Jan 2, 2010 – Samsung leaked some information about a new camera this week that was slated to be unveiled at CES. Their new point-and-shoot was exposed on Samsung’s US website for a short time and then the pages were pulled down. Maybe it was an over anxious webmaster that clicked the publish button to soon or it was done deliberately to get a little buzz going before CES. Either way here’s what I know about the camera.
The model name it the CL80 and has a 14MP CCD with a 31mm wide angle lens and 7x optical zoom. The CL80 features Samsung’s Smart Auto 2.0 technology that analyzes key elements of your composition such as color, brightness, motion and subject; then automatically adjusts to take the perfect shot. Smart Auto has 16 different presets for a variety of shooting situations but can be bypassed for manual control.
Other features include optical and digital image stabilization, HD video recording with a resolution of
1280 x 720p at 30 frames per second in H.264 and built-in WiFi for easy sharing of photos and videos
with popular services. The 3.7” AMOLED touchscreen makes for much better and brighter interaction with the camera and Samsung’s Haptic sensor technology provides vibration and audio feedback with
every control.
From the initial specs the CL80 looks like a decent contender in the point-and-shoot market. I’ll look for more details including price over the next week as CES gets rolling.
Founder of Current Photographer, co-host of The Digital Photography Cafe Show, Designer, Photographer, and overall tech geek.
Sep 13, 2009
Aug 23, 2009 – Samsung announced their new point-and-shoot model, the CL65. While it’s 12.2 MP CCD, 5x optical zoom, 3.5” LCD touch-screen and 720p HD video recording are all nice features, what really makes this camera stand out is its built-in geo-tagging technology, Bluetooth 2.0, DLNA compatibility and Wi-Fi connectivity options. Now you can shoot an image, tag it with time and location data in the EXIF file, and upload using Bluetooth supported mobile phones or a Wi-Fi connection to your favorite social media sharing sites. You can even share your photos by connect wirelessly to your supported HDTV using DLNA. The CL65 will be available in September for an estimated selling price of $399.99. So if you’ve been looking for an easy-to-use point-and-shoot with built in geo-tagging, the CL65 may be a nice alternative to the Nikon P6000. 
Aug 23, 2009 – Samsung introductd their new DualView cameras the TL225 and TL220. As the name would suggest, the cameras have 2 LCD screens. The TL225 has a 3.5” LCD haptic touch screen on the back while the TL220 uses a slightly smaller one at 3”. Both cameras have a 1.5” screen on the front. According to Samsung, “The growing popularity of social networking sites has given rise to the self-portrait or profile picture with many consumers turning their digital camera on themselves to become the subject of their photo.” Using Samsung’s new powerful Smart Gesture User Interface with a built-in Gravity sensor, once the camera is turned on a simple tap on the front LCD activates it and the camera is automatically set to Self Portrait Mode with smile detection. This means if the user wants to take a self-portrait, they only need to tap and smile and the picture will be taken automatically. With their 12.2 MP CCDs, 27mm lens with 4.6x optical zoom and the ability to shoot 720p video, these cameras make for 2 interesting options when shopping for your new point-and-shoot camera. Look for them to hit the market in September with an MSRP of $349.99 for the TL225 and $299.99 for the TL220.