Photokina is awe-inspiring, and worth the trip to Germany

Photokina, held every two years, is heaven on earth to student photographers, aspiring  photographers, hobby photographers, seasoned pros, and pro-sumers.

You can see the entire photography workflow here, from entry-level through professional equipment. Although there may have originally been a cinema photography component, the expo is primarily still photography, though now that HDSLR digital video is exploding in popularity, you can expect a lot of video DSLR equipment also.

The exhibitor list for Photokina 2012 makes the visit here essential

You get the entire digital photography workflow at Photokina: every accessory, most of the key software, and all the popular applications. Since much of Photokina (and the world of photography) is oriented to portrait photography, product photography, and fashion photography, you will get plenty of this at Photokina (including gorgeous German models).

But precisely since Photokina is already so well stocked with portrait, product, and fashion photography, we at FLAAR focus primarily on all the other applications: nature photography, architectural photography, panoramic photography, etc. And we are especially interested in evaluating equipment.

Since FLAAR is a non-profit research and educational institute, we receive no profit from attending or writing about any photography trade show. Our reports on Photokina are provided free to our readers as a public service.

We are proud of being the last non-commercialized photography review web site, and we are especially proud that we do not issue sham reviews, pseudo-reviews, nor do we repeat the outrageous PR claims that litter the Internet these days.

FLAAR Reports differentiate ourselves from sham reviews because we actually utilize the digital cameras, lenses, tripods, tripod heads that we evaluate. Plus we have over 50 years experience in photography (my first camera was a Leica IIIg or comparable). Of course today I have not used my three Leica cameras (R3, R4, and R5) in over a decade. For the last years I have been using Nikon, Canon, and Phase One digital systems.

First posted January 9, 2012