Photokina 2008 (Part 1 of 2)

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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...

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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But let's get started.

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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.

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

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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.

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

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This is the press lounge.

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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.

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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.

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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???

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

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

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

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

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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.

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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.

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

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

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

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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!!!

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Another shot of their other accessories.

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The New Sekonic light meters.

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

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

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Also the new Powershot SX10IS with Full HD video mode.

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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.

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The New EF 200mm 2.0 L.

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

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Epson and their Hasselblad 2008 Big Master Collection.

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Sony shows a disassembled a700.

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Sandisk and their new speed cards.

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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.

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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.

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It fits on all lens sizes.

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

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

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Sigma BAZOOOKKAAAA!!!!!

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

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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)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just trying to find a website for those BaLens caps ? anyone got one ?

Thanks.

ruimleal said...

Hello anonymous,

Jim Lee is the president and distributor of the baLens.

You can get USA direct contact over the following:

BRNO LLC
Press contact:
Jim Lee
2355 Westwood Boulevard, #158
90064 Los Angeles
USA
Tel: 13108062856
Fax: 13102206630
Mail: jim.lee@brnollc.com
Flickr Site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jim-lee/