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Electronics Show `96 Hotline

(Original PC Watch page).

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Appearing earlier than Sony? MD Equipped Digital Camera.

Sharp MD Digital Camera ``MD-PS1''

Sharp is showing a digital camera ``MD-PS1'' which uses an MD as it's memory media. Speaking of MiniDisc digital cameras, it comes to mind that Sony showed a concept model called the ``Picture MD Camera'' at Windows World '96 in June. But it seems that Sharp is a step ahead and productization is going to happen.

The MD-PS1 on display looked considerably like a real product design, but unfortunately it was shut up in a transparent plastic case and we couldn't touch it directly. And, even questions regarding the product introduction date and price, etc., were answered only with ``We cannot say concretely''. Almost all of our questions did not receive an answer. Just the question ``Will it be offered for sale this year?'' was able to be answered with ``Hmm, that will probably be difficult''.

Since the main body is equipped with an MD drive, it's somewhat big. Looking from the front, it has a nearly square design. It comes with a 2.5 inch LCD display, the CCD has 350,000 pixels, the recording resolution is a VGA's 640 X 480 dots. Flash is also built in. When taking pictures the picture quality mode can be selected, high quality mode gives 1000 pictures, at standard resolution 2000 still images can be recorded. The MD media holds about 140MB. And, naturally, playback and recording of audio MDs is possible. Recording time is up to 80 minutes in monaural. Data is transfered to a personal computer through the rare parallel interface.

Because an MD drive is used which has a high power consuming motor, there is an interest in the battery life. However, regarding this, as you might expect, we couldn't get an answer. If the battery life is a practical limitation for its use, we wonder if this product may end up not being of interest to people who wish to take a large amount of pictures at once.

More information is available in English from Sharp's Electronics Show Report.

[MD-PS1]

Item			Means
Camera	Picture Recording Section	Image/Picture Size	350,000 pixels / 640X480 dots
		Normal / Telephoto	2 Focus settings: F4.0 f=6 / F5.6 f=12mm
		Macro	Close up function included
		Picture quality formats (storable image quantity)	High quality:1,000 pictures, Standard quality 2,000 pictures
		Interval mode	Included
		Flash	Included
		Audio / Dubbing (Image & audio combined mode)	Images: 365 Audio: Mono 80 minute, Stereo 40 minute.
		Date stamp function	Automatic year, month, & day stamping
	Playback Functions	LCD section	2.5 inch TFT LCD (backlit)
		Index display	included
		Interval playback	included
		Zoom playback	2X
Data Memory	Record Functions	Disc Type	MD Data Disc
		Memory Capacity	140MB
		Recording Method	Magnetic Modulation Direct Overwrite Method
		Average Data Transfer Rate	130.6KB/second
		Average access time	500ms (1/3 stroke)
		Output Functions	Parallel I/O terminal
Audio Section	MD record playback edit	Disc Type	MD Audio Disc
		Audio Record / Playback Method	ATRAC system stereo / mono
		Recording function	included
		Playback function	included
		Audio quality adjustment function	Bass boost
		Input functions	Character input function included
		Display functions	Character display function included
		Edit Functions	ID Edit

[Reported by Ishibashi]

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PC Watch editor [email protected]

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