Panasonic Announces New LUMIX TZ50 With Wi-Fi Capability

The well-known international brand name for Japanese electric products manufacturer Matsushita Electric Industrial, Panasonic has announced a new addition to its award-winning TZ-family of digital cameras – LUMIX DMC-TZ50, featuring 9.1 megapixel image sensor, Venus Engine IV, 3-inch LCD display, 28mm wide-angle LEICA lens, 10x optical zoom, 720p HD video recording function, Intelligent Auto Mode, built-in wireless LAN communications function (Wi-Fi) that complies with IEEE 802.11b/g standards, and access to T-Mobile HotSpot service. Once connected, the users can access Google’s Picasa Web Album right from the camera, without having to use a PC or mobile phone.

“This advanced digital camera makes it possible for users to share their photos with friends and family with unprecedented ease and without a computer,” said Alex Fried, National Marketing Manager, Imaging, Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company. “Active users will appreciate the TZ50’s Wi-Fi capabilitilies so they can share photos whilst on-the-go, but they will also benefit from HD video recording, a 10x optical zoom and a 28mm wide-angle lens, so capturing images, whether far or wide; moving or still – is all possible with this compact camera.”

Intuitive Technologies Of Panasonic’s Advanced Intelligent Auto (iA) Mode:

• Intelligent Exposure – Photos will no longer be under- or over-exposed. Instead, the TZ50 instantly analyses the framed image and adjusts the brightness in areas that are too dark because of dim lighting, backlighting, or the use of the flash. The camera will automatically adjust the brightness accordingly.
• Digital Red-eye Correction – Helps eliminate the red-eye problem that sometimes results when taking flash shots at night. Incorporated into the built-in flash, the camera emits a small preliminary flash before the main flash which detects red-eye and digitally corrects it.
• MEGA O.I.S. – Gyrosensors detect hand-shake and the lens system shifts to compensate, helping to prevent blurry images.
• Intelligent ISO – Determines if the photo subject is moving and changes the ISO setting and shutter speed accordingly.
• Intelligent Scene Selector – Senses the ambient conditions, recognises the shooting environment and will automatically select the appropriate scene mode from: Scenery, Portrait, Macro, Night Portrait or Night Scenery mode. This intuitive technology helps the consumer use the most common scene modes that are built into the camera, but often go unused, without making any manual adjustments.
• Face Detection – Detects faces anywhere in the frame and automatically chooses the optimal focus and exposure settings so that portraits come out clear and crisp. Detecting up to 15 faces, Panasonic’s Face Detection can even track a face if the subject is moving.
• Continuous AF – The Continuous AF (auto focus) system maintains focus on the subject even without pressing a shutter button halfway, thus minimizing the AF time.

The new Panasonic LUMIX DMC-TZ50 digital camera will be available in coming May 2008 for about $450.