Canon And Samsung Debut 6-Megapixel Cameras
By Greg Scoblete -- TWICE, 11/8/2004
New York— Slipping in late entrants onto the holiday shelves, Canon and Samsung introduced new 6-megapixel cameras that offer more controls for the sophisticated shooter.
Canon announced a limited edition version of its EOS Digital Rebel, the first digital SLR to crack the sub $1,000 price point. Featuring a black body, the limited edition Digital Rebel will ship this month with the EF-S 18-55mm zoom lens kit for a suggested $999.
The 6.3-megapixel black Rebel offers the same feature set as the original model, including a seven point autofocus, 12 shooting modes, 2.5 frames per second (fps) continuous shooting. It is compatible with over 50 Canon EF lenses.
Samsung introduced a new series of high-end digital cameras in its A-series last week. The first model, the 6-megapixel Digimax A6, will ship this month for a suggested $349. Samsung expects to announce more A-series models to ship before the holidays shortly.
The A6 features 10 preset scene modes; color effects; and automatic and manual exposure controls including aperture priority, shutter priority and fully manual shooting modes. In macro mode the camera can focus to 4cm from the subject. It features 32MB of internal memory with an SD/MMC expansion slot.
The camera can capture VGA quality video clips at 30 fps or 15 fps. It can play, fast-forward or rewind the video in-camera on the A6's 1.8-inch LCD screen; users can also perform camera edits, including cropping, rotating and color revisions. The unit features a one-touch manual button that lets users access manual exposure controls.
The model is PictBridge-enabled and is bundled with ArcSoft Photo Impression imaging software.
The A6 can draw power from three sources. It supports Li-ion and NiMH rechargeable batteries for up to 387 and 345 shots, respectively. In addition, the camera accepts AA batteries.
