Photokina 2006 Report Wrap-Up
The European camera revival; the new normal for DSLRs; the compact camera shake-out; the "Best of Show" awards
Go to the Adorama News Desk for detailed reports on specific new product introductions; scroll down for daily reports.
By Mason Resnick
Final update: September 29, 2006
In the end, Photokina 2006 was a surprisingly energetic fight. Yes, there was the expected face-off between traditional film camera manufacturers going digital vs. consumer electronics companies from Japan and Korea establishing their reputations as digital camera makers. We saw 10MP entry-level and enthusiast-oriented DSLRs become commonplace, replacing 6-8MP cameras, almost overnight. And we saw compact camera makers competing not just with higher resolution, but loading more features.
But all of that was almost overshadowed by the unexpected resurgence of the Old Guard--the legendary European precision camera makers--with high-end, precision optics and cameras that are sure to capture the imagination of this generation of photographers, just as the Leicas, Hasselblads, and Sinars captivated a previous generation.
And so, the big fight was Europe vs. Japan, with two very different groups of consumers expected to reap the benefits.
Euro-cams rising
 Leica's robust showing was the surprise of the show. Just a few years removed from what many felt was the precipice of bankruptcy, Leica not only introduced its first DSLR (a Four Thirds system camera which is really a variation of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-L1K), a pair of 10MP compacts (also clones of Panasonic models), and the triumphant, all-Leica M8 (with a Leica-tweaked Kodak 10MP sensor inside), but also announced the acquisition of another legendary European camera company, Sinar.
 The long-anticipated Leica M8, the first digital rangefinder camera, got the most headlines, and for good reason. "Leica's designers' marching orders were to make a camera that essentially had the look, feel, and quality of previous M-series Leicas," says Adorama contributor and resident Leica expert Jason Schneider. "And Leica pulled it off."
 Then there was Hasselblad, which celebrated the 100th anniversary of founder Victor Hasselblad's birth with their largest-ever presence at the show. The company is sure to attract a new generation of pros with deep pockets to invest in the H3D (in 22MP or 39MP versions), the first 48mm full-frame DSLR, with a very traditional removable wast-level finder that can be replaced with an eye-level module and which can use any Hasselblad V-series lens.
 Finally there was Zeiss. In addition to introducing a brand-new 35mm rangefinder (possibly the last of its breed), the company unveiled a dozen lenses, including two Leica M-mount lenses, as well as a variety of lenses in Nikon, Sony, and Hasselblad mounts.
DSLRs turn 10
Sony's DSLR-A100 Alpha, introduced in June, opened the doors, and a flood of sub-$1,000, 10MP DSLRs marched through. The previous standard of 6 to 8MP for an entry-level DSLR was quickly left behind as 10 became the new normal. We saw (in order of appearence) 10MP cameras from Nikon, Canon, Pentax, Olympus, and Samsung. So far, it looks like the Canon and Sony are tied for best value, each with a camera body going for around $800.
Sony, Pentax, and Samsung now all have built-in anti-shake systems. Meanwhile, Pentax is keeping its K100D in production, mainly because maintaining a suddenly less fashionable 6MP sensor will bring the price to within the grasp of students and budget-minded consumers.
On the pro end, Fujifilm unveiled its S5 flagship DSLR, replacing the long-in-the-tooth S3 and built on a Nikon D200 body. Both the Fuji and the new Leica DSLR promise wider dynamic range than what we've seen so far.
Compact camera shake-out
As expected, all the big names--Canon, Fujifilm Kodak Nikon, Olympus, Sony, and (surprise!) Ricoh and Sigma, brought out new compact cameras (and some revised their entire lineup), while Samsung and Panasonic showed cameras introduced in early Summer. Manufacturers, hoping to woo buyers to get a second digicam, are rolling out both higher-priced models loaded with features, and sub-$300 cameras (some for under $200) with features that would have cost twice as much last year.
The bad news: too many 10MP cameras were introduced when 6 or 8MP would be enough for the intended audience. Since most compact camera users make 4x6-inch prints, why do they need a 10MP sensor? With so many pixels squeezed onto those tiny chips, pixel size is reduced and the space separating them trimmed down, causing higher signal-to-noise ratios and light spillover, resulting in noise that, above fairly modest ISO settings, will negate the benefit of the high pixel count. Lower-resolution cameras tend to produce less noisy pictures at higher ISO settings by comparison.
