2. - 15. February 2004
PMA 2004
The PMA (Photo Marketing Association International - PMAI) show is a huge, annual show exhibiting new products from the photography industry. This year the PMA is celebrating it's 80 years anniversary.
The PMA 2004 is held at Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada USA from 12 - 15 February 2004.

Like at the Photokina trade fair in Cologne, Germany (held every second year) a lot of new products are announced just before the show begins and while the show is running.
I'm not attending the PMA 2004, but I'll keep an eye on new interesting things from the photographic world and list them here. Of course a huge amount of new cameras, lenses etc. are presented in these days, but I'll just describe a few things here that I find interesting myself. I urge you to follow some of the links below to other sites, that presents announcements from the PMA show.

[LATEST NEWS]
15.02.04
Last day of the PMA 2004

15.02.04
Cosina/Epson digital?
It seems that Cosina and Epson has joined to create a digital rangefinder camera based on the Bessa R2 which takes Leica M-mount lenses.
Visit Imaging-Resource who has some pictures from the Epson stand.

13.02.04
Minolta D-SLR
Konica Minolta announces the development of a digital SLR camera that will accept all Minolta A mount lenses.
The name for the camera is not settled, but is for now called the "Dynax 7 Digital / Maxxum 7 Digital / α-7 Digital" and is probably based on the Maxxum 7 SLR.
You can read the press release here.

12.02.04
New ColorChecker™ targets from GretagMacbeth
GretagMacbeth introduces two new color targets to help digital photographers get accurate colors.
Read the press release.

12.02.04

Lexar Media 8GB CompactFlash Lexar Media announces the highest capacity memory card in the world. It's a type II CompactFlash with a capacity of 8GB and a write speed of 6MB/sec. (I think my very first hard disk had a capacity of 20MB and it was a lot bigger than a CompactFlash card!). Read the press release.

12.02.04

More RAW support Adobe updates RAW plugin to supports 14 more cameras: Fujifilm FinePix F700, FinePix S5000 Z and FinePix S7000 Z Kodak DCS 720x, DCS760 and DCS14n Leaf Valeo 22 Leica Digilux 2 Nikon D2H Olympus C-5060 Zoom and E-1 Panasonic DMC-LC1 Pentax *ist D Sony DSC-F828 ... Read more at the Adobe site (also includes samples).

12.02.04
Digital Leica M?
Leica Camera Group reveals plans to develop a digital solution for their rangefinder cameras in the future.
Leica is currently working on the Digital-Modul-R together with Danish Imacon A/S and Kodak ISS sensor division. The Digital-Modul-R will be introduced at Photokina 2004 and will fit the R8 and R9 SLRs.
Visit Leica to learn more.

12.02.04

KODAK PROFESSIONAL ULTRA COLOR Film New films for professionals and advanced amateurs from Kodak. Read more the Kodak site.

12.02.04

KODAK PROFESSIONAL DCS Pro SLR/n Digital Camera Kodak announces the successor of the DCS Pro 14n introduced at Photokina 2002. It's a 14Mpix full frame (24x36mm) D-SLR with an iso range from 6 - 6400 (!). Like the 14n it features a Nikon F-mount lens bayonet. Read more at the Kodak site (also includes samples).

12.02.04

Olympus C-8080 Wide Zoom Olympus announces their high-end consumer camera with an 8.0Mpix sensor. The camera has a very fast start up time and a very fast shot-to-shot recycling time thanks to a new Olympus TruePix TURBO™ Image Processor. Read more the Olympus site.

12.02.04

Olympus C-765/C-770 Ultra Zoom Olympus expands their Ultra Zoom line with two new cameras featuring the new Olympus TruePix TURBO™ Image Processor. The C-770 can capture MPeg4 movies as well. You can read more about the "Super Zooms" of today in my Fast tele zooms article. Read more the C-770 Ultra Zoom. Read more the C-765 Ultra Zoom.

12.02.04
The PMA 2004 starts today.

11.02.04

SanDisk Shoot & Store SanDisk announces new inexpensive memory cards. These cards shall be available in many stores at a suggested retail price of $14.99 and shall make it unnecessary for people to download their images to a computer. The Shoot & Store line will include CompactFlash, SD and SmartMedia cards all at 32Mb "50 pictures" sizes. Read the press release.

11.02.04

4Gb SanDisk CompactFlash SanDisk introduces a 4Gb CompactFlash card that can be used in any CompactFlash Type I device. The new CompactFlash can be formatted as two FAT16 partitions or as one FAT32 partition. This will ensure compatibility with as many cameras and devices as possible. Read the press release.

10.02.04

ColourKit 4.0 - free trial Fujifilm has introduced their ColourKit Profiler Suite 4.0 along with 14 days trial versions of the various modules in the suite. The suite includes input and output profilers as well as image editing software. Both Windows and Mac platforms are supported. Visit the Fujifilm ColourKit website.

10.02.04

Polaroid x530 with Foveon chip So far Foveon imaging chips has only been found in the Sigma SD9 and SD10 D-SLR cameras. But now a new Foveon chip has been licensed to a consumer grade Polaroid camera, the x530. The new Foveon chip is a 4.5Mp (1.5Mred, 1.5Mgreen and 1.5Mblue) CMOS chip (some would call it a 1.5Mp camera, but the Foveon technology is a bit special because it has the red, green and blue photosites layered on top of each other instead of placed in a Bayer pattern). Visit Foveon for more information.

