Have we experienced our last Photokina? The show has been suspended until further notice

Mar 20, 2015
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372
Not when people flocks to Youtube to watch someone else play with them...

Instead of waiting two years for an event in another country?

Photokina and other such shows were already irrelevant to the majority of photographers purely on an opportunity and financial basis.
 
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canonmike

EOS R6
CR Pro
Jan 5, 2013
494
419
For decades, we lived in Atlanta and loved the local camera stores there, like Wolf Camera on 14th St., located not far from where KEH was located, Showcase Photographics store on Cheshire Bridge Rd and a handful of other local stores, all gone now, unable to compete with the internet. So, most likely, wherever you live, you are no longer able to go to your local cottage vendor and personally look at your camera gear of choice. Sadly, we now rely on social media sites like YouTube to get our gear fix and to help us make an informed decision, as best we can, based on some vlogger's review of same. Then, we go on Amz, Ebay, Adorama, B&H and other sites to order our gear of choice. It is our fault there are no longer any good small camera stores around. Using, first the phone and later the internet, we drove them all out of business, as they no longer could compete on price as we opted for the lowest price at the expense of personal service, both during and after the sale. I envy those living close enough to N.Y. or N.J. and their ability to shop at Adorama, B&H and other stores located there, where you can instantly get your camera gear fix. In a market where annual camera sales are declining, we are most fortunate that the major camera Mfgs. are still coming out with new products, seemingly oblivious to market data logic. With company's like Olympus selling their camera division, I can not see where this trend can continue into the future. For now, I remain grateful to all Mfgs., still committed to new products in the face of declining revenue and profits. We all know this cannot continue indefinitely. In the interim, I am enjoying all this new gear, across all Mfgs. lines but am worried about what the Olympus sale really forsees for the market we have grown to love, while taking it for granted that they will always give us what we want. Enjoy your gear, improve your photograhic skillset, whatever it might be and stay safe out there. I thoroughly enjoy reading my fellow CR members daily gear chatter, on any given topic, even if I don't necessarily agree with your viewpoint. Please keep sharing your commentary, as we all work to get through this Covid fatigue that now surrounds us.
 
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SteveC

R5
CR Pro
Sep 3, 2019
2,678
2,592
For decades, we lived in Atlanta and loved the local camera stores there, like Wolf Camera on 14th St., located not far from where KEH was located, Showcase Photographics store on Cheshire Bridge Rd and a handful of other local stores, all gone now, unable to compete with the internet. So, most likely, wherever you live, you are no longer able to go to your local cottage vendor and personally look at your camera gear of choice. Sadly, we now rely on social media sites like YouTube to get our gear fix and to help us make an informed decision, as best we can, based on some vlogger's review of same. Then, we go on Amz, Ebay, Adorama, B&H and other sites to order our gear of choice. It is our fault there are no longer any good small camera stores around. Using, first the phone and later the internet, we drove them all out of business, as they no longer could compete on price as we opted for the lowest price at the expense of personal service, both during and after the sale. I envy those living close enough to N.Y. or N.J. and their ability to shop at Adorama, B&H and other stores located there, where you can instantly get your camera gear fix. In a market where annual camera sales are declining, we are most fortunate that the major camera Mfgs. are still coming out with new products, seemingly oblivious to market data logic. With company's like Olympus selling their camera division, I can not see where this trend can continue into the future. For now, I remain grateful to all Mfgs., still committed to new products in the face of declining revenue and profits. We all know this cannot continue indefinitely. In the interim, I am enjoying all this new gear, across all Mfgs. lines but am worried about what the Olympus sale really forsees for the market we have grown to love, while taking it for granted that they will always give us what we want. Enjoy your gear, improve your photograhic skillset, whatever it might be and stay safe out there. I thoroughly enjoy reading my fellow CR members daily gear chatter, on any given topic, even if I don't necessarily agree with your viewpoint. Please keep sharing your commentary, as we all work to get through this Covid fatigue that now surrounds us.

It's definitely too little, too late, but I now have a policy of supporting my local brick and mortar shop. I print there, I buy gear there if they carry it at all. The exception I make is for refurbs and filters (their house brand sucks).
 
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stevelee

FT-QL
CR Pro
Jul 6, 2017
2,383
1,064
Davidson, NC
Our Metro area is about 600,000 but the last Pro camera shop which began in 1908 has stopped selling cameras totally, They have gradually transitioned to very profitable high end audio Video and high end Kitchen small gadgets and appliances. They are still on the Canon Authorized list but have dropped all the brands.

So, we have big box stores, mainly Best Buy and Costco selling consumer cameras for the most part. We have to buy from Seattle now at Glazers or Kenmore Camera as the closest physical pro Camera store. There is also Robi's Camera Supply near Tacoma. Some of these stores have hard to find products like the EF to RF adapters.

