Okay guys and gals, here’s to some serious pornography. Yes, I’m serious! Today, several exciting and breathtaking announcements have been made in anticipation of this year’s photokina (which will commence tomorrow, and not today as I accidentally stated in my previous post – apologies again!), some of them so absolutely stunning that’s they are seriously close to pornography! 😉
So here’s what I’m talking about:
- Fujifilm today announced the development of yet another large-sensor fixed-lens enthusiast’s compact – but this time it could be the real thing! It’s got a stunning, classic rangefinder design, support for full manual operation (seperate shutter speed and exosure correction dials on top and an aperture ring on the lens), and a unique hybrid electric-optical viewfinder, featuring a semi-transparent high-resolution LCD that is projected into the optical viewfinder image.
- Olympus announced the development of yet yet another large-sensor fixed-lens enthusiast’s compact featuring a Zuiko branded lens. Judging from the pictures (the camera is only a mock-up so far), it’ll feature a Micro Four Thirds sensor. Detailed specs are unknown as of yet.
- Leica will present the M9 Titanium, which has been designed by VW chief of design Walter de Silva – the man who draw the stunning Audi A5! It looks absolutely gorgeous, and like the new Fuji it’ll feature a hybrid viewfinder with electronically projected framelines! Also the two new re-branded Panasonic models, the D-Lux 5, successor to the D-Lux 4 and close-to-identical to the Panasonic LX5, as well as the V-Lux 2, successor to the V-Lux 1 and close-to-identical to the Panasonic FZ100.
More after the cut! Continue reading Photokina day -1: Exciting announcements!
It is here, my friends, it is here: the first serious review of Sigma’s new Foveon DSLR, the SD15 – well, the first in English, that is. (The actual first review came from DCWatch and was in Japanese, as reported earlier.)
 Picture courtesy of Sigma Corporation. The Sigma SD15, successor to the SD14 (which is in-stock at B&H Photo), sports the same 3 x 4.7 megapixel Foveon sensor as its predecessor. Due to the Foveon sensor’s unique format, any lens mounted to the SD15 will have a field-of-view equivalent to ~ 1.7x of its indicated focal length on full-frame. An article on the achitecture of the Foveon sensor can be found here on dpreview, as well as the full specs of the SD15 DSLR.
On the IQ side, PhotoBLOG note that the SD15 delivers much more consistent colours than any of its predecessors, showing less white-balance problems or odd colour casts, which the earlier Sigma cameras were kind of renowned for. High ISOs are still very prone to noise, though, and anything above ISO 800 looks plainly awful (in the humble opinion of this blog’s editor). But if you know how to handle the camera, it can deliver some astonishing results. Pair this with the very nice lens setup Sigma has on offer for the SD series, and you’ve got a nice tool for those who are serious about image quality.
You can find the full review of the Sigma SD15 here at PhotographyBLOG.
DCWatch have reviewed the Sigma SD15, which I believe is the first review this camera has gotten. As always, it’s in Japanese, it’s thorough and it’s peppered with a lot of sample shots. You can find a translated version here.
On The Luminous Landscape today we find a review of the legendary Voigtländer Nokton 50mm f/1.1 lens, the ultimate nemesis of the Leica Noctilux!  It is written by landscape and portrait photographer Nick Devlin, who describes the lens as “‘Damn, that’s sharp’ (yes, that’s a technical term of art, corresponding to roughly 1,000 Nyquist nonsensometres per inch of brick wall)” when stopped down, and equal to the classic Noctilux f/1 when wide open. You can find the article here, it’s worth a read!
Buy the Voigtländer Nokton 50mm f/1.1 VM lens from B&H Photo Video Audio!
Via photoscala.de.
After first presenting the successor to the now by far outdated SD14 Foveon sensor equipped DSLR, the SD15, at Photokina two years back, and then successively re- and de-announcing the camera every few months (last time last month), Sigma now finally announced that their new flagship DSLR will be available from June 25th. The retail price will now be € 1199, as opposed to the previously announced € 899.
Sigma, Sigma. You surely give us the carrot and the stick, don’t you.
Japanese photography website DCWatch have posted their review of the all-new Sigma DP2s, which was announced only a few weeks ago. You can find their review, translated from Japanese to English via Google Translate, here.
They say the AF is now twice as fast compared to the original DP2 – I guess that’s good news. Now I’m curious how the DP2’s AF behaves after the firmware update, compared to the old firmware and the DP2s.
Also, they’ve got nice pictures of cherry blossoms!
Found via 1001noisycameras.
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September 20th, 2010, 9:22 pm | 
