Kodak leads the Photokina digital charge with 16 megapixel SLR

The 2002 Photokina Trade Show held in Cologne, Germany from September 25-30 has brought with it a flood of groundbreaking photographic imaging releases. Three examples from the Kodak camp are the DCS Pro Back 645H - a 16-megapixel resolution professional digital camera back designed for use with Hasselblad's H1 645-format camera body - the DCS Pro 14n digital SLR featuring a 13.89 million pixel CMOS sensor, and new image sensors including an 22-million pixel full-frame color CCD image sensor designed in conjunction with renowned Swiss manufacturer Sinar AG.

The Kodak Professional's DCS Pro Back 645H digital camera back features an on-board power source, fully featured LCD display and the H1 camera body for which it is designed caters for both for both digital backs and film magazines. The H1 features an electronic user interface that communicates with lenses, film magazines and the viewfinder of the Kodak's 645-format digital camera backs.

Th Professional DCS Pro Back 645H back is supported by Kodak Professional DCS Capture Studio, Photo Desk, and Camera Manager software, and processes Kodak's DCR RAW and ERI-JPEG file formats. The ERI-JPEG file format combines the ease-of-use of JPEG files with the image quality and color/exposure control of Kodak's DCR format raw camera files.

Also aimed primarily at professional portrait, wedding and commercial photographers, the the DCS Pro 14n digital SLR camera is built on a Nikon lens and features FireWire transfer at a 12 MB per second, 4536 x 3024 pixel (effective) CMOS image covering the full 24mm by 36mm image area of 35mm film, allowing photographers to regain the benefits of true wide-angle lenses. With the DCS Pro 14n photographers have the freedom to.The camera captures images at about two frames per second the image size can be selected (full 14MP, 6MP, and 3MP). The estimated street price is around USD$4,000.

The development of the world's highest resolution image sensor for the professional photographic market - Kodak's 22-million pixel KAF-22000CE - is another example of the frantic pace of development in digital imaging. The Kodak sensor provides a total silicon area of 38.8mm x 50.0mm, twice the photographic area of traditional 35mm film.

Another notable Photokina release is the SiPix SC-3300 - a 3.3 Mega Pixel digital still and video camera for US$199.99. The SC-3300 features a 1.6-inch colour, a 3X digital zoom, 16 MB of internal memory expandable via CompactFlash slot, macro lens and video recording up to 15 fps.