Olympus PEN E-P5 w. VF-4 Hands On Preview

Olympus is introducing today the new flagship of their PEN line, the PEN E-P5. This camera is not meant to surpass the E-M5, which has been the best mFT camera from Olympus but also belongs to another line, OM-D. However, Olympus has incorporated most of E-M5´s features into E-P5 and made some of them even better. 

Mr. Toshi Terada presenting the E-P5 to European press last month. (These presentations are the culprit of leaks like we have seen again with E-P5. Journalists and ethics...)

New PEN E-P5 is faithful to the orginal PEN F in styling. Even the size is practically the same in all three directions.

Maybe the subject line should have been first impressions. I have tried a pre-production E-P5 shortly, but then only to get those first impressions. There and then I did not take any images with me to see on computer screen because I was supposed to have an E-P5 to test in the beginning of this week. Sadly test sample shipments to Europe were postponed to next week... So, now I write about how I see E-P5 compared to OM-D E-M5 and shortly about those first impressions with camera in hands. I´ll write more after I have checked how certain features are working in practice

How is E-P5 compared to E-M5?

Technically E-P5 is roughly E-M5 minus EVF and weather sealing but with a built-in flash. As E-P5 is a newer model by a year, many features are enchanced. Here´s the list of main features compared to E-M5:

- Same sensor and processor

- New extended ISO setting LOW, which is ISO 100.

- New shutter with 1/8000 second as the fastest speed. (Equal to best DSLRs. With ISO 100 combined possible gain towards shallower DOF in bright light is 2 aperture steps compared to E-M5.)

- Shorter shutter lag: Normally 50 ms. In release mode ”Short” with IBIS off: 44 ms. (Equal to best DSLRs. Increases power consumption slightly.)

- Same 5-axis IBIS, but now with automatic detection of panning. (No need to change into special IS mode as with E-M5. Live View is also stabilized, of course.) 

- Same AF, but now with option for smaller AF points. Olympus calls it Super Spot AF. Smallest spot at 14X magnification is 1/70 th of diagonal screen length. Besides this there is also same smaller AF point as introduced in E-PL5.

- Fastest sequential shooting with AF (AF-C + Tr) is now 5 fps, and E-M5 equal 9 fps with IBIS off and AF locked to first frame.

 

- Similarly two control dials, but now complemented with a 2x2 Dial Control which doubles the functions of dials. (Example: In 2x2 Dial position (1) control dials may be for adjusting Aperture and Exposure compensation. Switching 2x2 Dial to position (2) changes control dial functions to WB and ISO. These are configurable.)

- Similar menus with same highly customizable controls.

- Start-Up is now 0.5 sec. (Fastest in mirrorless cameras. Fuji X-E1 has the same as limited feature.)

- Histogram can now be displayed during Live Bulb Shooting for assistance in adjusting the exposure.

- One-push (configurable into Fn button) switch between normal shooting and AE bracketing.

- 3.0”, markedly sharper, 1.04 million dot LCD touch-panel with fingerprint resistant coating. It is tiltable in the same way as in E-M5.

- Flash sync time for built-in flash 1/320 s.

- Mysets can be configured into Mode dial like in E-PL5.

- Same BLN-1 battery, but number of shots is up to 400 from 360 with E-M5 according to CIPA/Olympus test standard.

- Metal body with no visible screws except in the bottom plate.

Completely new features:

- New optional hi-res viewfinder VF-4. (See below.)

- Built-in WiFi with smartphone (iOS and Android; Olympus Image Share app) connectivity and interactivity. (See below.)

- Focus Peaking on MF Assist with black or white accent. Peaking can be configured to Fn button.

- Photo Story (as in Olympus XZ-10 to create template based photo montages in-camera on the go.)

-  Automatically generated time lapse movies with interval shooting function. Up to 99 shots to make a max. 10 second movie.

Other:

- Three colors: silver, black and white.

- Limited premium model with wooden grip.

- Premium accessories: Leather Camera Bag, Leather Body Jacket and Leather Strap.

Not available:

- Weather sealing.

- Optional extra grip. (Lack of extra grip is something I discussed with Mr. Toshi Terada and expressed my opinion for the need for such extra.)

