Photokina 2006 Show Report
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Welcome to the Digital Photography Review Photokina 2006 show report. The Photokina 'World of Imaging' Trade Show is held every two years at the Cologne Exhibition Center, Germany. The last show, held in 2004, attracted 160,317 visitors (64% of whom were trade and 36% consumers) and had no less than 1,552 exhibitors. This year the show will take place from 26th September to 1st October (10 AM to 6 PM). As usual the build up of new products for Photokina started back in July and is only likely to accelerate as we get closer to the opening day.

For those who are attending you should also be aware of the restructuring of Koelnmesse because of the leasing of the Rhineside Halls to the RTL television station. For more information on Koelnmesse restructuring see this site, also a PDF map of the Photokina hall layout available.

Note: This is not designed to be comprehensive report of the entire show but rather a summary of the important new digital photography related products announced around and shown at Photokina.

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The unfolding story of Photokina 2006
Below you will find the 'New Product Index', this constantly updated list provides a very quick overview of products announced either for or during Photokina. During the show itself this page will also carry an index to our live show report (one page per stand, following on from this page).

The largest number of hands-on previews / reviews, anywhere
In the mad run-up to Photokina we've been working very hard to bring you detailed hands-on previews of some of the key cameras at Photokina. This has involved hundreds of hours of work and has one aim; to bring you as much detail as we possibly can. Here's the list:

Nikon D80 review
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50 review
Canon EOS 400D / Digital Rebel XTi hands-on preview (review after Photokina)
Leica M8 hands-on preview
Pentax K10D hands-on preview
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All of the above products are brand new and just announced, a 'NEW' indicator simply marks those products which have been added to this list within the last three days. As usual we have also included several products announced during the build-up to Photokina (stretching back to July), these products join those announced at Photokina to make up a manufacturers new line-up.


[ 此贴被enzoferrari在2006-10-07 02:10重新编辑 ]

Canon
This year Canon has managed to bag the prime spot right by the entrance to the show for its all-new bright white booth, and it's very, very busy.

Biggest draw on the booth is, inevitably, the EOS 400D (Rebel Xti), successor to the 350D / Rebel XT (the best selling digital SLR of all time), and Canon has pulled out all the stops to ensure the new model arrives with a splash with live photoshoots and demonstrations. This is also the first opportunity most EOS users have had to get a look at the two new EF lenses, the 70-200mm F4 IS and the ridiculously over-the-top lump of glass that is the 50mm F1.2. In the compact area the first public outing for the 10 megapixel, 6x IS lensed PowerShot G7 is generating a huge amount of interest, as is the new top of the A series range, the PowerShot A640 (also 10 megapixels) and it's little brother the A630. Visitors to the booth - always one of the busiest at the show - are also getting their first chance to get their hands on the new A710 IS and the new Ixus / Elph cameras including the titanium-bodied SD900, 28mm-lensed SD800 IS and super-cute SD40. Canon is making a lot of noise about its new face detection AF/AE system (we can confirm it works well with beautiful models, not yet sure how it works with uglier faces).. Finally there are printers. A lot of printers. So many printers that we literally lost count. This is not a company that wants to be accused of missing a niche in the printer market.


Pictures from the Canon stand

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Canon Photokina 2006 new products
Canon EOS 400D / Digital Rebel Xti (Aug 24) [preview]
Canon EF 50 mm F1.2L USM (Aug 24)
Canon EF 70-200 mm F4L IS USM (Aug 24)
Canon Media Storage M30 (Sep 30)
Canon Media Storage M80 (Sep 30)
Canon PowerShot G7 (Sep 14)
Canon PowerShot SD900 / IXUS 900 Ti (Sep 14)
Canon PowerShot SD800 IS / IXUS 850 (Sep 14)
Canon PowerShot SD40 / IXUS i7 (Sep 14)
Canon PowerShot A710 IS (Aug 24)
Canon PowerShot A640 (Aug 24)
Canon PowerShot A630 (Aug 24)
Canon Selphy ES1 (Aug 24)
Canon Selphy CP730 (Aug 24)
Canon Selphy CP720 (Aug 24)
Canon Pixma range (Aug 24)


