Honestly, we have not been in this trade show deal for many years.
With the economy the way it is, manufacturers get very picky as to where the will meet the press and the buyers to show the latest offerings or tease the upcoming products. PMA has traditionally been one of the major shows to meet and greet, and sign purchase orders.
Some say the the speed of communications across continents make physical appearance unnecessary.
We disagree.
Walking the aisles, filled with all of the latest camera gear, is good because you can see all of the gear close up, in your hands, try the stuff out and see the products that won;t get posted on the web for months.
Most importantly though, is the human connection.
Yep, good old fashioned conversation. We can’t tell you how much of our time at these things is spent speaking to people.
And making discoveries. The ones we can bring back and share with you. As long as it’s not junk.
But most of the time, we take the half full attitude and find cool stuff.
Usually it’s a photographic problem, that launches us to find the solution. Like one product called the Aputure Gigtube
That will come later in a video and review. There will be video on most of the gear you’re seeing below.

The old friends always have some quality product at these shows though.

Like Nikon introducing the new 24mm 1.4 lens. Sweet piece of glass.

and the P100 with a 26x Zoom lens.Heck yeah, that’s some throw in a nice small package!

Samsung had their HZ35w GPS enabled camera on display.

Vivitar supplied the floor with some refreshing flavored water looking like a water, looking like another famous brand.

Zacuto had a videographer walking the floor using their HD DSLR rig. A thing of beauty at over $3k. We tried it on and was indeed comfortable.

Still want to kick it old school? How about bulk loading your film?
Freestyle Camera stores showed off their new bulk loader made from the original molds.
Brought back many memories of buying 100 ft. spools of film, loading film cannisters, and saving a TON of dough.

How about some underwater goggles that shoot HD video and 5 megapixel stills? And has 2 LED flashlight to help you find your way? from Liquid Image

Lensbaby was celebrating their 6th birthday!

so cupcakes, and candles and party hats!

You all know Lensbaby, right?
Here are 2 shots we made today, just putting one of their units onto our Nikon D700.
And remember: these 2 guys are standing next to each other on the same plane, and we are shooting parallel to them.

Of course there was new product they showed that will be included in the upcoming video we shot.

And no trade show would be complete without one of these:

Spidey posing with the attendees, using his super human strength to open a plastic bag.

Yep, it’s always important to involve your audience and give them something to take home and show the friends.
Or give to the kids.
Nah, it’s to show to the friends.
So there you have a quick look at some of the things we saw today, but there is so much more.
Truly, in the days and weeks ahead we’ll be going into more depth on the gold we found.
After a walking around a convention center for hours, our dogs are barking and it’s time to review the brochures, open up the flash drives, take another look at all of the digitized video and get a semblance of order to it all.
And then report back to you.