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Picture This DIGITAL CAMERAS AND CAMCORDERS
(FORTUNE Small Business) – >> Video camcorder: SONY DCR-TRV80 NETWORK HANDYCAM $1,500 If you like to pretend you're Martin Scorsese with a camcorder, Sony's souped-up Handycam will ensure you have no friends left whatsoever. A 3.5-inch LCD sports a touch screen for easy menu navigation and playback, and still photos measure in at two megapixels, spectacular for a camcorder. Clever touches abound: Night vision lets you photograph in near-total darkness, and wireless Bluetooth compatibility lets you beam your flick to other devices. An optional network adapter even lets you surf the web from your camera. But memo to Sony: As long as you were piling on the extras, 802.11 wireless would have been nice too. www.sony.com >> Digital camera: PENTAX OPTIO S $399 Pentax's miniature digicam will fit in an Altoids tin--great news if you like Lilliputian cameras, a bummer if you tend to lose Altoids tins. An engineering marvel, the 3.5-ounce Optio S packs a wealth of high-end features like spot metering, which renders more accurate exposures when shooting backlit subjects or those in snow; the ability to add voice comments to photos; and automated time-lapse photography. The tiny buttons will take some getting used to, but the sharp 3.2-megapixel images definitely won't. www.pentaxusa.com >> Camera phone: SAMSUNG SGH-V205 $399.99 (AVAILABLE THROUGH T-MOBILE) This tiny phone-cum-camera is more phone than camera. Images are captured at a puny 354 x 288 resolution, which means you won't be using it to make big prints for the den. But for taking quick wallet photos and sending them via e-mail (right from the phone), the SGH-v205 is easy to use, with intuitive menus and one of the most vivid color screens I've seen. The camera lens swivels, making it a cinch to take self-portraits (you can always blame bad results on the low resolution). And because the camera is built in, there's no unwieldy attachment to carry around. www.samsung.com --ALAN COHEN |
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