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To: Fred Levine who wrote (2872)	2/19/1999 5:14:00 PM
From: BelowTheCrowd	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 4722

Can't say I can answer to Merrill's expectation of an "all out" effort. It remains a focus and was even highlighted by Lew Platt in his latest message to employees. I just saw the current camera in Office Depot. $399, but there are several others at the same price with the same kinds of features. The thing that's confounding everybody is the slowness of the market to develop. This was the second Christmas in a row where digital imaging was supposed to be "the big thing." Just isn't happening yet. Nobody is really making money in the field, just keeping a toe in the pool, ready and waiting for it to get hot. The problem, as I said elsewhere, is cost. I can get VERY GOOD quality photos using standard film for about $.40 each (that's with good film and a good quality processor, it's less if you go the Costco route). Digital is still double that just for the materials, and you need to invest close to a thousand bucks in camera and photo-quality printer to achieve good quality. The primary application of digital photos these days is for web pages, electronic advertising, etc. Still a very limited market. Nobody's quite sure when it'll take off, or what it will take to make it take off, and as a result nobody is putting a ton of money into promoting it. mg