PMA 2006: PMA 2006 turned out to be as much about the future as the present, with some of the hottest new products just being prototypes or mockups, rather than the real deal. Consequently you won’t be able to get your hands on quite a lot of the kit that has been announced until May, June, or even 6 months later in the case of the Panasonic DMC-L1 and the as yet un-named 10 megapixel Pentax DSLR. In fact, of all the products listed in our Hot Top 10 for PMA 2006, only 2 of them are available to buy today (Bibble Labs 4.6 and Muvee). Carry on reading to find out which products made our top 10…

PMA 2006: Delkin Devices Press Release

Delkin Devices, Inc., based in Poway, California, has been providing “Everything but the Camera” since 1986. From Archival Gold Media to Pop-Up Shades, Delkin provides products with premium quality, innovative designs and an ongoing dedication to superior customer service. Delkin announces 51 new products at the PMA (Photo Marketing Association Show) in Orlando starting February 26th. “We have something for everyone,” says CEO and President Martin Wood. “Everything from new batteries and scratch resistant recordable media to MP3 players and instructional DVD’s, we are dedicated to providing our customers with solutions to their digital photography needs.”

This week’s Saturday Shout looks back at the Photo Marketing Association (PMA) show in Orlando, Florida. A huge number of new photography products were announced, including more than 90 digital cameras, but did anything get you hot under the collar and give you sweaty hands, or are you already looking forward to Photokina in the autumn? Shout out now…

I’ve just returned from PMA 2006 in Orlando, Florida, followed by a short trip to visit Hewlett Packard’s Lab in Palo Alto, California. Consequently I’ve spent most of the last 36 hours asleep! Dodgy internet connections and a busy schedule have prevented me from updating the site in the last few days. Coming up is a look back at PMA and my Hot Top 10 Poducts from the show, plus a report on what HP’s scientists are busy working on for the future.

PMA 2006: Live from the Panasonc press conference at PMA, where Panasonic have unveiled the new DMC-L1 digital SLR camera. Here are some exclusive shots of the Panasonic L1, new Leica D lens and Sigma Four Thirds lenses. The DMCL1 has certainly caused a stur amongst the journalists here at PMA, but what do you think of the Panasonic DMC-L1?

Update 28th February 2006: I’ve added 14 more photos of the DMC L1 which give you a much better idea of what the new DSLR looks like. There are also some exclusive shots which compare the DMCL1 with the Olympus E-330 and also show the Leica D lens mounted on the E-330, and an Olympus E-System lens on the Panasonic L1. And yes, the Olympus lens did work with the Panasonic body, just as the E-System standard promised.

PMA 2006: Pentax are showing their new, as yet un-named 10 megapixel DSLR under glass here at PMA (making product shots a little tricky). Here are some shots to whet your appetite…

Update 28th February 2006: Pentax kindly took the glass domes off their display booths, allowing a scrum of journalists to kick, bite and punch each other in a bid to get the ultimate shot of the new DSLR, lens and flashgun. So depsite being a little battered and bruised, there are now some better shots of the new prototypes at the end of this article, plus the smc Pentax-DA 21mm f3.2AL Limited lens and AF 540 FGZ flashgun.

PMA 2006: Also under glass at PMA is the prototype of Pentax’s 18 megapixel 645 medium format digital SLR.

Update 28th February 2006: Pentax kindly took the glass domes off their display booths. There are now some better shots of the new prototypes at the end of this article.

PMA 2006: Conspicuous by its absence amongst the tens of new products that Canon have announced today is a G-Series camera. At a press conference this morning, Canon UK representatives confirmed our worst fears by stating that there will be no more G-Series Canon cameras, which makes the Canon Powershot G6 (pictured) the last of its kind. The S-series cameras and the falling prices of Canon’s DSLRs have effectively replaced what has been a venerable, popular and best-selling series of cameras.