Lenses:

- Now M.Zuikos 17mm F1.8, 45mm F1.8 and 75mm F1.8 will be available both in silver and black as regular options and both colors have same price.

Built-in WiFi

When the WiFi button in the upper left of the screen is touched, a private connection screen with QR code will appear. Read the camera´s QR code with a smartphone. Connection will start and smartphone shows thumbnails of all the images on cameras memory card. Easy. Images can be loaded to smartphone and shared from there.

Camera´s playback screen has also a share button. Touching share button adds share icon and these images can be viewed in smartphone with a one-time connection. Touching send button sends images. Afterwards camera can be turned off, if needed, via smartphone.

Wireless shooting via ”Touch AF Shutter”

This is a remote control function where camera´s Live View monitor can be displayed on a smartphone. By touching image on smartphone screen you can autofocus on subject and release shutter. There are two restrictions: E-P5 itself cannot be operated while connecting to WiFi and the only available shooting mode via WiFi is iAUTO.

GPS via WiFi

Another feature of built-in WiFi is transferring the GPS log acquired by your smartphone as geotags to photos in camera´s memory card.

Electric viewfinder VF-4

At the same time with E-P5 Olympus is introducing a new hi-res electric viewfinder, VF-4. It has a 2.36 million dot LCD panel, which is again markedly better than 1.44 million dots in E-M5 or VF-2. VF-4 shows 100% field of view and has 1.48X viewfinder magnification. Eye-sensor is now included in VF-4.

VF-4 is hinged in the same way as VF-2 plus it has locking pin to secure it to hot shoe.

VF-4 magnification compared to other cameras as 35mm camera equivalent magnifications: Nikon D7100 0.61X; Canon EOS 7D 0.62X; Panasonic GH3 0.67X; Nikon D800/D4 0.70X; NEX-7 0.71X; VF-4 0.74X; Canon EOS 1DX 0.76X.

This new EVF has big optics which means also sharp and distortion-free image up to the corners. Looking through VF-4 made me quite happy.

More technical stuff: Image display time lag is 32 ms, eye sensor switching time lag 0.4 s. VF-4 will be compatible with earlier Olympus mFT bodies with an upcoming firmware update for each body. And yes, VF-2 and VF-3 are compatible with E-P5.

Photo from back shows how big the eye piece is. Also eye sensor is visible here. VF-4 has practically the same measurements as VF-2, it only looks boxier. 

Hands-on

When OM-D came, shooting with it felt cramped until I got horizontal grip. That was because I was used to shoot with E-P3 and VF-2. VF-2 sits higher on E-P3 than OM-D´s EVF relative to shutter. Horizontal grip on E-M5 moves right hand slightly forward, adjusts wrist angle and corrects the right hand position, at least for me. Now with E-P5 and VF-4 everything felt very natural. Thumb rest gives support and both dials are easy to use when camera is on eye. I only miss a somewhat bigger grip than E-P5 has now. It would support fingers when camera is hanging with wrist strap.

VF-4 is a big improvement, literally. Viewfinder image is so big, nice and sharp. The difference was most obvious when I raised my E-M5 on eye again.

That´s all I can say for now. Shooting technique with E-P5 plus VF-4 is not really different from shooting with E-M5 because of similar configurability. More on this later.

Olympus E-M5 plus 17mm F1.8 lens. Key West, Florida, USA, 2013

Personally

Of course, with E-P5 plus VF-4 the technical quality or even style of my images would not change in practice compared to E-M5. For me E-P5 is not really different from E-M5 there. The difference is in seeing through camera, the experience. VF-4 would help in focusing and precise composing. This would definitely be the biggest helper and change here. Related to this, the shorter shutter lag would help with VF-4 when composing things which are moving in viewfinder area. These are the most important improvements over E-M5. 

Of other features I would pick ISO 100, but the image quality and possibly limited DR must be seen first. Also every now and then doubling of dial functions by 2x2 switch, 1/8000s shutter speed and automatic panning detection could be handy. I would not miss weather sealing but the missing extra grip is worth complaining. And again, that´s just me, my preferences.

Compared to any previous PEN, E-P5 plus VF-4 is a huge improvement.

The next OM-D 

For some of us E-P5 actually moves our expectations to the next model in OM-D line. I know pretty much what will be the big highlight of this body. Quite obvious to everyone seeing E-P5 should be that the next OM-D series model goes well above E-M5 in features. Incorporating VF-4 should be just one of them. And that is all I can say now...

Prices in Europe and availability

E-P5 body = 990 €  /  E-P5 + 14-42mm zoom kit = 1099 €  /  E-P5 + 14-42mm zoom + VF-4 kit = 1249 €  /  E-P5 + 17mm F1.8 + VF-4 kit = 1449 €  /  VF-4 = 279 €. These will be available during the lastter part of June. There is no E-P5 + 17mm F1.8 kit like some rumor sites have speculated. 

-p-

Olympus E-PL5 beats OM-D hands down! Or?

The internet and the truth, oh well! Sharks swimming in hurricane Sandy´s flood waters at somebody´s backyard. Wow! Olympus E-PL5 having one stop more dynamic range than OM-D. Wow! Olympus E-PL5 having no low-pass filter. Wow! I´m really not speaking here about hurricane damages and some digital cameras in the same context but wondering about the dynamics of the internet. How one post in the internet can cumulate into something big, worldwide and very true. There were sharks swimming in many places, like in flood water among running cars, already during hurricane Irene. So, it is only natural that from now on we see sharks swimming in peculiar places when ever there is a flood.

Blatant faking of reality is of course one thing and honest (miss-)drawing of conclusions is another. Which leads into these two cameras. E-PL5 is the newest in PEN series from Olympus. According to Olympus it has same sensor and same processor and same image quality as their flag ship mirrorless, the OM-D. But, as you know, camera factories simply are not reliable. We have already one test showing that E-PL5 has one stop better dynamic range than OM-D. Also we have now information that E-PL5 has no low-pass filter (while OM-D has). And both facts are circulating the internet as - yes, as facts. 

Olympus (like others) has been developing their anti-moiré algorithms all the time to make ever thinner low-pass filters possible. That´s good for image sharpness. Already OM-D has a relatively thin low-pass filter and the importance of algorithms is easy to see if you convert an OM-D RAW file in Olympus Viewer 2 or Adobe Lightroom 4. Viewer 2 software removes moiré nicely while in Lightroom you need to do manual corrections quite often. Viewer 2 gives also an option to leave anti-moiré off. Also all the other parameters can be set exactly the same. This gives us a great possibility to compare these two cameras which have same sensors but the other is with low-pass filter and the other with none, presumably. The difference should be obvious and it is seen below.

Doing tests is difficult because you have to be sure that what you get is what you were after. That´s why I usually even do not show those vertical lines in my reviews . They are more sensitive to the slightest differencies in camera or sensor angles than anything else. Here I know the slight difference we see in them comes from changing the camera, or maybe the sensors in these two individual camera bodies are not absolutely perfectly aligned when compared with each other. Other than that, the only thing we can see in these two images is that there really is no difference at all. Yes, there are very, very slight differencies but they can come from so many little deviations. What I can say is that there is a similar low-pass filter in BOTH cameras or in neither. The former is true here. Actually it is quite amazing that these two camera bodies, one OM-D and one E-PL5, produce such outstandingly similar results! And that is the only thing which surprised me. Tolerancies in making these cameras must be very small.

Okay we have now busted one myth, unless I faked these test target images, of course ;-)

The other claim was that E-PL5 has a one stop advancement in dynamic range over OM-D. I shot this same test target to see dynamic range over a range of 14 stops. Neither of these cameras do not have such a range, of course. I only wanted to be sure. Again, the results were just alike as above. Every pair of similarly exposed images is just as close to each other as above. There is no difference in dynamic ranges between these two cameras. And that´s it! 

-p- 

Olympus 15mm f/8 - Walking the Dog and Having Fun

Olympus 15mm f/8 is a tiny lens, extending only 9 mm from camera body. It has a closing mechanism and when closed it is like a body cap. Olympus even calls it Body Cap Lens. When opened it can be manually focused with the lever under the lens. End points are at infinity and 30 cm. Close to infinity is a hyperfocal setting which gives sharpness starting from 1m upwards. Aperture is set at f/8. The idea is to use hyperfocal setting for general shooting. When close up near to 30 cm you can actually try focusing with the lever.