[ 此贴被enzoferrari在2006-10-04 13:45重新编辑 ]

Casio
Not an awful lot of new product on show here, though there are two new 7 megapixel additions to the rapidly-expanding Exlim zoom range. The ultra slim EX-Z770 has a nice big screen, MPEG-4 movie mode and a 3x zoom. The EX-Z700 has a slightly smaller (though very bright) 2.7" screen and no MPEG mode. We were also impressed by Casio's very compact and very cute DLP projectors.



Pictures from the Casio stand
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Casio Photokina 2006 new products
Casio EXILIM EX-Z770 (Aug 8)
Casio EXILIM EX-Z700 (Jul 26)


[ 此贴被enzoferrari在2007-03-31 01:19重新编辑 ]

Epson
Alongside the many printers on Epson's large stand there are two upgrades to the company's well-respected photo viewer / multimedia storage devices. The P3000 and P5000 have VGA-resolution 4-inch screens with a four-color filter system allowing the display of 16.7 million colors. As before there are built-in CF and SD card slots and hard drive capacities of 40GB (P3000) and 80GB (P5000).


Pictures from the Epson stand

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Epson Photokina 2006 new products
Epson P-5000 Multimedia Storage Viewer (Sep 30)
Epson P-3000 Multimedia Storage Viewer (Sep 30)

Fujifilm
Fujifilm's sprawling booth is, as usual, a bewildering mix of cameras, printers and photofinishing equipment. By far the biggest draw is a camera you can't buy until next year and you can only see in a glass box (though we've got some in-hand shots of it from our meeting with Fuji). The S5 Pro answers many of the criticisms aimed at the S3 Pro, and it looks very nice indeed (it is, after all a D200 body), but we wonder if 6MP is going to be enough in 2007 - no matter how good the dyamic range... especially when the rumored pricing puts it firmly at the 'pro' end of the market. Elsewhere the S6500fd and F31fd are getting lots of attention - the face detection stuff is being pushed heavily and is pretty cool, but I'm not sure it's a deal-breaker. Also getting their first major public outings are the S9100/S9600 (minor update of the S9000/S9500), F20 Zoom (baby brother to the F30) and a fairly nice new budget model, the FinePix A700. On the 'maybe next year' side of things Fuji is showing some 'reference exhibits' of wi-fi enabled cameras (including some pretty clever wireless LAN stuff that allows several cameras to be fired simultaneously).


Pictures from the Fujifilm stand
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Fujifilm Photokina 2006 new products
Fujifilm FinePix S5 Pro (Sep 25)
Fujifilm FinePix F31 (Sep 25)
Fujifilm FinePix S9600 (Aug 24)
Fujifilm FinePix S6500fd (Jul 13)
Fujifilm FinePix A700 (Sep 12)
Fujifilm FinePix F20 Zoom (Jul 13)

Hasselblad
Hasselblad is using Photokina to launch its latest professional digital 'medium format' camera, the H3D. The H3D is the world’s first 48mm full-frame, large-sensor, medium-format DSLR camera and offers up to 39 megapixels on its 48x36mm CCD sensor (twice - exactly - the size of a 'full frame' 35mm-format CCD). The sample images on show are very impressive, though with a price tag expected to run well into the tens of thousands (of dollars, euros, pounds) you would hope they would be!


Pictures from the Hasselblad stand

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Hasselblad Photokina 2006 new products
Hasselblad H3D Medium Format digital (Sep 30)

Jobo
Highlight of the Jobo booth is undoubtedly the GIGA Vu PRO evolution, the latest version of its award-winning 'digital album' range. The new model has a lovely bright 3.7-inch screen (640 x 480 pixels) and is available in capacities of up to 120GB. It can also play movies and music files and has support for RAW files too. Very nice.