09.02.04
Canon i9900
Canon announces new 13x19 top-of-the-line photo printer.
The printer uses eight individual "chromaPLUS" ink tanks.
Read the press release.

09.02.04

Canon PowerShot Pro1 This year high-end prosumer cameras must be 8Mp it seems (see: Nikon CoolPix 8700, Minolta Dimage A2, Sony Cybershot DSC-F828). Canon has announced their 8Mp camera called PowerShot Pro1. It has a 2/3" size CCD imaging chip capable of producing 3264 x 2448 pixels. Read more at PowerShot.com. Read a preview at DPreview.com.

9.02.04

New film camera Canon is introducing two new film cameras: The Canon EOS Elan 7n and 7ne. Both cameras features a 7-point autofocus and the "ne" also has autofocus with Eye Control. Read more at Canon about these two new film cameras.

9.02.04

New consumer printer from Epson Epson announced the PrintMate 4"x6" consumer printer today. I'm bringing the news here, because I think this is quite a remarkable product. The printer looks a bit like a radio or a "ghetto blaster", it prints 4"x6" photos in high-resolution, archival quality. The printer takes a number of different memory cards (no computer necessary) and the cost for one print will be as low as 29 cents(!). Read more at Epson.

05.02.04

Fujifilm FinePix S3 Pro A new DSLR was announced today by Fujifilm - the FinePix S3 Pro a successor to the S2 Pro and features the new Super CCD SR which has a wider dynamic range than normal CCD's. Visit Fujifilm for more information. You can also learn more about the Super CCD SR technology at Fujifilm.com.

30.01.04

Phase One 100% untethered Phase One is announcing their new "P line" - 100% untethered digital backs for a number of medium format cameras. The line will include the P25 (22 MP) and the P20 (16MP). Read more at Phase One about these new amazing cameras.

29.01.04
Canon EOS-1D Mark II
New updated version of the Canon 1D with even faster burst rate (8.5 fps) and a 8.2 Mpix imaging chip - this time a CMOS chip. The focal length conversion factor is only 1.3x.
Visit Canon for more info.
Read a detailed preview at DPReview.com.

29.01.04

KODAK Ultima Picture Paper With this new paper your print will last for 100(!) years. A new "COLORLAST Technology" from Kodak will make this possible. It is a bit unclear if this works with normal dye-based ink (and not just pigment based ink), but it seems like it does(?) No ICC-profiles seems available, leaving us with "interesting" colors again - unless we profile the paper ourselves that is...(sigh). Read the press release and visit the Kodak ColorLast site for more info.

28.01.04

Nikon D70 Digital SLR New 6.1 Mpix D-SLR from Nikon. Features the DX format sensor and the F lens mount. Will it have the same low price as Canon 300D? Yes, at least almost... Read the press release or read a preview by DPreview.com.

28.01.04

Nikon Coolpix 8700 New 8.0 Mpix(!) prosumer camera from Nikon. Build-in 35 - 280mm (35mm equiv.) lens. Lot's of features. Read the press release or visit DPReview.com for more info.

28.01.04

Nikon PictureProject New photo library software with photo editing options as well. Filters can be added as plugins. Filters from Nik Multimedia. Visit Nikon.

28.01.04

Nikon CoolWalker MSV-01 Portable 30Gb storage device from Nikon. Features a 2.5 inch TFT display for easy browsing of digital photos. Read the press release.

22.01.04

Hasselblad PolaCombi 80/100 Not all news are digital (although it's getting hard to find "analogue" news). Hasselblad is introducing a new instant film magazine for the V System cameras. The new film back can handle both the Type 100 instant film and the new Polaroid Type 80 film. The Type 80 is wasting less film and is cheaper than the Type 100. Read more at Hasselblad.com. Read about the Type 80 instant film at Polaroid.com.

06.01.04

Epson Perfection 4870 PHOTO/4870 Pro scanners Epson new flatbed photo scanner is minimizing if not removing the gap between flatbed and film scanners. This new scanner offers a Dmax of 3.8(!) at 48bit and a resolution of 4800x9600dpi ("hardware" resolution). Visit EPSON for more info.

[OTHER NEWS]
28.10.03
New line of Nikon film scanners
Nikon is introducing a new line of scanners: Coolscan V ED (replaces Coolscan IV), Coolscan 5000 ED (replaces Coolscan 4000) and Coolscan 9000 ED (replaces Coolscan 8000).
Visit the Nikon Coolscan site.

Leica Digilux 2 Leica calls this new digital camera "The analog digital camera". And it really does look a bit like an analog Leica camera. It features a fast f/2 - f/2.4 28-90 mm (35mm equiv.) lens and a 5.0 Mpix imaging chip. Read more.

Links
• PMA 2004 The official PMA 2004 site
• Photo Marketing Association International The official PMA site
• Luminous-Landscape PMA 2004 news
• Steve's DigiCams PMA 2004 Report
• Digital Photography Review A list of all new products related to digital photography