Best, Worst, and Weirdest of the Digital Photo Show

There was a time-and it wasn't all that long ago--when the photography industry's Photo Marketing Association International show (better known as PMA) was dominated by the world of silver halide (better known as film). Digital photography was just a newfangled footnote. Today, PMA still technically includes a digital-imaging show-within-the-show called DIMA. But today's PMA itself might as well be called DPMA, and film, while it can still be found on the show floor, is the footnote.

The 2005 edition of the show, which is going on this week in Orlando, has been my first PMA. And I've had a blast. Herewith, some of the most appealing, appalling, or otherwise notable products, trends, and factoids I've come across, in no particular order...

Hottest product category. This one's a no-brainer. Seven-megapixel cameras were everywhere--Canon, Casio, Nikon, Samsung, and Sony announced at least one apiece. All were either somewhat or very pocketable, and all were under $500. Canon's PowerShot Digital Elph SD500 (seen below) was the sexiest, and probably the smallest overall. But Casio's Exilim EX-Z750 was in some ways more startling, since it packed a 2.5-inch LCD into an amazingly compact, thin case.



Most pleasingly mundane categories. It seems like only yesterday that four megapixel point-and-shoots were impressive and five-megapixel ones were only seen on the high end of the market. At PMA 2005, even most low-end models pack four megapixels of resolution, and five megapixels are commonplace and affordable. And to think it was only a few years ago that I paid $500 for a one-megapixel camera, and was delighted with the deal...

Most entertainingly quirky feature. One other thing about the Exilim EX-Z750, which I mentioned a moment ago: It lets you shoot video clips in a "silent movie" mode, which records everything in black-and-white at a slightly too-fast speed.

Who says 2.5 inches is big for an LCD screen? Sorry if I sound fixated on Exilims, but another new one, the EX-Z57, ups the ante with a 2.7-inch LCD, the biggest I've seen. It's so large in relation to the camera's case that there's no room left for an optical viewfinder.



Best news for careful consumers. Print longevity testing firm Wilhelm Imaging Research announced a new seal for printers, ink cartridges, and papers which should allow apples-to-apples comparison of how fadeproof competing products are. No rating of this sort is foolproof (unless the tests take a hundred years to run). But Wilhelm's ratings should be a much more reliable indicator than vendor hype.

Rebel redux. Most of the new cameras at the show were point and shoots, but Canon showed off its new EOS Digital Rebel XT, the follow-up to its popular consumer SLR, the Digital Rebel. The $999 XT is smaller and (according to Canon) faster, with more manual controls and 8 megapixels of resolution. The specs are so impressive that Canon felt moved to explicitly point out in its press release that the XT is inferior to the company's much more expensive EOS 20D. Bonus news for cost-conscious shutterbugs: Canon is keeping the original Digital Rebel in its lineup, at the more affordable price of $799.



Most oddball camera. HP introduced a bunch of new models, most of which are pretty straightforward. But it also unveiled the--deep breath--HP Photosmart R607 BMW.WilliamsF1 Team Special Edition. Based on an existing 4.1-megapixel HP model, this $349 camera is aimed at BMW aficionados and racing fans, has a unique blue-and-white case that's said to be inspired by BMW styling, comes in a collector's tin, and is more expensive than the plain-jane R607. This is the second special edition of the R607 to go after an um, niche audience in as many months--the first was the even-more-oddball Gwen Stefani version.

The frame will never be the same. I tend to be dubious about "digital picture frames." Why complicate something that works as well as plain old ordinary picture frames? But I was intrigued by PhotoVu's e-frames. Unlike other models, which sit on tabletops, PhotoVu's are large and wall-mounted, and can be customized with different frame styles. Built-in Wi-Fi lets them grab photos from your PC, or you can plug a memory card into the back. A 17-inch model is $899; a 19-incher is $1299. That's a pricey way to show off your memories, but PhotoVu says they're designed to be built into new housing construction. And hey, it's not hard to spend $250 to frame one non-digital picture nicely.



Most interesting photo printer. I saw scads of photo printers on the show floor, most of which can only do snapshot-sized pictures and which seem intent on cutting the PC out of the digital-photography equation. HP went a different direction with its new Photosmart 8750, its first inkjet aimed at hardcore photo enthusiasts. The $499 8750 can print at 13" by 9", uses nine inks for more subtle reproduction in color or black and white, and produces pictures rated to last up to 100 years without fading. Oh, and in case you do want to cut the PC out of the equation, it has built-in slots for popular memory-card formats.



Best celebrity sighting. This didn't seem to be a huge show for celeb appearances--Fujifilm's booth did host Yankees legends Whitey Ford and Goose Gossage, but as a Bostonian, I refuse to be impressed. I was, however, fascinated by QRIO--as was everyone else who encountered Sony's li'l spokesdroid, it seemed.



Best company name. One booth was occupied by Fair Price Corp., a distributor of electronics products. Runner up: Lens manufacturer Lensbabies.

Possible emerging trend. It's still true that even excellent digital cameras do video badly, and even excellent digital video cameras do still images badly. But PMA saw products such as JVC's GR-X5 DV camcorder and Everio GZ-MC500 hard disk-based camera (shown below) that hint at a future in which you might be able to buy one camera that's at least passably good at both video and still pictures. And 30-frames-per-second MPEG4 video at 640-by-480 resolution is becoming a commonplace feature in still cameras. One big catch: Tape is still the only format that lets you store hours of moving images at a reasonable price. But it's not random access, and it limits how small a camera can get.



Surest sign of phone/camera convergence. Camera phones were surprisingly prominent at the show--for instance, Nokia and Sprint were high-profile exhibitors, Fujifilm introduced a tiny $100 printer that prints camera phone snapshots via an infrared connection, and Sanyo announced a new camera phone with a relatively potent 1.3-megapixel resolution. Even the best camera phones are still marginal photographic devices, but we're already seeing some blurring of traditional categories here.

Strangest booth entertainment. Speaking of Nokia, it spray-painted a scantily-clad young man and woman bright colors right at the booth, for reasons that weren't immediately obvious. Neither looked particularly happy when I wandered by, and the man looked like the Jolly Green Giant's misbegotten love child.



Disney World/photography factoid. What would a report from Orlando be without a Disney-related fact? Digital photography has become so pervasive that Disney World--one of the most-photographed places in the world--has reportedly stopped processing film on park property, due to lack of demand. That's a big change from the old days, when speedy in-park processing was a popular service.

OK, two Disney-related facts. Fujifilm took journalists and other show attendees (including your humble reporter) up in its blimp, which provided a spectacular view of central Florida. But the airship couldn't travel over Disney World--the Disney company, which has a long-standing promotional relationship with Fujifilm archrival Kodak, won't let it.



Craziest prices. Low-price specialist Concord Camera introduced an array of bizarrely cheap new models, including a three-megapixel camera for $79 and a 5-megapixel model for $99. These are unlikely to match models from better-known companies in terms of specs, features, or image quality, but it's still amazing how quickly digital cameras have become an impulse item that are sold in blister packs at Wal-Mart.