So why am I lumping all this other stuff into one big article? Well, the rest of these items are cool things…but there’s not pages of discussion to be had at this time on each individual item. \u00a0So let’s dive into some of the remainder of my Photokina testing.<\/p>\n
Sigma DP1 Quattro<\/h3>\n
Sigma certainly grabbed headlines with their bizarrely shaped new line of ‘compact’ cameras when they were announced last year, and the DP1 Quattro is the wide-angle version of this multi-camera line. \u00a0The DP1 Quattro features an APS-C Foveon X3 Quattro sensor with a 19mm f\/2.8 lens and a bizarre body shape. \u00a0Now, unfortunately, I wasn’t able to test the DP1Q’s most essential feature: that 19 megapixel Foveon sensor, which should produce insane amounts of detail due to the three layer sensor arrangement. \u00a0I did, however get to test out handling, operational speed, focusing and so on.<\/p>\n If I had to sum up the DP1 Quattro in one word, that word would be ‘slow.’ \u00a0If I had two words, it would be ‘slow, awkward.’ \u00a0Yes, I found the DP1 Quattro to handle\u00a0almost\u00a0as poorly as it looks like it handles. \u00a0The balance is actually rather nice,\u00a0but the overly long body is not going to fit into many small camera bags, and it certainly won’t fit in a pocket. \u00a0The grip is also\u00a0quite\u00a0awkward and uncomfortable to hold, at least to me. \u00a0I’m not quite sure what Sigma is thinking here. \u00a0I’m OK with strange-looking designs if they confer a benefit on the user, but the Quattro line doesn’t, at least on first impression, appear to do that.<\/p>\n I also found the change in depth from the four-way controller\u00a0on the rear of the grip to the buttons next to the touch screen to be incredibly jarring to go between. \u00a0It’s only about a half inch, but these controls might as well be on different sides of the camera, as they simply don’t feel like one interface due to that depth gap. \u00a0It’s not good. \u00a0On the plus side, the quality of the rear screen is quite good.<\/p>\n I also mentioned slow, and indeed, it’s a slow camera. \u00a0It’s slow to start up, slow to autofocus (though not terrible), slow to take the picture, slow to write to the card, and, most infuriatingly of all, slow to allow you to take another picture. \u00a0Now, if you’re using this camera for landscape or other such work, those issues won’t pose a problem, but this is not a ‘decisive moment’ camera. \u00a0Still, Sigma has been making some excellent lenses as of late, and the Foveon sensor is known for its excellent low ISO image quality, so if the speed issues aren’t a bother and you can find a place to put this camera, it may still be worth a look.<\/p>\n I stumbled upon the Kowa booth on day 2 of Photokina and had a quick look at the three lenses they recently announced. \u00a0These are fully manual lenses, including an 8.5mm f\/2.8, a 12mm f\/1.8 and a 25mm f\/1.8. \u00a0These lenses are solidly built of metal and glass and operate very smoothly. They also come in multiple colors, including green! They are also rather large lenses (for Micro 4\/3…they’re quite compact in the grand scheme of things). \u00a0The 12mm f\/1.8 and 25mm f\/1.8 are both notably larger than the similar specification autofocus lenses from Olympus.<\/p>\n However, the 8.5m f\/2.8 is the most interesting of the three lenses, as it’s one of the widest primes available for the system, with a focal length equivalent to a 17mm lens on full frame. \u00a0This lens is large for Micro 4\/3, but provides a nice angle of view and comes with a beautiful metal petal lens hood, which you can see on the image to the right with the OM-D E-M5. \u00a0The camera they had there with the lens didn’t have a card in it, so I couldn’t judge image quality on the rear LCD. These may be worth the look if you’re after a budget wide-angle or normal lens but still want excellent build quality.<\/p>\n Tamron’s 14-150mm f\/3.5-5.8 has been out for a little while now, and offers a competitor to Olympus’ own 14-150mm. \u00a0The two lenses are quite similar and size, and the Tamron is a typical plastic super-zoom when it comes to build quality, though I have to say, they’ve done a great job with the zoom action, which was extremely smooth and simply felt great to use. \u00a0Early reports show tis lens to be pretty good optically, and it’s a good option for those ‘all-in-one’ types of shoots.