Samsung DSLR and Lenses Unveiled

January 17, 2006: Norwegian website www.Digit.no has scooped other imaging websites to reveal details of Samsung’s new interchangeable-lens DSLR camera plus two new lenses.
Basedon the Pentax *ist DS2 body (which is no surprise following last year’sjoint development agreement between Pentax and Samsung) and using thePentax lens mount, the new Samsung GX-1S has a 23.5 x 15.7 mm CCDsensor with 6.1-megapixel effective resolution. It also sports a2.5-inch LCD screen and pentaprism viewfinder with 95% field of viewand a Natural-Bright-Matte focusing screen. The viewfinder eyepiece isdiopter adjustable. The camera supports ISO settings from 200 to3200 and a continuous shooting speed of 2.8 fps for up to 8 frames inJPEG mode. Shutter speeds range from 30 to 1/4000 second and abulb setting is provided.
The GX-1S has a built-in retractableP-TTL auto pop-up flash with a Guide Number of 15.6 (at ISO 200) andincludes TTL phase-matching autofocus with 11 AF points. TTLopen-aperture 16-segment metering is provided with multi-pattern,centre-weighted and spot metering options. Ten white balance modes(including three fluorescent settings and a manual mode) are provided.
Imagedata is stored on an SD card (up to 1GB guaranteed) and the cameraoffers PEF.RAW and JPEG shooting modes. Power is supplied by four 4xAALithium, Alkaline or Ni-MH batteries or two CR-V3 (Lithium) batteries.The camera body weighs 505 grams and measures 125 x 92.5 x 67 mm. Itwill be offered with two Schneider-Kreuznach D-XENON lenses, an 18 ~55mm f3.5 ~ f5.6 zoom (equivalent to 28 ~ 84.2mm in 35mm format)and a 50 ~ 200mm f4 ~ f5.6 zoom (equivalent to 76.5 ~ 306mm in 35mmformat). Both lenses have Pentax KAF mounts.
Worldwide releasedates and pricing are currently unknown, although more infromation maybe revealed at the PMA Trade Show in late February. Visit theAustralian Samsung distributor, www.adeal.com.au for updates.