A-DIGITAL-EYE
(21ST CENTURY DIGITAL CAMERAS, PHOTO PRINTERS, PAPERS, CAMCORDERS, IMAGING SOFTWARE, DIGITAL EQUIPMENT, REVIEWS AND MORE!)
LAST UPDATED TUESDAY 02/22/05 AT 010:30 PM PST
 
PMA 2005 SPECIAL COVERAGE PAGE 2
LIVE FROM ORLANDO, FLORIDA
FEBRUARY 19 - 23, 2005

PMA 2005 SHOW BLOG

 

INTRODUCTION (02/19/05 2:00 PM EST)
The PMA 2005 Tradeshow is the largest Photo Show in the world this year. Once again Digital Imaging Products will take the Center Stage as it is an opportunity for all the Major Companies to make new products announcements and to show their new products to the Press and Industry members for the first time. We are in Orlando covering the show as it happens and we will be updating this page frequently. We will be presenting you all the major Press Announcements often with product photos and specifications, Photos from the show, Information presented to us at the show and in Press Conferences, along with special updated show reports. We will also have a summary of all the products introduced in order following the announcements made at CES 6 weeks ago. In this section called PMA 2005 Show Briefs Log we will provide you with brief news highlights including where we are, and what we are doing at various key times.

Currently we are attending a special Press Event know as "SNEAK PEAK" at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, the site of the main show. The PMA 2005 Trade Show itself does not open to the public until Sunday morning, February 20, 2005 and continues daily through Wednesday, February 23, 2005. At the Sneak Peak we hope to have an opportunity to handle several newly announced products. We will post a brief report of highlights from this press event, but time will be short as we are attending a Sony Press Event later today (look for a story on this around 4 pm EST), and then there is the always very revealing press event called DIGITAL FOCUS at the Dolphin Hotel in Disney World later tonight. Stay tuned as we provide all kinds of breaking news and PMA 2005 coverage.

Below is link to the current PMA Product Announcements with many more stories and links to be added just as fast as we can get them and post them here! As you can see, there have been a lot of major announcements already, so check them out! Also below are major Breaking News Stories from PMA 2005. We will also be adding links to all the other major web sites with PMA coverage in just a few hours.
 
UPDATE : SATURDAY 02/19/05 3:30 PM EST
OK, we have attended the SNEAK PEAK press event at the Convention Center and are racing over to the Sony Press Event (Let's just say Jimmy Buffet fans would know where to find it). We did see several new Storage Units, and CD Burners that we will have more details with a few photos later tonight. The event was very well attended and we did see many of the recently announced products. We got the latest version of ACDSee and given the booth we found them at there will be an announcement soon. As we mentioned earlier there is a major announcement coming up between 3:30 and 4:00 PM EST which will be posted below under BREAKING NEWS. We currently are on our way to the Universal Studios City Walk for the SONY PRESS CONFERENCE and PRESS EVENT. We are running late, sorry, having missed the Shuttle Bus apparently. However, we are blessed with fairly nice weather, some clouds but NO RAIN or SNOW. Day temps are moderate, but it does get a bit chilly at night so we'll go grab our jackets! Stay tuned lot's more coming up soon, and check the news below.
 
UPDATE : SATURDAY 02/19/05 7:00 PM EST
We are back from the Sony Press Event with lots of news announced. Quite a nice crowd on hand to hear all the PMA news at one time covering new cameras, new printers, deals with Ritz, and some new accessories including a 40 Gigabyte portable Hard Drive. Sony really got a great response to news of their first Optical Image Stabilization camera, a topic of great interest last April while we were with a press group visiting Sony in Tokyo, and learning that one of the key digital still camera product personnel at Sony Tokyo is the very person who was responsible for the Optical Image Steady Shot system used in Sony Camcorders. We had to hold back this information out of concern it would signal the private information that Sony was very near to announcing a Digital Still Camera with Image Stabilization in it. Well the cats out of the bag now. What we learned last Spring about Sony sticking with a lens based optical system instead of heading towards the Minolta Sensor Anti-Shake system is now confirmed with their new H1 camera. Read all the details below as this is some of the biggest news stories at PMA 2005 so far. (Note Panasonic has some news tomorrow about 10:00am at a major News Conference, although they already have an IS Long Zoom Camera.)
 
Well we are off to the Dolphin Hotel in Disney World (such a nice setting just behind the Swan Hotel) for a very special Press Event, the DIGITAL FOCUS presented by PEPCOM from 7pm to 10pm. The Digital Focus will have most of the major companies as we did not see Canon at Sneak Peak and are just itching to see a more advanced version of the new 8 Megapixel Canon Digital Rebel XT which is one of the other major stories of PMA 2005 as this is an 8 megapixel DSLR camera with many advanced features selling for just $899 for the body only. The first one we saw back in early January at CES was really a very early proto-type although it did look nice in black and its smaller size. Another event, another shuttle ride. Those of you who have not attended a PMA show need to understand, this is a HUGE event for the Photo Industry. They go all out, have tons of people here, lots of meetings that set the course for the next 6 to 12 months. This is an important function, and tonight's Digital Focus is very key in the overall picture. We will conclude with just reminding our readers that most of the major digital camera review web sites are here, along with some new comers. We have already visited with our good friends from the other sites, who are also working hard to cover the PMA 2005 show. We will put links up to their coverage very soon, later tonight after we catch our breaths. So now you understand when we all say live, we mean updated live from the show every so often. We intend to update often, so stay tuned, put our link in your favourites and come back often! IN fact we hope those of you reading this will not only check back often but go e-mail your friends and remind all digital camera fans about PMA 2005 and all the live coverage. These are the products that will be on sale this year, so be among the first to learn all about them!
 
UPDATE : SUNDAY 02/20/05 1:00 AM EST
We have returned from the Digital Focus event where we did see a number of the newly announced cameras for the first time. We were able to handle the new Canon Digital Rebel XT and will have more to say in a further report. It is smaller than the 300D, and looks great. We were also very impressed by the new Fuji FinePix Z1. This is a tiny/thin black beauty. It looks like a camera that will really grab peoples attention. The event was fairly crowded but we would say it was similar to prior years. We saw all the usual press suspects, and overall had a great time, while busy looking very seriously at some great new products for 2005. We arrived back after 11:00pm and have been going through the pictures we took today to get some ready for posting soon. We are also going through several dozen press releases given to us on the Digital Focus Press Kit CD to see if we have missed anything. In case you have not noticed we have posted a TON of Announcements in our New Section, and so if you want to get a pretty good idea of everything announced so far go check it out! Its really quite complete for the products related to Digital Imaging. We will be working on Links to the Press Releases in this Page and to our friends at the other web sites. First thing up tomorrow is the Panasonic Press Conference at 10:30 and then the show officially opens right afterwards. Stay tuned as we will crank out lots more info. from PMA 2005. Really, go check out the News Section there are many many things to read there!
 
UPDATE : SUNDAY 02/20/05 2:00 PM EST
Did we mention how difficult it is to attend all these press events, meet with camera reps, post all this news and see the PMA Show itself. IT IS! Well, the PMA 2005 Show opened this morning. Panasonic had their Press Conference and unveiled their new lineup of LUMIX cameras. One of things they made clear is their useage of an Optical based Image Stabilization system on cameras that include a huge 6X zoom lens in a fairly compact body, with built-in internal memory, and at prices that include under $300. The Panasonic Lineup is quite a step forward and really demonstrates how far Panasonic has come in just 3 years! We have posted the news already, see the Major/Breaking News Section Below, including links to the Press Releases and Product Photos. We have several meetings lined up today and at our next break we will upload images from the show taken in the last few hours. Its another big show this year, lots of people and lots of buzz about digital photography. Back Soon with a Show Report and Photo Gallery from PMA
2005.
 
UPDATE : SUNDAY 02/20/05 6:30 PM EST
Day 1 of the show is over and we have already gone from the Convention Center to a media dinner event over at DisneyWorld. We did attend several meetings and got a chance to see some interesting printers we will put in our reports later. We got tons of pictures which from today which we will put in to Photo Galleries and Post later tonight. Look for our first photos to go up around 9:30 tonight.
 
UPDATE : MONDAY 02/21/05 2:00 AM EST
We had an opportunity to see a bit of Orlando and Disney World tonight after a great dinner with one of the major camera companies. Its late, we will regroup in the morning. In the mean time we have updated this page with the Photo Galleries earlier tonight (see links below) and we added the HP PMA Announcements with links to the information provided to us by HP. Good Night All, see some of you in the morning, then back to DAY 2 at PMA 2005.
 
UPDATE : MONDAY 02/21/05 12:00 PM EST
We have a series of pictures from our Olympus Booth Coverage that we are posting soon! In addition we have a unique printer which is a modified Epson 2200 allowing PHOTOS to be printed on to unconventional surfaces and objects such as wood etc... Check it out. We are running late to get back into the show and provide more coverage so check back soon for more Booth Coverage to go up all day Monday and Monday Night!
 
UPDATE : MONDAY 02/21/05 03:00 PM EST
Another fun but busy day inside the Trade Show. The Convention Center is very crowded and lots of people are here. Looks like 40,000 or so. Its often hard to get to the regular booth stands to check out cameras at some of the bigger name companies. We are getting lots of pictures of the show for posting ASAP. We can stay inside and get coverage until 6pm, but then we are off tonight to another Press Event at a very nice location. Right now as mentioned earlier we are posting our Gallery 3, with coverage of the Olympus PMA Booth, and a unique printer. CHECK IT OUT using the link just below!
 
UPDATE : MONDAY 02/21/05 11:30 PM EST
We did get hundreds of pictures today and managed to upload them to the site before 7:00 PM EST. We attended a really nice dinner again with some of the other main digital camera webmasters and a major company and then headed back here to get more work done. It seems that there is more work this year and most of the web sites are taking coverage of the 2005 PMA Show very seriously. We see some great coverage up by all our friends on the web GREAT JOB EVERYONE! We are working on our fourth gallery right now and should have it up in the next hour or two. STAY TUNED for our great photo coverage of PMA 2005 from Orlando!
 
UPDATE: TUESDAY 02/22/05 1:30 AM EST
Our fourth Photo Gallery is up! It took longer as we had hundreds of shots we prepared at one time. We now have enough resized and edited pictures for 3 or so more galleries! We might get one more up tonight and then pick up early Tuesday morning. Day 2 has ended for us, so good night once again to all of you following this. We are going to end it tomorrow and move this LOG to a separate page, but we have one more day full of work ahead here in Florida, so time to shut down for the night!
 
UPDATE: TUESDAY 02/22/05 10:30 AM EST
OK, well this will be the last entry posted in our LOG while up on the main PMA 2005 Show Report Page. Next update we will move this log to a separate page with a link to it on this page. Meanwhile, we have updated this main PMA Page and our main page with GALLERY 5! It is time to for the show to open again here in 15 minutes so we are going to head on over for DAY 3 of PMA 2005. We will put up Gallery 6 during our lunch break from the Press Room in about 2 hours, so look for it by 1:00 pm EST today!
 
UPDATE: TUESDAY 02/22/05 1:00 PM EST
We are at a lunch break on Day 3 of PMA 2005. We got more Booth Shots and some More New Product Shots which we will get posted ASAP! For now we have just put together another Gallery from yesterday afternoon. This time in Gallery 6 we have the Panasonic Booth Featured. We are going to start to wrap up our TradeShow Coverage Here in Orlando, but we will go back to the Computers this afternoon and edit and resize more photos and post some more stories, along with Photo Coverage of PMA 2005. This is the last LOG entry on this page. This evening it will magically move to its own page, but don't worry we will up date it as we continue to post us several more stories. This log will keep you updated on what we are doing, what is new on our postings and what is coming next. Stay Tuned, come back, lots more new coverage is going up Tuesday and Wednesday from PMA 2005 in Orlando!
 
UPDATE: WEDNESDAY 02/23/05 2:00 AM EST
Day 3 of PMA 2005 is over. We have more images to post and we have just added Photo Gallery 7 showing the new Rollei Digital Cameras. The show ends later today but we will be adding several more galleries, and updating the Press Releases. We also will add a summary of products at PMA 2005 by Casio, Pentax and Samsung and our TOP 25 LIST of what we feel were the most popular and important new digital imaging products at the show. We had a great show and really enjoyed Orlando. Our work on PMA 2005 will continue through out the week! Stay tuned for more coverage from PMA 2005 in Orlando! PMA 2006 will be in one year, once again here in Sunny Orlando, Florida! Bye, for now, but keep coming back as we continue to update our coverage of this year's show!
 
Be Sure to Check out the PMA 2005 Coverage over at our Friends at:
 
IMAGING RESOURCE PMA 2005 SHOW COVERAGE
DP REVIEW PMA 2005 SHOW REPORT
STEVE'S DIGICAMS PMA 2005 REPORT
LET'S GO DIGITAL PMA 2005 REPORT
DIGITALCAMERAINFO.COM PMA 2005 SHOW COVERAGE
 
 
 

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