The PhotoPlus Expo East 2000 report
By MICHAEL TOMKINS
News Editor
Friday, November 10, 2000
PhotoPlus Expo Round-Up - Part Two!By Michael Tomkins, The Imaging Resource
(Friday, November 10, 2000 - 0:41 EST)
Following is Part 2 of our round-up of the PhotoPlus East Expo, highlighting offerings from Agfa, Contax, Epson, Foveon, Hasselblad, Imacon, Leica, Lexar, Polaroid, Leaf and UMAX... This brings our coverage of the PhotoPlus Expo East 2000 to a close. Look out for our coverage of Comdex Fall 2000, coming next week - as busy as PhotoPlus was, we're expecting to see even more on display at Comdex!
Agfa Corp.
Whilst Agfa did have two of their scanners and numerous pieces of photo lab equipment on display, we didn't see any of their digital cameras in their booth... The scanners shown were the DuoScan T2500 and T2000XL. |
|  | | |  | | | Agfa's DuoScan T2500 and T2000XL scanners | |
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Kyocera Corp. / Contax
Kyocera (under their Contax brand name) did have a presence at PhotoPlus, but unfortunately their recently announced N Digital SLR was not on display. The company's digital offering consisted of a display showing a Contax camera with MegaVision's S3Pro and Phase One's LightPhase digital camera backs instead... The N Digital was mentioned briefly on a poster describing Contax's N1 35mm SLR, the camera on which it is based. |
|  | | |  | | | MegaVision's S3Pro and Phase One's LightPhase | |
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Epson America Inc.
Epson's booth certainly wasn't one of the largest at the show, but they did manage to pack quite a bit into a small space! On show were the Stylus Photo 2000P, Stylus Photo 1270, Stylus Photo 875DC and Stylus Photo 875DCS printers, along with the PhotoPC 3000Z and PhotoPC 650 digital cameras, and a selection of Epson printer media. |
|  | | |  |  | | Stylus Photo 2000P printer | Stylus Photo 1270 printer | | |  |  | | PhotoPC 3000Z and 650 packaging | Stylus Photo 875DCS printer | | |  | | | PhotoPC 3000Z and 650 digital cameras | |
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Foveon Inc.
Foveon had a fairly large booth with plenty to keep visitors interested... On display was the Foveon II digital studio camera, which was being demonstrated by a photographer taking numerous photos of a model at the front of the booth. Side displays showed the 4 megapixel CMOS sensors the camera uses, as well as the color-splitting prism at the center of its design, and posters describing the advantages to this approach, which gives full-measured color for every pixel. Also on display was Foveon's 16 megapixel CMOS sensor... Both the 4 and 16 megapixel CMOS sensors were shown mounted, and as a full wafer of sensors - must have been a pretty expensive display! |
|  | | |  |  | | Foveon II digital studio camera | Foveon II Mac interface detail | | |  |  | | Photographer prepares Foveon II shot | Foveon II front view | | |  |  | | Foveon II CMOS and color splitter | The color-splitting prism in action | | |  |  | | Foveon II prism with CMOS sensors mounted | Advantages of full-measured color | | |  |  | | 16 megapixel CMOS display | 16 megapixel CMOS sensor and wafer |
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Victor Hasselblad AB
Hasselblad surprisingly didn't seem to have their newly announced DFinity digital camera on display anywhere on their booth. Their digital offerings instead consisted of a display showing Leaf's Cantare, MegaVision's S3Pro, Jenoptik's eyelike MF and Phase One's LightPhase digital camera backs. |
|  | | |  | | | Cantare, S3Pro, eyelike MF and LightPhase backs | |
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Imacon Inc.
Imacon, best known for their high-end scanners, had a surprise for us at the show - a new digital camera back, the Carnival 3020. The 3020 features one-shot, multi-shot and micro-step modes in one unit, with FireWire connectivity... Also on show were the FlexTight Progression, Photo and Precision II scanners. |
|  | | |  |  | | Carnival 3020 digital back | Canival 3020 specs | | |  |  | | FelxTight Progression scanner | FlexTight Photo scanner | | |  | | | FlexTight Precision II scanner | |
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Leica Camera Inc.
Leica's only digital offering at PhotoPlus East was their Digilux 4.3, a rebadge of Fuji's 2.4 megapixel FinePix 4700 Zoom (we note that the camera's "4.3" badge confused at least one website into describing the camera as a 4.3 megapixel unit, and would really rather see Leica label the camera with a non-interpolated resolution!) |
|  | | |  | | | Leica's Digilux 4.3 | |
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Lexar Media Inc.
Lexar had both Olympus' E-10 and Nikon's D1 cameras on its booth, to demonstrate its flash memory products. The company also highlighted its PrintRoom.com and DigitalFilm.com websites, along with its flash-card readers. |
|  | | |  |  | | Olympus' E-10 digital camera | Nikon's D1 digital camera | | |  |  | | PrintRoom.com display | DigitalFilm.com display | | |  |  | | Flash memory cards and reader | Lexar's booth from another angle |
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Polaroid Corp.
