Photography show @ NEC

Jimmy_Lemon said:
Did anyone who went today spot any good bargains?
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Yes, apparently. (Though not me - I wasn't there for the shopping opportunities.)

One of our customers was supposed to be picking up some gear she'd ordered, but she turned up looking a bit sheepish and admitting she'd just bought a 24-70/2.8L *and* a 35/1.4L from Calumet at the show. She said that the cashback deal was worth over £400.

I've no idea how representative this experience might be, but obviously she thought she'd spotted a good bargain.
 
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No amazing deals... Perhaps canon pro 10 was good price (£450 ish) for those buying A3 printer... Super stage is probably the main thing. It will be interesting to see what you think about McNally's show before I decided to travel on Tuesday.
I could only hope that at least some video tri/mono-pod or lighting accessories will get discounted before the end of the show. Cheap Sigma 35/1.4 or the new 50mm was clearly too much to ask for :(

P.S. They will happily reissue lost tickets if you are just bad as me.
 
StewartR said:
Yes, apparently. (Though not me - I wasn't there for the shopping opportunities.)

One of our customers was supposed to be picking up some gear she'd ordered, but she turned up looking a bit sheepish and admitting she'd just bought a 24-70/2.8L *and* a 35/1.4L from Calumet at the show. She said that the cashback deal was worth over £400.

I've no idea how representative this experience might be, but obviously she thought she'd spotted a good bargain.
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I think I saw 24-70/2.8 II for under £1400. I can't remember if it was a refurb.
 
Well it was my first visit and I got my hands on some nice kit, Tamron 150-600 lens was very tempting, Wacom stand demoed their tablets so well i nearly bought one, some decent discounts about, and it was great to see Stewart from lens for hire in the flesh! And I didn't bother taking a camera.
 
I tried the Tamron and felt it was ok but missed focus a few times, it was on a 60D the one I tried.

This is the bag I got for £140, room for me to put a 400 2.8 when I can afford one :) amazing quality and a 5 year warranty, glad I went to the show just for this let alone the other stuff, only spent £220 in total which shocked my wife lol


Untitled by RMT Photography Bristol, on Flickr


Untitled by RMT Photography Bristol, on Flickr
 
Didn't think it was as good as previous years.

The demos were not as numerous and those that were were not very good. Missed the McNally half hour talk at 10 too. :(

Larger spaces for demos were more restricted than before - demonstrators seemed to have a lot smaller spaces than previously. Unless your name is Samsung.

More dolly birds too. Anybody see the girl walking around with her bum totally on show - and the band of young men surreptitiously following 'behind' her? Sheesh. Still, nicer than the bloke in the tiger skin swimming trunks I 'spose.

More non-photography related stands this year as well. WTF? Costco? Charity raffle for soldiers?

What the f hell was that garden about?

Deals - 2k for 5dIII and 340 for 600exrt seemed okay, but nothing really worthwhile. Came away with brochures mostly.

Did anybody go into the super ticket area and thought it was worth the extra money? £10 per extra talk, wasn't it? Would have liked to have seen the Rankin talk - haven't seen him since my university days.
 
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Rankin was a laugh, just chatted about his work for 90 mins, very relaxed guy, got to get his next book and put it on my coffee table :O
 
Im off to the show in the morning! Did you guys take your camera wiv or leave it at home?
 
Glad I never took my camera. Left both hands free to get hands on display gear.
 
I went yesterday (Saturday), I missed the lady with her bum on show (damn), but spotted other very pretty females again with a following. Darth Vader and two storm troopers were wandering round getting some attention. I took a compact and snapped the Empire's finest, nothing else worth snapping I thought unless you wanted some reportage or similar.

I can't see how those talks were value at £10 to be honest. Worth going, but follow previous advice on parking, I went on the train which was most pleasant.
 
I have just got back from NEC.
Enjoyed it. Good for getting hands on gear and talking to manufacturers and dealers. Excellent range of lighting and accessories on display, lockley and graphis both had lots of samples on display.
I had a look at the tamron 150_600 . I wasn't impressed, af was bad, and would not focus at all at 600m, had to bring it back to around 300m to get focus. Maybe it was the canon camera it was attached to!?

