Fotomässan 2008 report
Visited “Fotomässan 2008″ - the largest photo expo of the year here in Sweden. No news or surprises, but here are some impressions and thoughts. One thing that was clear was the heavy dominance of Canon and Nikon. Their monters were by far the largest and most popular. You had to wait in line to handle the products, while at Pentax, Sony, Olympus and Panasonic things were more relaxed, to use a positive expression.
One of the products I was curious about was the Panasonic G1, the first Micro Four Thirds camera. How small was it, and how good was the electronic viewfinder? Well, not quite as small as I had thought. In hand it did not feel that much smaller than a compact DSLR, like a Nikon D40/60 or a Canon Xt. The viewfinder was very big and bright with the advantages of an EVF and also some of the disadvantages, although Panasonic has made a good job minimizing them. But for instance, if you point the camera at a dark corner you see the noise in the VF, which is a little disturbing.
Another aspect I wondered about was the “premium camera” feel. The high quality build of the “Panasonic/Leicas” has made Panasonic popular among many serious photographers. Could the G1 be the high-tech, modern Leica? My opinion - not really. A well built camera, but not on the level of a say a Nikon D300 or a Canon 50D. More close to the Nikon D40/Canon Xt category. And there is the problem for the G1. How to motivate a higher price point compared to the many really excellent entry level DSLRs on the market?
I think the next version of the G1 with HD video capacity will be more interesting. It will have some serious functionality advantages over video enabled DSLRs like the Nikon D90 or Canon 5DII for shooting video, like the EVF and AF.
Next stop: Olympus. The E-420 with a mounted pancake was compact and nice, although the thicker body of the DSLR design made it feel a little more bulky than classic compact SLRs with pancakes (for instance Pentax ME/MX with a 40 2.8 or Nikon EM with a 50 1.8 series E). The viewfinder was very small though, compared to the Nikon D90 I had with me. I took a new look at the Olympus E-3. I have a little soft spot for Olympus, and considered the E-3 before I decided on a Nikon D300 about a year ago. But my impression stands - the E-3 does not have quite the refined feel of the E-1, although I am sure it is very good camera. The problem is that there are so many good cameras around in the semi-pro cropped sensor category these days.
Noticed again the annoying placement of the on-off switch on the back of the camera.
Sony -played with the A900. The big prism was looking bulky in a pleasant way. Nice FF viewfinder, easy to focus. But the 50 2.8 macro lens mounted on the camera gave a very plastic impression. Not something you would want to mount on a 3.000 euros camera.
Canon - handled the 50D. Nice and well built, the shutter had a little odd, dry sound to it. The 70-300 IS lens that was mounted did not have silent focus, which surprised me a little.
The 50 1.2L and 85 1.2L looked great - hope Nikon will introduce similar lenses.
The 5DII generated the most interest. After waiting a while it was our turn. Playing with the film function, it felt just as filming with the D90, a little awkvard with the LCD as the viewfinder. Otherwise the optical viewfinder was nice, it was easy to manually focus the 24-70 2.8 that was attached. Same bad positioning of the on-off switch as on the Olympus, but that is not new.
On a big LCD TV a HD video was rolling. A demonstration of the Canon 5DIIs video feature we thought. And it did look good even though compression artefacts was visible close up. Sharp, vibrant colors, but not quite a film feel, probably because of the 30 fps vs 24 fps of real film. Then we learned that the film actually came from a Canon SX1 IS, not a 5DII. We were so impressed that we had to take a look at the camera. 20x zoom and wideangle (28-560) and high quality HD video, decent price. Not bad. However, the size was not far from the Panasonic G1, and the coming G1 HD will probably be better in both the stills and video department (but probably more expensive of course).
Canon later showed a 5DII video for a large audience. It was shot at night on a train, showcasing the low light ability. The presenter remarked that the MacBook computer he was running it on wasnt powerful enough to play the film perfectly smooth. I have personally not noticed any problems with the 5DII video samples I have downloaded and played on my own MacBook Pro. However, it says something about the hardware demands of HD video.
Nikon - lots of people. Played with a D700. Felt excellent with confidence inspiring build, but also a little heavy. Tried the 60 2.8 AF-S Micro and the new 50 1.4 AF-S. The AF of 60 hunted a bit too much to be useful as a normal lens for my taste, while the 50 1.4 was very fast with a very bright view - my choice of those two.
Also tried a D3 with the 24-70 2.8. Very impressive - but the weight… If you are not a professional, you must be very motivated to carry a rig like that around. My personal opinion of course.
