Notes from PhotoPlus Expo 2015

The entrance to the exhibit halls at PhotoPlus Expo '15 at the Javits Center in Manhattan. This is about an hour before the show opened; those are
exhibitors arriving for the day.

I mentioned that I met Gordon Lewis, late of the popular Shutterfinger blogsite, at PhotoPlus Expo* in New York. Gordon and I have been colleagues for decades, since we were both Contributing Editors of the old Darkroom Photography magazine, but had never actually met in person. I drove down to Ramsey NJ from the Fortress of Solitude in the Finger Lakes, then took the train into the city, and Gordon took the train to Penn Station from his home in Philadelphia. We geeked out together at the show all day last Thursday, and had the kind of fun that only photo-dawgs think of as fun.

Here I am with the new Leica SL, which, turns out, is not as big as it looks. I can't see any reason why the camera should be especially popular, but I can't see any reason why it would be unpopular either. (Don't say price; some people find high price appealing, because it promises quality, and delivers, at the least, exclusivity.) I thought the SL had a nice viewfinder, good hand-feel, and crisply responsive action. Note that the visible portion in this picture looks like a whole reasonably-sized camera, then consider that I'm holding on to the grip end, which extends quite a bit farther.

And of course, like many mirrorless cameras, it's usable with a wide variety of lenses. I think it would be a fun camera to get to know. I would love to try it with some of my favorite R lenses, for one thing. Sort of low in the pixel department for the $$, though. Not that I'd personally want more.

That's TOP reader Leilani Suguitan, who we met at the Leica booth, in profile on the right. Her recent exhibit at the Leica Store in SoHo was on view from August 2nd to September 12th. Wish I could have seen it.

While the SL doesn't read as "too big" to me, it probably is the single biggest mirrorless camera extant. Can anyone think of a bigger one?

Photo of me and the SL by Gordon.

This is Eddie Murphy (really) of Epson, demonstrating the new Epson P800, which replaces the 3880 as Epson's mainstream enthusiast/semipro desktop printer. Eddie is so animated it was tough to get an exposure of him that didn't have motion blur; after listening to him for a little while, you think, okay, okay, I'll buy three.

The black-and-white samples looked especially nice.

And by the way, Epson is indeed sending me a P600 to review.

Speaking of big, the Zeiss Otus 28mm we were discussing recently, here proudly displayed by Nicole Balle of Zeiss, is even bigger than it looks. About as large as a cat or a baby, and heavier than a cat. Okay, I'm exaggerating. As big as a pitcher of beer. No, I'm still exaggerating. As big as a brick; but heavier than a brick. Okay, never mind, I can't do this. Ignore me.

It is magnificent. There—that is true. I asked Nicole if it was the biggest 28mm prime ever made, and she answered, "probably!"

Trends
The "relief" of the comparison between 2000 and now will soon fade with familiarity, so I just want to quickly list a few changes I noticed between then and now:

1. The show seems to be thriving. Lots of exhibitors, lots of attendees. My impression is that the show is smaller in size overall, but if so it's well disguised.
2. The relative health of companies is reflected in the size of their booths, and that landscape always shifts. There were some new companies (Canson was not at the last show I attended, I don't think); some old ones still thriving (Nikon and Canon); some former big players greatly reduced in role; some former stalwarts gone with the wind.
3. There were lots more pictures on display than in years of old. I know because I reflexively look for pictures, can't help it.
4. Several companies had on-site kiosks highlighting their repair and/or service departments.
5. Make-your-own photo book companies were numerous.
6. No darkroom companies, of course; far fewer lighting companies. Maybe I was just aware of view cameras in the old days, but it seemed like view cameras used to be displayed here and there for people to admire, and now they're not.
7. There seemed to be less emphasis on the profession.
8. The mood seemed lighter and the people seemed younger. About fifteen years younger on average, if I had to put a number on it. Whoops, wait, that's just me!

A few random products
Speaking of no. 5. above, one product both Gordon and I liked was "The Layflat Album" from a new company called Artifact Uprising. The product is sort of a cross between the upload-it-yourself photobook and a child's board book—each page is a flat card, and when you open it up, true to the name it lays flat and there's no gutter apart from the line of the crease. It's a nice variation, we thought, and dresses pictures up nicely. Might be a useful option to know about for you wedding photogs out there, among others. Gordon also noted that the company's example photos were a cut above.

