Photographica 18th May 2008 - UK

Brian Jeffery · Apr 8, 2008

Those of you who like the older camera (and the not so old) might be interested in Photographica 2008 which will be taking place Sunday 18th May at the Royal Horticultural Society's Halls in Victoria, central London. You'll find more information here.
I'll be there, as I'm hoping to get my next fix

Brian

Wishy · Apr 10, 2008

Have been seriously considering this, but it depends on if i can replace my wreck of a car and still have enough money left to buy anything!

Akki14 · Apr 10, 2008

I'm planning on going.

Also for those North of London types, there's a small camera fair on at Elm Court, Potters Bar this Sunday (13th April). It usually has some good stuff, small entrance fee of £2. Lots of high end collectables and a few boxes of junk you can sometimes find gems in. I found a Brownie No.2 Model B c. turn of the century in almost mint condition and works lovely. Pretty impressive considering it's only made of cardboard. More info on this site http://www.elmcourt.org.uk/ (and i think it's also on the same website as Photographica, just buried in there )

delphine · Apr 10, 2008

Thanks for sharing the info Brian. I am very keen to go too

Leon · Apr 12, 2008

I may come along - have been once before but wished I'd taken more money - lots to buy there

Wishy · Apr 27, 2008

Well, work have sent me on a training course that week in london, so i think i'd be rude not to go. Hotel is near heathrow...

Anybody from around the area, I take it i'd be utterly mad to try and drive there. Any suggestions on where would be best to park up and train / tube in?

Akki14 · Apr 28, 2008

Wishy said:
Well, work have sent me on a training course that week in london, so i think i'd be rude not to go. Hotel is near heathrow...

Anybody from around the area, I take it i'd be utterly mad to try and drive there. Any suggestions on where would be best to park up and train / tube in?

Park at your hotel, take the hotel shuttle service to Heathrow, get tube from there?

Bob F. · Apr 28, 2008

[EDIT: OK - I just realised this is a one-day event and is on a Sunday, so take the car! Traffic will be fairly light and parking meters should be free...]

Overland trains are much faster at getting into central London: 25-30 minutes from Feltham to Waterloo (make sure you go direct, not via Hounslow = 45 mins) for example. Then get the tube from Waterloo. From Feltham you can get a one-day Travelcard after 09:30 or any time weekends (it's valid on local Southeast trains and the tube) which will save a lot. Might be lucky parking in side-streets but don't count on it: there are a couple of pay car parks (about six quid a day I think).

You might risk the car if going at the weekend (less traffic and no congestion charge) but on Saturdays you will still be faced with high parking charges. Sundays likely to be railworks so I'd say use train if going any day except Sunday and use the car if Sunday...

Have fun, Bob.

Wishy · Apr 28, 2008

Its not actually heathrow, its Chertsey, (Which is fairly close to heathrow, but i don't believe theres a shuttle bus. Its also a fairly small hotel)

I've driven in Birmingham before, but thats about it. I don't tend to barge in too much either. Should I definately have no trouble parking? Were also planning to go shoot some film around the city after, not sure if i'm better just sticking to the tube. But i guess i could just leave the car there...

dsullivan · Apr 30, 2008

Wishy said:
Its not actually heathrow, its Chertsey, (Which is fairly close to heathrow, but i don't believe theres a shuttle bus. Its also a fairly small hotel)

I've driven in Birmingham before, but thats about it. I don't tend to barge in too much either. Should I definately have no trouble parking? Were also planning to go shoot some film around the city after, not sure if i'm better just sticking to the tube. But i guess i could just leave the car there...

Chertsey is quite a way out so you're well outside the reaches of the Tube but there's a railway station in Chertsey which is an hour to Waterloo. From what I remember of the area around the RHS halls there's quite a bit of on-street parking but you'll find the stuff right by the halls themselves occupied by vendors so you'll probably have to park 5 minutes away and walk it.

David.

Bob F. · Apr 30, 2008

I was at Waterloo yesterday and made a point of checking the parking meters. As with most they are free Sundays and bank holidays. I can't say 100% for sure in Victoria which is in a different borough (Westminster) but I think that is the general situation with London parking meters. I do know that the Tate is in Westminster and parking meters are free around there on Sundays.

little green acres · May 16, 2008

I'm new but wanted to bump this up for the weekend.
Photographica is this coming Sunday, 18 May.
I'll try to insert a link to the website, here
Apologies if that didn't work, it is also earlier in this thread.

