Back From Vegas: My WPPI Report

Leesa and I returned from our trip to Las Vegas last night. It was a fun and relaxing getaway. We stayed at the Meridian Luxury Suites and I can't say enough good things about that place! Our luxury suite, nestled within Meridian's gated resort, was a spacious, 1-bedroom condo outfitted with designer furnishings, marble floors, cathedral ceilings, fireplace, HD flat screens, complimentary internet, a balcony with a view and more! Unless you're the type who just has to stay in a hotel where the gambling is a mere elevator ride away, I recommend you make Meridian -- located just a couple of blocks off the strip -- your next home-away-from-home when visiting Las Vegas.

As I mentioned in my last update, we planned to attend the WPPI (Wedding & Portrait Photographers International) trade show and convention while in Vegas and we did. It was the first time I've attended WPPI and I'm glad I had the opportunity to do so. I don't know how many people usually attend WPPI's events, but there were quite a few people, thousands of them, who showed up for this event.

Many manufacturers were exhibiting. The largest number of exhibitors were companies providing printing services and album and photo-book services. In fact, I'd say these companies made up between a third to a half of all the exhibitors attending. The balance of exhibitors were camera, lighting, software, and accessories manufacturers. Photo equipment retailers, e.g., B&H, Samy's, Calumet, and Adorama, were also in attendance. To my knowledge, none of the big manufacturers, like Canon, Nikon, Adobe, or others, made any notable announcements about new products.

I stopped by the Novatron booth which, I'll admit, wasn't attracting an abundance of interest... leastwise, while I was nearby. I introduced myself as a loyal Novatron user and the guy in the booth immediately hugged me. No. It wasn't *that* kind of a hug! It was a strictly platonic hug. Anyway, if you didn't know, I use Novatron's monolights for most of my stuff.

My new, platonic, Novatron friend showed me their latest product: a small, 150ws monolight. I'm pretty sure he told me the product hasn't yet made it to their catalogue. This unit is quite compact and sports all the usual functions. It has a digital display on the back, allowing users to see the adjustments they're making in tenth-of-a-stop increments and this new monolight automatically discharges power as you reduce the output. Best of all, these nifty units will be sold for about $200 each! As such, for the price of a single light from a few other manufacturers whose names I won't mention, I could buy a litter of these puppies and use them in all kinds of cool ways-- Especially for shooting glamour!

Anyway, I'm totally aware that Novatron's lighting products aren't as sexy as some of those other, high-priced units... like those from Hensel and others. (Even though Novatron's products, while not as sleek and sassy looking as some other brands, are reliable, built with quality, recycle fast, and maintain color temp just like the sexy, high-priced units.) But then, I'm not as sexy as many of those other pretty girl photographers... like those who shoot for Maxim and FHM and others. In fact, sometime later while I was loitering around the Hensel booth, I wondered out loud to a Hensel rep who had just quoted me a mind-boggling, sticker-shock, price-tag for one (1) of their portable kits: "You guys are good, there's no denying that," I told him. "But unless I'm asleep at the wheel, I don't think you're making gear that produces some new kind of X-File photon or uses one of those Back to the Future flux-capacitors to enhance the power, are you?"

I also spent some time (where else?) at the Canon booth. There, I chatted a bit with one of Canon's marketing guys. I told him I'm a web journalist and, after rolling his eyes a few times, he told me he's been with Canon for 27 years and has spoken with all kinds of journalists about Canon's products. With 27 years under his belt, I figured he must be knowledgeable enough for me to ask the tough questions-- Tougher questions than I'd ask, for instance, some young Canon kid who looks like he just graduated High School a few years ago.

Anyway, I figured I'd first stick with the crowd (to get his defenses down) by asking an obvious question in a round-about way: I asked him what other people, i.e., the majority of people, were mostly asking about. The 27-year Canon guy told me the most-asked question at the show was whether Canon is coming out with a new camera that will replace the 5D. (It's such an obvious question, right? That's why I made like it wasn't *ME* asking.) This, of course, turns out to be a question they don't give a straight answer to. In fact, they don't give any answer at all. All you get is a shrug and a smirk. Finally, after I pressed on a bit, he suggested I make plans to travel to Germany this fall to attend Photokina if I really want to find out the answer.

"Okay, smart guy," I thought to myself. "What else are people asking about?" I asked out loud.

He told me many people were hoping such a camera, i.e., a follow-on to the 5D, would include the self-cleaning sensor technology that comes aboard the 40D. Feeling a bit ballsy I told him that, in my opinion, the seals on the 5D truly suck (yeah, I used the word "suck") and that I also own a 20D and a 10D and, with those cameras, I've only had to clean the sensors once or twice each in all the time I've had them. But with the 5D and its sucky seals, sensor cleaning is a regular and often-required chore. He didn't respond to that one. Instead, he segued to some market research about what some of their big corporate clients are looking for in a next-generation camera.

Apparently, and this has nothing to do with sucky seals or sensor cleaning, the big corporate buyers -- especially companies like Reuters and others in the news-gathering fields -- are looking for a high-end, digital SLR that also has the ability to capture high-end, digital, video clips. (This probably amounts to an expansion, or next-generation, of Canon's "Live View" technology.)

Hmmm....

If that happens, I think photographers and videographers, that is those who are hooked up with news bureaus... make that news bureaus who have a big online presence... are going to either be out of a job or, more likely and at the very least, they ought to think about doing some cross-training into each others' fields if they want to keep their jobs. It's simple math, right? If it takes two people with two different kinds of cameras to shoot stills and video for news reporting and then, suddenly, you can do both with one camera, it's only going to take on person to do that.

One company at the show hawking (what I thought) are some unique and innovative products and services is a company called, Digineg. What Digineg does is take digital images and converts them to film negatives and then stores the negatives in environmentally-controlled film vaults. Neat, huh? They claim their archiving solution provides a life-span of hundreds of years for the images!

Ya know, I might use these guys for some of my stuff. Only, of course, so that future generations will be able to see the genius in my pictures of pretty, naked, ladies. Is that considerate of me or what?

Well, in a nutshell, that was our trip to Sin City . As mentioned, it was fun and relaxing. Best of all -- since Leesa won this trip in a contest -- it was nearly free! Except, of course, for food, beverages, and the money we lost to the one-armed bandits.

The pretty girl at the top is Vivid girl, Monique Alexander, from... OMG! About three years ago! Damn. Time flies.