On Thursday 28-Feb I ventured down to Minato Mirai Station in Yokohama for the recent edition of the Camera & Photo Imaging Show 2019. I always enjoy the exhibition and hubbub of vendors mixing with photo buffs... a little something for everyone.
First some updates...
- Nikon was promoting the Z7 & Z6 with a couple of new Z mount lenses, in particular the new NIKKOR Z 58mm f/0.95 S Noct. With the exception of the Z-Mount lenses, as of 28-Feb there were no new dSLR or P&S announcements. According to the Nikon reps there will be a Z-series firmware update in May to allow eye activated focus... where you look through the finder will be the focus point.
- The activity in the Pentax / Ricoh booth was centered on the THETA (see photo below) and the new GR III. The latter will be in stores (Japan and selected countries) on 15-March. It's an APS-C sensor camera with 34MP, shake reduction, and touch screen... no Full Frame.
- Cosina VC had three new lenses... the Nokton 50mm f/2 ASPH and 21mm f/1.4 ASPH both in E-mount, plus a 'Vintage Line' 75mm f/1.5 in M-mount.
- Fuji was showing their new XT-30 (available in March 2019) that features 425 focus points, faster auto focus, and electronic view finder. The staff and documentation regarding support software was a little tricky as I found out by going back and forth between the Fuji and SilkiPix booths. The XT-30 brochure states that both "Capture One Express" and "Fujifilm X Raw Studio" are free... the latter is downloadable from the Fuji website. However in detail we realized that the X Raw Studio only works with the camera teathered to the computer... the processing engine is in the camera some bits of the application are on the PC and only by working together you get the Raw converter to work... the PC bits are a limited set of functions (similar to something like Canon's DPP)... no one knew which camera bodies work and/or what computer specs are needed to support the solution. Good luck with that.
- Zeiss was showing the ZX1 a fixed lens Full Frame solution with a 35mm f/2 lens. No other details were available during my visit to the Zeiss booth (see photo below).
- Hasselblad did not have a booth but had sales representation in the DJI Booth as Hasselblad is supplying lenses for DJI Drones... One of the Hassy sales reps was showing a Hasselblad XCD back with an ALPA adapter and if memory serves me a Rodenstock lens (see photo below)... that "kit" comes in at around Yen 2,300,000+... ouch, that's a bite. At the end of the day I am still a Hassy fan...
So I saved the 'usual' photos for last...
Playing with the THETA
Zeiss had something new...
The Zeiss ZX1
The Hassy XCD with adapter