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The annual PMA (Photo Marketing Association) show in Orlando, FL (Feb 26-March 1, 2006) is the largest photo trade show in the U.S. with most of the major companies in digital and conventional photography represented. As usual there were a number of new product announcements, and as is the trend these days, most revolved around digital products.
Color Management
A category that isn't known for its exciting announcements, there were still some interesting products being shown this year. First up was the new huey from Pantone and GretagMacbeth (www.pantone.com). A very small colorimeter, the huey will calibrate your display in about 5 minutes. Although it doesn't offer much in the way of custom features such as color temperature or gamma settings, huey does the job for 90% of the people working with digital today--an accurate display without the jargon associated with color management and for less than $90. The most unique feature of huey though is the automatic ambient light adjustment. After calibrating your display, the huey sits in its stand and measures the room light at regular intervals, adjusting your display as needed for a constant look.
ColorVision (www.colorvision.com) has updated their ColorPLUS product to use the new Spyder2 colorimeter. The new product, named Spyder2 Express, now works on the Mac as well as Windows and is also under $100. At the high end, the PrintFIX PRO at $549 includes a new spectrocolorimeter for creating accurate printer profiles. This replaces both the original PrintFIX and the SpectroPRO products. A PrintFIX PRO Suite is also available that includes ColorVision's highly regarded Spyder2PRO colorimeter for monitor calibration for an additional $100.
Pigment Arrives!
For me, the biggest news was the introduction of desktop pigment-based printers from HP and Canon. Epson has long been the leader, and in some cases the only option, for long life and fine art inkjet output on the desktop. These new printers are great news for all digital photographers looking for alternatives.
HP (www.hp.com) was showing the PhotoSmart Pro B9180. With full pigment inks with a projected life of over 200 (Wilhelm) years, the 8-color printer (matte black, photo black, light gray, cyan, light cyan, magenta, light magenta, yellow) includes the closed-loop color calibration system found on the Designjet series and supports fine art papers like photo rag, canvas, and others up to 1.5mm thick and 13x19 B+. Both USB 2.0 and Ethernet connections are included. The printer should be available by June at an estimated $699. Prints from the new B9180 look fantastic; the new Vivera pigments have great saturation, very similar to the dye-based inks.
ABOVE: HP's Photosmart Pro B9180--a new 8-color pigment B+ size printer with closed-loop calibration, ability to print on thick fine art papers, and a whopping 200-year Wilhelm display-rating. (photo courtesy of HP)
Not wanting to be left out of the party, Canon (www.canon.com) showed two new pigment printers: the Pixma iP9500 and the imagePROGRAF iPF5000. The 9500 is a B+ (13x19") format with 10 individual inks (two blacks, two cyan, two magenta, gray, yellow, red, green) in Canon's new Lucia pigment inks. Look for this one sometime this summer at an expected price of $849. And as a direct replacement for the i9900, the iP9000 uses the ChromaLife 100 dye inks in the same 8-color configuration as its predecessor.
The iPF5000 is a 17" printer that should give Epson a real run for its money. With a whopping 12 colors (two black, two gray, two cyan, two magenta, yellow, red, green, blue) of the new Lucia pigment inks, the samples I saw showed excellent color gamut and good neutral black & white prints. The iPF5000 includes a Photoshop plug-in that lets you print in 12-bit color for smoother tonal gradations. This one should be available in late April for about $1,945. Canon also announced several new fine art papers to go along with the Lucia printers.
ABOVE: Canon's new iPF5000 12-color pigment 17-inch printer. Just look at all those 130ml ink cartridges! (photo by Harald Johnson)
Other Inkjet News
In other news, Lyson (www.lyson.com) has released their QuadBlack inks for the Canon i9900 printer, finally giving the Canon inkjet line high-quality black and white printing.
Several new inkjet papers are now also available, but the real winner in my opinion is Crane's Silver Rag (www.crane.com). Very similar in look and feel to a traditional fiber paper, Silver Rag is designed to be used with the Epson UltraChrome K3 Photo Black ink. As soon as my Canon pigment printer comes in, I'll give it a trial run.
ABOVE: Crane was showing their new Silver Rag paper with prints from a number of
photographers on display, including yours truly.
Fun Stuff
One of the best parts of PMA is always the parties hosted by various companies. This year Canon threw a nice one at Universal Studios, complete with live statues, a human slinky and fancy food. The highlight though was the 1Ds Mark II with 600mm f4 IS lens they gave to everyone in attendance. Of course, it's a scale model rather than the real thing, but you can't have everything!
Panasonic took a group of media people to the Disney safari to give us a chance to try out their new digital SLR models. After the shooting there was a dinner and entertainment complete with fire-eaters.
Epson had their annual event with a display of prints from their Stylus Pro team. It's always inspiring to see quality work, and these photographers are some of the best around--people like Greg Gorman, Anne Geddes, Graham Nash, and Art Wolfe.
ABOVE: Epson had a number of prints exhibited from their Stylus Pro photographers. It's amazing to see how far inkjet printing has come in just a few years.
I was also lucky enough to spend time in the Pantone booth signing prints for interested people. I was supposed to be signing copies of my book "Print Like a Pro," but FedEx decided the books would be happier in Memphis than Orlando. So, if anyone wants to buy a copy of the book, I have plenty!
The most entertaining event though had to be the Sci-Fi convention next door. These people really, and I mean really, get into it with costumes that leave you shaking your head. It's a great break from the normal!
Next year PMA will be in Las Vegas, so there should be plenty of opportunities for photography, people watching, and perhaps a bit of fun in the casinos.
ABOVE: PMA was in Orlando again this year. Next year, it moves to Las Vegas.
Jon Canfield is a frequent contributor to digital Photo Pro, PC Photo, Shutterbug, and Outdoor Photographer. Along with teaching workshops on color management and printing, he's the author of "RAW 101," "Print Like a Pro," and "Photo Finish." Jon's website is www.joncanfield.com, his e-mail address
is jon@joncanfield.com.
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2006 SHOW DETAILS:
PMA 2006 International Convention & Trade Show
Orange County Convention Center
Orlando, Florida, USA
February 26-March 1, 2006
2007 DATES: March 8-11, 2007
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
www.pmai.org
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