Kodak EasyShare DX6490 Digital Camera
Establishes a New
Price-to-Performance Benchmark for 'Advanced Amateur' Photographers
High Performance EasyShare Camera Delivers Professional-Level Features and
Image Quality for Under $500
ROCHESTER, N.Y., Eastman Kodak Company
today unveiled its most advanced EasyShare digital camera to date, the Kodak EasyShare
DX6490 zoom digital camera. With its unique combination of sophisticated features,
exceptional performance, and US$499 suggested retail price, it establishes a new
price-to-performance benchmark for 'advanced amateur' photography, giving more people the
opportunity to shoot like a professional.
The DX6490 camera is the first to unite a
professional quality Schneider-Kreuznach Variogon 10X optical zoom lens (38-380 mm
equivalent) with a f/2.8 f/3.7 maximum aperture; a new Kodak Color Science image
processing chip for the richest, most accurate colors; low-light precision auto focusing;
and multiple shooting modes for optimal creative control all with effortless operation
that people have come to expect from Kodak. It will be available worldwide beginning this
September.
"So many digital photographers want
expert results, but without the cost or hassle. This camera proves our ability to deliver
powerful performance with the very best color and image quality — quality that lives
up to Kodak's renowned photography heritage," said Yusuke Kojima, general manager of
Kodak's consumer digital camera business and a vice president, Eastman Kodak Company.
"The DX6490 camera opens the door to a new world of digital photography, placing more
power, control and quality in the owner's hands. It's an unequaled combination of price
and performance."
The 4-megapixel camera has been designed
with some of the world's highest quality components working in concert to afford
outstanding quality, even in challenging photographic situations. Imagine being able to
capture the beauty and character of a friendly face while the sun sets in the background.
With Kodak's integration of the Schneider-Kreuznach Variogon 10X optical zoom lens, the
Kodak Color Science image processing chip, and intelligent matrix metering, photographers
faced with this scenario will achieve portraits with edge-to-edge sharpness and
brightness, rich color, and highly accurate exposure. Because of the tight incorporation
of these and other sophisticated features, DX6490 camera owners are consistently presented
with remarkable dynamic range, fine detail and delicate highlights — results that
advanced amateurs have typically associated with high-end digital SLRs.
The focal length (38-380 mm equivalent)
of the professional quality Schneider-Kreuznach Variogon 10X zoom lens gives photographers
superb framing flexibility. It enables users to get close to the action and fill the
frame, or achieve more natural poses from subjects by shooting them from a distance. The
long lens also provides the "flattened" perspective and narrow depth of field
that portrait photographers crave, all in a compact, SLR-like body. With a f/2.8 maximum
aperture at wide angle and a f/3.7 at 10X — and the ability to step down to f/8
— the camera is well-suited to perform in both low and bright light.
Using the dual-speed zoom control, DX6490
camera owners can drive the lens from 1X to 10X in just two seconds, and then extend the
total magnification up to 30X using Kodak's exclusive Advanced Digital Zoom technology,
which creates sharper, better quality images across the entire digital zoom range. For
ease of handling, the lens barrel only extends one inch after powering up the camera, with
all lens movements occurring within the protective housing.
The camera is the first to include the
new Kodak Color Science image processing chip. This combines the power of a
high-performance digital signal processor with professionally-derived image process
engineering (including Kodak's legendary white balance algorithms), based on more than 75
years of Kodak research into the science and emotion of color. With each press of the
shutter, the camera quickly and precisely analyzes lighting conditions and color balance
to consistently deliver exacting sharpness, high color accuracy, and proper exposure.
The DX6490 camera offers fully manual
controls, permitting independent aperture, shutter speed, exposure compensation, ISO
equivalent and other settings that can transform an ordinary picture into a work of art.
The camera also features aperture and shutter priority modes, as well as sport, portrait,
night, landscape, macro and automatic program modes. Saturated, neutral, black-and-white
and sepia color modes lend additional in-camera creative options. Its new hybrid,
low-light precision auto-focus system combines rapid phase detection with highly accurate
through the lens (TTL) contrast detection to precisely fine tune and sharply define a
subject, even in almost complete darkness. In addition, the camera is equipped with an
external flash synch — capable of synching at any shutter speed — for
illumination of subjects beyond the 16-foot pop-up flash range.
Using the high-resolution TTL electronic
viewfinder (EVF) with diopter, as well as a large, 2.2-inch high-resolution indoor/outdoor
LCD screen, photographers can preview shots or review pictures stored in 16 MB internal
memory or on optional SD/MMC cards. Not only does the EVF show control settings
superimposed over the scene, but it also eliminates parallax while presenting a nearly 100
percent field of view. The indoor/outdoor LCD assists photographers in clearly seeing the
fine detail of their compositions before and after shooting, even in direct sunlight. Both
LCDs exhibit high refresh rates, and automatically brighten or dim to reflect changes in
exposure compensation.
A push of the DX6490 camera's red-jeweled
"Share" button allows photographers to immediately tag pictures for e-mailing
(with up to 32 on-camera e-mail addresses), printing, or marking as favorites. A new album
feature, used in conjunction with Kodak EasyShare software version 3, enables organization
of pictures right on the camera. Additional features include joystick and jog-dial
controls for rapid control access, easy-to-read menu options and the ability to record and
play back continuous digital video with audio.
The optional Kodak EasyShare camera dock
6000 (US$79.95 MSRP) provides one-touch picture transfer to a connected PC while keeping
the DX6490 camera's lithium-ion battery charged and ready to go, with a full charge taking
less than three hours. DX6490 camera owners can also receive all the benefits of a dock,
plus the ability to print real, borderless Kodak 4 x 6-inch photos in as little as 90
seconds, when using the Kodak EasyShare printer dock 6000 (US$199.95 MSRP). These prints
are instantly dry, durable, and even waterproof. Both docks are now available.
The DX6490 camera includes Kodak
EasyShare software version 3 for Windows and Macintosh systems, providing effortless
digital picture transfer, organization, editing, CD-burning, e-mailing, sharing and
printing. The exclusive One Touch to Better Pictures feature takes advantage of
proprietary color technologies developed by Kodak to help Windows OS users get vibrant,
true-to-life prints from inkjet printers when using Kodak Ultima and Premium Picture
Papers.
The award-winning Kodak EasyShare digital
photography system — consisting of cameras, software, docks and printer docks, inkjet
papers and accessories — makes taking, organizing, sharing, and printing high quality
digital pictures effortless. More information on Kodak EasyShare products is available at
www.kodak.com/go/EasyShare.
Eastman Kodak Company and infoimaging
Kodak is the leader in helping people take, share, print and view images for memories, for
information, for entertainment. The company is a major participant in infoimaging, a $385
billion industry composed of devices (digital cameras and flat-panel displays),
infrastructure (online networks and delivery systems for images) and services & media
(software, film and paper enabling people to access, analyze and print images). With sales
of $12.8 billion in 2002, the company comprises several businesses: Photography, providing
consumers, professionals and cinematographers with digital and traditional products and
services; Health, supplying the healthcare industry with traditional and digital image
capture, storage and output products and services; Commercial Imaging, offering image
capture, output and storage products and services to businesses and government;
Components, delivering optics and imaging sensors to original equipment manufacturers; and
Display, which designs and manufactures state-of-the-art organic light-emitting diode
displays as well as other specialty materials.
Kodak and EasyShare are trademarks of
Eastman Kodak Company. Schneider-Kreuznach and Variogon are trademarks of Jos. Schneider
Optische Werke GmbH used under license by Eastman Kodak Company.
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