Let’s consider, to start, the humble camera strap. Several models of sling strap were shown, designed to carry the camera over your shoulder and under your arm or even on your hip.

In all probability, most photographers could gain more from investing in lighting equipment than from investing in new cameras. Not professionals, perhaps, though studio lighting continues to come on in leaps and bounds, but countless amateurs could greatly improve both the range and quality of their work.

The weirdest camera at the show, the GFAE, wasn’t even recognizable as a camera, not least because it was a view camera with the bellows left out in order to show its construction more clearly. We’ll come back to it later, but first, let’s look at some more conventional offerings.

Countless things appear at photokina that are not cameras, lenses, tripods, bags, materials, or lighting and studio. It’s part of the magic of the place. Calling this category “accessories” won’t do, because for most of us, “accessories” consist mostly of small things in blister packs: cable releases, lens caps, that sort of thing. At photokina, it can...

Perhaps the hardest thing to convey about photokina is just how wide-ranging it is. Where else are you going to get an opinion, from a factory representative, about how much longer film coating is going to survive in Iran? The answer, incidentally, was “maybe two to three years.” Did you even know there was a coating line in Iran? Then there are Romanian photo-book machines, Turkish...

What’s new and different in gadgets and accessories this year? While digital has overtaken cameras it seems that many of the accessories we saw could be used as much on a film as a digital camera, proving that while there might not be much new under the sun there are certainly variations that bend with the technological tide.

Alpine Innovations’ D-Pod is an interesting...

While there are no revolutionary designs in tripods, monopods, and heads this year (unlike the introduction of the Novoflex four-legged tripod last year), manufacturers have not sat idly. They continue to address the needs of studio photographers but appear to be placing even greater emphasis on travel photography.

Notably, we’re beginning to see more subcompact tripods...