I went to CES in Las Vegas and just got back. These were shot with the X-5 (which I got so I could take pics for the annual and PUG).
Thoughts/reactions about CES below. And first impressions of the X-5. I just got the X-5 delivered from Amazon the day before I left. I barely had time to figure it out. It doesn't have an Av setting, so I either shot manual or program or green button. None of the shots are great and I haven't edited them. http://mapphotography.com/CES/index.html Pentax: I asked two reps if Ricoh intended a FF Pentax. I asked them separately. The answer was pretty much, no. One rep said that the market share for FF is a sliver and too small. The other said because the 645D is out there ( prominently displayed), it is very unlikely. He also said that USA Pentax reps are the last to know. They may know a little in Japan -- but only when Ricoh/Pentax actually comes out with a public release do they find out. I went on the trip with a friend, and he asked later too, and he was simply answered, no. Overall, the answer seemed to be very much, no. OTOH, I asked about Ricoh's support of Pentax. Very much so -- this will be one company that will not drop Pentax or sell it out. They are heavily invested and very much behind the "brand name." The Pentax display was understated and tasteful, except for the scantily clad Japanese girl sitting on a chair, pushing a button on a toy train running on a track below her. Photo op, supposedly. There were scantily clad girls in a few places, CES is male-oriented. Evidentially there were more girls in previous years, but each year brings more and more women attendees to the show. There was a wall of K-50's, not quite sure why. The big poster shot of the GR was taken with the K-3, and that is partly why it was there, to show how large it could be blown up and not lose resolution. Paul's pic had an end spot, and really was one of the best there. :-) Okay, about the rest of CES -- it was not the primary purpose of my trip. I went with a friend and just wanted a trip, also saw Las Vegas, a ghost town, Red Rock Canyon, and the Bellagio fountain and some of the casinos (I don't gamble). So I did not ask a lot of questions a lot of you would ask and did not look at lot of things a lot of you would look at. I was also not solely interested in photographic equipment. I also went under an assumed identity, heh, as a audio/visual design person (smart houses). This show is mainly for dealers who are going to put in large orders for products. Nothing is on sale to the public. So I did brief tours of two halls, well, three and a half halls. Other Cameras: The Nikon display was similar to Pentax's, a bit bigger, lots of yellow. And one seating area with a video running about some camera. Pentax had no video seating area. No scantily-clad girls at Nikon. The Canon display was much, much bigger. The emphasis there was mainly on their printers and other imaging products. They did have a small walk-thru photo gallery. And a tier of cameras. A shot of that is in the gallery above. At first when I saw it I thought it was photographers taking shots of the show. Then I realized they were actually cameras to try out and went up and tried some. That was clever of them and they were the only ones that did that. No poles locking the cameras down to a hole in a display table. The two dancing girls there were wearing pants and T-shirts. WTG, Canon. The Sony display was one of the largest and a bit confusing. It had a 'surround' video running above -- it covered a very large area with their products inside, much bigger than it looks in my picture. The camera I was, personally, most impressed with and taken by was the Fujifilm (yes, moving on) X-M2. Which the rep told me had just started being shipped in November. She only had one, it was so new, although she had several X-M1s. CES: The show/convention/conference overall, was overwhelming. It is HUGE. Most people were there to do business and see specific items. If you didn't have a focus it was pretty confusing. Lots and lots of booths, but the most overwhelming part was simply the massive number of people walking around. Almost worse than Disneyland during summer. About 150,000 attend, so it was busy, busy all the time. Most were wearing black. The racial/ethnic mix was mainly White and Asian. At least the shuttle buses between venues were good (there is a three-hall convention center, two stories, and things spilled over into three other hotels). I had very interesting discussions with a cable company owner and a representative of GSM (Global Standards for Mobile) on the shuttle, one on the way, and one on the way back. PMA: PMA was also there. Unfortunately it was in the last stop, all travel between buildings was by foot, and after a very long walk down looping a corridor, back and forth, linking buildings, we found it. Since it was in a different building and so far away, it's attendance was low. We spent time in the Black Rapid booth, and learned that PMA will probably fade away. Because the big camera companies were in the main hall, the PMA was mainly support equipment: bags, tripods, etc. What were the most interesting things I saw? I was interested in any high-tech sci-fiy thing, not just cameras. And I really took a cursory look at most of the things I saw. The Black Rapid guy had an add-on lens on his iphone. Three little lens adaptors that rotated, one wide angle, one fish eye, and one telephoto. He wasn't sure if it was available for other phones and I never found the booth. But it was intriguing and seemed well designed. Drone photography. I took no pics. But they are orderable at B&H. The large one no, the consumer ones, yes. It was fascinating. 3-D printing. That made me feel the future is really here. Large WOW factor. Heh. Think replicators from Star Trek. Honestly and truly. Though right now they can only replicate with polymers and not very large items yet. But the technology is there and it will improve and develop. Totally revolutionary. About five companies were there, all with different orientations (many with a research/product prototyping focus). But two were marketing consumer 3-D printers and two were marketing 3-D scanners, as well, one hand-held. All very impressive and futurist and oh-my-goddess. If you want to know more about the 3-D printing, just ask. I have some literature and was going to google and research. Real photos to come. The X-5, meh. It is a Pentax, but... well, I was warned. I still have to play with it more, but the viewfinder is only adequate. That's the best way I could describe the whole camera, for a point and shoot it is adequate and nothing to write home about. It does have a green button and it is cute. It looks like a mini-DSLR, so you don't feel stupid wearing it around. But if it wasn't a Pentax, I really wouldn't have bothered. Marnie aka Doe :-) I wish I had more specific impressive insider camera stuff to tell you, but I don't. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