The good news: Everyone's trying to get rid of camera shake--the best news since somebody decided to build a flash right next to the lens on a point-and-shoot camera, guaranteeing that a generation of snapshots would be plagued by red-eye. In addition to helping reduce camera shake, this feature promotes natural light photography indoors. Use this feature in combination with more sophisticated metering, face-detection image optimization and smarter white balance adjustments and you've given even novices the ability to take natural-looking people pictures.
The other good news: More cameras are sporting higher ISOs. That might be bad for grain, except many of these same cameras are also touting grain-reduction technology built into the cameras.
Could we be finally be leaving the era of pink-eyed, pale-skined, unflattering people pictures? Let's hope shake reduction technology and less grainy high-ISO pictures make this happen.
Best of show awards
Now we get to the fun part, where I hand out awards for products, emerging technologies, marketing concepts, and whatever else I can think of. And the winners are...
Most influential camera award
Sony Alpha A-100
Yes it was introduced months before the show, but without it, we may not have seen so many amazing 10MP DSLRs selling for so few dollars. Competition is good for consumers.
Best bang for the buck award, DSLR division
Canon Rebel XTi
It may not have been first, but based on reviews we've seen, the $799 (body only) Rebel XTi may hold the best feature set of the sub-$1K 10MP crowd. It looks like a clear winner going head-to-head against the Alpha.
Best bang for the buck award, EVF division
Kodak EasyShare Z710
At $299, the 7MP, 10X zoom Kodak is a better deal than many compacts at the same price. It's got 19 scene modes, a 2-inch monitor, and the ability to produce poster-sized prints.
Best bang for the buck award, Compact division
Nikon Coolpix L5
At under $299, you get a 5x optical zoom lens optical vibration reduction, ISO sensitivity to 800, noise reduction, in-camera red-eye fix...and 7.2MP resolution. Don't need to VR or 5X zoom? For $100 less you can pick up a 7.3MP Fuji A700, which gets our runner-up prize.
Money is no object award
Hasselblad H3D, 39MP version
If it lives up to its claims of film-like image quality and latitude, this world's first 48mm DSLR is going to find many happy homes in studios and at weddings. The cost? Not availalbe, but if you have to ask...
Comeback company of the show award
Leica Camera
They introduced a new lineup and bought Sinar. Hey, weren't these guys almost broke a few years ago?
Highest drool factor award
Leica M8
What more can be said? Leica's done it again: Simple is beautiful, even in digital.
Sleeping giant award
Kodak
Don't count them out, despite a year of really bad news and a dearth of new products. Any company that can come out with a printer that talks to cell phones and a budget-camera that may turn out to be a best seller can't be doing that badly.
Company to watch award
FotoNation
They make software that's giving a growing number of compact (and some not-so-compact) cameras added value, including: Dust Detection, Face Tracker (see "Best Innovation" award), and Red-Eye Removal.
Best innovation award
FotoNation Face Tracker technology
Found inside a growing number of compact cameras, it seeks out up to 9 faces, then optimizes color, sharpness, and exposure to make them look as good as possible. Very nifty.
Best card in the deck award
Sandisk Extreme II 16GB CompactFlash
OK, so you'll have to pony up more than a grand for it, but this card is the highest-capacity CF card to date by far, and will be on shelves before the Pretec 16GB card--also announced at the show--begins production.
Image file format appreciation award
RAW
Sure, you've always wanted to shoot RAW because you've been told the quality blasts JPEG out of the water...but the software's fussy and the files are too big. Well...a new generation of RAW workflow software, led by Adobe Lightroom and Apple Aperture, as well as several less expensive apps, make working with RAW as easy as handling JPEGs, while memory cards have increased capacity (didja read about SDHC yet?) and cheaper. So, why aren't you shooting RAW?
What a cute couple award
X-Rite and HP
As HP divests itself of its CEO and other key personnel in clouds of controversey, it has teamed up with X-Rite to create the most sophisticated color management solution yet. X-Rite provides the integrated profiling of print media, HP provides the printer. Users get stunning prints. Runner-up partnership: Leica/Sinar.