Well worth going.
 
Teamwork (I think) had the 70-200 Canon F4 IS for a little over £500 I think. If I didn't have one....

Nearly got an Elinchrom Style 400 for £85 on the Disabled Photography second hand Stand, but somebody nabbed it just before me. :(

Loxleys and Graphis were a lot smaller than previously.

But at least we had one, when Focus was pulled I thought that was it.
 
We went yesterday and we enjoyed ourselves. Wished we'd had the programme ahead of time so I could have decided what talks [not on the super stage] to go for. Found the stuff I wanted - a think tank bag at half price, a good deal on a Lumix GX7 [free lens and cash back] and traded my torn Paramo coat. The guy inside the Darth Vader suit was a huge unit! Very popular. HAd a good look at the Elinchrom offers for basic flash kits which I couldn't see around where I live. Bought some mounts from Frith and a few LEE bits and bobs. It seemed, from a non-pro point of view, better to me and whilst there were times when it was busy, it would thin out when talks on the big stands started. Hope they do it again next year… I like my annual trip to the photo 'sweet' shop! :D
 
If anyone is going on Monday or Tuesday and happens to pass the Olympus stand, would they be willing to pick up one of the £50 cashback vouchers they are giving out and post it to me please? (Vouchers are for £50 cashback from Olympus for any Olympus camera or lens purchase over £300 made in the next 3 months). Assuming you don't want it yourself of course! As it looks like I will never see the G6 I ordered from amazon in December (long story, delivered to wrong address) I am thinking of picking up one of the new OMD 10 cameras in the next couple of months and £50 cashback would bring it just about within budget...if I can get amazon to refund me eventually.
 
Yep. What the hell? Has Canon got a new macro out and is sponsoring the thing? Was something else planned for the area and pulled out at the last minute?
 
Phil V said:
The website says to take it, but I can't see the point personally.
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Don't, unless you want to try it some tripod heads, or test a lens, etc.

The sight of uncle bobs taking pics of people heads in the hope of catching the model on the frame was disturbing. You could hardly hear most presenters from the back, and if you did they were usually not the most interesting anyway - so I guess you may as well...

surfg1mp said:
Why anyone would want to take pictures of that crappy garden under them awful lights I have no idea.
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The flowers were just dreadful even if you had the whole ringflash setup. Take the train to Birmingham Botanical gardens if you are after this.
 
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My first visit to one of these was on Saturday. Highlight was Kate Hopewell-Smith talking. Bargains grabbed myself a couple of books at decent prices.
The only bargain I was nearly tempted with was D600s Refurbs - clean and shutter replacement - £900. But I resisted the GAS - and went to more talks.
 
There's one thing I noticed when at the nikon stand. Playing with all the cameras as lovely as the d800 and the d4s are. It s obvious to me as a wedding photographer that there isn't a camera in the current line up that suits me. The d4s would certainly do the job in style but it's heavy and don't think I'd want shoulder two all day long. I really can't get my head around that df...... A mini d4 would have made much much sense.
 
I was meant to go yesterday, had a ticket to see Joe McNally and everything then had some car trouble on Friday that rendered me unable to get there :( Maybe next year :)
 
Just left the show, last visited Focus a few years ago, this show was definitely better. Very busy around midday, buts that's usual for a show.

If you want to try a body or a lens then just about everything was available, but you might have to queue.

Some of the traders were doing some tempting show deals, and what wasn't in stock could be delivered in about a week at show prices.

Amazing number of photobook/print companies, and some good deals to be had on some books ( beating Amazons pricing)

Worthwhile, but I went as trade and went by train, so a nogassle approach
 
I went up on Saturday to catch up with a few people and to get a look at a few items and then went back up again yesterday for the hard work! My daughter's been working her little socks off on the 3 Legged Thing stand so go and say hi if you're there! :)

I came back with a new 105mm Lee CPL and a couple of other small bits but nothing substantial... Theo and the Fuji crew were doing a great job of letting everybody get to grips with the new XT-1 although I did snarl at one ignorant old pillock who stood there for 10 minutes and did nothing but moan about where Fuji are going wrong. I did have one guy stand next to me with a 1DMKIV and 70-200mm f/2.8 decide to do the equivalent of machine-gun fire at the model when Wayne Johns was giving his talk... I politely asked him when war had been declared because of the hundred or so shots he must have taken in about 30 seconds... Oh well, it's his hard drive! :D He scowled a bit and then moved off to go and stick his bloody camera in someone else's earhole!

