PMA 2007 - Final Report

Introduction
Over 20.000 people from more than 100 countries attend the annual PMA tradeshow. They come to see new digital cameras and photography accessories. for educational sessions on every photo-related subject you could possibly think of. and they come to do business. All kinds of people come to PMA - professional photographers. educators. camera engineers. and buyers from the big electronics stores. Anyone involved in the photo business wants to be at PMA.

PhotographyREVIEW.com meets with all the big manufacturers to get photos and hands-on coverage of all the new digital cameras and other stuff that photographers want to see. Digital cameras are still the hottest thing. so we made it a priority to visit all the camera manufacturer booths and get photos and video of as many new digital cameras as possible. We posted over two hundred photos with detailed captions in our 2007 PMA gallery and more in-depth product reports in our 2007 PMA blog. Read on to learn about the themes and highlights from the 2007 PMA tradeshow.

PMA Highlights
For me. the most impressive products were Canon's new flagship digital SLR. the Canon EOS-1D Mark III and Sigma's 14-megapixel DP1 compact digital camera.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III Pro Digital SLR
Canon has hit it out of the park with the EOS-1D Mark III. The new 10-megapixel digital SLR has pretty much everything professional photographers have asked for with a few surprises thrown in. It has so many new features that Canon reps can't even tell them all to you in one sitting. The main changes are a lighter battery that knocks half a pound off the camera. a much improved auto focus system with more cross-type sensors and options that make it easier to fine-tune. a larger LCD display with a live view mode. a dust reduction system for the sensor. sensitivity up to ISO 6400. and a brand new 10-megapixel CMOS sensor. Canon also introduced a new 16-35mm f/2.8L lens and 580EX II flash with a metal hotshoe and rubber gaskets to keep it working in nasty weather.

Sigma DP1 Compact Digital Camera
Sigma released their long-awaited. Foveon-powered SD14 digital SLR the day before the show. They also showed off their new DP1 compact digital camera. The 14-megapixel DP1 uses the same Foveon sensor as the SD14. which should mean it's capable of digital SLR image quality. It has a 28mm fixed lens. a full range of exposure options. and it can capture RAW files. I'm really excited! This may be the camera I've been waiting for since my last Yashica T4 Super 35mm point-and-shoot was stolen. Sigma is the first manufacturer to step up and deliver a compact camera with a digital SLR-sized sensor - one that truly has the potential to deliver professional image quality. I'm amazed it's taken so long for it to be done and congratulate Sigma on being the first. Let's hope the camera is as good as it looks on paper. I have high hopes and can't wait to try one.

Digital SLR News
Nikon. Canon. Fujifilm. Sigma. and Olympus introduced new digital SLRs at PMA. And Sony. Pentax. and Olympus showed planned digital SLR cameras behind glass. And live view LCD display is starting to take hold in digital SLRs. It's now available from Olympus (who first introduced it). Fujifilm. Panasonic. Leica. and Canon.

Fujifilm's new S5 Pro has a new 12.3-megapixel Super CCD SR Pro sensor with expanded dynamic range. a live view mode. built-in film simulation. and "dual cycle" noise algorithms. Sony demonstrated their commitment to the Alpha system with two Alpha concept digital SLRs. behind glass. They promised that they would deliver one new Alpha digital SLR model before the end of the year. Nikon showed off their wonderfully thoughtful and user-friendly D40x entry-level digital SLR. The D40x is a 10-megapixel camera with compact digital camera-style menus that help teach photographers about both the camera features and basic photography principles. Olympus introduced two new DSLRs. the E-410 and E-510. The Olympus E-510 is the first digital SLR with sensor-level image stabilization and a Live View LCD mode. That combination won Olympus a DIMA award. It may also be a look at what the future holds for photographers who are holding out for the Olympus E-1 pro digital SLR replacement. It's disappointing that Olympus still hasn't delivered a second-generation pro digital body. But they did have an updated model of the upcoming pro body - codenamed. P-1 - under glass. They swore to us that the new pro DSLR body would be available before the end of the year.

