Samsung Pro 815

Pro 815

Manufacturer
Samsung
SKU
PRO815
19-10-2005
The Pro 815 enables you to handle any shooting condition and situation, and demonstrates all the technologies of Samsung Techwin, the leading camera manufacturer in Korea. The release of the Pro 815 provides evidence that Korean digital camera designs are equivalent to or better than Japan's in terms of technology. The Pro 815 has the world's best 15x optical zoom, the world's largest 3.5 inch LCD, the world's first top LCD, and a Li-Ion battery with the world's largest capacity.

The 15x optical zoom of the Pro 815 realizes the all-in-one concept of a digital camera. From the analogue era to the digital era, it can be said that the performance of a camera depends on the expression of an image via its lens. In the transition from SLR in the analogue era to DSLR in the digital era, camera user trends are also changing, and advanced digital cameras are being developed from normal digital cameras. During this process, users buy an interchangeable lens whose angle of view is different due to the limitations of expressing images via a lens. That is very inconvenient when you take pictures. The 15x optical zoom function of the Pro 815 is equivalent to the 28mm ~ 420mm in 35mm format, and includes the 28~85mm (wide angle zoom lens) and the 80~400mm (telephoto zoom lens) that DSLR users usually enjoy. In addition, the application of the world-beating Schneider lens enables you to achieve clear and natural-looking images with high resolution. Thus, with the Pro 815, you can overcome the limitations of expressing images via a lens.

Shooting and Playing Images via the World's Largest 3.5” LCD
The Pro 815 is equipped with the world's largest 3.5 LCD, with a 235,000 pixel resolution, and the super-large LCD supports a 160 degree wide viewing angle so that you can easily and clearly view the images taken. The 16.7 million colours supported by this LCD result in natural-looking colours. In addition, applying Transmissive with Micro Reflective (TMR) technology enhances visibility when shooting images in the field. A separate electronic viewfinder is employed.

Various Display Modes via the Super-large LCD
The Pro 815 provides various display modes via the 3.5 inch LCD. Existing digital cameras enable you to combine 9 different shots in the LCD when playing images, but the Pro 815 enables you to combine 25 different shots. In addition, you can search desired images more quickly via a jog dial. The Pro 815 supports a Histogram function that allows you to check and control exposure compensation conveniently. A grid display that facilitates changing shooting angles is available. In particular, you can get the optimized shooting angle and mode by checking image information just prior to shooting, displaying an image in the center with icons and image information around the margins.

The Pro 815 provides advanced manual shooting functions that resemble the functions used by professional camera users. The Pro 815 offers a manual exposure (A, S, M) and manual focus control function. The three rings around the lens are used for zoom, manual focus, and exposure compensation. In particular, the exposure compensation function is controlled by a ring so that you can respond to various exposure conditions rapidly, and beginners can conveniently use this function with ease. In addition, it might seem that you are operating a manual camera when using the two jog dials used for controlling the aperture and shutter speed. Various focus modes including AF Lock, continuous auto focus, and AF area setting are supported. Apart from the Automatic Exposure Bracketing (AEB) and Automatic Focus Bracketing (AFB) functions, various White Balance Bracketing (WBB) functions are built into this camera so that you can obtain natural-looking colours. Furthermore, adjusting contrast and saturation enables the expression of enriched colours. Thus, you can achieve images with high picture quality, just like advanced users.

Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB)
As mentioned above, Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) allows you to take each shot with minor variations in the reference exposure, which is determined based on the camera measurement for brightness. The variation interval for exposure can be adjusted by ±2 step(s). You can choose an image with the most appropriate level of brightness via the super-large 3.5” LCD. This can be a particularly useful function when it is used under special exposure conditions such as backlight, snow or beach.

Auto Focus Bracketing (AFB)
The Auto Focus Bracketing (AFB) function allows you to take each shot with minor variations in the focal distance measured by the camera. Since the variation in the focal distance is made based on a user-defined interval, it can be a very useful function when taking a close-up shot or shooting a subject with a lot of movement. This function helps you to obtain a clear image outcome in any circumstance.

White Balance Bracketing (WBB)
“White Balance” refers to the unique color temperature of a light source. By default, digital cameras are set to Auto White Balance (AWB) mode. In AWB mode, cameras match the color temperature of a light source – such as the sun – to their own color temperature to enable natural color expression. However, even if the AWB function is used, the color temperature measured by the camera for a light source may still be different from the actual color temperature of the source due to environmental factors. This results in reddish or bluish tones in the picture taken, depending on the difference in color temperatures. The White Balance Bracketing (WBB) function of the Pro 815 allows you to capture the most natural image by adjusting its setting based on color temperature measurement of the light source.

