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Best cameras and photography gear from Photo Plus 2018

Our favorite things from the showroom floor.

By Jeanette D. Moses

October 26, 2018

Photo Plus Expo — Photo Plus Expo is underway in New York City.Jeanette D. Moses

The Photo Plus Expo kicked off yesterday morning in New York City with three days of talks, workshops, portfolio reviews, and, of course, new cameras and accessories. Although a lot of the big camera news broke last month at Photokina, this was the first opportunity for many photographers in the states to try these new products in-person. We've spent our day scouring the showroom floor for the best new products available to photographers. Here's what we've loved so far.

Canon Pro-Grade Mirrorless camera — Canon announced its long-waited pro-grade mirrorless in September and began shipping the camera this month, but plenty were on display at Photo Plus for the general public to interact with. The EOS R is built around a 30.3 MP CMOS sensor and features a newly redesigned RF mount with a 20mm flange distance and the same 54mm mount diameter as the brand's EF mount cameras. Check out our first impressions with this camera and sample images here.Jeanette D. Moses

Fujifilm GFX 50R — The new rangefinder-style medium-format digital camera with a 51.4-megapixel resolution sensor was on display for attendees to try out. It's a hefty camera—in hand it makes the X100 F seem tiny. At $4,500 for the body, it's certainly not a cheap camera, but we're very curious to see what shooting this camera with the a 45mm F/2.8 would feel like—a monstrous street photography machine.Jeanette D. Moses

Fujifilm GFX 100 Megapixel Prototype Camera — It was housed under glass, but this GFX 100 megapixel prototype from Fujifilm certainly piqued our interest last month. This camera will be available sometime next year for approximately $10,000 (making the GFX 50R seem like a deal). We still don't know much about it, but according to the company it will feature in-body image stabilization.Jeanette D. Moses

Gnarbox 2.0 — Gnarbox is back with a new version of its one-touch data backup system called Gnarbox 2.0. This version is integrated with programs like Adobe Lightroom CC, LumaFusion, Adobe Lightroom Classic, Adobe Premiere Pro, and Dropbox and seems like a more polished version of the original. It comes in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB SSD capacities and uses USB-C transfer 400MB/s & SD backup 75MB/s.Jeanette D. Moses

Instax SQ6 — Fujifilm's square analog instant camera comes in three new colors: ruby red, aqua, and a new black and gold Taylor Swift edition. The instant camera can shoot in double exposure mode, macro mode, landscape mode, and selfie mode. It comes with colored filters to add creative pops of colors to your film photos. It's the first time that you will be able to shoot Instax square in a true analog format.Jeanette D. Moses

Nikon Z7 and Z6 — Nikon announced its two mirrorless full-frame cameras, the Z7 and Z6, earlier this year and had plenty of the models on view on the showroom floor. The Z7 has a 45.7-megapixel full-frame sensor with a maximum ISO of 25,600 while the Z6 uses a 24.5-megapixel full-frame sensor and has a maximum ISO of 51,200. The bodies on these two camera are identical and feature a lens mount that is 55mm wide with a 16mm flange distance.Jeanette D. Moses

Ricoh GR iii — Announced during Photokina last month, the GR iii is a pocket-friendly fixed lens camera that looks similar to the classic film camera that inspired it, but has some serious upgrades inside. The new GR iii has a 24-megapixel sensor (up from 16 in the previous model) and shoots 1080p video at 60 fps. It will be available early next year.Jeanette D. Moses

Sandisk Extreme Portable SSD — This rugged portable SSD has read speeds of up to 550MB/s, capacities up to 2TB, and an IP55 ruggedness rating so it's not the end of the world if it gets a little wet. It's 0.35-inches thick and weighs just 0.086 pounds, which makes it a great way to quickly transfer files to a client at the end of a shoot or do a backup.Jeanette D. Moses

Sony Tough SD Cards — Sony's new tough cards will start shipping later this month. The cards come in 32 GB, 64 GB, and 128 GB versions. The cards have eliminated the lock switch and the fragile plastic ribs over the connectors, both of which have a tendency to break. It's the first SD card to use a totally sealed monolithic structure (conventional SD cards are made of 3 pieces) to help keep your image data safe from the elements. The cards are waterproof and dustproof as well.Jeanette D. Moses

Think Tank Roller Bag — Think Tank busts out of the mold of its basic, black rolling bags with this flashy print featuring psychedelic poodles, french fries, planets, hotdogs, pandas, and more. The design may seem a little over the top, but if you're looking for a way to conceal that fact that you're traveling with a pile of expensive equipment, storing it in a bag that looks like it might be toting a pre-teen's belongings isn't a bad move.Jeanette D. Moses

Zeiss ZX1 — The first ever digital camera from Zeiss debuted as a prototype back at Photokina in September It was still under glass at Photo Plus, but a rep claims it’s coming to market in early 2019. It’s a full-frame compact with a 37.4-megapixel sensor with a fixed 35mm f/2.0T lens and built-in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC. The camera has a 4.3-inch 1,280x720 display screen with touch functionality and an OLED electronic viewfinder. We’re very excited to get our hands on this one.Jeanette D. Moses

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