Overall, I thought it was very good... Retailers and staff were approachable and friendly and having the Bowens Lounge to hide out in was a bonus! :) I'm already looking forward to next year... I have some saving up to do! :D
 
I'm tempted to head up tomorrow - am currently looking at the 5D mk iii - anyone know if there we any savings to be had on those?

I'm looking forwards to seeing whether this is an improvement on the old Focus of days gone by! :)
 
Sadlybrokeboy said:
I'm tempted to head up tomorrow - am currently looking at the 5D mk iii - anyone know if there we any savings to be had on those?

I'm looking forwards to seeing whether this is an improvement on the old Focus of days gone by! :)
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2k
 
The 5D mark iii was £2,299 they advertised it as £1,999 as they are doing a show offer of double cash back from canon as the cash back is £150 everywhere else right now.
 
markmullen said:
If you enjoyed this show but thought it was a bit small, come to Photokina in Cologne in September, it's like this but 16 halls full. You can't buy anything, but it is a great couple of days away in a lovely city.
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You can't buy anything??? O my.... That's no fun!
 
I went yesterday and driving down from newcastle was a nightmare due to road works... Took me 5 hours! As a result I missed the first 2 talks at the pro conference and only made the Kate Hopwell-Smith one with 3 mins to spare. It was very informative and gave me some great ideas moving forward. Worth going all that way for that alone IMO.

I looked at all the album companies and my god there's some awful stuff out there, really bang average print qualities and terrible covers... Yuck! Was impressed with Graphi and especially with QT Albums though, will be getting samples from both of these ASAP.

My first time at one of these shows, very useful for where I'm at currently as a business, wouldn't go for fun though, no idea how anyone could enjoy it just for the gear and flower garden etc.
 
Traffic was awful heading North out of there last night too. One of the M6 junctions was closed after an incident and all the traffic backed up along the Stoneleigh Road.

So 8 hours in the car, 4 hours at the Show all told.

Bought some Permajet papers and at last, bought a Lee filter system. Well two actually as Mrs BN also wanted a set. 650 smackeroos :eek:

I think everyone thought that Monday would be fairly quiet "so let's go on Monday". As a result, it was rammed for most of the time I was there.

Camera gear-wise, I'm very tempted by the Oly EM-1 but I might wait for the upcoming Panny GH4 - they had a pre-production model there that looked and felt very nice. We've already got some nice m43 lenses and after lugging my Nikon FF gear around Uganda last month, having the option of a smaller, lighter system for travelling is very appealing.o_O

ETA: Couldn't get anywhere near Garry on the Lencarta stand as he was being mobbed every time I walked past.
 
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chromatin64 said:
Traffic was awful heading North out of there last night too. One of the M6 junctions was closed after an incident and all the traffic backed up along the Stoneleigh Road.

So 8 hours in the car, 4 hours at the Show all told.

Bought some Permajet papers and at last, bought a Lee filter system. Well two actually as Mrs BN also wanted a set. 650 smackeroos :eek:

I think everyone thought that Monday would be fairly quiet "so let's go on Monday". As a result, it was rammed for most of the time I was there.

Camera gear-wise, I'm very tempted by the Oly EM-1 but I might wait for the upcoming Panny GH4 - they had a pre-production model there that looked and felt very nice. We've already got some nice m43 lenses and after lugging my Nikon FF gear around Uganda last month, having the option of a smaller, lighter system for travelling is very appealing.o_O

ETA: Couldn't get anywhere near Garry on the Lencarta stand as he was being mobbed every time I walked past.
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What time did you leave? I left at 4pm and had no problems, home to Newcastle in 3.5 hours with a stop off for petrol and a steak bake from Greggs :)
 
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