JOIN OUR MAILING LIST
  • Home
  • Santorini 2023
  • About
  • Gallery
    • This Was STC Miami 2021
    • This Was STC Santorini 2018
    • This Was STC Miami 2016
    • This Was STC Santorini 2015
    • This Was STC Miami 2015 – Temple House
    • This Was STC Miami 2014
    • This Was STC L.A. 2013
    • This Was STC Bahamas 2013
    • This Was Miami – STC Oct 13-14, 2012 Seminar / Workshop
    • This Was STC Miami 2012
    • This Was STC Vegas 2011 – 2
    • This Was STC Vegas 2011 – 1
    • This Was Miami 2011
  • Model Search
  • Store
  • Blog
  • Contact

Blog

PHOTOKINA 2012 – A PERSONAL VIEW

Posted on: 09-23-2012 Posted in: Photography

 

By Ales Bravnicar

Photokina, the leading international trade fair for the entire imaging sector is a photographic highlight of the year – two years actually – for amateurs, professionals, photography experts, manufacturers, retailers and distributors all around the world. Held in Cologne, Germany, the biennial exhibition hosts hundreds of imaging companies and this year close to 200.000 guests from almost every part of the world came to see a grand total of 1,200 exhibitors from 40+ countries.

I have a very personal approach to Photokina. I am not after the new products or the latest technological gizmos – instead, I focus on interesting things that I feel could improve my photographic workflow, image quality and artistic expression. It is a rare opportunity to talk to the manufacturers and they are usually listening, being open for suggestions, improvements and even critique.

 

THE HUMAN FACTOR

Before the products, there’s people. Always so many interesting people to meet at Photokina and this year was no exception. I was invited by Marius Plytnikas, the regional development manager for Canon Video products, to spend some cool time with director, cinematographer and web video guru Philip Bloom. Philip is an extremely interesting guy and has an amazing cool factor – no wonder his “http://www.philipbloom.com” blog is visited by tens of thousands of fans daily. Philip is a Canon spokesperson for the C300 camera and you could see that his affection for this mighty machine is very pristine. The new wide-open CN-E video lenses (a sort of Canon’s CP.2’s with spectacular T-stops) were also on display at Canon’s state-of-the-art hall, as was the standard lot of all the latest, freshest and coolest cameras and imaging products – the 6D, S110 and C100 included.

I was enjoying my prosciutto hors d’oeuvres and chatting with Guido Puttkamer, the managing director of Hensel GMBH. He was telling the story about Hensel’s pioneering venture into the development of the first portable strobe system unit (Porty) and how Broncolor and Profoto are always arguing about which one has the shortest flash duration (it is Hensel). Profoto did surprise everybody this year though with the new battery unit called Pro-B4 1000 Air, sporting some very impressive specs (1/25.000s flash duration, 30 flashes per second and just 45 minutes full battery recharging time), but at the $8000 price tag, who really cares?

This year I was also fortunate enough to meet Mr. Dedo Weigert, the inventor of the legendary Dedolight and an amazingly fine gentleman, whose trademark white beard resembles that of KFC’s very own Colonel. Mr. Weigert won an Academy Award for his lighting innovations and his booth was full of goodies one would love to play with all the time. The most interesting gadget I found there was a rig called C1 PRO by Cinemecanix, a Canadian custom-made, heavy duty, hands free (!) shoulder support with all the bells and whistles. It is super comfortable and perfectly balanced on your shoulder, so you can let go of your rig with both hands at any time and your gear stays in place. If I were buying a new rig today, this heavy, CNC-machined beast would most definitely be on the top of my list!!

 

 

 

THE TASTE OF ASIA

As usually, the Chinese and Korean manufacturers were heavily present in Cologne. They are always bringing some crazy, funky-but-cool cheapo stuff to sell (remember, you get what you pay for!), but I also saw some very high quality Made in China products in the grip and video rig category, with the price tags to match the quality. The Cinematics people came, bringing their cine-moded lens arsenal called Cinematics CT.2, which looks suspiciously similar to Zeiss CP.2 series. They told me they have patented their special geared lens housing in China and that Zeiss has no beef with them – not entirely true, as I later found out at the booth of the latter; the boys from Carl Zeiss were not pleased at all. Just by looking at a CP.2 lens cut in half (Zeiss had a couple of them available for demonstration) you can see the quality and craftsmanship of these optical cathedrals on steroids. I wanted to know if the CP.2’s were made in Japan (as you know, Cosina makes most Zeiss lenses), but they assured me that for this product line, the Japanese parts (amongst others) are assembled by hand in Oberkochen, Germany.

