The Analog Side of the Biggest Photography Fair in Austria

In recent years I have written articles about this event (Photo + Adventure). These articles were always about newest and brightest in the photography industry. What tiny camera spec has changed, what camera could shoot more fps and what autofocus has new tricks up its sleeve. But this year should be different. I was not commissioned to write an article, so I thought to myself, let’s do something fun. Because digital photography isn’t that relevant for my work anymore, or at least the new digital cameras aren’t, I decided to discover the analog parts of the Photo+Adventure this year.

And to make it even more fun, I decided to do a full film roll of portraits of these analog people. Honestly, I was not sure if I will come home much of a story, but boy was I wrong. Scroll down to get an short written overview, or watch my video for more information. For the portraits, scroll down to the end bottom of this page.

What I found interesting was that some of the people I talked with were bored with the new digital cameras. And I couldn’t agree more. I had some discussions and the outcome was that digital cameras are just great now and have been for many years – the new improvements are not important for lots of people now. Not many people need 50+ Megapixel, 120 frames per second or AI in their cameras. Autofocus improvement and longer lasting batteries are always welcome, but some nature photographers I know are still shooting DSLRs because of the longer lasting battery. Or some even shoot on film (check my video).

All my projects need some kind of “photographic” screws. And they are not so easy to come by.But this shop made my life so much easier. Thats why I was so happy to see the “Fotoschraubenshop” there. It was also nice to meet its owner personally.

Next stop was Fotoköberl. They have lots of film and one of the biggest used camera departments I have seen so far. I bought many times from them and they always provided a great experience. Great shop!

I also visited the Insta360 booth, because they are responsible for my signature YouTube videos that I used to do when I started my YouTube channel. For future projects I got myself a new camera from them that is now very often mounted on my Leica M2.

As said in the video, when people talk about analog photography, often the camera brand Hasselblad comes up. An that was my next stop at Slach Bildtechnik.

By accident I bumped into Mr. Wolczak, the owner of my lab. He taught me lots of analog photography when I brought my first rolls of film to him.

It was nice to meet so many friends there as well. I enjoyed this day a lot and will do something different next time.vAll Black an white Portraits a captured with my trusty Leica M2 and 50mm Summilux on HP5 (developed with HC110)

Share this post: