Samsung introduces the Digimax Pro815 digital camera
The new 8-megapixel Samsung Digimax Pro815 offers a 15x optical zoom.
Article rating: 5.50
Samsung Opto-Electronics America Inc., Secaucus , N.J. , USA, the U.S. subsidiary of Samsung Techwin Co. Ltd., introduced the Digimax Pro815, an 8-megapixel digital camera. The Pro815 features Schneider optics and a 15x optical zoom. With a 2/3-inch CCD sensor and high-quality f/2.2-4.6 Schneider 7.2mm-108mm lens (equivalent to a 28-420mm lens in 35mm format), users can now capture crisp images in both wide angle and in telephoto from distances not possible with a point and shoot digital camera, says the company. To cover even more distance, shooters can take advantage of the Pro815's 4x digital zoom, which offers a combined zoom of 60x.
The Digimax Pro815 has four low-dispersion glass lenses specially manufactured to minimize chromatic aberration that can occur when wide-angle and ultra high zoom are supported at the same time. In addition, it employs two aspherical lenses for the correction of spherical aberration and lateral colors for the entire zoom range from wide to telephoto. The Digimax Pro815 also features a High Speed mode, which ensures steady shooting even in tele-zoom. When High Speed mode is selected, the Digimax Pro815 automatically increases the sensitivity up to max ISO 800, depending on the surrounding exposure and focal length. Employing an exclusive low-noise processing algorithm, the Pro815 ensures superb image quality with low noise, even at ISO 800. In addition, in High Speed mode the Pro815 automatically switches to its fastest shutter speed, enabling sharp shooting of fast moving targets.
The Pro815 also features a 3.5-inch LCD screen, which incorporates Samsung's patented Transmissive with Micro Reflective (TMR) technology to provide vibrant image quality indoors and outdoors. In addition, the camera has multiple LCD screens. When taking low angle shots, users can take advantage of the top 1.44-inch wide color LCD which displays a preview screen in real time. This LCD position enables high-level shooting as well as taking pictures from various angles. The top LCD can also be used as a status LCD to display shooting data. Since the required information is available on the LCD at all times, users can shoot a subject or choose a desired function more quickly.
The Digimax Pro815 has startup and shot-to-shot speeds of 1.0 second and 1.3 seconds respectively, and a shutter release lag of .05 seconds. With the Pro815's combination mechanical and electronic shutter, shooters can capture still images at up to 1/4,000 of a second in single, high-speed continuous shooting at 2.5 frames per second, normal continuous shooting that lets you shoot while viewing an image taken on the LCD, and ultra high speed continuous shooting that allows you to shoot up to ten 1-megapixel sized images per second. Single images can be shot at sizes up to 5MB (3072-by-2304 pixels) and stored in RAW, TIFF, JPEG (DCF), EXIF 2.2 or DPOF 1.1 formats.
The Digimax Pro815 provides a 3.5-inch LCD screen for easy viewing.
The Digimax Pro815 utilizees Compact Flash (CF) memory cards. It also offers PictBridge technology, allowing users to connect the camera directly to a printer by using the supplied USB cable and output images right from the camera's 64MB internal memory or CF card. In addition, the Pro815 has six effect modes, including Normal, Black and White, Sepia, Negative, Contrast Adjust and Saturation Adjust, and three sharpness levels, including Soft, Normal and Vivid. The Pro815 is also bundled with a lens hood (reversible for when the camera is not being used), a lens adapter for general-purpose filter mounting, a lens cap, is priced at $849 and is currently available.
