Visiting the Taipei International Photography & Media Equipment Exhibition 2020

The Taipei International Photography & Media Equipment Exhibition 2020 is taking place these days in Taipei. I visited on the 2nd day in the morning, so that I could avoid crowds, but that wasn't a too successful effort. I reached there around 11 and it was already quite busy, since it was a Saturday morning. I stayed until after lunch and it got really crowded, and the vendors had more activities at their booths, such as models posing with gear and hosts interviewing photographers. While Taiwan just celebrated 200 days without a local coronavirus infection, I still did not want to take any chances, so I left early. Let me share my impressions of particular brands and how the show looked like in general.

The main photography area right after you walked into the hall.

Nikon

Nikon technically had the 3rd largest booth, but it was actually one of their Taiwanese distributors Lin Trading that was listed as exhibitor. That's because Nikon doesn't have a proper local office in Taiwan, while Canon and Sony, doo. Nevertheless, this was in no way a negative, as all the staff wore Nikon Z wear, and it looked 100% like a Nikon booth. By my judgement, the Nikon booth was one of the most crowded one, at least during the time I was there.

The reason for that was the fact that they had several Nikon Z6 II cameras available for a hands-on experience. They also had all the latest Z lenses, like the 14-24mm f/2.8 or the 70-200mm f/2.8. In addition they also had binoculars and some F-mount cameras, but the Z6 IIs were definitely the key focus, and that area was one of the most crowded ones in all of the exhibition. 

A visitor trying out the Z6 II with the 70-200mm f/2.8 Z lens.

The busiest area: The Z6 II hands-on section.

All the lenses available for hands-on.

The Nikon Z6 II, for me the most exciting camera at the exhibition.

Here's a little video about my Nikon Z6 II hands-on experience:

Canon

Canon probably had the biggest booth among the camera brands, but Sony's looked as big, so I am not sure, however Canon's was divided in several sections: A hands on area with a pair of EOR RP and EOS R cameras. Nobody was checking them out, as they were old. There was an area where they had a model posing for shots (refer to top image). The problem here was that the EOS R5 and ES R6 hands on area was there as well, but so many people (I mean men) were crowding that area because they were only interested to take photos of the model that I had to fight myself through to get a brief hands on the R5 and R6.

The Canon hands-on area.

The M50, the RP and the R... not much interest for these.

The model was Canon's main attraction, it seemed.

This was the back side of Canon's booth, reserved for various presentations.

Finally managed to get to the R5 hands on area and saw this huge lens.

The EOS R5 with the 24-105mm f/4 lens.

The lens extended. A pretty hefty camera kit, not much smaller than DSLRs.

This was definitely the biggest flagship camera at the exhibition and it got as much attention as the Nikon Z6 II. I tried it on, and it's definitely a nice, but hefty camera. Especially with the RF 70-200mm f/2.8 this was a DSLR like experience. The Continuous AF with Eye tracking was excellent, but the model wasn't moving much, so I have no idea how good it was. I'm sure that it's a great camera, but as a Nikon shooter I don't like the ergonomics. I am totally lost with the button placement, and for me this camera is simply too big. If I want big, I prefer to stay with DSLR. Mirrorless for me means smaller foot print.

Here's a little hands-on experience with the Canon R5 and R6:

Sony

Sony had a big booth, but most of that was used for a kind of a dance stage. They had these dancers moving gently back and forth in a kind of a modern dance. Frankly, it was very boring. There were 2 hands-on areas for the A7c, one at the back of the stage, and one at the stage. I did not see any other cameras like the A9 II, so the booth was generally very boring. They also had 2 telephoto lenses at the side area, but kind of in a back corner where not many people stayed. All in all not much to report from Sony. I tried the A7c and the camera is really cheaply built. The EVF is so bad, I wonder why they even bothered to put it in. It's extremely bad and virtually useless, unless you want to spoil your eye sight.

The main area at the Sony booth.

Two dancers were performing here for hours.

Others

There were some other photography brands displaying at the exhibition, but mainly through resellers. I saw Manfrotto, who were also selling some back packs and I noticed the prices were really much better than what you can get in Taipei's stores. I also saw KamLan, Caver, Gitzo, Rode and Zeiss. Brands like Fuji, Olympus, Panasonic or Pentax weren't present, and I think that was a mistake. I heard Canon sold a lot of R5s during the show, and Nikon also sold a lot of gear right there. That's because people were able to test and confirm their decision right there on the spot. Due to coronavirus these shows are now so rare, so it was quite an experience to actually get to touch and feel new gear. After this show I will definitely get the Z6 II once prices come down a bit. It's an amazing camera.

KamLan and Manfrotto area.

The other half of the exhibition was dedicated to outdoors, camping and grill brands.

Caver tripods. I'm not so familiar with this brand.

Rode microphones. I own one myself. Great company.

Here's a small video summary of the whole show:

In conclusion

It was a nice show. Smaller than in 2018 when I visited the last time and where Nikon displayed the Z7, but it was big enough for the corona times we live in. This time you had to pre-register before you came to the show, and inside you had to wear masks. Let me also emphasize once again that for now (knock on wood!) Taiwan is 6 months free of any local infection. Life is still not normal here, but way more normal than elsewhere, because most of our cases enter the country at the International Airport, and everyone who visits has to quarantine for 14 days by law (police ensures that you don't cheat). It's hard to say how long Taiwan can be this corona free, since cases are starting to spike all over the world, but for now, as of this moment, we're still fine, and the Taipei International Photography & Media Equipment Exhibition 2020 looked like a huge success.