Wishy · May 17, 2008

My bags are packed, I'll hopefully get there at 10, M1 permitting!

Does anybody want to meet up for a stroll around london in the afternoon? (Weather: cloudy)

Wishy · May 18, 2008

Well, Not a huge haul for me. (One of the other Exakta collects snaffled a huge tray of cameras before I spotted it - Doh!)

Bought a Kodak Beau Brownie (Brown) (Loads of box cameras and folders to choose from through) for £15 (Plenty of cheaper box cameras around, but for the sake of a tenner i generally go for something a little better looking)
An ensign ful-vue (£8, slightly iffy shutter)
An Exakta RTL 1000 (Prism) with Oreston lens (£10, wanted it for the lens - the RTL is a horrible fake exakta)
Got myself 10 rolls of assorted horendously expired slide film for a tenner - XPro Fodder! and Ten rolls of lucky 100 in 120 for a tenner.

Not a huge haul for me. But I kept cash in my pocket and spent the money on a cosemtically good (IE Broken!) Kine Exakta on ebay (Yay ) Ummed and Arred over a Minolta SRT101 with a 1.4 and a Penticon Six with a Biometer and Flektogon, but couldn't justify £60 and £180 respectively to myself.

Worthwhile going, i spent about 4 hours in there, but honestly i think there was just too much to look through - i barely did any bargin box digging! (Although I have learnt to look at how cheap the cheapest camera on the table is, if its a fiver or a tenner, you know that the bargain box is going to have a significant quality of ****)
Traffic was dead easy on the way in. I then went to belfron tower (MMM Grungy Brutalist buildings) and back to the hotel, which was an absolutely mare. But hey, a car with a working engine that doesn't cut out on idle made the job a lot easier! Wish I'd done more in London, but i were fed up with the parking and didn't really fancy leaving the shiney new car in east london and getting the tube in!

Has anybody got any suggestions for places to get to from Chertsey for a bit of early evening photography?

delphine · May 19, 2008

I don't know the area of Chertsey, but hopefully somebody can help you out with a couple of recommendations.

I went to the exhibition too... got a cool signal mechanical self timer with two red bits looking like mickey mouse ears coming out as the time lapses. It has its own mini leather case and is coming in as a replacement. I bought two boxes of Agfa Brovira paper Gr 2 (any processing recommendations welcome), and two glass negatives which I am hoping to contact print.
There was a beautiful Pentax 6x9 SLR, built like a tank but wonderful... amazing click... I wish I had walked away with it. Voices of reason spoke out very loud.
I fell for a small folding retinette, so cute, there again, very sexy click ... but the seller was not ready to lower the price. But did I need a 35mm folder?

Some of the stalls were better than others... some of them displaying a lot of rubbish. But still, a nice stroll and a good day out.

Akki14 · May 19, 2008

I didn't get much either. I wanted a tripod but they only had stupidly huge and heavy video tripods or silly flimsy 35mms and nothing inbetween really. All I got was a random large format lens which I've estimated to be about 200m focal length, still have to try it out... a flash for my sx-70 (eh, might as well use up the stockpile of film I bought it) and a 6x6 negative carrier for my enlarger which will be nicer than the "universal" carrier I have for 120 stuff. This should give true 6x6 format and no glass to dust/dirty up either (yay). I need another camera like I need a hole in my head so there was less "draw" to the whole show for me this year.

Brian Jeffery · May 20, 2008

delphine said:
got a cool signal mechanical self timer with two red bits looking like mickey mouse ears coming out as the time lapses.

So, you got one then. I'm glad I didn't purchase the last one in the place

Photographica definately seemed smaller this year, I don't know how much longer it's going to last, especially in a venue of this size

Ha, I did manage to try a Dyson Airblade though: what a hand dryer.

Brian

Wishy · May 21, 2008

Brian Jeffery said:
Photographica definately seemed smaller this year, I don't know how much longer it's going to last, especially in a venue of this size

They mentioned next year they will be moving into a smaller hall.

Photographica 18th May 2008 - UK

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency