Photo business has promising prospects
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.