Background

The Photo Marketing Association (PMA) has grown during its 75 years and has rapidly evolved to meet the changing needs of the imaging industry. Based in Jackson Michigan, PMA serves 18,000 members in more than 100 countries. Every segment of the imaging industry is represented ranging from photographers and corporations to retailers.

Digital imaging is the hot topic at PMA 2000 and attendees are coming to learn and look at products and services, before investing their company's money. Rapid changes are sweeping the industry, according to many attendees.

Monday, January 31, 2000

Registration started at 12 noon and a pre convention discussion followed at 4 PM. One of the issues discussed was how the academic picture industry needs to "roll up its sleeves" and actively participate in an information and idea exchange. Closing out the day was an early bird reception graciously sponsored by Fuji Photo Film USA. See Product Preview of Fuji's newest cameras.

Tuesday, February 1, 2000

Conferences continued at a rapid pace, providing attendees with the latest information by leading executives of PMA members and supplier firms.

Niche marketing and how to target key customers was compared against one stop shopping. The pros and cons were candidly debated. The evening events started with the DIMA opening keynote address by Sergio Zyman, former senior VP and COO of the Coca-Cola Company. He gave some examples of innovative approaches to marketing to the attentive audience.

The evening concluded with two major events that I eagerly anticipated - the Digital Camera Shoot- Out (4th Edition) and the digital Printer Shoot-Out (5th Edition). This is where the rubber meets the road and the critical differences in the quality of these many different systems will be evaluated.

The camera competition is divided in four categories, and takes place within studios constructed on site and each print out will be from the same printer. Event attendees will have a chance to cast ballots for their favorites and the camera with the most votes will be announced on Friday, February 4th, 2000.

The Digital Printer Shoot-Out also took place on Tuesday and on Wednesday, attendee can also cast ballots for their favorites and the winners will also be announced on Friday. Printers are divided into seven different categories. Each winning entry will receive up to four different awards based on the following elements:

RIP (Raster Image Processing)

An unexpected bonus on Tuesday was to meet some late working participants in the digital camera shoot out.

Some of these people included:

William Pearson, President Argus Camera

(I'm in the upper right hand corner.)

In addition, I met with the late working Vicki Milton, Technical Evangelist, to discuss some of Microsoft's' latest imaging directions.

Wednesday, February 2, 2000

Fujio Mitarai, president and CEO of Canon, Inc. and Kinya Uchida, president and CEO of Canon U.S.A., along with Tim Andree, vice president and general manager of Canon U.S.A. officially introduced the latest and most advanced EOS system camera and accessories at their press conference.

See coverage of Digital Focus event.

Thursday, February 3, 2000

Trade Show floor opened today.

Saw several exciting new products at the Sony press event. See our coverage of these products.

Nikon bandanna invitation

Nikon "Are you Ready?" event was great. See our coverage of the new Nikon 990 digital camera.

Friday, February 3, 2000

I toured the show floor again today and saw some great products. I also took some pictures with my Nikon 35mm camera and Fuji film. Will share these with you once we scan them.

Results of the the 2000 DIMA digital camera and printer shootout, along with the 2000 DIMA Innovation Awards were announced.

Digital camera Shootout
18 manufacturers participated and submitted 40 entries. Images were processed with Adobe Photoshop (see review) and Adobe Photo Deluxe and printed on an Epson Stylus Photo 870 on Photo glossy paper. Pictures were taken in identical lighting. Cameras were broken into 4 categories, Point and Shoot, Professional, Commercial Studio and Scanning camera. The first two categories were broken down by price.

Point and Shoot
Price Range	Manufacturer	Model
under $300	Kodak	DC-215
$300 - $599	Fujifilm	Foto MX 1700 Zoom
$600 - $899	Toshiba	PDR M5
over $900	Olympus	2500L-SLR

Professional
Price Range	Manufacturer	Model
under $5,000	Fujifilm	S1 Pro
more than $5,000	Phase 1	Light Phase

Commercial Studio
Manufacturer	Model
Phase 1	Power Phase

Scanning Camera
Manufacturer	Model
Better Light	6K Super

Printer Shootout
40 manufacturers participated and submitted 92 printers. File were created by ColorPlace, Inc., Dallas, Texas.

Printer Shootout
Category	Size	Manufacturer	Model
Wide Format	50+ inch	Cymbolic Sciences	Lightjet 5900 Wide Format Photo Printer
Wide Format	11 - 49 inch	Cymbolic Sciences	Lightjet 5500 Wide Format Photo Printer
Small Format	8.5 x 11 inch	Fuji	Pictrography 3000, Graphx RasterPlus Windows edition
Inkjet Wide	50+ inch	Colorspan	Displaymaker XII/72, RIP Station 400, Colorspan Mark color management
Inkjet Wide	36 -49 inch	Colorspan	Displaymaker XII/52, RIP Station 400, Colorspan Mark color management
Inkjet Medium	11 - 35 inch	Colorspan	Giclee
Inkjet Tabloid	11 x 17 inch	Epson	Stylus 1270, Epson half toning system
Inkjet Small	8.5 x 11 inch	Epson	Stylus 870, Epson half toning system
Electro static	Wide	3M	SP2002, 3M Cactus Graphic RIP
Dye Sublimation	Small	Sony	UPD70AP with Sony Dye Sublimation Ink and Paper

Innovation Awards
Products which utilize new technology in imaging are given this award. This year the winners were the Canon Powershot S20, Fujifilm S1 Pro, Kodak Preview camera, Astron Systems Orbiculight, Smartlens and the Sony Cybershot digital camera.

Photograph courtesy of Jack Olmsted

Copyright © 2000 Jim Bennett All rights reserved.