Traditionalists might balk, but the holiday shopping season is already underway. Skeptical? Head to your local department store and you'll be inundated by Christmas trees and ornaments. Bargain hunters, though, know that the real deals are more than a month away.
Black Friday, traditionally, is when retailers truly slash prices. Early birds can save hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars off of their holiday bills. Switched.com checked with a few elves, who gave a sneak peek at what you can expect deal-wise this year.
Blu-ray Players and Movies: Blu-ray is shaping up to be the biggest door buster of this year's Black Friday. de Grandpre expects at least one retailer will offer a Blu-ray player for just $49. Look for bargains on Blu-ray films as well, with last year's hit titles (such as "Iron Man") to fall as low as $5.
Laptops: With the proliferation of Netbooks this year, it's never been easier to find affordable portable computing, but Dan de Grandpre, CEO of DealNews.com says it will get even cheaper on Black Friday. Look for well-equipped Netbooks to sell for $199 – and basic 15" laptops to go for as little as $249.
HDTVs (Pretty big): The holidays are typically the best time to buy a new TV – and Black Friday is the time to do it. If you're looking for a normal sized set, you're in luck. Piper Jaffrey analyst Mitch Kaiser says he expects to see 32-inch LCD sets for as low as $299. GottaDeal.com is estimating 37-inch plasma and LCD sets will fall to $399 or less.
HDTVs (Really big): Need something bigger? How about a 46-47 inch LCD set for $599 – a 25 percent savings? Or a 52-inch LCD for $999? Dealnews says you can expect both. Plasma deals will be a little harder to come by, but a 50-inch set should run roughly $899.
HD Camcorders: You've wanted to shoot your child's school play in HD for a while, but haven't been able to spring for the pricey camcorder. This might be the year. Low-end, flash-based 720p models could drop as low as $60 (though you won't be able to zoom with those). Expect a high quality 1080p HD camcorder for $349.
GPS: While navigation systems have dramatically expanded their reach this year – even making it onto the iPhone – there's still a market for car-based systems. Dealnews predicts you'll be able to find a no-name entry-level system for $49, while a Garmin or Tom-Tom brand will be as low as $69.
Digital Picture Frames: Showcasing your digital pictures consistently gets cheaper. This year, skip the 7-inch screens and focus on the 8- or 9-inch ones, which should be available on Black Friday for as little as $30.
Monitors: Computer monitors might not be the sexiest of gifts, but they're usually welcomed with open arms – and they'll be cheap this year. Name brand 22-inch LCD models may go for as low as $99, while 24-inch models will drop below $150.
Memory: Don't know anyone who needs a monitor? External hard drives are always popular, since they're an easy way to back-up data. Dealnews expects a 1TB drive to fall as low as $49 this year. Gottadeal is looking for 8GB flash drives to hit $15.
Kodak has been struggling coming to grips with the reduction of interest in the film industry and the massive uptake on digital cameras. Plus, they joined the digital game late despite creating their first digicam in 1975. Lately they have found some success with their EasyShare line and are planning to build on that with a new model, the C513, which will be the first to use the company's own CMOS imaging sensor. Most modern cameras rely on CCD sensors to capture images digitally while CMOS is a competing technology that does the same thing in a slightly different way.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
bill kelly said 5:54PM on 7-24-2007
Kodak deserves success in this arena. It has housed and clothed and fed thousands of Rochesterians for many years as it participated in the film business with quality. It has been a humane and very professional firm that has treated employees with respect and kindness even while going through massive technology driven organizational change. Kodak has demanded innovation and performance. Kodak deserves a win! I hope this camera is widely accepted. Way to go Kodak!
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John Lawrence said 7:03PM on 7-24-2007
If I base my opinion of Kodak on Mr. Kelley's comment, I might fail to remember that Kodak is the same company that unabashedly violated Polaroid's patent rights on instant cameras. How does a company care for its employees when it breaks the law and has to pay millions of dollars to a competitor?
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Cooper said 7:04PM on 7-24-2007
I have used Kodak for all the photography on my website and found that they have been trying hard to catch up with the likes of Sony who have dominated the market. The Cameras they are putting out now are really a great bang for the buck. I have a 10x optical zoom and have some great wildlife closeups and some great outdoors scenic pics. http://www.cooper-dog.com also has some of the Kodak video.
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Dave said 8:45PM on 7-24-2007
I am both a working photographer and also in photo retail.
