PMA 2002 Show Report
 Welcome
to the PMA 2002 show report. The Photo
Marketing Association Annual Show is this year back in Orlando at
the Orange County Convention Center and is being held from 24th to 27th
February 2002. The PMA show is the industry's most important annual event,
it's the place where the biggest and best products are announced.
Note: This is not designed to be comprehensive
report of the entire show but rather a look at some of the more interesting
and well known digital camera manufacturers and their new products (and
a few associated companies).
PMA 2002 Show Report Summary
PMA 2002 turned out to be a far more interesting show
than PMA 2001. This year we saw Nikon and Canon go head to head with affordable
six megapixel Digital SLR's, this created a lot of buzz among visitors
and will undoubtedly be the catalyst for many existing 'system owners'
(people who own either companies lenses) to get into digital photography,
there will also be the upgraders coming from the likes of the S1 Pro and
EOS-D30.
More excitement was available thanks to Foveon who dropped
nothing short of a technological bomb onto the show floor, the ripples
of discussion and counter-argument could be heard on almost every stand.
For a company who chose this year not to have stand but instead a couple
of rooms in the OEM suite they certainly have captured everyone's attention
and imagination. I was lucky enough to meet Carver Mead, Foveon's Chairman
and Founder, talking to him you see how convinced Foveon are that they
hold the key to the future of digital photography.
Other manufacturers strengthened their product lines
with logical improvements and new products. Sony were interesting if only
to see how they monitor other manufacturers features and how they are
accepted by users. The new CD400 now has five selectable AF points and
multi-pattern metering, features you'd only expect on a Nikon. Sony must
also be pleased to see Konica with the first non-Sony camera to support
the Memory Stick.
This is going to be one very interesting year...
Our top six stands
(rated by overall quality, size, product availability
and staff)
- Nikon
- Canon
- Kodak
- Sony
- Olympus
- Fujifilm
Key Products
In summary we considered the following as the key digital photography
products at PMA 2002 (alphabetical order) - covered in more detail on
the following pages:
- Adobe Photoshop 7.0 (The best just got a little better) **
- Canon EOS-1D (The new professional D-SLR king, but watch out
for those bands)
- Canon EOS-D60 (The logical upgrade to the EOS-D30 but is it
enough?) **
- Canon PowerShot A100 (New low-end Canon out to show up the
OEM cameras?)
- Foveon X3 (A defining technology for digital photography?)
**
- Fujifilm FinePix S602 Zoom (A prosumers dream?)
- Konica KD-400Z (Memory Stick, Stainless Steel case, Ultra-compact)
- Kyocera S4 (Ultra-compact, four megapixel, three times zoom)
- Leica Digilux 1 / Panasonic DMC-LC5 (So just who makes
the lens?)
- Lexar's "Blinky" Memory Stick (A neat trick, and
a great idea)
- Nikon Coolpix 2500 (Nikon go "cool" but don't forget
their roots) **
- Nikon D100 (Nikon's Canon EOS-D60 killer?) **
- Nixvue Vista (Nixvue show they listen to users and reviewers
alike)
- Sigma SD9 (Foveon X3 Sensor D-SLR) **
- Sony CD-400 (Ok, so it's bulky, but look at the new features)
- Sony DPP-SV88 (The answer for non-computer owning digital camera
users?) **
** My personal top products
Show Report Alphabetical Index
Manufacturers New Products Index
* Some products were announced in Q4 2001 but officially revealed to
the US market during CES.
Last Year - PMA 2001
Click
here for our full report on last years show
|
Digg
del.icio.us
Reddit
Google
