(Nikkei BP Group)
(No.1 High-Tech News Site in Japanese)
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| Olympus Unveils 2.11-Million-Pixel Digital Camera
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February 22, 1999 (TOKYO) -- Olympus Optical Co., Ltd. unveiled its CAMEDIA
C-2000ZOOM digital camera with a 2.11-million-pixel charge-coupled device
(CCD), which is scheduled for release on April 8 in Japan.
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The camera, which is capable of capturing images in resolutions with
1,600 x 1,200 dots, will retail for 113,000 yen (US$950).
Olympus is the fifth camera maker to announce a digital camera with more
than 2 million pixels in a popular price range. The four other companies
that offer such digital cameras are Sony Corp., Fuji Photo Film Co.,
Ltd., Ricoh Co., Ltd. and Nikon Corp.
The CAMEDIA C-2000ZOOM features a high-end lens. The
camera comes with a large viewfinder of 43mm in diameter and a lens
with a low F-value of F2.0. It has a 3x optical zoom and other improvements
in terms of picture-taking functions.
The CCD measures 1/2 in. and it has 2.11 million pixels, including 2.02
million valid pixels for taking pictures. Users can select resolutions
from among 1,600 x 1,200 dots, 1,024 x 768 dots and 640 x 480 dots,
the company said.
Olympus said that the camera incorporates a 3x optical zoom lens, the
focal length of which is equivalent to a 35mm-105mm length of a 35mm
film camera.
The camera employs the company's own photometric method called Digital
ESP Photometric Method. This enables users to set the optimum exposure
even at a site in backlight or a site with a big difference in luminance
between the subject and the background.
The new camera has a spot photometric function to focus the exposure
on the actual subject and a function to correct the exposure, the company
said. The photographer can change the camera sensitivity depending on
the ISO sensitivity standard under scales of about 100, about 200 and
about 400. The 100 level is typically chosen to take most pictures,
and the 400 level is for taking pictures in places where a flash cannot
be utilized.
Users can choose the exposure control from among three methods, a programming
method that allows the camera to set the optimum value automatically,
the diaphragm-priority mode and the shutter-priority mode, Olympus said.
The camera can set the white balance automatically, or the user can set
it manually according to light sources. Four settings for lighting conditions
are available. They are outdoors, cloudy weather, incandescent light
and fluorescent light.
One viewfinder is an optical real-image finder and the other is a 1.8-in.
low-temperature poly-silicon thin film transistor-liquid crystal display
(TFT-LCD) monitor.
The camera features a continuous exposure mode, capable of continuously
capturing 30 images of 1,024 x 768 dots and 45 or more images of 640
x 480 dots at two frames per second, Olympus said.
The captured images are stored in a SmartMedia card without being compressed
in the TIFF format or compressed in the JPEG format.
The new camera measures 107.5mm wide by 73.8mm high by 66.4mm deep and
it weighs 305g without batteries.
Olympus plans a total monthly production of 20,000 units of the C-2000ZOOM.
The overseas launch date will be announced later, the company said.
Related stories:
� Ricoh to Sell High-End Digital Camera with USB Port
� Fuji Photo Film to Sell 2.3-Million-Pixel Digital Camera
� Sony Unveils Digital Camera with 2.1 Million Pixel CCD
(BizTech News Dept.)
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