I was at one time a HUGE fan of anything and everything Kodak. No longer tho. (the reasons unecessary)
I work in the largest photo retail chain on the planet and Kodaks don't sell. And in my professional opinion both Kodak AND Sony are at the very bottom of the camera barrel. At least customer service wise. They are truly HORRIBLE in that. Outsourcing at it's best. Personally, I don't sell cameras, I sell knowledge and service, both of which you don't get from either of those two. Kodak dropped the ball years ago and Fuji picked it up and ran with it.
If you want a digital camera, buy one from people who MAKE cameras, not movies in hollyood, not watches, not keyboards, not boom boxes.
One simply cannot go wrong with the name(s) Canon, Nikon, Olympus or Pentax. And they speak ENGLISH when you call them.
There's NOTHING easy about easyshare cameras, thats nothing but someone at Kodak paying someone on Madison Ave., to create a buzzword.
Any and ALL digital cameras will be as easy or as difficult as the one buying it makes it. I see it day in and day out.
So keep buying your cameras in "convenient" places where you actually think your getting a good deal like KMart, Target, Sams Club, BestBuy & Circuit City.
I like that, czuase when ya have problems they always tell ya to go to a camera store. And I get to charge you $25.00 an hour or any part thereof for technical service and support.
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Dave said 8:53PM on 7-24-2007
and furthermore, I'll have to go with mr lawrence there.
a) Kodak didn't jump in till way too late and catch up won't work for them.
b) Kodak makes dumb decisions, discontinuing GREAT film(s), back in the day - Royal Gold, Ektapress Professional 1600 et al
c) Kodak has FIRED 1,000's of employees worldwide in the last 7-8 years
Shall I continue? Nikon has a fabulous L10 5 meg camer for $119.00 which is usually on sale for $99.99, with a far superior optical glass lens.
Oh and that Kodah. Schneider lens? Not likely. Can you say lincensing agreement? Same with Sony ! NOT a Zeiss lens on those puppies either.
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Christian said 10:05PM on 7-24-2007
Hey, at least camera prices are starting to go down! Remember how expensive they used to be?
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opticalwizard said 11:46PM on 8-05-2007
Sorry cooper-dog but you may want to lQQk closer at the pic on you web page because it lQQks like sh*t
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Roberta said 7:07AM on 7-25-2007
I have a Kodak easyshare and bought one for my son. We both love them. They ARE easy to use. Push one button and your pictures go into your computer. Push one button and you can email them. Sounds easy to me. And we get good pictures from them. No digital picture is the equal of a picture made from a negative. To say that they are is to lie to yourself big time. Kodak easyshare provides a good product for a reasonable price.
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Debbie C said 2:31PM on 7-25-2007
So Dave, where do you work?
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sparky919 said 9:36AM on 7-25-2007
I went to a "professional" camera store and purchased SAMSUNG S630 1 month ago... Spent about $150.00 for the camera and 3MB in digital cards.
I have a NIKON 35mm SLR and wondering if anyone will ever invent some sort of conversion kit that will allow a 35mm film camers to take digital photos.....
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pete said 8:39AM on 7-25-2007
Two names Knock you out of the running..NIKON and CANON..
No one gets excited about buying a KODAK digital. There time has come and gone..
Techs fell asleep.
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Terry said 8:48AM on 7-25-2007
And your point is?......
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NBachers said 6:54PM on 7-25-2007
I'm biased because I'm a Rochester native, and I'll admit I'm a Kodak supporter. That said, I've done some research, and there are some cameras with great specs in the $79 to $200 range. Kodak website lists the C513 for $79.95 at
http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=9/19/32/11189&pq-locale=en_US
In addition, Kodak was citing a JD Power report on their website. I went to JD Power's website and looked it up myself. Here's what it said:
"Within the $200-$399 segment, in which the majority of cameras are purchased, Kodak ranks highest for a third consecutive year. Kodak receives top ratings from customers in four of the six factors that determine overall satisfaction: cost, connectivity, ease of use and picture quality. Sony follows Kodak in the rankings."
Not too shabby. There are a lot of cameras in this price range- check out
http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=4643&pq-locale=en_US
From experience, we had a Kodak digital camera at work. Then they bought a second one. The staff's consensus was that the Kodak was the easiest, most user friendly one. I originally used the Kodak; then moved "up" to the other one when we got it. I actually thought the person I passed the Kodak on to got the better end of the deal.
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W.L. Barton said 8:23PM on 7-25-2007
The people who just love their Kodaks are not professional photographers. They are folks like me. They need an easy-to-use inexpensive camera. A pro can easily see the difference in the equipment and photos between film and digital or Kodak -vs- the rest of the world. I'm a musician, my wife was not. We went to a Liberace concert. I picked up on a few 'sour' notes. She's tone deaf. Get the picture? Buy what works best for you. Doesn't get any easier than that.
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