For four days in late February, two halls of the vast, sprawling National Exhibition Centre on the outskirts of Birmingham fall prey to teams of marauding photographers. Focus on Imaging is the most important photographic show on the UK calendar, even though it's distinctly pro-oriented.
This means you are more likely to see a Hasselblad than you are a Panasonic and likely to play with a large format camera than you are a compact. In fact, the nearest thing to a compact was the prosumer camera like FujiFilm's excellent FinePix S100FS.
But, despite this pro-pro stance, there were some notable absences; the traditional student's choice Pentax was no-where to be seen, nor was Leica or Sony. This last was odd because the brand was showing its wares at last year's Focus and - if anything - has more of a professional range of products this year than last. On the other hand, Canon returned to the Focus fold after a short absence, despite rumours to the contrary and many people got their first chance to have a look at the 1DS mkIII and the new 200mm f/2, and a host of other lenses.
Nikon - fortuitously on stand D60 - showed its latest cameras and lenses too. Most of the interest surrounded the D300 and D3, but the new D60 was put through its paces. Meanwhile Olympus made a big push with its new E3 DSLR, including showing a semi-working prototypes the 35-100 f/2 lens. This would have been impressive enough, were it not for Sigma taking the stand opposite and showing off its wild (in all the right ways) 200-500mm f/2.8 EX DG, complete with matched multiplier 'attachment'.
The show is only slightly about cameras, though. For every camera manufacturer, there were three or four studio lighting manufacturers, demonstrating wares through the medium of beauty shoots of attractive, often scantily clad models. As might be expected from a predominantly male audience, these training sessions went down extremely well. In fact, this is one of the most important aspects of Focus on Imaging and why everyone who's really interested in studio photography should attend; not only do you get to compare every manufacturer's product under one roof, you get useful sessions on how to light things. Admittedly, most of those things are pretty young women, but dig deeper and you'll get seminars on still life, product photography and more. High points included the Bowens Studio in a Box system, a useful walk through Arri's potentially bewildering array of grips, hot lights and Elinchrom's regular training sessions using real world D-Lite and Style FX systems. There was also Colorama's prototype softbox of doom (around 8ft/3m tall) being used on the nearby Leaf stand. Price... who knows?
Tripods are like a professional's branding iron. And there were tripods a-plenty at Focus on Imaging. There was also some distributor swapping from last year. LowePro's distributor Daymen was also the shipper for Manfrotto last year, but this moved back in-house to Bogen imaging (parent company to Manfrotto and Gitzo) and now distributes Giottos tripods.
Giottos have a range of new travel pods, both in alloy and carbon fibre. Prices are keen too; £90 gets you a good aluminium model with removable centre column. Manfrotto meanwhile had the new carbon fibre version of the ever-popular 190 tripod on show, while sister brand Gitzo had something very different in its list of new kit. As well as the high-end tripods and monopods, Gitzo announced a series of products that cross the line between clothing and bags, designed for the hardcore photojournalist. For £275 you get essentially a motorbike overjacket with clever reinforced arms (good for leaning on walls for hours on end), pockets that can hide a pro DSLR or a pair of lenses, arm pockets for compact flash cards, little pull down reflective strips that say 'press' in big letters... the works. There's even a lighter underjacket with similar compartments.
Proof that design by committee can work (when it's a committee of pro photographers, designing for pros and taking feedback from pros), ThinkTank has added a large new collection to its already overflowing portfolio of handy pouches, bags and packs. The new Skin range of unpadded modular and wearable bags looked ideal for the traveling snapper, while the revised Airport range of rollers - along with the new small but deceptively roomy AirStream - bring extra security to the already secure cabin-chummy products.
Meanwhile LowePro showed off its new Fastpack and Flipside backpacks, that also bring style and security to small to medium camera systems. The Flipside is particularly interesting, because it has an integrated tripod holder, an easy grab handle and yet cannot be opened while the bag is being carried.
On a more down-to-earth level, Camera Armor was not only expanding its range to (literally) cover a wider list of DSLRs and lenses, it also has a neat pouch that covers - but does not protect - compacts. One model even comes with a natty little tripod built in.
There were also a couple of products launched at the show. Sekonic - the meter people - launched a new Prodigi Color D-500 colour temperature meter designed specifically for film and digital photography.
For those really, really serious about their colour temperature readings, this could be highly useful. Meanwhile Flaghead showed off the new Ringflash Adaptor, which turns a humble SB800 into a full-blown ringflash, for £200 - a lot less than the real deal (and only loses 1 stop of power!).
Printing solutions from HP, Canon and Epson were on show (among others), but most of these 'solutions' were intended for large-format or high-volume print delivery. There were a few new exceptions, like the Epson R1900 that uses the new Ultrachrome 2 ink set (with added orange for better skin tones). Similarly, software was mostly concerned with high-end image management and billing systems, although there were useful Photoshop plug-ins demonstrated by OnOne and Nik Multimedia's ever-growing suite of programs now included Viveza, the clever colour control system that allows, er, masks without masking.
Yes, Focus on Imaging is geared toward professionals, aspiring professionals and students who hope to turn professional one day, but that doesn't mean it's exclusively for pros. There's a lot to get out of a day or more in Brum. See you there next year!
