Along with so many other journalists, bloggers, YouTube personalities, and other general rabble, I’m now in Köln, Germany, to attend Photokina. The expo halls open tomorrow, but some of the fun has already started today, with a series of press conferences by major players like Fujifilm, Hasselblad, Nikon, Panasonic and Sony.
I missed them. I was still relaxing on a series of trains heading north from Austria, looking at some beautiful (if wet) countryside… frankly a much better way to spend a day than listening to press conferences that we can pick up online a few hours later.
And that is exactly what I’ve done! Was there anything interesting announced today? Here’s what we’ve learned:
HASSELBLAD
If your priority is branding and personal image (and you’re not a Leica shooter), then Hasselblad has something for you.
As they continue to celebrate 75 years of producing outrageously expensive cameras and lenses, Hasselblad has announced a re-branded version of their new mirrorless medium format camera, the X1D. It’s the 4116 edition! That’s ’41’ for 1941, when they got things started, and ’16’, of course, for this year.
What’s new about it? It’s an all black body with a new letaher hand strap, and a special edition box. And it says “4116” on it. Sweet!
More importantly, they announced a new 30mm super-wide angle lens for their X1D cameras. As a leaf-shutter lens, it supports shutter speeds up to 1/2000th second, with flash synchronization at any speed.
Finally, they’ve announced a concept camera. This means it may or may not ever go into production, so there’s a good chance that we don’t really need to care about it. It is, however, pretty cool looking. It’s basically a cube machined out of solid aluminum, with a modular design system so that attachments can be added where they might be helpful: a hand grip, an electronic viewfinder, a waist-level viewfinder. It has been fitted with a square, 75 megapixel sensor, they claim.
FUJI
Here’s something that’s pretty awesome, though. There have been rumors for the past few months of a new medium-format system from Fujifilm, and today Fuji confirmed those rumors with the announcement of the Fujifilm 50s Medium Format mirrorless camera, featuring a large (43.8×32.9mm) 51.4 megapixel sensor. They’re also promising at least 7 lenses for the system in early 2017. No official price has been announced, but they were quoted as saying that it would be way less than $10,000, which is promising.
SONY
Sony is good at keeping secrets. The announcement of a new Sony a99 II camera came as a complete surprise, though a welcome one to any remaining A-mount Sony shooters.
And the a99 II is a beast: it uses what sony is now calling Translucent Mirror Technology (TMT), though this just means that it’s what they used to call an SLT camera (a pelicle mirror camera). It has 79 hybrid cross AH points and 399 AF sensors, a 42.4 megapixel sensor, and 4K video with frame rates up to 120 fps, and in-camera stabilization.
It’s still a bit on the ugly side, though. But that’s in the eye of the beholder, I hear.
Finally, Sigma has announced three new lenses that are sure to impress: the long awaited 85mm f/1.4 ART, a 500mm f/4 SPORT, and a full-frame 12-24 f/4 ART. We know what to expect from Sigma at this point, and my jet-lag is kicking in, so I’ll leave you with these photos, and a link to buy the 85mm f/1.4 art at B&H for $1199.
