Yesterday I went to Imaging India Expo 2013 at Gurgaon, which was organized by Better Photography and Smart Photography magazines.
I managed to reach the venue at 10:30am and at that time; there was hardly anyone around apart from exhibitors. The good thing about the venue (Institute of Apparel Design) was that there was ample and secure underground parking.
Once inside, it was apparent that Imaging India Expo was a lot smaller than Consumer Electronic Imaging Fair, held biannually at Pragati Maidan. In terms of camera manufacturer, only Canon India was there.
At the Canon booth, I first got to try out the 100L f2.8 macro lens and I absolutely loved its auto focusing speed and build quality. Next up was Canon EOS M, which was running its latest 2.0.2 firmware and due to it, had really good auto focusing speed. Overall I loved its form factor, though its grip wasn’t all that good and in fact felt quite slippery. Sadly I couldn’t try it with a pancake lens, which I believe should make it pocket able and a perfect second camera for serious photogs.
Narneder and Nitin trying out Canon EOS M at Canon India Booth at Imaging India
I also got to test out Canon 70D with 18-55IS STM lens and I was quite impressed by its high ISO performance (seems marginally better than my 60D), however what truly blew me away was auto focusing during movie mode, which was silent and fast! It was even face tracking people during video with quite an ease. I sincerely hope, Canon brings in similar sensor technology to their full frame line up as well, especially since a lot of photogs use Canon 5D for videos and next DSLR I intend to buy would be a fully frame and I would love to have this feature.
Apart from Canon, the only other major camera/lens company present at the expo was Tamron India.
I also got to checkout Manfrotto tripods at their booth, and while their carbon fiber legs were the ones which I liked and I am planning to buy; their befree tripod was a lot more economical and seemed like a more convenient option for travelers.
What really impressed me at the Imaging Expo was Triggertrap. It plugs into the headphone jack of your mobile phone, and allows you to control your camera through their free Android and iOS App. One can shoot time lapse, star trails, distance lapse or even set the camera to trigger in case of noise. For Rs. 2999 it seems like a much better option than normal wired remotes one can buy, though those should be a little more reliable.
Apart from this, I also came across a studio company, which rents out studio with complete lighting setup for Rs. 5,000 for 8 hours and a company selling Photoshop actions for Rs. 500, some of which were quite impressive.
Even though Imaging India Expo was a lot smaller than what I had expected it to be, it turned out to be a worthwhile visit, thanks to Canon India and Triggertrap.
4 Comments
YS… another useful and informative post…. thanks
by the way, any particular manfrotto model you were interested in !!
Thanks Rahi. There was one carbon fiber model on display that I liked, but I haven’t yet made up my mind yet, since I doubt I will buy one, before middle of next year.
Does Canon offer any discounts on their existing lenses during such expos?
Amit, I am not sure whether or not they were giving any discount at Imaging India Expo, since I didn’t check. However, I had bought my 55-250IS lens at Photofair and the price was same as what was quoted by Pritam, the only thing was, they gave me a handbag for free with the lens.