It doesn’t happen too often that Leica announces a new camera. May 10, 2012, was an über-day in Leica terms. The German “boutique” camera maker announced a digital M rangefinder true to its very essence and stripped down to photography’s bare essentials: the Leica M Monochrom (specs), an 18MP camera with a unique black-and-white sensor […]
By THORSTEN OVERGAARD Thorsten Overgaard is widely known as the Leica historian and for his website that offers free advice on photography. In this article exclusively written for THEME, Thorsten takes on automatic photography and how to take back control of your own photography. If you feel there is so much you need to still […]
Well, the consumer camera. Photokina this year? About two thirds the size two years ago, half the size four years ago. People take more and more pictures and use more cameras than ever before, yet the camera industry is in shatters. There’s hope though. There could be a “the best of all worlds”-camera. Why hasn’t […]
Must say I’m pretty impressed with the iPhone 7. Build quality is simply amazing, battery life way up and not to mention the haptics of the prime materials used with the tactile feedback. Beautiful. And then there is the camera. Awesome. And as you might know the latest iPhones with iOS 10 allow RAW photography, […]
Remember? THEME was the first photography site to report on a pretty groundbreaking camera from Hasselblad coming up. That was back in March. The official announcement of the “game changer” Hasselblad X1D-50c with medium format going mirrorless didn’t disappoint. Hasselblad on June 22, 2016, presented a mirrorless 50MP medium format camera with EVF, ISO range […]
There’s always a better time to buy a digital camera. Something better, faster, technically more advanced is always around the corner. Not so this time. Chapeau Olympus to the Olympus PEN F. What an iconic piece of beautifully crafted and designed precision engineering. A tribute to the original PEN F produced between 1963 to 1966, […]
How many of us would really know Argentine Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara if it wasn’t for that one iconic portrait image made by Swiss Magnum photographer René Burri who passed away on October 20, 2014, in his hometown of Zurich after a battle with cancer. René Burri, who leaves an enormous legacy, was 81. May […]
Here a few lines I’ve received from a friend, a longtime Photokina enthusiast who had this to say (we initially planned to meet up in Cologne for the world’s biggest photography industry exhibition, yet on short notice I had to commit to other obligations): Dear Daniel, You did not miss much by not going to […]
Can it get any worse? Another huge loss and forecast drop for Nikon, the camera industry’s number two whose authority no one would have questioned only a few years ago. From the latest financial report for Q1, 2014: Net sales for the three months ended June 30, 2014, decreased by 61,536 million yen (25.7%) year-on-year […]
It is no coincidence that Henri Cartier-Bresson preferred a 50mm lens on his Leica 35mm rangefinder camera. His special ability was to use a 50mm lens but allow the photo to “breathe” almost as if shot with a 35mm. HCB just seemed to know how to frame so that it looks wider than it should. […]
(Here’s a great post by a photographer I highly admire for his mastery and versatility, Kirk Tuck, writing a photography suspense novel! I myself won two literary awards, but boy don’t let me talk about my earlier days as an aspiring writer… Kirk’s (Leica rangefinder!) thriller sounds like a great book for anyone interested in […]
By MARTIN KALAYDJIAN I just took a look at the CIPA shipment numbers for April 2014, and they really are depressing. CIPA reports that new camera shipments continue to fall, losing about a third of their market each year. This isn’t meant to be about doom and gloom. It is only “crying wolf” if the […]
Buying a camera and or owning a camera system says as much about a person’s character as the partner, pet, car or house the person has. Deciding which camera or system to shoot with is in fact a highly intimate, deeply personal choice that’s quite meaningful to read and understand a person’s character. You shoot […]
While I’m not a friend of miniaturization for the sake of miniaturization — you still have to be able to comfortably hold a camera! — Sony engineers once again cheat physics and make possible what seemed to be science fiction not too long ago. The third edition of the successful RX100 lineup with a new […]
You leika my Leica eh Fujifilm? The Germans reportedly lose more and more sales to the Japanese retro newcomers…
