Sponsor Ignacio Posada, of Lenspen Products

The first PMA Latin America Conference 2008 was recently held in Guadalajara, Mexico on June 18 and 19.  This two-day international imaging conference presented three educational conferences on photo kiosks, photo book software, and image printing. Retailers, distributors and manufacturers attended this event and 17 companies from China, Colombia, India, Canada, Mexico, and the United States participated as sponsors and exhibited their products in the Supplier Center.

  The next two PMA Latin America Conferences 2008 will be held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on July 16 and 17, and Lima, Peru, on Aug. 12 and 13.

The 2008 Roland Express Dealer Open House Tour is traveling through the United States and Canada for digital print professionals. Several Roland Express dealer events have already been scheduled, and more are added daily. Roland Express events are designed to showcase the entire Roland line of wide-format inkjet printers and printer/cutters. The events from Roland DGA Corp., Irvine, Calif., provide professionals with a personalized venue for evaluating Roland inkjets including eco-solvent, solvent, sublimation and aqueous models. Roland Express attendees also have the opportunity to view new Roland solutions for specialty applications such as fabric and textile printing and apparel decoration.

  Complete information and an updated schedule of Roland Express events are available online.

Vinpower Digital Inc., Los Angeles, Calif., a manufacturer and worldwide supplier of digital duplication equipment, said a new line of Xerox-branded duplicators resulting from the exclusive trademark licensing agreement with Xerox Corp., Stamford, Conn., are now available.

   The Xerox DVD/CD & Blu-ray Duplicators are manual tower duplicators that range from one to 15 writer drives, each of which operates independently of a PC, providing businesses a quick way to make multiple copies of CDs and DVDs. Each model enables users to transfer image files directly from a PC to the duplicator's internal hard drive, saving users the time and effort usually required to produce a master disc for each project. Several models also provide users with a 256MB buffer memory for more stable and reliable high-speed, duplication with a greatly reduced occurrence of buffer under-run errors.

Zoran Corp., Sunnyvale, Calif., announces that its Approach 5C multimedia processor powers the LG Secret 5-megapixel camera phone. In addition to the 5 megapixel camera, the LG Secret phone features high ISO 800 picture quality, 120 frames per second video, and offers video capture equivalent to 4X optical zoom. Zoran's digital camera technology automatically adjusts the camera to produce better quality still and video images with VideoZoom technology, says the company.

  Zoran's Approach 5C multimedia processors support a variety of multimedia functions, including ISP image quality based on solutions for digital point-and-shoot and DSLR cameras, enhanced video play and record capabilities, multi-standard end-to-end Mobile TV, integrated TV-out, and High Speed USB 2.0, says the company.

Casio America Inc., Dover, N.J., and its Tokyo, Japan-based parent company, Casio Computer Co. Ltd., announced a firmware update for the Exilim Pro EX-F1 digital camera. The update will add Casio's pre-record movie function to the camera. Firmware version 1.10 for the EX-F1 will be available on Casio's English website starting July 8, and thereafter on websites in other languages.

  The new pre-record Movie function, when turned on, permits movie capture to commence 5 seconds before the user actually presses the Movie Button. Prerecord Movie works with all movie modes, including 30 frames per second (fps) Standard movie mode, the 300 fps, 600 fps and 1200 fps High Speed movie modes, and the Full High-Definition movie mode.

  Firmware version 1.10 for the Exilim Pro EX-F1 will be available for download free of charge from Casio's website.

PMA Marketing Research surveys various online photo sites on a quarterly basis scoping out the latest digital print prices and site updates. Online ordering has become the fastest growing photo print ordering method. There were several fluctuations in print prices, the majority of which were price drops. Five of the sites surveys issued price decreases on basic 4-by-6 prints. There were even several decreases in shipping cost to mark the beginning of the third quarter.

  With the price decreases implemented by few of the sites, the average price of the basic 4-by-6 fell from 16 cents to 15 cents. Clark and York Photo both lowered the every day print price to just 8 cents, matching the low prices of Sam's Club and Winkflash. Dan's Camera City lowered the price of the 5-by-7 print bringing the average down to 89 cents this quarter from 98 cents in April. The average price of the 8-by-10 print dipped from $2.97 to $2.86 due to a couple of price decreases. Several of the sites incurred shipping decreases since April thus lowering the average shipping cost from $2.32 to $2.19 for an order of twenty 4-by-6 prints. The average price of the 11-by-14 prints experienced a slight upward climb. With all of the decreases that took place, the average price of a 4-by-6 print when shipping is taken into consideration dropped from 27 cents to 25 cents.

  In addition to all of the limited time print specials that take place throughout the year, many sites are continuously advertising prepaid membership plans and annual print plans. These promotions are a great way for the online sites and retailers to retain customers that order large quantities of prints. Customers devoted to making prints are also likely to be the ones interested in the wide array of custom products available.

  A more detailed report of July online print prices is available to members only on the PMA Marketing Research website.

  For questions and comments, please visit the Marketing Research blog PMA Foresight.

-- By Kristy Clairmont

PMA Marketing Research Analyst

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