Photokina 2014: all the news from photography’s biggest show – The Verge

Canon’s G7x is yet another great compact camera option

2014-09-16T12:20:03-04:00

Look around the Photokina show floor this week and you'll find a deluge of attractively designed and extremely compact cameras that nevertheless have the power to deliver great image quality. Bigger sensors are fitting into ever-smaller bodies and Canon's G7x is a great example of this trend. It's the storied Japanese company's first 1-inch sensor, fitting within the dimensions of a camera intentionally designed to be pocket-friendly.

Going up against Sony's well-liked RX100 range is a tough task for anyone, but Canon has put together a good challenger in the G7x. I was immediately impressed by this camera's build quality upon picking it up …

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Fujifilm’s X100T proves that two viewfinders are better than one

2014-09-16T11:30:18-04:00

The X100T carries on a happy recent legacy for Fujifilm. Its predecessors have been some of the best performing and most attractive cameras in the retro compact range, so its public debut here at Photokina has been much anticipated. Beyond some glorious old-school looks and a high-quality APS-C sensor, one of the undeniable strengths of the X100T is its hybrid viewfinder system.

Having been introduced in the X100, the hybrid setup has been refined in the new model to further blur the distinction between optical and electronic viewfinders. The basic premise is simple enough: optical viewfinders are lag-free and most pleasant to use, but elec …

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What is the Panasonic CM1?

2014-09-16T08:42:21-04:00

Panasonic is desperate to know, and we are quite curious ourselves: how do you perceive the newly announced CM1 hybrid device? Is it, as Panasonic would prefer that you think of it, a capable and superbly compact camera with communication capabilities built in? Or is it a smartphone with extraordinarily souped-up imaging hardware? A lot will depend on the reaction consumers have to this exciting new device. When compared against compact cameras, the 900-euro CM1 looks like something of a bargain: it has a bigger battery and much more processing power than the typical premium compact, while its connectivity options and ability to slip into a …

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Leica announces new premium compacts, a film rangefinder, and some Panasonic rebrands

2014-09-16T05:10:08-04:00

Leica's Photokina announcements don't stop with the unique, screenless digital M Edition 60 - the German camera maker has a series of more conventional digital models on the way. First up is the X (Type 113) and X-E (Type 102, above), premium compact cameras with 16-megapixel APS-C sensors that follow on from the X1 and X2. The X-E doesn't appear to be a huge advance on its predecessor, similarly featuring a 24mm f/2.8 lens, but the X has a 23mm f/1.7 lens, beating out Fujifilm's popular f/2 X100 series. The Leica cameras have no optical or electronic viewfinder built in, however, and only the X is capable of shooting video.

Leica's Panasoni …

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Leica strips display from digital camera in 60th anniversary return to basics

2014-09-16T04:10:56-04:00

2014 marks 60 years since the release of the Leica M3, a camera as legendary as any other in history - it kicked off the German manufacturer's seminal line of M-series rangefinders which continues to this day. And now Leica is celebrating in style with a new entry in the series: the Leica M Edition 60, a seriously unique digital camera.

The M Edition 60 is a special version of the M-P Type 240 digital rangefinder, but there's a twist - the new model features no screen at all, forcing you to use it as if it were a film camera. "Working with the Leica M Edition 60 intentionally demands the same care and attention as working with an analogue m …

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Panasonic’s LX100 camera isn’t quite as lovely as it looks

2014-09-15T13:22:34-04:00

Panasonic already owns the Photokina 2014 spotlight with its CM1 camera phone announcement. Nothing else the Japanese manufacturer does at this week's photo show will come close to rivaling it for attention, though that doesn't mean the company isn't trying its best. Introduced alongside the CM1 is today's new LX100 camera, which takes the familiar Micro Four Thirds (MFT) sensor that Panasonic and Olympus have been pushing for many years now and fits it into an even more compact body.

MFT cameras have always been about reducing the necessary size for high-quality photog …

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Canon’s EOS 7D Mark II will ship in November starting at $1,799

2014-09-15T09:22:50-04:00

Today at the Photokina imaging show, Canon announced the latest addition to its line of DSLRs: the EOS 7D Mark II, which features several improvements over its predecessor. The camera includes a native ISO of 100 to 16,000 and a 150,000-pixel RGB and IR metering sensor, and shoots at up to 10 FPS. It also features 60p full-HD capture, a 20.2 APS-C CMOS megapixel sensor, and a 65-point autofocus system. That'll go on sale this November, starting at $1,799 without a lens.

Canon also announced a few other new products, including the high-end point-and-shoot PowerShot G7 X, which features a 20.2-megapixel, one-inch sensor. It'll be going on sal …

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Panasonic’s LX100 has one of the largest sensors we’ve seen in a compact camera

2014-09-15T09:13:44-04:00

Camera manufacturers have been fitting bigger and bigger sensors into compact bodies, and today Panasonic is announcing a new compact that fits in one of the biggest sensors we've seen there yet: the Lumix LX100 uses a Micro Four Thirds sensor, which is large enough to easily let its image quality rival or best some of the other top compact cameras out there. Beyond that, the LX100 is pretty capable too. It's able to capture video in 4K, it includes a built-in electronic viewfinder (with a 2.76 million-dot equivalent resolution), and has a fairly bright lens, with an aperture ranging from a maximum of F1.7 to F2.8 as it travels between its 2 …

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Panasonic puts a 1-inch sensor and a Leica lens on new CM1 smartphone

2014-09-15T08:25:01-04:00

Panasonic has made the biggest news of Photokina so far with the announcement of its new Lumix CM1 Android smartphone. The Japanese company quit making smartphones after the failure of its Eluga handsets two years ago, but now it's returning with an imaging-focused device that's as much camera as it is phone. The CM1 comes with a 1-inch sensor that dwarfs most imaging sensors in smartphones today and is on a par with what you'd find inside Sony's RX100 and Nikon's 1 Series of cameras. It has a 20-megapixel resolution and is paired with an f/2.8 Leica lens, a mechanical shutter, and a manual control ring. Interestingly, the lens extends out o …

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Samsung’s NX1 Smart Camera is a speed demon hoping to charm the pros

2014-09-15T06:00:02-04:00

Two years ago, Samsung came to Photokina with just a couple of new lenses and little in the way of incentive for pro photographers to take its NX cameras seriously. The time since has been filled with consumer-centric selfie shooters and Android-powered cameras. Hoping to correct this history of neglect for the top tier of photography, Samsung today launches a new flagship NX1 Smart Camera - which does its best impersonation of a pro DSLR in a more compact size - alongside a high-end 50-150mm f/2.8 lens.

The $1,499 NX1 puts the focus squarely on speed and performance with an all-new 205-point autofocus system, a 15fps continuous shooting mo …

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