* Shot Hand Held @ Demo Booth - Click to Enlarge
Nikkor 18-200mm VR 1/80 f/5.6 ISO 1000
A short while later I met the famous 'Scott Kelby' and had a few words with him about his Photoshop CS3/4 & Lightroom 2 books that I bought and have helped me do some wonderful things with those programs, he was very appreciative that I enjoyed his work so much. Silly me forgot to get a picture taken with him though LOL I would have felt funny asking anyway. Then I went over to the Nikon Lens & Camera display where they had a bunch of new gear to look at, all their new bodies like the D3s, D300s, D5000 and a bunch of new glass. They also had their HUGE 600mm f/4 Prime Lens mounted on a half dozen D3s's to lpay around with, all I have to say is WOW what a lens ! The images were so crisp and clean and had no problem shooting frames at ISO 6400 across the entire expo floor. I should have stuck one of my memory cards in the D3s so I could have shown off some of the image (I wan't thinking as usual LOL) but they had the camera's set up in DEMO mode so you could at least see the images on the LCD and I was really impressed. It should be impressive for the price tag, $10,299 YIKES !
I then waited about 15 min. to speak to a rep in reference to getting some warranty work done on one of my lenses and getting my D300 tuned up since I have around 100,000 frames on her now since Nov. '07. I was kind of disappointed that there weren't more actual VENDORS there where you could purchase some of the new stuff they had on display. I even looked at the Brand New Nikon Coolpix S640 that was just released a few weeks ago and needing a quick simple Point & shoot for myself so I don't have to carry around my big gear all the time out in the car I decided to pick one up when I returned home. It's rated as the fastest focusing compact on the market now and I'll tell you first hand it IS FAST. Very simple operation, clean sharp images and lots of P&S toys and program modes to fool around with, it will suit my needs just fine.
I do have one very cool story for you, I stepped into the TAMRAC booth and looked at their new gear bags when one of the reps came over to me and asked if I was able to get my D300 into the smaller Tamrac 'Cyber 5' back pack I was carrying since it's not built for a D300 with a battery pack attached, so I told him it JUST fits along with 2 additional lenses, a SB-900 flash and some cleaning gear without a problem, he was impressed to say the least. Then I spotted their 8 set battery pouch on display that I have been looking all over for and have been unable to find, I told him that I was an avid Tamrac user and have over 6 of their gear bags along with 10 lens case attachments , filter bag, water bottle holders etc. So he told me I should stop by B&H to get the battery pouch but then realized it was Saturday and they were closed.
This is where the story gets cool, a woman rep who had been listening to my story of how happy of a Tamrac Customer I was motioned to the guy I was talking to, he proceeded to take the brand new battery pouch off the display rack, rip the packaging off and then handed it to me saying "Here Bill, just take this one for being such a loyal Tamrac Customer" I was FLOORED. I mean it's only a $25 piece of gear but he didn't have to do that and it really made me happy that I was being given the item for FREE that was only supposed to be used for display. What a wonderful gesture from Tamrac and now I know why I have spent well over $750 on their gear bags & accessories over the years. Too bad I didn't admire one of their new big bags that go for $300 LOL and got one of those on the cuff haha.
The rest of the Expo had TONS of Printing Companies showing off their new Wedding Album lines, various papers and textures along with other items like family books etc. that they print.
* FREE OFFERS: If anyone is interested in trying out the printing company 'NATIONS PHOTO LAB' I have a Promo Code for $25 worth of FREE Prints just for signing up for a free account. DIRECTIONS FOR USE: Go to www.nationsphotolab.com, Sign up for a free account, Download the free ROES ordering software, Type in PRMO CODE "PP99" in the Review Order Screen when your done placing your order. NOTE * It says for NEW CUSTOMERS ONLY, VALID FOR ONE TIME USE, ONE PER ACCOUNT, NOT VALID WITH ANY OTHER ORDER. So there you go, can't beat $25 in free prints and you never know you might like their services and buy more in the future ;)
Also for anyone who is interested in trying out the full version of Nikon's CAPTURE NX 2 I am giving away both copies that I received at the show (I Own the Full Version already) to the first (2) people who read my blog and send an email request to billpadorphotos@gmail.com for the DVD package, I'll even pay for the S&H. Just provide you Name & Mailing Address in the email. I will notify the winners with a response and let those who missed out that they were too late.
All in all it was a nice afternoon and I got a few cool shots inside the expo along with some of the inside of the Javets Center which has a really cool interior design. Below you'll find some of the images I shot during the days festivities and the street shots I took during my 3 block walk to & from my car.
~Bill~
* Click on Images to Enlarge *
Outside Javets center
Building down the street
NY City Jacob Javets Center
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Very cool writeup, thanks for the post. First time I haven't gone after the previous 4 conferences.
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