Matsushita, known for its Panasonic consumer electronics, and Olympus, the world's top endoscope-maker, planned to unveil their new single lens reflex digital cameras at a trade show in the United States in February 2006.

"Single lens reflex digital cameras are more expensive than regular digital cameras but their global market is rapidly expanding and we would like to meet that demand," said a spokesman for Matsushita.

Single lens reflex digital cameras are equipped to produce better picture quality and cost on average more than 80,000 yen (780 dollars) in Japan, double the average price of regular digital cameras.

Matsushita and Olympus would produce and market the new digital cameras separately. No retail price and development cost details were announced.

"Matsushita aims to achieve a 10 percent share of the global digital camera market in fiscal 2006 (to March 2007)," Panasonic AVC Networks Co. president Fumio Ohtsubo told a news conference.

Its global sales target for all digital cameras has been set at eight million units in the year to March 2007, up from an estimated two million for the year to March 2005.

The global market for single lens reflex digital cameras was expected to double to 5.5 million units in the year to March 2008, from 2.7 million in the next fiscal year starting April 2005, Matsushita said.

All rights reserved. copyright 2018 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.