| Just returned from a very
nice long weekend break in Hong Kong (new Pro70 gallery
coming soon), not that much happened in the digicam world
while I was away apart from Canon's announcement of a revamped
A5 Zoom with a new CCD (1.3 megapixels)... I bet anyone
who bought the A5 Zoom is kicking themselves...
"With the introduction
of the PowerShot A50, Canon has reinforced its position
as a major player in the digital photography market," said
Ted Ando, vice president and general manager of Canon's
Camera Division. "We expect that the PowerShot product line
will set the standard for the digital still market, just
as Canon cameras before it became the de facto standard
for Advanced Photo System and other photographic technologies."
The PowerShot
A50 features an elegant and sturdy all-metal body and is
equipped with a superbly sharp 4.3-10.8mm f/2.6-4.0 zoom
lens (equivalent to a 28-70mm in 35mm format) and a built-in
flash. Measuring a scant 4.1 (W) x 2.7 (H) x 1.5 (D)-inches,
it is small enough to fit in a shirt pocket, briefcase or
purse, thus combining convenience with quality and ease
of use. Other features include an optical viewfinder, a
2-inch LCD monitor for image preview and playback, auto
white balance with manual override, video out and exposure
compensation.
The PowerShot
A50 incorporates a newly developed 1/2.7-inch, 1.31 million
pixel CCD sensor that creates full-color, high-resolution
images up to 1280 x 960 pixels. The camera also offers an
optional 640 x 480 resolution setting that is ideal for
on-screen applications such as Web sites and CD-ROMs while
allowing more images to be recorded on a single CompactFlash
memory card.
At either resolution,
there are two JPEG compression settings: Fine Mode (approximately
7.5:l) for high quality, and Normal Mode (approximately
14:1) for maximum storage capacity. The PowerShot A50 also
offers a "CCD Raw" recording mode that permits image data
to be stored without compression (at 1280 x 960 resolution)
when the captured image must be as true to the original
scene as possible.
In addition,
the A50 supports the newly-standardized Digital Print Order
Format (DPOF), which allows the camera's built-in LCD monitor
to be used for tagging individual images with printing instructions
such as quantity and size. This feature, which is also supported
by Eastman Kodak Company, Fuji Photo Film, Inc. and other
manufacturers, is designed to streamline the process of
obtaining high-quality color prints by minimizing or eliminating
the need to fill in conventional paper order forms.
The new PowerShot
A50 will be available at authorized Canon dealers in the
second half of 1999. Estimated street price for the camera
will be established closer to the availability date.
I also spotted a waterproof
case for the same camera on the Japanese web site:
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