COBA October 2004

Written: October 13, 2004
Last Updated: October 14, 2004

Photokina 2004 wrapup, Canon's latest products, and graphics tablets.

The October 2004 COBA meeting featured a wrapup of the recent Photokina conference in Cologne, Germany, a preview of Canon's latest products, including the Canon EOS-20D and the EOS-1Ds Mark II, and a demonstration on using graphics tablets.

There was a lot of DSLR news coming out of Photokina. In addition to the 16.7 megapixel Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II being released from Canon, Nikon had its 12.4 megapixel D2X, Fuji had its 12.4 megapixel S3 Pro, Leica with its 10MP digital back for the R8 and R9, Olympus with the EVOLT E-300, and Mamimya with its amazing 22MP digital back. Epson was showing off the very-retro RD-1 digital rangefinder; it's not a digital SLR, but it does have a DSLR-sized imaging sensor, which means the image quality from it should be quite good.

Of course, there were dozens of consumer and prosumer digital cameras released at Photokina. I can't cover them all, but I can point you to links that talk all about them.

Jim Rose came up next to talk primarily about the Canon EOS-20D and the EOS-1Ds Mark II. Most of the people in the meeting had heard all about these cameras, so Jim basically fielded questions from the crowd. After handling the EOS-20D with the 17-85mm IS lens, I can say for a fact that I want one! It would have been the perfect travel camera to have taken to Europe last month.

Chuong and David finished the evening with a presentation on graphics tablets. Just this morning, I sold my Wacom 12x12 USB tablet on eBay. Tablets are very useful, but tablets as large as mine can be very unwieldy. I'll probably be looking for a 6x8 or 4x5 in the future. One of the biggest feature of tablets is pressure sensitivity; it makes dodging and burning areas on an image so much easier than using a mouse.

One more thing from a meeting a couple of months ago. I gave a presentation on sensor cleaning and noise reduction and wanted to post some links to companies in those areas:

Sensor Cleaning

Visible Dust (makers of the Sensor Brush)
Kinetronics (makers of the SpeckGrabber)
Photographic Solutions (makes of the Sensor Swab and Eclipse Fluid)
Information on sensor cleaning

Noise Reduction

ISOx Pro
Dfine
Neat Image
Noise Ninja (recommended)
Michael Almond great reviews of other noise reduction software packages

And now for some photos! Next month, we'll have a comprehensive presentation on matting and framing your prints!

Graphics tablets at COBA

Chuong and David prepare

Jim Rose from Canon

Ed, Richard, Marie, and Jeff listen

Comparison of sensor sizes

David Blanchard

David checks out a Graphire

David and Chuong present

Pressure sensitivity in action!

Enter The Photo Gallery

Reader Comments

how do you get invited to all these things?

--posted by jp @ Thursday, October 14 2004, 13:42 pm PDT

Meetings are free and open to the public. Look here for more information.

--posted by Adam @ Thursday, October 14 2004, 13:55 pm PDT