The Pro 815 provides a shooting function with an uncompressed RAW file that has up till now only been offered by advanced DSLR cameras. You can modify the colours, contrast, and resolution to suit yourself after shooting an image. Compared with an analogue camera, a RAW file is like a film that has not been developed. By developing the film, you can obtain the desired colour and suitable gray scale. In the case of a digital camera, you can achieve completed images through a procedure similar to analogue film development by using the RAW file editing programme provided separately.

The sRGB in normal use cannot express colours fully, so the final images do not display natural-looking colours. However, the Pro 815 supports Adobe RGB colour space, which offers rich, full colour so that you can achieve natural-looking colours.

Memory

Memory upgrade 
4 GB

Video

Maximum video resolution 
640 x 480 pixels
Video formats supported 
AVI (MJPEG)
Motion JPEG frame rate
25 fps

Technical details

Interface 
USB 2.0
Colour of product 
Black
Minimum hard disk space 
200 MB
ISO sensitivity 
50, 100, 200, 400, Auto
Weight 
870.5g
Minimum processor 
Pentium II 450Mz / PowerMac G3
Focal length range (f-f) 
7.2 - 108 mm
Minimum system requirements
DirectX 9.0c
Lens focal range 
F2.2 - F4.6
Aspect ratio 
3:2,16:9
Bundled software 
Driver (Win/Mac)<br />Digimax Master<br />Digimax Reader
Camera shutter speed 
2 - 1/4000s
Camera shutter type 
electronic, mechanical
Compatible memory cards 
cf
Compatible operating systems 
Windows 98/98SE/2000/ME/XP<br />Mac OS 10.0 +
Contrast adjustment
Y
Display 
LCD
Effective sensor resolution
8000000 pixels
Flash modes 
auto, fill-in, Flash off, Red-eye reduction, Slow synchronization
Focus
TTL
Light metering 
Centre-weighted, Spot
Megapixel 
8 MP
Optical sensor size 
2/3 "
Optical zoom 
15x
PictBridge 
Y
Saturation adjustment
Y
Scene modes 
Backlight, beach, Children, Close-up (macro), Documents, dusk, Fireworks, Landscape, Night, Portrait, Sunset
Self-timer 
2 - 10 s
Sensor type 
CCD
Video capability 
Y
Viewfinder type 
electrical
White balance 
auto, Cloudy, custom modes, daylight, Fluorescent, Tungsten
I/O ports 
A/V

Ports & interfaces

Connection to PC 
Y
DC-in jack 
Y

Display

Display resolution (numeric) 
235000 pixels

Technical details

Display diagonal 
8.89 cm (3.5")

Audio

Audio formats supported 
WAV

Lens system

Digital zoom 
4x
Focal length (35mm film equivalent)
28 - 420 mm

Camera

Photo effects 
black&white, Negative film, Sepia
Camera playback
movie, single image, slide show, thumbnails
Playback zoom (max)
1x
Image editing
resizing, rotating, trimming
Album organization
Y
Camera movie function
Y

Focusing

Macro focusing range (tele)
0.6 - 2.1m
Macro focusing range (wide)
0.1 - 0.7m
Normal focusing range
0.5 - ∞
Super Macro focusing range
0.03 - 0.7m

Light exposure

Light exposure modes 
aperture priority AE, auto, manual, shutter priority AE

Flash

Built-in flash 
Y
Flash range (tele)
1.5 - 3m
Flash range (wide)
0.7 - 6m
Flash recharging time
5s

System requirements

Minimum RAM 
64 MB
Mac compatibility 
Y

Packaging content

Battery technology 
Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion)

Picture quality

Image sensor size
50.8/76.2 mm (2/3")
Maximum image resolution 
3264 x 2448 pixels
Image formats supported 
RAW (DNG), TIFF, JPEG (DCF), EXIF 2.2, DPOF 1.1
Still image resolution(s) 
3264x2448<br />3264x2176<br />3264x1840<br />2400x1800<br />1632x1224<br />1024x768<br />640x480
Supported aspect ratios 
3:2, 16:9

Weight & dimensions

Width 
13.55 cm
Depth 
8.7 cm
Height 
7.86 cm

Other features

USB 2.0 ports quantity 
1
Digital SLR 
Y
Lens system 
N