September 28
Day 14 of the 2016 byThom Botswana Photo Workshop blog
September 27
Day 13 of the 2016 byThom Botswana Photo Workshop blog (and first good leopard sighting; foreshadowing: warning many more to come! ;~)
September 26
It’s About the Sensor Again. Here’s the state of the dedicated camera market at Photokina 2016: you have a choice of five sensor sizes, all approximately a stop apart from each other: 1” (2.7x crop), m4/3 (2x), APS/DX (1.5x or 1.6x), 35mm/FX (1x, no crop), and small medium format (0.79x). Article on dslrbodies.com
Winners and Losers at Photokina. One of the reasons companies go to Photokina is to make a splash. So what splashed in a good way that caught our attention, and what made a tiny or no splash before sinking in deep water? Article on dslrbodies.com
Google Glass is Back in a Snap. Snapchat—the image messaging application created by three students at Stanford University—has morphed into a software and hardware company. Their first camera product will be the US$130 sunglasses called Spectacles, which includes a video camera and should ship this fall. Article on dslrbodies.com
Day 12 of the 2016 byThom Botswana Photo Workshop blogSeptember 22
The Botswana Photo Workshop Blog is on temporary hold as I deal with some image issues that cropped up, coupled with a swarm of new images from students as they slowly get around to processing their images. The blog should resume on Monday once I’ve sorted through those.
SnapBridge at the Little Lehigh River. I wandered down to the Little Lehigh River Parkway yesterday afternoon looking for Frank and his friends. Article on dslrbodies.com
September 21
The two Photokina articles from Monday have been updated with new additions.
The Software News page has been updated with new additions.
Feelings, Nothing More Than Feelings. Here in the US we have had a long election campaign that seems solely to cater to feelings. Facts don’t matter. Experience doesn’t matter. Plans don’t really matter (at least they don’t need any specificity, let alone be based on reality, and who cares if they are even achievable). Nothing matters except how you feel. And apparently everyone feels bad. Blame the media, who are telling you that you should feel bad. Funny thing is, you could describe the camera market that way, too, especially when it comes to Nikon. And you could blame the media here, too, including me. Article on dslrbodies.com
Day 11 of the 2016 byThom Botswana Photo Workshop blog
September 20
The two Photokina articles from yesterday have been updated with new additions.
The Software News page has been updated with new additions.
Nikon Swimming Wrong Direction. All I can say is that Nikon is in for a rough patch on the Internet. A very rough patch. They’re simply swimming the wrong direction. Article on dslrbodies.com
Hasselblad 30mm f/3.5 XCD added to database. (XCD mount)
Leica Summilux 50mm f/1.4 SL added to database. (SL mount)
Voigtlander 65mm f/2 macro added to database. (FE mount)
Day 10 of the 2016 byThom Botswana Photo Workshop blog
September 19
Because this is Photokina “announce” day, I’m tied up with press conferences and trying to keep up with all the announcements. Thus we’re doing something a little different today (and these articles will continue to be updated through Photokina):
- Photokina Announcements — the big camera and lens announcements will go here and this page will update as the day(s) go on with new camera and lens announcements.
- Other Photokina Announcements — additional announcements of products will go on this page as I stumble upon them.
Remember, these are live pages that will continuous update as new information is learned (and as I get a chance to edit what I’ve written ;~).
The Botswana Workshop Blog will return tomorrow (or Wednesday at the latest). Moreover, many of the products that get announced will be getting coverage over on sansmirror.com and data pages added, to. I’ll try to add those to this post as I make them.
Bear with me. I’m one person trying to cover Photokina, and a number of other sites are either single vendor or have big teams covering the show. So I won’t be first on anything ;~).
September 16
Sorry about being late today. Yesterday’s blog post had some issues in it on how images were rendering, so I needed to figure that out before posting new material. Turns out that the student images were coming in too big for the re-rendering engine I use on this site. The good news is that I’ve fixed all those images by just bringing them down in initial Image Size. The bad news is that if you’re on a Retina display, you may see some pixilation.
Day 9 of the 2016 byThom Botswana Photo Workshop Blog
Monday’s going to be busy. There are some Photokina announcements this weekend I’ll be posting then, plus Monday is press conference day at the show, with tons of products being announced. Bear with me as I try to keep up.
