NewsFebruary 2001

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PMA 2001 show report: Section three

PMA 2001 show report: Section three of four.
In this section we'll cover the following manufacturers:

• Minds at Work
• Minolta
• Nikon
• NixVue
• Olympus
• Panasonic
• Pentax
• PhaseOne

Minds at Work

Minds at Work at a relatively simple stand with running demos of their Digital Wallet, new (at least to me) was the transparent blue case version (very "Apple"). All the staff at the stand were dressed up as scientists...

Minds at Work stand	Digital Wallet (in blue!)

Site links: Digital Wallet review
External links: Minds at Work

Minolta

Minolta, one of only a few manufacturers to actually introduce new products at PMA had the 3.34 and 5.42 megapixel Dimage 5 and 7 plus the Dimage S304 behind glass. We got an exclusive hands-on with these cameras and reported it in an earlier news article (see link below images). Surprisingly Minolta were still demonstrating the RD3000...

Minolta Stand	Dimage 5 (3.34 mp) and Dimage 7 (5.42 mp)
Dimage 7	Dimage 7
Dimage 7	Dimage 7 (4 x AA batteries required)
Dimage 7 (accepts Type II CF)
Dimage S304	Dimage S304

Site links: New Minolta's hands-on
External links: Minolta

Nikon

Nikon had an impressive, well designed stand. The main buzz of activity was around their professional desk with the D1X available for hands-on demonstration, the D1H was not available and sat inside a glass case. The Coolpix desk was relatively busy, though not as popular as I've seen it in the past. Perhaps people were hoping / expecting an announcement about new Coolpix cameras, not, appears at this PMA.

Nikon's "ribbon"	Nikon Stand
Lots of interest at the professional desk	Exploring the new textual custom functions
D1H (behind glass)	D1X
Coolpix 990	Coolpix 880
Coolpix desk (cameras and accessories)

Site links: Nikon D1X / D1H, Coolpix 990, Coolpix 880, D1
External links: Nikon

Nixvue

Nixvue are a new company who have a new product which we covered briefly last month, their digital album product, a unit which provides you both in-the-field download to its internal 10 GB hard disk as well as browsing and display on a TV via the docking station and supplied remote control. The unit can be USB connected to a computer for file transfer or to a printer for direct printing. Nixvue won the DIMA "Innovative Digital Product" award this year. Note that since I published the news article they have significantly improved the product, not least of which the addition of an LCD screen on the front.

Nixvue Managing Director Albert Lim	Nixvue Digital Album

Site links: Nixvue Digital Album
External links: Nixvue

Olympus

Olympus had large and busy stand, lots of interest around the E-10 and E-100RS, also on show were the new C-2040Z and C-3040Z digital cameras with the "high speed" F1.8 lens.

Olympus Stand	Olympus P-400 large format dye-sub printer
C-2040Z	C-3040Z
E-10	E-100RS

Site links: Olympus E-10
External links: Olympus

Panasonic

Panasonic were demonstrating their little iPalm 3.34 megapixel, 3x zoom digital camera, unique in the fact that it was the first digital camera to use the new SD (MMC) storage cards. Panasonic had a mock-up "scene" to photograph (or video).

Panasonic Stand	iPalm 3.34mp
iPalm 3.34mp

External links: Panasonic

Pentax

Pentax brought two cameras "of interest" to the show, first off an upgraded version of the EI-2000 (also known as the HP C-912) named the EI-3000 which is essentially identical to its older brother except that this version now features a 3.34 megapixel CCD (hence the "3" in the name). Secondly they also had a working prototype of their upcoming digital SLR, we first saw this camera as a plastic mock-up at Photokina last year, now it's much closer to being finished and is almost completely operational (not without the odd crash). We had an exclusive hands-on with the new Pentax Digital SLR (see link after images).

Pentax Stand	EI-3000, 3.34 mp digital camera
Pentax Digital SLR (6 megapixel full-frame)	EI-3000, 3.34 mp digital camera
Pentax Digital SLR	Pentax Digital SLR
Pentax Digital SLR

Site links: Exclusive Pentax digtial SLR hands-on
External links: Pentax

Phase One

Phase One were demonstrating their impressive H20 medium format back (compatible with Hasselblad 555ELD or Mamiya RZ Pro II. The H20 has a 16 megapixel (4,020 x 4,020) CCD from Kodak, the image from which can be cropped to 3:2 (or 2:3).

Phase One Stand	Phase One H20

External links: Phase One

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