Samsung Digimax i5 is announced today. The Samsung Digimax i5 is an ultra-slim digital camera with a depth of just 17.3mm. The Samsung i5 has a 5 megapixel sensor, 3 optical zoom lens and 2.5” high resolution LCD with 230,000 pixels. Available in in silver, black, red and blue, the Samsung i5 will cost under £250 in the UK.

Samsung UK Press Release

Digimax i5 - in the palm of your hand. Blending form and function

Samsung launches the i5 - its first ever ultra-slim digital camera with internal zoom technology, set to retail for under £250. Measuring only 17.3mm this is truly one of the slimmest cameras on the market today.

Marking the start of a series of camera announcements from Samsung, the i5 houses 5 mega-pixel resolution in a stunningly compact stainless steel body. The internal zoom technology delivers 15x zoom (3x optical zoom; 5x digital zoom) allowing the i5 to retain its ultra-sleek form.

The smallest digital camera Samsung has ever made, the i5 comes in silver, black, red and blue shades.

The i5 achieves clearer image quality by integrating the 3x optical zoom capability and the exclusive SHD lens technology. With a 5 mega-pixel CCD that utilizes primary colour filtering technology, it provides excellent sensitivity and colour reproduction.

All this can be viewed through the massive 2.5” high resolution LCD. With 230k pixels this screen provides a great place to compose, review and edit your shots and movies.

Key features:

Safety Flash - The function disables flash lighting in an indoor setting where there is insufficient light, so preventing the incidence of red eye. Unique Samsung algorithms are then used to interpret colour and sharpness data to produce a single image file.

A separate SF (Safety Flash) button makes it easy for the user to access the feature.

MPEG-4 - high-compression high-quality video format - record high quality movies of up to 30 frames per second at VGA resolution and play it on a TV without any loss of quality. When used with a 256MB memory, the i5 can record up to 2 hours 10 minutes of movie with sound, and can be used like a camcorder due to its 3x optical zoom capability.

Flexible charging system - makes charging and data transfer easy. The i5 comes with a cradle to enable even faster and simpler charging and image transfer.

The M button - the user can select between Automatic, Manual and Scene Modes more quickly and easily.

Auto Macro - automatically adjusts the shooting distance and focus from between 5cm to infinity. The user does not need to activate the macro function separately in order to take advantage of this feature. Furthermore, the super macro function enables subjects to be photographed as close as 1cm.

Movie stabilizer function - maintains steady recording through automatic detection and correction of lateral and vertical camera movement. Also provides a continuous video recording function that allows the user to pause and resume video recording at any time.

Built-in movie editing function - allows movie clips to be edited within the camera.

Four different special effects Colour, Photo Frame, Highlight and Composite. The Colour effect includes red, blue and green. Highlight function enables the user to emphasize a subject by putting its surroundings into soft focus. Photo Frame lets the user choose from various frames and add them to a picture, which can then be uploaded to a website, or personal blog. With Composite, the user can divide the shooting scene into 2-4 segments and save them into a single file.

Various scene modes - enables the best picture to be taken in a variety of settings: Night Scene, Portrait, Children, Landscape, Text Recognition, Sunset, Dawn, Backlight, Fireworks, Beach and Snow. Text mode extends the camera’s application potential - the user can shoot documents such as books and magazines and then extract text from the images taken using the Digimax Viewer text recognition software included.

The built-in album editing feature can also be used to manage pictures, as well as making the organisation of pictures easier and quicker. PictBridge also allows the user to print 5 mega-pixel photos directly from the camera on a compatible printer, without the need for a PC. In addition, it supports USB 2.0, which can be used to provide various useful functions at a much faster rate than USB 1.1.