Repost from my previous blog:

I went to the Photoexpo Plus 2007 at Javits on Saturday and thought I would share with the group.

Canon announce two new lenses at the show.  Only the new 200mm was “touchable”.  The new 800mm was locked in the case and not viewable.  You could tell that it was about the physical size of the 600mm.  Canon did have a great booth.  Every camera, lens, printer was on display with a very knowledgeable staff to answer questions.

I met Jack Davis wandering around the show floor.  He seems like a really nice guy.  He spent time talking about a bunch of projects in the works.  He is working with onOne with a a new Photoshop plugin called PhotoTools which creates some cool stackable effects.  He also has a couple of new DVDs in the works with Software Cinema.

I was very annoyed at the Adobe booth.  It was smaller than last year’s booth and they are still pushing Lightroom.  Every talk by every guest speaker revolved around how indispensable Lightroom is.  This product should simply be incorporated into Bridge and NOT a separate program that you have to pay for above and beyond the already overpriced CS3 suite.  Canon actually had better talks about Photoshop than Adobe!

JP Caponigro made an interesting statement at the show.  He was in the Canon booth, guest speaking about “The Power of Color” to a large audience.  He was talking about the way light is depicted by cameras, monitors and printers.  He was raving about the way Canon cameras and printers work closely together to accurately depict the gamut of light.  He then said how he wished Canon made monitors to close the loop because companies like Sony don’t understand photography.  This brought a few snickers from the audience since Sony had a massive booth at the show and is still the number two seller of digital cameras behind Canon.

I was also annoyed at Vertus & Fluid Mask.  I looked at Fluid Mask and onOne’s Mask Pro at last year’s show.  I purchased Fluid Mask then because it was cheaper and had some unique features.  However, Vertus did not reveal that the number of installs is limited to two, and you need to call their tech support in the UK to get the second install!  This year I purchased Mask Pro by onOne at the show which you can install multiple times without a problem.

Epson and HP had massive booths.  HP has a new pigment printer called B9180 with an archival quality print-life of 200 years.  HP also introduced a new line of paper just for this printer with different textures and rag-contents.

Many smaller companies had very good booths.  Lowpreo and Tamarac had every bag on display.  Scooba and Teneba are apparently affiliated since they shared a booth.  NAPP always has a good offer with a free DVD or book.  Russell Brown is now offering online tutorials through xtrain.com, along with Jack Davis, Rick Sammon and Ben Willmore.  And you can’t beat getting subscription to Outdoor Photography for $10!