New Sanyo VPC-Z400EX Saves Power With Daylight Illuminated LCD Screen

digitalkamera.de reports that the new Sanyo VPC-Z400EX megapixel camera has a daylight-illuminated 2" LCD screen. By flipping a small door open on top of the LCD (see picture) you can use the existing daylight to illuminate the large LCD screen. Circuitry in the camera detects this and turns off the internal lamps used to perform this task.

Sanyo is not alone in this new technology, the Sony Mavica FD-81 and the new Epson PhotoPC 750Z also share this type of display LCD.

We certainly hope this is a TREND that will be followed by other camera makers as anything that can be done to reduce the power consumption in digital cameras SHOULD be done. Hopefully we will soon see the use of even newer display technologies like Kopin's CyberDisplay to further reduce the amount of power consumed by the main display device.