Polaroid announced their new SprintScan 120 medium format film scanner, which we told you about on our first day at the show. |
|  | | |  | | | Agfa's DuoScan T2500 and T2000XL scanners | |
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Sinar Bron Imaging / CreoScitex Leaf
Sinar Bron's booth had the CreoScitex Leaf C-Most 6.6 megapixel digital camera back on display. We have a photo of the booth, unfortunately Mike missed getting a picture of the back itself - sorry! |
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UMAX
Umax showed their scanner line at PhotoPlus Expo East, including the following models: PowerLook III, 3000, 2100XL and 1100, Astra 6450 and AstraNET e5470. |
|  | | |  |  | | PowerLook 2100XL scanner | PowerLook 3000 scanner | | |  |  | | PowerLook 1100 scanner | Astra 6450 scanner | | |  |  | | AstraNET e5470 scanner | PowerLook III scanner | | |  |  | | Consumer scanners display | Professional scanners display |
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Tuesday, November 7, 2000
PhotoPlus Expo Round-Up - Part One!By Michael Tomkins, The Imaging Resource
(Tuesday, November 7, 2000 - 2:32 EST)
Following is Part 1 of our round-up of the PhotoPlus East Expo, highlighting offerings from Fuji, Kodak, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax and Phase One... Apologies for the poor quality on a few of the pictures - Mike just changed digital cameras and is occasionally forgetting that the new camera handles a little differently to the old one... :) We'll have another update shortly to complete our PhotoPlus coverage, so stay tuned!
Fuji Photo Film U.S.A.
Fuji showed numerous digital cameras in their booth, which was absolutely packed every time we visited it (hence we actually only have two photos, as it was well-near impossible to get close enough to the cameras themselves to get a picture... :)Cameras on display included the Fuji FinePix S1 Pro, FinePix 1400 Zoom, FinePix 2400 Zoom, FinePix 4700 Zoom and FinePix 4900 Zoom |
|  | | |  | | | The queue to see Fuji's cameras | |
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Eastman Kodak Co.
Kodak's extremely large booth featured a wide range of products and services, including 5 professional digital cameras, the recently announced DCS ProBack and RFS 3600 scanner, and "Portraits and More" software... |
|  | | |  |  | | Kodak's Pro camera line-up | The DCS ProBack in action | | |  |  | | DCS ProBack rear right quarter view | DCS ProBack rear left quarter view | | |  |  | | DCS ProBack in action again | DCS ProBack display | | |  |  | | Kodak "Portraits and More" software | Kodak RFS 3600 scanner | | |  | | | Kodak RFS 3600 scanner display | |
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Minolta Corp.
Minolta showed their Dim�ge Scan Multi II, Dim�ge Scan Dual II and Dim�ge Scan Elite scanners, as well as the Dim�ge RD 3000 , Dim�ge 2300 and Dim�ge 2330 cameras at PhotoPlus Expo East... |
|  | | |  |  | | Dim�ge Scan Multi II scanner | Dim�ge Scan Dual II scanner | | |  |  | | Dim�ge Scan Elite scanner | Dim�ge RD 3000 digital camera | | |  |  | | Dim�ge 2300 digital camera | Dim�ge 2330 digital camera |
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Olympus America Inc.
Olympus showed us a wide range of digital products at the show, as you can see in the photos below. Highlights included the E-10, E-100RS, C-211 Zoom, C-2100 UltraZoom and D-490Z digital cameras, and the P-200 and P-400 printers... |
|  | | |  |  | | Olympus product demonstration area | Camedia P-200 printer display | | |  |  | | Camedia P-400 printer display | Olympus' huge digital line-up |
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Asahi Optical Co. Ltd. (Pentax)
Pentax didn't have their EI-2000 digital camera at PhotoPlus, nor did we see the unnamed digital SLR that was shown at Photokina, but the company did have its EI-200 digital camera available for a hands-on demo... |
|  | | |  | | | Pentax EI-200 digital camera | |
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Phase One Inc.
One of the largest booths we saw was that of Phase One, who showed an array of high-end digital products... On display were the PowerPhase FX, LightPhase, QuickTime VR solution and LightPhase stitching adapter. |
|  | | |  |  | | Phase One's PowerPhase FX | LightPhase digital back | | |  |  | | QuickTime VR solution | QuickTime VR solution closer up | | |  |  | | QuickTime VR solution again | QuickTime VR solution display | | |  | | | LightPhase stitching adapter | |
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Thursday, November 2, 2000
UPDATED: Nikon creates "World's Largest Single Image Taken With a Digital Camera"!By Michael Tomkins, The Imaging Resource
(Thursday, November 2, 2000 - 17:37 EST)
Coinciding with the ongoing PhotoPlus Expo East, camera manufacturer Nikon has today unveiled what it is calling the "World's Largest Single Image Taken With a Digital Camera". The photo, taken with Nikon's Coolpix 990, is of a 3-foot tall studio model of a Tyrannosaurus Rex from Jurassic Park, and has been scaled up using Altamira's Genuine Fractals to a whopping 65 feet by 43 feet! It was printed on 5 panels of vinyl mesh together weighing 350 pounds, and took seven installers eight hours to hang. Mike is planning to try and make a side-trip past the display later today if possible - look out for exclusive photos here soon!
