“Luminous Landscape”:http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/pma-30000.shtml really had some other great insights from the PMA. You can read the piece, but the summary is:
* The megapixel wars are over. You won’t see new cameras every 12 months anymore. What a relief! Instead, the 6-8 megapixel cameras will be for amateurs and focus on low noise and higher quality. The 12-16 megapixel will be for professionals. He does say the Nikon 200D is going to be a big hit at $1700 list for 10 megapixels so right in the middle. [An interesting side note is the cost of the Canon 5D is falling quite a bit. Right now it’s street price is $3000 down from $3300 list and there is a $300 rebate on, so it is down to $2700 right now.] Net, net, right now the two pro-am cameras to get are either the Canon 5D 12 megapixel full frame at $2700 street or the Nikon 200D at $1700 street. Both a good choices and weigh about the same.
* What the end of the war means is that the big consumer electronics folks are moving into photography. Expect to see Sony, Panasonic and Samsung all entering, so it will be interesting to see how Canon and Nikon do against this onslaught.
* Printers are the next battleground. Epson has been the leader for 10 years, but both Canon and HP are launching new professional models. The Canon imagePROGRAF iPF5000 (ugh, what a name!) is a 12 ink printer for $2,000. HP launched the Photosmart Pro B9180 and Canon the Pro 9500 to compete with the Epson R2400. That’s great news for everyone doing gigantic prints of 13″x19″ I have a Canon 9900i and I have to say it is an amazing machine.
* The big news is that Photoshop is going to get replaced as the tool for photography. _None to soon for me, Photoshop is pretty obscure._ Apple Lightroom and Apple’s Aperture are the top contenders. They are another reason to get a Mac machine :_)
