Zoom In on PMA's Coolest Cams

LAS VEGAS -- It takes a special camera to stand out in the crowd, especially when it's surrounded by a bunch of other cool-looking cameras. The PMA 2008 convention and expo had tons of them on display, although most of the major announcements for the show took place the week before it or even weeks before it at the Consumer Electronics Show.

In any case, it was the first opportunity to see many of 2008's new cameras and camcorders up close and play around with some of the new gear. Here's a rundown of what drew interest and made the biggest impressions at PMA this year, as well as some camera trends for now and the future.

Every Camera's a Wi-Fi Cam (Sort Of)

Kodak made history back in 2005 when it announced the EasyShare-One camera , the first digital camera with built-in Wi-Fi capabilities. Well, Kodak's was the first unveiled; thanks to some delays, Nikon 's Wi-Fi-enabled Coolpix P1 beat Kodak's groundbreaking digicam to store shelves by about a week. So where are all the Wi-Fi cameras now?

Eye-Fi SD card

They're both everywhere and nowhere, thanks to the $100 Eye-Fi wireless SD memory card . Eye-Fi nabbed a spot on the PC World's list of the 25 Most Innovative Products of 2007.

Nikon D60

The 2GB card lets you upload your pics directly from the camera to photo-sharing sites such as Flickr without needing a USB cable or a PC. Nikon's new D60 digital SLR is even "enhanced" for the Eye-Fi card, as the camera will recognize the card's on board and disable its auto-shut-off mode until your pictures are completely uploaded.

The Eye-Fi seems to be capable and popular enough for most camera manufacturers to abandon the battle for the perfect Wi-Fi camera, but not all of them: Panasonic demoed a prototype Wi-Fi camera due for release later this year, which works with T-Mobile public hotspots and Google's Picasa photo application.

Nikon last introduced the Wi-Fi-enable Coolpix S51c last year, which also works with T-Mobile hotspots and comes with 2GB of free photo storage on the company's My Picturetown site.

DRM for Photos... In a Good Way

One of the most interesting and significant developments in the digital photo realm is being spearheaded by a non-profit coalition called PLUS (Picture Licensing Universal System). The group aims to embed licensing information and usage permissions directly into a digital photo's metadata, easing the process of determining copyright ownership and fair use for individual photos.

During a presentation at the pre-PMA DIMA conference, PLUS President and CEO Jeff Sedlik said the PLUS system of embedding licensing info in digital photographs can prevent legal liability issues for both retailers and customers when someone tries to reproduce a copyrighted image. PLUS has several big-name partners and supporters, including Adobe, Getty Images, Adbase, Digimarc, and the International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC). Sedlik also says the organization is working with Creative Commons to simplify communication on whether specific images are public domain.