Topic: focus on imaging

[This-is-damion]

Did anyone make it to Focus this year?

I might brave it tomorrow....

[mikeg]

I went on Sunday. Was OK. Less there than the previous couple of years, especially with Canon pulling out at the last minute. Got a bit crowded after lunch with loads of the usual "lens fondlers", but it didn't seem as busy as last year. I suspect lots of the Canon fanbois stayed at home.

There seemed to be slightly more traditional photography than previous years. Interesting to see Silverprint there, although it was a small stand with nothing for sale, just them handing out catalogues and discount vouchers.

Had my photo taken on Harman's stand with a 10x8 and their direct positive paper. Also, liked the look of Harman's new Classic Art paper, shame it only liths after bleach and redevelopment. Tim Rudman had some examples and they were stunning.

Picked up some 120 film on Harman's stand for 2 pounds a roll. Both Harman and another stand had some good prices on film.

Didn't spend too much, thank goodness! Brought some framing stuff for forthcoming exhibitions. Also, got some inkjet paper at much reduced prices. I'd stopped subscribing to a number of magazines, including Silvershotz last summer in an economy drive. I'd missed it, so I resubscribed.

Mike

[Fedo]

I went along yesterday. I've never been before and I must admit that the "big white pro-lens" crowd were doing my head in 

After recovering in the bar for a bit I bought a ton of paper & film from the Harman stand and got a discount card which classes me as "Camera Club" grade according to the "price of film" thread. I thought that they must have seen me as a pro until I read that 

Harman had some great stuff on their stand such as the afore mentioned 10x8 "instant" portrait camera & Mike Walker (I think) of Walker Cameras showing some rather neat looking 4x5 pinhole cameras that he's made.

Apart from Harman, there wasn't that much for filmwasters to enjoy. At least Kodak had a small mention of film on their stand, and a big box of what looked like portra, ektar & tmax freebies to give away but I must have looked too amateur as I couldn't seem to blag any.

Sadly Fuji had obliterated all existance of film from their stand with no medium format folders to salivate over.

The film & paper alone recouped the ticket price so I was feeling pretty virtuous until I gave in to temptation & bought lovely new Pentax DA35mm F2.4 lens from Jacobs stand for £129. I'm told it works perfectly well on film bodies despite Pentax saying otherwise so I'm looking forward to giving it a try     

[gothamtomato]

Where was this Focus event?

[mikeg]

At the NEC, Birmingham, UK. http://www.focus-on-imaging.co.uk/

Mike

[Late Developer]

My wife and I went on Monday 7th. It was mobbed. We usually go on the opening Sunday but we were at the Joel Meyerowitz talk in Derby on the 6th and travelled down to NEC afterwards.

This was my 3rd or 4th "Focus" and I felt disappointed by it. There seemed to be far fewer "obvious" film-related stands than I remember at previous shows and I was incandescent when I tried the new Nikkor 28-300mm lens on my F5 only to find that the bloody thing would neither autofocus nor activate the VR. All the "first edition" VR lenses work fine but none of the VR2 "upgrades".

The Nikon guys were very embarrassed and have promised to check with the boffins back in Surrey to find out whether this is fault is known and whether it's fixable.