Sneak Peek

Sneak Peek is chance for the press to see and chat about what the manufacturers are planning to show at PMA and it's an opportunity a lot of journalists had taken up. In fact the turnout was one of the highest we've seen, though this could be because everyone's keen to get stories for what might be a quiet show. There was still plenty to see, though, so here's a list of the things that caught our eyes.

Olympus was showing off the E-620, the first DSLR to be announced for PMA 2009. Meanwhile Pentax displayed the X70, which made its debut today, alongside the 15mm F4 it has added to its range of premium DA Limited primes. The love-it-or-hate-it white K2000 was also on show, as was the much delayed 60-250mm F4 lens (we'll ask for more information at the show itself). Sigma had 'near-production' samples of its DP2, the revised, 40mm equiv. F2.8 version of its DP1 large-sensor compact camera.

Leica had its usual selection of understated finery, including the Safari edition of its M8.2 rangefinder and a sample S2 medium format DSLR sporting the 70mm F2.5 lens developed for it. There was talk of summer launches but, in these times of currency volatility, none of prices.

As well as the camera makers, Sneak Peek plays host to a series of accessory makers, service providers and technology developers. These included Tessera, which was demonstrating a series of in-camera processing technologies and methods for producing ever-smaller camera modules.

The most obvious absense was any sign of the newly-announced Samsung NX system. We believe a mock-up does exist but is being kept under wraps for now. There are also a series of products that had been announced for 'Spring 2009' launches that we still hope will appear once the show gets underway. Stay tuned.