Focus on Imaging image-002

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The SONY booth on the stand of www.photomart.co.uk at the FOCUS on Imaging 2008 show in Birmingham, England.

photo credit: George Bowdidge

Focus on Imaging image-024

photomart_focus-024
Originally uploaded by photoweek_ed

The SONY booth on the stand of www.photomart.co.uk at the FOCUS on Imaging 2008 show in Birmingham, England.

photo credit: George Bowdidge

Focus on Imaging image-020

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Originally uploaded by photoweek_ed

The www.photomart.co.uk stand at the FOCUS on Imaging 2008 show in Birmingham, England.

photo credit: George Bowdidge

Focus on Imaging image-004

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Originally uploaded by photoweek_ed

Keith Trainor of Event Portraits and Becky Orser of ExpressDigital with the pirate model on the stand of www.photomart.co.uk at the FOCUS on Imaging 2008 show in Birmingham, England.

photo credit: George Bowdidge

Focus on Imaging image-052

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Originally uploaded by photoweek_ed

Keith Trainor of Event Portraits demonstrates greenscreen shooting with ExpressDigital DARKROOM software using a pirate model on the stand of www.photomart.co.uk at the FOCUS on Imaging 2008 show in Birmingham, England.

photo credit: George Bowdidge

FOCUS on Imaging image-033

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Originally uploaded by photoweek_ed

Mitsubishi Electric UK booth on the stand of www.photomart.co.uk at the FOCUS on Imaging 2008 show in Birmingham, England.

photo credit: George Bowdidge

FOCUS ON IMAGING UNDER WAY NOW!

• Focus On Imaging UNDER WAY NOW! – The FOCUS on Imaging show at the NEC got underway on Sunday and continues till Wednesday! Photomart are waiting for you on stand M-2 with exciting new things to show, including: • the new paper-based dye sub printer from SONY, the UP-DR200; • a great fun demonstration of ExpressDigital DARKROOM software by Keith Trainor (using a professional model); • some fabulous deals from Mitsubishi; • the unique DIGITRANS premium hand-bound album equipment; • and of course all the latest DOLI minilabs; [expand story >>>]

www.photomart.co.uk have their biggest stand ever for you to visit at FOCUS on Imaging this week – 100 square metres of the latest in event photography solutions, photo lab solutions and photo studio equipment. It's a great fun place to visit too. The company have set up a background and studio lights for you to take photographs of our pirate model, or get your photograph taken with her and come away with a print, instantly!

Anne Bonny was the most famous woman pirate in history. Born around 1698 in Ireland, but brought up in America, she embarked on her career in piracy when she met Captain Calico Jack in a bar, and left her husband for him.



Aboard Captain Jack's ship The Revenge, she adopted the clothing of the crew. She met another woman pirate there, Mary Read, and the pair became close, fighting side by side and bearing their children together. After the capture of The Revenge by lawful authorities, Captain Jack was hanged, Mary Read died in gaol, but the imprisoned Anne Bonny just disappeared from the record... till she turned up on the www.photomart.co.uk stand at FOCUS on Imaging this week! [add comment]

PHOTO SHOPS REJECT PASSPORT REGULATIONS!

• Photo shops reject passport regulations! – Independent high street photo labs say they now ignore IPS regulations on passport photos. When it comes to deciding how ID pics should be shot, labs today will be guided only by what gets rejected. Prompted by the new requirement for off-white backgrounds, the labs say the regulations are not useful in helping them to avoid rejections, and they can't use them as grounds for appeals. [expand story >>>]

Comments like this can be read now on minilabhelp.com, the independent photo labs' self-help forum. The published versions of the IPS passport photo regulations have not always been kept up to date, and have sometimes contradicted each other. Changes to them are only sporadically enforced anyway. What tends to get rejected – and what will be accepted – can vary from place to place, depending more on practice at the agent (usually a post office) than on current regulations.

Related Stories:

photoweek/2007/10/passport-photo-enforcement-again.html [add comment]

DRY LABS DEBUT AT FOCUS!

• Dry Labs Debut at FOCUS ! – The FOCUS on Imaging show is in full swing right now at the NEC, and one of the themes this year seems to be dry lab. Noritsu and Fujifilm have hardware-identical models on show, and Kodak is showing its Apex system. Apex is based on what Kodak have always called thermal technology (dye sub to the rest of us), while the Noritsu and Fujifilm systems are industrial inkjets. [expand story >>>]

"Our new Frontier DryLab 400 is an inkjet lab", John Grayston of Fujifilm tells PhotoWeek! "It prints up to 10"x36", it's very quick, and it's a very easy process. The price is expected to be about £15.5K and we're aiming for a cost-per-print that's closer to wet lab costs than dye sub ones."



