Digital Imaging Innovation In Focus At RetailVision
By TWICE Staff -- TWICE, 9/27/1999
Vendors introduced several digital-imaging products at RetailVision, including a digital camera from Agfa that uses Iomega's Clik! drive for image storage.
In an effort to build more storage capability into a digital camera, Agfa has rebuilt its ePhoto CL30, replacing the CompactFlash card with a 40MB Iomega Clik! Drive. The new CL30 Clik! is slated to ship in early November with a $499 street price. Its initial distribution will be limited to one PC, one camera specialty chain and an online dealer, a company spokesman said, with mass distribution taking place in early 2000.
The spokesman said Agfa has overcome the two primary stumbling points that have blocked the Clik's entry as a storage medium for digital cameras: battery life and processing speed.
Other camera vendors have shied away from the Clik due to fears that the motor required to spin the disc would burn out batteries and that it would take too long to download images onto the disc. Agfa claims the batteries actually last longer with the new camera and said that the processing speed, which equates to the lag between photos, is comparable with the older CL30.
Ezonics will add to its line of tethered video-conferencing cameras in October when it begins shipping the EZDual Cam. This 640 x 480 camera can be used as a video-conferencing device or as a traditional digital still camera, said Mike Ostwind, Ezonics sales and marketing director.
The EZDual Cam can store 20 digital still photos in its internal memory and shoot video at 30 frames per second. It is bundled with a wide variety of software, including Live Express' Sendmail, Snapshot, Live Monitor, and Ezonics' video greeting-card maker Greeting cam Deluxe. It will carry a $149 street price.
Ariston, Huntington Beach, Calif., showed a line of USB teleconferencing and digital photography products. The company's Digital Home Studio consists of the iView USB 30-frame-per-second motion video and still image capture device that can import video from a camcorder or PC. It is joined by the iSee USB digital camera and a pair of 18-watt (total) speakers with built-in subwoofer for a system price of $199.
Ariston also showed the iSee-U2 video-conferencing system that allows direct point-to-point communication. Rather than setting up a conference through a web server, iSee-U2 contacts Internet IP addresses directly to create a secure and private chatroom.
The system can conference up to seven people and offers whiteboard capacity. It also allows for sharing applications for annotating and encrypting. The iSee-U2 system bundle includes Ariston software as well as two USB color digital cameras at an estimated retail price of $99.
Antec brought to RetailVision what it called the world's first Personal Imaging Device, or PID. In effect, the product -- named Attaché -- is a portable 12-ounce scanner that requires no batteries or power adapters and measures a mere 11 inches in length. Working off a laptop's power supply, the unit can scan, fax, copy and e-mail documents from the road, making it an ideal accessory for road warriors, said Scott Richards, sales and marketing VP for the Fremont, Calif.-based company.
The TWAIN-compliant, 24-bit color scanner connects and works via the PC Card port, with no other connection required, and delivers 300 x 600 dpi resolution. Designed with only three moving parts for added durability, the product is packaged in an eye-grabbing peek-a-boo box and will carry a street price of $149 after it begins shipping in mid-October.
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