PMA 2009 Round Up: Best of the Best

Think of the annual Photo Marketing Association (PMA) convention as a chance to visit the biggest camera store you'll ever see in your life. Taking up two floors of the Las Vegas Convention Center, you'll find all the big boys from Canon to Sony there along with tiny mom-and-pop outfits selling photo charm bracelets. The yearly meeting was originally targeted to small camera store owners, but these days, independents are rarer than an up day on Wall Street. Right before this year's edition, in fact, the huge Ritz Camera chain went bust - no surprise as the vast majority of camera buyers in 2009 simply go to Best Buy, WalMart and the Internet to pick up their new toys. Given the recession and the huge snowstorm in the northeast, the crowds at this season's show were definitely down, but thankfully, the halls didn't look like a neutron bomb had detonated. DigitalTrends.com spent several days wandering the aisles looking at all the newest digital cameras. We also had the chance to go into the back rooms where manufacturers show their upcoming models under non-disclosure agreements. Since we don't want to do hard time in Attica, all we can say is that although no D-SLRs were announced here, you can expect some exciting new models in a month or so.

Check it out at DigitalTrends.