Updated 11/06/00 15:35PM EST: Mike never got a chance to see Nikon's T-Rex image in person, but did swing past the Nikon booth at PhotoPlus, where the image above was taken. It shows a poster detailing the steps in creating the image, alongside a photo of the final result...
Source: Yahoo! Finance / PR NewsWire
Kodak announces new version of PalmPix!By Michael Tomkins, The Imaging Resource
(Thursday, November 2, 2000 - 17:31 EST)
Eastman Kodak Co. has today announced a new version of its PalmPix camera designed for Palm Inc.'s m100 handheld computer. The new PalmPix features the same 640 x 480 resolution, fixed focus lens and automatic white balance as the previous version, and is just slightly heavier at 1.6 ounces as compared to the previous version's 1.5 ounces.
The new version will ship alongside the previous version, which is compatible with the Palm III, IIIc, IIIe, IIIx, IIIxe, VII, VIIx, Palm V and Palm Vx handhelds, as well as the IBM Workpad C-3 and TRGpro. It is scheduled for availability online in mid-December from Kodak's website, and in early 2001 at retail, for a price of $99.95.
Source: Yahoo! Finance / BusinessWire
UPDATED: Polaroid announces new medium format film scanner!By Michael Tomkins, The Imaging Resource
(Thursday, November 2, 2000 - 14:22 EST)
Polaroid has today announced a new medium format film scanner at PhotoPlus Expo East. The SprintScan 120 Digital Medium Format Film Scanner accepts 35mm and 120 film strips (negative or positive), 35mm slides and negatives, and medium format transparencies or negatives up to 6 x 9cm in size. It features an optical resolution of 4000 x 4000 dpi, a single-pass RGB 10k element CCD, and a scan time of less than 100 seconds per 6 x 6cm scan at 4000 dpi. Here's the full specs:
- SprintScan 120 Digital Medium Format Film Scanner
- Accepts positive/negative 35mm and 120 film strips, 35mm slides and negatives, and medium format transparencies or negatives up to 6 x 9 cm. Automatic advancement of 6-image 35mm film strips and four-image 35mm slides
- Single pass RGB CCD sensor, 10k elements
- Optical resolution of 4000 x 4000 dpi
- 14 bit A/D per channel, density range 0 - 3.6 O.D (3.9 O.D with multi-scanning)
- Less than 100 seconds for 6 x 6 cm scan @ 4000 dpi
- Automatic uniformity CCD calibration
- Automatic focusing
- Cold cathode light source
- SCSI-2 and IEEE1394 (FireWire) interface
- Power requirements 20W @ 155VAC, 60Hz
- Operating voltage 120-240VAC 50-60Hz
- Operating temperature 50 - 104 degrees fahrenheit (10 - 40 degrees centigrade)
- Operating humidity 20 - 80% non-condensing
- Dimensions of 27.2 x 14 x 48.8 cm
- Weighs 6.4 kg
- Ships with PolaColor Insight Pro
- Will be available in the US in January 2001 at a price of $3995
We have photos of the scanner from the show floor, which will follow once we find a way to post them from the press room...
Updated 11/06/00 15:23PM EST: Exclusive photo of the new scanner added...
Coinciding with the ongoing PhotoPlus Expo East, camera manufacturer Nikon has today unveiled what it is calling the "World's Largest Single Image Taken With a Digital Camera". The photo, taken with Nikon's Coolpix 990, is of a 3-foot tall studio model of a Tyrannosaurus Rex from Jurassic Park, and has been scaled up using Altamira's Genuine Fractals to a whopping 65 feet by 43 feet! It was printed on 5 panels of vinyl mesh together weighing 350 pounds, and took seven installers eight hours to hang. Mike is planning to try and make a side-trip past the display later today if possible - look out for exclusive photos here soon!
Polaroid has today announced a new medium format film scanner at PhotoPlus Expo East. The SprintScan 120 Digital Medium Format Film Scanner accepts 35mm and 120 film strips (negative or positive), 35mm slides and negatives, and medium format transparencies or negatives up to 6 x 9cm in size. It features an optical resolution of 4000 x 4000 dpi, a single-pass RGB 10k element CCD, and a scan time of less than 100 seconds per 6 x 6cm scan at 4000 dpi. Here's the full specs:
