Photographic BACK TO BUSINESS

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Gavin Stoker Tel: 020 8274 0578 Tel: 07990 974 367

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ISSN: BPI News (Print) ISSN 2634-1344

BPI News (Online) ISSN 2634-1352

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Gavin Stoker, Editor gavin@bpinews.co.uk @GavinStoker

After a bitterly cold and dark January / early February and seemingly little trade activity – on the surface at least – the big beasts of the photo industry are finally stirring from their winter slumber, with major announcements of new products coming this spring and summer being made in our pages that follow.

While new camera launches over the past couple of years have largely encompassed high-end, highly priced models aimed squarely at moneyed enthusiasts and professionals, meaning that secondhand (as well as print fulfillment) has kept a lot of dealers afloat, this month it seems the development pendulum is finally swinging back to consumers. Not before time, mirrorless cameras are once again being launched to tempt the entrylevel user, or, to use the current buzz term, the fledgling ‘content creator’.

Making the job of selling the kit that much easier for both, manufacturers and specialist retailers alike can again claim to offer something for everyone, across multiple price points. More affordable cameras also bring younger photo enthusiasts into the hobby, who have learnt their photography basics at school or university tinkering with film, and thus are able to embrace both analogue and digital, like their parents’ generation before them.

Where once January got us started in terms of trade interaction, with both CES and The Societies London Convention taking place, the former is now very much about consumer electronics with very little in the way of photo to tempt us to Vegas, while the latter has shifted in the calendar to March (although we understand from next year the plan is to return to the start of the year). With TPS currently on hiatus, The Societies Trade Show element feels more of a mustattend than ever; it could be the only chance some will have to see industry peers face-to-face, as opposed to via tedious Zoom calls or Teams meetings. While the war in Ukraine grinds on at the time of writing, Brexit has made the UK’s post-Covid recovery slower than the rest of the world, and energy prices and interest rates continue to climb to the misery of millions, we’re being told inflation has, at least, possibly peaked. Supply issues that have dogged the trade over the past three years may also be easing a little. Dare we dream, therefore, of ‘green shoots’, or with spring and more hours of daylight on the way, a more positive mood in the industry? For now, we’re just grateful for seeing the launch of ‘fresh shoots’ from the photo trade that give us something new and interesting to talk about, while taking the industry forward.

BPINews:yourmouthpiecetotheUKphotographictrade.PublishedbyLegacyMediaLtdsinceAugust2015.