"Inspired to Dream" - the Canon 2012 Expo

The Canon 2012 Expo: “Inspired to dream….”

By Loftus Viljoen [Q.Q. Africa Photography]

Sandton Convention Centre

Dreams are said to be born out of a succession of emotions, images, ideas, and sensations which occurs involuntarily in the mind, or some people would say the brain, during certain stages when you are sleeping.  You can dream up to 2 hours during a normal period of 8 hours of sleep. However, for the creative mind, dreams can occur involuntarily while you are awake and this is called daydreaming.

The funny thing about dreams is that they occur during a period of high brain activity - while daydreaming has long been made out as being a lazy, non-productive pastime, it is now commonly acknowledged that daydreaming can be constructive in some contexts. According to Wikipedia there are numerous examples of people in creative or artistic careers, such as composers, novelists and filmmakers [and photographers], developing new ideas through daydreaming. Similarly, research scientists, mathematicians and physicists have developed new ideas by daydreaming about their subject areas.

It does not matter what the scientific, philosophical or religious explanations are, we all have dreams.  

Dreams can sometimes be triggered by seemingly something uneventful or just a new angle on a subject or it could be triggered by something specific.

With something like 250 millions pictures posted on social media/internet everyday everybody has now become “photo aware” and more and more people are looking at buying new quality cameras and lenses – Canon has globally sold 10 million new lenses in the last 10 months and that itself tells you a story. The competition between the various brands is fierce.

Last year's "It's all in the detail" winner and photojournalist, Naomi Myburgh, checking out some serious lenses

During the course of 2012 new products and services were introduced and launched on the photographic scene followed by various workshops, presentations, lectures or whatever to equip the photography consumer with new skills or a better understanding of the product or service. Unfortunately some of those product/service providers deemed it fit to present the same content with the same examples as a repeat course/lecture of something similar I attended earlier the year. That did not do anything to enhance my skills or promote the product/service to me and was a waste of my time – they only had to inform the consumer that it was a repeat course and I would have aligned my plans accordingly. There is nothing wrong to repeat courses or lectures as there are many people that did not attend it before.

On the photography scene two of the most anticipated events were the Photo & Film Expo and the Canon Expo respectively. The main difference between these events is that at the Photo & Film Expo you have anything up to 300 exhibitors displaying an array of products and/or services they are marketing and for the privilege to have nearly everything at one place the photography consumer pays a hefty entrance fee. With the internet and the online media you will rarely find a new product launch or even see a new product or service at the Photo & Film Expo. I am on a “new product watch” on the internet so if there are rumours about something new I will know about it long before it is freely available on the market so I do not go to Shows/Expos to buy new products.

The Canon Expo on the other hand is solely a display of Canon products/services and no, you do not have to pay an entrance fee to visit this Expo.

At a commercial expo you will find that the exhibitors will lure you with all kind of deals or offers to buy their products/services whereas at a branded expo you will find that all the focus is on the branded products/services.

The similarities of the Canon Expo with the Photo & Film Expo are that they are all photography related, have very attractive competitions, but most of all they offer a variety of workshops or presentations or lectures. 

By looking at other peoples work and techniques you are able to judge where you are with your work, skills and techniques. This will determine where you are going photography wise. 

Being in the safari rental business, as I am, I have often seen people go on a photographic safari equipped with the best cameras, lenses and equipment available on the market and then they do not know their equipment or how the cameras [mainly cameras] work.  Very often that little book [called a manual] that came with the camera has never been opened or studied – when I ask people if they have ever read their manual the general answer is that they are difficult to understand. What I also find is that many of the guests on safari do not know what the functions of aperture, shutter-speed and ISO are and what the influence the one has on the other. And, if you want to add more to the confusion talk about white balance or colour temperatures.  If you know these basics you will understand the dials, buttons and functions of your camera/s better.  

