Press Release: Kopin Delivers Electronic Viewfinder Modules to Kodak Digital Cameras


Sept. 19, 2005--Kopin Corporation (NASDAQ: KOPN), the largest U.S. manufacturer of microdisplays for mobile consumer and military electronics, today announced that Eastman Kodak Company is incorporating Kopin's CyberEVF(R) 230K viewfinders into its new KODAK EASYSHARE P-Series cameras. Designed for avid photographers, these digital cameras combine high performance with simplicity of operation and sophisticated photographic controls. The EASYSHARE P880 has 8.0 megapixels and a 5.8x optical zoom wide-angle lens. The EASYSHARE P850 has 5.1 megapixels and a 12x optical zoom image-stabilized lens. Both cameras are expected to be on retailers' shelves this month.


Kopin developed the CyberEVF 230K as a standard electronic viewfinder (EVF) product for digital cameras. It integrates a full-color QVGA (320 x 240) resolution microdisplay, ultra-thin backlight, optics, and easy-to-use focusing mechanism into a tiny housing unit (17mm x 23.5mm x 25mm). With 15x image magnification and a 22-degree field of view, the viewfinder generates large, vivid color images with minimal distortion or color aberration. This complete EVF solution enables digital camera manufacturers to shorten the design time for new products and substantially reduce the assembly cost. The CyberEVF 230K's size is approximately two-thirds of the depth and less than half the volume of competing EVF modules, enabling digital camera OEMs to shrink their cameras to a pocket-size form factor, a key benefit for consumers.
"Securing a major design win from the largest digital camera maker in the United States attests to the superiority of our CyberDisplay technology and affirms the benefits of a complete EVF solution in the digital camera marketplace," said Dr. John C.C. Fan, Kopin's president and CEO. "Digital cameras remain a primary focus in our microdisplay strategy, and we are delighted that Kodak has chosen our CyberEVF 230K for its new high-zoom EASYSHARE P-Series."
About Eastman Kodak Company
Kodak is the leader in helping people take, share, print, and view images - for memories, for information, for business, and for entertainment. With sales of $13.5 billion in 2004, the company is committed to a digitally oriented growth strategy focused on four businesses: Digital & Film Imaging Systems - providing consumers, professionals, and cinematographers with digital and traditional products and services; Health - supplying the medical and dental professions with traditional and digital imaging and information systems, IT solutions, and services; Graphic Communications - providing customers with a range of solutions for prepress, traditional and digital printing, document scanning, and multi-vendor IT services; and Display & Components - supplying original equipment manufacturers with imaging sensors, as well as intellectual property and materials for the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) and LCD display industries.
About Kopin
Kopin is the largest U.S. manufacturer of microdisplays to the consumer electronics, industrial and military markets and the world's largest merchant supplier of heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) wafers for power amplifier integrated circuits. Since introducing its award-winning microdisplay technology in 1999, Kopin has shipped more than 15 million CyberDisplays for digital cameras, personal video eyewear, camcorders, thermal weapon sights and head-mounted displays. The Company also has shipped more than 500,000 HBT wafers, which have been integrated into more than 1 billion wireless handsets and into WiFi, VoIP and high-speed Internet data transmission systems. Kopin's technology is protected by more than 200 global patents and patents pending. For more information, please visit Kopin's website at www.kopin.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
Statements in this news release may be considered "forward-looking" statements under the "Safe Harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These include: the expectation that Kodak's EASYSHARE P-Series cameras will be on retailers' shelves this month; the ability of the EVF solution to enable digital camera manufacturers to shorten the design time for new products and substantially reduce the assembly cost; the statement that securing a major design win from the largest digital camera maker in the United States attests to the superiority of Kopin's CyberDisplay technology and affirms the benefits of a complete EVF solution in the digital camera marketplace; and Kopin's expectation that digital cameras will remain a primary focus of the Company's microdisplay strategy. These statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could materially affect future results. These risk factors include, but are not limited to: technical, manufacturing, marketing or other issues that may prevent either the adoption or rapid acceptance of the CyberEVF230K; competitive products and pricing; the risk that new product initiatives and other research and development efforts may not be successful; the loss of significant customers; the potential that costs to produce the Company's microdisplay products will increase significantly, or that yields will decline; the ability of the Company's customers to ramp initial production volumes of products incorporating the Cyber EVF 230K; manufacturing delays; technical issues, economic conditions or external factors that may cause the Company to shift the focus of its microdisplay business away from the digital camera market; and other risk factors and cautionary statements listed in the Company's periodic reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These include, but are not limited to, the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 25, 2004 and Form 10-Q for the period ended June 25, 2005.
CyberDisplay, CyberEVF 230K and The NanoSemiconductor Company are registered trademarks of Kopin Corporation.
Kopin - The NanoSemiconductor Company(R)

Posted: Mon - September 19, 2005 at 10:18 AM          

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