Casio shows off world's fastest digicam

Casio vowed the IFA 2007 audiences with the unveiling of an incredibly fast digital camera able of shooting 60 photos per second at full resolution.

The yet unnamed Casio Exilim digital still camera offers 6.6 megapixels, a large 12x optical zoom lens and the aforementioned 60fps burst rate, which is much faster than rival digital still cameras.

If that wasn't fast enough, there's also a high-speed shooting mode that lets you take as many as 300 images per second, but not at full resolution. Instead of being recorded as separate JPEG files, the VGA-quality shots (640 x 480 pixels) will be recorded as a Motion JPEG movie. Each frame can be viewed by pausing the move and looking through it frame by frame.

A spokeswoman at the Casio stand also told us that a pre-shot function is likely to be built into the camera. This lets the device shoot images and buffer them before the shutter button is pressed, enabling you to capture action even if you're not quick enough to press down the shutter button.

Buffering

When you do press the shutter button, the camera will record the images taken from that moment on, and also those captured in the viewfinder immediately before. Casio could not say how much buffering would be offered.

The incredibly fast shooting speeds are achieved by a high-speed CMOS sensor and a high-speed LSI image processing engine.

The new Casio Exilim model, due some time in 2008, is the first consumer digital still camera to offer such high-speed photography, which is normally restricted to higher-end professional cameras.

The prototype camera also features a 2.8-inch LCD screen and a viewfinder and i expected to weigh 650g. Casio says that the exact spec and price have yet to be finalised.

We're likely to see this high-speed shooter in a more developed stage at CES 2008.