Photokina (Cologne 26 Sept - 1 Oct) is the premier bi-annual photographic event in Europe.
I was helping Innova Art on its stand, see later.
The major companies had scaled down their operations:- they were making less money - and really there was little new.
Sony of course was making a splash following their acquisition of part of Konica Minolta's business.
Fuji had a new look - and a very natty feature on its new range of cameras - face detection.
Out - Konica Minolta.
Out - Agfa.
Out - Polaroid.
Nothing too exciting from Kodak, Pentax, Olympus, Panasonic etc.
- at least in the consumer/prosumer markets which Incartek tracks.
Nokia and Ericsson made a push.
Admittedly the results from the 3.
2m pixel smartphonessuch as the Nokia 93 look impressive and as they said at the Nokia press conference.
"The best camera that you have is the one you have with you".
In Hall 4.
1 the key word was "Workflow".
Get the best picture easily and quickly - whether you are rookie amateur or a seasoned pro.
We were looking at this area intently - looking for software which clients can bundle with their paper and ink offerings - or sell in their own right - to get people printing more and consuming more ink and paper.
Hall 10.
1 featured paper and output.
Innova Art's stand was very activeThe TIPA-award winning FibaPrint papers, now with matt and satin finished as well as gloss and a range of new digital canvas products were in demand, as were the alums.
Many other stands showed minilab based binding systems for use by minilabs with good ase of use and quality (if expensive) output.