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Panasonic has launched the Lumix TZ50 digital camera in the US market, and as speculated when it was released in Japan last month, the camera will support direct photo uploads to Google’s Picasa web albums. Unfortunately, there is no support for direct upload to Yahoo’s Flickr site. But the the US release of the camera still sports the same features we mentioned in our coverage for its Japanese release. This include a 9.1-megapixel CCD, 28mm wide-angle lens, 10x optical zoom, HD video support, and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g connectivity.

With the Wi-Fi feature, the Lumix TZ50 allows users to connect to the web instantly and upload their photos right after taking them if they are on a Wi-Fi hotspot. Users can either connect to standard wireless home networks or connect to the web using T-Mobile Hotspot Service. Users can also register one email account using their TZ50, this email can be use to receive the URL of the album where the photos were uploaded, and can send the URL of the photo albums to the user’s friends and family even if the user is on the move and have no access to a computer. In addition, users can also browse their photo albums using the the TZ50. This is a good way of confirming whether the photos were successfully uploaded to Picasa.

US consumers won’t have to wait long before they could get their hands on this uber-cool camera. It will begin to hit the shelves of US stores in May 2008. Suggested retail price for the TZ50 is around $450, which is slightly lower than its introductory price in the Japanese market.

Read [Panasonic]

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