Last Friday and Saturday (27th / 28th April 2012) the Nikon Expo Solutions show took place at the tradeshow Essen (Germany).

The show comprised multiple stages with lots of presentations, workshops and live-Shootings throughout the day. Photography mammoths (that’s reputational mammoths I am talking about) like Joe McNally and Robin Preston attended and demonstrated their skills in live-shootings. Companies displayed their photographic goods and Nikon displayed the full range of camera gear – DSLR, compact cameras and the new mirror less  Nikon 1 system.

This booth was one of the most visited that day. The company cambo.com exhibited a tethered shooting solution which utilizes an iPad. The exhibit consisted of a camera mounted on a crane, at which’s end also the iPad was fastened. The crane operator got a live feed from the camera. To make the product even more saucy the company hired two lingerie models who throughout the day took turns lingering on a bed, looking sexy and stuff. They were photographed many times (and yes, I also snapped a few images).

There was also the shooting range. On fixed tripods and secured by electronic theft protection systems a battery of D4s and D800s and D3xs was mounted, sporting only the largest lenses Nikon offers. You could insert a memory card into the cam and try the lens. On the left you see the view from the shooting area to the stage, on which bodybuilder and fashion shows were conducted throughout the day. That image is taken with 50 mm with my D800.

The next image below is the lens attached to the demo camera – a 500 mm monster. And below that you see how the same scene looks at 500 mm focus length. That’s pretty close I would say.

On the stage bodybuilder shows were done, so that the photographic audience could go crazy taking pictures of interesting muscular people. Later on also fashion models and circus artists had an appearance.

Nikon put a strong focus on video on this tradeshow. Since the D800 is fully capable of high quality videos now many presentations and product demonstrations were centered around this subject. Sebastian Wiegärtner, a German filmmaker who recently worked for Lucasfilm, held a presentation on making videos with the D800, which is to be marketed also to the filmmaking industry as the first “real” video DSLR in Nikons line-up. Asking the staff about the CLS issue I reported about they said that they never heard of it before. I should send in my camera to service (which is what I did a few days ago…).

What I liked a lot about the show is the fact that a.) the tradeshow is free of charge (if you register in advance, day ticket on site 25 Euros…) and b.) that you got a check&clean voucher for your gear. Now I can send in three Nikon products of my choice for, er, well, checking and cleaning. The line-up of presenters was excellent and there was a lot to see and learn.

To sum it up – it was a fun day and I recommend going to the next Nikon Solutions Expo. But before that happens we have the Photokina this September. Oh boy oh boy oh boy, must mark this up in my calendar.