Samsung HZ1: High zoom kicks off Photokina

By Rich Trenholm on 23 September 2008, 4:07pm

Camera'd out yet? We've had announcements from just about everybody, and Photokina has only just started! In a novel twist, Samsung held off announcing its new swag until the show had actually opened -- gadzooks! -- with the superzoomin' HZ1 shown off at the company's press conference today.

It's a superzoom, boasting a 10x Schneider Kreuznach optical zoom lens. It also has a decent wide-angle 24-240mm, equivalent to a 35mm camera. The slender frame and specifications pitch the HZ1 against Panasonic's TZ5.

The HZ1 sports a 69mm (2.7-inch) LCD screen. Features include face detection, smile shot and blink detection. You also get red-eye reduction and a beautifying feature, which we're thinking of calling ugly reduction.

It also does HD video at 1,280x720 pixels and 30 frames per second. You can use that 10x optical zoom while filming, which is something many people want to see, although we're not that fussed.

Things we learnt while writing this Crave: Samsung is a chaebol, which is a type of Korean, family-controlled, government-assisted corporation. For more fascinating facts like that head for our forums. -Rich Trenholm