We skipped the Canson booth somehow (I still strongly recommend getting your own Discovery Pack if you haven't yet—just a tactile, nearly sensual pleasure to see and handle those beautiful papers in person), but a couple of papers I liked were Moab Juniper Baryta Rag and a paper called "Fine Etching" from a company I know little about called—can I find it? Oh yeah, here it is—Durico.

Durico Fine Etching 310g

One thing to look for when you're evaluating papers if shadow separation. Note that this example picture is a photograph that doesn't need shadow separation, and in fact probably looks better without it; so that would be one thing to be on the alert for if you give Durico Fine Etching a try.

Nice surface, though. Elegant.

Durico is a South Korean company that manufactures many materials and also imports into South Korea several German and Japanese papers. Durico Fine Etching 310g might be the same as Hahnemuhle German Etching 310g, or it may be something similar; Durico imports Hahnemuhle into South Korea—does it then export it under its own name? Stranger things have happened in the paper world, which is internecine and constantly shifting. I can't figure it out from the various websites. Maybe some paper maven with weigh in with the deep demystification.

Happenings

Shows and presentations were all over the place, of course. Here's a film being made at the Manfrotto/Gitzo booth, probably by one of the big digital camera sites. I don't recognize the interviewer, but maybe you do.

I love my carbon fiber Gitzo, so power to 'em. It's one of the few photographic products I own that I have no desire to upgrade.

There was a big informational show going on at the Nikon spread when we passed by, but I didn't stop to see what products they were talking about. A fair number of show attendees are professionals keeping their edge by staying current on the latest technologies.

Nikon also maintains this crow's nest so Nikonians can see the view through the company's long telephoto glass—one of the big assets of Canikon that even Sony doesn't compete with.

Speaking of which, we missed the Sony booth. Rats! Just so much to see.

By the way, I'm not trying to diss Canon. Gordon shoots Canon, but we got shooed off from Canon not once but twice! Gordon did get a big hug from his friendly contact, but said contact's boss then told us that they had work to do and we were in the way. Happens at these shows—you can't always get to see what, or who, you want to see.

Here and there there are models you can shoot with your own equipment, same as it ever was. I asked this model to please pantomime a bored expression, which she did. But she turned out to be friendly and thoughtful and told me she wasn't actually bored, that she was having a nice, restful day meeting photographers. She said she would like it if I took a better shot of her. So I did, despite my ludicrously wide lens. This is that one, not the "bored" one.

You can get your own picture taken, too. Here I am in an Instax print holding my Fuji like a proper geek at the Fuji Instax display—old-fashioned instant photography lives at PhotoPlus 2015!—and with a pretty model at the Focus Camera booth.

Best of show
I'm sure I'm leaving some things out that I meant to mention, but I'll leave you with a mention of the best show at the show—

—Namely, the PDN "Faces" Contest winners display, which featured reasonably-sized unframed prints by many photographers, and was a delight. (Actually there might have been more than one show at the display, which featured what looked like well over a hundred pictures—I didn't parse it out.)

Since I have a special interest in photographs of photographers, I especially appreciated the portrait of Mary Ellen Mark you can see at the bottom left in this shot. (Although I would have moved the camera up or down so the lintel of the door frame doesn't appear to be balancing on the crown of her head. Sorry, always the critic.) It's by Joshua Kogan and here's a bigger version. [UPDATE: the link isn't displaying properly. You'll have to find it yourself at the PDN contest winners' site. Click on Sean Penn and then use the right arrows. Sorry! —MJ]

Another photographer whose picture I liked in the show was Santosh Kumar Korthiwada, who showed a photograph of two jump-roping girls he took in a village in India. I looked through the PDN site several times but couldn't find it, which is what leads me to believe there was actually more than one show grouped together. There's a small B&W version on his Facebook page. Santosh is currently pursuing Masters of Fine Arts in Photography at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. (My shot of his picture was motion-blurred, which means I need an A7sII, right? No? Rats.)

Mike

*"The PDN PhotoPlus International Conference + Expo is the largest photography and imaging show in North America, attended by over 21,000 professional photographers, photography enthusiasts, filmmakers, students and educators from around the world. PhotoPlus features over 100 educational seminars, Photo Walks and Master Classes, and over 225 exhibitors displaying thousands of the latest products and services for you to touch, try and compare."

