New White Boxes Full Of Good Things

I have been away on holidays looking at big white boxes - see the heading image.

Whilst I was away the shop fitting gnomes have been to visit Camera Electronic and have installed two new showcases. Actually it might be one new showcase with two display areas but let's not quibble - the thing looks good.

One side seems to feature Sony camera bodies and lenses - the mirror-less, compact , and bridge types stood out on their orange plinths - while the other portion has a number of Zeiss lenses on blue stands. They all look well, and this is a great encouragement in retail presentation. There's a bit of theatre needed for anything and these cases make a good stage.

I hope there is storage space under those trays - that is another retail story that we have to cope with. All cameras and lenses come in boxes and once you get the item out to be seen you have created double the space requirements for storage. It's not like the computer desktop where you click up an image or click it away into virtual storage space - real items need real centimetres of shelf space somewhere and some way to find them later.

A small aside - good lenses like these Zeiss examples need good lens caps, and good lens hoods. Of course, you get them from Zeiss. Other manufacturers take care of their own ranges, and you would be well advised to make sure that the proper one is on the front of your lens. But...some makers are better than others when it comes to making this easy.

You see, some put the exact specification number  of the lens hood on the box the lens comes packed in, and then also put the exact matching lens information on the box in which the lens hood is packed. Even if the day is foggy, the sales assistant can quickly get the right one. Other major makers do not do this, and the staff are thrown back on the resource of the internet to find out what fits what. Oddly enough, dear old irksome Ken Rockwell's blog is the fastest reference for many of these match-ups.

Well, he had to be good for something.