(Nikkei BP Group)
(No.1 High-Tech News Site in Japanese)
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| Sanyo to Sell Digital Camera with Motion Picture Features
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February 17, 1999 (TOKYO) -- Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. introduced a new
digital camera called DSC-X110, which is capable of recording 120 seconds
of motion pictures, or double the period of its DSC-X100 model.
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Sanyo will market the camera at a retail price of 68,000 yen (US$600)
on Feb. 20.
The camera captures moving pictures in resolution formats
of 320 x 240 dots or 160 x 120 dots. Taking pictures for 120 seconds
is enabled by the 160 x 120-dot image size and by using a 16MB-plus
SmartMedia card. Utilization of the 320 x 240-dot image size reduces
the operating time to a maximum of 30 seconds. In both cases, voices
also can be recorded.
Pictures are compressed into the Motion JPEG format at 15 frames per
second. The camera is capable of immediate playback, and it comes with
such functions as fast winding/rewinding and forward/backward searching.
Pictures can be displayed on a liquid crystal display (LCD) monitor on
the back of the camera's body or on a TV linked to the camera. When
the pictures are displayed on a TV, voices can be reproduced as well.
The new camera's other picture-taking functions are almost the same as
those of the DSC-X100. The camera has a 1/3-in. charged coupled device
(CCD) with 850,000 pixels, including 800,000 valid pixels for picture
taking. Users can select the resolution available for still pictures
from 1,024 x 768 dots, 640 x 480 dots, 320 x 240 dots and 160 x 120
dots.
It features a lens focal length equivalent to a 43mm standard lens in
the case of a 35mm film camera. The focal point is fixed.
The camera automatically adjusts the white balance and is equipped with
a built-in stroboscope. The waiting time for picture processing between
shooting intervals is reduced to 0.8 second from 1.5 seconds for the
current model.
The camera incorporates an optical viewfinder and an LCD monitor. Photographers
can use the LCD monitor for a viewfinder when they take pictures and
for playback to view pictures. The monitor is a 2-in. low-temperature
poly-silicon thin film transistor (TFT)-LCD.
Sanyo's new camera measures 106mm wide by 61mm high by 35mm deep. The
current model's body is plastic, but the new model uses aluminum for
part of the body. It weighs about 200g without batteries and 250g with
a pair of batteries.
Sanyo said it plans monthly production of 10,000 units of the DSC-X110
model.
The company said it will continue production of the current DSC-X100
model. For the DSC-X100, it plans to offer upgrade services so as to
extend the picture-taking time from 60 seconds to 120 seconds and to
enhance the SmartMedia storage capacity from 16MB to 32MB. The services
will start after April and a fee will be charged.
Related story: Sanyo's
850K-Pixel Digital Camera Can Take 1-Min. Motion Pictures
(BizTech News Dept.)
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