Samsung Introduces Two New High-Zoom Cameras [HZ-Series Point-And-Shoot Cameras Offer 15x Opitcal Zoom, 12-megapixels]

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Samsung’s got a pair of new point-and-shoot cameras coming. These two new cameras, which will be in the HZ-series, are what Samsung is calling “high-zoom” cameras, as they’ll feature a monster 15x optical zoom. It’s rare that you’ll find a point-and-shoot with such a high optical zoom.

The two new cameras are the Samsung HZ35W and HZ30W. Each will offer the same 12-megapixel photo sensor and the same wide-angle 24mm Schneider lens on the front. These sensors and lenses were previously featured in the Samsung HZ-series of camera, but now Samsung has updated the optical zoom from the 10x on the previous versions to the aforementioned 15x.

There will be minor differences between the two. The HZ30W will sport a LCD 3-inch display while the HZ35W will have a OLD 3-inch display along with a GPS receiver for geo-tagging your photographs. When you’re viewing the photographs on the HZ35W later, you can even bring up a map display to show you where the in world the photograph was taken.

Both cameras will be able to take HD video, recording 720p video at 30fps. The video will be compressed with H.264 and both cams will have an HDMI port for exporting your video to a big HDTV. Samsung has improved their “Smart Auto” feature from previous point-and-shoot cameras. Smart Auto will supposedly analyze your media (both pictures and video) and be able to recognize which pictures and video were taken together at the same location. Since Samsung goes out of their way to announce they’ve improved it, I’d guess the first iteration didn’t work so well.

Samsung didn’t provide release date or pricing information at this time.