28th February 2006: Yesterday I attended a meeting with representatives from Canon Japan’s digital compact camera division. When asked if the Canon G-Series had officially ended, they replied that although there were no new G-Series models in the recently announced Spring 2006 range of Canon products, the G-Series may return in the future, if market conditions allow. So Canon G cameras could make a comeback, although the absence of any kind of bridge-style camera in Canon’s new line-up would suggest that the chances are slim, as DSLRs get ever cheaper and compacts ever more fully-featured.

PMA 2006: Bibble Labs Press Release

Bibble Labs releases 4.6 update with Noise Ninja Technology and Intel Macintosh Support - Other improvements include revised user interface and more speed

PMA 2006 Orlando, FL (February 24th, 2006) - Bibble Labs, Inc. announced today the immediate availability of version 4.6 of its popular Raw Workflow software. Bibble 4.6 offers a major breakthrough via the direct integration of Noise Ninja Technology from Picture Code, LLC. High ISO noise and digital artifacts are one of the more challenging aspects of today’s digital workflow. Historically photographers have had to use 3rd party tools and extra post processing steps to deal with this noise “After the fact”. By directly merging Noise Ninja technology into Bibble’s already blazing fast workflow, better results can now be achieved in shorter amounts of time.

PMA 2006: FotoNation Press Release

FotoNation, Slyde, and Wisair Demonstrate Embedded Wireless USB Camera at PMA

ORLANDO, FL – February 27, 2006 – FotoNation Inc. (www.fotonation.com), one of the world’s leading imaging and connectivity solutions companies for the digital photography industry, announced today that it has won the DIMA Innovative Digital Product Award for their Ultra-Wideband (UWB) In-Camera Module. The UWB module, the first wireless USB solution embedded into a camera, was co-developed by FotoNation, Wisair, a leading provider of UWB and Certified Wireless USB (WUSB) chipset solutions, and Slyde Technologies, a wireless conversion solution provider for the digital photography and video markets. FotoNation will be demonstrating the product for the first time at the PMA Conference in Orlando, FL. Through this innovative technology, digital stills and video images can be wirelessly transferred between cameras and PCs.

PMA 2006: Adobe UK Press Release

Adobe Highlights Lightroom Beta and Photoshop CS2 at PMA 2006 Convention and Trade Show - Lightroom Public Beta 2.0 Photography Community and Photoshop CS2 Ecosystem Partners Rally to Support Digital Imaging Innovation

London. — Feb. 27, 2006 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced wide-spread support from the photography community and ecosystem partners for Adobe® Lightroom™ Public Beta 2.0 and Photoshop CS2 software.  With two open and extensible architectures, both applications allow for new, customisable workflows and innovative plug-ins and devices. “The inspiration for the development of Lightroom Beta and the exploration of new directions for Photoshop has come from our customers and ecosystem partners,” said Deborah Whitman, vice president of product management for Digital Imaging at Adobe.  “There has been a flurry of activity in the Lightroom Beta forums and it’s exciting for us to watch the beta evolve as photographers help us build an application tailored to their needs.”

PMA 2006: Lexar Press Release

Lexar Doubles the Performance of Its Popular 8GB CompactFlash Memory Card - High-Capacity Card Is Ideal For Both Professional And Advanced Amateurs Capturing High Resolution Images In RAW Format

ORLANDO, Fl., February 27, 2006 – Lexar Media, Inc. (Nasdaq: LEXR), a world leader in advanced digital media technologies, today announced that it has doubled the speed rating of its popular Professional 8GB CompactFlash® memory card to 90X. Furthering the company’s lengthy heritage in delivering cards with market-leading performance, the new 8GB card is one of the fastest high-capacity CompactFlash cards available. On display at the Photo Marketing Association International (PMA) show, Lexar’s new card is capable of a minimum sustained data write speed of 13.5 MB per second. In addition to increased speed and performance, the new high-speed card will be available in CompactFlash Type I flash memory card format, the most popular format for today’s SLR digital cameras.

