Watch the birdie

Cameras have come a long way since the box brownie. Annie Gurton reports on how the advent of digital photography is putting resellers in the picture.

Five years ago cameras were certainly not something that computerreports on how the advent of digital photography is putting resellers in the picture. resellers and Vars would contemplate including in their product range.

But now, with digital technology, they are fast becoming an essential peripheral in the reseller's portfolio. This means companies that previously had nothing to do with the IT channel, such as Kodak, are now courting IT resellers, and vendors that previously had nothing to do with cameras, such as Epson, now have a product.

ALTERED IMAGE

According to Loay Lawrence, marketing director at distributor Northamber, which has its own digital imaging division, digital cameras are now a well established product for many resellers, and have opened the doors to many new sales.

'Originally, of course, cameras were not an IT product at all, but once they started to use digital technology and needed a PC to access the images then they fell into the IT reseller arena,' he says.

But Lawrence is the first to admit that the early digital camera technology was a bit ropey. 'It has taken about two years for the technology to evolve to where it is usable and acceptable. But we are there now, which is why a wider range of resellers - particularly Vars and those providing vertical market solutions - are selling them.'

Digital cameras form one part of a whole new market segment called image manipulation or digital imaging. 'It has a whole range of new and old products, and I believe it will grow dramatically over the next few years.

There will be resellers who do nothing else,' says Lawrence.

The vertical market which has taken up digital cameras with most enthusiasm is real estate - property sales and management. They are also being embraced by the military, science, government and industry. Digital cameras are particularly popular among Web site designers. 'The internet site design business and the requirement to upload pictures and photographs will drive an explosion in demand for digital cameras,' says Lawrence.

SAY CHEESE

It is true that digital camera technology has come a long way, but it still has limitations. The resolution is still too poor for some applications, and lack of storage media standards, combined with limitations on camera memory, are still creating problems. But Lawrence believes these issues will soon be resolved. He says resellers need to be familiar with the technology so they are best placed to exploit the boom which he claims is just around the corner. 'There are many factors which could boost sales, such as the growth of popularity of sharing pictures over the Net.'

In addition, the popularity of digital cameras is likely to translate into increased demand for high-capacity storage devices, high-speed modems and sophisticated but easy to use image editing and Web creation software.

'These are all additional profit opportunities for resellers,' says Lawrence.

URLS ON FILM

A US-based research agency, Lyra Research, has produced a report which says there is a flood of digital camera products on the market right now.

Director Steve Hoffenberg says: 'Digital cameras are flavour of the month, because of the increased penetration of PCs into the home and small offices, the expansion of the Web and its increased use by all types of businesses, and the availability of affordable yet high-quality inkjet printers. So far the market for digital cameras has been confined to professional photographers and vertical niche business applications, but that is about to change.'

It is now so easy to take a picture, connect a cable to a PC or Mac and have an image ready, that photojournalists have redefined the way they work, and they are being picked up by all kinds of businesses from insurance loss adjusters to doctors. Prices range from a few hundred pounds to tens of thousands, with the cheaper ones being perfectly adequate for Web posting.

PHOTO FINISH

As a rule, though, digital cameras cannot be used for the continuous-tone, ultrafine grain images associated with traditional silver-halide photography. But Epson recently converted top photographer Jill Furmanovsky to the potential of digital image capture, and she now uses digital cameras for much of her professional work. She was the official photographer on the recent Oasis tour, for example, and used an Epson digital camera throughout.

The lowest resolution cameras take 493 x 373 pixel images, but the top of the range offers 3,000 x 2,000 pixels. Images are affected by the size of the camera's charge-coupled device (CCD), the quality of the flash, focal length, quality of the lens and the general design of the camera electronics. The CCD is the heart of a digital camera. It is a chip device which 'sees' light and outputs a signal. It has a certain physical size and a specific number of pixels - the more pixels, the more picture information can be obtained.

The focal length of a lens refers to how wide an angle the camera can take. A wide-angled lens will take in more scenery from a given distance, but things will appear smaller. The quality of the lens optics is also crucial to the image quality, but many professionals claim that a mid-range lens can deliver the kind of quality that they need, and it is not always necessary to invest in the most expensive.

CANDID CAMERA

John Newlyn, business development manager with Attachmate, says he recently used a digital camera combined with Casio's Windows CE machine, and was able to send images back to the office without any need for a PC. 'Once you start thinking about it, these devices can be used in a lot of interesting ways. We were able to send a picture as an email file and it was immediately captured by the office-based system.'

The demonstration, adds Newlyn, created plenty of interest from show attendees - in particular several police forces, which foresaw officers sending back images of accidents or the scenes of crimes, and from Channel 5, which is enthusiastic about the possibility of sending back usable images from location to studio.

'There are definitely limitations at the moment, and there is a distinct trade-off against features. For example, the Casio machine I was using did not have a flash, lens adjustment or zoom, but the picture capacity was quite good at 64 images, and it was easy to use.'

