PHOTOSHOW 2003 IN MILAN
The Photo Show 2003 took place last March
21st
to 24th, 2003, at old pavilions (9 and 11) of Milan fair. As usual,
we had an official desk at Pentax
booth.
This time I was so busy at the show (also
for my own job reasons) and I couldn't stay at AOHC desk all the time, so I
had to manage some turnover there. Many AOHC members offered their help, far
more than needed for managing four days at our table, so I had to choose
among those who had more spare time. Thanks to you all. At the end, thanks
to Ermanno Barchiesi, Angelo Bernardi, Massimo d'Amicis, Alberto Dubini,
Dino Fadelli and Lino Pennarola, everything went smooth, we promoted AOHC
and upcoming 8th
Pentax Day and we gladly accepted many membership renewals and six new
members.
So what about new products? Two months
ago, a manager from Pentax Japan promised ten new digital cameras
to be introduced by Pentax this year. That sounded hard to believe, since
Pentax introduced nine models in the last three years!
Well, two months passed, and five new digital cameras (including the *ist
D SLR), one new-generation film SLR and three new lenses are here: does anybody remember the
last time Pentax was so active?
You probably already saw press
releases/specifications for Pentax new products in our PMA
2003 survey. However, it was exciting to get them in hand, and now I can
add some further info & comments.
The many introductions bring both new hopes and concern among Pentax fans.
The good hopes are for a new dynamic push seen at Pentax: new SLR's, new
lenses, new digital compact cameras. The main
concern is about the so called "crippled" KAF lens mount spreading on new cameras and new
FA J lenses. This same concern also deals with the digital version (*ist
D). See details and discussion in a Pentax
bayonet mount dedicated page.
The *ist is unbelievably tiny, so much
smaller than the MZ-series cameras (which are small). That's
intriguing, but its look is not convincing. It's not so elegant and it lacks any genuine Pentax feeling. You could put any logo
on its pentaprism housing.
The *ist D is a lot better and I like
it. Not so tiny as the *ist, its design is far more serious and convincing
than that of its film counterpart, mainly thanks to the shape of the
pentaprism housing and the black crinkle finish a la MZ-S. The viewfinder
has been specially developed for the new format, and you'll see a rather
wide image (as wide as in the film *ist), not a smaller one like it
happens with some 35mm film derived DSLR's.
Both SLR's share a nice on-screen
diplay of AF points and good point selection operation, far better than
that seen in the MZ-S.
The FA J series lenses (18-35mm F4~5.6
AL, 28mm~80mm F3.5~F5.6 AL and 75mm~300mm
F4.5~F5.8 AL) have no diaphragm ring, for the first time in Pentax line-up,
thus meaning poor backward compatibility. The good news is that the
18-35mm is full frame, hence it can be also used on film cameras.
About digital compacts, the most
exciting one is the Optio S. Get one in hand and you'll be delighted by
its size, weight and look. Now my small Optio 330 looks bulky. The Optio S
has a true Pentax feeling indeed. Tempting, very very tempting.
Perhaps the Optio 33L is less
intriguing than the tiny Optio S, but it's high quality (134,000 pixels),
fully rotating LCD monitor can appeal. Priced at a competitive price
as it is, it should sell well. Also, if it confirms the good picture quality of
the Optio 330GS, it will be a good camera.
The Optio 450/550
duo are somewhat less
convincing. Larger and with heavier design than the 330RS/430RS, featuring
more bells & whistles than you could ever use, they don't show visible
picture quality improvements over previous models. We were expecting
something capable to compete with the Canon G3 and the Minolta S414, but
that's not the case.
And then a sweet end, with some
pictures of Katia and Sonia, the models at Pentax booth.
I do hope you'll like information and pictures published here,
while a full report about the event (all makes) in Italian language is
published at www.fotone.it, and more
extended report and comments about Pentax will be published in April issue
of Spotmatic magazine.
Dario
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