Christmas In February

by Steve Eshom

For photographers late February and early March can be the most interesting time of the year.  This is not because of great photographic opportunities but rather the annual Photo Marketing Association convention and trade show.  The PMA as its known is usually the excuse that manufacturers use to announce new products and components.  So far my assessment is that the products released are just evolutionary improvements, but I see that some are pushing the envelope.  Here’s my list from a Canon owner’s point of view…

1.  Canon EOS-1D Mark III Digital SLR
2.  Canon EF-16-35mm f/2.8L II USM wide angle zoom lens
3.  Lexar Professional UDMA 300X CompactFlash card (2GB, 4GB, 8GB) & Lexar Professional UDMA FireWire 800 Reader
5.  Miscellaneous accessories from Canon that I wasn’t interested in (wireless remote and flash)
4.  A variety of point and shoot cameras from both Canon and Nikon

I’m not likely to pick up a 1DMkIII, but the 16-35 and the fast Lexar card and reader are intriguing. 

With the new card Lexar has caught up to and passed SanDisk who with their Extreme IV series and FireWire card reader introduced high speed download.  With UDMA, Lexar raises the bar a bit higher, which is nothing but good for all of us.  Now, when will camera manufacturers improve their throughput to match the cards?

The 16-35 improves on a lens that originally received mixed reviews.  Some liked it and others hated it but if you could live with the known issues it would work for you.  With the II version Canon is attempting to correct the known issues and I believe finally provide a respectable wide angle zoom.  I mentioned to Aaron a couple of weeks ago that when I started research on wide angle lenses for Canon gear I was disappointed in the lack of consistent quality Canon usually provides in that category.  Hopefully this will correct that deficit.

For now these are just announcements.  I’m looking forward to when these products hit the streets and then seeing the reviews and how these devices work in the real world.   Ah, Christmas in February (and hopefully throughout spring).  

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 25th, 2007 at 8:08 am and is filed under general info, photo gear. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.