Photokina 2008 (Part 1 of 2)

While getting sometime out in Luxembourg I was invited to go to Photokina in Cologne, Germany.

This was quite a surprise since I have been into this trade show and with the ad of the new Canon 5D MarkII and the Powershot G10 I was at least curious to see what I will find and if it real true what people are saying out there about the new cameras.

This is intended to be a 2 part blog mainly because there are too many photos of the trade, as you may imagine and because I wanted to dedicate part 2 to the new Canon 5D MarkII and it's new features I also did a video and some menu shootings but more on that later on.

Meanwhile...

I arrived at Cologne main station, after a 3h30m train ride on the day before it all began and I can tell you that, if you have never been to Cologne, this is a very welcome and easy city to travel in.



And just took the rest of the day to explore a little more of the surroundings. The subway is very clean and people do not even talk loud.



Got some time to take a couple of night shots and get ready for the next morning.



The cathedral at night is fabulous and since I did not have the BIG guns with me I took this with my G9 on top of my small suitcase.



But let's get started.



West front door, 9:00 am dealers and sellers start to arrive to the great opening and the subway normally gets crowded at this time of day.



This is the North entrance and the pictures that comes out on every newspaper and magazine around the world including then Lighting Mods blog ;)



I was planning on making a guided tour around Photokina 2008 boots but there are so many photos on my flickr page that I thought that would come a little bit boring just making them by writing here so I will leave a slideshow at the end on today's post so you can dig it in at your own pace.



Doors Open at 10:00AM and closes at 18h00PM during the all dates of the show.



This is the press lounge.



And the canteen, unfortunately not free, but check out the prices and the service was very good.

Lastolite had a couple of great things to their list and they are now moving towards us the Strobist community.



This Trip Grip Mini caught my attention because it now has the ability to be hold on an external arm and become a 1 Stop diffuser for the portable flash.



Another great idea, that it's not so original as it may seems, it's this 3 portable flash bracket holder called TriFlash... where have I seen this before???



And this new portable flash and umbrella holder much smaller than the Manfrotto one that easily would fit on any bag.



Here is a detailed view of the Flash Shoe TiltHead and only at a retail price of 20,00 euros each.



Here is a detailed view of the Lastolite Eazybox Hotshoe Kit.



Another new item is the KickerLite that you can use to obtain light from above you simply put it on the floor.



And you can even use a small strobe since the middle iron part can be turned to the inside of the box so that the portable strobe would fit in perfectly and without spilling light out.



This is another boot that called my attention. Here you can see that the person photographed do not have any background although it appears on the shot with a great background. So that they call themselves Virtual Backgrounds.



Left you curious ? Well at least I was, just check them out here.



I also had the opportunity to take a quick snap and do some chat with their official photographer Cindy Cofer.



This is at least an interesting piece of equipment made by Photon.



Here is the effect of the light. You can shot through the hole and adjust each paddle to shape the light at your own taste. Me Like!!!



Another shot of their other accessories.



The New Sekonic light meters.



Manfrotto started the ModoPocket line of products and this one is the Shoulder support for Video cameras.



It's true the new Canon Powershot G10 live ;)



Also the new Powershot SX10IS with Full HD video mode.



Wait a minute isn't that the new 5D MarkII??? Oh yes it is!!! We will take a look at some of the features in part 2 of this post.



The New EF 200mm 2.0 L.



The British photographer Gary Knight talks about his experiences with a small camera to get the job done.



Epson and their Hasselblad 2008 Big Master Collection.



Sony shows a disassembled a700.



Sandisk and their new speed cards.



We had the opportunity to try out a new color balance accessory called baLens that is used like a lens cap while doing it's job.



We talked to the president and sole distributor, Jim Lee, and I will post a complete test and review of this system soon, so keep an eye here for this review.



It fits on all lens sizes.



Had some time to try out the Alien Bees systems with this beautiful model shot.



Got some time to peak a workshop with German photographer Guido Karp.



Sigma BAZOOOKKAAAA!!!!!



They also had on an outside part some falconry so people could try out the binoculars.



And that's all folks, hope you have enjoyed this quick tour over the Photokina 2008 Trade Show!!!!

Take a look at the slideshow below for all the photos.



And see you on part 2.

Photokina 2008 (Part 1 of 2)
Photokina 2008 (Part 2 of 2)