New Samsung DSC with OLED ready for release

Samsung's new NV line of digital cameras which have been on the show circuit for months has finally been officially released. The big buzz generator among the newbies is the 10.2 megapixel NV24 HD, which sports a 2.5-inch AMOLED--Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode--display. AMOLEDs have been hailed by camera cognoscenti as the coming thing in display technologies. They're not subject to viewing angle problems, show more natural color, are bright even outdoors (haven't we heard that claim before?) and, according to Samsung, have response speeds as much as 2000 times faster than conventional TFT LCDs.

As you may have guessed, the HD in the unit's nomenclature stands for High Definition. The camera can shoot 1280 x 720 video with stereo sound at 30 frames per second. It stores video files in the latest version of H.264, a standard for the greater compression of video without quality loss, and uses MJPEG to improve contrast efficiency--i.e., dynamic range--of video shot with the device.

The snapper, which can be controlled with a remote, has a 24mm ultra wide angle 3.6 optical zoom and a punchlist of features that have become standard for top shelf point-and-shooters these days--optical and digital image stablization; face, blink and smile detection; and in-camera red-eye correction.

Although Samsung says that the NV24 will be available this month, its availability date is listed as April 15 at Amazon Prime where the DSC will be selling for $349.99.

In addition to NV24, Samsung also announced the NV40, NV30 and NV4.