and the kids then will roll their eyes. Plus ça change….
Mike
(Thanks to Chris)
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Mar
08
2010
Canon Rebates
My friend at B&H Photo tells me that B&H is offering some fantastic rebates on some Canon products.
Mike
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