Photokina 2012 - The Press Day

Traditionally the day before Photokina is a press day, filled with overlapping press meetings from dawn till late night. As I am not (any more) a journalist and don´t have (any more) a press card, I (can) only visit those meetings I am invited to attend. This year I dropped by at Olympus, Canon and finished the day at Leica party. The exact information and specs of all the new stuff can be found all over the internet and on manufacturer sites. I am not going to copy them here. Just some notes from my point of view.

Olympus

The new PENs have just the same capability as OM-D if you think about purely about image quality potential. Same sensor, same processor. Although they look superficially the same as earlier PENs, they are totally new cameras. Of course they are otherwise stripped down in many ways if you compare to OM-D. No EVF, IBIS works only 2-ways and so on.

New PENs have a really nice and working connectivity through Toshiba´s new Flash Air card. The card creates automatically a password protected hotspot which is just as automatically found by iPhone and Android phones. Olympus has a free app for both platforms. This app reads automatically thumbnails from the card inside camera and then you can choose what to do with images; save them in phone, send them to facebook or other social media, send as emails, send to Apple photo stream or what ever. Flash Air hotspot is turned on and off in camera so it draws power from camera battery only when needed. Olympus app will be downloadable in October when cameras start shipping and Toshiba Flash Air card is included with each PEN.

You can use Flash Card and Olympus app also with OM-D but there is no password protection and the card is on all the time if camera has power on. Hopefully we have firmware update for Flash Air support for OM-D and suitable older models. This was one of my requests for Mr. Terada from Olympus.

Olympus intoduced a new, black mFT 15mm f/8 Lens Cap. They really call this lens as Lens Cap and it is listed as among accessories, not lenses. It is thin as a body cap, has lens cap feature when closed and has 3 lens elements. It has two settings when open: hyperfocal focusing with DOF from 1m to far away and close-up focusing with DOF starting from 30cm up. Image quality should be almost on the same level as with kit zoom at same focal length and at best aperture which is not bad at all. Price starting at 79€ but I guess it will soon be more like 50€ or given away as an extra.

Previously announced mFT 60mm f/2.8 Macro is now ready to be shipped. It focuses up to 1:1 magnification. This black lens is weather sealed and has internal focusing. The focusing mechanism is the most complex of any Olympus internal focusing systems including zooms. There are three groups that move relatively to each other by stepper motors while focusing. Actually the lens is surprisingly light and small, even filter thread is 46mm. I have been told from inside Olympus development that the image quality is better than with the famed FT 50mm f/2 Macro. Price is set at 499€. Lens hood, which is a very clever collapsible model, is not included. It should be, even if the price was slightly higher. As said, 60mm Macro is ready to be shipped and I was promised a test example next week.

Olympus showed a working prototype of mFT 17mm f/1.8 wide angle. This lens has similar construction (no weather sealing), finish and snap manual focusing feature as mFT 12mm f/2 lens. It is shorter but a little fatter than 24mm lens as seen in the image above. Again I have been told that image quality is very high, although I heard yesterday it being compared to a lens which I do not see as high enough in my scale... Hopefully expectations are fulfilled as this is for me THE most expected lens of all, otherwise I will be VERY, VERY, VERY disappointed. I should be getting a test example later this year and shipments should start early next year. I know that many of you don´t like it but the color is silver only at this point.

And then there is also the already infamous Limited Edition Black 12mm f/2 lens. The price with matching black metal lens hood and metal lens cap is an outrageous 1000 euros. In my book this fact is just as stupid as Hasselblad Lunar. Olympus, this not the way to treat enthusiast and pro shooters! Luckily we in Finland have the reasonable Olympus Finland which has set for every black 12mm set, which they can import, a price of 850 euros. Sadly they could get less than 100 sets.

Olympus has upgraded XZ-1 into a more ambitious XZ-2.

One thing I also have researched lately is video sound, and I have tried these Olympus recorders. Sadly I have not enough knowledge and background experience to write about my experiences as yet.