Gordon Lewis comments: I'd like to add an observation, which I honestly don't intend to be snarky:

PhotoPlus 2015 for me was in many ways similar to attending an auto show: There was lots of shiny stuff to look at and a few minor spectacles here and there, but at the end of the day I didn't see anything that made me want to rush out to buy something new. Sure, it's fun to dream about owning the 2015 model, but if you've already got the 2012 model and it gets you where you want to go in relative comfort, you have no compelling reason to "upgrade."

That said, what I enjoyed most was the opportunity to see everything I might want to see, all in one place. Fully stocked photo retailers are rare these days, especially if you live in a smaller city, so for many attendees this was their one and only opportunity to actually handle equipment rather than just stare at screen images of it.

Original contents copyright 2015 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Mark: "First time in years that I have not had to either attend or work PhotoPlus. Sorry I missed a chance to meet you Mike. The show certainly has come quite a long way from its beginnings as the NY Photo Guild show out at JFK airport but it still somehow maintains that small show feel. I have always liked this show for just that reason along with the wonderful diversity of the attendees. See you at some other show!"

Colin K Work: "Funny, I'm 'suddenly seeing wide' too. After many many years of 'longer is better,' I'm finding my Olympus 9–18mm is becoming my most-used lens. Not sure why, but I think it's something about putting subjects in context rather than isolating them. Might be because its more challenging—the more elements in the image, the easier it is to get it wrong! Might also be that with age comes more confidence and less self-consciousness. Not afraid to get close."

Comments

[Bryan Willman]

Some kind of comparison of the size of the SL versus an A7 or fuji-XT1 or for that matter a pro level DSLR would be useful. Some folks go on about "huge" at length but seem never to have used the Canon or Nikon equivalents... (Which are not as spendy, but are still spendy...)

The other thing I've not seen (at least on the non-paywall part of the web) is how well does it work with M-mount lenses? How is focusing in particular?

[Paul De Zan]

Michael Johnston, Private Eye.

[Wayne]

You don't need to worry about conveying the mass of the new Zeiss Otus. The strain of holding the thing is obvious under her outward attempt to appear cheerful. "Here Sir, would you like to hold it?......Please.

[Aashish Sharma]

Mike,
That is a very nice portrait of you!
:-)

Regards,
Aashish

[Thingo]

I like your view of the show: we see actual people, not just the 'stuff'. Bravo. After all, these are all things to be used by people.

[Anthony Shaughnessy]

After being fooled into making derogatory comments of the Leica SL by the pictures of it being held by a tiny person on DPReview, I'm not going to say anything about the size of that Otus.
Anthony

[c.d.embrey]

The Leica SL is slightly smaller than a Canon 5D3, per camerasize(.)com. I wonder why the photos published on DPReview were distorted to make the SL look huge?? No matter, many internet experts declared the SL a disaster (without ever seeing one in person). Thanks Mike for setting the record straight.

Otus f/1.4 (95 mm filter, 2.98 lb/1.35 kg) vs the Nikon 28mm f/1.4 A-FD (72mm filter, 18 oz/520g). Is the IQ enough better, when shot on a D810, to make a real difference??

BTW the A-FD is auto focus, the Otus is manual focus, and therefore should be a little lighter 8-)

[Steve P.]

According to the internet which, as any fool knows, is never wrong, the Leica SL is more or less the size of a house. What kind of Man-Mountain are you, anyway!?! Also, how's the EVF strike you in comparison to the X-T1?

[Joe Holmes]

Adoramapix has sold a lay flat book for a few years now, and one of the nice things about it is that the images are printed on Kodak Endura or Fuji Crystal Archive paper, not a digital offset process. Each page is a real photographic print.

The only thing I don't like about the books is that they end up really thick and heavy because of the "board book" feel of the pages.

[Bob Rosinsky]

Mike, I like the picture of you with the Leica. For whatever reason, you look like a private investigator or a sort of intelligence operative.

[KeithB]

About that picture with the Otus: Aren't you supposed to focus on her *eyes*?

[scott kirkpatrick]

Does the picture of Mary Ellen Mark in Santa Fe remind anyone else of Georgia O'Keefe by John Loengard. I bet that image was in the mind of both subject and photographer when this picture was made.

