Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2008/05/31

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Subject: IMG: [Leica] Alastair and Hoppy meet up Episode two
From: hoppyman at bigpond.net.au (Geoff Hopkinson)
Date: Sat May 31 23:09:22 2008
References: <000901c8c163$6f0068c0$6b01a8c0@dadquad><0K1N002HVKI5PF20@l-daemon> <000001c8c326$45220490$6b01a8c0@dadquad>

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=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/




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Replies: Reply from jayanand at gmail.com (Jayanand Govindaraj) (IMG: [Leica] Alastair and Hoppy meet up Episode two)
Reply from luisripoll at telefonica.net (Luis Ripoll) ([Leica] Alastair and Hoppy meet up Episode two)
Reply from photo at frozenlight.eu (Nathan) (IMG: [Leica] Alastair and Hoppy meet up Episode two)
Reply from tedgrant at shaw.ca (Ted Grant) ([Leica] Alastair and Hoppy meet up Episode two)
In reply to: Message from hoppyman at bigpond.net.au (Geoff Hopkinson) ([Leica] A lot of DMR attention)
Message from tedgrant at shaw.ca (Ted Grant) ([Leica] A lot of DMR attention)
Message from hoppyman at bigpond.net.au (Geoff Hopkinson) ([Leica] Alastair and Hoppy meet up Episode one)