DSLR News

It’s the age-old question that typically comes from non-photographers: does an expensive camera shoot better photos? As anyone who knows anything about photography will tell you: it’s the photographer, not the gear that’s the key to great photos!

While compiling a list of my favorite professional DSLRs two things came to my mind: At this point in the 21st century, why are they still called DSLRs and not simply SLRs? Canon’s top-of-the-line, film-based EOS-1v was introduced in 2000 and is long gone. Nikon’s F6 ($2,399) was launched in 2004, and although you can still buy one, not many people do. To me it’s like calling automobiles “horseless carriages” and since I don’t think a Nikon F7 is around the corner, let’s put this abbreviation to bed.

Canon held its once-every-five-years Canon Expo 2015 show in New York City last September where the Tokyo-based company pulled back the curtain on some potentially groundbreaking imaging technology. Part science lab and part marketing showcase, the event drew tens of thousands of buyers, dealers, and distributors of Canon products (along with a large group of journalists) eager to see what the company had up its sleeve.

Starting with the 2014 CES trade show, held at the turn of the year, and continuing through press time for this issue, we’ve seen a goodly number of new products come to the fore. All this is only the start—this being a photokina year we’ll see a whole new round of products, including CMOS-sensor medium formats, with prices to match, coming our way. I trust that this report will give you a good sense of what’s here and what’s coming down the pike. So, here are my quick picks of those products that caught my eye, plus a snapshot of some of the trends.

Photographers tend to be very serious about eliminating (or at least reducing) noise in their photographs. These ugly digital artifacts tend to show up as distracting specs of grain, or random variations in color and brightness in areas of an image than should appear clean. 

Ricoh Imaging Americas just announced the Pentax K-70, a compact, dustproof and weather-resistant DSLR. The Pentax K-70 uses a 24-megapixel APS-C image sensor and is designed for shooting in low light and at temperatures as low as 14-degrees F (-10°C).  It’s aimted at “hikers, climbers and snow sports enthusiasts, as well as for nature and landscape photographers,” Ricoh Imaging said in a news release today.