PHOTOS: Samsung ST550 digital camera

Hands on with the new dual screen digital camera

PHOTOS: Samsung ST550 digital camera. Cameras, Compact cameras, Samsung, 12 megapixels, Samsung ST550, Samsung ST500, Digital cameras, Photos 0

13 August 2009 16:39 GMT / By Stuart Miles

You want to see what a digital compact camera looks like with two LCD screens don't you? Thought you did. Luckily for you Pocket-lint was at the launch of the new models from Samsung in New York.

Called the ST550 and ST500, the cameras will feature a hidden 1.5-inch LCD located on the front of the camera that allows consumers to take accurate portraits using the front image as a guide.

According to Samsung, half of the people they surveyed, no they don't give how many they surveyed, took pictures of themselves mainly for social networking sites like Facebook.

On the reverse that's a 3.5-inch wide touchscreen LCD complete with haptic feedback for ease of use.

There are no buttons, which is an interesting experience following Sony into that area and the screen on the front is fairly bright too.

On the camera side of things the models will feature a 12.2-megapixel sensor with a 27mm wide angle Schneider KREUZNACH lens with 4.6x optical zoom.

Using the touchscreen elements the ST550 and ST500 will come with a "One Touch Auto Focus" feature allows you to focus on a different part of the shot by touching the screen in that area.

As you would expect the camera will comes with auto scene recognition, face recognition, “Blink Detection Mode” and image stabilization.

On the video recording side both models record HD video in 1280 x 720p resolution at 30 frames per second in H.264 format. The ST550 also features HDMI socket.

The ST500 is available in silver, red and blue colours and the ST550 is available in black, gold, orange and purple colours in August.

Pricing is expected to be around $349 for the ST550, we are awaiting UK pricing.