dpreview.com PMA 2004 Show Wrap-Up Report

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.dpreview.com/articles/pma2004/' target='_blank'>http://www.dpreview.com/articles/pma2004/</a><br /><br /></div>"Welcome to the Digital Photography Review PMA 2004 show report. The Photo Marketing Association Annual Show will be held this year at the Las Vegas Convention Center between the February 12th and 15th. The annual Photo Marketing Association trade show is the photography industry's most important annual event, it's the place where the hottest digital photography products are announced. As usual we have also included several products announced at CES 2004 (suffixed [CES]), the main reasoning behind this is that these products will join products announced at PMA 2004 to make up a manufacturer's Spring 2004 product line."<br /><br />We launched Digital Media Thoughts too late to capture all the exciting news coming out of PMA 2004, but uber-camera guy Phil Askey has collected a fantastic list of everything new that was announced. Definitely worth a look!

[Gary Sheynkman]

Ah yes, dpreview. Definatly me favorite camera site after this one :wink:
And yes, I read through their whole glossary TWICE before getting to the second page of any review! :lol:

[possmann]

Ditto - it's a great site!

Nice photos too :wink:

I'd like to learn more about the Nikon Coolpix 5200 series - that look interesting.... Hopefully they will move to SD rather than staying with CF

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

Well, a few thoughts on PMA:

- Canon released two of the weirdest lenses ever.
- Canon does its usual show of upmanship - 1D II with 8.5 fps :roll: and double the resolution of the 1D and Nikon D2H
- Nikon does its usual slow and steady advancements; 300D competitor with D100 features (makes you wonder about the D100 replacement)
- Other new DSLRs: Kodak releases an update to the fantastic but somewhat flawed 14n, and Fuji releases the S3 Pro. I liked the S2 a lot, can't wait to see the price and the performance from the S3.
- 8 megapixel cameras, the megapixel race is still on (yawn)
- Bigger faster memory. Guess with the increasing pixels and the popularity of RAW formats means people want bigger and faster cards to store 15351957015 photos from a shoot.
- A consumer camera carrying a Foeven chipset is announced! And it's from.. Polariod. Much as I like their tech, if Foeven can't get a big name camera brand (preferably the Japs, and no, Sigma doesn't count) to use their sensors, I think their impact on the market is going to be quite limited.
- New Phase One medium format backs. Just like in the days of film, the amatuers will boast their own 35mm cameras and lenses, compare, and shoot down other brands 35mm cameras and lenses, but as usual, the image quality from these beasts will put any other DSLR to shame. Remember kiddos, if you want to start a flame war about Nikon and Canon, remember there's always someone with a bigger and better camera (not to mention better skills).

[Christian]

dpreview.com is an excellent site with very detailed and objective reviews.

Concerning PMA, I'm most interested in the Konica Minolta Dimage A2. I'm currently using a Dimage 7i and have been very happy with it. While the A2's 8 MP might not be all that useful, the VGA resolution EVF is a major improvement. Can't wait for a review! :D