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Photokina 2016: “Smart Picture” Beats “Digital Picture” | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Photokina 2016


Cologne (Germany) – The German Union of Photo Industry has revealed that 1,138 photos are being taken in Germany during the year reaching an unprecedented record in the world of photo; while 74% of these photos were taken through smartphones, statistics have showed that sales of cameras have also declined to 3.5 million in 2016 compared with 7.4 million in 2012.

Since the last Photokina in 2014, sales of cameras have dropped by 13% and revenues of their sales have dropped by 10%; these figures reflect a remarkable change in the consumer’s daily use not only with cameras, but also with smartphones.

During Photokina Exhibition 2016 in Cologne, Christian Muller Richer, head of the Union of Photo Industry said that, 15 years ago, they thought the digital photo will completely dominate the traditional photograph; yet, today smartphone photos are the most spread. The photography industry has also witnessed the ascension of drone cameras, with 561 new models in 2016 compared to 171 in 2010.

Base of Camera Copters

Visitors of Photokina may think they are in a war field seeing plenty of camera copters flying in the air, and many small aircraft cameras above heads to shoot everything. Many models of flying cameras were revealed, like the drone camera, which can be placed in a small bag, fly above 15 meters/second, and shoot for 20 minutes.

Smartphones and Cameras… Generation of “Selfie” versus Professionals

To highlight the difference between taking photos with smartphones or a camera, Asharq Al-Awsat interviewed the Head of Sales Department in Nikon’s pavilion at the exhibition Stephan Shmidt; he said the “zoom” taken by a mobile phone lacks for accuracy and maximize the photo with lower quality while the digital camera takes the maximized photo with the same real resolution.

However, Shmidt sees that cameras will always be the tool of professional photographers and the main photographing mean in the near future.

During Photokina, Nikon has attracted many youth to its pavilion, where it showed cameras and glasses to watch the virtual world.

‘Selfie” and Teeth Brushing

Catherina Hama, chair of the exhibition said that Photokina has brought many innovations that targets youth in this field, particularly the generation of “selfie”, because people are taking selfies more than they brush teeth during their days.

The Photokina Exhibition 2016 has hosted more than 1000 company from 40 countries and is expected to receive 180,000 visitors from the lovers of photography.