Pentax is still glowing from the success of their innovative K10D digital SLR. They didn't have a working camera to show. but the 645D digital SLR was displayed under glass. as it was at least year's show. It seems it's close to being a finished product because a working model of the 645D was shown at the Tokyo Photo Show. just after PMA.

Last but not least is the Sigma SD14. which uses Foveon's new 14-megapixel sensor. The Foveon sensor uses three transparent layers of pixels instead or an array of pixels next to each other. This is supposed to create a cleaner. more film-like image. Sigma's previous digital SLR. the SD10. was a bit clunky but had excellent image quality. The SD14 is a much nicer-looking camera with new features and functionality added. including JPEG capture. We're looking forward to testing one.

The clear digital SLR king at the show was the new Canon pro digital SLR body - the EOS-1D Mark III. This is the twentieth anniversary of Canon's EOS auto focus SLR system and they're pulling no punches. The EOS-1D Mark III addresses pretty much every feature request the pros have made since the first 1D was introduced. The Mark III is lighter. faster. has more capacity (battery and buffer). and has been refined in too many ways to list here. It may look the same as previous 1D cameras. but the specs confirm Canon's claim that the 1D Mark III has been redesigned from the ground up. For lots more detail on the Canon EOS-1D Mark III. read Laurence Chen's detailed PMA blog post about the camera.

New Technology
New technology at this year's show was most obviously represented by face detection technology. Face detection systems have been in cameras for at least a year now. But everywhere we went at this year's show. we'd hear. "and it has face detection!" It was kinda funny. But the technology really does work and it's pretty impressive to see it in action. See for yourself in our Fujifilm f40fd digital camera face detection demo video.

There was only one WiFi-enabled compact camera introduced at this PMA - the Sony G1. WiFi digital cameras haven't been the hot ticket that camera companies expected them to be. The hassle of dealing with a wireless network and the ease of USB transfer makes WiFi cameras a hard sell. Enter network technology development company. Artimi. Artimi isn't selling anything - yet. They were at PMA to demonstrate the new Wireless USB technology. which we'll all be using soon. Wireless USB is a new wireless computer connectivity system. Like the USB that we're used to. it's built into your computer and offers seamless. plug-and-play simplicity. With Wireless USB built into your computer and your camera. you'll be able to wirelessly download to your computer with no setup - just like plugging your camera's USB cable into the computer. without having to bother with the cable. Artimi is a technology company and they mostly work directly with camera makers. But later this year they'll have a Wireless USB dongle and hub available. And next year we'll start seeing the first Wireless USB-enabled digital cameras hit the market.

While I'm on the subject of wireless technology. I also want to mention Nokia's yet-to-be-released N95 camera phone. I had a meeting with Nokia at the show and came home with a pre-production N95. It's got a 5-megapixel sensor. a Carl Zeiss lens. built-in flash. video capability. exposure and other real camera controls. and mine was decked out with a 2GB microSD memory card. I've been curious about the convergence of camera phone and compact digital camera technology. The Nokia N95 is a look at where things are going on the camera phone front. I took a lot of pictures with it and there's an article in the works. Keep your eyes open for a detailed story on the subject.

Compact Digital Cameras
Along with face detection. increased sensitivity (high ISO settings). and image stabilization; the hot marketing concept for digital cameras at this PMA was "high-def." Consumer electronics giants like Samsung. Sony. and Panasonic. who manufacture televisions as well as digital cameras. are adding features to compact digital cameras to make it easy to display photos on widescreen TVs. To some extent this is marketing to help sell more TVs and cameras. But it's also part of a movement towards integrating all electronic devices into one comprehensive home electronics system.