Attending the various workshops or lectures or whatever gives me the opportunity to get the “feel” of new products or branded products and I get to check out the basic functions, but my primary objective is to learn. You are not too old to learn. I have attended workshops on various genres of photography this year, like portraits, studio, weddings, travel, photojournalism and wildlife, despite the fact that my preferred field is wildlife photography.  On each of these workshops I have learnt something or got some useful tips, for example in night photography shoot in Raw and set your camera WB to “daylight” and this will enable you to capture both tungsten and fluorescent lights in their natural colour. The “daylight” WB setting is “neutral” and captures the full colour range.

Canon's new 200-400mm f4 lens on display at the Canon 2012 Expo

 

The Canon Expo is probably the last major photographic expo of 2012 and before I visited this show I knew that they would have a couple of international speakers [as I have seen their work on the internet] as well as local presenters, but I also knew that Canon would have the much talked and much anticipated Canon 200-400mm f4 L lens with IS and 1.4x built in converter on show. This lens unofficially appeared at the London Olympics of 2012 and I knew that they had to make certain adjustments for the professional photographers on the final production model. 

As far as I am aware of it is also the first time outside Europe that this lens was on display and this shows you how the status of the Canon SA Expo have in the global context.

So I checked the Canon programs for the weekend and decided to go on Saturday. The skies were dull and rain eminent so we decide to leave our  cameras at home – bad decision, because as we approached the Convention Centre we saw a vagrant sleeping next to the extraction vent for the parking lot with the warm air blowing over him: this was a photo opportunity lost. 

As we entered the Sandton Convention Centre we were pleasantly surprised to find that there were banners up from last year’s competition winners, but as we went into the main exhibition area I saw that there was a major improvement on the flow and movement of people – there was a centre focus point in the middle where people can walk around with extra display areas on the outside parameter and 3 lecture areas [as opposed to last year’s 1]. The competition exhibits were much easier to access than last year. 

When we got there the first lectures already started and we quickly slipped in to listen and then something small caught my attention. A mirror-less camera that is able to accommodate all my EF-S and L-lenses. This camera is small and very handy as a back up or even a travel camera. Inspiration to dream…

Then…I laid my hands on the 200-400mm F4 [throughout the zoom range] with its 1.4x built in converter on a Canon 1Dx camera [what a combination…dream on…!!!]. Apart from rumours, nothing is really known about this lens, but from what I have seen was that it was fast and I liked the turn dial for the zoom as opposed to the slide out system of my old 100-400mm lens. It seemed to be lighter than my old 300mm f2.8 lens. The “bulge” on the left hand side of the lens which holds the 1.4x which apparently bothered the Olympic photographers was either redesigned or changed but for wildlife photography or even action photography it does not bother me. The closest focus appears to be 2 metres and I noted that it has 3 IS settings. The switch for the 1.4x converter is L-shaped and had a bit play. How durable it is or how the harsh desert conditions of the Namib or the Kalahari would have on it I don’t know  - I do not believe that the “play”on the display model would influence its dust/water resistant seals. I would certainly love to have this lens on my Wild Horses of the Namib trip next year [dream on……]. Back to reality it is rumoured that this lens is going to cost about R130,000.00 in South Africa which will probably put it out of reach of many photographers.

On the presentations - I was mesmerised with Brutus Östling’s take on bird photography – his setting up of the shots and the settings he used on his camera [it was all on the big presentation screen]. And then Ziv Koren did his bit on photojournalism and although I have seen some of his pictures before [especially the AIDS Project in KwaZulu] it was just interesting to hear him speak about it and the difference in the same photo shot with various cameras, especially what the 1Dx has to offer…triggering new dreams  what it could do to my photography with the new 200-400mm f4 lens. 

I liked Manus van Dyk’s fresh approach to the basics of aperture, shutter-speed and ISO and where to focus to achieve certain effects in DoF. By the time we finished listening to Manus the day was gone. Funny how time flies when you are enjoying something.

Whether it is logistically possible, I don’t know, but what I would have loved to see at the show was a free sensor cleaning service for our Canon cameras.

The expo photos depicted herein was shot from my cellphone – so I apologize for the quality.

My impression of the Canon 2012 Expo, and my guess is many visitors to show had the same, is….“Inspired to dream”. 

©2012 Loftus