Report: The Photography Show

by adamhanlon Wednesday, March 25th, 2015

The Photography Show, held at The National Exhibition Center, Birmingham, UK is in its second year. It is the only national consumer photography event in the UK and could be described as a sort of mini-photokina.

It attracts a very large number of visitors and most of the major players in the industry. In addition, there are talks and seminars going on continuously hosted on several “main stages” and also on individual stands.

Wetpixel attended the show this year and was able to gather useful information as well as get “hands on” with many new products.

Nikon

Nikon had a major presence at the show.

The big news for them, in terms of new products, is the release of the D7200 SLR camera. As has been previously reported, this can be confirmed to be identical in size, shape and button placement to the D7100.

This will mean that it will fit into the majority (if not all) existing housings. Chatting to the team on Nikon UK stand, it was interesting to discover that both they and the European Nikon offices have been pushing for a DX sensor pro body. The consensus from them is that it is not going to happen. Having said that, they are the first to admit that they do not really know what developments are taking place in Nikon Japan.

Canon

Canon UK also had a big stand, with their new products on display.

As has been previously commented, the EOS 5DS and 5DS R cameras share the same bodies as the EOS 5D Mark III, so this gain means that those wishing to shoot the 50 megapixel cameras will not need to upgrade their housings.

Canon also had the G7X compact camera, which features a 1” type sensor.

They also had their new entry level camera, the 760D

Lastly, Canon were exhibiting their new EF 11-24mm f/4L USM ultra wide-angle zoom. It features a really large front lens! Although the focal length would suggest that it is suitable for underwater use, the minimum focus distance of 11 inches may present a challenge.

Sony

Sony were their A7 Mark II full frame mirrorless camera. For some time, Sony’s mirrorless cameras have had a more limited appeal for underwater use due to their limited lens choice. In February this year, the company showed prototypes of a new 90mm macro and a 28mm wide-angle specifically designed for use with full frame mirrorless.

The 90mm was sadly not yet available, but the FE 28mm F2 wide-angle prime, with its associated SEL075UWC ultra-wide (21mm equivalent) and SEL057FEC fisheye converter (180°) lenses were.

Sony staff were at pains to emphasise that the conversion lenses were designed from the bottom up to work systemically with the 28mm and there is no loss in optical quality or performance with them.

There were a lot of aerial imaging products on display.

Panasonic

Although there were no new products on display on the Panasonic stand, the LUMIX GH4 featured in many displays.

The Atomos Shogun display/recorder was displayed with it:

Staying with video for a moment, they had the HC-VX870 4K camcorder. The unit seems very light and compact.

Lastly, they were also showing the more conventional, but still very compact HC-X1000 4K camcorder.

G Technology

Underwater photographer Saeed Rashid was in full flow giving talks about underwater photography on the G Technology stand:

G Technology has launched their new ev ATC drives which have a water, drop and dust resistant housing. They are available with Thunderbolt and USB3 or USB3 only connections and ev spinning or SSD drives.

There is also a simple drop protection bumper available for the ev series drives. G Technology supply a variety of drives for all purposes, from simple single spinning ones, through to large RAID storage.