Digital Camera News

Kodak announces Easyshare-One Wi-Fi Digital Camera and Viewer

January 5, 2005, Las Vegas � In its perpetual effort to 'share the moment,' Eastman-Kodak Company today announced the Kodak EasyShare-One. The 4-megapixel digital camera represents �a quantum leap in the fulfillment of the EasyShare vision,� said Pierre Schaeffer, vice president and director of business strategy and marketing at Kodak. �It takes us from the era of point-and-shoot to the era of point-and-share.�

The Kodak EasyShare-One camera allows users to send pictures to computers or printers wirelessly through a Wi-Fi card. Professional digital cameras, like the Nikon D2X and the Canon EOS-1D Mark II, have this feature, but the EasyShare-One is the first consumer digital camera with wireless internet access.

�You can share the moment� even when your PC is turned off and even if your PC is a hundred miles away,� Schaeffer said.

Kodak has partnered with T-Mobile, the largest provider of Wi-Fi internet with more than 5,200 HotSpot wireless locations. With this service, users can take pictures and store them immediately to Kodak�s online photo service, the Kodak EasyShare Gallery (formerly known as Ofoto). Users can store and organize up to 1,500 photographs.

�Through this partnership, Kodak EasyShare-One users will be able to enjoy picture sharing in places like hotel lounges and airports,� Schaeffer said. The Kodak-branded Wi-Fi card will be available separately for about $100 to support the wireless internet access.

�You press the button; we do the rest,� Schaeffer said. �It really redefines what you�re entitled to expect from a digital camera.�

The Kodak EasyShare-One boasts 4 megapixels on its Color Science imaging processing chip, a 640 x 480 movie mode that shoots 30 frames per second, and a Schneider-Kreuznach Variogon 3x optical zoom lens. While those features are standard for Kodak, the LCD monitor sets this digital camera apart. It measures 3 inches diagonally and swivels away from the camera body. The rotating monitor doubles as a touch-screen, so users can easily organize online photos from their camera. Another nice feature of the Easyshare-One is its 256 MB of internal memory. The digital camera will be available for $599 in June 2005.

The announcement was made at a press conference at the 2005 International Consumer Electronics Show. Kodak also announced that it celebrates two anniversaries in 2005: 30 years ago, Kodak invented the first digital camera, and 10 years ago, it released the first consumer digital camera.