Newlyn says the first time you use a digital camera can be disconcerting.

'You are used to bringing the camera up to your eye and looking through a viewfinder, but you don't do that with a digital camera. You look at an LCD display. That's odd until you get used to it.'

Tony Petford, head of marketing with Epson, sees the digital camera market as a logical extension of the firm's management product strategy. 'The darkroom, stocked with tanks, enlargers, strange chemicals and light-sensitive film development is now a thing of the past. It is being replaced by brightly lit offices with powerful PCs, lots of memory and expensive 21in monitors,' he says.

'Digital cameras are bringing about a revolution in many application areas and vertical markets. The smart resellers are already on the bandwagon.'

Stephen Flaherty, marketing director of Rare Technology, which distributes digital cameras and associated kit, says: 'Digital cameras are giving resellers the opportunity to capitalise on a potentially lucrative new market. Sales volumes are currently still low, but resellers should be able to retain more margin and develop their sales and support skills before the market becomes commoditised. There is also the opportunity to sell further peripherals, such as a PC card reader and photo-editing software.'

Perhaps the only threat for the channel is the possibility of traditional camera resellers selling computer systems, making the market more crowded.

Sales are certainly buoyant, with 330,000 two years ago, 1.3 million last year and about 3 million predicted for this year. Those in the camera business are rapidly building showrooms to demonstrate the new systems hooked up to PCs and printers.

PICTURE THIS

If the depth of tone of digital cameras still leaves something to be desired, the demand for them does not. Digital cameras may be the death knell for the traditional camera industry, but they look likely to form the core of a whole new market segment for IT resellers - one that focuses on images rather than words or figures.

LET'S GET DIGITAL

Selling digital cameras is made far easier if you are able to demonstrate how they can be integrated into applications and used for real business benefit. To do this you need software which accepts images from the cameras and allows them to be manipulated and integrated into documents.

Most cameras come with the appropriate software - many direct vendors, such as Tiny Computers, bundle the software pre-installed on their PCs.

But there is also dedicated software coming onto the market as a new software product category.

Annabel Rainbow, European marketing manager of Design Intelligence, says the availability of low-cost but powerful software allows resellers to demonstrate the uses of digital images - a crucial factor in selling the cameras. 'Resellers have to concentrate on the message not the medium,' she says. 'Which means demonstrating how digital cameras can be used in practice.'

Design Intelligence is marketing a product called I-Publish through Ingram Micro. Rainbow says it is user-friendly and eases the sale of digital cameras.

'It is one thing to describe how digital cameras can be used,' she says, 'but quite another if you can take a picture and show them how it can be manipulated and used in desktop publishing applications, or on the Web.'

Rainbow describes how one reseller in particular, Corey Rivard, who sells to the estate agency vertical market, prepared some special flyers and documents for the Landmark Group, which sells and manages properties.

Rivard was able to create a Web page using the pages of information and photos of properties.

'I had never created a Web page before and I-Publish enabled me to do just that. I can also design good looking documents when full-colour high-design results are required,' he says.

The retail price of I-Publish is only #59, however, so its resellers are not making much margin. But Rainbow says a corporate networked version will be available soon, which will offer more margin. 'Of course, I-Publish is the tool which enables a larger sell, or a whole system capable of creating sophisticated documents. It is something resellers can use themselves to demonstrate the applications of digital cameras, as well as something to sell on to their customers.'

IMAGE CONSCIOUS

Resellers should be aware of the following limitations of digital camera technology:

To get studio quality output, users need to spend a lot of money - #25,000 upwards.

Lack of storage standards.

Limitations of image storage within each camera.

High-end cameras need special expertise to sell them.

On the other hand, traditional film technology, while mature and relatively inexpensive, has hidden costs including the time delay caused by chemical processing, the direct cost of the film and development, and the ecological cost of disposing of the spent chemicals.

Peter Lipschutz of New York-based reseller Adorama makes the following recommendations to resellers considering adding digital cameras to their portfolio:

Ask the customer what they need the image for and match the camera to the use. Listen to the customer's fears and doubts.

Prove the worth of the camera by demonstrating it.

Cost justify the camera for the application.

Have computer literate and photography literate sales staff.

Have a studio or an area of a showroom for demonstrations.

Make sure the customer leaves with an image in their hand. It backs up the message that digital is fast and efficient.

Be able to offer comparisons between traditional film and digital cameras.

Tell customers that while digital cameras may cost more initially, there are long-term savings.

Offer leasing as an option.

Do not force a digital camera on a customer for whom it is not really best. It's the quickest way to lose a client.

CONTACTS

Attachmate 0118 989 0390

Epson 0118 988 2992

Design Intelligence 0181 387 5533

Northamber 0191 391 4100

Peter Lipschutz [email protected]

Rare Technology 0181 341 7665.