Panasonic unveils wide-angle HD digital compact camera

Secaucus (NJ) - Panasonic today announced a new compact digital camera capable of shooting pictures with a resolution of up to 12.2 megapixels and 720p high definition videos.

The new Lumix DMC- FX100, scheduled to be available in July, will expand the firm’s existing FX series of compact digital still cameras, which currently top out at a resolution of 7.2 megapixels. The new model will support six 4:3 image resolution modes, ranging from 4000x3000 pixels down to 640 x 480, as well as four 16:9 image modes, which include 4000 x 2248 pixels on the high end as well as 1920 x 1080 pixels and image format for HDTVs.

The high-definition theme continues with the video capability of the camera : Users can record movies in 1280 x 720 (15 frames per second), but can also select less storage intensive recording sizes such as 640x480, 320x240 and 848x400.

According to the manufacturer, the 0.33-pound light FX100 has a newly developed 28 mm wide-angle lens with 3.6x zoom capability (100 mm 35 mm equivalent), which puts the camera in a very exclusive league of point of shoot cameras that offer this feature. Also new is an enhanced flash that has a reach of up 50 ft. Other technical features include 27 MB built-in flash memory, a burst shoot mode (2 frames/s in full resolution) and a 2.5" LCD.

The Lumix DMC- FX100 supports SD, SDHC and MMC flash memory cards to store images. Panasonic said that the camera is able to take about 320 pictures on one battery charge.