The recently concluded Photokina had photographers from across the world hooked and hopeful. The event was a success in terms of visitors, and about 0.2 million visitors turned up for the fair. A lot was promised and talked about during the fair, not to mention things that transpired before and after it. But not all promises were met, and for a few industry experts, parts of the event turned out a little dismal, with some participants reiterating and going back to modest strategies and claims.
Leica, it seems, came out pretty clean. Leica fans were quite happy with what Leica had to offer, a set of nine lenses for M, S, and T systems, and a few updates in M cameras. Overall, Leica was one of the brighter participants of the event. Others looked quite pale in comparison.
Canon, Fujifilm, and Nikon also put up a good show. Canon displayed a 38 mm equivalent crop sensor and a mid-range consumer zoom. Also shown was a G7 X compact camera with a new sensor. Fujifilm had some new additions in lenses, but it still needs to figure out a better viewfinder.
Also Read: Color management tips for photographers
Nikon’s show was a little dated, but overall, not bad. Aside from a few surprises like the 20 mm f/1.8, the show left Nikon fans wondering about when Nikon will be getting into 4K videos. Nikon had nothing to announce on that front.
Topping the disappointments’ list, Pentax had nothing new to say. There were only announcements to make on their part and future that is going to take some time. Someone must tell Pentax that the future is here.
Overall, Photokina was a mix of hits and misses. Some got it right, some didn’t. According to a lot of experts, the companies got it wrong in terms of technology: we have enough technology to work with; the quality of photographs is just fine. What we need now is a better UI to get close to the consumers, to propel the existing products to the users. Solving a user problem seems to be the need of the hour, and most companies, except perhaps Apple, do not understand it.
Also Read: The importance of post-processing in photography