Konica announce KD-510Z - 5 megapixel digital camera

Konica are introducing a new version of their highly successful KD-500Z 5.0 megapixel digital camera.

The Revio KD-510Z, which becomes available this month, incorporates a number of new and advanced features to enhance the camera's performance. The 3x zoom Hexanon lens has been refined with a special new coating to minimise flare and colour bleeding, while the start-up time is now 1.3 secs. The new specification also includes a wealth of manual adjustment features, a noise reduction function, selectable slow shutter speed, fixed focus mode, selectable ISO speed setting, and brightness and colour balance can be adjusted on the LCD monitor during image playback. Yet, despite the many enhancements, the price of the KD-510Z is 400.

The new range of manual adjustment capabilities gives photographers far greater creative freedom. The KD-510Z allows fine adjustment to ISO sensitivity, selectable from Auto, 50, 100, 200 and 400 so that photographers can select the right speed for different situations, such as portraits against a dark evening background. Flash volume can also be adjusted. For example, when shooting close to the subject, white-out can be prevented by setting the flash volume to minus. Saturation, contrast, sharpness and colour balance can all be adjusted allowing the user to create exactly the sort of mood they wish in their shots. Two different sets of settings can be saved to memory and recalled anytime with a simple menu operation.

The new manual exposure mode allows shutter speed and focus to be adjusted according to shooting conditions. The shutter speed is adjustable from 15 to 1/1000 second and the noise reduction function, enabled automatically whenever shutter speed is second or higher, minimises the noise that often occurs in extended exposure shots. The slow shutter function enables Camera Shake Critical speed to be set according to the current flash mode, making it easy to capture night scenes.

Another new feature is fixed focus shooting. This allows the focus to be set at distances of 1, 2 and 4 metres to simplify taking hard-to-focus shots of moving subjects and backlit scenes.

Other features that allow the user to have full creative control over their images include selectable flash, choice of central or spot light measurement, and a choice of five white balance modes. In addition, exposure compensation has been broadened to +/- 0.6 to +/- 1.5EV.

"The new manual adjustment features and other refinements found in the KD-510Z will appeal to the most demanding of users while the 399.99 price tag represents excellent value-for-money for a camera of this quality" says Kevin Day, Director General Manager of Konica UK. "We expect it to do particularly well over the Christmas season."

The KD-510Z offers two menu modes, an easy-to-use basic mode and an advanced mode for access to all of the camera's features. Menus are colour coded by function for easy navigation and there are both icons and text explanations of menu items. Custom modes allow users to save their favourite shooting settings. Complicated exposure and white balance settings are simplified by the 4-way button on the back of the camera.

The camera also offers all the other features of the original KD-500 such as monochrome mode for either sepia or B&W shots, macro function for shots as close as 6cm, movies up to 30 seconds, and up to 30 seconds of voice comment can be recorded after shooting an image. The camera is also equipped with a voice memo function for business users.

The Konica KD-510Z is equipped with the popular dual slot feature of the Digital Revio series, for compatibility with both SD Memory Card and Memory Stick media. Either type of card can be given priority for recording images and data can be copied between two different types of cards. This gives users compatibility with a wide range of digital devices including PCs, PDAs, cell phones and digital video players. 2 MB of built-in internal memory can also be used for quick shots when no memory card is loaded.

Playback features include high speed scrolling and up to 12 x digital enlargement, making it easy to check whether details are in focus. An enhancement to the LCD monitor means that brightness and colour balance can now be adjusted during image playback. In addition, images can be easily resized for email and web site leaving the original high-resolution images intact.

The Revio KD-510Z, which has also undergone a cosmetic make-over, now features a silver stainless steel body. It comes with lithium ion battery, battery recharger, USB cable, CD-ROM containing driver software, QuickTime (Windows), Adobe Acrobat Reader (Windows/Macintosh), User's Guide (Windows/Macintosh), (Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP driver software preinstalled) strap and 16MB SD Memory Card.

Konica Revio KD-510Z Specifications