Yesterday was Day 1 of the 25th PhotoPlus Expo, held at Jacob Javits Convention Center here in New York. Self billed as "the most important event in photography," PhotoPlus doesn't generally offer much in the way of big product announcements. But I love going every year just to see all the new toys in person, to hobnob with a whole range of photo-geeks (I'm an enthusiastic and probably lifelong amateur), and to take in some really fine photography that various companies and organizations exhibit there.

After the jump, check out some of the really cool and really odd things I came across while wandering around with PC Magazine's camera analyst PJ Jacobowitz (the better pictures were taken by him!).

Olympus showed off a prototype of its Micro Four Thirds camera: It's promised to have the quality and versatility of a DSLR in a point-and-shoot-size body. Imagine an SLR you could carry in a pocket! (Where do you carry the lenses? Scroll down to Shootsac.) Look for it sometime in 2009.

Craig Strong, president and cofounder of LensBaby and its "selective focus" lenses, demoed the company's newest lens for us: the Composer, which features easily swappable optics; each gives you different effects, essentially four lenses in one. Preorder one for $270; optics are extra.

PJ took my picture with a camera and a Composer lens, with the double-glass optics.

Joby, which came out a few years ago with the innovative GorillaPod bendable tripods, has a new one: The GorillaPod Focus can handle cameras up to 11 pounds. It's $139.95 direct from Joby's Web site.

Canon featured ongoing talks and slideshows all day by professional shooters. This is nature photographer George Lepp.

Who has the biggest lens?

Plug one of DataColor's Spyder devices into a USB port, load its software, and drape it over your screen, and it'll calibrate and adjust the color on your monitor. Prices range from $70 to $240.

ScanDigital's Anderson Schoenrock: The company digitizes visual media, including photos, slides, and film. They also do color correction, correct orientation, remove artifacts, and fix red-eye, and in most cases can turn your order around in under a week.

Jessica Claire, photographer and designer of Shootsacs--which are carrying cases for camera lenses that are designed for women. That is, they're comfortable to carry, retrieving lenses from within the bag is easy, and the cover flaps are interchangeable. Jessica told me they'll have laptop bags in a couple of months, too.

The obligatory cameras-underwater display; this one courtesy of Pentax.

The idea of combining personal photos with jewelry? Mostly that kind of thing is on the tacky side--but not Kimbra's products. They're really attractive and elegant. I would not hesitate to give these for holiday gifts (or getting a little something, either!).

PhotoPlus: The culture-iest expo in town.

Ben Gottesman of Phanfare used iPhone app PanoLab to create this photo-collage of the Javits.