 

THE OVERLOOKED

The “little big boys” were in Cologne as well – Blaesing, who makes custom flashes (need a strobe in the shape of that beer jug? Just call them!), Bacht, who designs complex lighting devices (they also produce zoom spots and rigid striplights for many strobe companies), Arca Swiss and Alpa with their incredibly alluring clockwork masterpieces, and the “best-kept-secret” lens company from Korea called Samyang/Wallimex/Rokinon/etc., which exploded all over the photo & video scene with their ultra-affordable, wide-open professional quality SLR lenses ranging from 8 to 85mm, which are now also available in cine-moded versions. From the hundreds of really good exhibitors, these are the ones I chose to mention here, but many, many others had amazing stuff as well – HPRC (cases), B-Grip (belt grips), Genus (rigs), K5600 (lighting), Leica (medium format cameras), Kessler (grip equipment), O’Connor (matte boxes, follow focus and stands), Lupolux (LED and HMI fresnel lights), Technicolor (camera profiles), Aurora (light banks), Think Tank (bags) to name but just a few. Just go and browse the blogs.

 

THE LESS PLEASING

One of the big disappointments of the 2012 Photokina was the tiny, overcrowded Hasselblad booth in Hall 2. A black Ferrari convertible just sitting put behind the fence, blocking one third of the entire booth and a “catwalk” stage that resembled a high-class strip club… what happened here? In my personal opinion as a H4D owner the new Hasselblad H5D camera housing also seems to have a much cheaper feel to it than the previous series – but mind you it was the prototype I handled. Of course the specs are improved and the camera’s user interface, battery and other features are completely redesigned, which makes the new Hasselblad an even greater camera to own, but the Photokina presentation of one of the world’s most respected fashion, architectural and product photography tools left a lot of room for improvement (a german photographer Manfred Baumann for example managed to gather a huge crowd in hall 9 when he did his live workshop on a proper, long catwalk – with a topless model in translucent g-strings). I do not even want to venture in the “overpriced NEX 7” debate about the new mirrorless Hasselblad Lunar camera… I was also disappointed with Lastolite because they too make great products, but refused to bring any of them from UK for sale (I am in the market for the big Tri-Grip). Photoflex and California Sunbounce next door were selling their (discounted!) reflectors and other stuff like hot cakes, so I went and got one of those. Please learn from that, Lastolite…

 

FINAL WORDS

Photokina is a beast. Nobody can imagine the grandeur and expanse of the world’s largest photography fair until they visit it. You absolutely have to experience it yourself. The city of Cologne lives and breathes with the fair, the atmosphere is super-relaxed and the ice-cold Koelsch beer is available everywhere. For some, that fact alone is a big enough reason to come.

Ales Braavnicar – STC



  • Popular Posts
  • Related Posts
  • How Your Photography Portfolio Can Help You Avoid Rejection
    How Your Photography Portfolio Can Help You Avoid Rejection
  • Hand Gestures: What do I do with my Hands?
    Hand Gestures: What do I do with my Hands?
  • The STC Graduates and Where are They Today? (Part 1)
    The STC Graduates and Where are They Today? (Part 1)
  • Fair Pay For Creators: Compensating Artists in the Age of AI Image Generation
    Fair Pay For Creators: Compensating Artists in the Age of AI Image Generation
  • How Your Photography Portfolio Can Help You Avoid Rejection
    How Your Photography Portfolio Can Help You Avoid Rejection
  • Hand Gestures: What do I do with my Hands?
    Hand Gestures: What do I do with my Hands?
  • The STC Graduates and Where are They Today? (Part 1)
    The STC Graduates and Where are They Today? (Part 1)
  • Fair Pay For Creators: Compensating Artists in the Age of AI Image Generation
    Fair Pay For Creators: Compensating Artists in the Age of AI Image Generation

Leave a Reply

Click here to cancel reply.

Twitter Feed

    Twitter not configured.

Archives

  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • April 2022
  • September 2021
  • June 2021
  • April 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • November 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • September 2010

Search Blog

Recent Posts

  • How Your Photography Portfolio Can Help You Avoid Rejection How Your Photography Portfolio Can Help You Avoid Rejection
    03-17-2023
  • Hand Gestures: What do I do with my Hands? Hand Gestures: What do I do with my Hands?
    02-7-2023
  • The STC Graduates and Where are They Today? (Part 1) The STC Graduates and Where are They Today? (Part 1)
    01-22-2023

Popular Posts

Every photographer has a story to tell …
© 2011-2023 Shoot The Centerfold. All Rights Reserved
  • Privacy Policy
  • Customer Support
  • Ordering Details FAQ
  • Payment Methods
  • Return Policy FAQ
  • License Agreement
TwitterStumbleUponRedditDiggdel.icio.usFacebookLinkedIn