Canon

Canon introduced EOS 6D, which is their smallest and lightest full frame DSLR. It has also built in GPS and wifi. If I was still interested in this camera category for my own use, I would be very interested in EOS 6D. Looks and feels good. When I compare EOS 6D to Nikon 600, they feel like cousins and one could see them even as twin brothers. It all depends on what you are looking for. Pricewise they also start at same level slightly above 2000€, but I would see them both dropping very soon just below 2000€. APS-C size has another dent in it´s shield.

Of all Canon news, the most interesting is Project 1709, which goes now into closed beta. This peculiar name contains a cloud service for images. For Canon it is partly about strenghtening their brand and extending their product portfolio better from equipment into service and content. Actually this extention means now the general audience as in b-to-b field Canon is there already. Canon´s cloud is not only for keeping and indexing images, it is also for printing them out as various products. And that´s one area where Canon is strong with its printers and digital printing machines. The screenshot above shows how you can build a timeline of images inside Project 1709.

Other than these and new printers Canon had excellent food, company and weather at their 25th Anniversary of EOS System at Rheinterrassen.

Leica

Directly from Canon it was time to move to Hall 1, which is now taken by Leica. While Canon presentation was typically Canon, which means strict company hierarchy plus slide with three points after slide with three points, Leica was very casual and smiling.

More than smiling, it was also touching when Nick Ut and Kim Phuc were called on stage. In 1972 Kim Phuc was 9 years old when she and her brothers and cousins were hit by American bombing during the Vietnam war. Kim Phuc was burned by napalm. Nick Ut was then a 22 years old photojournalist who took pictures of them running away from continuing bomb blasts. Nick went on to drive Kim Phuc to hospital and only after doing this took care of his images. One of images with naked and burnt Kim Phuc in the center, and those other children, some soldiers and bombing around her, caught the attention of everyone who saw it. Nick won Pulitzer Prize and this image is now part of our collective memory.

Later Nick Ut traced down Kim Phuc and helped her in her life and they have stayed in touch. Kim Ut was now awarded into Leica Hall of Fame. To see these two people on stage and hear their stories about this image (which I have seen so many times) and their lives was already worth coming to Cologne.

After this, the lights went on and we had the chance to see the extensive photgraphy exhibition Leica has gathered in their Hall. Well done Leica, superb!

Leica introduced also new products:

- Paul Smith designed Leica X2 version, which, for me, means just a very colorful color scheme. However, for me the Leica way of pimping camera models is kind of honest way to do it as they don´t pretend to be anything else than what they are. Leicas.

- The Leica M, THE real news, which is now a true full format mirrorless system camera. It can be used as a traditional rangefinder camera but just as well as a modern fully digital camera with EVF and live view monitor for both stills and HD video.

- The Leica M-E, which is slightly stripped down and adjusted successor of M9

- The Leica S, which is a slightly scaled down and enchanced version of previous model S2.

Leica is getting rid of model numbering in their earlier fashion of M8 > M9 > etc. Leica M is from now on Leica M just like Porsche 911 has always been Porsche 911.

New products caused a huge hulabaloo around them with everyone taking zillions of pictures. And then everyone was ready to party!

But now, I must leave to a meeting at Leica Hall where I have a better chance to see and try new cameras. Maybe more of them later...

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Photokina 2012 - Some last thoughts before show

My Photokina starts "officially" on Monday morning at 11am with Olympus press meeting. Then it goes on with Canon in the afternoon and Leica in the evening. Right now I can´t write about any possible product details but there will of course be new stuff coming. I have known for a few weeks what Olympus has in their pocket. Leica is taking wholly new steps but stays very much Leica, so don´t worry Leica shooters. Unlike many other companies, Leica has kept all their product images in-house and thus avoided seeing them published at internet rumor sites. Breaking NDAs seems to be one of the more popular hobbies these days.

