Canon U.S.A. has introduced new PowerShot S330 and S200 “Digital ELPH” digital cameras. Both cameras are Mac OS X compatible.
Aside from differences in their optical zoom range (the S200 includes a 2x 35-70mm f/2.8-4.0 while the S330 includes a 3x 35-105mm f/2.7-4.7), both cameras provide a similar range of features including: a 2.0 megapixel CCD sensor; an enhanced user interface with cross-configured camera controls; direct print capability with Canon’s new CP-100 and CP-10 Card Photo Printers, as well as the S820D Photo printer for making direct, borderless prints up to 8.5 x 11-inches; movie mode with sound; Photo Effects mode; a shutter speed range of 15 seconds to 1/1500 second; spot metering; selectable ISO settings from 50 to 400; built-in red-eye reduction light-guide flash; and zoom playback up to 10x.
A new Intelligent Orientation sensor has been added to both models to detect whether an image has been recorded horizontally or vertically. During image playback, the sensor detects the proper orientation of each image, and previews them accordingly without the need to rotate the camera for image viewing, according to Yukiaki Hashimoto, vice president and general manager, Photographic Products Division, Canon U.S.A. It also adjusts AF, AE and white balance accordingly, he added. Similarly, when using the ZoomBrowser EX and ImageBrowser software included with the cameras, vertical and horizontal picture orientation is automatically detected and appropriately displayed, Hashimoto said.
The PowerShot S330 and S200 can record movies with sound in VGA (640 x 480 pixels), QVGA (320 x 240 pixels) and Q2VGA (160 x 120 pixels) at 20 frames per second. Up to 4 seconds of continuous recording is possible in VGA, 10 seconds in QVGA, and up to 30 seconds in the Q2VGA format. Plus, the PowerShot S330 features a built-in speaker for audio playback, as well as a Voice Memo feature that allows users to add up to 60 seconds of sound annotation to any captured image on the camera’s CF card.
Both digital cameras feature a 1/2.7-inch, 2.0 megapixel CCD sensor that creates full color or black-and-white images up to 1600×1200 pixels when set to the camera’s Large resolution mode. The camera also offers additional resolution settings of 1024×768 and 640×480 when set in the Medium or Small modes. The new cameras are compatible with Type I CompactFlash Cards and will be shipped with an 8MB CF card.
Each camera comes with QuickTime 5.0, Canon RemoteCapture 2.4 and PhotoStitch 3.1 for both Macintosh and Windows, plus ImageBrowser 2.3 and a Photoshop-compatible plug-in for the Mac. The Canon PowerShot S330 and S200 Digital ELPH are due in March and April and have a suggested retail price of US$499 and $449, respectively.
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