Pictures from the Jobo stand

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Kingston
Memory maker Kingston has a few new products at Photokina including its first SDHC card (4.0GB) and a new 'Ultimate' range of professional Compact Flash cards (1GB 100x, 2,4 and 8 GB 133x) which ship with a full copy of Ontrack's data recovery software. They also have some very classy giant foam hands to give away...


Pictures from the Kingston stand

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Kingston Photokina 2006 new products
Kingston 4 GB SDHC card (Sep 30)

Kodak
Once again Kodak has built a small city inside the Kolnmesse (though noticeably it has lost its prime spot by the entrance) - it even has it's own map. The booth is a lot cleaner and trendier than previous shows (a lot less yellow and far fewer 'caring sharing' slogans) and is so spread out that actually finding any product is something of a challenge. There are a few new camera models here - two new compacts (V705, C875) and the Z710, announced Monday. The Z710 is another shiny small budget, big zoom EasyShare (this time 7MP and 10x zoom) with a decent level of photographic control, but no image stabilization. The C875 is actually a very nice budget 8MP model with a 5x zoom lens and lots of features; the dual lens V705 also sports a 5x zoom lens in its ultra-slim body, plus a fixed 23mm wide angle. The rest of the booth is full of printers, printer docks, kiosks and some stuff we eventually identified as 'film'...


Pictures from the Kodak stand

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Kodak Photokina 2006 new products
Kodak EasyShare Z710 Zoom (Sep 25)
Kodak EasyShare V705 (Aug 8)
Kodak EasyShare C875 (Aug 8)
Kodak EasyShare C743 (Aug 8)
Kodak EasyShare C433 (Aug 8)

Leica
For the first time in living memory Leica has a serious presence at a trade show that doesn't involve re-launching the DMR - and they've got a much bigger space than previous years. Undoubted star of the booth - and one of the biggest draws of the entire show - is the M8 digital (along with two new lenses), which we would suggest should maybe be displayed in a waterproof housing, such is the amount of drooling over it. This is also the first public showing of the latest fruits of the Leica/Panasonic partnership as Leica officially launches its versions of the L1 Four-thirds SLR (Digilux 3), FZ50 (V-Lux 1), and LX2 (D-Lux 3). Aside from the red dot and some minor color changes the cameras appear to be identical to their Lumix cousins, though we are assured that the output has been tweaked to be 'more Leica like'...


Pictures from the Leica stand

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Leica Photokina 2006 new products
Leica M8 (Sep 14) [preview]
Leica Tri-Elmar-M 16/18/21 mm (Sep 14)
Leica Elmarit-M 28 mm (Sep 14)
Leica DIGILUX 3 (Sep 14)
Leica V-LUX 1 (Sep 14)
Leica D-LUX 3 (Sep 14)

Lexar
Lexar is showing its latest 133x 8.0GB Professional CompactFlash card (which ships with Corel PaintShop Pro 9) and its stackable FireWire card readers.


Pictures from the Lexar stand

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[ 此贴被enzoferrari在2006-10-05 00:18重新编辑 ]

Misc
To give you a flavour of just how big Photokina is, and how many exhibitors there are, we've decided to post some 'general' snaps this year taken as we walk around the show (booths we won't be able to produce full reports for), starting with Hall 6 (home to lighting and memory card manufacturers). We'll update this section as we continue to report from the floor.


Pictures from the Misc stand

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[ 此贴被enzoferrari在2006-10-05 00:26重新编辑 ]

Nikon
Number one attraction on the Nikon booth is undoubtedly the new D80, successor to the hugely popular D70, on show here with its new kit lens (the AF-S DX 18-135mm) and the very nice new VR (Vibration Reduction) AF-S 70-300mm zoom (in fact the stand is dominated by an enormous rotating D80). Over on the compact side there are lots of new Coolpix models as virtually the whole range gets a refresh; our favorite is the compact twist-lens Coolpix S10, which finally adds image stabilization (CCD-shift) to its 10x zoom and 6MP sensor, though they're all very nicely designed. Other models getting their first public showing are the L5 and L6, S7c (7MP, 3x zoom, 3-inch screen and Wi-Fi) and the S9. Interestingly Nikon has broken away from the crowd with its professional studio demos - rather than scantily clad models they are shooting dead fish with Nikon-yellow ribbons tied round them (go figure). The busy booth is full of 'hands-on' areas where visitors can try out lenses they'll never be able to afford (including the mammoth 2000mm f11 reflex), and there's a nice display of Nikon camera history and some impressive demos of Capture NX.



