Text and images © 2006 John B. Blackford. Do not reproduce without express written permission. All rights reserved.
Photo Plus Expo The annual photo show at the Javits Center in New York City, in November '06, was well attended, but it's clearly dividing between the mega companies like Canon, Nikon, Adobe, Epson and HP, and the many small fry offering photo albums, photo courses, workshops, books, and gear of a wide variety.

Of course, Hassleblad, Leica, Pentax, Kodak, Apple and others were on hand, but not Olympus, which is odd, since they are based in the Lehigh Valley, only 75 miles away.

Neither Canon nor Nikon showed anything major, having rolled out new DSLRs in late summer. Epson was showing its lower-cost 17-inch Stylus Pro 3800, which sells for around $1,295 with a complete ink set and $1,495 bundled with the well-regarded Colorburst RIP. HP was showing the Degignjet Z introduced at Photokina. While the 3800 doesn't have a built-in spectrometer, the Epson folks note that the printer is calibrated at the factory and the settings burned into ROM. They say their print heads don't need adjustment after that, while HP's thermal technology does.


2006 Photobloggies Results The international organization of photo blogs awards included moody landscapes of the Africa/Middle East winner: http://gosu.co.za He's posted a layer-by-layer tutorial on how he mne of the shots, at www.gosu.co.za/extras/tutorial.htm


Photokina 2006
At the huge Photokina camera show (Cologne, Germany, Sept 26-Oct. 1, 2006) , the rumored Canon 40D did not appear, but Canon's low-cost digital SLR, the XTi, offers a 10 megapixel sensor for under $1,000 (don't get it without an Image Stabilized lens). Canon also unveiled two new lenses, an IS version of the highly regarded f4.0 70-200mm "L," and a f/1.2L 50mm.

HP unveiled 8- and 12-color large-format printers, the Designjet Z, with built-in X-Rite i1 Color Technology spectrometer. These are turning some heads. They'll offer 24- and 44-inch carriages.

Epson rolled out the 8-color $1,250 Stylus 3800, with a 17-inch carriage, K3 inks and both Matte Black and Glossy Black always loaded.

Leaf Aptus (now a division of Kodak) introduced new medium-format backs, starting at 22MP. All three models shoot around a frame a second for extended periods.

Leica bought Sinar and introduced it's first digital camera, the 10-megapixel M8 rangefinder...a mere $4,500, body only...see Luminous Landscape October, 2006.

Mamiya's medium-format digital camera and back remain under glass, promised for spring launch, but possibly not in the U.S.

Hasselblad unveiled a proprietary H3D that does not accept third-party backs. Photokina


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