Notes from NYC PhotoPlus

[Denton Taylor <denton@xxxxxxxx>]

A few things of interests to panoramists at the show...

One big surprise to me was that the Linhof 6x17 is now available in... 
colors. Yup. Silver, green, blue, red, and sand were on display. The bodies 
were also marked 'outdoor'. I asked did this mean there was some form of 
additional waterproofing. No, but for the nice color you can pay a nice 
extra thou.

Was encouraged to see that while the IPIX booth was bigger and fancier than 
ever it was also more deserted than ever.

Someone mentioned the new Arca-Swiss C1 head. Hard to describe without an 
engineering degree. But a couple of stacked aluminum bowl-like pieces with 
the standard Arca clamp on top allow movement in every direction, like a 
ball head, but without the tendency of a ball head to flop. Lighter than a 
ball head also. A very interesting and ingenious piece of equipment. 
Unfortunately it falls under the 'If you have to ask' category. Projected 
retail $1300.

The much-awaited Canham 6x17 back for his 5x7 view camera is now in 
prototype form. And what a surprise it was! Cast aluminum and _motorized_! 
Auto load, auto rewind, 4 leds to show film position. Keith's goal is to 
bring it in for $999.

I was very impressed at the surroundphoto.com mirror/reflector. Mainly cuz 
of the price. $70, shipping soon. Looks like a nice toy for the web, and I 
intend to buy it. The business model is also interesting. You can dewarp 
the image with a watermark for free. For every image you want  to use to 
pay $6.95 to remove the watermark. While I know many find this business 
model distasteful, it's a one-time fee and it's cheaper by far than using 
film. For now the thing only works with digicams due to the shortness of 
that platform. They are supposedly working on a film version.



________________________________
Regards,
Denton Taylor

Photogallery at www.dentontaylor.com.
Panoramas and Immersive Imaging at
	www.threehundredsixty.com