NEW YORK – Samsung used the recent PhotoPlus Expo to shine the spotlight on a couple of strong contenders for this year’s holiday camera dollars, including its first cellular-equipped phone.
The Samsung Galaxy camera, which was first unveiled at this summer’s Pho- tokina, was just priced by cellular pro- vider AT&T here at $499 with or with- out data plan.
The Android 4.1-based point-and- shoot camera, promoted as the first cellular-connected camera, incorpo- rates AT&T-network 4G HSPA+ cel- lular-data technology, enabling users to shoot, edit and share pictures and videos wirelessly through sharing on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter or email without connecting to a laptop or PC. It became available Nov. 16 through AT&T-owned stores and the carrier’s web site.
During the holidays, purchasers get $100 off the purchase price if they buy any Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
Galaxy Camera purchasers also get 5GB of free AT&T Locker storage, where users can upload images and videos for storage. Users can also create and customize albums on the de- vice or online in the website.
“This camera brings our connectivity strategies to the next level,” said Reid Sullivan, Samsung digital imaging senior VP. “Where we’ve had Wi-Fi built into some of our smart cameras this offers truly a whenever/where ever connectivity capability.”
In addition to built-in 4G service, the Galaxy camera offers Wi-Fi linking to a hotspot, and Wi-Fi Direct link- ing with other Wi-Fi enabled devices to share photos and shooting set ups.
In addition to AT&T stores and bou- tiques, Sullivan said Samsung is starting to have conversations now with photo dealers to carry the cellular-enabled de- vice.
The camera features 4.8-inch HD Super Clear LCD screen, a 21x optical zoom lens, and 16-megapixel backside- illuminated CMOS sensor for shooting close up and in low-light conditions. The device also features quad-core 1.4GHz processor and manual controls, including the manual setting of shutter speed, ap- erture and ISO. Smart mode is designed for amateur photographers and features Rich Tone HDR mode, Light Trace for “light painting” photos, and Best Face and Best Photo. The latter two help us- ers pick the best shot in a series of shots.
The camera is also optimized to share images and videos with multiple Galaxy devices, including the Galaxy S III smart- phone, Samsung Galaxy Note II phablet and Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 tablet.
The camera can be activated on one of AT&T’s new shared-data plans or one of AT&T’s existing individual or family plans. The phone can be activated on an AT&T Mo- bile Share plan of $10 to share between 1GB and 20GB among multiple devices. Other plans are $15 for 250MB, $30 for 3GB and $50 for 5GB.
