Samsung Digimax Pro815

by Bob Atkins

Samsung Camera Revolutionizes the Digital Photography Experience With Launch of Unparalleled 8 Mega-Pixel Digital Camera

New Digimax Pro815 features several firsts including the world's longest optical zoom and largest LCD

New York, NY (June 17, 2005) ­ Samsung Camera today announced the latest innovation in digital photography at the Samsung Experience in New York City; the Digimax Pro815. A best-in-class 8 mega-pixel digital camera, the Pro815 represents Samsung's commitment, as one of the world's leading innovators, to the advancement of technology in the digital arena. Featuring several "world's firsts," including the longest optical zoom and largest LCD, the Pro815 is sure to revolutionize the digital photography experience for consumers and elevate Samsung's stature amongst the competition.

Highlighted by its world renowned Schneider optics, the Pro815 offers the world's longest optical zoom at 15x. With a 2/3" 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 ultra-crisp images in both wide angle and in telephoto from distances never before capable with a point and shoot digital camera. To cover even more distance, shooters can take advantage of the Pro815's 4x digital zoom, which puts a combined zoom of 60x, right at their fingertips.

Normally it is not possible to incorporate both 28mm wide-angle and 420mm tele-zoom capabilities in an average high-end camera. Standard SLR systems require different lenses to shoot wide-angle and telephoto, which in the end translates into added weight from the extra equipment and the possibility of missing some shots due to lens changeover. 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.

At 3.5," the Pro815 features the largest available LCD on a digital camera. The 3.5" LCD also incorporates Samsung's patented Transmissive with Micro Reflective (TMR) technology, which provides vibrant image quality indoors and outdoors. In addition, the camera is also the first in the World to feature multiple LCD screens. When taking low angle shots, users can take advantage of the top 1.44" 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, you can shoot a subject or choose a desired function more quickly.

With features like a 3cm super macro mode, an array of versatile and customizable shooting modes and powerful manual controls, the Digimax Pro815 has set a new benchmark for digital camera design. To power the new flagship model of the Digimax line, Samsung also developed the World's most powerful proprietary lithium battery; the SLB-1974, 1900mAh 7.4v type, rechargeable battery pack, capable of providing enough power for up to 500 shots per charge.

A shooter-friendly, intuitive graphical user interface (GUI) is easily accessible from the Pro815's massive 3.5" LCD display. The GUI allows the shooter to easily navigate the camera's menu of features and capabilities. Photographers have a full range of custom choices including a variety of exposure modes, such as shutter priority, aperture priority and full manual, six ISO settings ranging from 50 to 800, five flash settings and more.

The Digimax Pro815 also boasts the fastest response times in its class. Its startup and shot-to- shot speeds have been reduced to 1.0 second and 1.3 seconds respectively, and a shutter release lag of only .05 seconds ensures that the shooter will have the ability to capture their images at any given time. The Pro815 also delivers a fast AF speed of less than 1 second, even in tele-zoom mode, by utilizing a passive AF sensor.

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 MP sized images per second. Single images can be shot at sizes up to 5MB (3072x 2304 pixels) and stored in RAW, TIFF, JPEG (DCF), EXIF 2.2 or DPOF 1.1 formats.

The Digimax Pro815 includes preprogrammed settings in an Auto mode, Program mode, A/S/M mode and Scene modes including: Night, Portrait, Children, Landscape, Close-up, Sunset, Dawn, Backlight, Fireworks, Beach & Snow, Single and Text. When set in Text mode, users can shoot documents such as books, papers, magazines or business cards while the camera automatically compensates for image distortion that typically occurs when photos of flat objects are taken. With the bundled text recognition software (Digimax Reader), users can extract the text from images taken in Text mode and save them as editable documents.

Three rings surrounding the lens control manual zoom, manual focusing and EV compensation, providing the shooter with direct control of the Pro815's manual functions. The Pro815 also features a dual jog system which is used to control aperture and shutter speed. The camera

has various focusing modes including AF Lock, Continuous AF and Select Area AF. The Pro815's direct manual focusing feature allows the shooter to instantly switch to manual focusing from AF by simply turning the manual focus ring. In addition, the Pro815 also features bracketed shooting for exposure, focus and white balance. With Seven white balance settings including Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Fluorescent L, Fluorescent H, Tungsten, Custom 1 & Custom 2, and multiple flash modes, such as Auto, Auto & Red Eye, Slow Sync & Red Eye, Fill-in Flash and Flash Off, the Digimax Pro815 is packed with features that assure the shooter can always capture the perfect shot, no matter what the conditions may be. For flash photography, shooters can utilize the Pro815's high-power pop-up flash (Wide: 0.1 ~ 7.7m Tele: 1.5 ~ 3.7m) or attach a secondary unit to the camera's hot shoe mount.

The Digimax Pro815 is also the first digital camera in the Samsung family to utilize Compact Flash (CF) memory cards. CF memory is valued for its speed and ability to store a significant amount of high resolution images in its compact form. All images captured by the Pro815 are effortlessly transferred through a built-in USB 2.0 connection and shooters can utilize the bundled software, including Digimax Master and Digimax Reader, for added creativity and organization. The Pro815 can also be connected to NTSC or PAL external monitors for image and movie playback via the included connectors. Also, dependent on the capacity of the CF card in use at the time, users can shoot 640x480 AVI movies, with stereo audio, at up to 25fps.

The display mode of the Digimax Pro815, which utilizes the 3.5" LCD, extends the camera's application potential even further. In contrast to the normal 9-thumbnail screen, the Pro815 has a 25-thumbnail display, allowing you to search for a desired picture more quickly. The camera also features a histogram for checking and adjusting exposure, and a grid display for easier image composition. Additional display features are the Review Shot mode, that lets the shooter set the optimal image composition while viewing an image just taken and a display mode that enables the shooter to display an image in the center of the screen, and place icons and other relevant information at the edges of the screen.

The Pro815 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. A related feature that comes in handy is the ability to edit, crop and resize images right on the camera before sending them to a computer or printer for distribution or output. The Pro815 also features 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, and will be priced at $849.