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With the growing popularity of D-SLR cameras with sensors of various sizes, most of the manufacturers are working to expand their line of lenses. As expected, many of the latest products are “digital only”: designed for the majority of D-SLRs with the APS-C or Four Thirds size sensor. But (as specified in the text), some are multi-platform products suitable for all 35mm and digital...

At photokina 2008, there was (as usual) an extraordinary range of camera supports. So many in fact that a “laundry list” of new introductions could easily fill the whole magazine. This prompted me to think hard about what to look for in a camera support. It seemed to me there are three things: three legs, if you like. What you need; what you want; and what you can afford. You may care...

At two very well-attended open forums, Kodak asked the all-important question: “What’s film got to do with it?” The answer, given by four top professionals (Amy Postle, Pep Bonet, Det Kempe, and Eddie Soloway), cheered on by large audiences, turned out to be “A lot more than you might think.”

I forget which of them first said, “I use digital...

Every photokina, we are assigned a category that for want of a better term we call “weird and wonderful.” It’s stuff that doesn’t easily fit into any other category, or differs so much from the mass of its competitors that it deserves special mention.

Some products are just bizarre: we’ll come to what we thought was the most bizarre trend at the end...

Charge!
You can now charge your electronic devices while you are on the move. The G24i solar panel was developed for MIA (Mascotte Industrial Associates) by Gcell and has so far been incorporated in a backpack, a laptop bag, a camouflage bag, and even a tennis bag. It is lightweight and flexible, not too sensitive to the angle of the light, has a high energy output, and...

While camera bags often aim for functionality over style, there were several shoulder bags shown this year that had fashion chic paramount in their design, and a number of them aimed at the female photo enthusiast. Still, the photo backpack seemed to dominate when it came to functionality and innovative design, including two combo packs targeting the hard-core backpacker or...

Color management isn't one of those topics that tend to get the heart racing with excitement, although the lack of it has probably caused more than a few panic attacks. We've seen steady improvements in color calibration hardware and software over the past few years and it's clear that color management is becoming much more mainstream than ever as digital...