Samsung Cams Go Ultrawide, Ultraslim

During four digital camera announcements at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas today, Samsung introduced a wide-angle, 10X-optical-zoom camera that ranges from an extremely wide 24mm on the wide-angle end to 240mm on the telephoto end. In wide-angle capability, the Samsung HZ10W is the league leader at this year's CES among fixed-lens cameras.
The 10.2-megapixel HZ10W, which will be available in January for $300, also features a 720p high-definition shooting mode (30 frames per second with the H.264 codec) that saves video clips as one file, even after the shooter pauses the recording. Also in the mix are dual optical/digital image stabilization and today's usual host of face-detection, smile-trigger, and red-eye-correction modes.
In addition to the HZ10W, Samsung announced the ultracompact, 12.2-megapixel TL100, which is just 16.6 millimeters thick. The TL100 offers a new addition to Samsung's in-camera features: a Smart Auto mode, which automatically selects a scene mode or camera settings based on the shooting environment. The TL100, which also has a 3X optical zoom, MPEG-4 video capability, digital image stabilization, and a 2.7-inch-diagonal LCD, will be available in the spring, but pricing information has not yet been released.
Rounding out Samsung's CES 2009 camera announcements are two new entry-level models, the SL102 and SL420. The lower-end, 10.2-megapixel SL102 (pictured below) provides a 3X optical zoom, a 2.5-inch-diagonal LCD, motion-JPEG video shooting, face recognition, and digital image stabilization.
The slightly higher-end SL420 (pictured below) packs in much of the same features, but has a 5X optical zoom, dual optical/digital image stabilization, MPEG-4 video capability, a 2.7-inch LCD, blink detection, and a smile-trigger shutter. Both models will be available in the spring, but pricing is not yet available.
For the latest news and product releases at CES, see PC World's complete coverage of CES 2009.