I live in a small town in a metro area of about 2.6 million. The camera stores that I have been to have all closed, but Google tells me there is one 29 miles from me that has been there for over 40 years. Their website shows a variety of services and products, all photography related. The Best Buy 11 miles down the interstate from me had, as last I was there, a surprisingly good camera department with knowledgeable sales persons. I have bought several cameras there in the last few years and a couple of my lenses. Of course I don't know what is going on there now. If you got serious about a particular brand, the sales folks would hand you off to the person who shot that kind, if they were there. The guy who sold me my 6D2 had a 6D himself, so he was quite helpful. His photography business had picked up so much that he cut his hours back a lot, he told me. I didn't see him when I bought my G5X II there last year, but the salesman was very helpful. I also looked at the M50 and the Sony that was in the same general class as the G5X, but more expensive. The salesman helped me look at the pros and cons of each. The Sony got eliminated quickly because the newer versions add more telephoto length at the expense of lens speed, exactly backward from my needs for travel. I like to shop locally when possible, even if it is in a big box store, especially when I can get that level of customer service.
 
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SteveC

R5
CR Pro
Sep 3, 2019
2,678
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I live in a small town in a metro area of about 2.6 million. The camera stores that I have been to have all closed, but Google tells me there is one 29 miles from me that has been there for over 40 years. Their website shows a variety of services and products, all photography related. The Best Buy 11 miles down the interstate from me had, as last I was there, a surprisingly good camera department with knowledgeable sales persons. I have bought several cameras there in the last few years and a couple of my lenses. Of course I don't know what is going on there now. If you got serious about a particular brand, the sales folks would hand you off to the person who shot that kind, if they were there. The guy who sold me my 6D2 had a 6D himself, so he was quite helpful. His photography business had picked up so much that he cut his hours back a lot, he told me. I didn't see him when I bought my G5X II there last year, but the salesman was very helpful. I also looked at the M50 and the Sony that was in the same general class as the G5X, but more expensive. The salesman helped me look at the pros and cons of each. The Sony got eliminated quickly because the newer versions add more telephoto length at the expense of lens speed, exactly backward from my needs for travel. I like to shop locally when possible, even if it is in a big box store, especially when I can get that level of customer service.

I sure hope no one at Best Buy reads this; they will probably have to fire the knowledgeable salesmen and replace them with the usual clueless monkeys.

The only qualification for Best Buy sales is an unwillingness to say "I don't know" and a willingness to make up an answer to cover your ignoriance.
 
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jam05

R5, C70
Mar 12, 2019
916
584
I'm surprised that there isn't a business model that could work. With the decline in brick and mortar stores, I would think that a show where consumers could go and actually see cameras and lenses first hand would be sustainable post-pandemic. Tamron used to (maybe they still do) have a traveling show to showcase their lenses, but it was tied to local camera shops, which are all but dead now.

Other hobbies have successfully developed traveling shows that hit major convention centers and draw people from hundreds of miles away. I'd certainly travel to Chicago, St. Louis or Indianapolis if there were a show where Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fuji, Sigma, Tamron, etc., were exhibiting. Possibly needs to be under the auspices of a retailer like Adorama or B&H.
[/QUOTE
Cost vs revenue. Too much cost. Especially air fare & hotel expenses.
 
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jam05

R5, C70
Mar 12, 2019
916
584
It's definitely too little, too late, but I now have a policy of supporting my local brick and mortar shop. I print there, I buy gear there if they carry it at all. The exception I make is for refurbs and filters (their house brand sucks).
Very few even carry sufficient inventory. 80% of items online are never available locally.
 
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SteveC

R5
CR Pro
Sep 3, 2019
2,678
2,592
Very few even carry sufficient inventory. 80% of items online are never available locally.

True.

In my case I am lucky; I am able to find most RF lenses at the Brick And Mortar, though in some cases I might have to have one shipped from another store (they are a chain with about a dozen stores in two states). Fortunately the more specialized ones I am not interested in (yet). Ancillary gear like bags and straps is a little more problematic; they don't carry a lot of different brands, and that is something I really do want to see and try out in person before I buy. A familiar sight is me bringing in a loaded bag and moving all the contents into their display bag to be sure they fit and there is a place for everything, before I will buy the bag. (I did lose a rear lens cap and body cap that way one time--ones they didn't sell so I couldn't replace them.) However, I won't buy their filters, and if they flat out don't carry an item, I won't hesitate to jump to B&H.

The fact that they know me at this shop meant I was able to preorder the R5 before it was officially announced, and that let me be possibly the first person in my 500,000+ county to have an R5 instead of finding myself SOL for not getting my order in in the first thirty seconds.
 
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Sep 20, 2020
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Everyone's going to have to go to Apple's WWDC instead :/
Apple basically obsoleted wristwatches because people could use smartphones to keep time and schedules but then they came out with a huge selling smartwatch.
I have no doubt they could do the same for point and shoot cameras.
I doubt that Apple is interested in the professional camera market.
 
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Having resisted for so long I believe they will be relaunching the event as Phonekina and there will only be Samsung and Sony present at the event.
Why Sony? They hardly have any share of the phone market. Samsung, though, is one of the top market leaders. As is Huawei (basically tied with Samsung for the top spot) who would likely attend, too, if the EU would allow them to.
 
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Sep 20, 2020
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Why Sony? They hardly have any share of the phone market. Samsung, though, is one of the top market leaders. As is Huawei (basically tied with Samsung for the top spot) who would likely attend, too, if the EU would allow them to.
Sony dominates the phone sensor market.
I read that they lost a lot of market share to Samsung because Huawei was Sony's biggest customer.
Samsung has itself and Apple.
 
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