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The decidedly technophile/consumer Sony A99 at its base belies Hasselblad's marketing thrust of style, spirit, and soul. But beside Leica, there simply isn't a premium camera maker out there anymore. Japanese camera manufacturer's killed the concept. Still, I can't shake the feeling that Sony were the wrong choice.
More at the Hasselblad HV information page.
Go ahead, write a hands-off review of the X-T1. Go ahead, offer the world nothing more than a rehashed press release. Go ahead, get plus-oned addend five-hundred for quirky tautologies. Go ahead, lap up impressions traffic. Go ahead, because your sponsors still believe that traffic, not quality of content or readership, is a metric and because analyst hauteur is all the rage.
Go ahead, because we the internet have the collective memory of a goldfish.
One last Tom bit for the day:
“Don’t count Canon and Nikon out. They can see what’s happening. They know they need to respond, and they almost certainly will. But in my book, responding sooner is far better than responding later. Sooner has already passed. ”
Indeed, there is a huge bulk of Nikon/Canon users who drift to mirrorless for the express reason that neither company yet have a mirrorless camera system that does what their crop or FF dSLR systems can do.
I am part of that cohort.
I had high hopes for the Df. In the end, it was not the digital FM/E that many had hoped for. It was too large, too heavy, and too complicated to resemble the haptic coup d'état that was the 1970's SLR. It tried to please too many disparate elements.
Still, Nikon/Canon's current mirrorless systems are experiments. They are the big 2's Apple TV.
Unlike doomsayers, I believe this will only drive eventual sales of yet-to-come flagship mirrorless cameras from either company. They are waiting to get it right. Currently, Fujifilm's X-T1 and Olympus OMD-E1 are the closest mirrorless system cameras to providing the experience of shooting a digital SLR in the package of a film SLR. They are the current haptic leaders.
But haptics don't count for much in the current mirrorless world. The furore the Sony a7r caused is proof of that. Again, the a7r is a fine image maker, but it fails to deliver the essentials of image taking. The good news is: if you can get on with a Sony a7r, you can get on with anything.
Not counting Nikon/Canon out means realising that the big 2 have aces up their sleeves. They will not release flagship mirrorless designs with as many holes as the A7/r. They can't afford to.
Long-time Nikon guru, Tom Hogan, has added his insight into the X-T1 flux, while carefully attending to the advantages and disadvantages of both the dSLR and the mirrorless camera.
Fujifilm just announced the X-T1. Early impressions are available from DPReview, F Sunny, and soon, from Fujirumors. Most impressive to Ω is the new picture in picture manual focusing function. Strangely, an old Sony Cybershot of mine from 2003 had that very same function. It's nice to see it come back.
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Fujifilm's X-T1 will officially be unveiled in six hours. Fujix-Forums are off-loading onto readers a bunch of great prizes for the event including Artisan & Artist straps, Match Technical Best Soft Releases (interestingly, this soft release cannot be used with the X-T1), and more. Head to Fujix-Forum's launch party for the fun.
Despite early misgivings based on images released by Fujirumors, Ω will be purchasing one, hoping yet again, that this mirrorless can properly replace a more mechanical camera for manual focus Nikkor and LTM/M lenses.
Again, another review well worth the 13 minutes and two cups of coffee necessary to view its entirety. Memorable lines: "It looks like a camera for families in the park" and something about the Nikon D600 being for perverts.
Fujirumors has uploaded the above image which is purported to have been found in a Japanese newspaper. The image show a traditionally-styled SLR shape as well as the removal of the oft-contested threaded shutter release socket. Which is good news for some, but begs the question: will Fujifilm opt to install a proprietary shutter release instead? I certainly hope not. A simple 2,5mm or 3,5mm stereo jack and trigger would stem the outflow of cash from consumers to unnecessary accessories.
Interestingly, the X-Pro 1's locking exposure dial has made the cut. So, too, has the -3 to +3 EV exposure compensation dial. The left side of the camera sports a new dial. Ω hopes it is for ISO. Strap lugs are vertically mounted to the sides of the camera and a new click dial is evident below the shutter release.
Follow Fujirumors for X-T1 news as it happens.
Sony a7r with a slew of Leica M lenses
If Ω's ridiculously paralytic review of the Sony A7r wasn't your thing, how about checking out About Photography's review by Tom Grill? It is concise and backed with performance comparisons with the Leica 240M.
Tom believes the A7r isn't ready to replace your digital Leica system. He concludes that we must wait until Sony have brought to market comparable Zeiss lenses. Then and only then will the A7r show its mettle.
“My main purpose in this experiment was to determine if the A7r could serve as a higher resolution substitute, or act as an extra body for a Lecia M system. In the end I concluded that the results, while marginally better from the higher res sensor, were not enough for me to use this camera instead of my Leica M 240. The Leica worked better and with considerably less post-processing hassle using its native lenses. This tended to negate any benefits the larger 36MP A7r sensor might have. If it’s a less expensive spare body I want, I think I would opt for the features of the A7 over the A7r and save even more.”
You can find it here.
The increasingly connected camera works wonders for still life photography. For me, the Sony a7r's biggest failing is that it doesn't act like a simple light-capturing box. Its menu system is far more convoluted than the D800's and the camera is far more complicated to operate. But for the still life photographer, its benefits far outweigh the ridiculous oversights.
Craig Mod's New Yorker article blubs reasonably about the true camera, about the true photographer, about the true photograph. How each are pulled together are pulled together is the story of photography. The simpler the device, the better it becomes at sharing the story.
“It’s clear now that the Nikon D70 and its ilk were a stopgap between that old Leica M3 that I coveted over a decade ago and the smartphones we photograph with today. Tracing the evolution from the Nikon 8008 to the Nikon D70 to the GX1, we see cameras transitioning into what they were bound to become: networked lenses. Susan Sontag once said, “While there appears to be nothing that photography can’t devour, whatever can’t be photographed becomes less important.” Today, it turns out, it’s whatever can’t be networked that becomes less important.”
Tsukuba, Japan