Photography Show 2018

I went to the show on Sunday with a cheap ticket I found on eBay for £6.50. I'm currently in the market for a mirrorless camera and wanted to test all the latest offerings from the main manufacturers. I was a bit concerned about whether there would be 'queues' to use the cameras, but thankfully that turned out not to be true! I did however have to play the waiting game on multiple occasions to use the A7III as not surprisingly it was popular amongst visitors to the Sony stand.

I had hoped the manufacturers would've gone to more of an effort to create some extravagant setups for us to photograph. Fujifilm were the only ones I thought bothered to produce something interesting. I have never been to the show before so maybe I just expected more. Sony had a guy doing BMX tricks which was good to test the super-fast shooting on the A7III.

I thought it was daft how Sigma had such antiquated cameras set up on their super-telephoto zooms, how are we supposed to get a decent idea of performance with cameras from like 15 years ago?

The highlight of the show for me was the DJI Osmo Mobile 2 smartphone gimbal, I might have to order one of those! :D

In regards to purchasing a new camera, my choice settles down to either waiting for the A7III to drop vastly in price on grey-import sites, or hanging on for a successor to the Canon EOS M5, however long that might take?
Sunday was definitely quieter than normal due to the weather. The difference in numbers attending the talks I went to on Sunday and Monday was huge. It was the same with the Nikon stand when I tried the new 180-400, on Sunday no queue at all, Monday there seemed to be a few queuing each time I walked past.
 
I went for the second year running and really enjoyed it. Spent some time at Nikon (sadly no news on the D750 replacement) and a lot of time at Hasselblad which was quite eye opening. I didn’t go to buy anything and didn’t spend any money apart from lunch.

Isn’t the 850 the 750 replacement
 
I enjoyed the two days I spent at this years show. The Adobe theatre was generally good (as usual really), though they had some WiFi issues that made the Lightroom CC talks fail and to me showed the issues around cloud based Lightroom that mean I won’t move to it. It was interesting to hear Adobe didn’t plan to make the classic CC and CC versions sync in the way they currently can and the potential catalogue corruption issues it could cause. If you liked landscapes the fotospeed stand was fantastic for the talks. For me the best overall talk line up by far was fotospeed’s, which culminated on Monday afternoon with Joe Cornish's talk about some of his landscape prints. Joe Cornish was also excellent on the Great Outdoors stage too. Seeing Joe Cornish’s work printed up close made me think I need to print more of my work but it’s never going to be anywhere as good as his. His ability to see shape and texture to make compositions is fantastic. The one improvement I would like to see next year would be giving fotospeed more room for their talks as they had to block the walkway every time and sometimes spill onto the RPS stand. I guess that’s down to their buying power, being a smaller company they probably can’t afford a bigger stand which seems to be a shame for the overall appeal of the show. Perhaps a communal stage that’s the centre piece for several of the smaller exhibitors to give them more of a voice. Richard Peters was excellent too, I always enjoy seeing what he ‘s been up to and his talks don’t see to be gushing about gear trying to sell it, probably to Nikon’s displeasure.

On the buying side I walked away buying nothing. That was mainly due to the only thing I was interested in, Peak Design slide strap being sold out by Monday afternoon.
 
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Just back from a very busy photography show. Didn't buy anything, but did enjoy it, especially a few of the talks at the Nikon stand.
 
I went yesterday met Kevin Mullins and Damien Lovegrove had a good chat with them both.
Kevin is doing my sons wedding in October
 
Visited Saturday, Monday & Tuesday really enjoyed it, bought far too many things, highlight for me was discovering Loupedeck for Lightroom what a tool that is! Took a few lenses/cameras along with me to trade in but sadly the prices they were offering at the show were complete jokes! I couldn't believe some of the quotes people were agreeing to with some gear, daylight robbery :D In perspective Camera World offered my Dad £65.00 for a Mint Condition boxed Canon G16 even MPB online offered £175.00 a little more realistic...ended up selling it privately straight away for £260 o_O
 
Visited Saturday, Monday & Tuesday really enjoyed it, bought far too many things, highlight for me was discovering Loupedeck for Lightroom what a tool that is!
Did you order one. I heard they did anticipate the demand and ran out of to take away from the show but took orders with expected delivery in the next couple of days
 
I'm going on sunday

does anyone what sort of deals they did last year on camera equipment / lenses. 10% discounts?? just curious

there were between 10%-50% discounts being offered yesterday with some of these being upped (more the 10% ones) from about 16:00 onwards to encourage less having to be packed away.
 
I went yesterday for the first time and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I had a play with a 1DXii and enjoyed catching up with my buddies on The Guild of Photographers stand. The real highlight, though, was Ulla Lohman’s talk on the Canon stand. I won a ticket through CPS, and am so glad I did - the talk was truly extraordinary, as is Ulla!

I was hoping that there might be deals on UK wildlife breaks, but it all seemed to be very expensive safaris, so I left at lunchtime without spending a penny (although I did blag a red Guild pen). I would definitely go back.
 
First visit yesterday,


I had a couple of things I wanted to look at, and perhaps buy if the price was right. As I've shied away from making these purchases on line, has do they actually do what the sell's pitch on the website says!

So yes I did get my sigma 105 macro lens, which did get a show discount on.

