PHOTOKINA 2000
By Pete Guy (Area 20 Co-ordinator)
In late September. 1 had a grand five-day holiday in Cologne, visiting the world famous Photokina fair after spending the days wandering around the this years show, I thought my observations and experiences, would make a good little article for the CRC new newsletter, this would not only give Bill extra copy, it may also wet your appetite for the next ‘Photokina’ show in 2002, as sadly this event only takes place every two years.
But before I give you my views and without boring you too much, I offer a brief insight into the Photokina’ show set up. ii is housed in a massive exhibition site on the south bank of the river Rhine, the complex is covered by 14 halls, with some traveling inter connections between them, all the facilities within the halls are excellent, and to a very high standard, to give you a filler picture, and hopefully not boring you too much, here are some show statistics, that I took from a photo magazine just before I left.
In 1999 the worlds photographic market was valued at around 85 billion Euros. Compared to 1998 this indicates a growth rate of’ 3.7per cent. These figures crime from the German Photographic Industry 2000’, the World’s Fair for Imaging. What's more, their research shows that while the world market for analogue cameras continues to grow, last year by some 3 per cent, reaching 67 million units - the sales of digital cameras have grown by more than 45 per cent to 5.5 million units. ln 999, three billion rolls of film and 300 million single use cameras were sold around the world.
This was an overall increase of 3 per cent over 1998. In fact right now, around the globe, 2,700 cameras go ‘click’ every second It is estimated that the number of colour prints has now reached world. Moreover, scanner and printer sales are also soaring. The world market for printers is estimated at 60 million units, scanners at over 0 million. According to P1V, these figures clearly prove that both analogue and digital photography together. are contributing to the growth of the world photography market. In photography, digital technologies sometimes complement analogue systems and stimulate output. One can use images in the same way as one uses text to convey messages, as demonstrated by the Internet. Along with digital cameras, digital input and output devices are gaining importance in the imaging industry. The increasing saturation of the market with personal computers, printers and scanners is playing a central role in the fast expansion of digital photography.
This year’s ‘Photokina’ will mark its fiftieth anniversary. The show that began as a national showcase for thc German photographic industry has become the largest exhibition in the world for both analogue and digital imaging technologies, for both consumers and professional users. Over 1,600 suppliers, rom over 40 countries will be exhibiting their products. With the Future in Focus as its strap line, this year the partnership between film and digital technology will be uppermost, with effective imaging systems, images on the Internet, digital projection, large-format printing, and new storage technologies is very much in evidence.
The show will once again be accompanied by a wide variety of international auxiliary programmers under the theme ‘The Power of Images.’ Here a comprehensive programmed of application- orientated conferences and symposia on specific industry issues and topics, as well as workshops on professional uses of the picture as a medium will be held. The topics include, among others, new developments in medical and scientific photography, large-format cameras, large-format printing, as well as photo finishing and mini-lab technology, Phew! I hope you got all that.
Let me say right now, that this exhibition is harder on the feet, I don’t know how many miles I walked, but it is very tiring1 I wanted to try to visit every hail, and if possible, most of the stands, spreading my trip over the five days of the show. The hails are divided into the sections to cover the relevant products, i.e cameras. studio, processing, movies, framing, finishing, digital, etc.
Before my first visit to this show in 1996, I saw ‘Photokina’ trips advertised in the photographic magazines, after making a few enquiries, I found these were only for a one-day-one-night coach trip, leaving in the evening, and returning home late the next day. So I would have only been spending one full day at the show itselP This flying visit would be ideal to get a feeling for the show, but I still can’t see much point in traveling all that way, just to see, may-be only halls I and 2 with the possibly of 3, with plenty of pre trip planning needed for the main stands to visit, time would be very short I must confess though, digital is now so very much in evidence, in fact I would go so far, and say, that photography is now 30% analog and 70% digital. So any person who doesn't accept digital must now be digging their heads in the sand, I have since learnt that Canon are marketing the new EOS D 30 at a loss in order to corner most of this market, but I don’t think Nikon will let this happen, as they have already launched the Dl. I never got he chance to handle this camera, but the specification is out standing except for the resolution, which is only 2.74 mega pixels, au other features are there c,cg1:, viewfinder is true TTL, and offering all the essential modes, with a fantastic range a second, no, this is not a miss print, but I do not know when anybody would use this speed, there’s also a depth-of-field preview button, and it comes with 92mb of compact flash card, but of course with this spec. Comes a high price tag of £3,499 for the body only, but also the good thing, is that it still takes standard F mount lenses, I wish Canon had also taken this route. I believe that now, digital is accelerating so fast, that silver as we know it could be eliminated in the next three years or so, I am sure, you have noticed, as I have, how many small photographic dealers have given up and gone out of business due to falling sales, and yet the large stores like Jessops are increasing their number of stores and stocking a lot more digital products now.
Back to the show, 1 spent about an hour at the Canon stand, ogling the new EOS 30 D with all its bells and whistles plus its seven million-pixel spec. And also with the added benefit of those great EOS lenses. As a Canon fan I tried out their new 100 to 400mm zoom lens in the hall, which as with some other of their lenses. incorporates the built in image stabilizer, terrific on long zooms, to cut camera shake! And what a great lens this is, but at a price of about £1100.00.
