Photokina Large Format

[ambroz]

Any interesting Photokina news relating large format photography?

Ambroz

[maurits]

No really new LF stuff that I saw, Ambroz.

Shen-Hao was there. Nice people and good to see all their camera's in the flesh. The new XPO is really nice.

I spoke for a while with Keith Canham, who had a couple of his camera's on exhibit in the Kodak stand. Very nice person too and his camera's blow you away. I want one now... Keith told me he is working together with Kodak to help photographers find film in odd/special sizes. A kind of group ordering program.

Linhof, Alpa etc. make beautiful large format camera's and it is great to see and handle them at the Photokina. But they all focus on medium format digital backs these days.

Harman was introducing a new direct positive paper that looked promising.

The only digital camera I was drooling over was the Fuji x100. A single lens rangefinder in retro style with an APS-C sensor.

Cheers, Maurits

[rdenney]

Not LF, but I've seen reports that the Pentax 645D was on display, and that Pentax announced world-wide distribution starting in December. The U.S. retail price was announced as $9999. That is too much for me, but I'll keep buying those lottery tickets.

Sensor is 40MP, 33x44mm. Not as good as the latest from the high-end which covers the 645 format fully, but good enough so that the Pentax 35mm rectilinear wide will be pretty wide.

Rick "who has a bunch of lenses that work on his 645 film cameras" Denney

[Emmanuel BIGLER]

I visited the Photokina and my impression is the same as expressed by Maurits.
However, we could say that companies fabricating large format film cameras present at the photokina had several models on display. I think that Linhof and Arca Swiss had their full line of LF cameras available for everybody to test them.
the Linhof booth
- gentlemen testing a 8x10" Kardan equipped with the 550 Schneider.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4109/...8daf22cc_b.jpg
- the two sisters, the Technikardan 4x5" and the 2x3"
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4133/...5e665bf6_b.jpg

the Arca Swiss table with all LF cameras ; one question asked by Arcaphiles : is the 5x7" F-line still avalaible ? Yes of course...
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4085/...27096b72_b.jpg
Rodenstock had their full line of lenses, either classical for film or digital.
In fact the simple information that all cameras and lenses for large format fiilm photography are available is, somewhat, good news.
Sinar only had a few "digital" monorails on display, but fully equiped with a digital back with live video for instant test of the system at the booth.
With some friends we visited the Shen-Ha booth and got a very friendly welcome. All the line of rollfilm backs was there.
See the images here
Cameras
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4144/...9dc2136a_b.jpg

Rollfilm backs
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4127/...2a1169df_b.jpg

[Emmanuel BIGLER]

[OFF-TOPIC]
There is another weird camera announced by the Russian factory of Krasnogorsk, better known under the brand Zenit and Horizon.
In collaboration with Silvestri, they are working on a digital "automatic stitching" panoramic camera, the D-L3, with 3 lenses and 3 pieces of silicon behind, a software makes the automatic stitching for you, total number of pixels : 3x5 Mpix = 15 Mpix.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4086/...59e28aac_b.jpg
More info about this project
http://www.photoxels.com/silvertri-h...oramic-camera/

Imagine, a few years from now, if 38x38mm "obsolete but cheap" 16 Mpix medium format silicon sensors were available, the Krasnogorsk factory could fabricate an automatic stiching camera for the 38x114 mm format. Not quite a large format yet, but 114 is the actual width of a 9x12cm image on film.

[ON-TOPIC AGAIN]
It you cannot wait, the 6x17 Seitz ultra-fast scanning camera is already available (too bad, you'll have to sell your car to get one of those strange beasts
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4147/...6b6e20e2_b.jpg

[Bob Salomon]

Rodenstock had their full line of lenses, either classical for film or digital.
In fact the simple information that all cameras and lenses for large format fiilm photography are available is, somewhat, good news.

What you may have missed at the Rodenstock booth is there new E-Shutter for 0 size lenses with shutter speeds to 1/25 with a 7 blade aperture for an almost perfect circular opening and that can be controlled from an iPhone, iPad or iPad touch as well as on a Mac or a PC computer. Apertures are adjustable in 1/6th steps. So Rodenstock now offers the new E-Shutter, the Rollei Linear Motor shutter as well as Copal shutters for their lenses.

Rodenstock also introduced a new 32mm 4.0 HR Digaron-W lens at the show.

[jeroldharter]

Can anyone attend Photokina?

When and where is the next one?

[Frank Petronio]

that can be controlled from an iPhone, iPad or iPad touch

Now make it so it can display the images on an iPad....

I see that several of the European medium format digital manufacturers are moving towards iPod-Droid controllers, which make a lot of sense in terms of upgrades and modularity.

I wish our Japanese DSLR makers would get the hint. I much rather use a Droid or Apple interface (and DNG files) than Canon/Nikon proprietary crap that is much clumsier. Imagine a DSLR with a Droid touch screen that you could also run and preview images with from a hi-res tablet like the iPad....

[Bob Salomon]

Can anyone attend Photokina?

When and where is the next one?

As long as you buy a day or a full show ticket anyone can go. It is always everyoter year in Cologne. So the next one wll be in Sept 18 to 23 in Cologne Germany where it has always been. This year's show was Sept. 21 to 26. Unlike US shows this takes place in multiple trade halls, many on two floors so it is many times larger then the largest US show in space, number of exhibitors and attendeeds and in number of show days.

However, if you want to go check the Cologne Messe (the show site) at http://www.photokina-cologne.com/thefair/
and start looking for hotel rooms now. They sell out fast and you can end up a train ride away from the show area.

[Bob Salomon]

Now make it so it can display the images on an iPad....

I see that several of the European medium format digital manufacturers are moving towards iPod-Droid controllers, which make a lot of sense in terms of upgrades and modularity.

I wish our Japanese DSLR makers would get the hint. I much rather use a Droid or Apple interface (and DNG files) than Canon/Nikon proprietary crap that is much clumsier. Imagine a DSLR with a Droid touch screen that you could also run and preview images with from a hi-res tablet like the iPad....

Frank,
I can control my 5D MK II from my iPhone or my iPod Touch with the DSLR camera remote Professional Edition app. But the camera has to be connected to your Wi-Fi equipped computer to run the APP. It lets you see live view and review images as well as control settings.