Cameras go to extremes at PhotoPlus Expo

Consumer Reports News: October 24, 2008 03:54 PM

Find Ratings

Cameras

Most of the major camera manufacturers are here at this year's PhotoPlus Expo at the Javits Convention Center in New York showing off their latest point-and-shoots, SLRs, camcorders and camera accessories.

Two products are generating a lot of buzz, though they're not quite ready for prime time:

One, from Olympus, is based on the innovative micro four-thirds system used by Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1 and combines a large sensor, similar to those SLRs use, with a small camera body. The camera (Click on image at right for a closer look) shown here at PhotoPlus Expo debuted last month at the Photokina show, in Germany. It will be similar to the first micro four-thirds camera, but the version I saw looked even smaller than the G1. (In case some Olympus SLR owners aren't interested in going the micro four-thirds route, the company also has another "concept" camera that will be based on the older, larger four-thirds camera design. This E series model should be out in 2009.)

A second camera, Leica's S2 (Click on the image at right for a closer look), is all the buzz among pros. This is truly an SLR-on-steroids, with a 37-megapixel image sensor, which is more than 50 percent larger than a full-frame sensor SLR. Although the model on view is still a prototype and the product may be modified, it's a really big, bulky camera, larger than almost any consumer or prosumer SLR. But what really adds heft to this camera is that the lenses are also gargantuan. So whereas the micro four-thirds products appear to be shrinking the size of cameras, Leica is expanding their size.

Neither the Leica nor the Olympus have prices yet. But the Leica will probably be more than $10,000. My guess is the Olympus will be around $700 or $800.

—Terry Sullivan

—Paul Eng