SAMSUNG Digimax U-CA 3 Provides Professional Features at Affordable Price, Perfect For Youth Market

SECAUCUS, N.J., (February 12, 2004) – PMA has always been the place to see what’s new in digital photography and get up close and personal with any new products before they hit the retail shelves. This year is no exception, and Samsung Camera is doing its part to keep tradition alive with introducing its new Digimax U-CA 3 compact digital camera at the show. Aimed at the young photographer or the budding photo enthusiast, the U-CA 3 packs a range of professional features into one compact, affordable body, scarcely bigger than a cell phone.

"The U-CA 3 is the ideal product for today's young, hip digital photo enthusiasts," said Ken Gerb, Senior Vice President, Sales for Samsung Cameras. "This camera is stylish, easy to use and packed with a host of cool new features that bring digital creativity and personalization to a whole new level. Like all of the Digimax cameras, the U-CA 3 is aggressively priced, and packed with all of the latest features and capabilities".

At the heart of the U-CA 3 is a 3.2 megapixel sensor, designed to take quality images in its fully automatic mode, while still providing the photographer with a host of manual controls for more creative photographic applications. Speaking of creativity, the U-CA 3 offers users a host of creative options that can't be found anywhere else in the world. For example, only the U-CA 3 comes equipped with special software applications that allow users to create customized, animated avatar characters that can be displayed and shared on the camera and the Internet.

Not only can these animated figures be stored on the camera and used as personalized "welcome" screens, but users can incorporate facial features from their actual photos to create animated avatar versions of their family and friends.

Once an avatar has been generated, users are presented with a myriad of hairstyles, outfits, background scenes and even dance moves to incorporate into the character's repertoire.

Another of the U-CA 3's innovative features is its Creative RGB Color Effect mode. This unique feature allows users to adjust and customize the levels of red, green and blue in all of the images taken with the U-CA3. In essence, the RGB function allows users to create multiple versions of a single image, all with different levels of depth, tonality and richness.

The U-CA 3 is more than just fun -- it's functional, versatile and easy-to-use as well. Its MPEG-4 video compression, for example, offers superior quality images (320 x 240 maximum resolution at 15fps) and four times the recording capacity of MJPEG. In fact, video recording time is limited only by the capacity of the external memory card in use at the time.

With its combination mechanical and electrical shutter, the camera has a top shutter speed of 1/2000 of a second, and can capture long exposures up to two seconds. A night mode extends the picture taking duration up to 15 seconds. A sharp, precise, 5.8mm - 17.4mm f/2.8-4.8 lens (equivalent to 38mm-114mm in 35mm film format) gives the photo enthusiast a high quality picture in any situation. A built in 3x digital zoom further extends the lens' capabilities. The U-CA 3 also includes a macro mode that focuses as close as 5cm, something few cameras in the class can boast.

The U-CA 3's ease of use continues with the colorful GUI (Graphical User Interface) that walks the photographer through all of the cameras many features and functions. The 1.5-inch TFT LCD screen acts as the nerve center of the U-CA 3 providing easy access to the camera's powerful features.

And powerful features abound, with the U-CA 3 able to meet the needs of the most critical of photographers. Thanks to preset shooting modes and custom effects, it's possible to adjust the camera to meet any photographic challenge. Three sharpness modes, five effect modes (including B&W, sepia and sunset), six white balance settings, and a variety of shooting modes further extend the capabilities of the camera.

The U-CA 3 not only captures perfect still images, but also records MPEG-4 video at up to 20 frames-per-second with audio at 320x240 size. Movies (as well as photographs) can be played back on the built-in LCD screen. The high-quality screen is also perfect for displaying a slide show of one's photographs from the 32 MB Memory Stick Duo card.

The compact storage media is the perfect choice for the U-CA 3, enabling the camera to assume such svelte proportions. Images can be transferred from the camera with either a Memory Stick card reader (sold separately) or via the built in USB 1.1 connection to both Macs and PCs.

The U-CA 3 comes bundled with MGI PhotoSuite or Adobe Photoshop Elements, and Digimax Viewer.

With a retail price of $229, and a compact "take-anywhere" form factor, the Digimax U?CA 3 is designed to be the perfect companion for the young or novice photographer. With an easy to use GUI, a colorful GUI, ultra-close macro mode, 3D Avatar, and MPEG-4 video, it's also a fully featured camera designed to capture any photographic possibility.

Samsung Opto-Electronics America, Inc., Secaucus, N.J., is the U.S. subsidiary of Samsung Techwin Co., Ltd., Sungnam Kyungki-Do, Korea. Samsung is the world's 11th largest company. Samsung Opto-Electronics markets a full line of auto focus cameras, zoom and digital cameras for the amateur as well as the professional under the Samsung band name. CCTV monitors and lenses, motorized zoom lenses, binoculars, observation and security systems, and video presenters are other products in the family of photographic and optical equipment.

Visit the Samsung Camera Web site at: www.samsungcamerausa.com

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