PMA 2010 – Day Two
5:11am Why is it so bright outside at this time? Oh, I forgot to turn the lights out last night. Can’t get back to sleep now… better get up and get on with the day!
7:20am Ah… must’ve fallen asleep again. Excellent! Gotta love jetlag. Okay, time to grab breakfast and plan the day ahead. Lots of products I want to check out and people I want to link up with.
7:45am Ironed clothes on, laptop in hand, ready for Starbucks down at the lobby level, for a delicious green tea latte. Still confuses me how their pricing system works. The board says $3.90. “Okay sir, that’ll be 4 dollars and 67 cents.” “Okay, sure.” “Oh and plus Anaheim day tax… that’ll be four dollars and 72 cents sir… and you be having yourself a nice day now, won’t you sir!” “Yes Ma’am…”
8:11am Sitting, sipping the last of my green tea latte… Bam. Screen blacks out. Completely. Ah. Must be my battery. It hasn’t been charged since leaving Australia. Okay, better go to my room and charge it so I can send emails, write twitter updates and post a blog. So I plug the laptop charger into the power socket. Spark! Double spark! What the heck? I plug the cord into the laptop… Nothing. Nada. Dead. Totally. La Morte! Just great. It’s the only charger I have with me. I should have packed a spare. Definitely. But it’s the last thing I expected to die. And this is only a four-day trip.
Not to worry. Downstairs I go to see the concierge, thinking some place close by would sell me a charger for an Apple MacBook Pro. “Well, it depends on what you mean by close. Close to drive? Yes sir. But walking? Well, ah, I heard you Australians like walking long distances… So, okay then, you need to turn left on Convention Way then right on Harbor, then left again about 3 miles down the road to Chapman and maybe try Target. But no, I don’t think they’ll have anything there. So yeah, walk another 2, 3 miles down Orange Boulevard till you get to the Denny’s, make a right there and maybe you’ll find a Best Buys. I been there once or twice sir, when I was younger, maybe few years back. Sure, give them a try!”
So off I went, dressed for the show, with bunch of American greenbacks in my suit pocket, fingers crossed. I had no idea how much a charger might cost or whether I’d even find one. The girl at the hotel had told me if I didn’t, it was a 25 mile drive to the next place that would. Considering the ominous clouds racing in from across the Californian hillside, I didn’t fancy walking that far.
After mile upon mile of look-a-like Anaheim countryside, I concluded two things: (1) America has a liquor store at least every 100 metres, and (2) their telephone poles are much nicer than Australia’s – they’re of Southern Yellow Pine.
Finally I made it to Target. As told, they had no MacBook chargers. Target, here, was similar to Target in Australia, except they sell alcohol here. Hmm… sensing a pattern here.
After walking a few more miles, I passed a curiously opulent structure (to put it mildly), the Crystal Cathedral (pictured below).
Eventually, the Best Buy warehouse appeared. I walked inside, looked around briefly and hunted down the product I wanted: the charger for my laptop. Only ONE was left. Phew!
The walk back seemed a lot faster than the walk there. Soon enough I was back up and running – twittering and emailing and blogging. Then, after a salad sandwich for breakfast (2/5 stars), I went straight over to the show.
First stop, the Sigma booth. I’d heard Sigma was planning to announce some new lenses. They sure did. Five of them:
- Sigma 50-500mm F/4.5-6.3 now with image stabilisation
- Sigma 17-50mm F/2.8 now with image stabilisation
- Sigma 70-200 F/2.8 now with image stabilisation
- Sigma 8-16 F/4.5-5.6 DC wide-angle for APS-C
- Sigma 85mm F/1.4
I’m not sure how well the 85mm F/1.4 will do. It all comes down to how well Sigma can address quality control (the company is notorious for lax QC on many of its lenses with sample variation quite prevalent across the range).
Sandisk announced a new 64GB SD XC Memory Card, compatible with some of the new Sony and Panasonic compact cameras. In a VERY wise marketing move, Sony and Olympus recently adopted the standard SD/SDHC/SDXC format memory card in their compact cameras. Refusing to adopt this format previously had been a real obstacle to market penetration.
Panasonic also brought a 48GB and 64GB memory card to the table.
Sony made a significant announcement today – although, somewhat frustratingly, not a very detailed one. The company introduced a prototype small camera format. It’s not micro 4/3. It’s not a DSLR. It’s somewhere in between. It has the form factor of a micro 4/3 camera. But it has a full APS-C sized sensor, akin to what you’d find in one of Sony or Nikon’s newer DSLR cameras. (Kate, this might be the camera you’ve been waiting for!) It will use exmor technology (backlit sensor – for extremely good results in low light). It will record full HD video (1920 x1080). And that is all the released specs revealed. See image below. No further information is available. That’s because Sony is ramping up the intrigue. Press members were begging for details all day.
Sony also showcased a new 24.5MP sensor, featuring full Super Steady Shot stabilisation that will record full HD video (purportedly better than any Nikon/Canon offering to date).
Finally, I had a real hands-on preview – Nikon’s new 24mm F/1.4! And let me say this, I really am in love. Paired with a full frame sensor, this gives a beautifully wide field of view that performs stunningly in low light situations. The bokeh (out of focus area) produces creamy smooth graduated transitions and the highlights are perfectly rounded and fade off without distracting. The colour rendition is perfect, matching the scene exactly as I saw it. And the clarity is incredible – tack sharpness at F/1.4 and no vignetting even on a full frame. The build quality is exceptional – meticulous design and a careful combination of the right balance of metals and precious optical glass. Aah. One can dream, can they not?
Think Tank Photo had its new Hydrophobia Rain Cover on display and demo. While it seems quite a good product, it’s hardly the most attractive or form fitting. I’d be looking for something a little more aesthetic that provides the same weather proofing.
I shot a few videos that are now on youtube. I caught up with the guys from Lowepro for a quick preview of their updated Slingshot bags.
As far as new products, on this given Sunday that was about all I had time to see. The rest of my day was spent meeting with manufacturers and distributors to source new products for the Australian Market (woohoo for new gadgets!).
I went back to the hotel to crash, feeling out of sorts and tired still from jetlag. I had intended to join the PMA social meeting event in the lobby of my hotel, but honestly didn’t feel up to it. And so I fell asleep early, to wake only hours later due to jetlag induced insomnia!
This is Janaka from PMA 2010 in Anaheim, California, signing off for the day.
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Janaka Rodrigue. Photographer. Follow me on any of these links: 
Yes Janaka I am keeping my eyes peeled for more developments for the micro four thirds system! There is really no reason why it cannot be upsized slightly to fit an APS-C sensor – so I am sitting tight to see what happens! I reckon its the next big thing for a large group of consumers not wanting the size of a DSLR also for pro’s and enthusiasts into photojournalism – it is the perfect inconspicuous SLR solution really – bring it on!
The Samsung NX-10 has already done all this. Sony as already done it too, with the DSC-R1.
I quite like the size, but I will be Samsung will already have an EVF-less version of the NX-10 ready to go. Should be interesting.
I think it is a great idea to get rid of the mirror. For film, it was a great idea, but with digital, I can’t see the need for mirrors.