The Photography Show - is it worth it?

yamahatdm900 said:
Park at the International Train Station think its £9.50 weekend or £12.20 weekdays (could well be wrong but its a lot cheaper than the NEC car park).
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Bit annoying with the parking, we went to the caravan show at the NEC a few weeks ago and parking was included in the ticket price but sadly not this time.

I'm currently living around 15 minutes from the NEC so i'll get a lift from the wife.
 
imattersuk said:
Norwich WEX are awful, they won't let you touch anything, i'm being serious, not even a lens from an unsealed box. Putney branch is pretty good.

LCE on the other hand are super helpful at every branch i've been to.
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WEX in London is pretty good, lots of gear out to touch.
 
Kieran_89 said:
I thought about going this year to see Gary Gough as he's speaking but tickets plus parking is £50 and it's only across hall 5 which doesn't seem worth the money when you read peoples experiences from previous years.
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Any idea what day/time Gary is speaking?

Had a brief look through the show guide and couldn't find his name.
 
I have not attended for several years now. I only attend if there are specific items I wish to buy and thus look for a bargain. This has worked well in the past but I am not looking for any kit right now so no point in attending. I know they also have some good talks but we have similar or the same people visit my Camera Club.

Dave
 
We’re here now and other than the Wex stand, there’s not really anything that interests me so it’ll be a fairly swift visit.

Also the Wex stand doesn’t have any special prices for those interested.
 
Wex website has some special “show” offers and had an email from them with some offers on
 
We went with a friend and we all agreed it was much smaller than in previous years. It didn’t fill Hall 5. Our friend bought a camera with an unexpected free lens so she’s very happy.

Food offering was more restricted as well and very pricey.

They were offering £5 vouchers for next year in London. That’s a big no from us.
 
nog said:
Wex website has some special “show” offers and had an email from them with some offers on
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I asked at the Wex stand for any discounts as I looked at the Nikon 28-400 but same price as online. Cheaper to order grey market.
 
welshwizard645 said:
Small matter of car needing new front brake disks and pads and the horn fixed has gobbled up my spare cash this month....
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A much better use for your money:)
 
Kieran_89 said:
We’re here now and other than the Wex stand, there’s not really anything that interests me so it’ll be a fairly swift visit.

Also the Wex stand doesn’t have any special prices for those interested.
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One of the reasons to attend was the show prices being offered at slightly lower than their online price. Kind of pointless attending if your only reason is to buy there if you can buy at the same price online anyway .
 
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rob-nikon said:
One of the reasons to attend was the show prices being offered at slightly lower than their online price. Kind of pointless attending if your only reason is to buy there if you can buy at the same price online anyway ‍
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Well, as I've said before, the astronomical costs of exhibiting make it impossible to offer any real bargains, unless we count unsaleable junk or old stock as bargains.
 
rob-nikon said:
That’s the thing it just becomes check out the kit there and buy grey online. Won’t be any uk camera shops in the end.
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Even if you minus the vat many cameras like z8 or r5 ii are still priced absolutely insanely in uk.

Probably coming on monday for some talks. The list looks interesting. Lindsay adler will be speaking; thats 2 high profile talks right there
 
Garry Edwards said:
Well, as I've said before, the astronomical costs of exhibiting make it impossible to offer any real bargains, unless we count unsaleable junk or old stock as bargains.
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R5 should be old stock bargain about now, but i fear they will manage to keep it going at r5ii grey prices till next year

Who knows, if Tuesday afternoon will throw some interesting deals. You can expect 100-200 off extra for crap they dont want to bring back
 
Garry Edwards said:
Well, as I've said before, the astronomical costs of exhibiting make it impossible to offer any real bargains, unless we count unsaleable junk or old stock as bargains.
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I understand the high cost of exhibiting. I don’t expect there to be huge discounts. I seem to remember times when retailers wouldn’t discount prices or run discounted sales in their stores around the time of the photography show. ‘Show prices’ were discounts on the shops normal non sale price around the time of the show.

I will be looking at the Nikon Z 205mm macro tomorrow. Panama £760 but UK online is £699 as it’s on sale. Previously the normal store price would have held up such as Februarys £900 and the ‘show price’ would be the £699 they offer to get people to go to the NEC show.

IMG_0361.jpeg

I guess so few retailers attend now because of the high exhibition cost that they all put on ‘show prices’ online that anyone can get so no need to attend any more to get that slight discount. If you’re only going to buy stuff then it’s pretty pointless if prices are the same as UK online considering the extra cost in getting there, parking, ticket, food & drink. Hopefully still good to get hands on with kit to test it out and check out the talks too.
 
