CES 2009

The new PanTouch Clear line features a floating-image motif.

In case you're watching the digital-photo frame market, it appears that prices are coming down nicely heading into the spring of 2009. Hitting stores next month, Pandigital's new PanTouch Clear line features an allegedly simplified touch-screen interface and an eye-catching floating-image design for a relatively affordable price.

The PanTouch Clear models come in 7- and 8-inch size frames. They offer 800x600 resolution, a 4:3 aspect ratio, 6-in-1 card reader, and 1 GB of internal memory. They'll be available next month, with the 7-incher listed at $119 and the 8-inch model listed for $139.99. Both models are compatible with Pandigital's $30 Wi-Fi and Bluetooth accessories.

The company has also introduced a new line of budget products that is headlined by a 7-inch photo frame that also has a 4:3 aspect ratio (800x600), but no touch screen; it will carry a list price of $99.99.

I expect a flood of digital photo frames at CES.

(Credit: Kodak)

CES has always been a much bigger show for camcorders than cameras, and you can expect to see announcements from all the manufacturers--major and minor--with their product line refreshes for the first half of 2009. This year, that means far fewer new models supporting the dying MiniDV and DVD formats and a broader selection of flash- and hard-disk-based models for both the standard- and high-definition markets. Naturally, the latter formats will come in increased capacities as well. The interesting stuff usually happens at the low and high ends; in this case, I'm curious to see if more of the mainstream manufacturers (besides Kodak with its Zi6) embrace the cheapo mini camcorder trend. And if they do, can they get it right?

There's usually less to see for cameras; most of those CES announcements tend to be for the budget or style lines, or for models with a bit of a novelty spin. In that respect, I don't expect anything particularly out of the ordinary. That said, look for some more implementation improvements in wireless support.

And despite Kodak's recent OLED frame offering, there probably won't be many other OLED entrants in this space quite yet. Instead, there'll likely just be boatloads more of the same commodity LCD models.