For most of these past 33 years I attended CES as an exhibitor. As a publisher in the computer industry, we used CES to promote and market our lines of software and books. Awhile back however, we sold our interests in computer publishing to follow other opportunities.

So for the last several years, I’ve attended CES as an industry member. I still have a deep interest in the myriad of new electronic gadgets. I want to stay current with the neat, innovative devices that are making their initial appearances.

The recession of 2007-2009 had a profound effect when attendance plummeted. Slowly, the electronics industry has recovered. Last year’s show 2014 was a record-breaking one with 160,000 visitors.

This year’s attendees (to the right) were just as anxious to visit the 3,600 exhibitors who occupied 2.2 million square feet of space.

CES reports that 2015 was another record-breaker with more than 170,000 attendees including 45,000 foreign visitors.

Many exhibitors spared little to promote their brand.

I was interested in a few new pieces of equipment including Nikon’s newly announced AW1. It’s based on the one year-old Nikon 1 series. These are compact, mirrorless models that have interchangeable lenses. They are small and lightweight but deliver high quality images.

But the kicker here is that the AW1 is also waterproof to 49 feet, temperature resistant to 14F degrees and shockproof to about 6 feet. I was attracted to this camera because of its ruggedness.

I spent about 30 minutes of touchie-feelie time with the AW1 at the Nikon booth. I also peppered Brian – the Nikon rep – with dozens of questions about the camera.

In the end, I came away satisfied that this new piece of equipment needed to become part of my arsenal.

When I returned home from New York, I placed an order for the AW1 with two waterproof lenses. Although the AW1 has been available for sale for about six weeks, the two lens kit was just made available.

This article is a followup to Part 1 in which I describe a few of the photographic items that attracted my attention as I was scouring the venues of the Consumer Electronics Show. In this Part 2 article, I’ll show you some of the other items that I found interesting at this year’s record breaking CES.

I’m a geek at heart. And since I like touching, feeling and learning about devices and gadgets that perform some kind of magic, the miles of aisles taking up some 1.8 million square feet of exhibit space -are a playground for me. Apparently there are a few others that feel the same way; attendance at the show was north of 150,000.

You might think that after more than twenty-five years of attending the Consumer Electronics Show, I’d grow weary of the annual (CES used to take place twice a year) trek.

Showhow, there’s always lots of excitement in getting your hands on some of the new gadgets that will soon be making their way to the market.