The Pro 815 employs the world's best 15x optical zoom, the world's largest 3.5-inch LCD, the world's first top-of-camera LCD, and a Li-Ion battery with the world's largest capacity (as of Sept 2005).
The world's longest built in zoom, 8-megapixel high-specification digital camera
The Pro815 is equipped with a Schneider-Kreuznach 15x optical zoom (28 to 420mm 35mm equivalent), this means you can shoot from wide angle to telephoto with one lens. Normally it is not possible to incorporate both 28mm wide-angle and 420mm tele-zoom capabilities in the average high-end camera, since they generally only come with a 7 to 8x zoom. The Pro815 has four low-dispersion glass lenses specially manufactured to minimize chromatic aberration that can occur when wide-angle and ultra high zoom are supported at the same time. In addition it employs two aspherical lenses for the correction of spherical aberration and lateral colors for the entire zoom range from wide to tele. This world-renowned Schneider-Kreuznach lens offers outstanding reliability.
The World's largest digital camera LCD
Another feature of the Pro815 is that it has the world's largest 3.5-inch RFT LCD used in a digital camera. Conventional high-end or SLR cameras use a relatively small 1.8- to 2.0-inch LCD and the screen does not show the shot at the point of taking the picture. With the Pro815, anybody can easily take a picture and view images through its large LCD. There is also an electronic viewfinder.
The world's first top TFT LCD for waist-level shooting (1.44-inch wide view)
Another great feature of the Pro815 is waist-level shooting, enabled by its top LCD. The 1.44-inch wide color TFT LCD of the Pro815 displays a preview screen in real time, allowing the waist-level shooting style often adopted by professional photographers. This LCD position enables high-level shooting as well as taking pictures from various angles. The top LCD can also be used as a status LCD to display shooting information. Since the required information is available on the LCD at all times, you can shoot a subject of choose a desired function more quickly.
A high-powered built in flash
The Pro815 is equipped with a high-powered built in flash to let you obtain a perfectly exposed picture even in dark environments. The Pro815 not only has a powerful flash that allows shooting at up to 7.7 meters (wide settings) but can also control an external flash depending on the surrounding exposure environment.
Professional manual photography features
The Pro815 offers comprehensive manual photography features that should meet all the needs of aspiring photographers. Manual exposure (Aperture/Shutter/Manual) and manual focus control features are included as standard. Three rings surrounding the lens controls manual zoom, manual focusing and EV compensation, providing you with the direct control of manual operations. The dual jog system, which is used to control aperture and shutter speed, also delivers precision in manual operation. The camera has various focusing modes including AF Lock, Continuous AF, and Select Area AF. Its direct manual focusing feature lets you switch to manual focusing from AF instantly by turning the manual focus ring. In addition, bracketed shooting is allowed for exposure, focus, and white balance. In particular, which balance is available in Preset, Custom, and Color Temperature Adjust modes. This lets you express colors exactly as you want. Contrast and saturation can also be controlled for creative expression in the depth of color required. The camera support Adobe RGB Color Space as well as an 8-megapixel non-compressed RAW file, making it the perfect choice for enthusiast image output.
The fastest response time in its class
The Pro815 achieves the fastest response times in its class. Its start-up and shot-to-shot speeds have been reduced to one second each, and it delivers a fast AF speed even in tele-zoom mode by utilizing a passive AF sensor. The shutter release lag of 0.05 seconds lets you capture those shots without fail. It also allows you to shoot subjects moving at high speed by offering shutter speeds up to 1/4,000 second. Pro815 includes high-speed continuous shooting at 2.5 frames per second, normal continuous shooting that lets you shoot while viewing an image taken on the LCD, and ultra high speed continuous shooting that allows you to shoot up to 10 1-megapixel-sized images per second. As it has high-speed USB 2.0 connectivity, images taken can be transferred to a PC quickly.
Specifications:
| Aperture | f/2.2-4.6 |
| Compatible Battery | SLB-1974, Lithium-Ion Rechargable Battery |
| Exposure Modes | Shutter-Priority AE, Program AE, Manual, Aperture-Priority AE |
| Focus Modes | Multi-Point AF, Manual, Continuous, Auto |
| Image Format | TIFF, RAW, JPEG |
| Metering | Spot, Multi-pattern, Center Weighted |
| Movie Mode | Motion JPEG |
| Scene Modes | Sunset, Night portrait, Landscape, Fireworks, Close-up, Beach/Snow |
| Still Image Resolution (Max.) | 3264x2448 |
| White Balance | Tungsten Bulb, Fluorescent, Daylight, Custom, Color Temperature Setting, Cloudy, Auto |
| Battery Charger | SBC-L4 |
| Effective Megapixel Count | 8 Megapixel |
| Eyepiece Viewfinder | Electronic |
| Flash | Slow-shutter, Red-Eye Reduction, Off, Automatic |
| LCD Display Size (Inches) | 3.5, 1.44 (Top) |
| Optical Zoom | 15 |
| Removable Memory Type | Compact Flash (type II), Compact Flash (type I) |
| Self Timer | 2 Seconds, 10 Seconds |
| Shutter Speed | 2-1/4000 sec |
| Inputs / Outputs |
| USB Port Connection | USB 2.0 |
| Dimensions |
| Weight (Pounds) | 1.92 |
| Depth (Inches) | 3.1 |
| Height (Inches) | 3.43 |
| Width (Inches) | 5.31 |
