Show Reports

"New at PMA `05: Film!"--Headline in Convention Daily Newspaper

In the entire history of the PMA show this is the first time no new 35mm film SLRs were introduced, so ya gotta wonder what the dude who wrote that was smoking. According to the British Journal of Photography, the manufacture of Contax and Kyocera 35mm film cameras has...

Good news from Ilford made this PMA a shot in the arm for zanyone who loves the craft of photography and photographic printing. As most people know, in August 2004, Ilford Imaging UK Ltd. had gone into receivership. For months, rumors had been flying about a management buyout, and it finally succeeded just hours before the PMA show opened. The new company will trade as Ilford...

Tripods are important, but for most people they tend to blur together. The most important news is always that tripods are getting lighter. There are many more companies offering carbon-fiber tripods, increasingly with magnesium-alloy metal work. And while Gitzo's Basalt range gives a more modest savings in weight, it has the same desirable "deadness"...

It’s a truism that the best tripod is the one you carry with you, because it’s the only one you can use. But equally, it has to be the right tripod: the one that holds the equipment you use at the height you want and that locks it firmly, without “creep.” It also needs to be quick and easy to use, and durable. With that in mind here are some of the many tripods at photokina that caught my eye.

Tripods. The Smith-Victor booth had a sampling of their Acme-Lite tripod line, including the Propod IV. This heavy-duty, twin-shank ("crutch" style) model features unique quick-set pins that index into holes in the adjustable center...

Photokina in Cologne, Germany this week has been (largely) about high-end cameras and there’s not much higher-end than what Leica unveiled at the show: the S3 camera. We got some hands-one time with this 64MP medium format monster at photokina and have to say that if there’s one camera we dream about owning someday, this would be it!