[Leica] matsushita's video digicam in the news

[shino@ubspainewebber.com]

(there IS leica news here, although buried in a caption at the very end)

- -rei


http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010806/tc/tech_matsushita_camera_dc_3.html

Monday August 6 8:48 AM ET

M'shita Unveils 1st All-In-One Still, Video Digicam

TOKYO (Reuters) - Trying to pick between a digital
still camera and a digital video camera? For $1,657, you
can have both, says Matsushita Electric Industrial Co
Ltd, best known for its Panasonic brand of consumer
electronics.

On Monday, the company unveiled the Panasonic
NV-EX21, the world's first DV format digital
camcorder with a detachable network-ready digital still
camera.

The product will go on sale on September 1, with the company aiming for monthly
output of 5,000 cameras and a North American launch by the spring. 

Analysts say Matsushita, the world's biggest consumer electronics firm, is
looking to capture market share in the high-growth area of digital video
cameras. 

The company said half of the 12 million video cameras sold around the world
last year were digital -- a relatively small ratio considering the Japanese
market is more than 90 percent dominated by the digital format. Matsushita,
which holds about 30 percent of the Japanese market for digital video cameras,
trails market leader Sony Corp (news - web sites) in sales of both digital
videos and still cameras. 

Its latest product is an attempt to ease Sony's grip.

With the touch of a button, the NV-EX21 transforms from video camera to a
digital camera sized to fit in your pocket. 

It can capture still pictures and offers MPEG-4 video -- the industry standard
in compressing moving pictures into a download-friendly format. 

All that information can be stored onto an SD Memory Card, a challenger to
Sony's Memory Stick.

The postage-stamp sized SD Memory Card is being promoted by 14 Japanese
electronics manufacturers including Matsushita, and offers easy transfer of
data between digital products.

The NV-EX21 is also wired with Bluetooth technology, which allows users to 
transfer through the camera still images wirelessly to a personal computer, up
to 10 meters away.

Matsushita shares closed trade down 0.34 percent to 1,772 yen, compared to the
0.02 percent rise in Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 average.

(caption of photo reads)

Panasonic marketing woman Yuko Inoue shows a close-up of her eye taken with new
Panasonic NV-EX21, a dual-use DV-format digital camcorder with detachable
network-ready digital still camera, at an unveiling in Tokyo August 6,
2001. The new camera features an extra large capacity CCD, 1.08-megapixel
recording capability, and built-in Leica Dicomar lens with a 10x optical and
25x/100x digital zoom, and will go on sale in Japan in September for
$1,657. (Eriko Sugita/Reuters)