There has been a lot of excitement around the Kodak Zi6 Pocket HD Video Camera since it was announced.

Check out this preview of the Zi6 posted on YouTube by webvideouniverse.com.

ThunderPigBlog left this comment - "I have been using a Kodak Z710 for all my video shooting, and this is EXACTLY what I have been waiting for!!!"

If you want to learn more about the Zi6 check out this video we just posted...

The following videos were all shot using a Zi6. Just keep in mind that the video was compressed when it was uploaded to YouTube.

Ryan Newman announced at Chicagoland Speedway

Brendan Fraser has fun with some fans

Brendan Fraser and Ryan Newman Interview

UPDATE: I just learned that you can watch YouTube videos at a higher quality. Just click on the link "watch in high quality" located under the bottom right corner of the video!

After last week's press event excitement, I almost to mention Kodak's two new digital cameras, the Kodak Easyshare Z1015 IS Zoom and Z1012 IS Zoom Digital Cameras. They are both exciting in their own right.

"Kodak has a pair of super zoom cameras that actually may be able to spot a needle in a haystack. The Z1012 IS and Z1015 IS are 10MP cams that zoom up to 12X and 15X, respectively." - Gizmodo

"Kodak's EasyShare Z1015 IS shooter packs 15x zoom, 10 megapixel sensor" - Engadget

Part 3 of 3: Search

Welcome back! Have you visited www.kodak.com/go/easysharesw to download your free copy of EasyShare software v7.0 for Windows yet? If not, I am sure that you will after you read about the final new feature, search!

The new search capability in EasyShare software v7.0 is what makes tagging your pictures worth your while. If you did not see it in the screenshots posted in the star rating or tagging entries from the other day, here is what the new search bar looks like:

This new feature allows you to find any picture quick and easy. Simply type in a tag or caption and hit enter. The really cool part of search is when you enter multiple tags. Just be sure to separate each word with a semicolon and no spaces. Rather than typing tags, I find it easier to select from the drop down menu:

So here is how the feature works. If I search for pictures of Maddox in my collection, EasyShare software v7.0 brings up the 293 images that I have tagged as Maddox. The pictures span over seven years and come from many different albums in my collection.

If I click back into the entire collection and search on the term Halloween, the result yields 49 images that I have tagged as Halloween. These images may or may not have additional tags associated with them.

Now, if I click back into my entire collection and search on both terms "Maddox;Halloween" the result yields 37 pictures that are tagged both Maddox and Halloween, allowing me to quickly see all of the different Halloween costumes that Maddox has worn over the years.

When searching on multiple tags, there are a couple of different choices available to you in the advanced search options menu:

The "result matches all" is similar to an "and" function meaning that the search will only yield pictures that matches all of the terms typed in. For example, if you were to search for Maddox;Halloween you would only get back images that were tagged both Maddox and Halloween.

The "result matches any" is similar to an "or" function. For example, if you were to search for Maddox; Halloween you would see pictures that were just tagged Maddox, just tagged Halloween, and pictures that were tagged as both.

Most people organize their pictures in albums by time. Even if the name of the album is not a specific date, there is generally a date associated with the group of pictures. Tagging allows you to eliminate the element of time and view your pictures by theme. When organizing pictures by theme, stories will often emerge that were not apparent before. EasyShare software v7.0 gives you the tools to find your pictures quickly and tell better stories with those pictures. Download it now, for free! www.kodak.com/go/easysharesw

I don't get a lot of time to hang out in our development labs. I get glimpses from time to time which always piques my curiosity. When I heard that we were announcing several new products at a press event, I was thrilled to go and get a first hand look at what is coming.

It's exciting to be at an event with so much energy and anticipation. I was amazed at how many new and different products we had to show. It's hard to say which one got the most attention.

This is the Kodak Zi6 Pocket Video Camera. Even though it is pocket sized it captures HD video (720p at 60fps) and is really easy to use.

