PMA07 Preview: Bring on the camera show

Christmas comes not in December, but early March, for camera lovers. That’s about the time each year when the photo industry struts its latest toys for shutterbugs at the show called PMA (this year’s version is, cleverly enough, named PMA07. How many megapixels might Santa leave for you when the real holiday season rolls around in late 2007? This is where you find out.

Quite a bit of the suspense has already been let out of the industry’s balloon, as manufacturers have one-upped each other over the past few weeks by pre-announcing some of their latest marvels. We already know about, for example, the world’s first 18x zoom point-and-shoot, the Olympus SP-550UZ, a new Canon camera — the PowerShot TX1, that shoots high-definition video, and a 9-megapixel point-and-shoot, the Fujifilm FinePix A900 that lists for only $199. (Whether that kind of resolution is necessary, or even desirable, in a point-and-shoot, remains to be seen.)

The show doesn’t open until Thursday, but I will be off to the early press previews shortly. In the meantime, here are some of the trends and the news I’ll be following:

• I’ll be blogging about the three new cameras I mentioned above, as well as others that have been announced or will be. Curious about what an 18x camera can shoot? I’ll also be posting actual photos that I shot here in Vegas, using that Olympus 18x camera.
• Face Detection: Promising to do away with those shots where your best friend’s face is out of focus, while the trees in the background are knife-sharp, this technology recognizes faces in a picture and is supposed to keep them in focus even if you recompose the shot. It’s the rage this year in point-and-shoots. I’m planning to meet with a company that is putting this technology into camera phones.
• Super-slim camera with punch: Samsung has announced what it says is the world’s slimmest camera (21 mm. thick) with a 7x optical zoom, the L77. I’ll have photos of it and more information.
• Other trends that are prominent are the continuing proliferation of image stabilization and anti-shake features, the continuing megapixel arms race, higher ISO capabilities in point-and-shoots, friendlier user interfaces, and continuing competition among the lowest-priced SLRs.
• New players: General Electric has entered the digital camera business, albeit a bit late. Are their cameras unique — or will they merely be ubiquitous? And camera giant Kodak has done a quid pro quo with HP. Last year, you’ll recall, HP encroached on Kodak’s retail photo kiosk business by introducing HP kiosks. (Speaking of which, I haven’t seen a single HP kiosk in a store yet; I’ll try to find out where those kiosks are.) This year, Kodak returns the favor by introducing its own line of inkjet printers that are supposed to turn the business upside down by offering cheaper ink.

It’s going to be an interesting few days for anyone who likes cameras or is planning to buy one as a gift. Buckle up and come along for the ride.

— Jeff Fox, Technology Editor