Canon develops its camera and printer lineup

Canon on Monday announced a clutch of new digital cameras -- with resolutions ranging up to 12.8 megapixels -- along with an array of photo printers.

The highest-resolution camera is a digital SLR aimed at professionals. For the somewhat more budget-conscious, a new member of the PowerShot line offers 8-megapixel capability.

The PowerShot S80 also offers a 3.6x wide-angle optical zoom, equivalent to 28mm to 100mm zoom on a standard film camera. It supports video recording in XGA size (1024 by 768 pixels) at 15 frames per second, the company said. The S80 is due in October for about $550 (about £300; UK prices were not available).

The digital SLR camera, the EOS 5D, carries a more substantial price tag of $3,300. It can shoot up to 3 frames per second and up to 60 full-resolution JPEGs and 17 RAW images in a single burst, Canon said. It too is due in October.

"Wedding and portrait photographers who need facial detail in their group shots require the large file sizes the EOS 5D model can provide," Yukiaki Hashimoto, senior vice president and general manager of the consumer imaging group at Canon USA, said in a statement.

Also new to the PowerShot line are the 7.1-megapixel SD550, priced at $500, and the 5.0-megapixel SD450, priced at $400. The SD30, meanwhile, also features resolution of 5.0 megapixels and has a $400 price tag, but comes in four colours: black, red, gold and violet. All three are due in September.

Other new cameras include three members of the PowerShot A series: the A620 ($400), the A610 ($300) and the entry-level A410 ($150), also due in September.

Canon also introduced several printers. New models in the Pixma all-in-one series include the MP170, MP450, MP500 and MP800, with prices ranging from about $130 to about $300. Two compact printers -- the Selphy CP510 and CP710 -- can print 100x150mm pictures at $100 and $150 respectively. The CP510 is due in September, the CP710 in October; availability of the Pixma printers was not specified.