Windsor show may be small-scale but proves to be big on attractions
Discuss the show
Photo Optix did a good job of putting on their digital imaging fair
The camera dealer, Photo-Optix, is holding a cosy digital imaging fair at Royal Windsor Race Course this weekend. I went along to see what was happening today and was pleasantly surprised. The show was open today between 10AM and 6PM and tomorrow (Sunday) opens between 10AM and 5PM.
For the £6 entrance fee (there is free parking and a Windsor station shuttle bus) you get exhibits, special offers and seminars from a variety of companies, from most of the big name camera manufacturers to accessory suppliers and magazine publishers.
You won’t be able to buy one of these 8MP Sony DSC F828s until the new year, but if you order one at the show you will get £100 off
Besides Photo-Optix busily satisfying demand for specially discounted special offers exclusive to the weekend, a respectable number of other companies are exhibiting and I found a number of, otherwise, elusive items to have a play with. Sony had one working pre production example of the amazing new 8 megapixel DSC-F828 prosumer camera for show visitors to try out, Nikon had a D2H pro DSLR, Olympus had a number of E-1 DSLRs to demonstrate, Fujifilm had the new S7000 on show, Sigma’s new SD10 was on their stand, Minolta had at least one Dimage A1 and Canon had most of its range on show, including the new EOS-300D.
The modular Archos AV320 is a Video walkman that can be upgraded to a fully-fledged 3MP digicam with 3x optical zoom
I was alerted to the show’s actual existence this week by Archos, who were showing their range of portable hard disk based multimedia players that can double up as digital cameras and memory card readers.
You will also find IPC, who publish What Digital Camera, Amateur Photographer and Better Digital Photography exhibiting there. Besides the fact that I regularly write for 2 out of three of these titles (WDC and BDP) it’s worth mentioning because they are giving out free copies of the latest issues of the magazines if you fill in a simple form. You can also buy subscriptions at special show rates.
Among the other exhibitors present were camera bag makers, LowePro., Future Publishing, who publish T3 magazine and Digital Camera Shopper, among others, Kyocera, Kodak, camera case makers, Tamrac, rechargeable battery specialists, Uniross, etc.
And here are a few more shots from the show this afternoon:
If you are a fan of the Foveon X3 chip, you can have a play with the brand new Sigma SD10 camera at the show
Benq’s stylish new 5MP compact digicam, only launched in the last week, was on display
Another surprise at the show was the appearance of the new Nikon D2H
Several Olympus E-1s and accessories were being demonstrated
The show continues tomorrow from 10AM until 5PM at the Royal Windsor Race Course, which is relatively easy to reach from either the M3 or M4.
Discuss the show
