[Leica] Photokina and such

[henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff)]

>Henning - very much enjoyed your gallery - I'm very jealous - will 
>have to think about a trip to the next one.
>
>ernie

Thanks, Ernie. I really enjoyed this visit. The last time I went was 
8 years ago, and I don't recall having as much fun that time. 
Probably because of the LUGgers I finally came face to face with.

BTW, my wife enjoyed the show very much as well, even though she 
professes (and has often proven) that she dislikes anything with 
'buttons' intensely. She even accepted the shot with the Cologne 
Cathedral behind her in good humour.....

Remember, this is my wife who gave me an M7 a year and a half ago for 
Christmas. I am fortunate.

>
>At 05:20 PM 10/5/2004, you wrote:
>>I just got back from Photokina yesterday evening, and have some pictures at
>>
>>http://www.archiphoto.com/Various/PKina04/index.htm
>>
>>There were lots of interesting items, including the 22MP Mamiya 
>>digital camera, the Zeiss rangefinder, the E-300 Olympus and 
>>others. Leica was not among the interesting exhibitors, as the main 
>>new thing, the Digi module for the R9 was known before. Also, with 
>>the Digi module the R9 is about the same size as the 22MP Mamiya 
>>XD, and not likely a whole lot cheaper. The XD should make makers 
>>of high end MF digital backs sweat, as well a put downward price 
>>pressure on the Canon 1Ds MkII.
>>
>>The Zeiss camera was not yet up to production standards, so any 
>>impressions have to be tempered by that. It had a nice viewfinder, 
>>although not hugely better, IMO. The finish was poor, and it 
>>certainly didn't feel like a high quality item. We'll have to wait. 
>>I tried a couple of the lenses on my cameras, and took some shots. 
>>I don't know how much relevance the results will have, but I 
>>haven't developed them yet. I talked a while with Dr. Hubert Nasse 
>>of Zeiss about optical design, and specifically these lenses which 
>>he says were designed by Zeiss (and manufactured by Cosina). It was 
>>extremely interesting. The 15/2.8 and 85/2, both relatively huge, 
>>are manufactured by Zeiss in Germany. The display in the photos on 
>>my site was at the Zeiss booth, while the hands-on was at 
>>Hasselblad. I later saw Dr. Nasse again at a private room at 
>>Cosina, with Kobayashi-san. The prices are apparently likely to be 
>>in the 60% of Leica range. For that the present impressions of 
>>mechanical quality are marginal.
>>
>>Digicams were of course everywhere, but the most interesting 
>>designs were at Fuji, which showed a variety of very innovative 
>>configurations, even though their production offerings are rather 
>>dowdy. Cameras are getting a lot more responsive and generally more 
>>pleasant to use.

-- 
    *            Henning J. Wulff
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