2008 PMA Tradeshow

January 31 to February 2 - Las Vegas

The annual Photo Marketing Association tradeshow took place on Thursday, January 31st through Saturday, February 2nd. PMA is the biggest camera and photography tradeshow in North America and takes place every spring. In 2007 there were nearly 700 exhibitors and over 20,000 attendees. It was in Las Vegas again this year so camera company execs, PR and marketing folks, as well as camera shop owners and employees had an excuse to get out of the office and party in Vegas for a few days.

Nikon, Canon, Pentax, Sony, and Samsung introduced new digital SLR cameras at PMA this year. There were also new compact digital cameras, photo printers, camera bags, lenses, and even film-related photo gear to see! Scroll down for our exclusive photos, videos, and articles on new cameras, accessories and photo trends for 2008.

More Related Content:
Camera & Photography News
2007 PMA Coverage
Official PMA Web Site

2008 PMA Final Report

Introduction
The annual PMA camera and photography tradeshow was held in Las Vegas again this year. Since 2000, the first year I went, it’s gone back and forth between Orlando, Florida and Las Vegas, Nevada. Most camera companies and PR firms have their headquarters in New York and New Jersey. So PMA is an excuse to go somewhere warm as well as show off new products to their dealers and the press. Orlando is for taking the kids and family to Disney World. And Vegas is for grownup fun.

It’s always hard to summarize PMA and it takes a while to really digest all the new camera gear and process what I’ve seen. As far as big announcements and innovative technology go, it wasn’t the most exciting PMA ever. If I have to sum it up in a sentence, PMA this year was about digital camera refinement. The most exciting news and product at the show was Sony’s unnamed future pro digital SLR. If there was a winner, it was Sony. Of course, there were lots of other products to help you take and enjoy better photos. Read on to learn more about the most interesting and important new digital cameras and photo accessories at PMA 2008.

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“We’ll be in film as long as there’s a market for it.”

I heard this statement not once, but 4 times this year at PMA . And the people saying it were Agfa, Ilford, Fuji, and Kodak.

I met with reps from each of these companies while at PMA. Each one talked about their current film offerings, and their plans for the future (the ones they could share with me, anyway.) When I asked them if they were planning on staying with film for the foreseeable future, they each paused, looked me right in the eye, and said “yes.”

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Digital Camera Makers Compete With Color

Colored cameras were all over PMA this year. The colored point-and-shoot camera trend began a year or so ago but really exploded this year at the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) and PMA tradeshows. All the camera manufacturers offer brightly colored compact cameras and there appears to be a competition for the most variety and funkiest colors. I haven’t actually counted, but Olympus seemed to be offering the most colors at the show. And even more conservative companies like Nikon and Canon are jumping in with more colors than they have in the past.

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Olympus Expands Waterproof and Weatherproof Digital Camera Lines

Olympus continues to build the most outdoor-worthy compact digital cameras available. There are two new additions to their waterproof, shockproof, crushproof, and freezeproof Stylus SW line – the 8-megapixel Stylus 850 SW and the 10.1-megapixel Olympus Stylus 1030 SW. I reviewed the first Stylus SW model, the 720 SW (see my Olympus Stylus 720 SW review) a couple of years ago and was very impressed. Although the Stylus 770 SW was released last year, the 1030 SW is the first significant performance leap, in my opinion. The original 720 SW had a 7.1-megapixel sensor and image quality was reasonable, but not awesome. The Olympus compact cameras I tested in 2007 had noticeably improved image quality – especially at high ISO settings. So a 10.1-megapixel Stylus SW digital camera is pretty exciting. I spend a lot of time taking pictures in the outdoors, in all conditions and the Stylus SW cameras literally have no competition when it comes to versatility and durability.

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After Nikon threw down the gauntlet with the D300/D3 last year, it was exciting to think how other manufacturers would respond. In particular, I was very curious about what companies like Pentax/Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, and Olympus were going to announce in 2008. Could they “keep up” with Nikon’s big splash?

To oversimplify, last year Canon fired a significant volley in the ongoing image quality (IQ) wars with the Canon 1D Mark III’s Highlight Tone Priority and 14-bit processing. (We’re just talking IQ here, not other features.) Nikon came back–and then some–with the D300/D3 combo. You had to wonder what the other companies were cooking up in their respective R&D labs.

Now we know: the 15.1 MP (14.6 effective MP) APS-C sized Samsung CMOS found in the K20D/GX-20, and Sony’s full-frame ambition (see Photo-John’s Sony report).

Cutting to the chase here regarding Pentax/Samsung, I didn’t get my hands on a working production K20D/GX-20, but I did grab a few shots with a GX-20 on display at Samsung’s booth. But more on that in a moment.

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Casio EXILIM Pro EX-F1 High-Speed Digital Camera Preview

Casio’s Exilim Pro EX-F1 was introduced at CES, in early January. Popular Mechanics magazine named it as one their top twenty products at that show. But PMA was our first chance to see it. And even though we posted the press release when it was announced, I didn’t really understand what the EX-F1 was about until I saw it in person at PMA. And it’s a very interesting camera, indeed.

Although the Exilim Pro EX-F1 looks like just another superzoom digital camera, it’s not. Casio didn’t want to simply add a new camera to one of the many digital camera categories available. They wanted to create their own niche. And they really did that with the Pro EX-F1.

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Leica M8 Upgrade Program

Leica is introducing an M8 digital rangefinder upgrade program that will ensure an M8 camera investment remains as current as possible. They’re calling it “an investment in the future.” This new program was introduced at the 2008 PMA tradeshow in Las Vegas, Nevada. The first upgrade upgrades the shutter and the LCD cover. The current M8 shutter will be replaced with a quieter unit that produces less vibration. And the LCD cover will be replaced with a high-end watch-quality scratch-resistant sapphire glass cover. In order to get your M8 upgraded, you register at www.leica-camera.com and purchase an upgrade certificate for 1200 Euros. Limited quantities of the certificates will be available.

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Dan Warsinger, a commercial, landscape, and wedding photographer, shot the last few covers for Tamrac’s catalog on film. You don’t hear much about film these days since everyone is doing the digital dance, and in fact, Dan said off camera that if he were young and beginning his career now, he wouldn’t bother with film either. Nonetheless, Dan talks about one of his shots used by Tamrac in this video.