The megapixel race continues! The 2007 PMA show saw the introduction of the first 12-megapixel compact digital cameras. Sony and new camera maker General Imaging (using the GE brand) are the first manufacturers to offer 12-megapixel compact cameras. the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W200 and GE E1240. respectively. We'll have to wait and see if 12-megapixel cameras are the next big thing. We're still cramming more pixels into the same size sensors and the smaller the pixels get. the harder it is suppress noise and other image quality problems. It's only a 20% increase in resolution over 10-megapixels. the previous compact digital resolution top end. However. for people who currently own 3 to 8-megapixel cameras. a 12-megapixel compact camera is a worthy upgrade - especially if the image quality holds up.

The video capability of compact digital cameras continues to see improvement. Higher-capacity memory cards in the new SDHC format make longer videos possible. And new video compression technology. like MPEG-4 H.264. makes it possible to capture more footage with less memory. The new MPEG-4 H.264 codec can record 1.5 times more video as standard MPEG-4 compression. without compromising quality. We shot all of our PMA videos with a Canon PowerShot A640 compact digital camera and 4GB SDHC card. The quality was very good - far better than we needed for showing videos on the Web. The line between dedicated video cameras and digital cameras continues to blur. For most people. the video capability of a current compact digital camera will more than do the job.

Olympus. Nikon. Sigma. and Panasonic had compact digital cameras that stood out for me. this year. Olympus has a new version of the Stylus 720 SW that we reviewed last year. The new Olympus Stylus 770 SW can go 30 feet underwater. it's crushproof. and they added a manometer for serious divers. It still doesn't include a histogram display. though. That was my main complaint when I reviewed the Olympus Stylus 720 SW. If the Olympus Stylus 770 SW had a 28mm lens and histogram for better exposure control. it would be unbeatable. Olympus also introduced the SP-550 UZ. an 18x super zoom compact digital camera. That's the longest zoom range a compact digital camera has ever had. The camera features Olympus' Sensor Shift Image Stabilization and a real wide angle. with 28mm (35mm equivalent) on the wide end of the zoom.

The new Nikon Coolpix P5000 is a sweet little 10-megapixel compact with all kinds of manual control and great accessories. like a hotshoe flash and two Nikkor accessory lenses. It has a Vibration Reduction (VR) lens and sensitivity to ISO 3200. The size and look remind me of the old Rollei 35 compact film cameras. It should be an excellent walkaround camera for pros or serious amateurs that want the power of an SLR in a more portable package

I really like the general direction of Panasonic's compact digital camera design. It's simple. functional. and seems really aimed at making it easy for people to take good pictures. Almost all of their compact digital cameras now have 28mm wide-angle lenses and MEGA O.I.S. optical image stabilization is standard. I believe Panasonic is really paying attention to what people want and designing compact digital cameras that make it easy for anyone to take great pictures. The new 7.2-megapixel Panasonic Lumix TZ3 has a 10x image-stabilized lens with a 28mm wide angle and a 3-inch LCD. It's a very powerful little camera.

I mentioned it already. but the Sigma SD1 compact digital camera is very exciting for me. It harkens back to the days of premium 35mm point-and-shoots from Leica. Contax. and Ricoh. It's not gonna be cheap - they told us "under $1000". But if it can deliver the digital SLR image quality. as the specs suggest. I think there are plenty of people who won't mind paying for it. A not-so-compact digital camera that doesn't have a zoom lens might not make sense to some of today's digital camera owners. But it sure makes sense to those of us who always lusted after the Leica Minilux and Ricoh R1 35mm point-and shoots.

Conclusion
There wasn't anything at this year's PMA show that I would consider revolutionary. I didn't see any groundbreaking new technology or cameras that are going to change the world. The new Canon EOS-1D Mark III and Sigma SD1 digital cameras both look awesome. But they don't really change the rules. The 2007 PMA show was about refining existing digital technology. not replacing it. Digital cameras basically remain the same. But new and improved features like face detection. image stabilization. wider lenses. better and faster processing. better ISO sensitivity. more storage. and better video capability will help all of us take better pictures.

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