Panasonic announce new digital camera

Panasonic (Matsushita Electric) just announced the Coolshot II which features a 1.3 megapixel CCD (1280x960) and TWO CF card slots, interestingly this camera supports an optional plug-in CF format USB interface.

The camera will go on sale in Japan on 25th June priced at 74,800 YEN (around US$600). The optional USB interface is priced at 13,500 YEN (around $110) which plugs into one of the two CF slots and acts as an interface to the camera and other CF card (for higher speed downloading and presumably some amount of camera control). This is the first time we've seen the CF connection format used for other devices in a digital camera.

Brief Specifications

• 1/3" 1.3 Megapixel CCD (1280x960, 640x480)
• 34-102mm equiv. lens (3x zoom), F2.8 - 4.7
• 2 second image-to-image cycle time
• Auto whitebalance with 3 settings override
• JPEG formats: Super-fine, fine, normal, digital zoom (640x480 center crop)
• Burst ability: 320x240 @ 10fps up to 4 seconds, 640x480 @ 2fps up to 8 seconds
• Exposure compensation +/-2EV in 0.5EV steps
• Dual CF slots
• 1.8" TFT LCD
• Included: 8MB CF Card, case, strap, cables, manuals etc.
• Size 118mm x 68mm x 52mm (same outer dimensions, slightly thicker than the Canon A5)
• Weight 280g (little heavier than the A5)
• Optional USB kit plugs into second CF card slot.