It’s been quite a ride for the Fujifilm X series so far. Launched in March two years ago with the groundbreaking X-Pro1, the family of X cameras seems to grow faster than any of the competitors’ — despite sales being not that strong. The choice is yours, there’s the X-E2, X-A1, X-M1 and the series’ […]
Don’t get me wrong, am an admirer and fervent user of these compact new system cameras that are technological proof of Moore’s law, the law that says the number of transistors on integrated circuits doubles approximately every two years in a computer. And with cameras becoming, in fact, more and more computerized, one of the […]
It boasts hints of the OM-D and has the distinct flavor of Nikon’s Df. This rugged piece of machinery resists water, dust and temperature, sports an impressive 2.36 million dot OLED viewfinder (claiming to possess world’s highest magnification for a digital camera), the shutter time lag of 0.05 seconds is absolutely negligible and a whole […]
To begin with, the Nikon Df, marketed as a “handcrafted” time machine to travel back to the days when “pure photography” was mostly a manual affair, this Nikon Df is a hell of a lot of camera. Some naysayers are ridiculing the concept, but have they actually ever touched a Df? There’s always the other […]
By KAREL VAN WOLFEREN Quite a few times I have regretted not to have had a different camera with me as I viewed results from a photographic excursion. In the past year and a half this was mostly the case when I had the Fujifilm X-Pro1 or X-E1 with their marvellous lenses and image quality […]
Interesting article by the New York Times on Fujifilm finding its niche as digital camera sales sputter: old-style cameras that mask a high-tech core. For certain work you can’t replace a D800 or 5D Mark III. But it’s just not that much fun. Et voilà the state-of-the-art and retro-looking Fujifilm X series, designed by Masazumi […]
By KAREL VAN WOLFEREN Unlike what happened in some other Asian cities, Japanese photographers did not rush out en masse to get hold of that full-format camera (digital’s new medium format) miraculously squeezed into a palm-sized mirrorless body when it went on sale in Tokyo on November 15. There was no one else besides me […]
The 1/4,000th of a second fastest shutter speed isn’t much of a problem with the Nikon Df. You get ISO 50, so there you go. The viewfinder? In another league, we hear from reviewers. Other not highest specs? Well wouldn’t that beat the purpose of an all manual, retro Nikon Df? You don’t buy the […]
First off: the Nikon Df is a kind of trinity between D4, Leica M and good old film. Right, of the D4 that costs $6k and Leica $7k. And I am the only one excited?! Online commentaries are rather condescending, accusing Nikon of too much and not enough retro for the sake of retro. But […]
Non-mirrorless and pentaprism are not yet dead after all. Nikon makes a bold statement with the Nikon Df — photography’s heritage isn’t dead at all. You might not want the latest, bestest sensor — albeit three years old, its sensor rocks. Maybe what’s here is already perfect enough. Right, you bet this camera is an […]
The full-frame debate is a topic I love to cover on THEME. There are no clear answers. On whatever side you’re standing, pros and cons are more or less evenly balanced. One of the beauties of today’s photography is the many options we enjoy. Each and every photographer finds an appropriate system, tool and style. […]
Tokyo, October 25, 2013 — In light of the competition’s relentless release of advanced revolutionary retro, full-frame and other fancy cameras, Canon, world’s leader in digital imaging solutions, announces it’s going the opposite way. Canon proudly introduces the revolutionary back-to-the-roots ÜberCamera©, a truly retro, as good as new camera based on extensive market research reassuring […]
By B. D. COLEN Suppose an editor proposed to a leading photojournalist that she abandon her trusted cameras and lenses and instead cover an important assignment, say a presidential convention or a significant moment in a military campaign, using an off-the-shelf point-and-shoot camera with a Coke-bottle bottom lens, and a sensor smaller than the nail […]
+++ The File is continuously updated with the latest A7(R) reviews and hands-on reports. See further below. +++ Sony, in another bold move, raises the bar a full-frame and demolishes the status quo: its long rumored, eagerly anticipated and latest imaging device is palm-sized, takes interchangeable lenses, has a very responsive focus system, large bright […]
Zeiss calls its new groundbreaking Otus 55mm F1.4 APO-Distagon the perfect standard lens. And no better lens to shoot with at night, promises Zeiss. Manually focused, rather big and heavy, the first Otus lens stands for the perfection of Zeiss optical design and engineering. Announced a year ago, the Distagon has finally been baptized, slightly […]
