Camera Oasis

Can you spot the difference between these two digital cameras? The black camera is a new Kodak M583, a 14-megapixel compact with a Schneider lens, 8X optical zoom. The red camera is a GE Power Series E1680W, with 16 megapixels and an 8X optical zoom. To me, they appear to have come off the same assembly line, someplace in Asia. Their prices are nearly identical, too. At the moment, Kmart is offering the GE camera at $20 under the Kodak. On the other hand, 16 MP on a 1/2.3 sensor will probably result in less than satisfactory images. GE is one of those drugstore brands that hardly any camera review website takes seriously. Kodak, on the other hand, said earlier this year that they would re-strategize their camera business to sell only profitable cameras. I'm thinking this meant sourcing some cameras from GE's General Imaging business, just as Hewlett Packard appears to have done.

Say you're a big company in the camera biz. Your brand's grown a little dusty, and competition heats up. If you're like a few companies, you realize where you've gone off-track. You switch from building awkward, robot-looking cameras, and try to inject a little color, ruggedness and quality into your products. Here I'm thinking of Panasonic, which probably manufactures many digital cameras for other brands, but chose to beef up its own cameras, too. They made water-proof cameras that actually take nice photos. They use Leica lenses in almost every camera. And they often lead the way in innovation, which results in image quality -- which is all that really matters in a camera. What Panasonic didn't do: They didn't sink skillions in a U.S.-only sponsorship for rich white men. They didn't decide to cheapen every camera model in their line with chrome paint and plastic bodies that look like metal, but aren't. They didn't let a maverick marketing VP...