During the next days I have several meetings, some of them just to keep in touch and exchange information. Of these I mention here one in particular. I have on Tuesday a meeting with Mr. Toshi Terada, who is Manager of SLR Product & Marketing Planning Department at Olympus. There has been so much writing about Olympus FT series future and FT-mFT merger in the internet that now is your chance: be free to send me questions to ask, preferably as comments to this blog. Of course you can ask anything regarding Olympus system cameras FT or mFT. But as you know companies do not tell about future steps and camera models too much in advance. So be realistic in your expectations and think about what to ask if you really want it answered. Also my hands are tied (by me) in what I will write because the better I keep confidentiality the more I will get to know. That´s the name of the game, for me at least.

My Photokina ends "officially" at Canson Infinity booth. I will be there presenting a swollen "combined Photokina version" of my print portfolios and telling about my photography and my experiences on printing on Canson Infinity materials. Canson Infinity is in Hall 6.1 and I will be there on Thursday afternoon and all day on Friday and Saturday. You can even have one or two of your images printed there. Please come in to say hello, if you happen to be visiting Photokina during those days.

Trends

Looking at what has been already published (and of course I´m reading rumor sites, too) I see a few trends happening:

Connectivity: More and more cameras will be connected to social media or the internet in general. Wifi is naturally an obvious method but it also is not a sure and easy way for those who are not familiar with managing wifi connections. Mobile cell phone technology is more likely the future.

Mirrorless: Reflex or mirror cameras are going out. They are not vanishing today because they still are better than mirrorless cameras for many applications but eventually they will lose. And I think it actually happens faster than we now think.

Narrowing market for APS-C DSLRs: Sort of related to above. Several and ever cheaper full frame (24x36mm) DSLRs are being introduced and on the other hand mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras are getting ever more capable and more popular. 

Large sensor compacts: With Sony RX-1, a full frame 35mm focal length compact camera, we now have the camera I was asking Canon to make for a few years. They didn´t (the price would have been too high then), Sony did, and I´m tempted... Sensor prices have gone down. The size of sensor and electronics in not an issue. Human factor and ergonomics dictate the body size and then the lens size is dictated by sensor size with the aimed for image quality, lens speed and other parameters of the lens.

Dying market for low-end compacts: Cell phones are killing low end compacts. Period. We buy more than 1.8 billion cell phones with camera this year. Next year even more. We are going to use a dedicated camera only when we want a "better" picture. Seeing this companies are concentrating their efforts in high end compacts.

Large sensor video cameras: I think the era of DSLR as video camera came and went already. They showed the possibilities and also the missing ergonomics. Hybrid cameras are here to stay for us who want to mix it but for anything more ambitious video work a dedicated video body (and dedicated lenses) is better and eventually (with rigs and mics and all) not more expensive. 

Higher lens prices: Lens prices are going up with more megapixels in sensors. There simply is no way to make cheap, high quality lenses. There is no way to keep lens prices the same if they must keep out resolving more megapixels. Electronics gets cheaper, lenses get more expensive. Canon´s new 24-70mm zoom is an excellent example of this trend, very high image quality, more than double the price. To counter this we will see ingenuity in software corrections. We will see variable lens structures where stepper motors move more lenses than just needed for focusing and/or zooming. And of course we will see more lenses with good lens elements but cheap mechanical construction.

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How Crazy is Leica

Leica introduced last night a refreshingly new camera which has already raised lots of comments in internet forums. Most of comments are telling how crazy and stupid Leica is to introduce a camera like that. And too expensive it is also, of course.

Leica M Monochrom

That´s the name of this new camera. Actually it´s not all new, mostly a version of the regular M9. For the tech people, that is. The biggest difference is using a monochrome sensor. This camera can take only black and white images. Inherently all camera sensors (except for constructions like Foveon) are actually black and white. They are enabled to take color images by a red-green-blue filter array in front of sensor. While giving the advantage of getting color images, this filter array has also several negative effects. It blocks light, a lot of it, it makes resolution worse and it causes all kinds of artefacts. These artefacts are dampened usually by adding another filter in front of sensor, namely anti-aliasing or low pass filter, which hides the artifacts by making the image even more soft. 

