CES 2007: The second new S series camera from Samsung announced today is the S850, which - as the name implies - is an 8MP / 5x zoom model. As well as lots of exposure modes (including A, S and M) and a 2.5-inch screen the S850 sports face recognition technology and, once again, 'Advanced Shake Reduction' that features neither a moving lens element nor a shifting CCD...

Press Release:

Samsung S850 Puts Quality and Advanced Functions in Stylish, Affordable Point & Shoot Package

8 January 2007 - Samsung Cameras 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 an affordable price.

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

Despite its diminutive proportions, the S850 offers a wealth of advanced features more commonly found among more creative compact cameras. 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 Manual Focus feature enlarges the centre portion of the image in shooting mode, enabling the user to quickly and easily focus on the exact object or spot of their choosing.

Other features include:

• Shutter speeds of up to 1/2000 sec
• An ISO equivalent of 1600
• A bright 2.5” LCD display
• “One-touch Playback” for instant playback of an image, even when the power is off
• 20 megabytes of internal memory, and can accept SD, MMC, SDHC memory cards up to 4 gigabytes
• 11 scene modes including Night, Portrait, Children, Landscape, Close-up, Sunset, Backlight, Fireworks and Beach & Snow
• Colour effects include B/W, sepia, blue, green and red
• Continuous Shooting mode and Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB), enabling the shooting of a series of images with varying exposures
• An Auto Macro function that automatically adjusts shooting distance and focus
• Samsung’s proprietary ASR (Advanced Shake Reduction) system helps to reduce camera shake and image blur during longer exposures situations
• Movie mode lets users capture video in various resolutions, from 320x240 to 800x600, at up to 20 frames per second in AVI (MPEG-4) format. Image stabilisation can be engaged to compensate for unwanted camera movement and subject blur
• A built-in microphone allows a 10-second voice memo to be attached to any still image

Samsung S850 specifications