<\/p>\n I also passed by the Photo Clam booth. \u00a0If you don’t know of Photo Clam, they make a line of Arca-Swiss quick release compatible ballheads. \u00a0I’ve actually owned a Photo Clam PC-36 for about 3-4 years, and it’s been a fantastic head for my main tripod. \u00a0I started talking with them and I noted that my PC-36 had been great, though I hadn’t’ stressed it with a bunch of weight over time since I switched to mirrorless (though it’s held my 1Ds II + Canon 70-200\/2.8L IS II). They then showed me their new Mirrorless Camera universal quick-release plate.<\/p>\n Why am I spending time talking about a QR Plate? \u00a0Because this is the first universal plate that I’ve seen that actually makes sense on mirrorless cameras. \u00a0It’s very thin, about half the depth of a standard QR plate (the dovetails are sideways). \u00a0This fits the body of my X-E2 very well (though since it’s universal, it obviously doesn’t have a cutout for the X-E2 battery door), and should work very well on most any mirrorless body. \u00a0I’ve been using a Really Right Stuff universal plate when I test new cameras, but this Photo Clam will replace it for me, as it just works better on the smaller bodies (I do own RRS custom plates for my X-T1, NEX-6 and a6000). \u00a0If you don’t want to shell out for a custom plate, but still want something that will fit your slimmer mirrorless camera, this is worth a look. \u00a0Photo Clam was nice enough to provide me with one, so thanks, Photo Clam! \u00a0They don’t have the new mirrorless plate on their website yet, but it should be up soon! (http:\/\/www.photoclam.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n Now on to the big boys:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Now, if you come to my site regularly, you know that I cover mirrorless cameras and lenses on the gear side. \u00a0However, I couldn’t walk past the absolutely enormous (and strangely beautiful) Zeiss 85mm f\/1.4 Otus. \u00a0This lens is an absolute monster, in quality, size and price. \u00a0It’s the size of a lens you’d design to intentionally look comically large on a camera. \u00a0It’s massive. \u00a0However, it surprisingly handles rather well on a nice full frame DSLR. \u00a0I tried it on the Canon 5D Mark III, and it felt pretty good (though heavy). \u00a0The rubber focus ring, which I’ve noted that I don’t like in my Touit reviews, actually feels very nice on the Otus. \u00a0The focus feel is absolutely perfect.<\/p>\n I also found the lens quite easy to focus for the most part, due to the high native contrast, even at f\/1.4. \u00a0Image quality is, of course, stunning. I will never end up owning a lens like the Otus, for multiple reasons (the big two being cost and size), but it is a beautiful piece of glass.<\/p>\n The James Bond of medium format cameras: Leica S 007. \u00a0Ok, perhaps it’s just the next number in the series (they also announced the type 006), but it does look rather killer. \u00a0I am not a medium format shooter. \u00a0In fact,this hands on was the very first time I have held a medium format camera in my hands, so I certainly won’t pretend to speak about the controls or operation in any meaningful analysis. \u00a0However, coming from DSLRs and mirrorless, the Leica S is obviously a rather large camera, but it’s not too large. \u00a0The grip is fantastic and fit my hand like a glove, and the viewfinder, as you’d expect is quite large. \u00a0A few general things: The interface is quite a bit different from a typical DSLR. \u00a0I had to ask the Leica representative multiple times how to change things, and a lot is handled by the four soft buttons on the rear and the unmarked dial near the shutter button. \u00a0The display on the top of the camera is color and digital, and shows current settings, etc.<\/p>\n I will say that a medium format DSLR certainly makes quite the ‘thunk’ when the mirror flips up and down. \u00a0Also, while the autofocus was decent in speed, shutter lag was very significant, which was somewhat surprising, but may be normal for most medium format cameras. \u00a0Even though I felt out of my depth with the Leica S, it was great to get a hands on.