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Surprises Abound At DIMA Awards

Innovative Products Contest And Digicam "Shoot-Out"
Produce Unexpected Results

by Dan Havlik

The latest in wireless technology, a pen that doubles as a USB drive, and digital cameras from manufacturers large and small were among the recipients of DIMA's prestigious annual awards at the PMA show in Las Vegas last month. While the competition included a "Shoot-Out" for the top digital printers as well as, for the first time, the best imaging kiosks on the market (see Kiosk Corner on page 10), the most highly anticipated awards were perhaps in DIMA's "Innovative Digital Product" category and in its "Digital Camera Shoot-Out." The results of both these competitions offered more than a few surprises.

According to DIMA (Digital Imaging Marketing Association), a division of PMA, an Innovative Digital Product is defined as "utilizing new technologies and/or applications in such a way as to make it either unique or the first of its kind." To evaluate which products were worthy, DIMA asked digital imaging editors and writers to peruse the aisles of the PMA Sneak Peek, and the show itself, and come back with a list of products that caught their eye. According to the deliberately open-ended rules, potential awardees could be hardware or software, amateur or professional, photographic or prepress or any other segment. Most importantly of all, winners "must show themselves to be an influence on the future of digital imaging."

If the results of the competition are any indication, the future of digital imaging is wide open.

And the winners (in alphabetical order) are:

• SpyderPRO & PrintFIX suite of color correction software
  ColorVision Inc., Lawrenceville, NJ
• Wi-PICS Wireless Image Transfer
  Dice America, Inc., Rochester, NY
• www.dotphoto.com printing and image/sound archiving website
  dotPhoto, West Trenton, NJ
• Duracell CP1 flat lithium primary prismatic battery for digital cameras
  Duracell, Bethel, CT
• Durst Rho 160W Plus flatbed UV inkjet printer/press with white ink capabilities
  Durst Image Technology U.S. LLC, Rochester, NY
• Kodak Picture Maker G3 Photo Kiosk
  Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, NY
• Screenshade LCD shade
  Lee Filters, Burbank, CA
• Picasa Hello online peer-to-peer network link to share photos and chat
  Picasa Inc., Pasadena, CA
• Executive Attaché Signature Series of ballpoint pens with attached USB 2.0 flash drives
  PNY Technologies Inc., Parsippany, NJ
• Reusable waterproof camera with flash
  Snap Sights! Cameras, Honolulu, HI

Chad Munce of DIMA, who helped organize the competition, noted that he was impressed with the range of products chosen by the 15 journalists who submitted entries.

"You've got this great ColorVision system, the latest Kodak Picture Maker kiosk along with this unique system from Dice to handle wireless images and images from cell phones," Munce told PTN. "Even the big Durst product that prints white ink is a pro product so it's good to see that the panel looked at the whole show and selected a wide range and didn't just narrow it to one niche."

In the Digital Camera Shoot-Out, nine cameras were named winners out of over 50 digital camera entries from 13 manufacturers. As part of the competition, participating cameras captured images in four live-model studios. Images from the point-and-shoot cameras in the competition were then printed on three different digital minilab systems including the Agfa D-Lab 2 Plus, the Fuji Frontier 370 and the Noritsu 3101. Images from the Prosumer/Professional category were output through a G4 Power Mac running Adobe Photoshop CS and printed on an Epson Photo Stylus 9600 inkjet printer.