The Picture of Digital Camera Innovation November 21, 2008 An employee suggestion program spurs creativity using digital cameras as a reward; and innovative new features keep digital cameras a top award category
By Leo Jakobson and Alex Palmer
Can a picture be worth a thousand ideas? When the leadership at Ottawa-based EION Wireless started actively seeking ways to improve how the company did business, they turned to their staff for ideas. They opened a suggestion box for employees at all levels across their global organization to contribute ways to improve the company.
"The idea was to generate as many ideas for the company as possible," says Richard Kelland, marketing communications manager for Ottawa-based EION. To encourage contributions of new ideas, EION offered merchandise rewards to employees who contributed to the suggestion box. At the end of each month, a winner was drawn from the suggestions and received a reward. In one recent month, a Panasonic Lumix digital camera was the sought-after reward for inventive employees, attracting many suggestions.
"One of the big ideas was using a wiki [a Web site that allows the visitors to add, remove and sometimes edit the content] to better track our internal communications, summarize what went on in meetings and follow up on tech support issues," says Kelland. He says there have even been suggestions that the company is looking into patenting, which might not be at that stage if the draw of rewards like the Lumix camera hadn't encouraged employees to actively pursue new ideas.
Another idea that took off after being put in the suggestion box was to create a database of all the employees' photos, to let the staff—who frequently deal with colleagues all over the globe— see the people they talk to. "We're spread out all over the world…and a lot of us haven't actually met each other," says Kelland. "It's really helped a lot."
One of the reasons that a Lumix camera was such a draw was that the people at Panasonic, like other major digital camera makers, have been devising plenty of innovations themselves. At this point, most people have a digital camera. And yet, cameras remain among the most frequently redeemed merchandise awards. The reason is simple: manufacturers have been making them smaller, more colorful and easier to use, as well as adding new capabilities that range from resolution that matches semi-professional SLR cameras to "smart" scene selection that can tell the difference between a mountain vista and group portrait, adjusting settings accordingly.
Some features that were unheard of a year or two ago are now standard on new digital point-and-shoot cameras, like image stabilization, face recognition, and built-in red-eye correction. Unless otherwise noted, these models feature a 2.5-inch to 3.5-inch high-resolution view screen, 4x optical zoom and are about one inch thick.
Panasonic's Lumix DMC-TZ50S has 9.1-megapixel resolution, a 10x optical zoom and a 3-inch LCD. Built-in Wi-Fi wireless Internet connectivity combined with a year's free T-Mobile HotSpot wireless access makes it easy to share (and save) great pictures on the go. Retails for $450 www.panasonic.com
FujiFilm's FinePix F100fd offers 12 megapixels and a 5x optical zoom, in a package that is less than one inch thick. Face Detection 3.0 can handle moving, tilted, out-of-center and even upside-down faces. For the non-techy, ultrahigh sensitivity ISO12800 mode translates to far better no-flash low-light images and better freeze-action shots. Retails for $350 E-mail: incentives@fujifilm.com
Nikon's 13.5-megapixel Coolpix P6000 has a number of innovative features, but one that really stands out is the built-in GPS tracking system, which can "tag" pictures with location information. Online picture-sharing programs like flickr.com and Nikon's myPicturetown.com can produce maps of where images were taken with this data. The Coolpix P6000 can take an external flash and additional lenses. Retails for about $500 https://specialmarkets.nikonusa.com
Canon's Powershot SD990 IS packs an amazing 14.7- megapixel resolution and 3.7x optical zoom. But much of the innovation comes from the new DIGIC 4 image processor. It adds faster image processing and sharper, more vivid pictures. Face detection now works better at all angles, and the Face Detection Self-timer can be set to automatically shoot two seconds after a new face enters the frame—so no more rushing to get into the shot before the timer goes off. Another feature allows the SD990 IS to continuously track moving subjects, resulting in sharper images. Retails for $400 www.usa.canon.com/corporategifts
Sony's new Cyber-shot DSC-T700 offers 10- megapixel resolution, image stabilization and face recognition as well as a 3.5-inch touch-screen LCD that can display slideshows, all in a package less than 5/8ths of an inch thick. It also has Sony's new Smile Shutter face-recognition technology, which not only ensures faces are in focus, it shoots when the subjects smile. It even lets the user prioritize adult or child faces. Available in five colors for $400 www.motivation.sony.com
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FujiFilm's FinePix F100fd offers 12 megapixels and a 5x optical zoom, in a package that is less than one inch thick. Face Detection 3.0 can handle moving, tilted, out-of-center and even upside-down faces. For the non-techy, ultrahigh sensitivity ISO12800 mode translates to far better no-flash low-light images and better freeze-action shots.
Nikon's 13.5-megapixel Coolpix P6000 has a number of innovative features, but one that really stands out is the built-in GPS tracking system, which can "tag" pictures with location information. Online picture-sharing programs like flickr.com and Nikon's myPicturetown.com can produce maps of where images were taken with this data. The Coolpix P6000 can take an external flash and additional lenses.
Canon's Powershot SD990 IS packs an amazing 14.7- megapixel resolution and 3.7x optical zoom. But much of the innovation comes from the new DIGIC 4 image processor. It adds faster image processing and sharper, more vivid pictures. Face detection now works better at all angles, and the Face Detection Self-timer can be set to automatically shoot two seconds after a new face enters the frame—so no more rushing to get into the shot before the timer goes off. Another feature allows the SD990 IS to continuously track moving subjects, resulting in sharper images.
Sony's new Cyber-shot DSC-T700 offers 10- megapixel resolution, image stabilization and face recognition as well as a 3.5-inch touch-screen LCD that can display slideshows, all in a package less than 5/8ths of an inch thick. It also has Sony's new Smile Shutter face-recognition technology, which not only ensures faces are in focus, it shoots when the subjects smile. It even lets the user prioritize adult or child faces.
