Samsung Digimax Pro: More details
By
Mike Tomkins
(Thursday, May 26, 2005 - 12:40 EDT)
We told readers a month ago today about a rather interesting-sounding camera on the way from Korean consumer electronics giant Samsung.
The Digimax Pro 815 was shown by subsidiary Samsung Opto-Electronics Co. Ltd. at the 2005 Shanghai Imaging Expo, where it attracted quite some interest for the fact that it features a whopping 15x optical zoom (7.2 - 108mm, F2.2 - 4.6) Schneider-Kreuznach Varioplan lens, equivalent to 28 - 420mm on a 35mm camera. The lens, which is locked to 50 - 100mm equivalent in Macro mode, apparently has rings on the barrel for zoom, focus and exposure compensation.
Other features are believed to include a 2/3" sensor with a resolution of eight megapixels, electronic viewfinder, 3.5" TFT LCD display, pop-up flash and hot shoe, and power from a 1900 mAh battery. The camera is also believed to offer aperture and shutter priority, full manual, a range of scene modes, single / continuous AF, AF and AE lock, plus manual control of ISO sensitivity and metering modes. Startup and shot-to-shot time are both believed to be one second, and the camera is believed to offer a 2.5 frames per second burst mode.
New details are emerging on Chinese-language websites in Taiwan including IDV Digital Image Studio and DCView (free subscription required), based on a press release there. Much of the information above is restated, but particularly interesting are the following two points: - The camera may feature image stabilisation, according to IDV. Bear in mind, this could just be done by moving a cropped area on the image sensor at lower resolutions, something that is particularly common in movie modes on some digicams.
- The camera appears to offer the ability to replace the top-mounted LCD info display visual with a color preview, allowing for framing with the camera at your waist, or low to the ground. (It isn't clear whether this is achieved with a separate LCD panel on the top of the camera, or perhaps via a mechanical arrangement as seen in some past Konica Minolta cameras).
Also interesting are the first images we've seen from the camera's display which show that the camera has several other features: - Histogram (unclear if it is record or playback mode)
- Framing guidelines
- Lens focal length shown on the LCD (suggesting the lens zoom is possibly electronic rather than mechanical)
As more details surface, you'll hear about them on our news page.
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