So, if you want to shoot primarily black and white images with you are left with a crippled camera. This is where M Monochrom comes in. It gives you the true quality of the latest iteration of M9 sensor. Better resolution, better dynamic range, higher noise free ISOs, cleaner gradations etc. You only need to like shooting the Leica way and have 20.000 euros to spend. That´s the approximate price of body and three Leica lenses including the new 50mm Apo-Summicron lens.

Why Apo? In a color image you can correct chromatic aberration afterwards in software. In a black and white image you can´t, you get just softer details. I have not tested yet but I would not be surprised if M Monochrom with Apo-Summicron would give the sharpest images ever in 35mm cameras.

What tech minded people tend to forget is that shooting color or black and white images are two totally different things. Too often we see comments like: I made it black and white because it wasn't good in color! Actually very seldom an image will be good in black and white if you can´t tweak it good as a color image. Black and white is about light and form. You have to be able to see the light and use the form. In color you can use those also, but you can also go without them and work just with the color. I know black and white shooters who like EVFs because they can see what they get in black and white. What you really miss with a black and white camera is the ability to tweak tonality by the colors in software. 

Very common thought, especially with amateurs, is that you should be able to shoot everything with your camera. It is okay. But also it is a mental road block if you want to become good in anything. You have to concentrate, get rid of a lot. I have shot the same way for decades. My criteria for a camera is: can I use it my way? I am a color shooter, but a camera like M Monochrom moves me because it is so much about single minded photography. Nothing else.

X2

Leica introduced also two more cameras last night. Of them X2 has a couple of interesting features. Not really as a camera for me but as something happening behind the scenes. At their web site Leica downplays their new EVF for X2. It is called Viso-Flex according to Leica tradition. Leica used to co-operate with Panasonic, and still does, but this Viso-Flex is actually Olympus VF-2 up to electric contacts. They are interchangeable, which means there must be Olympus electronics also inside X2. It´s AF system is far better than what previous model X1 had. Where did Leica buy their AF system for X2? ;-)

More info and images on these cameras at Leica.com and sites like dpreview.com

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Leica lenses on Olympus PEN

Leica Cruise gave me an opportunity to test some Leica-M Lenses I had not tried before. These were Summilux-M 21mm f/1.4 Asph, Summarit-M 90mm f/2.5 and Apo-Telyt-M 135mm f/3.4 Asph. I shot some images with both M9 and Olympus E-P2.

Some observations

All these lenses are superbly made. Both focusing and aperture rings move firmly but smoothly and aperture clicks are easy to count and set. Intermediate values can be used. These lenses are smallish but heavier than many others because they have no cheap lightweight materials.

On Leica M9 21mm Summilux lens protrudes a long way into viewfinder image and makes composing less than intuitive.  At least I needed to turn the camera all the time to the right to check where lower right hand corner might be and which objects fall into picture and which ones are cut out. Focusing is superbly easy. With 21mm lens you need lots of practise to learn to ”see” compostion already before you look into M9 viewfinder. As you can see from image above, 90mm Summarit is small and compact with M9. Also viewfinder image is still usable. But with 135mm Telyt viewfinder crop is way too small for me. If you are fancying a Leica M9, it should not be because of any subjects needing a 135mm focal length.

On Olympus E-P2 I had a Novoflex Leica-M to MFT adapter. With it I can use any Leica-M lens. Because of E-P2´s smaller sensor, focal lengths are effectively doubled. So, 21mm on E-P2 corresponds to a 42mm lens on M9 (or any FF DSLR), 90mm corresponds to 180mm and 135mm to 270mm. With E-P2 there are no viewfinder worries because electronic viewfinder VF-2 gives an unobstructed 100% view with every lens. I used aperture priority mode all the time with these lenses and manual focusing is quite easy with Summilux and Apo-Telyt. Summarit 90mm does not give an equally contrasty viewfinder image wide open and I had some problems with focusing correctly. One of E-P2 benefits with Leica-M lenses is that you see the real depth of field all the time. The other benefit is ease of setting correct exposure because you can see also that all the time.

Image quality

To put it shortly, 135mm Apo-Telyt on M9 is an outstanding lens in this respect. Summarit is softer wide open but gets it´s act together from f/4 on. Summilux is very good except for corners. This I must say is kind of relative because M9´s resolution is so brilliant. You can see the difference between center and corners easier than with AA-filtered DSLRs. Even offset microlenses can´t fully compensate here for oblique light. Also a super wide-angle lens like 21mm tends to give images that have lots of small details. There was some moiré, which I find correctable in post processing.

On E-P2 Summilux 21mm becomes a mediocre 42mm lens. It proves again the maxim: 35mm is the widest M-lens you can use on MFT cameras. Their sensors are not designed for these lenses. Center is good but corners suffer big time. Summarit 90mm is on the soft side on MFT cameras. If it is not a top notch lens wide open on M9, it becomes an awkward lens on MFT. I had focusing problems because of soft image (2x crop!), and larger apertures give you all kinds of halos and high light fringing on E-P2. Halos can be even nice for some subjects, fringing... NOT. Which leaves us Apo-Telyt. It was a total enjoyment. A very, very handy 270mm (corresponding to FF) f/3.4 lens. Great quality in pictures, I simply loved using it. Too bad there was so little time.  

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E-P2 / Apo-Telyt-M 135mm. Rocking and moving platform and subject. Still quite nice sharpness. Crop is 100%.

E-P2 / Summarit-M 90mm. Halos can be beautiful. Crop is 100%.

Leica M9 / Summilux-M 21mm. Nice panoramic effect but slight softness creeps into edges and some moiré. Crop is 100%.

Leica Partner Tour Finland 2010

Last week I attended a Leica cruise into Helsinki archipelago. The weather was perfect and we had an opportunity to discuss Leicas latest news and test Leica equipment.

Images from ship show members of press, dealers and old Leica hands. On the right Matti Hietala, a renown fashion shooter, who is Leica S2 Ambassadeur in Finland. And above him our host Foka CEO Jorma Helminen. Sigma is also one of Foka´s brands and also Sigma lenses up to the biggest ones were available.

Some observations 

Leica S2 is great. Not really bigger than my D3x. A beautiful camera to handle and shoot. Very balanced in hand. Gorgeous, big viewfinder. Fast AF. Nicely dampened mirror. I hope to find time to test it more later this year. S2 might be better suited as my ”other” camera besides Olympus E-P2 instead of FF DSLR and Mamiya645/PhaseOne combo.

Leica´s new Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 Asph was not yet available but I´ll be getting one to be tested shortly. Instead I shot Summilux-M 21mm f/1.4 Asph, Summarit-M 90mm f/2.5 and Apo-Telyt-M 135mm f/3.4 Asph lenses with both M9 and E-P2. I´ll comment more on these and show some images in my next blog. Images above are shot with E-P2 using lenses 21mm Summilux-M, 35mm Nokton f/1.2, 50mm D.Zuiko f/2.0 and 90mm Summarit-M.

Leica is doing well. They are profitable after hard years, their books are full of orders, they are expanding. I like the way they proceed with S2 building the whole system to perform alike. No weak links like so many others. M system may be (in my mind) ready for retirement but only partly. Lenses are ready and being renewed for the future.

Sigma is the strongest of independent lens makers. Their lens range is being brought up to digital standards as fast a any other brand. Lenses have grown fatter because of bigger front elements, coatings have evolved and Sigma has a new FLD low dispersion glass. It has alike qualities with Fluorite.  And SD15, it´s ready to hit the stores - if anyone is interested in crop DSLRs any more.

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