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This week : Live Coverage from Photokina 2016

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Hello everyone,
I am pleased to announce that, once again, I will be covering the Photokina fair live from Cologne (Germany). This fair takes place every other year and is arguably the most important fair in the world for camera products. For those of you who have followed this site since the beginning , they might remember that this will  mark the unofficial two-year anniversary of this blog as my first article was published on the previous Photokina. Tomorrow, monday will be the day of  annoucements to the press before the official show debuts on Tuesday.
There has already be some announcements in the days and the weeks prior to the fair including most recently :
Canon new mirrorless body EOS M5 already available for pre-order body only at $979 here or with a kit zoom here. The camera is unarguably a step-up from the previous M models and features very good AF system and the new standard 24 MP APS sensor.

I am looking forward to the announcement of the new Olympus M4/3 flagship the Olympus OMD- EM1 mark II -yes, this is the full name of the camera :)

Also of interest would be the introduction of the first mirrorless Medium Format camera introduced by Hasselblad and there are also rumors of a Fuji model. I will definitely post some first comments on these new products

As always if you are interested in any of the products here, your ordering the product by clicking the links provided here help this site without any additional costs to you

Do not forget to check this site several times over this coming week as I will be updating it every day

My Top 5 “best bang for your buck” micro 4/3 lenses

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When choosing a camera system, one must pay attention to the lens line-up. It is not wise to select a camera if most of the focal lengths you need are not in the line up. Without a doubt the micro 4/3 system has the largest lens line-up among any digital mirrorless system. It offers over 40 different AF lenses from Olympus and Panasonic with a few Sigma additions (I am not even counting the manual focus lenses available for the m4/3 mount for this ranking). Recently olympus added some highly professional lenses with the 4/40-150mm and the 4/300mm. Other highly regarded lenses from their build and performance include the Panasonic 1.2/42.5mm or the Olympus Zuiko 1.8/75mm.

However lots of m4/3 users  chose the system for its diminutive size and weight. The light traveler is also going to pay a close look at small lenses for the systems. Most of these very light lenses bring about a lighter build and smaller maximum apertures . But what you lose in DOF control and build does not necessarily means you have to compromise too much on performance. Early on Olympus and Panasonic proved that they could offer useful lenses being very small and light while providing very good to excellent performance and at a very reasonable cost. I voluntarily excluded ANY m4/3 lenses which retail at $400 or more. the Olympus 1.8/45mm and the Panasonic 1.7/20mm were among the first to establish this trend in the m4/3 system years ago but we got more little gems over the last few years.
I would like to add that I own ( and have tested) ALL the lenses included in this article.
The Sigma 2.8/60mm DN (here in black and here in silver) is both a useful focal length of 120mm (in 35mm equivalent) and a lens getting  great reviews. It is currently priced at $209 and $239 for the black and silver versions respectively and includes both a pouch and the hood which is really amazing at that price-point.Therefore probably deserves to be on this list but since I never tried it, I decided not to include it for the time being.
Now,without further ado, here is  MY TOP 5 selection for small and lightweight m4/3lenses which offer great value for the price : [Read more…]

Almost too good to be true

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courtesy from Olympus

courtesy from Olympus

2016 is going to be an odd year for digital camera sales , especially mirrorless. Every manufacturer is being afftected by the aftermath of the earthquake in Japan. As a result, lots of rumored or announced  new products have been delayed (think Nikon DL line for instance). It is safe to assume that Photokina next month will see more products being launched without  a specific release date.
That being said, this may help to get products at bargain price as manufacturers & retailers need to move some stock off their shelves.
For micro 4/3 users, Amazon US currently has  a deal which is hard to miss. The very competent OMD-EM10, originally priced at $699 is currently available at the amazing low price of $399. This includes the body and the 14-42 kit zoom  but I would argue that, even if you do not need this kit zoom, this is really a GREAT bargain

this deal is available for both the black version and the silver version. This could constitute a great back-up body for users who already have another OMD model. Grab one while you can !

 

Panasonic GX80 Review Part I : First impressions

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2016 is a Photokina year. Photokina is the most important photo fair which takes place in Germany in September every other year. Traditionally, during photokina years, a lot of manufacturers wait until the summer to release their main new products. This year has been very different in this regard as each major manufacturer had released some major products over the last 6 months already. Even if one limit the search to the mirrorless camp and high-end compacts we got new products from almost each brand :

Olympus introduced the Pen-F , Fuji got the Xpro-2, Sony got out the third version of its RX10 and the Alpha a6300 to name a few… It is now Panasonic’s turn to bring out a new product the GX85 which is  kind of the child of the Gx7 and the GX8. GX85 is the name of the model for North America only as Panasonic  has decided to give it no less than THREE different names depending on the market (GX80 in Europe, GX7MII in Asia) ??
This new product seems to compete directly with the Olympus Em5 mark II  (as well as the  Olympus OMD-EM10 mark II) and being now the owner of both I think it is interesting to  dedicate a portion of this rolling review to compare both models.

ERGONOMICS & MENUS

Let’s get out the good news first. The GX 85 built seems pretty good especially when considering its asking price ($699 body only in the USA, €699 in Europe). The body seems  generally well put together with the notable exception of the battery door, which is, alas, not specific to Panasonic in the mirrorless world.
As a example of this, I was last week handling a new  Olympus pen-F in a store and the battery compartment door came off when handling the camera. Rather shocking especially on a camera priced at nearly $1,200 (body only) [Read more…]

Five tips to take great pictures of street events

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This month I got to cover two unusual street events in Europe.On the first Saturday of April, there are over 50 cities who participate in the “international pillow fight day”. I covered this event for the first time last year in Berlin. This year I decided to go to Amsterdam instead which turned out to be on a much  larger scale. A few days ago, I was in Paris to cover the “color run” which takes place in different cities (lots of them in the USA). On both occasions, I was reminded how important it is to be prepared to avoid some mistakes and make the best of it. I thought it might be useful to share my recommendations  for those of you who might be interested to attend and photograph this type of events : [Read more…]