Lewis Martindale, Managing Director of www.photomart.co.uk (on stand M-2 at the show) told us his company would supply both the Fujifilm and the Kodak solutions: "Whether the future is wet or dry, inkjet or thermal", he said, "that future will be delivered by www.photomart.co.uk"

Graham Hill of Kodak assured us that his corporation's new Apex lab, although the technology is thermal, should deliver a cost-per-print comparable to wet lab. The media used in the new Apex lab is different to that used in dye sub instant print kiosks, and presumably costs less to produce. [add comment]

PHOTOMART ADOPTS QUALITY STANDARD!

• Photomart adopts quality standard! – www.photomart.co.uk, the professional photo supplies company, has had its quality management systems assessed to the international ISO9001 standard by authorized certification body QMS International plc. www.photomart.co.uk is a supplier to major concerns such as COSTCO and is also the supplier of the Home Office Forensic Science Service and the Scene of Crime offices of many UK police forces. [expand story >>>]

www.photomart.co.uk Managing Director, Lewis Martindale, told PhotoWeek! that ISO9001 certification is a requirement for many government and corporate contracts. "We've had our quality procedures in place for many years now", he told us, "and it was time to get them certified." [add comment]

SONY UP-DR200 REVEALED AT FOCUS!

• SONY UP-DR200 Revealed at FOCUS! – The new SONY UP-DR200 photo printer was finally unveiled at FOCUS on Imaging in the NEC yesterday. It will be demonstrated there on the www.photomart.co.uk stand (M2) until Wednesday. The UP-DR200 is the first professional dye sub photo printer to use SONY's new paper-based photo media. [expand story >>>]

UP-DR200 is the successor to SONY's highly successful UP-DR150 event printer (also adopted by ASDA for their photo kiosks). The new media creates prints that are closer to the look and feel of traditional photo paper. It also promises lower cost-per-print. Paper capacity has shot up from the 295 6"x8" prints of its UP-DR150 predecessor, to a full 350 prints per load. Another feature continued in UP-DR200 is SONY's ability to produce prints with either a gloss or a matte finish, from the same roll of media, by using their patented ProMatte technology. If you have any interest in dye subs at all, you should get along to the www.photomart.co.uk stand (M2) at FOCUS on Imaging in the NEC right now and see this new baby in action. [add comment]

VENTURE SEEKS AFFILIATES!

• Venture seeks affiliates! – Venture, the portrait studio franchise that ran a £2 million marketing campaign in 06/07, is to start using Internet affiliate marketing to drive more custom into its studios. It's this kind of marketing know-how and muscle that makes Venture such a formidable competitor to the independents on the high street. [expand story >>>]

One tactic of Venture's marketing is to use the web to drive custom into its studios. Venture recognizes that the web is a major channel of consumer business. It commissioned its advertising agency to create web pages that included special offers and vouchers. The agency will use a web marketing firm to manage an affiliate programme for Venture. Affiliate marketing means paying other web sites for the customers they refer to you. (Or put another way, it's when one website is used to drive traffic to another.) Venture already has more than 90 studios across the UK, and it's pushing for growth. It will harness the web to help power that growth. And it will do it in a way that independent studios might find difficult to follow. [add comment]

POLAROID FADES AWAY!

  • Polaroid FADES away! – Worldwide manufacture of Polaroid films is on a scheduled wind down, with the objective being to put only enough stock into the supply channel to last till next year. After that, it's over! [expand story >>>]

The original Polaroid company ceased trading in 2001. The new company that licenses, markets, and in some cases even manufactures, Polaroid products, and trades under the Polaroid name, is to cease manufacture of film by 2009. If any one else wants to make these instant films, that company will sell them a license. This means photographers and shops offering ID photos may still be able to get compatible supplies after 2009.

Production of professional and commercial instant film cameras has already stopped. (For instance, there has been no new supply of Polaroid ID Cameras for nearly two years now.) Large format instant film production will end before April. Medium format professional film (for Polaroid backs), ID photo film and consumer film will all cease production before the end of this year. Global inventory is expected to decline to zero across all lines during 2009. [add comment]

WEDDING PREDICTIONS FOR 2008!

