I’ve just returned from the NEC and a day wandering around Focus on Imaging, the annual exhibition of all things photographic. It was smaller than previous years I thought, presumably due to the current economic climate and very little exciting new kit as far as I could tell. I was particularly disappointed by Nikon who still are yet to come up with an update for the D700 which crying out for an ‘S’ version with the D3-S’s sensor or even a D800. There are also rumours of something along the lines of a rangefinder like the Fuji X100 but the Nikon chap on the stand was surprisingly stroppy with me when I asked if he knew of any possible upgrades – even Apple employees are at least polite and apologetic about the fact that they’re not allowed to say anything and they must be the most quizzed employees around when it comes to upcoming releases! I’ll put it down to last day weariness but I wasn’t impressed… The most interesting camera on their stand was the greatly praised D7000 with a 16.2 Mp sensor and 1080p video. Read a full review here.
Much more friendly were the people on the Queensbury Albums stand who, as always, were a pleasure to chat to and showed me their soon to be released art paper version of the recently added Queensbury Press albums that are their ‘coffee-table’ style books. The paper is matt and textured, with some pages being able to be printed on translucent paper which gives it a very classy look. I’ll certainly be getting a demo album. At the other end of the scale they showed me their stunning Musee albums which are aimed at the more wealthy clients but if you’ve got the money, they’re pretty unique and a beautiful thing to own.
I managed to get my hands on the new Fuji X100 rangefinder at last. The build quality is very high and it feels solid in your hands. The chunky aluminum controls on the top for shutter speed and exposure compensation are lovely to use, and the aperture is controlled on the lens which I’ve always preferred. Pressing the shutter gives a satisfying, and very quiet (great for weddings) click. Its real party trick though, is its viewfinder. With an SLR, you’re looking through the lens itself, so you can see exactly what you’re taking. With a rangefinder, you’re looking though a viewer and not through the lens, so if you’re used to an SLR it takes a while to get used to it. With the X100 you can look through the viewer as normal, or with the flick of a switch it changes to an electronic LCD viewer so you can see what the sensor is seeing, as well as set it to include all sorts of other info too. This works brilliantly. My only disappointment with it was the not very intuitive menu system on the back, and the Canon style wheel which felt very loose and was easy to accidentally spin and choose the wrong setting. Presumably you’d get used to this but it still put me off a bit. For a more in-depth review, take a look at dp’s review here.
There was, of course, a lot more there but those were the things I was most interested in. Now to start saving for the Fuji!
