May 19, 2006 – Praktica introduced the latest in its compact lineups yesterday, the red-colored stylish Praktica DCZ 6.3 and the slim Praktica Luxmedia 10-X3. The DCZ 6.3 comes with 6 megapixels and a 2.5-inch LCD monitor. It will retail for about €149 or about $190 USD. The shiny black 10-X3 will retail for about €214, which is equivalent to $272 USD. These Praktica digital cameras are available in Europe.
The Praktica DCZ 6.3 follows the version 6.2, which had a 5-megapixel image sensor that interpolated to 8-megapixel image sizes. The new 6.3 fits more true megapixels onto the same size 1/2.5-inch CCD, but does not interpolate. The new camera has a slightly smaller 2.8x optical zoom lens rather than the standard 3x on the old DCZ 6.2. The Praktica DCZ 6.3 upgrades with a larger 2.5-inch LCD screen and 32 MB of internal memory rather than the 6.2’s 2-inch LCD and 16 MB of internal storage.
The DCZ 6.3 measures 3.8 x 2.1 x 1.3 inches and weighs a mere 4.9 oz. Both the 6.3 and its predecessor have the same movie mode that records 640 x 480 and 320 x 240 pixels at 30 frames per second. Both also have the same short list of ISO selections: 100, 200 and 400. 
These basic features are backed up with USB 1.1 connectivity and PictBridge compatibility. The camera is powered by two AA batteries, just as the new 10-X3 is.
The Praktica Luxmedia 10-X3 is more stylish with its 3.5 x 2.4 x 1.1-inch frame that has a black patent leather-type finish. The 10-X3 packs 10 effective megapixels onto its 1/1.8-inch image sensor and offers plenty of still image sizes as well as three video recording sizes. With a 3x optical zoom lens, the camera is otherwise quite basic. It has ISO settings from 50-200 and shutter speeds from 8-1/2000th of a second.
The 10-X3 has some user-friendly features like PictBridge connectivity and resizing, cropping, and rotating of images within the playback mode. The Praktica Luxmedia model has a 2.4-inch LCD screen and 32 MB of internal memory to round out its feature set. Both the Praktica DCZ 6.3 and the Praktica Luxmedia 10-X3 use SD or MMC cards as well.
