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Back at my desk… in Spain

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Greetings from Southern Spain

I am finally back after an almost four months hiatus. I hope you all had a pleasant and photographically productive summer :)  .There are two main reasons for my long “radio silence”. The main reason is that I relocated from two far away countries to a third one. I am now about  to make a significant career change (more on that subject soon).
What I can already share is that I am now based in Andalousia in the South of Spain. After 18 years in the USA and 4 years in Belgium, I am now starting a new Spanish Chapter in my life as photographer.

That being said , there is also a more prosaic reason for not publishing articles for the last two months. The last few months have been extremely quiet on the camera front
Only last week , we start to get official announcements of cameras which had been rumored for some time now.
And let me say that this does not include any major new product as far as light travelers are concerned.
It is a well known fact that the camera market is experiencing a serious decline for years but this year has been quieter than most even for a non- Photokina year.
As a sidenote on Photokina , it is worth knowing that starting in 2018 the fair will from now on takes place every year instead of every OTHER year .
The German show will take place on 4 days (wednesday through saturday) versus 6 in its present form

Even if we see some new products this fall, my bet is that 2017 is going to be a blank year in terms of market – changing products
Moreover, the new products coming , while interesting, are not really bringing some major improvements in terms of image quality or new functions.

Let’ s look at what has just arrived or is about to arrive from the different manufacturers :

NIKON
For sure the Nikon D850 is a significant new product as far as pro DSLRs are concerned.
On the mirrorless front this has not been a good year for Nikon afficionados. the 1 system is dead on arrival despite some weak denials from Nikon
executives and Nikon got a lot of bad PR when it decided to kill its new DL line. It is certain that Nikon is working on something else either for late this year or early next year.
Whether early buyers would get suspicious of a new system remains to be seen

CANON
There is now talk about a coming G1X mark III but I doubt that Canon is going to be smart enough to finally give up on the very obsolete back wheel which offers very poor manual controls
Canon has also a new lower end model of its Mirrorless M series with the M100 model. As I have said many times before , this is not a purchase I would recommend due to the very limited options in terms of Canon lenses for those M bodies. The only system which produced more bodies than lenses…

OLYMPUS/ PANASONIC
Nothing much new either on the m4/3rds front. Olympus just announced a modest upgrade of its Em10 Mark II model but nothing much to
excite here. Even the sensor is still the now “old” 16MP sensor

SONY
Two things from Sony. First a tiny Sony Rx Zero which is essentially a competitor to the Gopro system. Sony also just introduced its fourth version of its RX10, a mirrorless bridge camera. The RX10 IV is very similar to its predecessor with phase detection Autofocus. While it certainly makes some functions more versatile (especially video) I am not sure it would make an worthwhile upgrade to users of the mark III. In my opinion, Sony made the wrong turn with the third model. While having a 24-600 equivalent focal range looks good in paper, it is not rosy in the field . The Sony RX10 I & II were very well balanced and had a reasonable weight for carry all day travel camera. With the addition of the much longer zoom, the body became significantly front heavy and is not something you will comfortable around your neck for a long walk.
Sony pushed the zoom on the third model to compete with the Panasonic  FZ1000 model but I think they would have had a wider clientele if they had kept it under 300mm at the long end .

FUJI, RICOH , PENTAX
Last but not least , I am sorry to report that despite several rumors , there is no sign of a new Ricoh GR.
The Ricoh GR and GRII are , by far, my favorite street cameras and my most used camera when traveling.
The closest camera to the GR series , at least in terms of specs, is the Fuji X70 which was discontinued a few months ago already
The Fuji x80 was rumored to come last May to replace, and hopefully improve, the discontinued X70 but is still nowhere in sight . Personally, I am not sure why anyone would buy the X70 over the GRII but if the Ricoh model does not get an update , it is highly possible it would benefit the new X80
There is also a new XE3 model announced but again this is a lower end model which should not bring anything new for X owners.

