If you were hoping to get your Olympus camera and sensor cleaned at The Photography Show starting at the end of this week, then you’re going to be out of luck. Olympus UK has announced that they’ve cancelled their Check & Clean service at this year’s show as a result of the current situation with COVID-19 coronavirus.
Olympus UK says that due to the outbreak, they have made the decision to limit international travel amongst their workforce. Olympus UK has stressed they will still attend the show, but as their Check & Clean team is based in Portugal, they will be unable to attend the show. So, the service will not be offered.
Check & Clean is a free service that Olympus UK offers to Olympus camera owners. It’s a popular service at the show, drawing in a number of Olympus shooters into the show each year that might not otherwise have visited.
Olympus UK posted the announcement to Facebook over the weekend…
Although Olympus UK states that limiting international travel amongst their staff is the cause, I think this would have likely happened anyway, even if their Check & Clean crew were UK-based. After all, when we’re being prompted to wash our hands every five minutes and be as clean as possible, who wants to spend four days handling random peoples dirty cameras?
Due to the current global outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus, Olympus has taken the decision to limit international travel amongst its workforce. This means that our camera technicians from the Olympus Service Facility in Portugal will be unable to travel to The Photography Show in Birmingham from 14-17 March 2020 – and therefore there will be no Check & Clean service available on the Olympus UK stand this year.
We understand this will be disappointing to the many Olympus photographers who use this free service at TPS, and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.
As mentioned, Olympus UK is still planning to attend the event and they’ll have the new Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III on display – although it doesn’t seem all too different from its predecessor, save for improved IBIS and a “Starry Sky AF” mode.
The Photography Show is still expected to go ahead as planned. Whether we’ll see the same with Photokina in a couple of months still remains to be seen. Photokina organisers have insisted that there is no reason to cancel just yet, but it may soon be out of their hands if German Health Minister, Jens Spahn, has his way and a ban on events with more than 1,000 attendees is implemented.
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