PMA 2006

The PMA 2006 of Orlando has been preceded of main announcements:

the complete stop of the photograph by Konica-Minolta,
the end of manufacturing for all silver cameras, except F6, and most of AIS lenses by Nikon.
the definitive closing of Agfa, financial difficulties of Kodak, Fuji or Leica.

The silver photographic market is moribund. The digital photographic market is well.

First verification, the race to the pixels seems to slow down. Half of the compact or reflex presented have a 6 Millions of pixels CCD, what is largely enough in most situations.
Also new, companies propose cameras more designed with useful functions : large screen, images transfer facilitated, best reactivity, software corrections integrated, image stabilization, WiFI.

The Hasselblad Panasonic and Pentax DSLR

Hasselblad H2D 39 Meg

Hasselblad H2D 39

Pentax 645D

Pentax 645D (back)

Panasonic Lumix DMC-L1

Before the PMA 2006, Mamiya has presented the ZD, its 22 megapixels DSLR and Hasselblad a new version of its numerical model the Hasselblad H2D with 39 millions of pixels.
It is the new reference for this type of camera.

The Pentax 645 presented in preview to the PMA is more "classic" with a18 millions of pixels CCD but it is very complete. the mockup was presented a year ago. Pentax will also commercialized, at the end of the year, a 10 million pixels DSLR with the same Sony CCD as the Nikon D200.

Canon has just updated the Canon EOS 20D that becomes EOS 30D.

The real new of this PMA is the commitment of Panasonic and Leica to the breast of consortium 4/3 with a DSLR ended enough and to the design very sober, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-L1 . This camera has a 7,5 Megapixels LiveMOS that allows shooting thought the adjustable rear screen, as the Olympus E330. This camera is completed with a zoom Leica D 14-50 mm F2.8-F3 with 5 lenses (equivalent 18~100 mm in format 135)
Sigma has launched new zooms for 4/3 format, very active at this time.

Seven new coolpix and a micro nikkor VR for Nikon

Nikon Coolpix L4

coolpix L4

Nikon Coolpix P3 et P4

coolpix P3 et P4

Nikon Coolpix S5 et S6
coolpix S5 et S6

Nikon AF-S VR Micro 105mm

Nikon completes its range with new seven cameras, against five the last year, that have all D-Lighting function that corrects for under and over-exposure, In-Camera Red-Eye Fix that removes unsightly red eye and Face-priority AF automatically that detects and focuses on faces. They all use the SD card and have an internal memory from 10 to 23 Meg depending of models.
The Coolpix L2 L3 and L4 are slim with a zoom 3x 6.3~19.2mm (equivalent 38~116mm in 135 format) and a 1/2.5" CCD sensor of respectively 4, 5.1 and 6 megapixel..

The Coolpix P3 and P4 have both a zoom 3.5 x 7.5~26.3mm (equivalent 36~126mm in 135 format) with a Vibration Reduction (VR) system and a 2,5" TFT rear screen. They have an 8.1 megapixel 1/1.8" CCD sensor.
The Coolpix P4 has also a built-in 802.11b/g WiFi module.

The Coolpix S5 and S6 are super slim cameras with a 6.18 megapixel 1/2.5" CCD sensor and a zoom 3x 5.8~17.4mm (equivalent 35~105mm in 135 format). The Coolpix S6 has a 3" TFT rear screen and a built-in 802.11b/g WiFi module.

At least, Nikon has presented the first macro Nikkor lens for silver or digital SLR with optical stabilization, it is the Nikkor AF-S VR Micro 105mm.

pierre j.

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Created March 4^th, 2006
© Pierre J.