2 led lights, which I did get a bit of a deal on, and found when I got home I'd been given a bit more of a discount than they'd said.

But the bargain of the day, was the lowepro bag... The show price was well discounted, but then they gave me another discount, so end up cost less than half price well chuffed with that one.

But yes will be going again next year, will start saving my pennies though
 
Exactly the same problem as me. I struggle to just go up to people out of the blue :(
Although not photography I have exhibited at the Auto Sports show. TBH it's a massive relief when people approach you and want to talk :) Always remember the exhibitors want to talk every bit as much as you :)
 
Although not photography I have exhibited at the Auto Sports show. TBH it's a massive relief when people approach you and want to talk :) Always remember the exhibitors want to talk every bit as much as you :)

I had no problem talking with the exhibitors, it is scenarios where I go up to a total stranger and ask to take their photo, etc I struggle with. I would be no good at close up street photography lol.
 
Popped along on the Tuesday, I did plan to go on the Monday, but something else got in the way (Work....) I was interested in the Sigma 150-600 contemporary lens, but after trying the sport version, decided not to buy the cheaper option, it's not a lens I'll use too often, so will possibly rent one when it's needed, I did get information on other stuff I'm interested in, picked up a couple of leather Nikon camera straps though,
 
Popped along on the Tuesday, I did plan to go on the Monday, but something else got in the way (Work....) I was interested in the Sigma 150-600 contemporary lens, but after trying the sport version, decided not to buy the cheaper option, it's not a lens I'll use too often, so will possibly rent one when it's needed, I did get information on other stuff I'm interested in, picked up a couple of leather Nikon camera straps though,

The majority of the reviews seem to say the only difference between the sport and the contemporary version is the extra weather sealing and the 2.8 aperture. Also the sport is twice as heavy as the contemporary as you probably found out.

Coincidentally, I happen to have the Contemporary version for the sale, brand new, in the Nikon classifieds section [emoji16].Since having a stoke my hands are more shaky than I thought they were and I think I would struggle with it. The focal length was the reason for purchase but without thinking about my hands shaking.
 
Went Tuesday and had a good time. Nice to see some old faces, including my old uni tutor and also meet a lot of my channel’s subscribers which was super nice of them.

Hasn’t happened to me at the Photo Show before so I wasn’t expecting it at all... in fact the first guy to come up and say hello had recognised my voice before he saw my face [emoji23] So funny but cool that people were so kind to say thanks etc [emoji41]

Walked away with a lot less lens and sweets this year but got a bargain on a mic kit.

Wasn’t convinced by the camera bargains but then wasn’t really planning on buying anything big. X-H1 was £100 cheaper than the retail with the grip, final day I believe it got to £200 less than retail. I left it a bit late to shop for a 58mm nd filter which I want specifically for travelling but didn’t stress about it (any budget recommendations welcome!)

Made a couple of videos which I’ll post over the next few days at YouTube.com/dlo247
 
The majority of the reviews seem to say the only difference between the sport and the contemporary version is the extra weather sealing and the 2.8 aperture. Also the sport is twice as heavy as the contemporary as you probably found out.

Coincidentally, I happen to have the Contemporary version for the sale, brand new, in the Nikon classifieds section [emoji16].Since having a stoke my hands are more shaky than I thought they were and I think I would struggle with it. The focal length was the reason for purchase but without thinking about my hands shaking.

Looking at the brochure i picked up at the show, the apertures are the same for both lenses, the main differences are more metal used in the construction of the sport version, plus better weather sealing, as the lenses were supported at the show, I didn't have chance to feel the weight difference, after reading a few reviews on the 'net, I might just have a rethink about getting the contemporary version now.
 
Looking at the brochure i picked up at the show, the apertures are the same for both lenses, the main differences are more metal used in the construction of the sport version, plus better weather sealing, as the lenses were supported at the show, I didn't have chance to feel the weight difference, after reading a few reviews on the 'net, I might just have a rethink about getting the contemporary version now.

I have tried and tested both side by side. The sport is better built and weather sealed, its also significantly heavier. There isnt much in it on image quality but I did find the sport to be sharper at the wider apertures, especially in the corners of the image. I also found it to be a little contrastier (is that a word?? lol) The one you choose will utimately come down to how often you'll use it and and what conditions. Most people wont see a difference int he images without studying side by side.
 
Exactly the same problem as me. I struggle to just go up to people out of the blue :(
As I said to @nigpd we (the cosplay community) don't bite generally.
In fact, there is an expectation that photos will be taken. The only thing we ask is that the photographers ask, and it's really nice to let the cosplayers know where they can view the photos.
 
I have tried and tested both side by side. The sport is better built and weather sealed, its also significantly heavier. There isnt much in it on image quality but I did find the sport to be sharper at the wider apertures, especially in the corners of the image. I also found it to be a little contrastier (is that a word?? lol) The one you choose will utimately come down to how often you'll use it and and what conditions. Most people wont see a difference int he images without studying side by side.
Well after thinking it over, I've ordered one today, £699 from Currys/pc world with delivery, I'm sure if it's not for me, i could sell it on without loosing too much.
 
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Photokina is huge, I have heard but they don’t sell anything - is that correct?
 
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