Photokina 2014: The analog photography business is alive and well

We have just landed after a very busy week at the International Photokina trade show in Cologne, Germany.

Closing day at Photokina! It was a great show, thanks to all those who stopped by to say hi. See you all next time.

This year we were surprised to find an overall shrinked version of photokina, with what seems to be at least 30% size reduction in exhibition space from the last show in 2012. The amount of attractions at the various booths and displays was at a minimum this year, and a knowledgeable source noted that this is mostly due to the fact that because of an overwhelming amount of activities and attractions, many visitors did not have a chance to see more then a few exhibits, and so a decision was made to reduce this for this years show. While the show was physically smaller, over all attendance seemed to be similar to previous years.

From an analog perspective this show was similar to what we found 2 years ago, though many companies are now stepping in to fill in smaller and more sustainable product segments then ever before. While the only truly analog camera booth we found was the Arca Swiss booth, with a massive display of large format cameras, companies such as Maco Photo and Photo Impex had lively booths with massive amounts of new products including new films, new chemistry and new paper offerings of various types, many of which will fill in gaps in what was once available from Ilford, Kodak and Agfa, and also offer many [B]new [/B]interesting and exciting varieties from Rollei, Bergger, Adox and many other brands.

One interesting aspect of this show was the buzz around all new Super8 films, both in stock material and processing gear. At least 3 companies at the show presented new film stocks of various types, all geared towards home users, with easier processing options. Jobo unveiled a sleek Super8 processing solution, which is now in final R&D stages.

Most companies who had film minilabs and wet print minilabs along with paper and chemistry kits had swapped out most of those for digital book making and dry lab products. As in the previous show - Jobo was the only company to display a comprehensive analog, darkroom and traditional photography product portfolio, with the CPP3 processor being the worlds only currently produced film processor and the Jobo film and print system tanks and accessories.

As a result of Jobo being the only booth in the show to display "analog" products, it was a busy center of attention all throughout the show.

Preparing the booth for the 5th day of Photokina

We were so happy to see the thousands of folks who dropped by to say hi and tell us how pleased they are to see the Jobo analog booth.

All in all this was a very positive experience, in a show pretty much entierly dominated by digital photography and copious amounts of "more of the same" digital cameras and accessories, we found a very healthy and lively core of activity surrounding the analog photography businesses.

Comparing this to our review of the previous show (http://www.apug.org/forums/forum43/110596-more-news-photokina-re-global-photo-chemistry.html, http://processorparts.blogspot.com/2012/09/photokina-2012-update-ii-future-of.html) it seems that not much has changed, which leads us to feel that the market segment of analog film has stabilized into a rejuvenated and fairly sustainable position, in which the giants of old (Fuji/Kodak) no longer determine the nature of the market, which is now mostly in the hands of smaller companies, who are mostly if not entirely committed to and driven by analog products.

Visit our facebook page for photos from this years show: https://www.facebook.com/CatLABS.of.JP