On Brand Popularity and other things

[boBQuincy]

Most of my photography is at WDW, parks, car shows, etc. but I went to a railroad event Thursday 29 May and saw that railfans may take their photo equipment more seriously than any other group I have seen. DSLRs greatly outnumbered any other camera with (of course) Canons and Nikons by far the most popular brands. In fact I saw *no* other dSLR brands (except one Minolta film SLR), few P&S, and one mirrorless (mine). This group spends $$$, more than what I see at WDW or any other event I have attended. High end APS-C and full frame cameras were the norm, as well as L series lenses and whatever Nikon's top line is. 24-70 f/2.8 and 70-200 f/2.8 were common, a lot of photographers carried two cameras rather than change lenses.

Like Summer at WDW this was not cushy conditions in which to carry this much gear: high 80's, humid, and most of the events took place in full sun. Some rain fell around 6-8 pm making it a bit cooler but even more humid for the evening photo session. Any photographers who didn't have tripods during the day (many did) brought them out now as the photo lines formed around the locomotives on display. The event started at 8 am and when I left at 9:30 pm the parking lot was still almost full. What I missed the most at that time was no bus, boat, or monorail to take me back to the hotel!

No one else seemed to be taking HDR sets, all single shots from the sound of the shutters, interesting.

 

[KCmike]

Interesting story Bob. Was this event in North Carolina?

 

[boBQuincy]

Interesting story Bob. Was this event in North Carolina?

Yep, "Streamliners at Spencer" at the North Carolina Transportation Museum. It was a great show with 26 streamlined locomotives from the '40s and '50's.