[Gordon Lewis]

>>For whatever reason, you look like a private investigator or a sort of intelligence operative.<<

Mike does have that manner about him. His eyes occasionally dart furtively about, as if looking for the nearest exit, but can suddenly shift to the steely gaze you see in the photo I shot. The look says "Lie to me at your peril."

I also noticed that when Mike approached a booth where he didn't want to attract attention -- which I found amusing because, if anything, we were usually being ignored -- he would hide his press pass. Don't let the size fool you: He's a stealthy one, much like the Leica SL when I come to think about it...

[Jim 'Longviewer']

Did you see the peekaboo Pentax K-O?
K-mount dreamers would like to know!

[I don't even know what that is. ? --Mike]

[Ramon]

I think you should update your picture in the front page of the site. You are looking good Mike! I'm really glad the big boy advertisers are paying attention to you. I have a small question. And of course only you have the gravitas to answer decisively and for me to accept your answer as the truth (I also trust Ctein).

When talking about extreme DoF, is it extremely large or extremely narrow?

When I saw this article I thought they were referring to a large DoF.

Am I wrong?

http://www.redsharknews.com/production/item/2989-extreme-depth-of-field-used-to-great-effect

[John Shriver]

Jim was commenting on the full-frame Pentax pre-production unit that was on display at the Ricoh booth for a day or so. Then HQ told them to put it away, and it vanished. Created quite a twitter over at Pentax Forums.

[Rob]

Mike, all you have to say about the Otus 28mm is that it's as big as an Otus, only bigger and heavier. People will understand.

[Kenneth Tanaka]

A very good recap, Mike and Gordon. I feel like I visited, too. My take-aways:

1. You and Gordon had a jolly time and made some excellent snaps along the way! Your impromptu portraits of each other are quite good.

2. A couple of those Zeiss Otus lenses might be just the thing for doing arm curls at my desk.

3. Pretty girls are still, and will always be, good bait at male-dominated trade shows. The subject matter of the show is irrelevant.

4. The Leica SL is not the behemoth that early images suggested it to be. BUT it's still damn big. You're a big guy, Mike, with pretty big paws. It looks like it's just about right-sized in those paws of yours!

5. Good to hear that Artifact Uprising had a good impression on you. I've been strongly considering giving them some biz. Also, I want to second Joe Holmes's remarks about those lay-flat books. They've been out for a little while, particularly in the wedding circuit. They certainly have their applications and special appeal but they sure get big and heavy, like see-spot-run childrens books.

Thanks very much for the report, guys!

[Keith]

Sharp dressed man in the herringbone tweed sport coat!!!!

Its great to see you're thriving!!!

[gencies]

For ten years Canson papers have been for me what Ilford papers were for the previous three decades or more. My darkroom went a long time ago... I now use paper only to draw and paint on - digital images being simply 'files' for stock photo agencies.

Canson, btw, are the owners of Arches water-colour paper products which have been hand-made in France for more than 500 years. Kinda makes Ilford, et al, seem like new kids on the block!

[Benjamin Marks]

Gordon's comment echoes how I have been feeling about the upgrade-every-year phenomenon. Or put another way, there was a moment in the 1990's when my earnings matched my impulses and there wasn't anything I wanted to try at the top of the market that I didn't find a way to try. But I just don't have anything to do with the mega-pixels of data on top of mega-pixels that define the high-end of digital. I think purchasing a camera at the high end of things would also require a CPU upgrade, a monitor upgrade, a software upgrade . . . ugh. I don't feel like I have reached the "personal amortization point" with any of my last-gen digital gear.

So: waiting for a game changer. . .

[Jim 'Longviewer']

Sorry Mike, I refer to the FF Pentax that was visible early on then disappeared from the Ricoh booth. Both its presence and absence made for great speculation at the usual places..

[Pentax would do great with a FF camera. Lots of glass out there of many generations, and lots of loyal users. That would be nice. --Mike]

[Pierre Charbonneau]

"There seemed to be less emphasis on the profession."

Maybe the profession is vanishing, like the darkroom stuff and large format cameras. Or along with them.

Pierre

[kodiak xyza]

« 7. There seemed to be less emphasis on the profession. »

I hope a safety zone has been created on this page, whereby all can openers are at safe distance, and worms-seeking birds are not circling above.

to compensate: was there an increased emphasis on Instagram accounts or facebook pages metrics, though?