And what did 1 buy. or items to put on my Christmas list? Well as this is a trade fair, there were not many items for sale, but there were plenty of bargains to be had on the last afternoon, mostly these were from the far east exhibitors, who do not wish to ship their products back home when the show is over, plenty of good tripods, for just a few pounds, 35mm compacts, again just a few pounds, camera bags, some film, mostly print though, was also to be had at bargain prices.
A great piece of kit that I was able to buy though, was a new type of battery tester, which comes from the States; it will test more than 25 popular batteries, including lithium types. it gives a different led colour percentage display to indicate the battery condition, the main benefit of this tester is, that it automatically applies a testing load to the battery with the led’s blinking, and then gives the remaining battery life, by showing a yellow percentage led. I have tried it with many types of battery, both. normal and re-chargeable, and it gives excellent results. The cost I thought was good considering the quality. I paid 69 dollars at the show, which converted to about £37.00 when! received my card statement, but I had no shipping charges in this price. T he same company also market an excellent combined camera tester, this is small slim base unit, and will test both 35mm and medium format cameras, it is also a light meter, and flash meter combined. For camera testing, a plug in sensor is attached to the camera film aperture, the tester will then test all shutter speeds, also exposure values, the read out’s are matched against the camera’s own settings, I only have a price for this tester, which is, 595 dollars, but if you would like more details, the company is, ZTS, Inc 6749 Bramble Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45227 Tel: 513-271-2557 or email: testers@ztsinc.com.
Now for digital users, I spent about two hours at the Adobe stand getting to grips with their new ‘Photoshop 6’ (1 have since bought this package), which I can only sum up as, Great, for the digital Anoraks, here’s a brief list of some of the new features... Changed Layer styles, Warp Text, Vector Shapes, Image Splicing, Liquefy (this is excellent) New web features, New Colour Management. Adobe have also made good changes to the main entry page, its laid out very neatly, with the tools now on the top tool bar, making for a larger screen, but I thought the best added feature was with the text tool, now straight onto the layer, no more boxes, the upgrade price of £163.00 plus postage, a little on the high side, but I think the improvements are very worthwhile.
You know that sometimes you get that feeling of, I’d love to have that, well I had that feeling, after I visited one of the stands at the show, and no, it was not a new Canon D30, or a Nikon D1, or even a 100-400 image lens, but a plain and simple, suit me down to the ground, Him processor. 1 have for years used a Jobo with the lift etc. that is quite good, but I would not recommend it now. A company in Holland called, Jonco Photographic Equipment, makes the one that 1 would like if I were lucky enough to win the Lottery! They are not a new company as they have been manufactured since 1986, and I suppose you must say they are commercial processors, but they arc also small and lightweight. Now to the details, firstly the rotary drum, will except either, 7, 135 or 4 120 films, 8 4x5 inch sheet films, or 24 x 30.5cm paper, with clever spacers which fit into the tank for lesser films, the drum is designed tar low chemistry consumption with first class development.
Temperature is shown for both, bath 1, and for the water jacket, the whole thing is microprocessor controlled, and is software adjustable and programmable to give the number of baths, number of rinsing cycles, before, between, and after the baths. Temperatures from 5 to 43?C with accuracy Of 0.1C, and processing times accuracy to 1 sec. Drum preheat with 2 rotational speeds. The chemicals can be collected separately, via an optional Recycling Unit. But quality is very high, the first and colour developer pots are made of stainless steel, and the pump is of a low maintenance type, as it is vacuum operated. Using it is a piece cake, you put all the chemicals in the containers, program the unit to your requirements, and it will then only take the amount of chemicals programmed, for the number of films, switch on! And that’s it, walk away if you wish, have a cup of coffee, no wetting of hands, no lifts to use, and perfect results every time, great eh! Now to the sad part. the units retail at £2600.00 inc VAT, for the E6 unit. and for the C41 unit, £2000.00, please bare in mind, I did say, I’d love to have that, and if I won the lottery it would be the first thing I’d buy, but up until that time, I’ll have to dream, but if you have already won the lottery, the units can be purchased from either, Kreonite Ltd, Cromer House, 1, Caxton Way, Stevenage, Herts, EN4, 8BL. 01438 224502 or Odyssey sales, 32, Godstone Road, Caterham, Surrey, CR3 6RA. 01883 330800.
The pictures really do not do the units justice, but it does give you an idea of what they look like, the Company sent me a lot of information on them, so If you would like to contact me I can give you more details. Well, 1 could go on ‘writing more about Photokina as 1 enjoyed the show very much, it made a great holiday break, and it was nice to look at products which may, or may not be in our shops soon, failing winning the lottery though, for my next trip to Photokina, I will have to save my pocket money, and if 1 starve the wife, hopefully, I may be able to pick up one of those processing units at bargain price, on the last afternoon of ’Photokina’ 2002, maybe, I’ll also meet you there... in the meantime may I wish you a Very Happy New Year and good photography for 2001...