Samsung announces PL80 digital compact

The Samsung PL80 offers an exceptional 28mm wide-angle Samsung lens which provides consumers with a 5x optical zoom (28mm-140mm / 35mm equivalent), giving users the ability to capture more of a desired scene from farther away. Consumers will benefit from Samsung’s Dual Image Stabilisation (IS) technology, which gives them the ability to capture crystal-clear images by combining both Optical and Digital Image stabilisers to produce sharp images. The Optical IS intelligently compensates for hand trembling by shifting the lens in the opposite direction. When Optical IS isn’t quite enough, the Digital IS automatically takes over to ensure virtually blur-free images.

Samsung’s PL80 comes fully equipped with an array of automatic controls, including Samsung’s advanced scene recognition technology known as Smart Auto. Designed to simplify the way consumers take a photograph, Smart Auto analyses key elements of the composition of the image such as colour, brightness, motion, and subject, and then selects the appropriate scene mode which will produce the best results possible. The PL80 also features useful auto focusing options such as object tracking. With this, users can select any object or area within the frame and automatically programme the camera to lock and keep its focus on the subject even if it’s moving within the frame. In addition, the PL80 offers Samsung’s Perfect Portrait System – a series of automatic technologies which take the guess work out of shooting beautiful portraits. Key features of the Perfect Portrait System include Face Detection, Samsung’s Smile Shot and Blink Detection technologies, Red‑Eye Fix mode, and Beauty Shot.

The PL80 comes equipped with video recording at a resolution of 640×480 and recording at 30 frames-per-second.

Priced at 150 Euro the camera will be available from March 2010.