[rollei_list] Re: Best wishes to Marc and 2014 Photokina news (part 1)
- From: Bigler Emmanuel <bigler@xxxxxxxx>
- To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 11:06:13 +0200
Dear Marc
I wish you a prompt recovery !
Cataracts surgery is now something very fast, efficient and
non-invasive, and can be done under local anesthesia.
------------------------------------------
Your message reached me while I was attending the 2014 photokina in
Cologne. I'll report here in detail about what I've seen, as soon as
my films are processed (I was probably one of the few visitors taking
pictures with a film camera ;-)) and the digitized images posted
somewhere.
The short comments I can make are that photography and photographic
equipment, as seen from the 2014 Cologne fair, is a field of the
industry still incredibly dynamic and innovative, even if some people
involved in the marketing of digital SLRs mentioned to me that the
market is now mature, i.e. people are not supposed to replace their
digital camera as often as in the past 10 years.
People involved in black and white film photography who were present
at the photokina telled me that business is fine for them. So I have
abolutely no fear regarding the future of B&W film & silver-halide
techniques for monochrome photography. As far as color films are
concerned, Big Yellow was there and had a booth presenting the current
line of K's film products. Sure, there were fewer people there than at
the Canon or Nikon booths ;-) Fujifilm was there but the presence of
film was reduce to an A4-page listeing availble film products ...
however Fuji has introduce another small instant camera for theis
instant film system, and there were lots of teen-agers queueing at the
instant photo corner to taking "selfie" pictures that would not be
sent immediately through the 'net via their mobile phone (in Germany,
people say : "handy", a typical Denglish word of modern times ;-)
Ilford-Switzerland has found a way to re-start after insolvency, so
people using their line of fine inkjet papers, including the
cibachrome-like metallic-finish paper, will be able to continue to buy
and use their favourite products.
I had hard times finding the Meyer-Görlitz booth, the rebirth of an
old German brand from the East, since there was a minor misprint in
the officiel Photokina database, and actually only two lenses were on
display in a very small hidden corner of another booth. Nobody from
the company was attending, so I could ask no question. But the lenses
are there.
Regarding Schneider-Kreuznach, the major change since 2012 is that
they have officially stopped manufacturing large format lenses for
film large format cameras; however they do continue and develop their
"digital" lenses for small digital medium format cameras. And they of
course put the emphasis on digital SLR lenses, with 3 new models
introduced this year.
Rodenstock lenses, now part of a bigger company named Qioptic, did not
actually announce that they have discontinued their LF lenses for film
cameras, but the assortment is now reduced to 3 apo-sironar S. The
assortment of Rodenstock "digital" lenses however is flourishing, but
the price tag for those new lenses featuring outstanding image quality
is definittely dissuasive for hobbyists.
Zeiss had a large booth and zeiss-o-philes can see the future of Zeiss
lenses from an optimistic point of view, even if the number of Zeiss
photographic lenses actually made in Germany probably reduces to the
series of silver-finish lenses in Hasselblad V-mount.
Regarding Rollei, there was no DHW booth this year due to the recent
(August 2014) insolvency of the Braunschweig-based company. The Rollei
brand was present however at the MACO booth for their Rollei-branded
films, and of course at the ... Rollei (alias RCP-Technik) booth,
where a Rollei TLR and a Rollei 600x were on display on top of
tripods, only to remind us what Rollei used to be .. I prefer not to
comment furthrr on this subject.
More later when I have my pictures to share with you !
--
Emmanuel
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