Lots Going On at CES, but not Photography
This year's Las Vegas tech show is a desert for photographers.
I remember January 2012 very well. The holidays were behind me, and I was preparing my annual journey to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show.
I loved this event.
The pre-show buzz was intense. All of the biggies were prepared to dazzle us with their new offerings. At the top of the list was the much-anticipated Nikon D4 DSLR.
But there was plenty more - Canon’s premium compact, the PowerShot G1 X, which had great appeal for the nimble photographer crowd. Fujifilm announced their breakthrough X-Pro1. Plus, there was a barrage of cameras and lenses from Casio, Samsung, Panasonic, Olympus, Sony, and Kodak. All in all, more than 50 new cameras and lenses unveiled at the 2012 show.
Fast forward to 2024. I’m sitting in my studio scanning CES announcements on my laptop. I’m not in Las Vegas. There’s nothing there for me.
Pansonic introduced one lens, a 100mm macro for its full frame cameras. That’s it. I’m not going to count binoculars, telescopes, or Canon’s $21,000 MS-500, single-photon avalanche diode sensor for commercial survalence.
What changed in the last 12 years, photography or CES? Both. The bulk of the camera announcements in 2012 were compacts. Those have been replaced by smartphones. Casio, Samsung, and Kodak are pretty much out of the comsumer camera business.
Canon, Nikon, Panasonic, and Sony have broad offerings in the tech world that span beyond enthusiast gear. So CES makes sense for them even if they aren’t using it as a platfrom for camera releases.
If we still had vibrant camera shows to cover, such as PMA, I would be OK with all of this. But we don’t. And CES could be a wonderful place to shore up the lack of photography trade shows, but it isn’t.
I used to visit Las Vegas 2-3 times a year to cover events. I haven’t been there since 2018. I miss it.
BTW: The Panasonic lens looks nice.
This Week’s Podcast
Typically, Micro Four Thirds photographers aren't concerned by new full-frame camera announcements. They know what they have, and they like it. But the Nikon Zf seems to have upset the apple cart a bit. I've been getting mail citing reviews, defections, and the relevance of MFT photography in light of all this. So let's talk about it. Let's go head to head with the Olympus OM-1 and Nikon Zf. This week’s top story on the TDS Photography Podcast.
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Kodak Pixpro was there with lots of traffic at their booth. You might want to do some research before making ill informed claims.