Irvine, Calif. – Toshiba added to the recent spat of 4-megapixel digital cameras getting set to hit the market in the last three weeks with yesterday’s introduction of the PDR-M81 digital camera.
The 4.2-megapixel PDR-M81 is expected to be on store shelves in July with an MSRP under $1,000.
The camera has a 35mm-equivalent lens with 6X zoom, at lower-resolution settings (1200 x 800, 720 x 480). It also includes a newly redesigned lens (f=7.25-20.3mm) equipped with a 2.8X optical zoom and a 2.2X digital zoom. The lens has a macro mode for photographing subjects as close-up as four-inches away. The all-glass Canon lens was designed using 7 elements in 5 groups to reduce distortion and provide maximum resolution.
The camera offers both manual and automatic white balance and exposure setting controls and a built-in flash system with a working range of up to ten feet. The flash system has several modes to choose from including slow-sync for artistic photography involving moving or low light subjects. Other modes include automatic, red-eye reduction, and fill-in flash.
The PDR-M81 has an AVI movie mode that lets users film up to three minutes of video at 160 x 120 resolution (15 fps), or 60 seconds at 320 x 240 (15 fps). Sound is recorded using the camera1s built-in microphone.
Accessories include an 8 MB SmartMedia card, a USB cable for downloading images onto a PC or Mac, serial cable, wrist strap, protective lens cap, a soft carrying case, and a CD-ROM containing a USB driver and Sierra Imaging ImageExpert software for managing, editing and accessing images.
