In better days – The tough, compact OM-4Ti with the 50mm f1.2 Zuiko was an iconic film SLR of the late 1980s. In a move that will surprise few watchers of the camera industry, Olympus is selling their camera business to Japan Industrial Partners, a private equity group that specializes in helping troubled companies spin off insolvent businesses. JIP is most famous for having … [Read more...]
Of the Leica SL2
The Leica SL2 A week after I thought there were no more cameras coming for the year (except possibly for an irrelevant Leica SL2), the surprising Leica SL2 arrived. What surprised me isn’t that an SL2 came, but that it isn’t irrelevant. Until it actually arrived, it was broadly assumed that the SL2 would be essentially a Panasonic S1r in a nice metal shell, for about … [Read more...]
How large is your printer? (does the difference between 45 and 60 MP really matter)
A 44” Epson 9570 – it weighs about 250 lbs/115 kg, and it is wider and deeper than an upright piano. If you don’t have access to one of these (or its Canon equivalent), camera resolution has reached what you can use. There have been many breathless articles in the technology press lately about how the Sony A7r IV is the “best camera for this or that purpose”, due … [Read more...]
PhotoPlus report – digital SLR and mirrorless cameras.
A Fujifilm X-Pro 3 in gleaming titanium. PhotoPlus 2019 was the smallest it has been in the decade or more I’ve been attending regularly. Sony didn’t attend, preferring to host their own event nearby, which was both inconvenient for those of us who knew about it, and I talked to several photographers who said “where was Sony”, not knowing about the separate event. Apart … [Read more...]
The Present State of Mirrorless Part II: Manufacturer/mount summaries
Sony: A Sony E-mount lens family portrait Beyond question, the mirrorless market leader as of July, 2019, Sony also manufactures image sensors for most of their competitors. Sony has been in the mirrorless camera business since 2010, and their unofficial motto has always been “how much sensor can we stuff in there”. The early Sony mirrorless cameras were APS-C, and the … [Read more...]
