Anyway, the current attention is digital cameras. Just before this business show, Canon and Ricoh announced new digital cameras (more on PC Watch ), but they were immediately exhibited and gained popularity.

　This is Canon’s digital camera “PowerShot 600”. It has an outstanding number of pixels for personal use of 570,000 pixels, and the resolution can be selected from 800 x 600, 640 x 480, 320 x 240, and it also has a black and white mode. Monochrome mode is used when taking documents. And this camera can use ATA PC card and can also install Type 3 HDD. Since the data format is also output in JPEG, you can display and edit it immediately by inserting the card into your computer (serial transfer is also possible). You can save time and effort if it is not a unique data format. Equipped with a flash, the exposure can be switched manually. In addition, the software is also included on the hybrid CD-ROM for Mac and Windows. It is interesting to be able to record audio in WAVE format.

　However, as you can imagine from the photo, the size of the housing is quite large. It’s not a size that you can easily carry around.

　Ricoh exhibited a new type of DC series. The number of pixels is 410,000, and the modem function is removed from the conventional DC series. This is still thinner and smaller than the PowerShot. It inherits the style of a pocket camera, which is also a feature of the DC series. The color became gold (close to), which is the same as the change from CASIO QV-10 to QV-10A. There are DC-2 and DC-2L, and the latter is a set of liquid crystal (photo). The PC card also supports ATA and can be used up to Type 2. AIMS standard cards used in DC-1 etc. can also be used. With flash support, wide shooting is possible by switching between two focal points. Batteries have been changed to AA batteries.

　Unfortunately, the data format output to the PC card is not a general format such as JPEG or GIF. With this, even if you can read it directly on your computer with a PC card, there will be cases where it will be read and converted with dedicated software. It was explained that the data format used in DC-2 is based on JPEG, but I think it would have been better to output it as it is or to allow the user to select it.

　CASIO has plenty of booths. We didn’t make any new products or announcements, and the QV-30 and QV-10A were brought forward and exhibited at the QV DIGITAL booth. As you can see, the “bundle” of the QV-10A lined up in three vertical rows left an impression on me. For some reason, a female model appeared on the stage and said, “Please take a beautiful picture with QV.” As expected, CASIO.