I visited Focus on Imaging, up at the NEC a couple of days ago. Once again another great show but I was surprised by the lack of visitors compared to last year. I did wonder if this was just the difference between visiting on a Sunday and visiting on a Tuesday but even the exhibitors were commenting on the footfall being lower this year. Interestingly many were putting it down to the economy.
There were some great deals to be had too, like the 580ex II for £299. I also picked up a set of PocketWizard wireless triggers at a huge discount over the prices I’d found on the web. They all seem to work together too. I’ve read lots of articles about the MiniTT1 and FlexTT5 not working with the 580ex or 580exII owing to RF interference but from the testing I’ve done so far I’ve not seen any of this. The sales rep. on the PocketWizard stand had assured me that the UK model didn’t exhibit any of the reported issues and I bought mine on the strength of that conversation. He seems to have been right too. At least so far anyway.
The other great thing about the exhibition was the talks and lectures on some of the stands.
The Flash Centre had their usual line up and I got to watch Adam Duckworth’s strobist demonstration again. He really needs to find some more jokes but nevertheless it was a great demo. The thing I like about it is how simple and easy he makes everything look. The results he gets are simply amazing and although he comes across as makeing it all up as he goes along and guessing the exposure, he is bringing a lot of experience to bear.
Mark Cleghorn was also there promoting Photo Training 4U (why does this always make me think of mobile phones?). He did another good strobist demo, in some way very similar to Adam Dickworth’s but at the same time, very different. I’d say the two were more complementing rather than competing.
I also spent some time watching the Photoshop CS4 demo but to me this was a let down more than anything. The audience was all agog but to me it was a great demo of tools that I probably wouldn’t ever use.
