Photo business has promising prospects
By K. Basrie
JAKARTA (JP): The five-day exhibition of the latest photographic equipment closed yesterday with estimated sales in the hundreds of millions rupiah.
Participated in by about 40 companies displaying a wide range of famous camera brands and related devices, the July 5 to July 9 "Indonesia Photo & Video Expo '96" at the Jakarta Convention Center in Central Jakarta was toted as today's parameter of Indonesian photography.
Interviewed by The Jakarta Post at the arena yesterday, both exhibitors and visitors agreed that the fair, organized by PT Projaya Exhindo, reflected the rapid growth of the country's photographic business.
"The business of photography is coming of age in Indonesia, which has a promising market as can be seen from this exhibition," said Henry Tan, an executive of Foto Major, a sole agent in Singapore for several renowned brands of photographic equipment.
Sharing his view, other exhibitors added that the exhibition could help them promote their latest products.
"Although our sales during this fair is not so good, we hope it ends up that this was a good arena for us to help promote our company and products," said Warren A. Kiong, president director of Primacolor Imaging, a local company offering a wide range of studio equipment.
Abeng Taswin, a senior trader of new and second-hand cameras in Jakarta, said his stall collected a total sales of Rp 30 million.
Among the prima donnas of the fair was the Nikon F5, the latest Nikon single-lens reflex camera.
According to a brochure published by the organizers, the exhibition is the first photo fair in the world in which the F5 has been displayed. The high-tech camera, selling here for Rp 6.7 million, is scheduled to be launched in Tokyo in October.
Other single-lens reflex cameras, pocket and medium- and large-format cameras offered at the exhibition included those of Canon, Olympus, Minolta, Casio, Pentax, Vivitar, Mamiya and Hasselblad,
A wide variety of lenses, flashes, films, printing machines, services, studio equipment, and accessories such as tripods, frames, photography magazines and bags, were also displayed.
A number of events, such as short courses and photo competitions were held to attract visitors.
Missing items
Exhibitors said that they had no significant problems during the fair except the loss of a number of costly cameras, worth some Rp 30 million (US$12,765).
The stolen items included a set of digital single-lens reflex Nikon E2 cameras, a set of Mamiya RB and a set of Mamiya RZ.
"We don't know exactly when our two Mamiya cameras totaling around Rp 8 million disappeared on Friday and we don't even know who to blame," said Rusdi Latif of Plaza Photo.
The digital Nikon, costing around Rp 20 million and owned by Primacolor Imaging, went missing on the first day of the fair.
"There was a big crowd here at the time and the camera disappeared from the display stand in just a matter of seconds when my staff went to get its cable," said Warren.
When asked to take responsibility, the organizers only said that they had done their best to secure the event.