The lens has three elements. Opitically it is okayish, I would say almost but not as good as kit zoom at the same focal length. I have not tried them head to head but will check that later.

What is it for?  

I have seen several threads in the internet starting with the same message: I don´t understand what´s the point with this lens. Well, it depends what you are after. If you have Zuiko M. 17mm f/2.8 or Lumix 14mm f/2.5, you don´t gain anything with this lens but even better pocketability and instant lens cap. You can use both of those lenses at f/8, with fixed focus and get almost the same field of view plus do a lot more. And they are sharper, too. But then, there is a certain effect with some equipment. An effect which shapes how you shoot with it. This lens is one of those. It forces you to play with its terms or suffer. It is kind of a one trick pony with all it´s restrictions, but an interesting one.

Olympus is marketing it to be "ready for capturing wide-angle shots whenever a photo opportunity comes your way". Actually not really. Aperture f/8 is far too dim to be usable (without flash) casually in a traditional P&S style whenever, if you expect normally sharp images. You really have to set your eye and mind to f/8 and work with the consequensies of it, namely blur. Or then use flash as a signature, which also is interesting, but I have not yet been there with this lens.

Walking the dog

That´s what I do every morning. And it gave me a chance to do my first test for an idea for a particular shooting style with this lens. I attached 15mm lens to my old and trusty E-P2. I set E-P2 to shoot B&W jpeg with Auto-ISO up to ISO 1600. These 34 images are a short story from four morning walks:

 

-p-

Discussion with Mr. Terada

During Photokina I had a meeting with Toshiyuki Terada, Manager and Group Leader of the Product and Marketing Planning Group from Olympus Imaging Corp. Present at the meeting were also Julia Rauther, Communications Manager from Olympus Europe and Henrik Tanabe, Product Manager from Olympus Finland. Our meeting was not really an interview, because as such interviews seldom lead to any new information beyond company FAQ, but a somewhat crisscrossing discussion on various issues and backgrounds on mFT and also FT when the latter had relevance with mFT. That's why this text is also written in the form of my synthesis of discussion. 

We started by looking at some of my images, shot with PEN and OM-D bodies and various lenses. Mr. Terada was most interested in seeing OM-D images. These images led into comments on several usability issues.

One of them was of course the present ability to use FT lenses only with quite restricted AF capabilities with mFT cameras. We agreed on the great value invested in FT lenses, both for Olympus and for owners of FT lenses, me included. I have been using mostly 12-60 mm zoom, 50 mm macro and 150 mm tele lenses but also tested various lenses from 9 to 300 mm plus tele extenders. A few weeks ago I met Mr. Akira Watanabe from Olympus Imaging and he told me that there will be new bodies with which FT lenses will have their real AF performance. Now Mr. Terada gave me a similar, very strong assurance for the future usability of FT lenses. The words were different as Mr. Watanabe told me exactly how he sees FT lenses´ AF capabilities  being integrated with future bodies. Because of confidentiality I can't write more on this. Now the situation was more official and Mr. Terada was not as candid on how this integration will be implemented and used more words like "investigate", "research", "discuss" and "no decision (on particular implementation) yet". Even so the message was clear

Thinking about expansion of OM-D series, there are two directions. One is filling the obvious gap between latest PENs and EM-5. And the other is the need for a (more) professional OM-D body. Which one of these will be coming first was not answered. Also filling the gap between these two series may come from either direction, as a more advanced camera belonging to PEN series or as a less advanced camera belonging to OM-D series. I would go for the first option, but that's just my hunch.

As a sensor issue I asked why there is no ISO 100 in OM-D as it has a Sony sensor. Mr. Terada replied that he can not discuss where the sensor is from. What he told is that they chose a sensor design which has image quality emphasis on higher ISO values rather than having a low base ISO. Lack of ISO 100 is not based on the programming of the sensor but comes from sensor's actual qualities and its base ISO is at 200.

One thing which I sort of sensed during our conversation was that life has been tough at Olympus R&D. There are problems created somewhere else, and I read between the lines that some features or lack of them in products have been born rather out of necessity to deliver products now than out of a longer term continuum and plan. Olympus has been struggling and stretching their resources to survive. Now, a week later, we know that sensor technology from Sony is part of the new agreement between Olympus and Sony. Already during our discussion Mr. Terada told that technologies like PDAF (phase detecting auto focus) on sensor and focus peaking are available for them, although "no decision yet" about usage.

I, personally,  am not too sure of either. I have used Sony NEX-7 and tried Leica M. Focus peaking is not reliable in either of them unless you use magnification and then peaking is not really needed. PDAF elements on sensor are dead pixels for the actual image. To make PDAF fast and reliable you need lots of PDAF pixels, eventually lots of areas of pixels on sensor, which means dead areas in actual image. All these must be filled in with interpolated data from surrounding pixels. The better PDAF on sensor you make, the more it affects image quality. The more and the smaller focusing points you want, the more you suffer in image quality. Mr. Terada agreed on my concerns but obviously there is a strong demand for both of these features because of marketing reasons. However, it is not widely realised that some present PDAF on sensor systems like the one in Canon EOS-M (and EOS D650) can only give the initial direction in which to start focusing to and CDAF (contrast detecting) system takes care of the rest. I would still guess that both, PDAF on sensor and focus peaking, will be seen in future Olympus bodies, although this was not said explicitly.

(Another short term solution - while not actually discussed here - with the same basic aim would be a Sony style lens adapter with traditional PDAF elements. It also has limitations like e.g. in Sony's case the PDAF sensors, because of the size of adapter, are smaller, less sensitive and accurate, than the sensors Sony has inside camera bodies. Also this kind of adapter must have a fixed mirror which takes away one third of light from sensor.)

To support a real professional OM-D system, a pro service network is needed. That's something which is not cheap to set up. For a plain "pro" features body such service is, of course, not needed. Among features discussed was ETTR, exposure to the right.  I would like to see a system based on the actual and native ETTR exposure information directly from sensor or raw file, instead of what now is possible only by using demosaiced "jpeg" values and lots of menu tweaking. Technically there is nothing preventing such a system, and Mr. Terada wrote many things down in his notebook. I also understood that showing live view exposure warnings before exposure is an Olympus patent, which would mean that Olympus has monopoly to the most accurate exposure indication there is. Another feature discussed was tethered shooting and camera control from computer. Mr. Terada was aware of the importance of this feature in studio photography. We went on discussing video features and the lack of IBIS while shooting video with 3rd party lenses. He explained it by the problem of camera not knowing the real focal length especially with 3rd party zoom lenses. I saw the responsibility being on the user just like it is in still photography and wished for firmware update. Again, also this was written into his notebook. The possibility of using DNG format as a pro raw format was also discussed among other smaller details.

Regarding lenses, I expressed the wish of many users to have more black lenses. Mr. Terada told that silver lenses (with no weather sealing) come from PEN design and they are the first option for general photography now. I was surprised and confused with this reasoning and still am as "silver" OM-D has different gray finish from PEN silver. Is the silver 75mm f/1.8 lens meant for PEN and not for OM-D? And how about the 45mm lens with cheaper finish which matches better OM-D? As a matter of fact he was surprised that I am not at all distracted by the difference in shades between my silver OM-D and the 12mm f2.0 lens. I found all of this strange, and somehow I was not able to understand his logic nor express my confusion to him. Anyway, according to Mr. Terada, there are no product categories based on image quality among Olympus mFT lenses. Well, I'm fine with the upcoming new 17mm lens having PEN silver finish and no weather sealing, as long as it is as good as a moderate wide angle as 75mm f/1.8 is as a short tele. Again, like  others before him, Mr. Terada was promising high image quality for the new 17mm lens. About future lenses, there is no roadmap for lenses available to be published.

One hour, that's the time Mr. Terada had for me. It went too fast and I'm not going to list here every little detail mentioned. I had asked previously my readers to send me questions. There was too many topics to be discussed with Mr. Terada but Olympus has promised to read every question and comment.

As the last thing, I asked Mr. Terada what would a single OM-D cost if modified into a dedicated monochrome body. It would be expensive he said, and from my offers of 2000 or 20000 euros he chose the latter with laughter.  It is not just about taking Bayer filter off. Everything regarding image (including exposure and focusing) should be re-done and programmed and he was not too sure about the suitability of this particular sensor either. With smiles we parted while sharing my silly idea of a monochrome technology demonstrator of OM-D - just for the fun of it.

-p-

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...

-p-