<\/p>\n I also swung by the M booth for a while, since I’d never held a modern Leica M rangefinder either, and took a few snaps with the very small and very good 35mm f\/1.4 Summilux. \u00a0Rangefinder focusing is a bit odd, even though I’ve used it before, but I don’t know how well I’d like it full-time. \u00a0I think with enough practice I could get quite good with it, but I don’t know if I’d like it. \u00a0I know what I did like, though, and that was the 35 Lux. \u00a0Even though I was only taking shots of the Leica rep and looking at images on the rear LCD, it was very apparent that this lens is unbelievably good. Incredibly contrast and POP to the images .<\/p>\n By the way, the award for ‘best lit booth for taking press photos of gear’ goes to Leica – hands down. Olympus finishes last here…their under cabinet lighting made taking photos of the new gear incredibly hard.<\/p>\n Canon replaced their unique 400mm Diffractive Optics supertelephoto with a new version, the 400mm f\/4 DO IS II, which features a new design that keeps the size and weight benefits from using diffractive optics, while eliminating the flare and sharpness issues that came with the first lens due to placing the DO elements towards the front. \u00a0The new lens places them in the rear, removing flare and increasing sharpness. \u00a0I took the 400mm DO II for a spin at the Canon booth, and while I unfortunately couldn’t hold it to feel the weight (It was on a sort of gimbal rig), I can tell you it’s no larger than the 300mm f\/2.8, and significantly smaller than its faster f\/2.8 400mm brother.<\/p>\n Autofocus was absolutely blazingly fast, even in the very dim light of the Canon booth. \u00a0The lens was locking on nearly instantly no matter where I pointed the camera. \u00a0You can also tell just through the viewfinder image that this lens is\u00a0sharp.<\/em> \u00a0Good on Canon for continuing this unique line of lenses.<\/p>\n That’s it from the show! \u00a0I’ll have a roundup tomorrow or Monday recapping the show, with some new insights on several of the things I’ve covered this week, now that they’ve marinated in my head for a while, as well as that discussion of a trend I noticed during the show. \u00a0I head back to the US tomorrow. \u00a0It’s been a great week!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Well, my time at Photokina 2014 is at an end. \u00a0I’ve had a great time, and even took some time for myself to do some sightseeing and enjoy being in German culture again. \u00a0I lived in Germany for 3.5 years, between 2002 and 2006, and this is my first trip back since I returned to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[184],"class_list":["post-4114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-photokina"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/leicaS1.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p28RGq-14m","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4114"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4134,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4114\/revisions\/4134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/dp1-1-1024x682.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"The](\"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/dp1-2-1024x682.jpg\")
<\/a>Kowa Prominar Lenses for Micro 4\/3<\/h3>\n
![\"The](\"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/kowa8-300x200.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"The](\"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/kowa25.jpg\")
<\/a>Tamron 14-150mm for Micro 4\/3<\/h3>\n
![\"Tamron](\"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/tamron14-150.jpg\")
<\/a>Photo Clam<\/h3>\n
![\"Photo](\"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/pc_plate1.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"THe](\"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/pc_plate2.jpg\")
<\/a>Continue: Zeiss 85mm f\/1.4 Otus, Leica S\u00a0and Canon 400m f\/4 DO II<\/a><\/h4>\n
Zeiss 85mm f\/1.4 Otus<\/h3>\n
![\"The](\"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/otus.jpg\")
<\/a>Leica S Type 007<\/h3>\n
![\"Leica's](\"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/leicaS1-1024x819.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"Leica](\"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/leicaS2.jpg\")
<\/a>Canon 400mm f\/4 DO IS II<\/h3>\n
![\"Canon's](\"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/400DO-1024x682.jpg\")
<\/a>