Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2008/05/31
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hoppy, No wonder you guys didn't bother with Nikon or Canon (which otherwise might be construed as aberrant behaviour), what with the eye candy at the Olympus booth... Cheers Jayanand On Sun, Jun 1, 2008 at 11:39 AM, Geoff Hopkinson <hoppyman@bigpond.net.au> wrote: > > As promised the first twelve photos from Alastair and hoppy at the PMA show > are in this gallery > <http://www.pbase.com/hoppyman/k> > http://tinyurl.com/4dsfx8 > > Alastair visited Brisbane with his lovely wife, Helen. Alastair and I had a > very enjoyable afternoon and evening together in the LUG tradition. > There were beers and Leicas, cameras, sushi and even Senoritas. > We started with a leisurely lunch and, as the table became covered with M8s > and lenses, I met, I think one of the first M8s to come to Aus. > We went to the PMA photo and imaging show and had a splendid afternoon > together. > Leica was very well represented both by distributor and seller, Olympus had > a superb and well organized display with plenty of new equipment to try as > well as really knowledgeable and interested staff. Sony had a lot of > equipment and a large staff, all of whom completely ignored us as we tried > to look at their cameras. Hasselblad entertained Alastair for some time and > made me feel positively economical with Leica prices vs. Hasselblad. Nikon > and Canon were probably there, you'd have to ask someone that wanted to > look! I'm sure I saw signs to their displays ;-) Eizo and their superb > monitors had a large display and I think every single vendor seemed to use > their monitors. So popular were they that their show discounted stock of > their new 22 inch monitor sold out in two hours of the opening day, Well > before the public got access. Epson was prominent. The new 2880 looks good, > but not as good as discounted 3800s. After a long search we found a single > small floor level cabinet with a handful of Fuji film. No information nor > interest that I could see. I'm not sure why they bothered. Maybe something > to do with the fact that their superb pro slide films cost six times as > much > here as in New York, although we have near parity with our dollar. > Apart from delicious rumours and some good deals mentioned by the Leica > folks, the highlight of the show for me was an incident at the Olympus > booth. Incidentally, they were really attentive, knowledgeable and helpful > folks. I got to play with the near to release E520, which has a great Live > view function and Alastair got good info on the E3 from a senior guy. > But I digress. The funny moment for me was when three models hired to be > camera test subjects strolled down and posed smiling for all. The crowd was > riveted except for one guy I saw, and everyone happily seized the demo > cameras and blazed away with smiles all around. Then I watched their faces > as, one by one they realized that they were shooting with the supplied > cameras. Can you see their problem? However, M8 shooters are made of > smarter > material and of course I have tried to share these moments here. I just > love > the Nikon guy in these, completely happy to have obtained a brochure on the > new E520 and carefully reading the specs. > A few more pics to come from me, and no doubt, Alastair will be attempting > to embarrass me with posts of his own. > > C&C welcome, as always > > > Cheers > Geoff > http://www.pbase.com/hoppyman/e > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/gh/ > > -----Original Message----- > From: lug-bounces+hoppyman=bigpond.net.au@leica-users.org > [mailto:lug-bounces+hoppyman <lug-bounces%2Bhoppyman>=bigpond.net.au@ > leica-users.org] On Behalf Of > Geoff Hopkinson > Sent: Saturday, 31 May 2008 23:58 > To: 'Leica Users Group' > Subject: [Leica] Alastair and Hoppy meet up Episode one > > WARNING WARNING even more rampant speculation. May be disquieting to R > owners. > Today Alastair and I attended the PMA photo and imaging show which is as > close as we get to a Photokina in Australia. We have a number of adventures > to relate and pictures to share very soon. More show report to follow too. > Naturally we spent time chatting with assorted Leica related > representatives > and friendly sales folks. > One of the retail folks admitted even wining and dining the R production > manager in Solms only to obtain not a single word on any future products. > His credibility we rated as likely to be very high and some attractive > deals > were mentioned on various red badged items. You have to like a man with an > MP slung over his shoulder, his personal camera, for shooting away at the > show. > We quizzed the friendly distributor guy expecting the cone of silence on > matters R related. Parts of this conversation must be repeated to the best > of our memories. > LUG guy: will the new R camera use the existing R lenses? > Leica guy: No > LUG guy: It won't be 35mm sized? > Leica guy: No the sensor will be too big > > LUG guy to LUG guy: Did he just say that?! We could have the world scoop on > this! I'm going to post this on the LUG right away and upset the R guys!! > > Thirty minutes later we check back with our Leica guy who does deflate us > somewhat by mentioning that this was entirely his guesswork. Rats! I much > preferred the story from seller number two who took the R production > manager > out for dinner and learnt nothing! > > > Cheers > Geoff > http://www.pbase.com/hoppyman/e > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/gh/ > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >