Jefferson Graham
USA Today
Canon’s new Powershot TX1 digital camera, which takes stills and hi-definition video clips. The camera sells for $499 and will be in stores later this month.
Digital camera makers are rolling out innovations — including high-definition video clips and pictures, face-detection technology and infrared picture-zapping tools — to stoke sales in a maturing market.
Chris Chute, an analyst at IDC, says 29.8 million cameras were sold in the USA in 2006, up 5% from the prior year. IDC projects sales of 30 million for 2007. “We estimate that 85% of sales last year were to people who already had at least one digital camera. So 30 million more cameras this year would be damn good,” Chute says.
The photo industry converges in Las Vegas on Wednesday for the Photo Marketing Association convention, which runs through the weekend.
The most unusual new camera offering: a $499 digital still model from market leader Canon that also can take high-definition video. To date, high-def video has been offered only on video camcorders selling for more than $1,000. “Now, consumers have the option to really consider a single device for still images and high-quality movies,” says Chuck Westfall, a Canon customer relations executive.
Canon’s PowerShot TX1, in stores later this month, looks different: It’s held vertically and has fewer buttons. The high-def video files are huge, so you’ll need high-capacity memory cards for your productions. You can fit 6 minutes of video onto a 2-gigabyte memory card, which sells for about $30 to $50. On a high-def video camera, by comparison, you can fit up to an hour on a $5-to-$10 mini-DV tape.
More high-def. Sony is looking to goose camera sales with high-def stills. Seven new Sony Cyber-shot models have outputs that connect to a high-def TV. Sony says it’s the only camera maker offering this option, which adds more color and brightness to your normal digital images. The cables and docks range from $39.95 to $79.95. The new crop of Cyber-shots range from $249 to $479. They are expected in stores this month.
Face-detection. New cameras from Canon, Kodak, Sony and Fuji say they can now help you make better pictures of humans. The idea is that the camera can recognize the face, eyes and nose and will adjust focusing and lighting accordingly. For instance, the face-detection will know that a person is standing in front of a bright window and light the picture for the face, instead of the window.
Face-detection “is the feature manufacturers are most heavily pushing,” Chute says. “It’s really easy to articulate and strikes a chord with the consumer.” Face-detection began showing up in cameras late last year, and its popularity is spreading. The new models are expected in stores this month.
Infrared. Fujifilm is looking to whet consumers’ appetites with infrared technology. It is bringing a feature to U.S. cameras already popular in Japan. Instead of e-mailing a picture to a friend, two owners of these Fuji models could just zap the picture directly to the other camera.
Fuji introduced one model with what it calls IrSimple Technology earlier this year. It will have four more models in stores this month, starting at $179.95.
