Alphabetical list (page 3)

Note: Most of the stand shots were taken before the show was open to the public (hence the lack of anyone in many of the stand shots).

Jasc Software

Jasc Software, authors of the popular Paint Shop Pro photo editing tool came to the show with an all new application designed to take care of that all important 'arriving home' digital photography experience. After Shot is a new application designed to make it easy to transfer images from your camera (either via TWAIN, drive letter or card reader), rename, organize, index (keyword), print (direct or online), share (web or e-mail) and even do some basic manipulation. After Shot also has full EXIF support for getting important exposure and shooting information from each image. After Shot seems to be a bit of a bargain at just $49 (or $45 for the download-able version) and I'm sure we'll see a 'Lite' version bundled with some digital cameras this year. We hope to be reviewing it soon.

Jasc Software stand	Jasc After Shot Premium
Site links	External links • Jasc Software

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Kodak

Kodak once again had the huge stand in the center of the show floor. And again their stand was quite reminiscent of last year, notable differences were the "Share Moments. Share Life." catch-line (last year was "where it all clicks"), a full color suspended globe and an even larger-than-last-year "Kodak" logo hanging above the stand. Kodak brought the all new four megapixel, two times optical zoom DX4900 to the show and had a rather large model of it to the left side of the stand. Their entire range of digital cameras were on display and available for demonstration and hands-on. The only camera which was there but is not pictured below was the DX3500 (my shot of it came out horribly blurred).

Kodak stand	Kodak DX4900 (4.1 mp, 2x zoom)
Kodak DX3900, (3.1 mp, 2x zoom)	Kodak DX3700, (3.1 mp, fixed lens)
Kodak DX3600 (2.2 mp, 2x zoom)	Kodak DX3215 (1.2 mp, 2x zoom)
Site links • Kodak DX4900 News Article • Kodak DX3900, DX3700, DX3215 News Article • Kodak DX3600, DX3500 News Article	External links • Kodak

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Konica

Konica brought along what was one of the surprises of the show. The KD-400Z was a very well finished four megapixel digital camera with a three times Canon extending zoom lens (which looks remarkably similar to the lens used on Canon's own IXUS 300 / ELPH S300). The "big deal" about the KD-400Z (apart from its good looks and compact size) is the fact that it's the first non-Sony digital camera to accept Memory Stick. Having said that Konica appeared to have "played safe" by providing both an SD/MMC slot and a Memory Stick slot. Sony must be pleased to see their storage format being used elsewhere. Also new (but not seen) is the KD-310Z an update to the KD-300Z.

Konica Stand	Konica KD-400Z (4 mp, 3x zoom, SD/MMC, MS)
Konica KD-300Z (3 mp, 3x zoom, SD/MMC)	Konica KD-400Z - rear
Konica KD-200Z (3 mp, 3x zoom)	Konica KD-400Z - yes that's a Memory Stick and just above it is an SD card...
Site links • Konica KD-400Z, KD-310Z News Article • Konica KD-300Z, KD-200Z News Article	External links • Konica

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Leica

Leica did what a I had suspected they may do since Panasonic announced the DMC-LC5. Leica announced a "new digital camera", the Digilux 1 at PMA which is essentially a re-badged and slightly remoulded DMC-LC5 (feature sets are identical, as are menus, lens etc.). This isn't the first time Leica has re-badged another manufacturers digital camera. The Digilux 1 has a four megapixel sensor, three times optical zoom lens (which is remarkably identical to the OEM Canon F2.0 - F2.5 lens used by many other manufacturers) and stores its images on SD/MMC cards. I found the camera to be overly bulky and 'box like'.

Leica stand	Digilux 1 (4 mp, 3x zoom)
Digilux 1 - with supplied LCD hood	Digilux 1 - menu and rear controls
Site links • Leica Digilux 1 News Article	External links • Leica Camera

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Lexar

Lexar had a few new products at the show. Their new "Blinky" Memory Stick has a pretty unique feature. Thanks to its transparent case Lexar has been able to embed an LED at the end of the Stick, this LED blinks while image is being written to the card. The idea being that if you open the storage compartment door you'll see that the Stick is still in use and thus avoid accidentally loosing images or damaging the card. I asked if it would be possible to add this unique feature to Compact Flash cards, they're "looking at it". Lexar's "Blinky" Memory Stick's will retail for the same price as the standard Sony Memory Stick.

Lexar of course also had their professional series of Compact Flash cards, now available in "24x" speeds (I'm not a strong believer in Lexar's labelling policy) and up to 1 GB in the "16x" speed. They had an updated 16x card with new firmware optimized for the EOS-1D, it's supposed to produce a 15% performance improvement. Upgrades were being carried out at the stand for anyone with a 16x card, we left with an upgraded card and will be testing it as soon as I can get my hands on an EOS-1D.

One other item of interest was their unique Image Rescue kit. The kit is designed to be used by dealers and large press rooms and can be used (on a Windows PC) to restore lost images on corrupted or accidentally formatted Lexar CF cards. Why only Lexar cards? Because the special USB controller in the card allows Lexar's software to get "around the operating system", it can even repair Lexar cards which don't even show up as a drive letter when connected. Very impressive.

Lexar Stand	Lexar "Blinky" Memory Stick
The reason Image Rescue only works on Lexar cards	Lexar Image Rescue kit
Lexar 512 MB 24x and 1 GB 16x cards
Site links • Lexar 24x Pro CF News Article • Lexar 16x Pro CF News Article	External links • Lexar

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