Personal ramblings on photography
News (industry, events)
Fotokemika Ceases Production, Affects Efke/ADOX:
Fotokemika in Croatia has effectively ceased production of their films and papers, affecting Efke and ADOX products. Efke films and papers are completely shut down, but there’s some hope for ADOX films.
This is sad. Less choice of black and white film.
It has been rumored that Kodak is trying to sell its still profitable film division.
What worries is that beside Kodak and Fujifilm, who makes color film? I like film photography in color. I do love color. If I can’t buy anymore film, I’ll be very sad.
Time to stock up, and hope that whoever buys Kodak film business, does it to keep it alive, or license the technology left to one that want to do it.
After the discontinuation of Ektachrome, Kodak is hiking the price of film, 15% across the board. (via Amateur Photographer)
That was expected I guess. It is also the price hike of 2004 on Fujifilm slide film that made me buy a 20D.
In Kodak bankruptcy reorganisation, the announcement of Ektachrome being discountinued mark the end of the Kodak slide film, after discontinuing Kodachrome in 2009 and stopping development at the end of 2010. The won’t stop producing E-6 chemistry though.
This is very hard on slide film shooters. Now the only source for color reversible film is Fujifilm. Time to stock up.
After inventing the digital camera in 1975, and resisting it heavily, now Kodak is abandoning the digital camera market all together during their bankruptcy, to reorganize, refocus in order to exit as smaller company. They won’t stop making disposable film cameras though, which is part of the film division.
Source Kodak press release and C|Net.
While this seems to be saddening, it is the reality of the business, and I understand this one.
Kodak was in the low-end of the market, their camera weren’t really great, albeit sufficient in the consumer market. But with the declining market for consumer compact digital camera, totally taken over by cell-phones, it seems to be the logical decision. Even the Japanese makers saw a serious fall this year, but most have a higher-end product line to sustain the business.
My only hope is that they don’t end up getting out of the film business ; the current press release does clearly state they continue. The end of Kodachrome was an unfortunate decision they had to make, and consolidating their film product line seemed to be sane ; they still make good products and it would be very sad if they discontinued them.
We’ll see.
This is just out, Olympus officially announced the long rumored OM-D (or E-M5), their new high-end m4/3 camera.
Quick hands-on by DPReview:
Longer presentation by Photography Review, with a size comparison with the E-P3:
The short specs (from DPReview):
As the DPReview preview shows, it looks like the same size as a Panasonic G, slightly bigger than the E-P3.
There is also an optional grip.
The price will be $999.
Olympus also announced a 75mm f1.8, a 60mm f2.8 Macro 1:1 and a flash. They are really getting more serious, and it is a prelude to the death of the Four-Third standard as m4/3 is taking over.
Update (Feb 9): OM-D is the product line, like Pen Digital, and E-M5 is the camera name. It seems clear that they might have more OM-D cameras.
Canon just announced a refresh of their 24-70 L lens, as well as two new wide angle lenses with IS: the 24mm and 28mm f2.8. The IS in a wide angle lens is new.
The prices are official for the X-Pro1. In both US and Canadian dollars (pre-tax):
This make it around $2300, not counting the memory card and other accessories you might want. Shipping end of February.
Sources: DCresource, DPReview
Kodak just filed for bankruptcy in the US. This was almost expected as business has been declining over the years, being unable to make a come back from the decline of film.
The film division, still profitable after a reduction of costs, simplification of the product line like abandoning Kodachrome development isn’t big enough to sustain the rest. After deciding in November 2011 to sell their image sensor division to an equity firm, it sounded obvious that Kodak management didn’t know where to go.
Now several concerns:
First, what will happen to the film division? I’m sure that this is part of what they will try to offload for cheap. It is not growing anymore, quite the opposite, but they still have good film products and it would be a great loss to lose them.
Second, their patent pool is like a nuclear warhead that they are gonna sell to the highest bidder who will use it for patent warfare. Kodak has been known to litigate in the past to try to bring in some cash, unsuccessfully.
We’ll see how the reorganization goes.
Nikon 1 is the just unveiled Nikon mirror less system. It seems to be a trend. First, m4/3, then Samsung NX, Sony Nex, Pentax Q and now Nikon 1.
2 cameras:
The camera feature interchangeable lenses, SD card (high capacity), PSAM exposure modes, autofocus, etc. And NEF raw files.
4 lenses, 1 prime, 3 zooms:
Two accessories for the V1: a flash and a GPS unit for $149 each. According to DPReview there will be a F-mount lens adapter coming as well. The availability in the US will be 20th of October 2011.
More at Nikon USA.
(Price are US list prices in USD)
My opinion, without having seen it. The new mount and the small sensor are two things that could hinder the camera success. The sensor, “CX size”, smaller than the one of m4/3, but still bigger than the one of the Pentax Q, make it more difficult to contain the noise at high ISO. I haven’t see samples yet to make myself an opinion. Also the new mount means that the lens will be specific to the system. I do believe Nikon could have benefited from joining the m4/3 gang instead and could have introduced Nikon lenses to the mix for the variety. It is one of the reason m4/3 cameras are popular.
On the other hand, the GPS accessory, while a bit overpriced, seems to be a welcome addition that virtually no other maker has. It is not Nikon’s first attempt.