PMA 2004 - February 12-15

[Photo-John]

PMA 2004 - LAS VEGAS

February 12-15

The annual Photo Marketing Association tradeshow is next week, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The PMA show is the main photographic tradeshow for the Western Hemisphere. This is where new cameras, lenses, studio equipment, etc. make their first appearance. And I'll be there to make sure you get to see everything as soon as possible.

I have a whole list of booths to visit and equipment to see but I'm at your service. Let me know what you want me to get photos and information on and I'm your man. I'll post updates and photos every day. And after the show I'll post a comprehensive report along with tons of photo coverage. If there's something you want me to look at, post here and I'll get photos and specs for you.

Here's a list of some of the equipment you'll see in the daily PMA coverage:

Canon PowerShot S1 IS

Canon PowerShot Pro1

Nikon D2H Digital SLR

Nikon D70 Digital SLR

Nikon Coolpix 8700

Canon EOS Elan 7N & 7NE 35mm SLRs

Canon EOS-1D Mark II Digital SLR

Canon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6L IS USM Lens

Canon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS USM Lens

Fuji FinePix S3 Pro Digital SLR

Fuji FinePix S20

SimpleTech 8 GB CompactFlash Card

More to come...

2003 PMA Coverage >>

Official PMA Web Site >>

[Liz]

more news or updates on the 20+ digital cameras Canon is supposed to be making this year. They better get started - that's almost 2 a month!

Thanks
Liz

Originally Posted by Photo-John

PMA 2004 - LAS VEGAS

February 12-15

The annual Photo Marketing Association tradeshow is next week, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The PMA show is the main photographic tradeshow for the Western Hemisphere. This is where new cameras, lenses, studio equipment, etc. make their first appearance. And I'll be there to make sure you get to see everything as soon as possible.

I have a whole list of booths to visit and equipment to see but I'm at your service. Let me know what you want me to get photos and information on and I'm your man. I'll post updates and photos every day. And after the show I'll post a comprehensive report along with tons of photo coverage. If there's something you want me to look at, post here and I'll get photos and specs for you.

Here's a list of some of the equipment you'll see in the daily PMA coverage:

Nikon D2H Digital SLR

Nikon D70 Digital SLR

Nikon Coolpix 8700

Canon EOS-1D Mark II Digital SLR

Canon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6L IS USM Lens

Canon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS USM Lens

Fuji FinePix S3 Pro Digital SLR

Fuji FinePix S20

More to come...

2003 PMA Coverage >>

Official PMA Web Site >>

[paulnj]

choose to accept.....

is to OFFICIALLY test drive that 120-300 and report back to us.

and should you happen apon a canon rep....

tell them the R&D on the 600f4IS has been covered long ago.... my offer is $3200

[Seb]

Hello John!

I would appreciate if you could give a look at the AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G IF-ED (although I assume that the fact that you look for the D70 imply that you will look at this lense as well).

Some feedback on the AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8G IF-ED would be sincerly appreciated as well.

Thank you and have a great time! (I truly wish I could go to the PMA but that's just plain impossible to me, oh well....)


n.b. Excellent ones Paulnj! lol (I mean both the pic and your actual comment)

[BostonBullit]

hey PJ, do me a favor if you would. swing by the Nikon booth and grab a high ranking rep, which shouldn't be hard because I doubt it's going to be a very busy booth, and ask them what the flying *explative* they are doing in the pro market. if you don't an answer you find acceptable then I'd like to ammend my request to add "keep a lookout for some Canon L lenses at a good price for me"

have fun, and don't gamble your photo equipment away ;)

BostonBullit

[Trevor Ash]

John,

I hope you can please find the time to look at the new offerings by Gitzo. I'm especially interested in any smaller and lightweight tripod legs they might be introducing. I'm looking for something similar to the mountaineer 1027 carbon fiber legs but just a tad smaller and more compact.

Also, any new lightweight heads capable of supporting about 5 pounds or so would interest me. I've basically looking to put together a travel system for hiking that is easy to carry and move with.

I'm mostly interested in any new leg models they offer, especially CF.

Thanks!!!!!!!!

[kafin8ed]

John,
As I mentioned to you earlier. I 'm real interested in the Canon i9900 printer. it has 8 ink cartridges but in a different configuration from the epsons (yes i've been thinking of gettting the 4400, please canon save me the expense...). Anyways what I want to know specifically is how does the i9900 handle B&W printing since it's not a pigment printer like the Epsons? What are your impressions of its color printing capability too, especially, if possible, compared to the epson 2200 or 4400? Thanks

[Photo-John]

I don't recall any announcements about this. It's possible I missed the press release. But I think they were keeping it pretty tight lipped. I spied this one at the Canon table at the Digital Focus press event. Lexar also had some signage at their table that had an 80x logo on it.

[Photo-John]

The new mack daddy! Feels about the same as my 1D. It's noticeably faster, though. I was shooting with my 1D this afternoon and I could hear the difference with the camera set to high-speed capture. That extra half a frame per second is a bigger deal than you'd think. The AF is also better and it can capture more frames before the buffer fills. It's one bad camera.

[Photo-John]

Pentax has a new DA lens for the *ist D. The DA lenses are specifically made to match the sensor on the *ist D. With the announcement of this new lens, there will be two Pentax DA lenses. The new one is the smc Pentax-DA 14mm f/2.8 ED(IF).

[Photo-John]

I wasn't allowed to post anything about this until after midnight. Since it's well after 1 AM now, here you go:

The Pentax OptioMX is a digital still and video camera with a 3 megapixel sensor for stills, 10x optical zoom lens, and VGA video capture ability. It should be available in June for less than $400 US.

[BostonBullit]

good stuff john...keep it coming!

oh, and you didn't miss anything, the lexar 80x stuff just broke today...

Peter

[Photo-John]

Your wait was not in vain, my friends. This morning, Konica Minolta announced that this fall they'll release a digital SLR - the Konica Minolta Maxxum 7 Digital (Dynax 7 Digital outside Japan and the US). The new camera will have a 6 megapixel CCD sensor and their new "CCD Shift-type Anti-Shake function" which is built into the camera's body and works with any Minolta AF lens.

[Photo-John]

A front view of the just announced Konica Minolta Maxxum 7 Digital. The new 6 megapixel SLR should be available this fall. The only one available at the Konica Minolta booth was this one, behind glass.

[Photo-John]

The new Polaroid X530 compact digital camera uses the new 4.5 megapixel Foveon X3 direct image sensor. This is the first consumer digital camera to utilize Foveon's unique sensor technology. The camera captures in both RAW and JPEG and comes with Foveon's excellent RAW conversion software.

The Polaroid X530 wil be available in June for $399 US.

[Photo-John]

I talked to a rep about the new printer today and specifically asked about black and white. They didn't have any b&w samples available but the rep was definitely ready with some solid answers. The old Canon printers have larger ink drop sizes (4 picoliter on the i9100) and weren't able to create good black and white tones because of the larger drops. The 9900 uses 2 picoliter droplets which make it able to create good black and white tones, using only the black ink. It does use a little color ink to "soften" the image a little. I understood this to mean that it warms up the black and white a little bit to make it more pleasing to the eye.

I couldn't really say how it compares to the pigment Epson printers. My feeling is that it's more comparable to the Epson 1280. I think its intended market is people who want to make traditional, photographic, saturated color prints. And that it looks to do very, very well. Black and white is probably good, but more of a detail. If you really want to do black and white, you really need to check out Piezography and their dedicated black and white inkjet system. Just buy a new color printer and dedicate that old Epson to the Piezography system.

[Peter_AUS]

Hey John,

Having a lot of fun I take it with all the goodies. See if they are going to drop the price of accessories for the Canon 10D anytime soon.

