April 20, 2006 09:49 - Camera Makers Moving to Digital Only
As the digital camera wave grows each year older camera makers have had to face the new reality and decide how or if they want to continue making film cameras. Some have cxhosen to bow out and go only digital.MINOLTA, Fuji and Nikon are some of the most legendary names in photography.
With film becoming a thing of the past, some big names are keeping a toehold in the market
Minolta scored the world's first successful auto-focus, single-lens reflex camera; Fuji invented 1600-speed film, once the industry's fastest; and Nikon's F-series made the 35mm camera the picture-taking workhorse for the past half-century.
These companies are now abandoning part of the business that made them famous.
In the past 10 years, camera makers have fought to adapt to the digital revolution, and recent retreats by leading brands show how the industry has turned upside-down.
Since interlopers such as Sony, Panasonic and Samsung have capitalised on their hi-tech know-how, traditional camera makers and their black scrolls of film may soon join 19th-century daguerreotypes as museum-shelf curios.
In the past few years, digital cameras have transformed from cutting-edge novelties to mainstream must-haves and with the market set to plateau, more players are chasing fewer opportunities and the old guard is losing out.
"It's inevitable that many of the camera manufacturers in the market today will be either bought up or go out of business," said Ed Lee, an analyst with US-based market research group InfoTrends.
More than three-quarters of all cameras sold today are digital, and digital images are expected to account for 90 per cent of all professionally taken photos by 2010, compared with 70 per cent now, according to US market research group InfoTrends.
Nikon announced in the same month that it would stop making seven of its nine film cameras and concentrate on digital models.
Fuji Photo Film, which plans to cut 5000 jobs, announced last month that it will spend almost $US8.5 million ($11.66 million) to diversify into pharmaceuticals.
Eastman Kodak chairman and chief executive Antonio Perez, who is leading through a four-year digital remake, has warned that the pioneer of point-and-shoot photography is "at the worst possible place" after a $US1.03 billion third-quarter loss.
Although Kodak is the third-biggest digital camera maker, it was slow to shift its focus to digital, quitting the black-and-white paper business only last year.
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April 21, 2006 15:41 - Battle over JPEG encoding leads Phillips to sue Kodak
In the ever changing world of digital technology we often see court battels over patents on technology. There is such fierce competition among manufacturers and new technology is devleoped in such secrecy that anything can trigger a court battle over rights. Let's take a look at the latest annouced suit.WILMINGTON, Del. (MarketWatch) -- U.S. Philips Corp. sued Eastman Kodak Co. (EK) Tuesday, claiming Kodak's digital cameras and scanners infringe a patent U.S. Philips holds that covers JPEG encoding of images.
Filed in U.S. District Court in Delaware, the patent infringement lawsuit lists dozens of models of Kodak Easy-Share Digital cameras as alleged infringing devices.
The patent at the center of the suit, Patent No. 4,901,075, was issued in 1990.
In addition to the claims about Kodak's cameras and scanner hardware, the lawsuit alleges infringement by the Rochester, N.Y., company's EasyShare, Scanner Application and Capture software packages and by its JPEG encoding services.
"We have not seen the lawsuit filing. However, per our practice, we typically do not discuss matters under litigation," Kodak spokesman David Lanzillo said in an email.
The suit seeks an injunction to block the alleged infringement and damages in an unspecified amount.
U.S. Philips Corp. is a patent-holding subsidiary of Dutch consumer technology giant Philips Electronics Ltd. (PHE.YY).
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April 23, 2006 07:41 - Sony Developing 60 fps CMOS Image Sensor and DSP for Video and Still Cameras
Sony has long been a leader in technology devleopment and consumer marketing. Sometimes they have slipped and made mistakes and other times they have been leaders in bringing new technology to market. This announcement seems to indicate they have made new strides in bringing higher quality to the image capture space for digital cameras. High-Speed CMOS Sensor and Camera Systems Creating a New Imaging World
April 21, 2006 -- Starting with their adoption in cellular phones in 2002, Sony's CMOS sensors for megapixel class camera cellular phones, digital high-definition video cameras, and Digital Single Lens Reflexs (DSLRs) have become widely used in commercial products. The greatest strength of CMOS sensors is that by including both digital and analog circuits on the same chip, their readout speed can be made dramatically faster than that of CCD. Sony is now pushing forward with the development of high-speed CMOS sensors for digital cameras that can provide continuous imaging from all pixels at the high frame rate of 60 frame/s. Sony is also developing in parallel a camera digital signal processor (DSP) that can take full advantage of this performance. Sony is now proposing a new way of enjoying photography in which one photographs and records images without concern for the difference between moving images and still images by using this frame readout of 60 frame/s high-speed CMOS sensor and new camera DSP.
