Why news out of Photokina 2018 is super-exciting!
Photokina is a trade fair for photographic and imaging industries held in Europe. The news from this year’s event is particularly exciting because there are so many new, ground-breaking releases to tempt photographers of all types.
If you’re a Fujifilm X fanatic, then Photokina has spilled the beans on some pretty amazing new cameras! It kicks off with the GFX 50R, a medium format camera in the body of a rangefinder. Imagine a street/documentary style camera with a whopping medium format sensor in it – compatible with all the GF lenses. ‘Nuff said?
There’s also announcement of a new 33mm f/1 R lens for mirrorless cameras. Yep, you read that right: f/1. Fast and wide. Imagine the bokeh you’ll get from this.
Finally, the biggest whammo for Fujifilm X fans is an announcement that Fujifilm is developing a new 105MP medium format camera. Sure, the price point is going to be a little on the “premium” side, but… wow! How do you top this?
As a staunch lover of Fujifilm X cameras, I’m excited!
I also mount Sigma lenses on my Nikon DSLRs, and Sigma has unveiled a number of new lenses at Photokina 2018. The one that has me most excited is the Sigma 60-600mm F4.5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports. That’s a massively wide focal length range available to sports and wildlife photographers. I wonder if Sigma may sponsor our Kenya Wildlife Photography Tour 2019 with a couple of these babies? If you’re using this on a crop frame, then you’re basically shooting on the equivalent of 90mm-900mm!
Sigma also has a range of prime lenses as well as telephoto zoom lenses upgrades in its release. Fans of fast primes will be excited about the Sigma 28mm F1.4 DG HSM Art, Sigma 40mm F1.4 DG HSM Art and Sigma 56mm F1.4 DG HSM Art. And don’t forget the Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 DG OS HSM Sports – a real upgrade to the Sigma 70-200mm fast zoom lens range.
For fans of mirrorless travel cameras, Panasonic also announced its first full frame camera, the Panasonic Lumix S series of full frame cameras is great news for photographers looking for full frame goodness in a more compact body. The new S series will feature a new lens mount created through a collaboration of Panasonic, Leica and Sigma.
The Panasonic S1R will be a 47MP behemoth, while the S1 will be a more conventional 24MP.
Coupled with recent announcements by Nikon and Canon on their releases of their new mirrorless full-frame camera bodies and lenses, there is a lot to get excited about in the coming months. Speaking of which, I’ve recently had a chance to try the new Nikon Z7 full frame mirrorless camera (a whopping 45MP) with the Z 24-70mm f/4 S series lens. It’s a corker, so keep and eye out for a blog post about this!
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