The first fruits of the Samsung, Pentax partnership were announced in the form of Samsung’s first digital SLR, the GX-1S.
The 6-megapixel camera, based largely on Pentax’s existing d-SLR technology, features Schneider optics and will work with both Schneider and Pentax d-SLR lenses. It will ship in a kit with or without a Schneider D-XENON 18mm-55mm lens in March. Pricing was not finalized.
The unit will feature a 2.5-inch LCD, consecutive shooting up to 2.8 frames per second (fps) to eight frames in JPEG and five frames in RAW, and pentaprism viewfinder with a 95 percent field view with .95x magnification.
The camera offers 16-segment multi-pattern metering, center-weighted and spot metering, an 11-point autofocus sensor and several automatic shooting modes. It draws power from either four AA lithium, NiMH or CR-V3 batteries.
Samsung was the last to announce a partnership with a camera company to break into the digital SLR market, but the first to officially announce a product. Olympus and Panasonic announced a partnership in early 2005, and Sony and Konica Minolta announced a similar agreement in late 2005 (For more on Konica Minolta, see p. 1). Both pairings are expected to announce their models at the Photo Marketing Association trade show next month.
