Concord’s new Easyshot series continues a trend that I think you’ll see a lot of this year: powerful, low-cost tech with features easy enough for beginners to learn but tempting enough to lure jaded professionals. That is, of course, if you like overhyped pablum—Concord is the interpolation king (that’s bad). On the upside, they tend to be extremely cheap, and a few of them ever have optical zoom (I know!).
The 820z packs the most power of the bunch at eight megapixels for under $250. While that would be enough to fool, Concord have also included a 3x zoom, a 2.4 inch color LCD, and 16mb of built-in memory to watch your back when your SD memory card fills up. Look for it at the beginning of Q4.
The 500z, 510z, 5042 and 5040 are Concord’s contribution to the five megapixel wars, each with their own special features and ridiculous price tags. The 500z introduces a voice recording feature, allowing you to record notes for certain shots, no doubt prove invaluable on your next bender when you meet your next girlfriend. The 510z is the first demonstration of Concords ImageEnhance button, allowing you to instantly improve shots of poor color or lighting—it’s cheaper if not more effective than purchasing a better camera. It also features a non-slip Rubber Base for added grip when you meet your next girlfriend.
The 5042 should get by on being so small and so cheap, but it comes with 16mb of back up memory like the 820z. The 5040, Concord’s Canon-killer (say that last bit three times fast, without laughing), boasts all metal housing in a variety of colors, a 4x digital zoom and high quality video recording. Look for all three hitting the market this year with the 5042 out first at $99, the 510z in October for $229, and the 500z and 5040 in April for $179.99 and $129, respectively.
Concord Introduces New Digital Cameras [Designtechnica]
