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This
Month's Spectrum Summary:
(The
following is an excerpt from the February 2004 issue of Spectrum,
a
proprietary monthly briefing published exclusively for the
clients of I.T. Strategies, Inc. © 2004)
PMA
2004: A Win-Win Contradiction for Digital Image Processing
"We can make photo printing fun!" "No,
people hate printing pictures, the mini-lab is the future."
Earlier this month the Photo Marketing
Association International held its major exposition and conference
in Las Vegas, Nevada. I.T. Strategies Consulting Partner Marco
Boer attended and offers the following highlights of significance
to digital print providers.
The mood at the show was basically
upbeat and there was for the first time a sense of acceptance
that silver halide is in decline. Plummeting digital camera
pricing is fueling breathtaking growth. Complexity is holding
back many users, which the industry is working to address
by building automatic editing into the camera, printer and
the PC print driver, closing the whole image capture to printing
loop. However, most users don't buy all the components together,
and there are not yet standards that allow for automatic editing
and simplification with a multi-vendor/model mix.
This in part accounts for strong growth
of digital capability for photo minilabs and the rise of self
service or semi-self service kiosks. Print technologies currently
include silver halide/laser, thermal transfer/dye sub, and
inkjet. Good mark-up economics for the retailer drives growth
as well as avoiding environmentally unfriendly chemicals.
Laser photo-writers remain an important bridge for the transition
from analog to digital technology.
Among the significant new developments
at PMA:
Canon introduced the high-end
i9900 inkjet printer that adds red and green to the normal
six colors which they claim improves the color gamut, but
which Marco feels may be overkill. Their new imagePROGRAF
W6200 24-inch wide format printer offers pigment inks and
high speed with the six print heads totaling over 7,000 nozzles.
To break through the fears holding
back many camera users, Epson hopes their tiny PictureMate
portable "personal photo lab" will catch on as a fashion statement.
Pricing is expected to be a bit under $200, with the ink/media
combo-pack good for 100 prints priced at $29. Also of note,
they showed two projection TV's with the power to freeze and
print live TV images, print from digital camera media, and
project digital photos so viewing can be a social experience.
Fuji demonstrated enhanced photo
minilab offerings, and Polaroid introduced an impressive self-service
kiosk for digital printmaking. Using Polaroid's patented version
of dye transfer technology, the kiosk offers a speed breakthrough
at 2-seconds per 4x6-inch, high gloss, virtually indestructible
print. There seem to be problems ramping up production, but
Marco hopes this impressive product will fly and help Polaroid
get back on its feet as a power in the imaging world.
Giant Kodak also needs a boost
and hopes their new G3 Picture Maker film processing station
upgrade will help. Claiming over 50,000 users worldwide, they
expect half will upgrade. Also demonstrated was their GP3
FPS billed as the world's first self-service kiosk for developing
35mm film. It is a dry system that lets the user edit and
make prints and gives him/her digital images on a CD instead
of negatives. A problem could be that film development, self-editing,
and print time can mount up, and that the system is pretty
expensive. Other Kodak innovations were COLORLAST™ media for
inkjet prints said to be good for 100 years under normal display
conditions and wireless service for camera phone users.
Noritsu featured their dDP-411,
Epson-based "dry printer," which is relatively slow, but produces
high quality prints and avoids chemicals for environmentally
sensitive sites. HP vowed to become a major digital camera
player, introducing new cameras and two photo printers for
creative professionals. They also announced a cooperative
digital photo standards effort with Canon and Epson. ENCAD
showed the new Novajet 1000 WF printer and announced a radical
gamble: reducing the price of its inks. Among the flatbed
innovations, the Sericol Spyder represents both a price breakthrough
and a technology breakthrough that lets you get glossy prints
with UV-curable inks.
Summing up, Marco says we are early
on the product development cycle in this industry; that it
will accelerate over the next 3 years so that more and more
people will actually find editing and printing their digital
images part of the fun of photography.
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