p.1 #2 · No-Shows at the "Gear Show" / pdn PhotoPlus
Iwas there Thursday. There definitely was a smaller number of vendors with their wares on display and the people who were there tended to have smaller booth space than in years past: Nikoln and Canon both were prominent. Thinktank Photo's booth was always crowded and very busy every time I walked by. So was B&H.
It is the economy of the past two years combined with the high price of floor space that drove many to not have booths. Several of the large companies -Adobe, MAc Group (mamiya, profoto, Enduro, X-rite, Eizo, etc.), Hasselblad, were meeting with photograpohers and journalists either privately or off-site
p.1 #3 · No-Shows at the "Gear Show" / pdn PhotoPlus
Iwas there Thursday. There definitely was a smaller number of vendors with their wares on display and the people who were there tended to have smaller booth space than in years past: Nikoln and Canon both were prominent. Thinktank Photo's booth was always crowded and very busy every time I walked by. So was B&H. Arca-Swiss had a lot of traffic and interest i nthe new P0 and P1 tripod heads and R series cameras. Leica had a reasonably large amount of traffic.
It is the economy of the past two years combined with the high price of floor space that drove many to not have booths. Several of the large companies -Adobe, MAc Group (mamiya, profoto, Enduro, X-rite, Eizo, etc.), Hasselblad, were meeting with photograpohers and journalists either privately or off-site.
p.1 #4 · No-Shows at the "Gear Show" / pdn PhotoPlus
I was there Friday and the show was very crowded, although a smaller exhibit floor with the same number of people will make the floor seem more crowded. Saturday must have been killer. By the time I got there Friday at noon, Nikon did not have any full-line catalogs left. That was less than half way through the show.
The big question is whether the attendees were window shoppers are whether they intend to buy. If they buy in the coming months, I think the photo industry will do fine.
All of the exhibit floor demonstrations and speaker sessions I attended were standing room only. (In fact, I wish Nikon would get rid of those boxes with cushions and replace them with chairs. They could fit a lot more chairs. They only had something like 36 seats and there were probably at least 200 people standing for each presentation, if not more. They also need to get better audio - they were using these tiny little speakers on a very large stage.)
I think the exhibitors need to move away from their current style of exhibiting. Most will take only one item out of the case at a time, so you generally have a very long wait if you actually want to touch anything. Nikon did have a few cameras set up in a model area and they had some of the big telephotos locked onto tripods, but for anything else, you had to go to a counter. IMO, they need to have more cameras and lenses out for handling with some kind of security strap so people don't walk away with the stuff, but so they don't have to keep such a tight eye on everything. If you think about how Apple retail stores make everything available to play with, that's what these exhibitors need to do.
p.1 #5 · No-Shows at the "Gear Show" / pdn PhotoPlus
good ideas but at the Apple store you have only one way in and out and there are a plethora of security cameras and guards -- not all in uniform; The Nikon, Canon, Sony and Leica booths are open on all four sides.
Also at the Apple store it is kind of hard to walk out with a big ticket item like a Macbook, Macbook pro, iMac or Mac Pro tower. --items which are in the price range of The Nikon gear people want to fondle.
Finally, and I don't really understand this: why do so many people bring their own big cameras over their shoulders to a Photo industry tradeshow? Are they really afraid people the other people there won't think they are photographers?
p.1 #6 · No-Shows at the "Gear Show" / pdn PhotoPlus
because those are the cameras they want try the stuff on and also those are the cameras that will get the pictures in the poor lighting conditions that exist.
Herb...
E-Vener wrote:
Finally, and I don't really understand this: why do so many people bring their own big cameras over their shoulders to a Photo industry tradeshow? Are they really afraid people the other people there won't think they are photographers?
