Today I went to CEIF (Consumer Electronic Imaging Fair), Photo Fair 2015 in Delhi. We managed to get there by 10am and were there till about 4pm.
Entry was through gate no. 2 and 7 and we entered for free, because we had registered online and were carrying a printout of our registration. Once inside, getting the passes was quite easy and fast as well, due to online registration. So if you haven’t yet registered, my suggestion would be to do it ASAP by following this link to register for free (use referral code 149 for registration).
Since today was a working day and quite cold, rush was somewhat less, early on. Later on in the day (after around 1pm) crowd swelled tremendously in size and seeing or understanding what was on display, became quite tough.
Highlight of the show was no doubt Sony’s stall, which is also where I spent the maximum time, trying on the Sony A7r.
Even though I made the mistake of not using my own memory card or transferring the images to my phone wirelessly. I was quite impressed by the Sony A7r, though I had a hard time understanding it initially. However I did manage to check the primary reason I am considering it as my next camera body and I am happy to say, Sony is now in the running for my next pro body, along with Canon and Nikon!
Speaking of Canon and Nikon. While Nikon skipped the photo fair entirely, Canon’s stall was dwarfed by quite a few wedding album stalls and model’s expressions in this image, sort of echo mine and that of Salil and Narender (both Canon shooters) when we saw the stall. I guess Canon should have skipped photo fair altogether! Though I seriously wish I get to play with it during an assignment or better yet, while on a trip, so that I can actually understand its nuances, before making up my mind.
Apart from Sony, Tamron India’s stall was quite impressive as well and they are offering 7% discount on lenses and 2 year extended warranty on lenses (2+2 years), if you buy them from photo fair. Tamron is also conducting small workshops at their booth, so it is also fun, though I didn’t see or attended, due to crowd.
Apart from this, I also liked the Western Digital booth, they were marketing their solutions to photographers (and rightly so) and it was heartening to see a storage company actively pursuing photographers in India. I checked out their 2 bay and 4 bay NAS units, which likely be on my shopping list, once my 4TB Western Digital My Book external drive fills up.
Apart from this, rest of the booths were sort of a letdown, if you aren’t a wedding photographer or in case you are from Delhi. Because majority of the stuff on sale there was priced on par with what is available at Chandni Chowk or online. In fact quite a few things were being sold for a slight premium!
Heck even I got screwed, as I bought Envie 2 hour Speedster Charger for Rs. 900 with 4 free AA Infinite Batteries, while the same charger with lightly less expensive battery (Rs. 50 cheaper) is available on Flipkart for Rs. 799!
Here is a photo of what I bought from the fair.
This photo would have likely included a Sandisk Extreme card as well, if those manning its stall weren’t rude. Add to that, the guy supposedly from Sandisk itself (not a distributor guy) told me that any Sandisk card we buy online, will not receive any warranty from them! This means, all my Sandisk cards are now worthless gray imports, even though I paid a premium for them. This also means, my next card won’t likely be Sandisk and I would instead look at Lexar and Kingston.
Overall for me CEIF Photo Fair 2015 was quite alright, though that is only the case because I started shooting weddings and I got to play with Sony A7r for almost half an hour! For those heading there on weekend, watch out for crowds and go there early in the morning!
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