[c.d.embrey]

You treat the model, in the yellow chair, as it were a conventional portrait. You need to embrace the distortion, and move in a lot closer (and her legs will become a lot looonger) 8-)

Here's and interesting look at wide angle head shots http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2013/03/21/wide-angle-portraits-how-to-use-your-wide-angle-lens-to-caricature-your-friends/. When I was young, street artist caricature portraits were popular. I'm sure Xander's SO would love a W-A head shot of him.

[Zlatko]

Of course, the Leica SL isn't so big after all. DPReview had convinced almost everyone that it's as gigantic as a Pentax 6x7 medium format film camera.

[To me it felt subjectively much closer to a Mamiya 6. --Mike]

[c.d.embrey]

No, Mike doesn't have big paws.

Here's the comparison no-one seems to be making. An α7R2 (24 Mp) mirrorless, the Leica SL (24Mp) mirrorless and the Canon EOS 1Dx (18Mp) DSLR. Both Sony and Leica would like to replace the Canon as the preferred camera of professional shooters.

http://camerasize.com/compact/#624,639,152,ha,f

[Steve Smith]

As big as a brick; but heavier than a brick. Okay, never mind, I can't do this. Ignore me.

Reminds me of a line from the children's* cartoon Phineas and Ferb where their grandfather refers to something as "Bigger than a fridge but smaller than a really big fridge".

(* But obviously written with adults in mind).

[Rodolfo Canet]

That Otus is massive indeed. Will you ask Zeiss for a loaner to review it for us? As I'm sure you knew Zeiss links to your review in the official page of the Zeiss Ikon camera, so they know you're very good at it and loyally followed.

http://www.zeiss.com/camera-lenses/en_de/camera_lenses/zeiss-ikon/zeiss_ikon_camera.html

[Gordon Lewis]

>>Both Sony and Leica would like to replace the Canon as the preferred camera of professional shooters.<<

That's not likely to happen until they come up with an answer for one of the main reasons the EOS 1Dx is so large: the battery grip grafted onto it. The 1Dx's battery pack takes two 2450mAh batteries for a total capacity of 4900mAh. By comparison, the Leica SL uses a single 1860mAh battery. The Sony A7R2 is available with a battery grip, but this holds only two 1020mAh batteries. That totals 2040mAH -- less than half of what a single 1Dx battery can deliver.

[Patrick Perez]

My guess as to why people might suddenly be 'seeing wider' (and based on nothing more than my copious gut instinct) is that due to the popularity of phone cameras, whose lenses are typically around 24mm equivalent, people are just exposed to more very wide views, and it is influencing their taste.

In the interchangeable lens 35mm film era, the mass market probably never bought anything wider than the 50 that came with the camera. A 24 was expensive. Now suddenly, those same (again, bulk of the market buyers) are getting lenses that used to be considered super wide and adjusting accordingly.

Patrick

[Not in my case, though--the iPhone camera's lens is 35mm-e, same as I've been shooting more or less for decades. --Mike]

[c.d.embrey]

Gordon Lewis said: "That's not likely to happen until they come up with an answer for one of the main reasons the EOS 1Dx is so large: the battery grip grafted onto it."

Leica isn't Sony. I'd expect that the SL's battery grip will be large, heavy and robust. Sorta like the SL 8-)

I'm looking forward to seeing the Leica SL on the sidelines of major football tournaments worldwide.

How soon till Spiegel TV, ZDF and RTL start using the SL?? The 4K footage I've seen has been impressive.

[Roger Bradbury]

I've been a wide boy for years. a 28 wasn't wide enough, or sometimes too wide. Later I bought a 24mm lens. this was more like it! Then I bought a 17mm lens. this was all on 35mm cameras. On to digital, and I chose my camera system partly on it having a fast standard zoom with a 16mm wide end, APS-C of course. I use the zoom at 16mm a huge amount.

Then I bought a 12-24mm zoom. The wide end the equivalent of 18mm, a whole millimetre longer than the 17mm, but you can't have everything. (Sigh)

Then I bought the lens I've been hankering after for years. A fisheye. It's a full frame fisheye, so sometimes now I wonder if I should buy a circular fisheye. It's like a disease. Perhaps I caught it when I peered through that 6mm 220° fisheye Nikkor at some photo expo in the 70s.