PMA@CES 2012, Las Vegas, lots of fervor for the CES portion

During January last year the entire CNN news network (on the Internet) was filled with news before, during, and after CES. It was tough to read all the PR releases day after day and not drool and desire to be present at CES next year.

In past years I eagerly attended PMA; but it kept loosing exhibitors, never modernized, made unfortunate decision to use Anaheim as a venue, and by 2011 PMA expo collapsed (and was cancelled for that year).

Intelligently PMA was able to co-locate with CES and is reappearing in 2012. So now you have two attractions to tempt you: CES + PMA. Sooo, here I am ready to book an airplane to Las Vegas to spend two days at CES.

First, the nice things about PMA@CES 2012 exhibitor list

The organization of the PMA aspect, especially their web site, is most politely labeled as woefully inadequate. But before we review that, let me say the nice positive things first.

The German Pavilion has a good list of respected brands: the ones I am most interested in are: NOVOFLEX, Metz, Rodenstock Photo Optics, and HENSEL.

The PMA exhibitor list on the expo web site is the most inadequate of any trade show I have seen all year, but ironically their printed list, that they mailed in early December, is better than their web site list in January three days before the expo opens!

I will be curious to see DHW Fototechnik (also in the German Pavilion), which has the remnants of what had the potential to become the best medium format every made. DHW Fototechnik is the successor to the remnants of Rollei (Rolleiflex). During 2005-2008, all medium format camera manufacturers got creamed by Nikon and Canon’s rise into the pro level of digital cameras. For $8,000 you can get a 21 megapixel Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III. For a 21 megapixel medium format, it cost probably over $25,000 to obtain a Phase One P25+ with a camera to handle it (I know, I have both these 21 megapixel cameras, precisely so you can compare them).

The Phase One (and most medium format digital backs) can run circles around even the best Nikon or Canon, but weigh twice as much, rarely have auto-focus, offer no video, etc. When I want a really impressive photo, I use my Phase One with original German-made Zeiss lenses on a Made-in-Sweden original Hasselblad (ELX). You will unlikely get this quality on even a made-in-Japan Hasselblad with Japanese lenses (sorry, the Canon 100-400 tele-zoom is one of the worst functioning Japanese lens foisted on photographers in recent years, though Nikon lenses made in Thailand are even worse). Fortunately most other Canon and Nikon lenses are good and several are top quality. But nothing can beat the original Zeiss lenses (the ones made in Germany for Hasselblad).

DHW Fototechnik is the immediate successor to Franke & Heidecke which was the successor to the remnants of Rollei. Rollei sold itself off to Japanese companies as the market for medium format cameras sank. Contex went bankrupt; the Japanese medium format camera manufacturer (that was always in last place; can’t even remember their unfortunate name now; they went down the drain also).

Franke & Heidecke engineered a remarkable camera but could never get their act together (politically); never had the correct alliances and somehow managed to have Phase One decline to interact with them whatsoever. So Phase One partnered with Mamiya instead.

Just imagine if Phase One + Leaf + Franke & Heidecke had improved the Franke & Heidecke update of the Rollei 6008AF-series: this camera could have been better than the legendary original V-series Hasselblad cameras.

Instead, you have DHW with a first-generation digital front end that is not engineered for the #1 digital back end in the world: Phase One. Sinar and Jenoptik are no longer viable in medium format, and Leaf is a shadow of its former self (Leaf made great medium format digital quality, as good if not better than Imacon (which is now renamed Hasselblad).

Tripods and tripod heads in the PMA@CES 2012 exhibitor list

NOVOFLEX offers a variety of useful accessories. We have evaluated their pano head and the NOVOFLEX focusing rail. But their other accessories have not been available for evaluation, so we are doing our tests with other brands in 2012.

Acratech is intelligent: they make only tripod heads, and primarily high end sophisticated heads. Acratech makes no attempt to go low-bid; Acratech does not try to provide a cheap flimsy head to weekend photographers (Acratech realizes that most beginners don’t use a tripod or if they do, don’t realize that pros select the head totally separately from the band of tripod).