On the Pentax side , it is even quieter .. Just a limited silver edition of their K1 Dslr model…
of course one can hope we will get a few surprise announcements before 2017 is over but this has to be the least exciting year for new travel cameras for quite some time..

That being said , I am already working on publishing several travel-related articles in the next few days. Stay tuned.

 

The decidedly ” not-so friendly skies”

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By now, most people living in America have seen the video of the forceful removal of doctor dao from United airlines flight from Chicago to Louisville,KY last Sunday. As someone who has extensively traveled by commercial flights over three continents over the last decade, i have long been of the opinion that for the last 10 years or so, flying on most large airlines in America or in Europe offers more and more similarities to “cattle transportation”.
Overbooking incidents are frequent in the USA but this specific incident will , I think set a precedent because it has FOUR characteristics probably never combined before in a single occurrence : [Read more…]

A look back at 2016…

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Every year , comes New year Eve, some things are given like Fireworks, NY eve’s parties. In the Photo world the guaranteed occurrence is the proliferation of “best cameras of the year”. There is no denying the strong appeal of Top 5 -or Top 10 lists, but I see no need to add to this frenzy. When looking at such “best of the year” rankings , it is important to keep a few things in mind :

1./ A best camera of the year makes no sense if all categories are mixed. Someone who is hesitating between say a Nikon pro DSLR or its Canon counterpart  would have little interest in the new  “high end compact” from say Panasonic or Sony.

2/ If you look at enough magazines and sites, you will see that most, if not all, major products from each manufacturer is going to  make the list somewhere. Lots of big review sites or magazines are dependant on some advertising income from those same brands and in this case, it is very  understandable to know they are in  a peculiar situation. Let us not get confused. I am not saying that they would promote a clearly flawed camera but in today’s market , it is easy to focus on the positive sides of a given product.

3/ Most of the reviews sites do not keep the products for a long time and are influences by the equipment they work with. so I encourage you to take some of them with a grain of salt. Having a bias or strongly rooted preferences is normal. It is just important that you know which they are when you read a review.

While, I find it useless to make a list of best camera(s) of 2016, It might be useful to review the most significant camera introductions for each brand:

Speaking about biases, it is important to remember MINE 😉 . I do not consider pure video cameras, drone or specific use devices, only still cameras. (and no lenses either)

CANON :
Though they introduced several new products, I would not include any Canon bodies. Yes, Canon introduced its most serious mirrorless camera  yet with the Canon M5. It is arguably the first “serious” body in the M line and this may be a good choice for a dedicated canon user or a nice back-up body for an Eos DSLR user. However , I would NOT recommend it to anyone else outside these two categories because of the VERY limited lens line-up. The fact that Canon chose to introduce another entry level zoom with the introduction of the M5 speaks volume about Canon not being sure which target to aim at with its mirrorless line. [Read more…]

Best wishes for 2017

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Dear reader & fellow traveler/photographer

The blog has been silent for a while but this January will feature several new articles. First, I would like to extend to all of you my best wishes for 2017. May this year 2017 bring you health, happiness… and lots of Photographic opportunities !!

Photokina : Winners & losers. Afterthoughts.

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PHOTOKINA WINNERS & LOSERS :
It is always difficult to express an unbiased opinion on which products/companies were the most successful at a fair. After all, a fair is first aimed at gathering orders from dealers (or find importers) and the degree of innovation or the number of new products  from one company do not necessarily translate into bigger sales number.
But the idea, here, is to share which brands had the most interesting new products and which products seem to be both innovative and/or fill a gap on a brand line-up. Of course, a photo fair is NOT JUST about cameras & lenses and there were many booths with interesting new products in the accessories section. In the next few weeks, I will publish short articles about some very cool new accessories seen at the fair. For now,  here is my take regarding this fair for cameras & lenses :

LOSERS :
This one is relatively simple : The top three brands of digital camera seem to be off their game to different degrees. In third to last position I would include Sony which did not have much new to offer except the long-awaited A99 II SLT.
Next up on this losing list is Canon with a somewhat controversial 5D Mark IV and a new mirrorless body (Canon M5) which is a nice camera in search of lenses. Finally, without a doubt, Nikon had a weak fair (see my comments on the first installment of my Photokina coverage). Clearly,Nikon seems to be confused. Ironically, the Nikon outdoor space located in front of the South entrance of the fair seems like a cruel metaphor of Nikon confusion of where to go next (hence the picture above).

