Personal ramblings on photography
News (industry, events)
Kosmofoto tells us Harman Technology releases 120 version of Phoenix 200 film.
Harman Technology is the owner of Ilford, the well known black & white film photography brand and Kentmere. Phoenix is their brand new colour negative film. It’s an original emulsion, not a repackaging that was released in 135 format last December. The 200 ISO film is now available in 120 format.
This is great news.
Back in March 2024, Rollei announced the Rollei 35AF. A newly redesigned version of the Rollei 35 film cameras. The pre-orders will be opening 10 September 2024.
What is the Rollei 35? It’s a long line of high-end (it’s called “premium” these days) compact 35mm film camera that sold over 2 million units since the late 60s. The Rollei 35AF is a redesign, developed by MiNT over the last few years (read all the updates, it’s interesting).
With a newly designed 35mm f2.8 fixed lens, a built-in flash, it features auto-focus (hence the AF moniker), auto-exposure, and retain mostly the appearance of its predecessors. At around USD650-800, this provides a new alternative for film shooters that is less expensive than the Leica and that is not doomed to break down due to age like most vintage camera are.
DPReview: Kodak photo businesses sold to private equity
Well….
This is not good news. Private equity are the corporate looters. And this one is the one that removed “Co-op” from “Mountain Equipment Co-op”…
I don’t expect Kodak film product to be developing. Maybe it’s time to stock up. And when some Fujifilm are suspected to just be Kodak, I wonder about the broader impact.
I talked about rangefinders and mentioned the Pixii, and how it being APS-C sized sensor was, an issue given that it uses Leica M-mount lenses.
Turns out as DPReview tells us that Pixii launches 24MP Pixii Max, its first full-frame rangefinder:
The Pixii Max (Model A3410) is the company’s fifth camera and the first to move from an APS-C sensor to full frame.
Feels like a good revision. At €3999 without taxes (about CA$5900), it’s less expensive than a Leica M.
PetaPixel inform that Fujifilm Set to Restart Colour Film Production in China:
Fujifilm reportedly held a colour film launch event in China where it announced it would restart the production of its C200 and C400 colour negative film through production partner Yes!Star.
C200 and C400 are the successor of the Superia line of films: consumer grade (but high quality) colour negative film. With film prices rising, and choice reducing, it seems like good news.
More supplies is better. With Ricoh releasing a new film camera, it seems that film is not dead.
I previously mentioned the Pentax film renaissance. Today Pentax announced the Pentax 17 (via DPReview).
This gives the details we didn’t previously have.
It’s a vertical half frame (17 mm wide, 24 mm tall) 35mm millimeter compact camera, with a manual focus fixed prime lens. It has program exposure with a few modes, and built-in flash with sync at 1/125. It will be priced at USD$499.95, to be available in late (aren’t we already in the second half?) June 2024.
The manual focusing is zone based, reminiscent of non auto-focus compact cameras, and the viewfinder is parallax corrected, and centered on the lens in the middle of the camera. This is neither a reflex (through the lens) nor a rangefinder.
The body construction has metal, i.e. it’s not a cheap plastic blob. The leaf shutter goes from 4 sec to 1/350 sec, with also a bulb mode. The lens is a fixed 25mm (37mm equivalent) with f/3.5 aperture closed down to a max of f/16. Film advance is mechanic with a lever, so is ISO setting (no DX). The camera uses a CR2 battery for the metering and the flash.
The half frame allow 48 and 72 shots on 24 and 36 exp rolls respectively. If you want to shoot in landscape mode, just flip the camera.
This camera could totally be from the late 1970s, minus a couple of things. According to Ricoh-Pentax, the lens is based on the 1994 Pentax Espio Mini, but using the same attribute as was used on the 1962 RICOH Auto Half
At USD$500 I am not sure whether this is right-priced or not.
The internet camera reviewers dumped their reviews of the new Panasonic Lumix S9 after an expense paid trip to Osaka, Japan.
It’s a full-frame L-Mount camera of a small form factor. It features IBIS, 6K video, 24MP sensor, on par with S5II.
Photography-wise, no breakthrough. One exception is the possibility to add multiple LUT to apply to the image processing for SOOC JPEG. It’s like film emulation but customizable. A purely software feature. LUTs can be loaded from the card or using the companion LumixLab app, which also include the editing feature for the profiles that aren’t anywhere. The reliance on a “mobile app” remain a bad trend. The LUT feature is actually expanded from the Lunix S5II where it was limited in numbers (maximum of 10 vs 39 on the S9) and to V-log.
Panasonic also released an L-Mount pancake 26mm f/8 fixed aperture manual focus lens to make a compact setup. Beside, they announced a 18-40mm f/4.5-6.3 a compact zoom lens that would help keeping the camera compact.
Missing are a viewfinder, possibly a hot shoe (it’s cold, ie no connector, not even flash sync — to be fair this only prevent using a flash strobe) and the headphone jack. Compactness has a price.
For video, it targets “social media” and support many formats and aspect-ratios, including vertical (yikes!), and while the built in mic doesn’t seem to reach the levels of Sony’s, it has a mic input jack (but no headphones). Also it has a tilt screen (hi Fujifilm!), and you can apply the LUT mentioned above to your video footage. It uses the whole sensor in a 3:2 aspect ratio for video, that can be cropped and reframed to your preferred aspect-ratio. However it has recording time limits of 10 minutes if you use 6K mode, 15 minutes in 4k, and 20 minutes in 1080 that the S5II doesn’t have.
MSRP:
DPReview initial Panasonic S9 review
DPReview: Panasonic announces 26mm F8 body-cap manual lens and trails 18-40mm
On a personal matter, the lack of viewfinder remain for me a huge drawback as a photography camera. Otherwise if feels like a perfectly capable camera, and probably excel in video like most of the Panasonic lineup including in m4/3. And if you already have L-mount lenses, this could represent a great choice as a supplementary camera body, being a little less expensive than the Lumix S5II almost matching its capabilities. None of this opinion is based on hands-on use.
After announcing the death of DPReview back in March, and many rumors, it seems that DPReview has found a new owner:
We’re thrilled to share the news that Gear Patrol has acquired DPReview. Gear Patrol is a natural home for the next phase of DPReview’s journey,
There a reassurance that the same team would be running it with the same editorial direction.
This is great news given that Amazon, the previous owner, has been know to burn down the house rather than selling it to “competition”.
Long time no posting.
Today, 21st of March, came the sad news that DPReview is closing 10th of April 2023.
After nearly 25 years of operation, DPReview will be closing in the near future. This difficult decision is part of the annual operating plan review that our parent company shared earlier this year.
Apparently it costs too much for the biggest cloud company in the world to even keep read-only (ie no content added).
Bravo to Amazon for destroying 25 years+ of content. They bought the site in 2007.
Some new Fujifilm Instax.
The boring:
Instax Mini 40 is just another Instax Mini camera. A look reminding us of the Instax Mini 90 more than the other Instax Mini, but with little settings (4). For CAD$130 it’s on the higher end price range. Still, nothing in sight for more serious photographers ; I see no reason to get one while I have a Mini 90.
The thing I can get behind:
Fujifilm also announced a new frame design for Instax Mini film. Frames are the novelty part of Instax Mini where you have frames around the picture that are not white. Black borders have been around, as well as other novelty for which I might not be their target demographics. This new contact sheet frame brings contact sheet film-like border, something the various “effect” phone apps have had. No sprocket holes, but the film name and a frame number printed in yellow. For once I can really get behind this novelty.
The latter come bundled with the former in a CAD$140 bundle.
To be released April 21st 2021