Pentax
The Pentax booth is notable mainly for the huge banner apparently designed to re-define the Pentax user (or 'Pentaxian') as some kind of pioneering outsider with no interest in 'pixel peeping' or camera specs. It's an interesting postition given that the K10D offers perhaps the best specification in its price bracket and is notable for its sophisticated feature set. That said, having seen more of the ads that are going to be running we really like the campaign and think it'll work - especially as parts of it owe a fairly big debt of thanks to our very own Pentax SLR Talk forum!

Although not new for PMA the big draw on the Pentax stand continues to be its revamped and well-recieved new DSLR range, with the K10D getting a lot of attention from visitors. Shown for the first time at PMA are a couple of new DA lenses, the 16-50mm F2.8 and 50-135mm F2.8, plus a swathe of Optio compacts E30, M30, T30, A30 and W30), the majority of which are fairly minor upgrades to models announced at Photokina last September, such is the pace of change in the camera industry today. Once again there is an 'under glass' 645 Digital on display, which is well on its way to becoming a bit of a photo show tradition. We still have no definitive date for this long-awaited camera to make its way onto retailers' shelves. There are also what look like fairly finished pre production samples of some of the new lenses announced at Photokina back in September. It's an exciting time for the Pentax DSLR user, there's no doubt.


Pictures from the Pentax stand
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Pentax PMA 2007 new products
Pentax DA* 16-50 mm SDM F2.8 (Feb 21)
Pentax DA* 50-135 mm SDM F2.8 (Feb 21)
Pentax Optio W30 (Feb 21)
Pentax Optio A30 (Feb 21)
Pentax Optio T30 (Jan 23)
Pentax Optio M30 (Jan 23)
Pentax Optio E30 (Jan 3)

Samsung
The days when Samsung's presence at PMA consisted of a guy behind a trestle table are long gone, and the company's new status - and aggressive drive to increase its market share - are reflected in a large, glossy booth. Those who miss the good old days of photo shows will be pleased to hear that Samsung is still using scantily clad women to sell cameras, with body painting and bubble gun fights providing something for the punters to point their cameras at.

As usual there are a bewildering array of new models on show, many of which are upgrades to 2006 models, some of which are entirely new. As well as showing the ten models announced at CES in January (S630, S730, S850, S1050, L73, L700, i70 and L74 Wide), there are five new cameras for PMA; the NV11 (upgrade to the NV10), i7, S830, S1030 and L77.

Also new for PMA is the HD Photo Box, a 250GB hard-disk based photo album with HDMI output and automatic image organization (which apparently can tell the difference between a portrait and a landscape). The booth also has some technology previews giving a hint of what can be expected next year, including UWB wireless connectivity and GPS accessories.


Pictures from the Samsung stand
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Samsung PMA 2007 new products
Samsung i70 (Jan 7)
Samsung L700 (Jan 7)
Samsung L73 (Jan 7)
Samsung S1050 (Jan 7)
Samsung S850 (Jan 7)
Samsung S730 (Jan 7)
Samsung S630 (Jan 7)
Samsung i7 (Jan 29)
Samsung NV11 (Jan 29)
Samsung L74 Wide (Jan 29)
Samsung L77 (Feb 9)
Samsung S1030 (Feb 9)
Samsung S830 (Feb 9)  

SanDisk
Not a lot to say about Sandisk's booth at PMA, though there is a magic show to draw visitors onto what is essentally a wall of empty memory card boxes. New for PMA is the SanDisk 8 GB Ultra II SDHC, which doubles the maximum capacity of SD for SDHC compatible devices and a couple of additions to the Extreme III range (4GB SDHC, 4GB Memory Stick PRO).


Pictures from the SanDisk stand

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SanDisk PMA 2007 new products
SanDisk 4 GB Extreme III SDHC (Mar 9)
SanDisk 4 GB Extreme III MS Pro Duo (Mar 9)
SanDisk 8 GB Ultra II SDHC (Mar 8)

Sigma
The long-awaited SD14 - now finally shipping - is star of Sigma's busy booth but for us the highlight is the Foveon sensor DP1 compact, which has moved on a lot since the early mock-ups shown at Photokina last year and is now looking a lot more like a finished product. Having listened to feedback from potential users (something Sigma is uniquely good at) the DP1 now has an optional viewfinder and a manual focus wheel (though we'd rather this turned into a multi function wheel before the camera ships).

On the lens side of things there is a queue to see the astounding 200-500mm F2.8 APO EX DG, a lens so large and heavy Sigma doesn't even dare put it on a tripod. The other new lens, Sigma 18-200 mm F3.5-6.3 DC OS was actually originally shown at Photokina, but gets its official introduction at PMA.

Pictures from the Sigma stand
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Sigma PMA 2007 new products
Sigma DP1 (Mar 8)
Sigma 18-200 mm F3.5 - F6.3 DC OS (Mar 8)
Sigma APO 200 - 500 mm F2.8 (Mar 8)

Sony
Big news on the Sony stand is the announcement of two additions to the Alpha digital SLR range, though details are sketchy, to say the least. There are a couple of mock-up models on show, behind glass, but we're told that these are far from being close to final production designs. The two SLRs announced today are a high end amateur model that will sit above the A100 in the range (it is not a replacement for the current camera) and a professional body. Our contact at Sony couldn't give us any more detail on spec, timing or pricing, though they did confirm that only the first (the high end amateur model) will arrive this year (we're expecting to hear more in the fall). Both cameras will have new sensors (with Super Steady Shot stabilization) and enhanced Bionz processors.

Sony also showed a very rough lens roadmap with 8 new concept lenses (zoom and fixed focal length), with at least five due to be announced before the end of 2007. The only detailed spec we could get out of Sony was on the three lenses they expect to launch firstl 24-70mm F2.8, 70-300mm F4.5-5.6 and a DT 18-250mm F3.5-6.3. We were told that all these lenses have been designed and developed by Sony (in other words they are not based on Konica Minolta designs).

Aside from reassuring Alpha users with these rather vague development announcements Sony's colorful booth is packed with everything from Vaio laptops to HDTV displays and of course the new Cyber-shot range. Of most interest to us are the recently-announced H7 and H9, the twin 8MP, 15x zoom replacements for the popular H2 and H5 - the H9's large, articulated screen is particularly welcome. Also getting a lot of attention is the DSC-G1, which is something of an oddity (though it is, to be fair, very 'Sony'), being essentially a big-screen (3.5-inch, 920,000 pixel) with 2.0GB of storage and a fairly nondescript 6MP / 3x zoom camera bolted on. It does, however, have some very cool in-camera image organization tools, and can even find (with a degree of success) images based on their subjects. Cool. Of course Sony is also showing the first 12MP compact camera (the W200), just what the world was crying out for.

Pictures from the Sony stand
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Sony PMA 2007 new products
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H9 (Feb 27)
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H7 (Feb 27)
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T100 (Feb 27)
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T20 (Feb 27)
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W200 (Feb 27)
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W90 (Feb 27)
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W80 (Feb 27)
Sony Memory Stick Duo 8 GB (Jan 8)

Tamron
Tamron has a few new (or very recently announced) lenses on show for the first time at PMA. The AF 18-250mm F3.5-6.3 Di II is a very compact 'super zoom' for cropped sensor cameras. The two new PMA lenses - which are only on display behind glass - are the AF 28-300mm F3.8-6.3 XR Di VR with optical image stabilization and the SP AF 70-200mm F2.8 Di LD IF Macro (try saying that in a single breath).


Pictures from the Tamron stand

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