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Garry Edwards said:
Well, as I've said before, the astronomical costs of exhibiting make it impossible to offer any real bargains, unless we count unsaleable junk or old stock as bargains.
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Even if it's same price as online. I'd buy at the exhibition handing my cash personally. I miss going to a camera shop to try things out and buy right then and their
 
rob-nikon said:
That’s the thing it just becomes check out the kit there and buy grey online. Won’t be any uk camera shops in the end.
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The difference in costs are quite large vs grey. Like I'm willing to spend an extra 100 to 200 in a 1k or more purchase but if people can save almost half the costs? Hard to say no to grey unfortunately
 
I've just come back from the show. It's was okay, a lot smaller than the previous one.

Some bargains, if you were looking, with some discounts at WEX and LCE but still £400+ compared the grey. Lots of folk walking around with bags full of kit however.

What I found annoying is things didn't have prices on and you had to stand and wait 30 minutes to get someone to even ask...

The talks were ok but obviously trying to promote products which is fine.

Overall I would say 6 or 7 out of 10 for me. Although I didn't buy anything I had a good look at a Z6iii and ZR.

WEX were doing the Z6iii for about £1780 or similar.

A few YouTube folk dotted around (I didn't speak or talk to them) and overall about 6/10 for me.

Food was silly expensive - who pays £17 for a rice bowl. Two 330 ml bottles for water set be back almost £6 lol
 
Adamcski said:
I've just come back from the show. It's was okay, a lot smaller than the previous one.

Some bargains, if you were looking, with some discounts at WEX and LCE but still £400+ compared the grey. Lots of folk walking around with bags full of kit however.

What I found annoying is things didn't have prices on and you had to stand and wait 30 minutes to get someone to even ask...

The talks were ok but obviously trying to promote products which is fine.

Overall I would say 6 or 7 out of 10 for me. Although I didn't buy anything I had a good look at a Z6iii and ZR.

WEX were doing the Z6iii for about £1780 or similar.

A few YouTube folk dotted around (I didn't speak or talk to them) and overall about 6/10 for me.

Food was silly expensive - who pays £17 for a rice bowl. Two 330 ml bottles for water set be back almost £6 lol
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I always bring pack lunch. Was it really busy inside and how was parking?
 
jonneymendoza said:
I always bring pack lunch. Was it really busy inside and how was parking?
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It was okay. You could move around until the various exhibitors held their sessions and then you can't walk in-between the stands as people are blocking everything.

Didn't drive there (got dropped off) so couldn't say about parking.

It wasn't as busy as the last one I went to at the NEC and when I spoke to some of the team at Wex, they suggested it was about 30% smaller.
 
Adamcski said:
It was okay. You could move around until the various exhibitors held their sessions and then you can't walk in-between the stands as people are blocking everything.

Didn't drive there (got dropped off) so couldn't say about parking.

It wasn't as busy as the last one I went to at the NEC and when I spoke to some of the team at Wex, they suggested it was about 30% smaller.
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I went to the one last year in London and it was busy.

Went to the last one in nec as well.

I much prefer London one as I live in London and in London, after the exhibition you can sign up and do an afternoon photo walk around the docks.
 
Anyone wants a Pro ticket, let me know, as I was going to go on Monday, but can't make it, had a bit of a fall last week and ended up breaking a few ribs, I can email the ticket, it can be used for any day
 
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going monday, I went to the first post covid one, the re-aranged one, it was empty and small, previous to this it seemed massive and lots of traders. How does it compare to the pre-covid ones size wise?
 
A_S said:
going monday, I went to the first post covid one, the re-aranged one, it was empty and small, previous to this it seemed massive and lots of traders. How does it compare to the pre-covid ones size wise?
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Last year was big
 
A_S said:
going monday, I went to the first post covid one, the re-aranged one, it was empty and small, previous to this it seemed massive and lots of traders. How does it compare to the pre-covid ones size wise?
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It was a lot smaller... barely filled the hall and there was a black curtain across one end making it smaller. 3LT, Just, Camera world were 3 more I noticed missing this time. My friend did get a good deal on an OM5ii with a kit lens and then, unexpectedly, a free lens and half price extra battery. she was dead chuffed... it made no sense to squish the stands together when there was a very big empty space at one end; well, unless it was to make it look busy. A friend who works regularly on the show said that London was very quiet and that they could go for a wander round during the day as they were not very busy, no big queues to get in etc. Hey ho. I hope it is not terminal. We are not going to Excel next year; travel, accommodation make it a silly price.
 
Went today, not bad, but not as big as in previous years, a couple of observations though...

First, there was clearly fewer stands than in previous years with plenty of unused space around the edge of the hall, why not spread things out a bit more to there is more room for people to move?

Second, why do so many people take cameras to this show, especially with long lenses and knowing how busy it can get, I don't get it, what is the point? I went to the camping and caravan show in Feb, I didn't feel the need to take my tent...
 
nx4737 said:
Went today, not bad, but not as big as in previous years, a couple of observations though...

First, there was clearly fewer stands than in previous years with plenty of unused space around the edge of the hall, why not spread things out a bit more to there is more room for people to move?

Second, why do so many people take cameras to this show, especially with long lenses and knowing how busy it can get, I don't get it, what is the point? I went to the camping and caravan show in Feb, I didn't feel the need to take my tent...
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Ugh?

One of the best advice is to take your camera with u so u can attach lenses to it that you wanna try on it.

I agree about not takin a large lens. Pointless.

Just try the 600mm when you get there lol.

I always go there with a body and one prime. That's it
 
nx4737 said:
Went today, not bad, but not as big as in previous years, a couple of observations though...

First, there was clearly fewer stands than in previous years with plenty of unused space around the edge of the hall, why not spread things out a bit more to there is more room for people to move?

Second, why do so many people take cameras to this show, especially with long lenses and knowing how busy it can get, I don't get it, what is the point? I went to the camping and caravan show in Feb, I didn't feel the need to take my tent...
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They squeeze everything together for financial and logistical reasons, carpets and cables etc are all paid for by the metre…spread all aisles out by another 10 metres and it apparently all gets rather pricy rather quickly.

I went yesterday and found plenty to occupy myself but it does feel like a show in trouble long term.
 
I think they will need to include more for video and the online creator type market moving forward as that's where everything seems to be going now doesn't it, well at least in my eyes.

My kids don't do cameras (16 & 18) they do however use their phones for everything, photo and video and then quick click and upload.....

I sense this is the way things will move over the years. I can't see either of them carrying a big camera round when in their world, the phones can do a hell of a lot (including the editing) with minimal effort.

I'm not saying it's right, just what I see with my kids and their friends. It's all done on their phone.
 
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jonneymendoza said:
Ugh?

One of the best advice is to take your camera with u so u can attach lenses to it that you wanna try on it.

I agree about not takin a large lens. Pointless.

Just try the 600mm when you get there lol.

I always go there with a body and one prime. That's it
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I get it, up to a point, but most stands had multiple cameras with various lenses already attached, it looked more like most people just had cameras over their shoulders as fashion accessories.

I also saw a couple of Instagram 'models', people were crowded around them taking photos, which I just found a bit odd.
 
Adamcski said:
I think they will need to include more for video and the online creator type market moving forward as that's where everything seems to be going now doesn't it, well at least in my eyes.

My kids don't do cameras (16 & 18) they do however use their phones for everything, photo and video and then quick click and upload.....

I sense this is the way things will move over the years. I can't see either of them carrying a big camera round when in their world, the phones can do a hell of a lot (including the editing) with minimal effort.

I'm not saying it's right, just what I see with my kids and their friends. It's all done on their phone.
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is this not spliting the niches into 1) photo and video 2) content creation.
 
jamesev said:
is this not spliting the niches into 1) photo and video 2) content creation.
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I don't know but given there are a lot of people just using phones now and the show getting smaller, perhaps expanding to include these other areas would help? I saw a lot of people walking around vlogging and such.

I don't know and I'm not too worried as it's just a hobby for me. If I go to the next show great, if not, life continues.
 
Adamcski said:
I don't know but given there are a lot of people just using phones now and the show getting smaller, perhaps expanding to include these other areas would help? I saw a lot of people walking around vlogging and such.

I don't know and I'm not too worried as it's just a hobby for me. If I go to the next show great, if not, life continues.
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I feel the biggest threat to photography is Ai and especially to certain genres such as modelling. If you can bypass the need for models, lighting, licencing, contracts and just take a few basic snaps of an item of clothing and then have Ai generate a whole perfectly lit magazine image from that then it will make a lot of aspects of a studio shot redundant.
 
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