The annual pre-PhotoPlus Roundup...

[Daniel W.]

Spent the afternoon speaking with a few company reps on campus (and playing with new toys) and just wanted to pass along the little bits I picked up here and there. I'm planning to head to NYC for Photo Plus too, I'm sure there's some cool stuff to be had there.:

• Olympus is 98% focused on mirrorless as far as the non-P&S market goes. As of now there are no plans for releasing a new DSLR, but they know that mirrorless does not hold enough of a market share to be profitable enough to support the division. Something inbetween (mini-DSLR form factor Micro 4/3 came up, since the initial release for the E-Px series was "retro" looks.")
• Canon reps are hinting that a 5D renewal may not come this year, due to a number of things but market value and overseas disruption being among the possibilities
• Wescott has re-done the Apollo (this is the 3rd or 4th refresh across the product's lifetime) to include a bit stronger construction with where the ribs attach to the fabric of the softbox and they are well aware of the fragility of the ribs. However, fiberglass ribs (like they use in the new giant parabolic umbrella) is not in the works now. They're also coming out with a strip and octa version with similar operation to the Apollo!!!! These will be at PhotoPlus (and I'll try to get shots).
• Leica is building a new factory in Wetzlar! Right now the S2 is selling much better than anticipated.
• Nothing too new from Kodak in regards to product line. They've got some new UV-cured transparency / backlit stuff, and a new electro-print surface that is very close to E-surface, but double sided! From the sample they had out, it wasn't too heavy and looked great in book form, pretty nice quality too!

As far as favorites go, I'm a big fan of the Snake Arm from Manfrotto, just because it looks cool!

[shnitz]

Thanks for the heads up. I have some thoughts with regards to Olympus. Their top of the line E5 SLR just came out this year. Even if they had the same lightning fast product release cycles as Nikon and Canon, they still wouldn't be already updating it with something new, and they've pretty much stated that their full-pro is the only SLR line they plan on supporting. Now, they just need to perfect Live View phase detect autofocus and make a camera with both that and the current contrast-detect, like the new Nikon 1 cameras have (although who knows how well they've implemented it, as of now). This will allow them to continue support for the more serious 4/3 lenses, while having a larger user base to sell to. You should see the size of some lenses that people are adapting onto their micro 4/3 cameras, haha. At a certain point, you'd think they would just buy a backup SLR body.

As far as a new body, what the rumor mill has been churning out is that Olympus needs something larger than the E-P3, with more on-body controls, a handgrip, and a built-in viewfinder. This has been clamored for since the beginning in the micro 4/3 forums. Basically, they want Olympus to make a camera similar to the Panasonic GH2. I agree with them. I have a Panasonic G2, and as an SLR user, I wouldn't give up the absence of a viewfinder, or the control layout unless I was going very small (although, again, not to start a brand war, but if Nikon was able to preserve all of that in a camera the size of the V1 . . .)

-The 5D II may be 3 years old, but it's still performing wonderfully. I don't see it getting much better for photographers. The only glaring upgrades I could really see are better high ISO performance (as always), but without sacrificing low native ISO. Also, the new sensor should probably be better at video for those who are into that (with regards to the jello effect).

-Do you know if the Leica factory is going to make anything more towards us regular peoples, or is it going to be dedicated towards studio equipment like that $30,000 S2?

[Daniel W.]

Nope but I'll make sure to ask in October! But I don't think Lecia has ever made anything for "regular peoples." You gotta be pretty special to buy into the ubiquitous Red Dot. (In a good way, naturally.)

I've used the S2, and I think its quite utilitarian. Decent battery life, great form factor. for $30k...