The Zi6 comes with built in USB, an SD/SDHC card slot, 2.4" LCD screen, cables for viewing videos on your HDTV and pre-charged AA Ni-MH rechargeable batteries and a battery charger.

The icing on the cake is the new relationship between Kodak and YouTube that enables you to upload videos directly to YouTube from the Zi6 in a snap.

Oh, and another cool feature is you can playback video in slow motion.

Look for the Zi6 in late September 08. I am planning on attaching one to my dog, then taking it on a roller coaster and then my scooter...

I gotta say it was difficult to tear myself away from the Kodak Theatre HD Player displays. It's hard to explain just how much this can do. Using the wireless remote control pointer that you can just point and click with, you can view pictures, video, podcasts, music and web fed content all through your Wi-Fi network. Whew!

Through the Kodak Theatre HD Player you have access to your pictures on your computer, USB Jump Drive, SC memory card, Kodak Gallery or Flickr. Watch or upload videos to YouTube. Listen to music from your personal collection or Internet Radio. You can even check the weather.

Your living room will never be the same.

I had a lot of fun trying out the new Kodak W820 and W1020 Wireless Digital Frames. As part of another great partnership, you can access pictures on Flickr. The frames continue to work with Kodak Gallery too.

There is also a connection to FrameChannel so you can view news, weather and more on your frame.

The W820 and W1020 also play videos and MP3s which make for cool slideshows.

You can navigate to all of these features using the Quick Touch Border with your fingertips. Pretty cool because it keeps the screen free of fingerprints.

All evening I heard people oohing and ahhing over these innovative new products. There was a lot to take in for one evening and I am sure there will be lots more posts about each of these new additions!

Fifty million of almost anything is a whole lot. Fifty million inches is almost 800 miles - about the distance from Chicago to Dallas. Fifty million people is more than the population of Spain. And fifty million grains of sand? Around half a ton.

In a camera, fifty million pixels is a pretty impressive number, too. That's enough to see something the size of a small notebook computer in a field 1.5 miles wide. Or resolve every individual hair in a portrait of a model. Or take your professional photography business to a whole new level.

Yesterday, Kodak announced the new KODAK KAF-50100 Image Sensor - at fifty megapixels, it's the highest resolution available for professional photography. Today, the current state of the art is at 39 million pixels (with the KODAK KAF-39000 Image Sensor). But in this market, image is everything - so having the pixels and the performance you need is critical to capturing exactly the shot you want. So now, 50 is the new 39.

The new sensor design - the KODAK TRUESENSE 6.0 micron Full Frame CCD Technology Platform - includes several new features that make possible the performance available from the new sensor. Pixel size has been reduced by almost 30% (from 6.8 micron to 6.0 micron) to enable the increase in resolution. A new four-output architecture was designed to manage the quantity of data available from the sensor - so even though there's so much more data, the frame rate has actually gone up compared to the current 39 MPix device. A new red color pigment provides a subtle but important improvement to color accuracy and fidelity available from the sensor. And a new global reset capability allows the entire sensor to be cleared using a single pulse - shortening the amount of time the sensor needs to be ready to take the next shot, and helping to reduce power (by not needing to clock out the entire sensor before each shot).

Developing a new sensor - and especially one that uses an entirely new technology platform, like the one used here - isn't something that happens overnight. To develop this technology, there was a lot of hard work done to not only come up with the concepts for the new pixel designs and structures, but also to run these new designs through our manufacturing facility in Rochester, test the prototype sensors that are manufactured, understand what is going on, and then make modifications to both the underlying design as well as the manufacturing process to optimize the final result. A lot of work, but also a lot of fun (how often do you get to trick physics to let you do something everyone said wasn't even possible?).

Fifty million is a lot - in seconds, it's about how long Kodak spent developing this new technology. So our fifty million (in time) made possible a new fifty million (in pixels) for professional photographers. And who knows what fifty million that will produce in the future?

What's your fifty million?