Hardware News

Nuggets: Silver sexy Sharp shooter

Justin Pearse ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 10 Mar 2000 17:03 GMT

The 72x104x137mm VL-PD6H ViewCam weighs 590g and incorporates a slot for SmartMedia memory cards. You can store still images on memory cards for transferring to a PC. These images can also be displayed on video when you're recording in the Picture in Picture and Title Screen modes. Or, you could use the cards for indexing sections of the videotape.

It features Sharp's own Digital Gamma Correction option, which processes the picture to bump up contrast and detail in dark conditions. There's also a 10x zoom that can be extended digitally to 200x.

Sound-wise, there's a Zoom Microphone function, which increases the level of the external microphone when the camera's zoom lens is in use. This picks up the sound of the central object, leaving the wide band integral mike for wide angle shots. The 62mm LCD gives you a range of manual features, such as focus, shutter speed, iris control, white balance control and audio level. As an added bonus, the LCD can be detached and used as a remote control.

The ViewCam comes with a lithium-ion battery pack that shows the number of minutes left from a charge, as well as a 4MB SmartMedia card and mini DV videocassette. It hits the shops in April.

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