Made it down to NYC for the photo expo again.  I LOVE this show.  Yes, I’m a gear-head, so it’s really nice to go check out the new stuff in person without having a salesperson try to get you to buy it.  Here’s a quick rundown of what I found new and exciting:

• Sony: The a7 and a7r are great little cameras.  They’re hardly bigger than the OMD EM1.  Yet the a7r packs in the D800e’s 36mp AAless FF sensor.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is that there aren’t any lenses for it yet.  Yes you can adapt other lenses, lots of them in fact.  And you can even keep AF and electronic aperture controls with the right adapters…  But the whole point of this camera to me is to shrink down the entire system.  If I’m forced do use my current DSLR lenses you’re not saving me enough weight to deal with the hassles of adapters.  I’ll see you next year when you’ve developed a UWA zoom as well as a standard and tele zoom that have enough IQ to keep up with the sensor but that are NOT the FF versions with a different mount.
• Olympus: The EM1 is amazing.  Still a MFT sensor in there but at this point that system has ALL the kinks worked out.  The 12-35mm 28 was also very nice and not as big as I’d thought it’d be.  The EVF was very nice and big.
• Tamron: Their 70-200 2.8 VC is amazing.  95% of the canon version optically for 33% less money.
• Zeiss: Their 12mm for fuji (and sony) is massive.  No thanks.  Their new fancy 55mm that’s supposedly the best 55 ever made is big and ugly and doesn’t feel as nice as a zeiss should.
• Panasonic: Worst booth layout ever.  I wanted to try the GX7 and couldn’t a) find it or b) get to it once I did.
• Sigma: This booth was PACKED.  Their new lenses are amazing.  I want a 120-300 2.8.  The 18-35mm is awesome.  The 24-105 is an f/4 OS and there will be no f/2 zoom.
• Lee: The seven5 system is really nice, perfect for the new EVIL cameras.
• Rhinocam: Very cool but it’s massive and finding the right lenses to make it work seems like a PITA.  120mp would be cool though.
• Fuji: The 23mm is awesome.  Slightly bigger than the 14mm but still nice.  It’s big in diameter not length (except the hood is stupid big).  Focus seemed very quick but it was on an XE2 so it could have been the camera too.  It’s large relatively but it’s smaller than your typical FF 50mm lens.  The XM1 is nice and small.  Not sure I’d get one as it’s controls aren’t anywhere near the XEs.  But small is good at times…  The XE2 was AWESOME.  A BUNCH of small changes make for a much nicer improved camera all around.  I can’t wait to get mine!
• Canon: Everyone had the DSLR counter swamped to see the 70D’s AF.  The SL1 is neat.  Tiny.

I didn’t have much time to check out everything I wanted though.  Or I should say energy.  I had a borderline cold and didn’t want to talk as much as I was.  I saw the spider guys, the capture guys, the custom bracket guys.  The print displays (bay’s metal prints specifically) were all great to see IRL.  I wish I’d had more time for bags though. Here’s some shots of a lot of what I just mentions: