It’s the 21th (sic) Photo Fair and they still haven’t sorted out the grammar; but it was a big room full of photo gear so worth a trip into Bangkok this morning. And they could probably be taken to the international court of fibbing for claiming it was the “greatest international photo equipment exhibition”, because it wasn’t. But Nik was driving and entrance was free, so there were worse ways of spending a Thursday morning.
Nik is an ex-Nikon camera and a bucketful of lenses man; and I am the same, except my kilos of kit were Canon. So we were both surprised how happy we were to walk straight past the massive Nikon and Canon stands without the slightest twinge of regret. It was like meeting an ex-flame that you used to be hopelessly in love with, and now wondering what the hell you saw in her. Instead we headed for a shop selling M4/3 gear and hoped to see the new Panasonic models. No chance, but I did get a chance to play with a GH1, and thirty seconds looking through the viewfinder at the bright, bright world it presented was enough to have me pining for the GH2.
We then headed for a lighting stand and spent a good half hour playing with their products and amassing leaflets. For a handful of baht I could have purchased a fully equipped home studio; but I didn’t have a handful of baht so I came away empty-handed. On the way out I briefly pined for a Hasselblad, but at $30,000+ it was a little above my pocket money allowance. So, amazingly, I spent a couple of hours surrounded by camera gear and didn’t buy anything. I must be getting old. Nik, being somewhat younger and infinitely richer, bought a couple of LED light sets.
The journey home was enlivened by a loud argument in Thai between Nik and a policeman. Nik won; respect.
The 21th Photo Fair is on at BITEC until Sunday.
