PhotoExpo-East recently ended in NYC. This is a show with both educational sessions and a trade show portion. If you went, what did you see of interest to the LF community?

-- Larry Huppert (Larry.Huppert@mail.com), November 05, 2000

Answers

I only had the opportunity to spend a relatively short time at the trade show, but a few things caught my eye.

1) Canham 6x17 back for his 5x7 metal field camera. It was a prototype, but appeared to be a cleaver design. Motor driven film transport. Uses standard 9v battery. If you connect a sync cord from your shutter to the back, it will auto advance. Estimated cost: $1000. ETA - Spring of 2001.

2) Arca Swiss C1 Cube. Only one word to describe this tripod head design - wild! The perfect LF tripod head. Under 2 lbs. Both quick adjustments by moving in a particular direction with your hand, and then fine micro adjustments via geared movements. Will allow you to turn camera 90 degrees if needed. Panning is on top. Estimated price around $1300 - ouch!

3) Arca Swiss geared tilt. I forget what they call it, but it's basically a geared orbix. Detents every 2 1/2 degrees. Control felt nice. Can upgrade from standard orbix as the new geared control makes use of much of the stuff that's part of the non-geared design. Forgot the estimated price.

4) Epson pigment printers (2000P & 5000P). I'd guess this is the start of a real breakthrough in ink jet printing. Not only archival, but also stable when exposed to water. Didn't see any glossy examples, but the matt finish samples looked pretty nice. Looking forward to exploring these printers in more detail.

5) Cam Dynamics view camera. This is the auto view camera talked about over a year ago. They estimate it will see actual production next year. The non-auto version is around the same pricing as the high-end Sinar, with the auto version somewhere between $10K and $20K.

6) Colorblind Matchbox. Appears to be a very well thought out color management suite of software. They are bundling a new spectrophotometer from Spectrostar which can also be used for monitor calibration. For reading printed targets, the Spectrostar device automates the reading of all patches along a single line of the chart. This makes the process of profile building much faster. About $2K for the package. Other than the price, the other wart is the fact that the device is serial rather than USB, and requires the use of a converting dongle.

7) Fuji announces NPS and NPL in Quickload format. No word on availability of NPC in 4x5 yet.

8) Kodak highlights new Readyload system. The person in that part of the booth wasn't that aware of the TMX issue. They were also suprised that E100-SW wasn't on the list (they said it was, and then looked it up on the list and realized it wasn't). Wasn't impressed with the attitude of the Kodak folks.

9) Polaroid appeared to have a nice medium format scanner coming out next year. Dmax of 3.9 (with multi-scanning), 3.6 normal. Support up to 6x9. SCSI and Firewire support. I believe the estimated MSLP was around $4K. Wish someone would sell a high quality value scanner for 4x5, but didn't see anything (I guess the Imacon is a relative value at $15K for what it does).

10) Gossen showed a all-in-one meter called the Starlite. Pretty much a Sekonic 508 clone, but I think it may be more sensitive (5 degree spot down to EV 0, and 1 degree spot down to EV 2.0 with an ISO 100 reference). No display in spot viewfinder. Optionally outputs light and flash intensity & luminance. Literature mentions some ability to assign readings to zones - exact zone capabilities isn't that clear. Flash/ambient reading function. Better than Sekonic 508 (which can't do it), but not as good as Minolta.

11) Lots of digital stuff. 4x5 scanning backs are very much taking a backseat to single shot backs on MF cameras (w/ 24mm x 36mm sensors). Lots of tricks being done. Phase One showed a device to semi-automate doing three consecutive shots by shifting the rear of a view camera which get stitched together to make a single 36mm x 72mm image. Jobo, Phase One and Better Light were all showing their scanning backs.

-- Larry Huppert (Larry.Huppert@mail.com), November 05, 2000.

One of the most exciting things to see, for LF photography, was the new Schneider 80mm XL lens. It is very compact in size and has a wider image circle than the existing 75mm Super Angulon. As one of the Schneider reps said, "Progress marches on."

Overall, this was a very interesting show, very informative and well worth the time. LF gear on display included: Horseman, Arca Swiss, Canham, Walker, Toyo, Wista, Ries, Ebony, and Hasselblad (ArcBody & FlexBody). Both Walker and Canham were there in person.

There is a new Gitzo carbon fiber tripod called "The Explorer." It has greater flexibility than the existing mountaineer line (1227 and 1228 models). It is geared more towards 35mm and medium format though.

-- Edie Rothman (erothman@hotmail.com), November 06, 2000.

" LF gear on display included: Horseman, Arca Swiss, Canham, Walker, Toyo, Wista, Ries, Ebony, and Hasselblad (ArcBody & FlexBody)"

As Wista was displayed in our booth at Photo East it is only fair to note that Linhof was also.

-- Bob Salomon (bobsalomon@mindspring.com), November 06, 2000.

Darn, I missed the Linhof booth. I didn't see it. I am sorry, I'm a Linhof fan.

-- Edie Rothman (erothman@hotmail.com), November 09, 2000.

"Darn, I missed the Linhof booth. I didn't see it. I am sorry, I'm a Linhof fan. "

Sorry you did, we had the 600 sq ft booth with the two 15 x 15 foot signs above it with, among others, the Linhof name in 12" high letters.

-- Bob Salomon (bobsalomon@mindspring.com), November 10, 2000.

Did anyone see the "plastic" Toyo field camera... Shutterbug has a mention of a prototype version of a 3 lb. injected molded Toyo!?

-- Glenn Kroeger (gkroeger@trinity.edu), November 11, 2000.

i stopped at the mac-toyo booth but didn't see the new plastic field. i don't think toyo displayed anything new and the reps didn't mention they had any new product upcoming.

-- adam friedberg (asfberg@hotmail.com), November 11, 2000.