The MD-PS1 on display looked considerably like a real product design, but unfortunately it was shut up in a transparent plastic case and we couldn't touch it directly. And, even questions regarding the product introduction date and price, etc., were answered only with ``We cannot say concretely''. Almost all of our questions did not receive an answer. Just the question ``Will it be offered for sale this year?'' was able to be answered with ``Hmm, that will probably be difficult''.
Since the main body is equipped with an MD drive, it's somewhat big. Looking from the front, it has a nearly square design. It comes with a 2.5 inch LCD display, the CCD has 350,000 pixels, the recording resolution is a VGA's 640 X 480 dots. Flash is also built in. When taking pictures the picture quality mode can be selected, high quality mode gives 1000 pictures, at standard resolution 2000 still images can be recorded. The MD media holds about 140MB. And, naturally, playback and recording of audio MDs is possible. Recording time is up to 80 minutes in monaural. Data is transfered to a personal computer through the rare parallel interface.
Because an MD drive is used which has a high power consuming motor, there is an interest in the battery life. However, regarding this, as you might expect, we couldn't get an answer. If the battery life is a practical limitation for its use, we wonder if this product may end up not being of interest to people who wish to take a large amount of pictures at once.
More information is available in English from Sharp's Electronics Show Report.
| Item | Means | ||
| Camera |
Picture Recording Section | Image/Picture Size | 350,000 pixels / 640X480 dots |
| Normal / Telephoto | 2 Focus settings: F4.0 f=6 / F5.6 f=12mm | ||
| Macro | Close up function included | ||
|
Picture quality formats (storable image quantity) | High quality:1,000 pictures, Standard quality 2,000 pictures | ||
| Interval mode | Included | ||
| Flash | Included | ||
|
Audio / Dubbing (Image & audio combined mode) |
Images: 365 Audio: Mono 80 minute, Stereo 40 minute. | ||
| Date stamp function | Automatic year, month, & day stamping | ||
|
Playback Functions | LCD section | 2.5 inch TFT LCD (backlit) | |
| Index display | included | ||
| Interval playback | included | ||
| Zoom playback | 2X | ||
|
Data Memory |
Record Functions | Disc Type | MD Data Disc |
| Memory Capacity | 140MB | ||
| Recording Method | Magnetic Modulation Direct Overwrite Method | ||
| Average Data Transfer Rate | 130.6KB/second | ||
| Average access time | 500ms (1/3 stroke) | ||
| Output Functions | Parallel I/O terminal | ||
|
Audio Section |
MD record playback edit | Disc Type | MD Audio Disc |
| Audio Record / Playback Method | ATRAC system stereo / mono | ||
| Recording function | included | ||
| Playback function | included | ||
| Audio quality adjustment function | Bass boost | ||
| Input functions | Character input function included | ||
| Display functions | Character display function included | ||
| Edit Functions | ID Edit | ||
[Reported by Ishibashi]