articles/Review/Photokina-2016-page1
Published 01/10/2016
The aircraft-hanger-like halls of the Cologne Messe on the banks of the Rhine in Germany once again played host to 2016’s Photokina, the massive photographic trade exhibition that takes place every two years and showcases both photography’s present and its future. This year’s event was loosely based around five ‘unlimited’ themed worlds of imaging - namely the art of capturing, lighting, creating, sharing and presenting our photography. Topics up for examination, focus and discussion were Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Cloud Services, Video, Audio, ‘Wearables’, the Smart Home and Astro Photography. Some 180,000 visitors are expected to have attended the show, which ran from 20 to 25 September, and featured 1,000 exhibitors from 50 different countries.
The day before the show officially opens to the public and trade is press day - and this year the announcements from the major camera manufacturers came thick and fast. Notably absent in 2016 were Samsung, who put out low-key press releases in Germany and UK earlier this year indicating they were pulling out of the photographic market.
That left the field open for fellow electronics specialists Panasonic and Sony, along with the longer-term photographic brands, to press home their advantage.
Panasonic eyes up 8K shooters
With the exhibition coinciding with 15 years of its Lumix camera line up, Panasonic chose Photokina to officially unveil its latest high-end compact system camera in the Lumix DMC-G80, along with the FZ2000 20x zoom all-in-one and LX15 compact, both of the latter featuring one-inch sensor and 20MP resolution. But perhaps the manufacturer’s biggest announcement was for a camera that doesn’t exist - as yet.
The first half of 2017 will see Panasonic introduce a successor for its GH4 flagship. The new GH5 promises to further evolve the capture of 4K video and 4K photo - as well as introducing the ability to record 6K imagery at 30P, thereby enabling an 18 megapixel still to be grabbed from said footage. We’ll also get 4K video at 60P; thereby allowing photographers to select an 8 megapixel still from a blazingly fast 60fps burst of frames.
There are 19 days to get ready for The Society of Photographers Convention and Trade Show at The Novotel London West, Hammersmith ...
which starts on Wednesday 15th January 2025