London
Bit of a disaster at London Euston station due to track closures on the route to Birmingham, but Sam skillfully waded through things and we made it to Birmingham without incident. Virgin Trains first-class FTW.
The Photography Show was smaller than I expected-- a single hall out of the twenty halls at NEC Birmingham. Even MCM Comic Con is bigger (!). Still, the quality of the speakers was excellent, and the vendor/manufacturer selection was impressive. Tom Stoddart gave a superb talk, Canon and Nikon both had good-sized booths with their large lens collections available for hands-on demos, and most of the other major makers were also represented.
Sigma had an impressive display of lenses, including their long zooms, while Leica's display went much more minimal on equipment. Panasonic was out in force, complete with acrobatics show to give enthusiasts something to point their 4K-capable MILC's at, while tripod makers Gitzo, Manfrotto, and Three Legged Thing all had nice displays. X-Rite, Rode, Wacom, Datacolor, and numerous others were also present; all the Wacom tablets around even convinced Sam to spend some money, while Crumpler UK did their best to convince me. Many smaller talks held by vendors were all over as well, some were better than others. DxO put on an almost-convincing effort, so did some strobe makers, while Datacolor was less than convincing.
t'was a great experience, even if we didn't make it to as many talks as planned. Made it back to London in the early evening and promptly upgraded from the lousy convention center food (awful pulled pork sandwiches) to high-end aged ribeyes and raw oysters at Hawksmoor. Made a stop by Harrods on the way as well, just for the spectacle.