New York City affords a photographer many opportunities, including the annual gathering of photo professionals at the PDN PhotoPlus International Conference + Expo. Founded in 1983, it is the largest photography and imaging event in North America and features seminars, master classes, portfolio reviews, and a convention center filled with the latest cameras, lenses, and accessories from the major manufacturers and the not-so-major manufacturers. It is at the latter at whom we aimed our microphones as we wandered around the Expo floor.

It's certainly beneficial to handle new cameras and test lenses, but at events like these, speaking with the functionaries from Canon, Nikon, Sony, etc. rarely elicits candid answers or information you can't already find on a press release, so we decided to skip the big booths and concentrate on the vendors from smaller manufacturers to find out what they are bringing to market. We spoke with representatives of long-established firms like Beseler, Fotodiox, Denny Manufacturing, and Platypod to hear what's new in their catalogs, and we also spoke with newer brands and services such as My Case Builder, Foto Op, COOPH and Film Toaster to better understand their new ideas and products.

More from the B&H Photography Podcast

Guests: Charlie Knecht, Steven Holand, Robert Maclay, Bohuš Blahut, Cecil Williams, Ulrich Grill, Colbert Colin, Larry Tiefenbrunn

Photograph © John Harris