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Photokina Report
September 28, 2008 - 12:36:45 PM:
This is my first report from Photokina 2008.
Sony
I arrived early before the fair opened, and I headed right to the large Sony venue. Of course, the product of interest was the new α900 DSLR, followed by the two new lenses Sony Alpha 70-400/4-5.6 G SSM and Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 16-35/2.8 ZA SSM.
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| Sony at Photokina |
Soon I also met fellow Dyxumers Mark Tiller (mtiller), Jelle Dekker (Dipsausje) and Dyxum owner Mladen Sever (Kiklop). Also joining for a short chat were Gustav (ijsvogel) and Klaas (klaas).
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| Display with the new stuff, with mtiller drooling over it |
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| The candy shop |
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| The shooting gallery |
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| Sony Alpha 70-400/4-5.6 G SSM |
The silver color of the new 70-400 is already harshly criticized in online forums, and I have to agree. In real life it looks even cheaper than in the press photos, like spray-painted plastic. It would look a lot better if they had used the darker anodized finish of the front ring for the entire lens body. And the combination of black camera, white TC and silver lens must really look clownesque.
Sony seems to have a serious misunderstanding of their market here. They want to set themselves apart from the competition in terms of lens color, so they chose neither black nor white but silver, thinking it makes the lens look stylish. But a large part of their user base is made up of former Minolta users, and Minolta's silver colored lenses and cameras were their cheapest and worst performers. So while Sony wants to send out the message “stylish and noble”, it is received as “cheap and awful” by their user base.
I fear it's too late to change the color now. If it will be available in January, a good number of lenses must already be in production. I can easily imagine someone taking this as a business opportunity, buying silver lenses from Sony, re-painting them white or black, and re-selling them to end users. It will likely be a too good performer to be simply ignored.
So Sony, if you read this, here's the summary again: DON'T. MAKE. SILVER. LENSES.
The new 16-35/2.8 was also only on display, and luckily Sony didn't make silly experiments with its finish. But read more about this lens in the Zeiss section...
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| Dyxumers Dipsausje, Kiklop and mtiller (left to right) taking a break |
Sigma
The Sigma stand was packed with people. I intended to try the new Sigma fish-eyes, but didn't have the stamina to wait in line. They are not yet available for Alpha mount, anyway. At least it was possible to have a closer look at them in a glass display.
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| The Sigmonster |
Tamron
Tamron showed their entire lineup of lenses. Of special interest for me was their new 10-24/3.5-4.5 Di II. It is not yet available for Alpha mount, but I could at least try it in Nikon mount. Unfortunately the camera only had an SD card slot, so I couldn't take home any test shots.
Zeiss
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| The Zeiss Monster |
Apart from that they showed their different lineups for various lens mounts, including Sony Alpha (ZA). Interestingly, while you couldn't even touch the new Vario-Sonnar T* 16-35/2.8 ZA SSM at the Sony stand, they readily handed out this lens mounted on a α900, and it was even possible to make a few test shots with your own CF card! I will probably publish them in a separate posting.
Hardly surprising, the lens mechanics are top-notch. The zoom ring was a bit stiff, but this may be intended to avoid zoom creep. The focus ring was smooth and precise, and SSM was fast and noise-free. I think we have the worthy successor of the Minolta 17-35/3.5 G here.
Categories: Industry, Cameras (Sony), Lenses (Sony) | Archive of all entries
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