Update: September 28, 2006
Carl and Victor rise again
Carl Zeiss and Victor Hasselblad are two names that, less than a year ago, seemed destined for the margins of the photo industry as new companies like Sony, Panasonic, and Casio took over and Japanese camera makers struggled to survive (with the exception of Nikon and Canon, who are thriving). But as the 2006 Photokina starts to wind down, both Zeiss and Hasselblad have made strong showings while keeping their corporate feet firmly planted in both the film and digital worlds.
Zeiss honored its 150th birhtday with a slew of new high-end lens offerings for both its own cameras and for Nikons, Sonys, and Hasselblads. Hasselblad, meantime, celebrated the 100th birthday of its founder with a splashy new magazine, a contest, and a new flagship digital medium format camera.
Zeiss offered up three new lenses for the Sony Alpha, four F-mount lenses for lenses for Nikon film and digital SLRs (35mm f/2, 25mm f/2.8, 50mm f/2 Makro-Planar and 100mm f/2 Makro Planar), three lenses built to fit any Hasselblad built since 1957 (50mm f/4, 120mm f/4 Makro-Planar, 180mm f/4), and a pair of Leica M-mount wide-angle lenses that will work on the new Zeiss SW 35mm rangefinder or the Leica M8 digital rangefinder.
Hasselblad followed up yesterday's announcement of the H3D true medium-format modular camera with two announcements surrounding the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Victor H's day of birth that are more significant for providing hints about changes in their marketing approach. A new magazine, Victor, replaces the staid Hasselblad Forum, and is being targeted at the elusive younger audience. Meanwhile, Hasselblad also announced a contest, with the winner recieving an H3D camera and accessories. To enter, you have to answer a handful of fairly easy questions (they're only easy if you've been paying attention).
DxO pumps itself up
 DxO continues to dominate the lens-distortion-correction-software market with a new version of Optics Pro, its flagship. Optics Pro v.4 does both Windows and Intel-based Macs, and can now be accessed as a Photoshop plug-in, which should do wonders for workflow. Our favorite new feature? DxO says it can fix faces that get all plasticy and distorted after being shot with a wide-angle lens. Pretty cool. It can also mimic the look of several films, like Velvia, Ektachrome, and Kodachrome.
Knock on wood
Three wooden cameras were shown at the show (usaually a "concept" camera design is carved from wood and painted black to look convincing, then shown under glass to maintain the illusion). First, there was the Pentax 645-format camera, which we also saw in February at PMA. No new news there.
 Then Olympus showed a concept for the next model in its high-end E DSLR series, to replace the E1. The E1 is getting long in the tooth, having been around since 2003, although the lens system has grown to 17 and a wide range of accessories and there are plenty of other, smaller, amateur and enthusiast-oriented cameras which have joined the line. Other than a camera under glass and a promise from Olympus's president that "Chapter Two" will begin next year (read: PMA), all we've got so far is a camera under glass and hope for an update of this workhorse pro camera.
 Finally Olympus also announced a prototype of a new camera that will have a wood body--and therefore needs no black paint. This model was made of Japanese Cypress that's been through a new three-dimensional compression process that gives it its curvy shape. The benefit of using wood is that it's more durable than plastic. What's next: Pergo cam?
Odds and ends...
 Once you've taken all of those great pictures with your digital camera, what do you do with them? Smartparts is hoping consumers will put them in their Digital Picture Frame, which is really a 5.6-inch LCD display with a wood border. Users can view JPEG images and .avi-format movies. Measuring 8x7 inches, the frame is made of genuine walnut wood. An infrared control runs a slide show, while there are ports for SD, SM, MS, MMC, CF and xD Picture Cards. What may drive fast adaptation of the Digital Picture Frame is the price, a competitive $129.95. An 8x4-inch LCD version retails for not much more--$179.95.
Pantone, which recently got into the paint business (yes, you can paint your house in Pantone colors), has added support for Intel Macs to its popular, inexpensive Huey color calibration tool. GretagMacbeth (which was since bought by X-Rite) developed Huey, and Pantone brought it to market. Pantone has also partnered with CHROMiX a company with an ICC profiling service that gives photographers greater control over what their prints look like.