D80 10 mp D-SLR, 2.5"

AF-S DX 18-135 mm lens

AF-S 70-300 mm VR lens

Coolpix L5 7 mp, 5x VR, 2.5"

Coolpix L6 6 mp, 3x, 2.5", ISO 800

Coolpix S7c 7 mp, 3x, 3.0", ISO 1600, WiFi

Coolpix S9 6 mp, 3x, 2.5"

Coolpix S10 6 mp, 10x, CCD-shift, 2.5", ISO 800


Pictures from the Nikon stand

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Nikon Photokina 2006 new products
Nikon D80 (Aug 9) [review]
Nikon AF-S DX 18-135 mm (Aug 9)
Nikon AF-S 70-300 mm VR (Aug 9)
Nikon Coolpix S10 (Aug 24)
Nikon Coolpix S9 (Aug 24)
Nikon Coolpix S7c (Aug 24)
Nikon Coolpix L5 (Aug 24)
Nikon Coolpix L6 (Aug 24)

Nokia
Once again Nokia has taken a fairly large space at Photokina to attempt to persuade photographers that their next pocket camera should be a mobile phone. Of most interest in the five phones launched this this week is the N95; a fairly sleek 'smart phone' with a 5MP camera and Carl Zeiss lens.


Pictures from the Nokia stand

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Nokia Photokina 2006 new products
Nokia N95 (Sep 26)

Olympus
No real surprises here (aside from the appearance of a pink Cadillac on the booth); this is the first chance most people have had to get their sticky mitts on a raft of new models announced earlier this month. Star product is the E-400, a very compact, very cute 10MP addition to the E-series of Four-Thirds DSLRs, and one that - for the moment only - is not available outside Europe. There are two new lenses here too; the 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 (28-84mm equiv) and 40-150mm F4-5.6, a very compact 80-300mm equivalent zoom. Olympus is also showing a concept / mockup of its new professional E system camera (the E-P1) - not a lot to say about it really, as this is a very early prototype.

On the compact side there are five new Mju / Stylus models on show, the 10MP Stylus 1000, three 7MP models (730, 740 and CCD-shift stabilized 750) and the europe-only Mju 725 SW, a minor update to the Mju 720 SW water, dust and bullet-proof (OK, maybe not bullet-proof) model. The SP-510 UZ is a mnior upgrade to the company's only 'ultra zoom' model, upping the resolution to 7MP, adding a silver paint job (which makes it look a little, erm, Kodak-like) and increasing the maximum ISO to 4000 (bet that's good then). What it doesn't do is add image stabilization, though the price is very keen. Finally there are four new entry-level cameras, the FE-170, FE-180, FE-190 and FE-200 (the latter is a very impressive little camera considering the price; 28-140mm 5x zoom, 2.5-inch screen, metal body).


Pictures from the Olympus stand

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Olympus Photokina 2006 new products
Olympus E-400 (Sep 14)
Olympus SP-510 UZ (Aug 23)
Olympus Stylus 1000 (Aug 23)
Olympus Stylus 725 SW (Aug 23)
Olympus Stylus 750 (Aug 23)
Olympus Stylus 740 (Aug 23)
Olympus Stylus 730 (Aug 23)
Olympus FE-200 (Aug 23)
Olympus FE-190 (Aug 23)
Olympus FE-180 (Aug 23)
Olympus FE-170 (Aug 23)


[ 此贴被enzoferrari在2006-10-06 00:22重新编辑 ]