• Wedding Predictions for 2008! – There's nothing as scientific as true market research – and this IS nothing as scientific as true market research! A round up of opinion from different commentators on the UK wedding market in 2008 boils down to the following hotch-potch of informed speculation: [expand story >>>]

In 2008, according to the crystal ball, the UK wedding market will be worth more than £3 billion. A quarter of a million couples will wed here this year. The white British are marrying less – but they're also marrying later, so they're spending more. Average spends might be around £20,000 with £70,000 not being too unusual. The young Russians in Britain are said to be spending more this year. You could buy a house in some parts of the country for the cost of a Russian wedding, we're told. On the other hand, African Caribbean couples spend on average a little less, just under £18,000. Some photographers are reporting anecdotally that gay couples also spend a little less on their photography. Asian weddings continue to be lavish affairs, but those with the business aren't parting with any figures. The long-awaited boom in Polish weddings in the UK will not materialize this year – the Poles are staying young and single. As far as photographers' bookings across the board go, although we've heard that early bookings weren't strong, some photographers are fully booked up, though others are still chasing business. [add comment]

FOCUS ON IMAGING STARTS THIS SUNDAY!

• Focus On Imaging Starts This Sunday! – It's that time of year again! The biggest date on the calendar of UK imaging has come round once more – FOCUS on Imaging 2008 starts Sunday, February 24 in the NEC! You know you have to be there! [expand story >>>]

FOCUS on Imaging was launched in '80s Britain by an organizer who spotted an opportunity for a UK-centric show, modelled on Photokina. Those who've gone regularly may use it as a touchstone by which to mark changes in the industry. Today, we can look around and reflect on who we don't see there anymore – no Agfa anymore, for instance, no Konica-Minolta today. But we can also watch the new arrivals – Sony coming in strongly, on the stand of www.photomart.co.uk (which is also the host for FOCUS veterans, Mitsubishi Electric). And Shanghai Doli, the global minilab manufacturer, there again this year on the www.photomart.co.uk stand.

These days FOCUS likes to bill itself as Europe's Largest Annual Imaging Show, asserting continent-wide significance on a par with SONIMAG. And it's true that some American Corporations, such as ExpressDigital, are using FOCUS as one of their stepping stones into Europe. ExpressDigital will have a large team showing their DARKROOM software on the www.photomart.co.uk stand.

FOCUS is all about bringing buyers and sellers together. It's a great opportunity for end-users to not only keep up to date with the latest developments, but also to take home some of the best bargains of the year. You won't get them anywhere else, so come along with us this year to FOCUS on Imaging 2008! (Our sponsor, www.photomart.co.uk, will be on stand M2.) [add comment]

EXPRESSDIGITAL NAMES PHOTOMART DEALER OF THE YEAR!

• ExpressDigital Names Photomart International Dealer of The Year! – Come FOCUS on Imaging this year, U.S. software firm ExpressDigital will formally present www.photomart.co.uk with the 2007 International Dealer of the Year award they won at PMA. The award was announced there in Las Vegas at the beginning of this month, and is in recognition of www.photomart.co.uk's role in establishing ExpressDigital products in the UK. [expand story >>>]

ExpressDigital are the makers of photographers' workflow software DARKROOM. In the UK, their DARKROOM software has become the productivity tool of choice for event photographers. www.photomart.co.uk has specialized in serving the UK eventing community for many years now, and is the distributor of DARKROOM in this territory. You can watch a flash demo, explaining what DARKROOM is, here. [add comment]

SONY UP-DR200 WILL HAVE MATTE PRINT OPTION!

• Sony UP-Dr200 will have matte print option! – The forthcoming SONY UP-DR200 6"x8" event printer will have Sony's patented and proven ProMatte print technology, the corporation has said. ProMatte allows Sony dye sub printers to make matte prints as well as gloss prints, without changing media. [expand story >>>]

Historically, using dye sub technology to produce matte prints has been problematic. Dye sub media is inherently glossy - it works by reflecting white light back through a dye-absorbing receiver coating. The coating has a smooth surface, and the prints are finished with a laminate overlay. Because of this, few dye sub printers have offered a matte finish option. Of those that have, most provided it on an alternative matte finish media. Sony's ProMatte solution is different. It works by modulating the signal sent to the thermal head, not by switching the media. This approach hasn't been used much on fast dye sub photo printers before, because at high print speeds it tended to produce streaking. Sony have overcome these problems with their ProMatte technology. It has been available on their printers, like portrait printer UP-GR700, for some years now. We look forward to seeing it on this new event printer!