Samsung has announced five 5 megapixel cameras today in a bid to 'drive penetration of this important sector'. The first two introduce a new L series in the shape of the L50 and the wideangle Digimax L55W. The metal-bodied L55W sports the biggest LCD on a compact Samsung camera at 2.8 inches. It has a 28 - 135 mm lens(4.8x zoom), 2cm macro function and MPEG 4 movie mode. The L50 is pocket-sized and has a 3x optical zoom, and MPEG 4 movie mode which you can pause. You can also use the zoom during recording but if you do so you will lose the sound.

Specifications

5m pixels.

3 x optical zoom.

4 x digital zoom.

2.5in high resolution colour LCD screen.

32Mb internal memory, SD compatible.

Movie capture and sound recording, MPEG-4, VGA 30fps with optical and digital zoom, movie image stabiliser.

USB connection.

PictBridge compatible.

Includes rechargeable Li-ion battery and charger.

Software/compatibility: Windows 98/98SE/2000/ME/XP and Power Mac G3 or later.

Weight 125g.

Size (H)94, (W)55, (D)22mm

Review

The Digimax L55W has various scene modes to help you obtain the best picture results in a variety of settings. The eleven scene modes supported by the Digimax L55W are Night Scene, Portrait, Children, Landscape, Closeup, Sunset, Dawn, Backlight, Fireworks, Beach & Snow and Text. In particular, Text Recognition is a feature that allows you to shoot documents such as books, papers and magazines and then extract text from the image taken using the "Digimax Reader" text recognition software in the box.

Source: http://www.dpreview.com/