October 11, 2005

PSA: Canon and other digicam users, camera recalls...

(thanks to a good friend who sent this information)

In the past week, four major camera makers have quietly published service advisories admitting their digital cameras are affected. In each case, the flaw appears to involve CCD sensors using epoxy packaging that eventually lets in moisture.

Canon URL

Fuji URL

Minolta URL

SONY URL

06:03 AM in Digital Cameras | Permalink

October 06, 2005

Kodak ships world's first computer-free wireless camera

There's now a computer-less way to dispatch family photos to grandma _ the world's first fully functional wireless camera.

After a summer-long hiccup, Eastman Kodak Co. this week began shipping a digital camera that, within range of hotels, coffee shops, airport lounges, offices, homes and other wireless hot spots, can send high-quality pictures directly onto the Internet and into e-mail boxes.

Unveiled in January, the Kodak EasyShare-One was supposed to hit the market in June but ran into engineering, marketing and other logistical glitches.

In the meantime, Japan's Nikon Corp. looked like it might steal Kodak's thunder by shipping its own Wi-Fi camera to stores last month. But while the Nikon P1 can wirelessly transfer pictures to a computer, the Kodak model remains unique in its potential to bypass the hassle of downloading.

"It's the next step forward in cameras. No more worrying about plugging in the cable," said photography analyst Ed Lee of InfoTrends, a research firm in Weymouth, Mass.

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06:04 AM in Digital Cameras | Permalink

September 12, 2005

RICOH Caplio R3

Ricoh-Caplio-R3The Ricoh Caplio R3 is official after a couple of weeks of rumors. As we reported previously - the Ricoh Caplio R3 is a 5.13 megapixel camera with a double retracting 7.1x wide angled Optical Zoom lens. This gives user of the R3 the equivelent of a 28-200mm zoom. The lens fully retracts into the body of the camera making the whole unit a very compact camera.

The Ricoh Caplio R3 has vibration correction to combat camera shake, allows macro photos at up to 1cm and Ricoh boasts a shutter lag of just 0.09 seconds. The LCD on the rear of the R3 is 2.5inches which is big enough to display 12 thumbnail prints at once on the screen in playback mode.

The Ricoh Caplio will be available in Black and Silver - stay tuned for price and availability.

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06:03 AM in Digital Cameras | Permalink

June 24, 2005

Nikon Coolpix S1

Tiny size, image quality that's acceptable but not outstanding, and a lack of manual controls make the ultracompact Nikon Coolpix S1 a good choice for snapshot photographers who want a good selection of fun features but don't want to make many decisions on their own.

This Nikon's strong points are abundant scene modes, a 3X zoom lens that doesn't protrude during use, a postshot fix that automatically brightens dark backgrounds, and a clever Face-Priority autofocus mode that ensures that the closest human to the camera will be sharp and clear. But with its limited shutter-speed range of 2 seconds to 1/350 second, you won't be using it for long exposures or very fast action.

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06:42 AM in Digital Cameras | Permalink

June 21, 2005

Nikon D50 SLR Camera Review

All in all the Nikon D50 is an excellent digital SLR camera. Ideal for those who have outgrown their compact camera or for those who want to take their first steps into digital photography. The Nikon D50 may be a so-called entry level model; nevertheless it offers the user almost everything. "

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06:01 AM in Digital Cameras | Permalink

May 13, 2005

Sony Direct DVD Camcorder, the DCR-DVD7E

Sony has launched their new DVD camcorder which features an odd circular design and direct DVD recording. The DCR-DVD7E records your footage straight to a DVD disc so you can instantly watch the footage on your DVD player.

The DVD7E will feature a Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar Lense with 10x optical zoom and a 2.5-inch LCD screen. DVD formats include DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW. No release dates indicated, but expect to the new camcorder to set you back approximately $1200.

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06:08 AM in Digital Cameras, Gadgets, MP3 players, Music | Permalink

May 12, 2005

Konica Minolta Entry Level X60

Konica Minolta has announced an upgraded to their X50 digital camera. The new DiMAGE X60 entry level camera features a 5 megapixel sensor, 2.5-inch LCD screen, and 3x optical with 4x digital zoom.

The X60 will come in three different colors; blue, brushed metal silver, and red. Other features include 5 cm macro mode, fast startup times at 0.5 seconds, and Automatic Digital Subject Program Selection which picks the correct scene mode for you. As for the memory, it will come included with 15MB built in useless storage, but you can grab a SD or MMC card to fit your needs.

The X60 should ship near the end of May with a price of around $349.99 US.

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06:06 AM in Digital Cameras | Permalink

May 05, 2005

MPIO-one micro media player


I don't know how practical the MPIO-one is, considering it's a movie player with a ONE inch screen, but it certainly solves the problem of
portable media players being too bulky to really carry around easily. It's flash memory so it's extremely lightweight, just over an ounce, but storage only goes up to 1 GB. The MPIO-one can play mp3 and wma
files as well as jpeg images and text. Of course you'll go blind trying to see anything on the screen, but it can be done. The MPIO-one, unlike so many other media players actually comes with software that will convert many types of video files (ASF, AVI, MPEG, WMV) into an MPEG-4 file that's playable on the device.

I saw lots of movie players of this size at CES in January, and while I was predictably blown away by their tiny size, they weren't exactly very useful. I am pretty skeptical about anybody ever getting the portable movie player right because I'm not sure there's a need. If you've got time to painstakingly convert video at home, you've got time to watch America's Next Top Model (not that I do). I latched on to the idea quickly and had an Archos Multimedia Jukebox with a 2 inch screen several years ago and watched half a season of Buffy on it, but because the battery life was so bad, I had to do it while the thing was plugged in, which, of course, defeats the purpose of having a portable. My niece has one of the newer players and while the battery life is a little better, rarely will it stay alive long enough to let you watch an entire feature-length movie.

MPIO-one will be available in May in Japan, no announcements for the rest of the world yet.

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06:09 AM in Digital Cameras, MP3 players, Music | Permalink

April 08, 2005

Shimadzu’s million-frame-per-second video camera

Shimadzu's 100mn fps camera It may only shoot in monochrome at a size of 312 x 260 pixels and take up to 100 frames at a time, but Shimadzu’s HyperVision HPV-1 camera can record at a million frames a second (you can step down through a range of slower rates to a crawling 30 fps should you wish), enabling you to capture those precious split seconds of blindingly fast motion in all the loving detail you need.  The rest of the package consists of a Windows-XP powered control unit with a 20GB hard drive and Ethernet/USB2.0 connections; images are stored as either AVI, TIFF or BMP. The whole thing will set you back a stinging Y22 mn ($205,000). We hear the Wachowski brothers will be using this in their next film to capture up close the subtle vibration of Agent Smith’s nostril hair as he takes a punch to the head.

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06:14 AM in Digital Cameras, Gadgets | Permalink

April 05, 2005

FirstShot - (kids) digital camera



HS Design has created a digital camera which illustrates the characteristics of Toray Ultrasuede , a micro-fiber material for use with consumer products. FirstShot has a writable display screen and a built in stylus to personalize photos. The USB dock can display or "picture frame" the image or send images to friends.

Maybe I should also mention that it was designed as a child's first digital camera, but that won't prevent me from trying to get my hands on one whenever it lands on the market.

06:08 AM in Digital Cameras | Permalink