WINNERS :
Ok, the first one is a no- brainer. The BIGGEST winner of this fair is MIRRORLESS. Indeed, whichever brand you look at, the four or five most-talked about camera introductions, i.e Hasselblad X1D, Fuji GFX 50s, Olympus EM1 mark II, Canon M5, Panasonic G80/85 are ALL mirrorless and the first two on this list clearly shows that mirrorless is not limited to a few sensor sizes.
Another category which is clearly stronger after this fair is MICRO 4/3rds. Both Olympus & Panasonic introduced exciting models like the EM1-II and the G80/85 and several new lenses on which is already the  widest lens line-up of ANY mirrorless system.
There is even a new member of the m4/3 system. At photokina a chinese company called young innovators introduced its first M4/3rd products with a camera model called YI M1 and two lenses (one 1.8/42.5mm prime and one entry-level zoom).

Now, as mentioned earlier , I consider the most important trend of this Photokina to be the advent of two Medium format mirrorless cameras, a category which simply did NOT exist before. While the Fuji GXF 50s and the Hasselblad X1D share the same 50 MP Sony sensor, they have a very different, if not opposite, approach. Contrary to what has been said on some Youtube previews, I do not think that this means one of the two is going at it the wrong way. In fact, I think both Fuji and Hasselblad are making the right decisions based on their collection. let me explain :
It is not rare to read on photo forums about people complaining about any camera brand which does not have a 35mm sensor option. Contrary to those claims and  given the current state of sensor technology,I would argue that  it makes NO sense for most (if not all) camera companies to have system in all sensor sizes.
In terms of volumes , there is no doubt that APS sensor is by far the biggest selling size in serious size sensors (I am not including devices with a 1/2.3” sensor).
Canon and Nikon may be making nice margins with their pro 35mm DSLR’s but the bulk of the sales is with APS cameras whether DSLR or mirrorless.
For Mirrorless cameras manufacturers who have a full APS system , it makes very little sense (both from a financial and a product development perspective) to develop a 35mm sensor system as well) and Fuji has already a fullly developed APS system.
With the GFX50, Fuji is making clear  is that there is NO Fuji 35mm interchangeable camera system coming in the foreseeable future. Sure, the GFX system is going to compete with some of the current Medium format camera makers but, more importantly, aims to compete with the big 35mm camera makers, chiefly Nikon and Canon.
Indeed, I would go further as to say that Fuji GFX 50 and the Hasselblad X1D while both being mirrorless are cleary aimed at  very different customers. In my opinion, the X1D is really a model aimed at portrait, landscape and, last but not least, travel photographers. The Fuji model is more versatile and might be used equally well in the studio. Speaking of the Fuji, I read a lot of reports from Photokina claiming that the GFX will have the advantage of giving more lenses options than the Hassy. I do not believe this to be the case and this is why : Hasselblad after the fair has already three lenses and plans to develop 5 more  in 2017. Fuji has shown six lenses but only three would be available at camera launch sometime in early 2017. The other ones are planned for later in 2017. Hasselblad has also promised an adapter to use most, if not all , of the H lenses already in the catalog for the H models.

The Fuji GFX becomes a super 35mm on steroids.Indeed the Fuji looks a lot like a inflated dslr at least when seen from the front. A view from above shows that the camera is going to be much deeper because of its swapable EVF and tiltable LCD. As a result , the Fuji camera is going to be more modular than the Hasselblad X1D, while the swedish design makes for a less bulky camera and features a very modern touchscreen user interface… [Read more…]