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UK's Focus on Imaging photo trade show to close

May 31, 2013 at 17:44:23 GMT

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The organisers of Europe's largest annual photographic trade show, Focus on Imaging, have declared that this year's show was the last. Mary Walker Exhibitions had organised the show, held in March at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham UK, for the past 24 years. In a statement Mary Walker announced that the rights to the show would not be sold on, but instead it is simply being 'brought to an end'.

Click here for the full statement from Mary Walker Exhibitions

For more reaction, click here to follow the story on Amateur Photographer magazine's website.

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Comments

Total comments: 19

It was always an annual treat to have a couple of nights at the Hilton and visit Focus, it will be sadly missed...

0 upvotes

"ised the show, held in March at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham UK, for the past 24 years. In a statement Mary Walker announced that the rights to the show would not be sold on"

I wonder why not?

0 upvotes

Is a shame.
Granted - I don't go every year - but it's good to have it.
The closest in my mind (SWPP convention) doesn't come close to covering the same amount of stuff.

Trade fairs are often what you make of them - they don't have to be speicifically interactive or anything - it's just good to get lots of manufacturers & stalls etc in the same place.

0 upvotes

Sad to see it go. This years event wasn't really aimed at the higher end professional and a lot of us had a good moan that we wasted a day. It was good if you work in wedding photography, and that was about it.

Missing was Leaf and Phase One. Olympus was a crowd pleaser last year but they were not there.

I hope it does get replaced by a new show. Something that isn't open to the general public would help no end.

0 upvotes

A shame that its closing but having attended for a number of years I did feel that the show had either to change (become far more interactive) or close and did not plan to attend the 2014 show (if it had gone ahead) and second that this reflects (again) the changes taking place across all of photography. I strongly feel that our hobby using (real) cameras and lenses is on borrowed time now with fewer and fewer (younger) people seeing any reason why they should not just just their phones... one day Canon & Nikon (etc) will simply be APPS on another smart device ... don't believe me ? Watch this space - it's coming.

1 upvote

I don't fully agree, but I think the younger generation of today value converged portable devices very highly and many simply aren't willing to carry a large camera when their phone appears to satisfy their needs.

I hear similar complaints about hifi and music quality, with people being happy with relatively poor quality music reproduction due to compression, lousy analogue circuits and cheap headphones.

It's not money, really, a high end smart phone costs as much as a low to middle DSLR. Although maybe if you could buy a camera easily on credit like a phone contract, it'd promote sales?

1 upvote

We are assuming all youngsters are unintelligent and easily led by marketing when we make such bold statements. Show a half-intelligent boy or girl with a minimum of artistc sensitivity what a good camera can do and he/she will be convinced. I wouldn't be so cryptic as to announce the death of photography as we know it; it will surely be residual in comparison to all those cell phone pictures we'll continue to see on Facebook, but it will never die.
The analogy with Hi-Fi applies entirely. Some people will always want sound quality and keep buying high-end amps and loudspeakers. Some even still buy turntables because, despite its flaws, vinyl has the purest sound of all media. Just like many people still use film. It's all about being demanding on quality: most people aren't, but some are.

Comment edited 1 minute after posting

2 upvotes

There is a growing culture in education where the concept of being "wrong" has been crushed. Today a child is never told they are wrong because of the potential negativity associated with it, and as a result we have a generation of somewhat arrogant people who are blind to criticism and advice. The tragedy is that the culture of positivity has actually harmed the maverics and virtuosos who cannot stand out beyond a grey sea of correctness.

Youngsters are not unintelligent as such, they're just not encouraged to put their intelligence to good use any longer.

Photography isn't dead, and it can survive. However along with a great deal of other things it's survival is dependant on making unpopular changes, and quickly.

1 upvote

(D)SLRs have moved to the mass market, and consequently, trade shows have to be more consumer centric to "capture the essence" (think CES, for example). Not sure about you, but I do see quite a few DSLRs in the open, and a large number of them are carried by young people. So, no, I don't think these things will be gone anytime soon.

However, the thing which will change quite a few things around the imaging industry, which includes photography, are the lightfield cameras. No focusing needed, builtin depth-perception and so on, think photography, gaming (XBox Kinect), parking assistant, quality assurance and process control in industrial production, but also more possibilities for CCTV/big brother etc.

0 upvotes

It's a shame that the show is closing, but I must applaud the many manufactures who have constantly supported the show especially Nikon, Canon,& Fuji including the smaller company's like manfrotto, G.A. Smith, & Colorworld. who have always shown up every year and not just for the occasionally one off show.
It must be very,very expensive to be at the Focus in Imaging at Birmingham, plus all the organisational efforts by everyone involved, so to all the Manufactures and the staff who have always shown up and given me and my friends very interesting views of their company's efforts in the photography world. many thanks.

On a different subject,if you haven't ever been to photokina in Cologne, you must, it's an eye opener, and you definitely need more than one day to see everything on show, and the most surprising thing is every manufacture of photo gear is there and some more, even the company still making the old film Rolleiflex camera's, the mind boggles.

Comment edited 2 times, last edit 11 minutes after posting

2 upvotes

Unfortunately, I'm not surprised. I haven't been for a couple of years, but colleagues were bemoaning it this year particularly.

1 upvote

Too many bad news everywhere these days....

1 upvote

Since when is 'focus in imaging' the largest photography related trade show in Europe? Photokina in Cologne is many times larger by far!

Comment edited 29 seconds after posting

0 upvotes

largest annual trade show...

8 upvotes

That's a pity. I went there this year and succumbed to the hype and bought an OMD.
The place was very busy and the one stand that was selling equipment was mobbed. So it's not the number of visitors that caused its decline, so perhaps it was an exorbitant rent.
Peter Del

0 upvotes

You may well be right.

Many High Street businesses go under because of idiot greedy landlords and Councils squeezing the balls of businesess with high rents and taxes.

But what I don't quite understand is why she won't sell on the rights to the trade show if she no longer wishes to do it. Could it be an ego thing; she doesn't want anyone else associated with name Focus on Imaging? It would be nice if she passed the baton on to someone else as it, from a visitor perspecitve, is an awesome trade show (far better than the SWPP Convention in my view).

Regards,
plevyadophy

2 upvotes

Yeah, I'll miss it too. I always made a point of going if I could so I could get a hands-on look at gear that you seldom get to see in the new "Pro Centers" that seem to be springing up, let alone the few remaining high street stores that have not closed down. Sure, there are lots of smaller shows, but they are not always convenient for time/location and you'd need to visit several to get the same breadth of product exposure - something many people just don't have the time to do.

Maybe someone will step up and create a new Focus on Imaging type show in spirit if not in name but, if not, who's up for Photokina 2014?

1 upvote

Focus was dying (as is the whole market place) and it was there for all to see - I attended 2012 and saw the fantastic Olympus stand complete with dancers from SCD - loved the OM-D which I managed to get my hands on too - 2013 - no Olympus stand, no dancers, no nothing. The same happened a couple of years ago to Sony at Focus - big stand, big spend - this year - nothing worth the name. Focus either needed a big boost/ change (thus big spend) but the overall photo market is reducing because of phones etc or to close.....

0 upvotes

Shows are expensive for the vendors and lots of them are cutting down on how many they attend. If you can't get the big names there then you do have a problem. Who know what Canon or Nikon said about next year...

0 upvotes

Total comments: 19

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