September 15
Canon Introduces the EOS M5. Canon today announced the EOS M5, the latest in their line of mirrorless cameras, and the most DSLR-like yet. While you can see the basics of the EOS M3 body in the new M5, the addition of a mid-camera hump for the built-in EVF and pop-up flash makes Canon’s mirrorless entry look like a very scaled down DSLR. Article on sansmirror.com EOS M5 data page
The new lens onslaught continues: Canon 18-150mm f/4-5.6 M, Canon 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS II, Zeiss Loxia 85mm f/2.4
Day 8 of the 2016 byThom Botswana Photo Workshop Blog
September 14
Communicating, Programmable, Modular. It’s getting quite close now to all the at-Photokina announcements, and I expect a number of new mirrorless camera entries. So wrap your mind around this thought: the very best mirrorless camera we currently foresee will be no better than the very best DSLR camera we currently foresee. Article on dslrbodies.com
More new lenses: Laowa 15mm f/2 for Sony FE, 7.5mm f/2 for m4/3.
Nikon introduced a minor 1.0.1 update to the iOS SnapBridge application, which improves stability.
Day 7 of the 2016 byThom Botswana Photo Workshop Blog
September 13
Sony Made the Right Decision. You can argue all you’d like about whether mirrorless or DSLR is the right choice, whether Sony’s adding full frame to the mirrorless lineup was the right choice, and all the other camera-related things that have happened since Sony took over the KonicaMinolta camera group a decade ago. But I’m here to say that one choice that Sony made was absolutely correct, and we’re now seeing the results of that choice nearly every day. Article on sansmirror.com
Tokina announced a new 20mm f/2 manual focus lens for Sony FE.
Day 6 of the 2016 byThom Botswana Photo Workshop Blog
September 12
We’re All Just Dating... The switching, sampling, leaking, updating phenomena are no different than dating different women or men: you’re looking for perfect. Article on dslrbodies.com
Samyang announced a new 14mm f/2.4 manual focus lens for Sony FE, Canon EF, and Nikon F mounts. They also announced a new 85mm f/1.2 manual focus lens for Canon EF mounts.
Day 5 of the 2016 byThom Botswana Photo Workshop BlogSeptember 9
Sony introduced a new E-mount lens for video: 18-110mm f/4 OSS.
Day 4 of the 2016 byThom Botswana Photo Workshop Blog
September 8
Coffin Not Quite Shut, But Apple Working on It. For months now I’ve been reading the Internet prognostications of the iPhone 7 killing the DSLR. This was all predicated on the use of dual imaging sensors with differing focal lengths, which creates a virtual zoom in the smartphone along with a lightfield-like depth map. And assuming that Apple would do something that is above and beyond what others have accomplished to date with multiple sensors. Article on dslrbodies.com
Sigma Goes Cinematic. Sigma today at IBC announced a new series of lenses, the manual focus Cine series. The first two lenses will be available in November: the crop sensor 18-35mm t/2 and 50-100mm t/2. Article on dslrbodies.com
Covering Canon. Some of you seem somewhat panicked by my announcement that I’ll be adding Canon information and coverage to dslrbodies.com. So I need to make a few additional comments in order to stave off an In Box filling with questions. Article on dslrbodies.com
Zeiss introduced three new Milvus lenses: 15mm f/2.8, 18mm f/2.8, 135mm f/2.
Day 3 of the Botswana workshop blog
September 7
A Quick Share Update. As part of integrating the latest CIPA numbers into my database, it’s easy enough to create a quick market share analysis using Canon’s and Nikon’s first and second quarter reported numbers. Article on dslrbodies.com
Day 2 of the Botswana workshop blog
September 6
SnapBridge Isn’t a Snap; Nor is it Much of a Bridge. As a commentator on tech, Jean-Louis Gassee is one of the best. Here’s one of his recent quotes: “So how is it that we don’t have connected objects that Just Work?” Article on dslrbodies.com
Video: Feature or Function? Eight years ago Nikon was the first to introduce video to a DSLR with the D90. Since then, we’ve gotten a slow progression of video ability to the point where we now have 4K capability in the D5 and D500 (but not the more recent D3400). Article on dslrbodies.com
The 2016 Botswana Workshop Blog. Kicks off today as it should with some packing advice as Thom sits at the airport waiting for his flight. Article on bythom.com