DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY NEWS

Trendy GE Digital Cameras Take Root in Latin America, Starting with Style-Loving Sao Paulo

General Imaging, the worldwide exclusive licensee for the GE-branded cameras, conducted a mid-day news conference at the ultra-chic Hotel Unique in Sao Paulo, a high-altitude city in love with high design.

General Imaging Chairman & CEO Hiroshi "Hugh" Komiya and Rene Buhay, Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing for the Americas, met with more than 40 journalists and emphasized the importance of Latin America to the new camera brand's long-term vision. Representatives of Jaacx Distributors, the Miami-based master distributor for GE digital cameras in Latin America, also took part in the news conference.

"Latin America remains an exceptionally fast-growing market for digital cameras, and Brazil and other Latin American countries are enjoying greater buying power than ever before," Komiya said. "General Imaging is committed to an enduring relationship with distributors, retailers and consumers throughout the region."

Buhay predicted rapid fourth-quarter growth for General Imaging in Latin America. "GE cameras are now in approximately 1,000 retail outlets, and we expect to be in somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000 stores by the end of the year," he said.

Since its May 1 launch, General Imaging and its GE-branded digital cameras have already achieved a presence in 12,000 retail outlets in North America - and are on track to be in 20,000 by the end of 2007, Buhay said. GE cameras are also available through numerous online retailers and TV shopping channels.

An independent company based in Torrance, Calif., General Imaging unveiled eight GE-branded cameras on March 8 in Las Vegas during PMA 07, the imaging industry's leading trade show.

Even at the entry level, the GE cameras include features one would expect from a much more expensive camera, starting with the A730's 7 megapixels of resolution, 3x optical zoom, and a 2.5-inch LCD screen. Models at the higher end feature up to 12 megapixels, up to 12x zoom, and 3-inch screens. In the middle is the E850, which adds wide-angle capability to its long list of features.

The cameras boast sleek and intuitive design, plus a host of popular, advanced functions as standard features, including panorama stitching, face detection, image stabilization, red-eye removal, and ISO 1600 sensitivity. More information about GE cameras is available at http://www.ge.com/digitalcameras.