Departure to new picture worlds photokina in Cologne will once again become the meeting point of the imaging world from 20 to 25 September 2016. However, rarely has the summit meeting of the industry been anticipated with as much excitement as in this year. The world of imaging is undergoing a profound transformation. This means that the cards are being dealt again for all players of the industry.The decision will be reached in the course of this reorientation as to who will be among the big players of the future and who will dominate the segments of the imaging market and their billions. It will also become clear who will in future specialise in the increasingly lucrative, new and old niche markets. Never have the markets for imaging products been so diverse, so fragmented and so promising. The photokina claim of Imaging Unlimited comprehensively and accurately describes the state of development in the world of imaging. There is no longer any realm of life in which images play no role. Never before has communication been powered by images to this extent. More than a trillion images were recorded last year. Millions are shared daily with the intention of reporting ones own experiences. The attention people receive and that everyone is looking for is increasingly linked with images.
The stars of the photo scene are followed by more fans than the elite athletes of the world. According to the Web Popularity Index (WPI), determined twice annually by the Berlin company PIXXL, the photography stars in the Internet have fan communities encompassing millions. Of the hundred most popular photographers in the world, thirteen are already fan millionaires. The leading photographer by far of the Internet scene, Brandon Stanton, can be proud to claim a community of 23 million followers, which he has reached to date with his photo project Humans of New York. He is thus a good step ahead of the sports superstar Usain Bolt, who only has 17 million followers on facebook. Its thus clear that the star photographers who will reveal the secrets to the success of their images will also be among the crowd pullers at photokina 2016. As the official photography partner of photokina, the traditional manufacturer Leica will present excellent works of contemporary and classic photographers in hall 1 with the exhibition Masters of Photography, and as one of the leading camera manufacturers in the world, Canon is designing this years photokina presence in accordance with the motto Images are the new words.
After decades of a market powered by camera innovations, this year it is the results that once again provide the focus of interest. However, also against the background of the technical revolution in visual communication: the new images made possible by technical progress make unprecedented visual experiences possible. They enable submersion into the completely new dimensions of virtual, augmented or mixed reality. What still appears to be pie in the sky to some can already be experienced by visitors to photokina 2016 as market-ready products. A completely new category of imaging products is celebrating its start on the market here. This includes, not least, the accessories required to produce, edit, experience and share new visual experiences: VR glasses and tablets, phablets, monitors and of course the corresponding software.
Today almost everyone has a computer in the jacket of trouser pocket, or in their handbag, and thus at the same time a photo album. Modern imaging technologies, as a consequence of the digital revolution, have changed the world of images at an astonishing speed, and thus how society deals with these. Cameras have become indispensable means of communication that not only automatically create photographs and films in excellent quality at the push of a button, but can also process, modify and transmit these worldwide. Around 74 percent of the German population uses a smartphone to create images and thus always has their camera with them. More and more, smartphones are also becoming the most important control centre for visual communication and the indispensable accessory for professional and private film and photo equipment. All cameras presented by the imaging innovators at photokina use the interfaces of these jacks of all trades to expand their functionalities or to be able to use new applications optimally. Conversely, the accessories industry is presenting devices like, for example, gimbals for smartphones, which, in combination with the jacks of all trades, enable professional recordings from the hand in transmission quality.
From the autonomous photo apparatus to the completely networked Camera of Things
The trend toward the networking of devices and machines, the Internet of Things (IoT), has also initiated dramatic convulsions in the camera industry, which will become manifest across all manufacturers at photokina 2016. Although cameras are becoming increasingly intelligent and their communications possibilities are expanding all the time, the interfaces with the smartphone remain decisive. That applies not only to the usage of functional expansions, but also to the remote control of increasingly higher performance recording systems. Even professional accessories, such as mobile studio flash devices, like those exhibited in the pro section of the trade fair, use smartphones and the corresponding apps to comfortably set and synchronise the activation of devices. The larger displays of mobile devices like smartphones and tablets simplify the selection of an excerpt, and thus also the remote control of the camera systems, becoming external second displays of the cameras. The cameras incorporated into the smartphones were the first completely networked representatives of the Cameras of Things and the strongest impulse for the Internet of Things, which would hardly have been conceivable
