Las Vegas, NV (January 7, 2007) -- Samsung Camera is pleased to introduce the Samsung S850 compact point-and-shoot digital camera. With an 8.0 mega-pixel image sensor, a host of advanced capabilities and a 5x optical zoom lens, the S850 is the ideal camera for photographers seeking a compact, full-featured digital camera at a highly accessible price point of $199.99.

With shutter speeds that reach up to an effective 1/2000 sec and an ISO equivalent of 1600, users will be able to take advantage of the S850’s high image resolution in many demanding settings, including low-light and while shooting fast moving subjects. Samsung’s proprietary ASR image stabilization system helps to reduce camera shake and image blur during longer exposures and in situations where holding the camera steady is impossible or a tripod is unavailable.

The S850 also offers Samsung’s Intelligent Face Recognition Technology, which detects the subject’s face and automatically adjusts auto focus and auto exposure to ensure the best possible image quality in portraits and other shots featuring people. The AF function instantaneously recognizes the faces of up to 9 subjects and accurately focuses on them all. The AE function then takes over, setting the appropriate exposure to ensure the highest image quality.

Despite its diminutive proportions and price point, the S850 offers a wealth of advanced features more commonly found among DSLRs and other professional-level products. With aperture priority, shutter priority and manual modes, continuous shooting and AEB, the Samsung S850 puts complete creative control right at the user’s fingertips. Its revolutionary Wise MF feature enlarges the center portion of the image in shooting mode, enabling the user to quickly and easily focus on the exact object or spot of their choosing.

The S850 features several dedicated modes for common-yet-difficult shooting situations including Children (with a high shutter speed to freeze motion while avoiding blur), Backlight (to compensate for a rear-lit subject), and Portrait (to bring the subject into strong focus while deemphasizing the background). A dedicated hot key brings up the camera’s Special Effect processing options, which include Photo Frame (users can choose one of several frames to border an image), Highlight (sharpens the foreground while softening the focus of the background) and Screen Splits (allows users to combine multiple images into a single file).

The S850’s robust in-camera image effects include conversion to sepia-tone and black-and-white. When enabled, Samsung’s Wise Shot feature automatically takes two consecutive pictures in rapid succession ­-- one with ASR enabled and one with the flash -- and prompts the user to review both and select the preferred version of the picture. A built-in microphone allows a 10-second voice memo to be attached to any still image. In addition, images can be trimmed, resized, and rotated in the camera without the use of a PC. Slide Show automatically scrolls through photos and displays them on the bright and vivid 2.5” TFT LCD screen, which automatically detects environmental illumination and adjusts its brightness for optimal image viewing.

The S850’s Movie mode enables users capture video in one of four resolutions, from 320x240 to 800x600, at up to 20 frames per second and encoded in AVI MPEG-4 format. Just as in still-picture mode, the S850’s image stabilization system can be engaged to compensate for unwanted camera movement and subject blur, and movie clips can be reviewed and edited directly in the camera. In addition, the S850’s Continuous Movie mode allows its operator to pause, then resume filming of video clips without having to save the clips as individual files.

The included USB 2.0 cable, and CD-ROM containing Samsung’s Digimax Master software (compatible with Windows 98/2000/ME/XP and Macintosh OS X 9.2 through 10.4) will get even beginning photographers up and shooting right out of the box.

The S850 contains 45 megabytes of internal memory, and can accept Secure Digital (SD) flash memory cards up to 4 gigabytes, and over 1,300 images can fit on a 256 megabyte card, depending on the selected image quality. Users can save images in one of 8 resolutions, ranging from 640x480 pixels all the way up to 3264x2448 pixels.

The Samsung S850 will be available in the spring of 2007.

Samsung Opto-Electronics America, Inc., Secaucus, N.J., is the U.S. subsidiary of Samsung Techwin Co., Ltd., Sungnam Kyungki-Do, Korea. 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 brand name.

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