Words Candy G. Villanueva
Svelte, slim, stylish. Nowadays, these adjectives can describe a fashionista, a supermodel, or any of the new wave of digital cameras with powerful zooms but without the usual extending lenses that come with it. With technology getting sleeker and smaller everyday, once-bulky devices are now fashion statements. Small and stylish cameras have more bling and flash than Cartier bands or Bulgari rocks.
The flashes are going off and this time, taking center stage are the aesthetics of design. Form or function?
Why choose when you can have both? In most cases, most will pick the former over megapixels and ultra-powered lenses. Who really needs 10 megapixels anyway? Nobody needs an ultra-zoom camera to magnify his already enlarged pores. The big runners have finally come to their senses and decided that the race over who has the highest number of megapixels has long lost its momentum. Manufacturers are now burning up the gas and the midnight oil, to design the smallest, lightest, and most fashionable. Aside from wireless capabilities and powerful lenses, they're carefully considering how the camera looks around the wrist or how it complements haute couture. On the runway this season are a slim model, the smallest optical zoom digital cam, a couple of cool digital compacts and a luxurious multimedia device-all with non-extending lens barrels.
THE RETRO LUX: Samsung NV3
While the rest of the models claim to combine fine form and function, the Samsung NV3 sashays on the catwalk offering more-luxury. Functioning as a high-resolution 7.2 megapixel digital camera, the NV3 is both a luxurious and practical multimedia device.
Looking like an expensive jeweled flask, the Samsung creation comes in a thin 3.7 x 2.2 x 0.7 metal body at 142 grams. In an all-gunmetal black casing, the NV3 flaunts a distinguishing blue ring that sets it apart from the other so-called in vogue digital cameras. It's retro inspired with plenty of interesting details. The NV3 is a whole new concept that caters to people who not only want to look good in pictures but also look good while taking them. (Read more about this retro-cool camera in The Grid section)
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For full stories, grab a copy of Speed's SEPTEMBER 2006 issue in bookstores and newsstands near you.
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