In the past year, as DSLRs have become more popular, more people are discovering dust on their sensitive sensors. VisibleDust unveiled three sensor cleaners, including the Arctic Butterfly SL 700, a battery-powered brush that spins rapidly as you clean. While this model, and the slightly more bristly 7224, are meant for prosumers, the HDF Sensor Brush a more standard type brush meant for pros. All have self-charging, self-cleaning action which is said to effectively remove dust from sensors.
That's it for today; the show (at least the news part of it) is winding down. Tune in tomorrow for a final recap!
Update: September 27, 2006
On the second full day of Photokina, serious tools for pro shooters dominated the news, with big digital product announcements from high-end stalwarts of the film era Hasselblad, Horseman, Leica and Sinar. No more wimpy compacts or tiny DSLRs, we're talking about medium and large format here.
 The first news item is not a product, it's industry news: Sinar stunned attendees with the announcement that Leica is now Sinar's controlling shareholder, having bought 51 percent of the company's shares. This should be good news to Leica owners, because it indicates that Leica has apparently pulled itself out of its financial distress of a few years ago--enough to buy another company. We decided to have a little fun with this news, and created the mock-up of a possible new corporate logo seen here. Finally, Sinar can dot it's "i."
Actually, the second news item isn't a product either. Color management company X-Rite, which bought Gretag Macbeth this summer, has teamed up with HP, providing its expertise to give HP an intriguing competitive edge in a new line of products.
OK, that's enough synergy for now. Let's get check out the latest gear announcements...
The big guns roll out
What could be bigger news than a major product announcement from Hasselblad? The legendary camera company, which made a big deal over its booth size before the show, saying it was their bigest ever, showed why by introducing the Hasselblad H3D, which sports a 48mm sensor that's twice the size of a 35mm frame in either 22MP or 29MP versions. It's modular, with removable viewfinder and lens--just like a film Hassy.
 Horseman, meanwhile, was busy introducing a line of high-end cameras and backs: The SW-D2 Pro super wide-angle camera, the LD Pro, a high-end camera accessory back for adding bellows functions, and the Horseman 3D Stereo camera.
 Then there's Sinar, which announced the Hy6, a 6x6 medium format camera that is vaguely referred to as "the beginning of a new era of digital medium-format photography." All we know is that it's a 6x6 cm camera that has 6x4.5 capability, so it can be used for vertical and horizontal as well as square photos. And, we have a product shot...that's it. More details coming soon.
 Finally, Sigma introduced four new lenses for Four Thirds format DSLRs, ranging from a modest zoom to a macro to a pair of super and super-duper telephoto lenses which should keep sports and wildlife photographers happy.
Today, my prints will come
Today was also a big day for printers, with archrivals Epson and HP announcing pro-end printers, and Kodak introducing an intriguing consumer model.
 The first fruits of HP's technology partnership with X-Rite is the DesignJet Z line of large-format printers. The printers, which come in 24- and 44-inch widths and produce images claimed to be fade resistant for 200 years, have on-board spectrophotometers which profile the paper being used and keep the color honest.
Attention, hyperbole police: Epson deserves a citation for the following press release prose describing their new 17-inch format Stylus Pro 3800 inkjet printer: "...this sleek and sophisticated printer is engineered to mark another turning point in the history of printing technology for professional photography, graphic design and prepress proofing." Yeah, it's a really, really good sounding printer...but c'mon, quote an unbiased third party, like, say, master colorist Pete Turner.
 Oh, wait a sec--they did. Turner is quoted in the same release as saying: "Epson's new Stylus Pro 3800 represents an amazing breakthrough for creative professionals, providing unprecedented control over the entire printing process without any compromises. Combined with Epson's UltraChrome K3 pigment based ink, my prints have a sense of color and liquidity that I have never been able to get with any previous inkjet printing process." See? Sounds better when he says it.
 Finally, Kodak, trying to make life easy and showing early results of their partnership with Motorola, which was announced in January, has introduced a Bluetooth-enabled consumer-level 4x6-inch printer, the EasyShare Photo Printer 350. Prints can be ordered up from a camera cell phone or from a Bluetooth-enabled camera.
