Schonhose

Today I went to the highly anticipated ZOOM.experience 2007 in Utrecht. It is profiled as being the consumer event in the field of digital photography, so my expectations were high.

What a drag it turned out to be…. To summarize it in short: overcrowded, overpriced and definitely overhyped. People were walking around with their cameras and flash units, so you had to be real careful not to hit anybody. I admit I also carried a camera, but an Ixus 70 is relatively small compared to digital SLRs with flash units and zoomlenses. The problem is that I’m certainly not made for walking in a large crowd, standing at an even 6 feet 5 inches (1.98 meter). I truly hate walking in crowds because everybody keeps bumping into me and I just refuse to budge. So typically that will get me some nasty looks and some elbows to go along with that.

As for the overpriced part: people payed 55 euro for a reflector disk you can order online for 25 euro. Needless to say I ordered my reflector disk after the event online.

So was it overhyped? Yes, in my opinion it was. Large stands, hard to find or not enough information and too focused on the casual photographer.

I did see some funny things I would like to share. To promote stuff, some stands hired babes. These babes were either located in a car or on a bike. Imagine what that must have been, sitting in a car all day getting photographed by all these horn.. uhm.. “dedicated” photographers (needless to say I didn’t meant the kids). When I saw this I couldn’t resist to take a snapshot.

The big question is: would I go again? Most likely not. I rather spend a day at my favorite shop where I can actually feel and test the stuff before buying. And for the pretty girls? They have them too.