Life You Wanted to Capture. Moments You Missed.
Recently, the trend towards higher pixel counts in consumer digital cameras has continued, and it is now possible to take high-resolution still images conveniently. Sony has, until now, focused its efforts in the image sensor area on increasing the pixel count (shrinking the size of the unit pixel)and improving the pixel's characteristics to achieve high-resolution still imaging and has contributed to increasing the popularity of digital cameras. We feel, though, that we can say that we have now achieved a level higher than just capturing "pretty" images. We think that from here on, what will become important for the further development of digital cameras is evolving from recording still images to the digital camera being a tool for communication and self expression using moving images.
One theme for that evolution that we can present is high frame rate imaging at high pixel counts. In particular, if it will become possible to shoot continuously at 60 frame/s at a high pixel count, while the individual images that make up the moving image will have the quality of still images and the dividing line between still and moving images will blur. Since the user can take moving and/or still images without concern for the difference, a previously unavailable expressive power will become available. Although the message delivered by a single still image is not large, by interweaving that still images with moving images, the amount of information that can be transmitted increases dramatically, and a strong impact can be delivered to the viewers. Furthermore, choosing the one "that's it!" image from the 60 frame/s of high-resolution images captured in a second allows one to find the perfect shutter moment after the fact.
Sony, in aiming for an image sensor that can capture and express surprise and emotion, is now putting its efforts into the development of both a CMOS sensor that can express, in particular, motion and the beauty of a moment and a camera DSP that can get the full performance from that sensor. Sony's theme for this effort is capturing "Life you wanted to capture. Moments you missed." Sony is committed to contributing to this new imaging world.
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April 23, 2006 07:49 - Everybody's going to digital cameras these days
This entry is from a small town newspaper in New Mexico. It gives a nice insight into how the marketplace is adopting digital camera technology these days.By WIlliam P. Thompson
William_Thompson@link.freedom.com
Conventional film photography is becoming more and more relegated to artists' darkrooms. For family snapshots, vacation pics and general documentation, digital cameras are by far the tools of choice for Americans, according to Eastern New Mexico University photography professor Greg Erf.
"I read recently that 93 percent of cameras sold in the U.S. last year were digital," Erf said. "Roughly speaking, 35mm film is equivalent to 20 megapixels. I’m sure digital cameras of 20 megapixels will eventually be sold (on a regular basis to the average consumer). There will have to be printers available to handle the higher resolution, however."
Erf said his photography students still enjoy darkroom processing and he still sells artistic prints he creates by using the 'old' way of photography.
"A film photo still has more value in the art world because it is not as reproducible as a digital photo," he said. "The digital photo is so reproducible it isn’t worth much. The human eye will always be able to tell the difference from a 35mm photo and a digital photo because the 35mm photo is silver crystals impregnated into the paper."
Erf said a digital camera of five megapixels is perfect for the average consumer and such a camera should offer all the quality the average person should need for everyday photography, for the rest of that person’s life.
Still, the megapixel capability of over-the-counter cameras is increasing rapidly. Eight- megapixel cameras are available.
Crystal Chavez, manager of the photo center at the Portales Wal-Mart, said the store will soon start selling seven and eight-megapixel digital cameras.
"There are still a few people out there who use 35mm film, but most people are using digital cameras," Chavez said. "We sell 3-megapixel cameras in the $100 range. We have 6- megapixel cameras in the $250 range and up."
Chavez said optical zoom options on digital cameras offer better photo quality than digital zoom options and a camera of fewer megapixels may cost more than a camera of more megapixels if it has a high-powered optical zoom.
"The digital zoom makes photos a little grainier while an optical zoom is more of a true zoom. It can keep you from getting that grainy look."
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