Snapshot of Samsung's 3 New Cameras

Before you get ready to savor the holidays through endless picture taking, you might want to upgrade that gadget. Mobile Magazine says that Samsung is planning three new products for the 4-season shutterbug, under the New Vision (NV) name.

The only thing the three have in common is a 2.5-inch LCD screen and text recognition. The NV10 is a 10-megapixel has a Schneider 3x optical zoom lens and a 5x digital zoom. It can also record video in VGA (640 x 480) at 30 frames per second. The NV7 is the most pricey of the group, with 7.2 megapixels, a 7x optical zoom, OPS (Optical Picture Stabilization) technology and a 30-frames per second VGA movie feature.

Call me old fashioned, but my favorite is the NV3, a 7-megapixel camera that also plays and records video in VGA (640 x 480) at 30 frames per second and plays back audio files. It's also got a 3x optical zoom and can convert MPEG, AVI, MOV, WMV, ASF, MP3 and WAV files. It has the basics of the other two, but throws in the audio option -- how can you argue with that?

Whichever poison you choose to purchase, you'll have to wait until the fall for each of the three models to be released at retail. -- Rachel Cericola

• $349.99 (NV3), $449.99 (NV7), $399.99 (NV10)
• All 3 launch in fall 2006
• Each features a 2.5-inch LCD