But I don’t remember seeing Acratech at Photokina and not even sure I noticed them at PhotoPlus in New York. So I have never been able to write a review on their Acratech GV2 Ballhead with partial Gimbal capability.

Unfortunately the Acratech Ultimate ballhead with exposed ball got a bad review: would not support readlly heavy camera-lens combinations, and in vertical  position, could slip. So I would need to have this head myself to see if their imposing appearance is matched by a flawless performance.

While on the subject of tripod heads, there is another reviewer whose Arca-Swiss B1 head jammed twice, so including after “repair.”  My Arca-Swiss B1 jammed continuously. I sent it back, and today it still is so stiff I can’t even get my assistants to use it.

Berlebach-Stativtechnik will have a booth.

But what you quickly wonder about, is which tripod heads in their web site are really made by Berlebach and which are made by Cullmann (MAGNESIT MB ballhead). Their ball and socket Magic Ball looks like one from Novoflex. And they also offer low-price, entry-level heads: fine, but it makes me ask where their heart and soul is located: Acratech, Kirk, and others focus on tripod heads and thus have a better chance to create an innovative design.I prefer a tripod head from a company that focuses on the high-end: for photographers who want only the best. From Berlebach their most innovative head is their Levelling Adapter.

Manfrotto makes the heavy-duty geared head that I like the best for holding my 4x5 studio camera, or my medium-format camera when I am in the studio.  You may prefer not to have your XY-thousand dollar camera be on a ballhead which (of even the best) can slip and with the weight of an 8x10, or even my 4x5, the entire system could fall to the floor. The Manfrotto geared head #400 is the one I recommend.

For tripods, my preference is Gitzo. Since Bogen took over distribution in America from a German-named character a few decades ago the Gitzo tripods have improved in guality. I sincerely hope they keep making the clasp-type lift-up clips at the top of their legs. Some of the experiences at other leg-top attachment concepts were (sorry to be blunt) pretty awful. This is why photographers can trust a FLAAR review and use a FLAAR Report to make their buying decision. We point out the downsides and weaknesses. Fortunately Gitzo makes scores of pro-level heads that don’t have the experimental pry-up clasp. I love the original Gitzo lift-up clips, and I must admit I really prefer Gitzo leg extension method and tightening method also.

For far, in over thirty years, I have no found any other brand of tripod which would make me stop using Gitzo tripods and jump to that other brand.

Studio Lighting in the PMA@CES 2012 exhibitor list

HENSEL is a brand I see every two years at Photokina. Since at FLAAR we do specialized photography: crocodiles to egrets, lightning bugs to jaguars, monumental trees as high as a 10-storey building to tiny flowers with macro lenses, I am keen to find, learn about, and evaluate lighting for the tropical flowers high in the trees, birds up in the tree tops, or reptiles that we prefer to stay out of their striking range (pit vipers and tropical Guatemalan crocodiles). So the HENSEN spotlights and Weitwinkel Superspot are items I would like to see.

It would also be helpful to have a ring light that could fit a lens other than a macro lens.

The rest of the exhibitor list of PMA@CES 2012 will be in our report

After we are at the expo I will write up my impressions and experiences of the other brands.

Reality check: PMA@CES 2012 exhibitor list is not what their web page promises

Now that I have mentioned a sampling of the great brands that will be exhibiting, let’s return to the unfortunate reality of the incomplete organization of this exposition.

After being all hyped up about attending (99% from CES, with not much input from PMA), I looked at the exhibitor list of PMA on their web site. The list was so wimpy that I almost cancelled my airplane ticket.

But then the folks at Photokina indicated they would also be present; and two days later I learned that Manfrotto (+Gitzo, etc) would exhibit. NOWHERE in the PMA-only exhibitor list were Manfrotto or Gitzo listed, mentioned, or even hinted at!

However once I realized that the PMA web site exhibitor list was hopeless, and after I found out from other people and from the mail out exhibitor list, and from the total overall CES list where more of the PMAexhibitors are included, I decided that PMA was worth visiting since I could also experience CES. This is a polite way of saying, that by itself, PMA 2012 is not really worth visiting unless you have specific needs to communicate with several of the very few manufacturers who are present.

