Focus on Imaging: Show Report

The crowds at the Canon booth are constant....

...And at the Nikon booth too.

By Robert D. Phillips

For any U.K. readers eager to get their hands on some of the new camera releases, Focus on Imaging at the NEC in Birmingham is running until 5 p.m. this Wednesday, March 7th.

Canon are* using the show to launch their brand shining new and eagerly awaited 5D Mark III, and the stand is crowded from the 10 a.m. opening till the end of each day with people playing with the five or so examples they have on show. People seem to like it. I overheard the fashion photographer Perou, who has some photographs on show at the Focus Gallery at the hub of the hall, tell the CPS** rep, "You don't need to sell it to me—I will definitely be getting one." Or at least it was something very similar to that....

Nikon are finding it hard to keep up with demand to play around with their D800 as they only have one example in the country. The queues to try it out are daunting, like being at a crowded bar trying to get the eye of the barman. They are making up for it by having what is apparently the largest LCD in Europe serving as their theatre screen.

The Olympus stand is a small catwalk which is OM-D branded, and has been showing an alternating schedule of dancers, models, and photographers talking about the new miracle camera. As was mentioned in TOP, the actual camera is a lot smaller than it appears in the product shots, but it feels good in the hand and makes a very satisfying old-school shutter noise/feel when used. There are only two OM-Ds here, but again, people seem to be liking the camera.

Similar story over on the Fuji stand, where there is only one version of the lovely new X-Pro1. This is a piece of retro art—it looks and feels in the hand like a "proper" camera of old, and Fuji seem very proud of it, rightly so in my opinion.

Sigma are being even more coy with their new 19mm and 30mm ƒ/2.8 4/3 lenses—the sole examples of each are pre-production mock ups which stay firmly in the cabinet. Certainly tempting the desire though.

It is nice to see a pretty strong presence from Ilford at the show. Pushing mainly the new InkJet papers, they also have a strong film presence which is nice to see. Any visitors to the show can have their photo taken with an 8x10 camera loaded with an Ilford paper negative, which is then contact printed into a positive and is yours to take away after 20 minutes.

The Nova Chrome stand even has an enlarger on show!

All I want for Christmas....

I would say that the show is a must for any serious gearheads finding themselves near Birmingham, England over the next few days. Everything you can imagine, from the awesome Phase One 80MP outfit, right down to the eyecups and LCD loupes being sold by brothers Lou and Bob over all the way from L.A. CA. "We all but sold out by the end of day one" said Lou, with a big California smile. "So now we are just taking orders."

All the way from L.A.: Lou and Bob from Hoodman

Focus On Imaging is in Halls 9 and 10 at the NEC Birmingham until 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 7th.

www.focus-on-imaging.co.uk
@FocusOnImaging

Robert

TOP reader Robert Phillips, who you've encountered before in these environs, is filling in at the Focus on Imaging press office this week.

[*Company names are treated as plural in British English. A U.S. writer would say "Canon is." I've left the author's native Britishisms in place because it seems appropriate—in the way that Ailsa McWhinnie used to leave my Americanisms alone in my U.K. Black & White Photography magazine column. —MJ]

**Canon Professional Services, Canon's limited-membership support organization for Canon-using professionals.

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Featured Comment by Mark Cotter: "I was at Focus on Imaging on Sunday and managed to get my hands on all of the new cameras that interested me—Canon's 5D Mark III and the 1Dx, the Olympus OM-D, and the new Fuji X-Pro1. Being a Canon user, the new models are very nice but didn't wow me. The OM-D was a disappointment. Yes, it's a very nice camera but it's too small for my liking: it needs the two grips to make it useable. Perhaps, being an OM-1 user for my film work, I just prefer the size of the original. The Fuji line was outstanding. I'm in love with the new Fuji X-Pro1. Possibly, the nicest camera I have handled in quite some time."

Comments

[Bob]

Arguably the worlds worst photoshow in the worlds worst venue (or at least in a country that considers itself civilised),...the last time I went I inteded to buiy an Epson printer but the Epson people adnitted to knowing nothing about the printer,...also wanted to see pentax cameras but pentax did not bother to turn up (I dumped pentax kit soon after) It took an hour and a half to drive up from London and then two hours to actually get into the site due to three show running siumultaneously!! That and the exorbitant parking charge means 'never again'.....

[John Wilson]

Nice post. I'm visiting tomorrow. I want to see the prototype of the Ilford 10X8 pinhole camera. Their 5X4 one is very nice but shooting direct positive paper would be far nicer at 10X8.

[Alpacaman]

I have that same enlarger! It's absolutely fantastic. I think the model is an LPL 7700MX. I love it. However, rather than the listed price here: http://www.novadarkroom.com/cat/41/LPL_Enlargers.html I got mine off of the local auction site (TradeMe in NZ) for around $150 NZD - about 77 Pounds. Quite a step down from the listed new price.

[PWL]

Glad to see Ilford is still in the (film) game. XP2 is one of my faves for my old film-burners...

[John Camp]

I never understood the British logic in the use of plurals for companies, as in "Nikon are." There is an underlying argument that a company or a committee or a party or a herd are actually made up of some plural number of individuals, and so the plural verb is used. But even the British use a singular determiner in front of such a noun; they'd never say "these committee" or "these herd;" it'd always be "This committee are..." This makes no sense, and had led me to conclude that British speak poor English.

Here in the US, of course, the Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld the idea that a corporation is an individual, so "Nikon is" is always correct.

[mark lacey]

8x10 Sinar.... used to have one of them, now I have a hernia and a 4x5 for after the operation. Don't think I'm joking either.

[Kenneth Tanaka]

"The Olympus stand is a small catwalk which is OM-D branded, and has been showing an alternating schedule of dancers, models, and photographers talking about the new miracle camera."

And you chose to photograph...a photographer?

Seriously, thanks for the report Robert. It was good to see candid shots of the new Oly and Fuji to get a practical sense of scale.

[Janne]

Paper contact printing - I have to look that up. That may well push me to rebuild my paper pinhole camera, or even get a "real" LF camera to play with.

[Jim Bullard]

For the price of a Canon 5D Mk III one could own a Fuji X-Pro1 and all 3 lenses.

[Ger Lawlor]

"Canon are showing..." means in this case that "Staff from Canon are showing...." Therefore, a bit like the holy spirit, Canon (as an individual entity) is present, but the staff, (despite their best attempts at focus), are unable to deal with people in an omi present way, and therefore the agents of Canon 'are' present, as opposed to the corporation which 'is' present....
Clear, isn't it?

I was at the show yesterday, and it is a shadow of its former self, I thought. Numbers of exhibitors seems to be down, or if not, they are all using smaller stands. There was quite a bit of free floor space around.

Why do so many people bring their own kit to these things?

[richardplondon]

This issue of plural vs singular for referring to companies, does to some extent follow the sense - when we (UK) are thinking about a company we will often (but not always) use the plural - perhaps this is when we are conscious of the efforts, qualities and failings that are characteristic of a group of people. When we are thinking about interacting with it as a legal entity (contractually and the like) we will still use the singular.

Say that I need to hire the Magnificent Seven to protect my village - does it or do they wear seven hats, and are they or is it still the Seven even after two are killed?

[Steve Smith]

It took an hour and a half to drive up from London and then two hours to actually get into the site due to three show running siumultaneously!! That and the exorbitant parking charge means 'never again'.....

We do have trains... and the station is right next to the NEC!

[Roger Bradbury]

@ John Camp: "it'd always be "This committee are...""

It's "The committee are" or, "This committee is". I've never heard, "This committee are"

Roger Bradbury
Somewhere in England

[Chris Bertram]

As an (English) Brit, I'd say that we are more flexible than that, with "Nikon is expanding its product line ..." and "Nikon are expanding their product line ..." both being OK in British English so long as you don't switch between the two locally. Sports teams, though, are nearly always plural.

Fowler, Modern English Usage (1926) has a discussion of "nouns of multitude" under "number", writing:

"Such words ... may stand either for a single entity or for the individuals who compose it .... They are treated as singular or plural at discretion - & sometimes, naturally, without discretion. The Cabinet is divided is better, because in the order of thought a whole must precede division; The Cabinet are agreed is better, because it take two or more to agree." [There follows a longish discussion.]

[Sudhir Shenoy]

Re John Camp's complaints about the logic (or lack of it) of using plurals - try saying (aloud) "the police is investigating" vs. "the police are investigating" and the logic should be fairly clear.

[Calvin Palmer]

John Camp is an American so don't expect him to understand logic.

To decry the British for not speaking English correctly is a bit rich coming from someone who cannot spell or pronounce words in the English language correctly.

Two nations divided by a common language and all that.

[Dennis Ng]

Wonder how it get 8x10 positive in 20 minutes. Also, why need contact print if one can use paper positive from them as well. Unless the paper negative has an higher ISO (but I thought they are always ISO 6). Wonder?

[robert p]

I just got back from Focus - my mistake, Fuji had I think 5 or 6 X Pro 1s, but only one that was not attached to the stand. The show was busier than it has been for years and the feeling from most exhibitors I spoke to was really positive. People bring their cameras to take photos with !!! You can see the show blog at FOCUS LINK and click through to the news section.... it was a ball, really. Thanks to everyone that came. More to follow if anyone is interested.... Robert

[David Dyer-Bennet]

That Xpro-1 in the photo looks HUGE; like one of the Fuji medium-format bodies, not a 35mm.

[Bill Bailey]

I think I might still be in a pretty small minority, but principally due to the comparatively shrunken dimensions, the Olympus OM-D just jumps out at me as being so much more appealing than the 5DMk3 or Nikon D800. Havilng happily used a GH1 for the last few years for both personal and semi-professional purposes I just would never consider going back to lumping around serious real estate again.