Samsung has revealed to AP that it will launch a new digital SLR later this year, but it is keeping tight-lipped about the details or pixel count.

Samsung Opto-Electronics UK Ltd?s managing director Yongjun Kim broke the news to AP ahead of the company?s European conference in Sicily, Italy where the company unveiled a new family of digital compact cameras known as the NV (New Vision) series.

Due out in September, the new compact line-up heralds the start of a new category of camera which Samsung calls ?Slim Bridge?.

The result of two years of consumer research, the NV series has been designed in Italy and consists of three cameras: the 10-million-pixel NV10; and 7.2MP NV3 and NV7 OPS.

The ?Slim Bridge? model, the NV7 OPS, is a 7.2MP camera whose 7x f/2.8 lens is designed to deliver the approximate 35mm viewing angle equivalent of a 38-270mm zoom. The ?Slim Bridge Design? gives users ?portability and a fresh way of taking pictures,? according to the camera?s spec sheet.

With a ?stable grip? design and claimed to be a ?fusion of digital and analogue? the NV7 sports a pop-up flash and Optical Picture Stabilisation (OPS) ? a CCD Shift system which is coupled with Advanced Shake Reduction, designed to help cut camera shake.

Priced around £300 the NV7 (pictured) features claimed macro focusing down to 1cm and exposure controls including aperture and shutter priority and manual.

Spotmetering is possible, as is exposure compensation of ±2EV in 1/3 EV steps. Effect modes include b&w, sepia, red, green, blue and ?negative?.

It also features a maximum equivalent ISO of ISO 1000, according to Samsung.

For more details see next week’s issue of AP which is in shops on Tuesday 11 July.

? Samsung plans to launch more than 20 digital cameras each year and have a 20% share of the market by 2009. At its recent European conference in Sicily the company prided itself on what it claims is a greater brand power among consumers than Nikon