Photo expo is always a lot of fun.  I went with David Simms and Andy Stockwell this year.  The show is always fun as it’s a place where you can get your hands on just about anything and see it w/o a pushy salesperson trying to get you to buy it.  You can also ask technical questions and get answers from the guys who really know their gear since they work for the company who sells it, not in a sales role.  After the show we walked around and went up to times square and went to Carnegie Deli which was amazing!  Before the show we’d planned an amazing sunrise shoot from NJ of the Manhattan skyline but crappy weather (rain and wind) forced us to punt!  We went to bash bish falls instead.

Here’s some more technical thoughts about what we saw at the show itself:

• Sony…  Wow, the a7s is pretty special.  clean ISOs up to 50k~102,400?  Boosted to 409,000?  I don’t use boosted ISOs but they’re great for using when composing in low light…  It allows the camera to use it to show you what’s going on out in the dark.  The dark scene in the images below with the scarecrow?  It was shot at f/1.4, 1/20th and 6400 on my fuji XT1 with the 23mm 1.4.  The fuji struggled to AF for that scene and the image is pretty dark.  They had an a7s aimed at the same scene.  It could AF no problem thanks to it’s insane high ISOs (it uses what it can “see” in the dark to confirm focus).  Very nice!  The other interesting thing is the a7 itself is the same size as my XT1 even though the sony is full frame -vs- fuji’s aps-c sensor.  And depending on the lenses they’re close in size as well (the 16-35mm sony and the 10-24mm fuji are basically the same size).  I was very impressed with sony at the show, and I’d even call them the highlight for me.  They’ve got me putting some serious thought into getting back into a full frame camera while keeping my kit small and light!
• 3lt (3 legged things, a tripod company) makes some great tripods.  I didn’t really “get” the multiple stage center column thing until I’ve started using my sirui a bit more with it’s center column.  There are times when you can only spread your tripod legs oh so far (say on a rock in a river) but you still want a higher perspective…  In those times the ONLY option is to raise up the center column.  Their brian has 3 stages and their eric has 2.  Both are great small options but they’re also much taller than the sirui I have now with everything extended.   The bring has too many stages and locks for me (5/4).  The eric has that right (4/3) but is juuuust too long to fit perfectly in my incase.  For now I’m staying with my sirui but if I were to find another bag that works better than the incase I have now and were 1″ longer the eric would be my ideal tripod…
• Canikon.  Yawn…  The 7Dii doesn’t even have wifi?  The 6D had it last year at this show (and impressed me then) and they didn’t give it to the 1 year more recent 7Dii?  Of course they offer it as an expensive add on accessory though!!!  The D750 looked great but massive…
• The lens flipper is cool (https://lensflipper.com), it’ holds 1 or 2 lenses to something that’s basically 2 macro tubes welded together (but don’t suggest that to the guy who made them ;)).  It’s a nice way to carry ~2 lenses with your camera without needed a bag.  I could see this as a great option when shooting weddings.  No fuji version though.
• The nissin i40 is tiny!  Smaller than I thought and a GREAT on camera flash for the fuji or sony systems (and MFT too).  At ~$280 it’s not cheap but even for manual flash users (me) it’s size makes it worth considering.  It has a nice lock (not the threaded kind from the 70s).  The mechanism for changing angles is a bit clicky for my preference (it’s noisy) but it’s solid and small.  The battery door feels a bit awkward and feels like it’s be slow to use in a hurry (during a wedding reception).  The one thing that really has me wondering is it’s a stop slower than my old canon 430II.  That flash was great power wise because I could shoot a whole wedding reception with it using ~1/4 power which meant the batteries lasted all night typically and it recycled quick.  Being a stop slower means I’ll be at 1/2 meaning it’ll eat the batteries faster AND recycle slower?  Batteries have always been an issue as we move to smaller systems though so it’s probably worth it…
• Fuji!  The new lenses look awesome.  The 140-400 is a LOT smaller than the tamron 150-600 obviously.  The 16mm 1.4 looks great.  The 90mm f/2 also looks very nice.  It’s nice and short but a LOT thicker than the 56mm.  I got to handle the XT1 with the new firmware.  It took 2 guys helping to find someone who knew how to turn on the electronic shutter (buried in the menus) and then show me how to implement it (turn the shutter dial to 1/4000th then use the rear wheel).  No one could show me how the AF points via the rear buttons without pressing a button first will work…  No one could help me with my microphone questions beyond telling me to get the fuji on camera mic…  And the rear buttons on the graphite gray XT1 are still terrible.  I’m sure they’re the “new” button over what my xt1 has but they’re still no where near as nice as the XE2.  My sugru buttons fix the problem and work very well but it shouldn’t be necessary…
• DJI had the s900 there which was awesome.  I might end up upgrading to one eventually to fly one of my evil bodies…
• Lees new filter holder is a big improvement and “nice” but my mindshift filter hive is better IMHO.  Not much bigger if at all and mine has room for the holder as well.  Their canvas (think domke) is too thick and just unnecessarily bulky.  Their filters for gopros are cool and I’m trying to get a set with the GND and CP to adapt to my drone…
• FLM was a new tripod company from germany with some really nice but really expensive options.
• Schneider filters are nice but double thick.  Cool to see them IRL.  The coating they put on the edge feels nice.
• Olympus still gets it.  Nice small cameras that AF well.  They were the only mirrorless company smart enough to show what their kit looks like -vs- the equivalent canon setup… Their new pancake power zoom is nice and small.  It’s wide (to make everything fit?) but that doesn’t eat up pocket space and it’s nice and short on a body.
• ThinkTank just released 3 new bags before the show geared towards mirrorless shooters. I was STOKED thinking they’d finally done a back panel access bag but they’re not… It’s a refresh of their shape shifter which has all the access from the other side. disappointed. They REALLY need to make a f-stop style back panel access bag. Their quality is amazing but they don’t offer a bag that does what I need/want unfortunately.
• LowePro had a few REALLY nice bags on display that DID have back access. They’re not built quite as well as TTP but their designs seem more inovative to me? I’ve loved the small bag of theirs I got for family outings and it was ~$50? The value with lowe pro is hard to deny and they’ve got some very nice designs…
• Vanguard also has some great new bags with back panel access. I think it’s the sedona?
• Lexar finally has a new SD card out that supports the XT1’s write speed. Funny the first guy I talked to couldn’t remember the USH-II blah blah blah TLA either! But they were also nice enough to sort out the fastest transfer speed to my computer with me. Turns out with thunderbolt 1 using the USB3.0 tower I have with a thunderbolt adapter will actually be FASTER than using the thunderbolt 2 tower in a thunderbolt 1 port. I think they guy misunderstood me in that my USB3.0 part is going through a TB1 port so I think they’d be the same speed, but either way that upgrade wouldn’t help me at all.

Enjoy!