Ritz & Wolf Camera file for Chapter 11
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D96HEULG0.htm
The Ritz in Crystal Lake has always been good. Decent prints, good service and knowledgeable staff. It's where we have our regular prints made, thanks to their online service.
Prices for equipment have always been on par with big box stores in the area but they can't compete with the likes of B&H and Amazon. We did buy our DSLR from them due to price matching Calumet though.
I'd hate to see this location go away.
Kid-proof digital cameras
For a long time if you wanted a digital point and shoot that could, at the very least, survive getting wet (rain, amusement park, spit-takes, etc), your choices were: Olympus & Pentax. Both had a line of waterproof cameras (up to 3m and 4m respectively).
Since then, though, Olympus has gone further to make this line more rugged. Their most robust camera (the Tough 8000) is waterproof up to 10m (~32ft), drop-proof from a height of 2m (~7ft), crush-proof, up to 100kg (~220lbs), and can operate in temperatures down to -10 deg C (14 deg F). (It should be noted that these are official numbers. I take my non-rugged point and shoot out into much colder temps and am not concerned).
In the rather tight digital point and shoot market, trends have shown up in clumps as manufacturers scramble to "me too" each other. (Witness trends like the megapixel race, or the megazoom race, or the rash of new "detection" modes: face detection, blink detection, smile detection, etc. There is also an HD Movie trend now that HDTV is so popular.) So it's rather strange that Olympus (and to some extent, Pentax) have been able to operate in this "rugged-ized" market for so long uncontested.
With this years PMA, however, things have changed.
Both Canon, Panasonic, and Fuji have joined in the fray and released "stronger" cameras. (Though it should be noted that Fuji has had a rugged camera in the European market for some time but it was not a consumer camera.)
Canon has released the D10
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0902/09021805canond10.asp
The specs seem respectable (waterproof to 10m, shock-proof to 1.2m, freeze-proof to -10 deg C, supposed super-bright LCD) but quite frankly, the design leaves a lot to be desired. A flash right over the top of the lens? If you think red-eye is bad with your current digital camera, just wait until you start using this model. Even with the camera running a "Red Eye Correction" function automatically after the image is captured, I have a feeling this camera is better used outside without the flash.
Fuji has released the Z33.
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0902/09021705fujifilmz33.asp
It's a pretty standard point and shoot with the added benefit of being waterproof. But there's no mention of it being able to withstand being dropped or sat upon.
Panasonic has released the TS1
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0901/09012705panasonicft1.asp
Panasonic has made great strides with their point and shoots in the past two years and this entry seems in line with that goal. Waterproof and shock-proof it also features HD video in HVCHD format.
All in all it's nice to seem some more development (har?) in this market. Maybe it'll push older Olympus models into the used market at decent prices.