One Stop Under

There have been a lot of interesting announcements coming out of this year’s Photo Marketing Association (PMA) trade show. Rather than clog up this blog with dozens of individual posts, I’ll do one of these catch-all posts every few days.

A good related article is Michael Reichmann’s state-of-the-industry summary A View of the Photographic Industry From 30,000 Feet.

Pentax

• Pentaxhas confirmed that the company will unveil a yet to be named Pentax 10 megapixel digital SLR camera body, tentatively scheduled for a formal launch in Autumn 2006.
• The smc Pentax-DA 21mm F3.2AL Limited is an interchangeable uni-focal wide-angle lens for exclusive use with Pentaxdigital SLR camera bodies. Offering wide-perspective coverage with a 68-degree angle of view (equivalent in focal length to 32mm in the 35mm format, when mounted on a Pentax *ist D series digital SLR camera body), the lens features a Pentax-original KAF lens mount. Pentax has tentatively scheduled the lens launch for June 2006.
• Pentax also will preview the Pentax 645 medium format digital SLR camera for the first time in the United States. Offering professional-quality digital image reproduction with 18 effective megapixels, a Kodak-developed extra-large CCD image sensor with 18.6 total megapixels (tentative), a Pentax-original 645AF lens mount, the 645 Digital will maintain compatibility with existing smc Pentax 645 interchangeable lenses.
• Press release at the Pentax site.
• Photos at DP Review.

Panasonic/Leica

• Panasonic’s first interchangeable-lens digital SLR camera, the 7.5 megapixel LUMIX DMC-L1 (press release, hands-on preview at DP Review).
• Leica D VARIO-ELMARIT 14-50mm/F2.8-3.5 ASPH lens in Four Thirds mount (press release, photo at DP Review).

Samsung

• Entry level, 6 megapixel GX-1L digital SLR (press release and photos at DP Review).

Canon

• Large format A2 (17-inch) imagePROGRAF IPF5000 photo printer (press release and photo at DP Review).
• PIXMA Pro9000 8-color ink A3+ photo printer (press release and photo at DP Review).
• PIXMA Pro9500 10-color pigment ink A3+ photo printer (press release and photo at DP Review).

Sigma

• 30mm F1.4 EX DC HSM for Four Thirds Mount
• 18-50mm F2.8 EX DC for Four Thirds Mount
• MACRO 105mm F2.8 EX DG for Four Thirds Mount
• APO MACRO 150mm F2.8 EX DG HSM for Four Thirds Mount
• APO 50-500mm F4-6.3 EX DG HSM for Four Thirds Mount
• details of above lenses at DP Review
• 70-200 mm F2.8 EX DG Macro – details at DP Review
• 17-70 mm F2.8 – F4.5 DC Macro – details at DP Review

Sandisk

• 8GB Extreme III Compact Flash card (Sandisk product page)
• 2GB Ultra II SD Plus card (Press release at DP Review)
• 4GB Ultra II Memory Stick PRO Duo card (Press release at DP Review

Lexar

• 8.0 GB Professional 90X Compact Flash card

More comprehensive coverage of and commentary on the PMA 2006 announcements can be found at The Luminous Landscape.

Filed under: Canon, Equipment, Leica, Panasonic, Pentax, Samsung, Sigma
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