PMA 2006: Lexar Press Release

New Digital Imaging Applications Developed For Lexar’s ActiveMemory System to Improve Professional Photography Workflow

ORLANDO, Fl., February 27, 2006 – Lexar Media, Inc. (Nasdaq: LEXR), a world leader in advanced digital media technologies today announced several applications developed for the ActiveMemory™ System (AMS), the company’s innovative digital photography workflow technology.  New and improved professional photo-imaging applications now supporting ActiveMemory, including Photo Mechanic by Camera Bits, Corel Paint Shop Pro X, and ProShooters Digital Pro 4, will be demonstrated at the Photo Marketing Association International Show (PMA). Lexar is also introducing Lexar Smart Download, an innovative image acquisition plug-in enabling Adobe Creative Suite 2 (CS2) customers to download images and take advantage of the AMS workflow when using the Adobe Bridge Image Browser.

PMA 2006: Lexar Press Release

Corel® Paint Shop Pro® Family of Software Supports Lexar® ActiveMemory™ System to Enable Automatic Processing of Photos During Download

Ottawa – February 27, 2006 – Corel Corporation today announced a partnership with Lexar Media, Inc. (Nasdaq: LEXR) to provide customers with a unique automated solution for transforming photos as they are downloaded from a memory card. Corel® Paint Shop Pro® X and Corel® Photo Album™ 6 software will now support the Lexar® ActiveMemory-enabled flash memory cards for digital cameras. By storing their Paint Shop Pro X automation script on a Lexar AMS-enabled flash memory card, customers can download and preprocess their photos in a single, seamless process. Savvy digital camera users are looking to transform each photo they take into high quality images. But, transferring large batches of photos from the digital camera to the computer and then editing each photo one-by-one can be time-consuming. By leveraging the new interoperability between Paint Shop Pro X software and AMS, photos may be automatically edited—according to the user’s set preferences—while they are downloaded to the computer.  The result is a seamless, customized digital imaging workflow.

PMA 2006: Lexar Press Release

Lexar LockTight Available In New Formats and Additional Languages

ORLANDO, Fl., February 27, 2006 – Lexar Media, Inc. (Nasdaq: LEXR), a world leader in advanced digital media technologies, today announced that its unique LockTight™ system is being localized and will be available to a greater number of security-conscious photographers worldwide. The LockTight System, on display this week at the Photo Marketing Association International Show (PMA), is a valuable tool for photographers in fields such as forensic photography, scientific research, military, law enforcement and mass media. The LockTight System will also be available in the popular Secure Digital (SD) format, and due to worldwide interest, is being localized in French, German, Japanese and Spanish. “Our goal is to continue to make it easy to incorporate card-level security into the professional workflow of photographers using the industry leading formats, secure digital and compact flash, anywhere in the world,” said John Omvik, director of professional product marketing, Lexar. “Like many law enforcement agencies working with the LockTight system, photographers in other vertical markets can incorporate it into their working process to experience the valuable peace of mind in knowing that their stored images and information are safe.”

PMA 2006: Lexar Press Release

Lexar Smart Download To Offer ActiveMemory Functionality For Adobe Creative Suite - New Module Will Improve Digital Imaging Workflow for Photographers Using Adobe Bridge

ORLANDO, Fl., February 27, 2006 – Lexar Media, Inc. (Nasdaq: LEXR), a world leader in advanced digital media technologies today announced Lexar® Smart Download, an intelligent acquisition plug-in module that will allow photographers to rapidly download and manage images directly from their memory cards via Adobe® Bridge, a component of Adobe Creative Suite (CS2). On display at the Photo Marketing Association International Show (PMA), the new plug-in will make it possible for photographers to leverage advanced features offered by Lexar Professional ActiveMemory™ CompactFlash® (CF) and Secure Digital™ (SD) flash memory cards and will provide a productivity boost with the ability to manage multiple concurrent downloads using Lexar’s Professional Firewire and USB 2.0 CompactFlash Readers.

