New cameras from Panasonic & Olympus, and lenses from Canon & Sigma… Japan's big camera expo is open online!
(Image credit: CP+)
It's showtime! One of the biggest imaging events on the calendar, CP+ 2022, is taking place in Japan this week from 22-27 February. For the third year in a row, the exhibition be a virtual-only event, with the live show being cancelled with just two weeks to go due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Traditionally a live trade show attended by thousands of delegates at its home base in the port of Yokohama, Japan, CP+ 2022 may again be only online – but that hasn't stopped all the major players from taking part, including Canon, Sony, Nikon, Panasonic, Sigma, and many more.
Thanks to Panasonic, Olympus and Sigma, the announcements from the show have being made ahead of the show opening its virtual doors. You can catch up with the online event at the CP+ English website.
Here are some of the highlights announced so far, and a few of the other things we are expecting…
Canon has chosen CP+ as the place to give us full details on its monster mirrorless telephotos - the Canon RF 1200mm F8 L IS USM and the Canon RF 800mm F5.6L IS USM. Already promised on the Canon RF lens roadmap, both lenses are designed primarily for professional wildlife and sports photographers, and for surveillance. The image-stabilized long-tom supertelephoto primes can both be used with Canon's 1.4x and 2x teleconverters - offering users even more reach. The prices are as eye-watering as the focal lengths, with the recommended retail price set at $20k and $17k each!
After missing its 2021 release, the Panasonic GH6 was finally announced at CP+ – and the manufacturer's new GH flagship packs a brand new 25.2MP sensor, 5.7K 30p internal video in ProRes 4:2:2 HQ, unlimited recording, V-Log / V-Gamut, Dynamic Range Boost, support for 4-channel 24-bit audio and more. You can check out our Panasonic GH6 live blogto relive the live announcement as it happened.
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At last! Sigma has announced its first ever lenses to fit the Fujifilm X-mount mirrorless family of cameras. There will be three primes to begin with – Sigma 16mm f/1.4, 30mm f/1.4 and 56mm f/1.4. The trio of lenses have already been sold by Sigma in Sony E and Canon EF-M and L-mount versions – but are perfectly suited to the APS-C sensor of cameras such as the Fujifilm X-T30 II and the Fujifilm X-T4.
Sigma is also saying that it is working on a Fuji-X-mount version of its 18-50mm f/2.8 DC DN | Contemporary zoom lens that it launched last year in Sony mount.
Sigma has also provided an update on its work developing a new version of its three-layer Foveon image sensor. In short, it tell us that its is still working on it:
"Based on the evaluation results of the prototype sensor, we will decide whether to proceed to Stage 3 [final prototype evaluation using a full-frame sensor] or to review the design data and re-prototype Stage 2 [using a smaller sensor]. When we proceed to Stage 3, we will verify the mass-producibility of the sensor with research institutes and manufacturing vendors based on the evaluation results, and then make a final decision on whether or not to mass-produce the image sensor."
Originally promised in 2020, Sigma had to announce it was going back to the drawing board at last year's CP+ show.
Olympus is no longer the Olympus of old - with the manufacturer selling off its imaging division. But last week, ahead of CP+, the new OM System company revealed its first major camera – that looked as much to the past, as the future, by being called the Olympus OM-1 (after one of Olympus's best-loved 35mm SLRs).
Chris George has worked on Digital Camera World since its launch in 2017. He has been writing about photography, mobile phones, video making and technology for over 30 years – and has edited numerous magazines including PhotoPlus, N-Photo, Digital Camera, Video Camera, and Professional Photography.
His first serious camera was the iconic Olympus OM10, with which he won the title of Young Photographer of the Year - long before the advent of autofocus and memory cards. Today he uses a Nikon D800, a Fujifilm X-T1, a Sony A7, and his iPhone 15 Pro Max.
He has written about technology for countless publications and websites including The Sunday Times Magazine, The Daily Telegraph, Dorling Kindersley, What Cellphone, T3 and Techradar.
