Last week the Photokina tradeshow in Cologne Germany was the stage for the latest on photographic equipment. I spent two days to meet some people and see what’s new. Walking towards the entrance I got captured and my early-morning-face was projected on a huge screen covering the entire fairs’ facade. Good morning Cologne! The big brands had massive and impressive stands, and by 10 AM the place was swarming with people. Most visitors carried heavy dslr bodies around their necks.
Innovations that caught my attention were the 3D scanning and 360 degrees photography presented by different companies. This technology, also called CGI (Computer Generated Imaging) allows you to photograph objects from all sides and blend together objects from real life and realistic 3D environments. Although I am an admirer of the unadulterated still photography, the way this technology creates a wireframe of an object and allows you to apply all sorts of textures to it is kind of fascinating. Photographer Chase Jarvis demonstrated the new Nikon D7000 with a music video and stills that he shot with this new camera. Various brands presented their new mirror-less compact cameras with light sensitive lenses. I discovered some neat new features in an Adobe CS5 workshop and took a nap at the Lomography beach of snapshots.
It was good to see our Blurb friends there and talk with ‘Photo News, Zeitung fur fotografie’, Marc Ludwig who started an online TV channel called FotoTV.com. FotoTV.com has the ambition to become the global destination for photographers seeking for information and inspiration. Regarding the online presentation side of things, besides our online video friends Animoto, I couldn’t really discover any other representation of this subject. Do we need to do something about this for the next edition of Photokina? At the end of day two I felt overdosed by images, products and presentations and was content to leave the Messe complex at free will.