Fujifilm Press Release

Shigetaka Komori, President and CEO, Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd., Delivers Keynote Address at PMA 2006 in Orlando, Florida; Emphasis on Pursuit of Higher Image Quality and Dedication to ‘Culture of Photography’

ORLANDO, Fla.—Feb. 26, 2006—In a keynote address at the 2006 Photo Marketing Association (PMA) annual trade show, Shigetaka Komori, President and CEO of Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd., outlined Fujifilm’s vision and strategy for meeting the future needs of its imaging customers. He emphasized Fujifilm’s continued pursuit of higher image quality, using both analog and digital as the technological means to that end. In addition, Mr. Komori outlined Fujifilm’s mission to preserve the “culture of photography,” which refers to the emotions and feelings that can be expressed through the medium of photography. He stressed the need for manufacturers and retailers to work together to provide products and services that drive the value of the photographic experience for consumers. “We all must give consumers a great experience when they make photographic prints,” said Komori. “If we all keep this as our priority, our businesses and industry will grow, and we will keep the culture of photography alive.”

PMA 2006: RawShooter essentials 2006 is introduced, including improved performance and camera support for 15 additional cameras. Also announced today is RawShooter premium 2006 which supports Nikon D200 including improved performancean is free for existing users. Finally RawShooter Color Engine has been updated to v1.1 to include additional camera support including Pentax and Konica Minolta.

Pixmantec Press Release

Orlando, FL. – February 25, 2006 – Pixmantec, a leading manufacturer of digital imaging software, continues to provide photographers at all levels of experience and expertise with the latest in RAW Workflow management technology with the introduction of RawShooter | essentials 2006, RawShooter | premium 2006 V1.02 and RawShooter | Color Engine V1.1, all being FREE updates. The software offers many new features, upgrades and is compatible with the most popular digital SLR camera models on the market including newly introduced models such as the Nikon D200, Canon EOS 5D, 1Ds Mark II, and 1D Mark II N, Sony R1 and several other brands and models. RawShooter | essentials 2006 continues to be offered as a forever FREE download via Pixmantec’s Website and has set the standard in the industry for quality, speed and certainly affordability.

PMA 2006: The Sandisk 8GB Extreme 3 card will cost £320 in the UK.

Sandisk Press Release

SanDisk Doubles Capacity Of Its SanDisk Extreme III Cards - Its Fastest Digital Film Cards For Professional Photographers - 8-Gigabyte Extreme III Cards Offer Speed, Performance and Capacities That Are Ideal For Digital SLRs

ORLANDO, FL, Feb. 26, 2006 - SanDisk® Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK) today announced the addition of new card capacities to its Extreme III line of flash cards for professional digital cameras that are double the highest capacity points currently available. The new cards include the 8-gigabyte (GB)1 CompactFlash®, 2GB SD™ and 2GB Memory Stick PRO Duo™ digital film cards. The announcement was made at the Photo Marketing Association trade show where SanDisk is demonstrating products in booth #2741. SanDisk Extreme III CompactFlash and SD cards have minimum write and read speeds of 20 megabytes per second (MB/sec.) Memory Stick PRO Duo cards have minimum write and read speeds of 18 MB/sec. 2 The SanDisk Extreme III cards, which range in capacity between 1- and 8GB are among the world’s fastest working cards in many of today’s leading digital single lens reflex (SLR) cameras. 3

PMA 2006: The SD Plus Ultra II 2GB card will cost £75 in the UK.

Sandisk Press Release

SanDisk Doubles Capacity of Innovative USB-Flash Memory Combo Card - Folding SD Plus Card Eliminates Need For Separate USB Card Reader

ORLANDO, FL, Feb. 26, 2006 – SanDisk ® Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK) today introduced a 2-gigabyte (GB) SanDisk Ultra ® II SD ™ Plus card, thus doubling the capacity of its award-winning storage card that combines USB connectivity and flash memory storage. The card looks and functions like a typical SD card and its high speed makes it ideal for digital cameras, camera phones and digital video cameras. Folding the unique card in half reveals a high-speed USB 2.0 connector that plugs into any USB port to easily and quickly transfer photos or other data to a computer without the need for a separate card reader. The announcement was made at the annual Photo Marketing Association (PMA) Show at the Orange County Convention Center where SanDisk is demonstrating products in Booth #2741.