[Photo-John]

Paul,
I tried the 120-300mm on an EOS 3 today. I'm gonna buy it. It feels solid, the range is great, and the autofocus is really quick. It's hard to know if it's as fast as my Canon 300f/4L, but I'm willing to compromise a bit for that zoom range and a 2.8 aperture. Know what I'm sayin?

I'll tease the Canon reps about that 600mm tomorrow.

[paulnj]

Originally Posted by Photo-John

Paul,
I tried the 120-300mm on an EOS 3 today. I'm gonna buy it. It feels solid, the range is great, and the autofocus is really quick. It's hard to know if it's as fast as my Canon 300f/4L, but I'm willing to compromise a bit for that zoom range and a 2.8 aperture. Know what I'm sayin?

I'll tease the Canon reps about that 600mm tomorrow.

see sport photog bourd for 120-300 reply

and btw... i know dealer cost on that lens...... not that much mark up on any pro tele primes!!!

but at $7200 list.. nikon can eat those $9000+ 600f4AFSII's

shhh but the 600F4IS has warmer colors?(film shooters), IS and you save enough to buy a 10D,grip 4 batteries total.... bye bye nikon i said!!!!

[Photo-John]

Trevor-
Gitzo knew you were coming so they baked a new tripod.

"The new, ultra compact G0027 carbon fiber tripod is the smallest in its class. Ideal for compact digital and film cameras, the G0027 weighs less than a pound and fits easily into most camera bags and brief cases. When collapsed, the G0027 measures only 11. 8" and measures 28.3" when fully extended. Gitzo’s new compact tripod has three sections and can handle a maximum load of 5.51 lbs."

I didn't see any small, new ballheads in the Bogen booth, but there is this small Gitzo ballhead. I forgot to write down the model number, but it's about the size of your big toe (not my big toe) and it's supposed to be able to hold about 4.5 lbs.

[Photo-John]

Heh, heh. Check out my half a logo. Guess my Photoshop action needs a little tuneup on the vertical shots, huh?

[Photo-John]

The Fuji PMA booth has contortionist girls! I think they have some, uhh, cameras and stuff, too.

[Trevor Ash]

Originally Posted by Photo-John

Trevor-
Gitzo knew you were coming so they baked a new tripod.

"The new, ultra compact G0027 carbon fiber tripod is the smallest in its class. Ideal for compact digital and film cameras, the G0027 weighs less than a pound and fits easily into most camera bags and brief cases. When collapsed, the G0027 measures only 11. 8" and measures 28.3" when fully extended. Gitzo’s new compact tripod has three sections and can handle a maximum load of 5.51 lbs."

I didn't see any small, new ballheads in the Bogen booth, but there is this small Gitzo ballhead. I forgot to write down the model number, but it's about the size of your big toe (not my big toe) and it's supposed to be able to hold about 4.5 lbs.

Thanks for the hookup John. B+H already sells those little legs and I was looking into them. I'm REALLY GLAD that you got a photo with a human hand because it gives me a better sense of scale. It looks like it's just too small to be useful enough. I'm leaning towards the 1027 instead but the 0027 was a contender at one point.

What gitzo did I hold of yours? I'm assuming it was the 1128.

I already own the 1227 and love it so the 1127 isn't that much different to make it a good choice. My goal: To get a combination right around 2 pounds total for ballhead and legs! I'm not so concerned about stability and falling over but I am concerned about ball strength so that I can lock my 10D and lens down.

Now I'm just rambling.

I'm really enjoying your updates and photos John! Keep up the good work!!!

[Trevor Ash]

Originally Posted by Photo-John

Heh, heh. Check out my half a logo. Guess my Photoshop action needs a little tuneup on the vertical shots, huh?

I had the same problems myself. I ended up making two actions. One for vertical and one for horizontal. Actions don't support things like "if... else". That's what we get for wanting to put things on the right side of the image

[Photo-John]

Trevor-
It is possible to create an action that works for both vertical and horizontal - I've done it! But I can't remember how. That action is on my home machine. I'm going to have to take a look at it when I get home, I guess.