As imagers continue to file out of Las Vegas from this year’s PMA – at least those that stayed to witness the Upset Bowl – I’m wondering if most of them are thinking what I’m thinking….what was the buzz at the show this year (other than the Giants beating the Pats)?

Past PMA’s have always featured that one product or category that had attendees buzzing about its impact and/or profit potential. In recent years we’ve been treated to the dry minilab, the affordable DSLR, the digital frame and the emerging photobook product to name but a few. This year’s gathering certainly had all that but I’d be hard pressed to come up with one topic that had everyone chirping as they exited the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Well, despite that one major headline item, PMA 2008 certainly had its share of subplots and I’ll take a brief look at a few here…

• The DSLR category continues to dazzle as the technology now present in under $1,000 models is bringing Ansel Adams potential to all. With features like image stabilization, Live View LCDs and Dust Reduction now just about standard fare and shutter speeds so fast capturing that perfect shot requires little more than lifting the camera to one’s face - this category is poised for an explosive 2008.

What will be critical for its success however, is the fact that dealers have some serious selling to do. This category has gotten so competitive that manufacturers are packing in the features so tight (and lowering the prices so dramatically) the average consumer is beginning to suffer from techno-fatigue. Figuring out what features your customers can actually wrap their brains around is key, especially when you consider many of your new DSRL customers will now be soccer moms and NASCAR dads looking to take that long-anticipated step up from their point-and-shoot models. Mistakes made here will be costly down the road. Selling the right camera to the right customer will be more important than ever.

• On the memory front, are we creating a media card monster? While this is certainly not intended as a knock on the technology, does anyone really need a 32GB memory card? While there will certainly be some pros out there that take to this mega memory, the typical consumer is probably overdoing it at 2GBs. I also think the dramatic increase in capacity, coupled with its equally dramatic drop in price is actually hurting the retail print market. How? Well, when consumers were shooting with a 128 or 256MB card they were filling the cards up much more quickly and thus, were more apt to consider getting some prints made. With a 2GB card, consumers are shooting hundreds of images before filling the card and when it comes time to upload to the PC, it is becoming far to daunting a task to go through all these images and organize what might be worthy of prints and/or photo gifts. Let’s not forget, a roll of film was done with 34-37 images on it and it was off to retail for developing…remember?

• Lastly – the photo book market seemingly gets more incredible by the day. This easy to create, elegant and truly vital photo gift item simply needs a more robust promotional effort and its future has no bounds. Lyra recently told us that less than 10% of the U.S. population has made a photo book so the lid has barely been lifted on this category. The other exciting aspect to this product is the fact very few folks will make just one. A photo book of the 50th anniversary will surely lead to one of baby’s first year, or that Disney vacation or simply some kind of “year in the life” effort. The “Wow” factor here is palpable.

So, while this year’s PMA may have been void of the big bang, there were still plenty of smaller explosions that should have dealers looking forward to the year ahead.

Mike McEnaney
Editor-in-Chief, Picture Business