If you want to see the entire digital photography workflow, that is sadly lacking at PMA@CES 2012. I sure hope the PMA@CES exhibitor list for 2013 is double the size (and that they dedicated proper personnel and more thought to a web site that is relevant).

Since FLAAR is a consultant to expos around the world, and since PMA already went belly up last year, we hope they recuperate. But if PMA intends to rescue its brand (and not to use silly concepts like CliK), it needs to wake up, and realize the impression it is leaving with its web site. I offer the following as constructive criticism, since it is helpful if there is a photography trade show early each year (since PhotoPlus is in the autumn).

Next disappointment: uninspiring home page of PMA@CES

The cute female is in 1960’s style pose (and probably has Botox-enhanced lips).

The rap style photographer pointing his fingers out at you simply looks stupid.

The model at the far left looks too much like another attempt to be cute.

There is not one single thing on this home page that shows any professional digital camera equipment. There is not one single thing on this home page that suggests you can learn about new cameras, new lenses, or new software.

Next disappointment: uninspiring home page of PMA@CES

From capture to output, PMA@CES at The Venetian is the place to be

Sorry: the exhibits are inadequate in any and every respect. There are hardly any camera manufacturers present in The Venetian, so how in the world can they claim there is capture-to-output. All of the significant camera manufacturers are at the other expo across town, at CES.

Output: if they mean printing: zilch. Where is Canon printers, where are Epson printers; where are HP printers? Epson and Canon abandoned PMA already three years ago (Epson) and two years ago (Canon).

You would think that PMA organizers, after losing an entire year of exhibits, would have learned at least something. But other than co-locating, they seem to have learned close to zilch. PMA claims

PMA@CES will bring a breadth and depth of photo-specific products and services that CES attendees would not have otherwise been able to experience.

Well, sort of yeeess, true, there are exhibits of tripods and lenses that would not be at CES by itself, but where is breadth and depth? Sorry, all this is precisely what is missing: for example where is Leica (yes, I know their day was in the 1960’s but they had a huge booth at Photokina 2010, yet are absent completely from PMA).

But at least PMA got rid of the stupid name CliQ

I try to find something positive to say about PMA’s web site, and the positive statement is that at lease PMA got rid of the stupid name CliQ (they parked it on an obscure web site and fortunately did not inflict that concept on the potential visitor/attendee to PMA@CES 2012.

Summary on PMA@CES exhibitor list 2012

PMA 2012 by itself would not be worth visiting since you can see and experience more at pdn PhotoPlus 2012 in New York and 10x more at Photokina 2012 in Cologne.

But, the CES aspect of PMA@CES does offer many temptations, especially 3D cameras (if you can’t wait for Photokina which is not until autumn). But I sure hope that the organizers revitalize their web site for the PMA@CES 2013 exhibitor list, and offer some realistic incentive rather than fluffy models picked from a low-bid stock photo site.

Our photographers attend Photokina and PhotoPlus, so we also evaluate these photography trade shows. So I hope that PMA@CES 2013 exhibitor list is more ample, that the exhibitor list for PMA 2013 is more complete, and that the supplementary information actually has enough additional information when you click on it. Merely the address and phone number is embarrassing, and reminds you how abandoned this web site has been.

We apologize for the curtness of our remarks, but too many trade shows have gone totally out of business because no one seems to knock on their door and let them know what is debilitating their message to the public. Surely thousands of people find their web site okay, but the list was not complete; the information per-exhibitor was pathetically incomplete (really looked like either no one cared or that there were not enough employees to handle even the few exhibitors that they had). And the web site and PR releases had too many bombastic claims (most of which were untrue, and thus bordered on being misleading).

In the meantime, if 135,000 people really do descend on Las Vegas for CES, I hope that a healthy percentage of them do take the time to visit the remants of PMA, and that PMA can recuperate for 2013 onward.

First posted January 9, 2012, the day I fly to Las Vegas.