Quick note: if you’re coming to Portland OR for the PNW Lens Summit, you can get 20% off lodging at The Mark Spencer Hotel (no, not that Mark Spencer) if booked by April 5th. Just tell them you are with the Pacific Northwest Lens Summit. There is also a discount at the Residence Inn Portland Downtown/Riverplace. Details on these and other hotels on the Lens Summit’s Accommodations page.
Updated original post follows
Last year’s Pacific Northwest Lens Summit was hugely successful*, so they’re doing it again: a day-long open house at Koerner Camera in Portland, Oregon on Saturday, May 5th from 10am to 5pm.
Most—possibly all—of the big names in cinema glass will be there, showing off primes and zooms; spherical, aspherical, and anamorphic lenses; adapters, converters, controllers, and focus-assist accessories; lenses for 2/3″ video on up to full-frame and possibly beyond. It’s not just the glass, either, it’s the folks behind the glass, like Les Zellan from Cooke, Jeff Cree from BandPro, and Matthew Duclos from Duclos Lenses (of course!), to name only a few. Check out the names on this Instagram post for an idea of who’s likely to be there.
There will be food, and wine, and beer, and music, and (almost certainly, because Portland) donuts. There will be more lenses than you can shake a FIZ controller at, and FIZ controllers to shake at ‘em. There will be knowledgeable people waiting to answer your optical questions. There will be hands-on time with the widest selection of glass you’ll find short of an NAB, IBC, or Cine Gear Expo. And unlike those shows, this one’s all glass, all the time.
Yes, it’s three months barely a month away: plan for it now, and get airfare on the cheap. If you want to make a day trip of it, you can catch MAX light rail from within the airport to a stop only a couple of blocks from Koerner. Transit’s not a bad idea in any case; parking near Koerner is limited, and there will be crowds. If you do drive and park in the neighborhood, keep an eye out for time-limit signs.
More information and registration info at lenssummit.com.
Disclosure: Koerner is my local rental house, and I’m all for supporting your local rental house. However there is no material relationship between me and Koerner. And, sadly, nobody has paid me anything—not even a donut—to promote this event.
Updated disclosure, 25 March: there is no material relationship between me and any of the hotels mentioned, and none of them paid me anything either.
*I was going to say “smashingly successful”, but you don’t say that around expensive lenses.