Thanks for the memory cards
 Late yesterday, we declared SanDisk the memory card capacity king with their announcement of 12GB and 16GB CompactFlash cards. That didn't last long--today we found Pretec, an up-and-coming flash memory supplier, unveiled a 16GB card of its own. However while the SanDisk card will be available in December, Pretec won't start production until sometime in the fourth quarter of 2006. So...maybe SanDisk is still king, for now?
 With dozens of SDHC cameras introduced at this show, it's no wonder manufacturers are falling all over themselves to bring higher-capacity cards to the marketplace. Today we learned of 4GB SDHC cards from SanDisk and Kingston, and were reminded that on Sept. 1 Pretec announced an 8GB card (although, again, it's not yet in production).
We like the pastoral graphic on the Kingston card.
Updated: September 26, 2006
Sure, we knew that today, as Photokina began, Sigma would announce its first DSLR in three years, the SD14. What we didn't expect was a 14MP compact digital camera from Sigma, using the same sensor as its DSLR sibling.
 The Sigma DP1 is the company's first compact digital camera, and it offers several distinctive features. First is its sensor, which arrays 14 million pixels in three layers, designed to absorb red, green and blue at different depths and behave much like film. Second is its lens--a fixed focal length 28mm (35mm equivalent) f/4 lens. The market for the DP1 may be limited due to its fixed focal length, but enthusiasts and pros might very well scoop it up if it delivers the kind of quality Sigma promises.
Pro product potpourri
In addition to Aperture, we're seeing a number of pro-oriented products. Elinchrom, for instance, introduced two budget-priced D-Lite studio lighting kits with two light heads, as well as softboxes, stands and bags, for under $900 for a 200W kit and under $1,100 for a 400W kit.
Sekonic introduced a line of DigitalMaster light meters, which are claimed to be calibrated to match the sensitivity of a camera's imaging sensor at all ISO settings. But this match goes farther than just speed; the meter will also match the image file format and the sensor's dynamic range when metering a scene. It gets this information via a USB transfer cable, and the camera exposure profile data is loade from a PC or Mac. Up to three profiles can be stored.
Amabilia, an Italian company, offers a new series of 8 Zooma bags, designed for photographers. More sturdy than typical bags, they have an aluminum shell that's covered by padded, ballistic nylon. This might be a good case to bring in case they change the carry-on rules on your airline; they might be OK for checking through.
Storage wars and "NDAs"
 We also saw a mini-war break out between Epson and Canon, each company announcing today nearly-identical mass storage devices with large screens for previews of images and other media files. Canon's Media Storage MD30 and MD80 hold 30GB and 80GB respectively in their hard drives, while Epson's P-3000 and P-5000 which hold 40GB and 80GB, respectively.
 We suspect Canon may have rushed the product a bit after Epson's press release was leaked three weeks early and appeared briefly on several web sites. We know Epson's PR people were doing damage control that day, and asked us to honor the press embargo until today, which we did.
A side note: Honoring press embargoes of new products is a common practice; it allows writers to prepare articles in advance as long as they don't publish them before the requested date. A journalist is asked to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), which says that prematurely releasing the information might cause financial damage to the company providing the information. If our suspicions are right, the case of the competing mass storage units may be a perfect example of what happens when an NDA isn't honored.
OK...back to Photokina.
Aperture opens wider
Apple announced a major update to Aperture, its 9-month-old workflow management software. The company says there are 20 new features, based on user feedback, in Aperture 1.5. What we noticed is that the cost of version 1.5 will be around $299...unless you own an earlier version, in which case it can be downloaded for free via the Apple web site. With that in mind, we thought you might be interested in the fact that you can buy an earlier version of Aperture for $199.
Stayin' alive
In the "who knew they were still around?" department, Agfa unveiled four digital compact cameras, topped by an 8MP Agfa DC 830, which sports a 3X optical zoom and a 2.4-inch LCD monitor. No word on whether it will be available in the US. Vivitar, which is nothing like the company that used to produce some of the most popular independent-brand lenses and flashes back in the day, also unveiled an 8MP compact camera. The Vivicam 8625 has a 6x optical zoom and a 2.5-inch LCD monitor, and is expected to sell for under $250.
Updated: September 25, 2006
 It's the eve of the Big Show, and we have a flurry of announcements for you. Topping the day's news is Fujifilm, which unveiled that it is putting the finishing touches on the FinePix S5 Pro, a high-end DSLR with a Nikon mount that appears to be built on a Nikon D200 chassis. The big difference between the cameras is the sensor, which has 6.17 million full-size S-pixels, which are said to be more sensitive, and 6.17 smaller R-pixels, which Fujifilm says are designed for finer grain but lower sensitivity. Taken together, the result is supposedly unrivaled exposure latitude.
It will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow, Sigma plans to announce a new DSLR that they are hinting will also have greater latitude than competing DSLRs.
Pentax, following up on its announcement last week of their 10MP enthusiast level DSLR, the K10D, has announced it will be showing a sneak peak of three high-end lenses--16-50mm f/2.8, 50-135mm f/2.8, and 60-250mm--as well as a medium-format DSLR. Pentax showed a mock-up of this camera earlier this year at PMA, but kept it under glass. The only details we have? 18MP sensor that will eventually be upgraded to 30MP as technology makes it possible.
Somebody should probably give Pentax the memo that 30MP sensors are already is possible...as evidenced by Hasselblad's H2D-39, which was announced way back in January, or Leaf, which unveiled the 33MP Leaf Aptus 75S digital camera back, which is being introduced at the show along with a 28MB and 22MB sensor back.
Meanwhile in the compact camera front, Fujifilm introduced a 6MP camera, the FinePix 31fd, which can adentify up to 10 faces in an image and automatically make a bunch of adjustments so those faces look marvelous. Archrival Kodak unveiled a 7MP EasyShare 710, an EVF model with a 10X zoom and an attention-grabbing $299 pricetag.
We expect plenty of new products to talk about tomorrow, the first day of Photokina. Be sure to bookmark this page and visit often this week!
Posted: September 21, 2006
With a few days to go before the start of Photokina, two trends have emerged based on pre-show annuncements: 10MP has become the new entry level for digital SLRs, and everyone wants to offer some kind of vibration reduction technology.
The magic number is...10!
New DSLRs have been unveiled by Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Samsung, and Sony, most of them introduced during the summer, all sporting 10MP sensors. The previous standard had been 6-8MP. Shortly befor the show, Olympus and Leica unveiled more advanced 10MP models.
Has it really been less than four months since Sony unveiled the Alpha DSLR-A100, the first 10MP DSLR for under a grand?
Not shakin' all over
Meanwhile, almost every camera maker has developed some flavor of built-in vibration reduction, a very welcome trend. However, not all anti-shake is created equal. The preferred method--optical vibration reduction--offers the best quality when it comes to camera shake. However, it does not unblur moving subjects. For that, some companies offer to boost the ISO to 1600 or beyond.
Both technologies have their limits. Boosting the ISO increases the signal to noise ratio, causing more prominent digital grain, which might offset the benefit of stopping the subject. Optical image stabilization retains top image quality, but won't stop subject movement.
The bad news? We've noticed that some manufacturers neglect to mention the grain issue with digital vibration reduction. While we can understand their reluctance to mention a problem area, we don't feel consumers enjoy unpleasant surprises. Know the facts, and decide for yourself.
The rich get richer...
Full-featured compact cameras continue to evolve, with longer zoom ranges, zooms that start at 28mm, 16:9 aspect ratio images, a multiplicity of "scene" modes, and a growing number of cameras offering WiFi operation.
An important development is SDHC cards, which boosts memory card capacity for compact cameras. There's already at least one 8GB SDHC card announced, and no doubt there are more on the way.
...The cheap get cheaper
Meanwhile, digital cameras selling for under $200 are becoming a very hot commodity. Since 35mm compact cameras used to sell for $100-300, the perception now is that digital compact cameras have reached price parity with film cameras. Snapshooters are expected to snap up these cameras as they hit the shelves this fall.
Bookmark this page and return often for daily Photokina round-ups during the show.
© 2006 Adorama
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