2/03/2007

Photoworld! And I'm supposed to be saving up...

Damn.

I've never seen so many gadgets that I'd love to own in one place before.

I went to Glorietta earlier today to check out PhotoWorld Manila 2007 with a few friends who were also camera nuts (in Am's case, just plain nuts). We wandered around for a bit looking at the things on display, lingered in the more interesting booths, played around with some of the toys on display and exercised out right to lust over equipment that we'd likely never own.

It's sad really...

The JT booth had lots of gear and we stayed there for some time with me coming back over and over to ogle a bit. They had SIGMA lenses, but sadly the 10-20 Nikon mount wasn't in stock. If it were, I might have had difficulty controlling myself from buying the damn thing... I'll need it next week for my Bohol trip after all... I'd like to experiment with an ultra-wide soon so I wanted to get this lens. I seem to always miss out on the opportunity to get it though.

JT also had LowePro bags, Stofen diffusers, SIGMA flash guns, waterproof/shockproof cases (which had the funniest commercials i've ever seen) and tripods. Velbon tripods to be exact.

I've been looking for a decent tripod for the past few weeks. I have a really old Velbon aluminum tripod that's fit for holding up small vehicles if you judge it by how it looks and weighs. This thing is heavy! So heavy that if you forget to lock the legs and it moves and manages to clamp your hands between the legs then it will HURT! To top it off, it has no quick release platform for your camera so you're forced to thread the tripod mounting screw every time you want to play around with it. I wanted to purchase a Manfrotto ball head at PWM2k7 earlier today but they didn't accept credit cards at the Manfrotto booth so tough luck for me... Anyway, I was looking for the Velbon 400-series tripod but JT only had the 600R. The price difference isn't much, only around 500 or so but I kept thinking about the Benro tripods at 24k in Hidalgo. Roughly 3-4k price so it might be a better buy overall. So my new tripod will have to wait.

In the Island Multi booth, they had Manfrottos, Cokin, Mamiya, Hasselblad and other known name brands. they also had National Geographic stuff and it was cute! Imagine running around with a Manfrotto tripod with leg neoprene covers with the NatGeo logo, NatGeo emblem on the ballhead and NatGeo equip bag? You'll probably get into events a bit faster and be revered in travel shoots... Maybe. Heh...

I got a Cokin circular polarizer from Island and it was pretty reasonable in price. 1.4k compared to the Fujiyama or Tiffen which are 2-3x more expensive. Reviews n the Cokin aren't bad so I'll try it out and see for myself soon.

After playing with the VRs, 2.8s, 1.8s and etc in the Nikon booth, I bought the cheapest thing they had but something I really needed. the BC-5. It's the plastic LCD cover for my D70s. My cover's bottom latch snapped off after multiple removals so this was a nice find for the day. At P350 it wasn't too painful on my pocket either.

We wandered over to the Canon booths since Pacs (office mate/photonut) was a 350D user. Lusting after lenses apparently isn't restricted to the Dark Side (Nikon). While I love the Nikon lineup of lenses, Canon's L-series lenses are impressive. If you see a white Canon lens it's an automatic mark of respect since he's either a pro or filthy rich (which doesn't entail much respect now that I think about it).

I played around with the 400D, the 1DS and finally the MkII. The MkII is huge! Seems bigger than the Nikon D2H in my hands... but maybe that was due to the 100-400 L lens on it. This combination is heavy enough to require the tripod mount be on the lens collar since extended use might stress the mount rings... I can't imagine this lens on a 350D since the camera will be dwarfed by the humongous optics.

Sony had a booth as well with their new Alpha dslr, video cams and Cybershots. I looked at the alpha. I lifted the Alpha. I looked through the viewfinder and focused. Conclusion, I hate the alpha. It's too light I think to damp down shutter vibration and hand tremors. While it's true that Sony's version of VR will alleviate much of this issue, it still won't cure it completely. You'll still have to go through the trial-and-error approach by taking multiples hots and picking the sharp one. This could make you miss a critical shot that happens once in a lifetime. Also, the lightness of the body with a lens already attached (18-55) makes it feel like a cheap toy. Honestly, I might be biased towards my tank-like D70s but the Alpha just feels too flimsy for my tastes.

Pentax had a booth right next to Sony. Doesn't matter much since I know jack about their camera except for pricing which is comparable to Canon/Nikon so I'd rather go with the brands with more support with it's installed base and with a better 2nd hand market.

So how was Photoworld for me? Not bad. I saw some interesting things on display, saw stuff I'd like to buy but can't afford, saw stuff I can afford but don't need to buy right now, saw things I was curious about and will research on in the next few days and other things...

I would've preferred that they had more vendors attend. I only saw one Quiapo store represented and I really would have liked to see Mayer, 24k, Henry's and others represented there. It would have given the photographers more options, more things to gawk at and generally liven up the event a bit more.

Instead of going here though, maybe you can just trek on down to Hidalgo... They've fixed up the streets, cleared the vendors and generally made the place as good as in it was in it's heyday. You'll likely find great bargains in the unseen corners of the little stores there. You can haggle with the shop owners. You can canvass prices next-door. There are an infinite number of things to look at, purhcase and fondle while in Hidalgo for us camera buffs. Don't let the harassing travel get to you. It's part of the experience of getting to Quiapo. =)

Photoworld is a great place to showcase your latest and greatest products for the big names. It's a venue for displaying your noteworthy and strange items and somewhere you can get your name recognized if you have a shop. It's a place to entice non-photographers into the "dark side". For buying your preferred lightsaber and other tools of the trade though, head on down to Hidalgo.

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