Hasta La Gadget!

There’s much to love about the new Olympus E-P1, but the hip new thing for the DSLR market is video, and Panasonic has already demonstrated with the Lumix DMC-GH1 that Micro Four Thirds cameras are in some ways even better suited to the demands of high quality point-and-shoot video. The folks at Digital Photography Review have some samples up now of the E-P1’s video performance, and while we’d like to see how the camera fares indoors as well, the outdoor samples they’ve posted are very promising. The colors seem just a touch washed out, but there’s great motion and clarity, and solid manual controls. It is interesting to note that while the camera does include some built-in effects, most of them dramatically reduce the frame rate — making them more or less useless. Most unfortunate, however, is the fact that there’s no auto focus in video mode, which is where the DMC-GH1 still reigns supreme in DSLR land. Hit up the read link for the videos, or if that’s not your style check out the bemusing Blendtec advert for the E-P1 after the break — it’s a real viral meets meta mashup, or something like that.

[Thanks Richard L.]

Update: We’ve heard conflicting word on auto focus. According to Photography Review‘s preview, the camera doesn’t have auto focus in video mode, but according to the Olympus press release, as Super Marxio pointed out in comments, there is auto focus during recording. Perhaps Photography Review was looking at a non-final version of the camera. We do know that the camera does auto focus using contrast detection, like a regular compact camera, and while that’s the same method used by the GH1, DP Review claims it’s slightly inferior — though they did state they were working with a 0.9 firmware.

Continue reading Olympus E-P1 video samples posted, camera turns up in ad-within-an-ad Blendtec spot

Filed under: Digital Cameras, HDTV

Olympus E-P1 video samples posted, camera turns up in ad-within-an-ad Blendtec spot originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s official, Olympus’ first MIcro Four Thirds camera is up and dancing upon the global stage. Dubbed, E-P1 “digital Pen” (reflecting the camera’s Olympus Pen-series heritage) this MFT shooter aligns with the looks and specs that came our way yesterday in leaked format. In other words, we’re looking at an image stabilized (sensor-shift) 12.3 megapixel Live MOS sensor with TruePic V image processing, ISO 100-6400 sensitivity, a 3-inch LCD, 20 shooting modes (5 exposure, i-Auto, and 14 automatic scenes), an SDHC slot, and HDMI TV-out for playback of 720p (1280×720 pixel) recorded video at 30fps. The 14-42 lens kit retracts into the barrel when not in use and Olympus’ Supersonic Wave Filter helps keep dust under control when swapping-out the lens for Micro Four Thirds, Four Thirds, or OM lenses. A few advanced previews of the E-P1 are already available — peep those in the read links below if you can’t wait for the July launch or the full-blown reviews due in a few weeks.

Update: Priced at $749 (body only), $799 (with 14-42mm lens), and $899 (with 17mm pancake lens and viewfinder). Honestly, those prices are better than we had hoped for especially in a camera measuring just 121 x 70 x 36-mm (4.7 x 2.7 x 1.4-inches) playing host to a DSLR-sized sensor.

Read — LetsGoDigital
Read — DPReview
Read — Photography Blog
Read — Official E-P1 product page

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Olympus E-P1 ‘digital Pen’ gets official, so does our lust originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Jun 2009 01:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Casio’s just pushed another 10x zoom compact camera into the market with its EXILIM EX-H10. Here we’ve got a 24-mm wide-angle lens stabilized by a 12.1 megapixel 1/2.3-inch CCD-shift sensor with up to ISO 3200 sensitivity, a 3-inch LCD, and the ability to grab Motion-JPEG video at 720/24p. EXILIM 4.0 image processing and a 10 frames per second burst mode for 1,280 x 960 pixel images too in a point-and-shoot measuring just 102.5 x 24.3 x 62-mm. Watch for it to hit Japanese retailers first starting next month for ¥40,000 (about $400). Pink rear-end after the break.

Continue reading Casio’s EXILIM EX-H10 ultra-compact gets 12.1 megapixels 10x closer

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Casio’s EXILIM EX-H10 ultra-compact gets 12.1 megapixels 10x closer originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Photographs of the next generation iPhone have shown up on a Chinese forum, and quickly disappeared, only to be preserved virtually everywhere else, most notably on the MacRumors forums where a full, human-made translation of the original thread has been made by Samac92.

The snaps, taken with the traditional “blurry-cam” required for spy-shots, supposedly show the third-gen iPhone hardware, which looks, not surprisingly, almost identical to the current hardware. In fact, the only indication that this isn’t the iPhone 3G comes in the form of a compass and an autofocus camera, the screens for which are clearly visible.

Both of these features require new hardware, and the rumors say that a new iPhone will indeed be getting a 3.2 megapixel, autofocus camera along with a magnetometer-driven compass. The shots look pretty good, and we’re inclined to believe them if only because of the Apple-like interface polish.

The shot above shows the mechanism for autofocus. The blue square is moved with a finger, and that’s where the camera focuses. The shot below shows the difference between pictures taken on an iPhone 3G (right) and the new iPhone. The difference is pretty clear. We also see the option to shoot video using the little on-screen switch at bottom right.

The compass screen could just be a mockup, but even so, it’s a very Apple-like design. Given the colander-like state of Apple secrecy in the last year, we’re certainly expecting some juicy, accurate leaks to spring in the iPhone gen-3 ship, and these might just be the first.

Photos of Next Gen iPhone in Action? Auto-Focus and Compass [MacRumors Forums]

Palm’s official Twitter account just tweeted about testing out yfrog, the image / video sharing site — and as you might expect from a manufacturer, it wants to share pictures snapped with its own equipment. Thanks to some helpful EXIF data parsed out by the site, we know the image you’re looking at here was taken using a Pre, apparently smack in the middle of enjoying a few 5-cent horsey rides. As far as we can tell this is the first shot we’ve seen posted from the Pre’s camera, and we’re cautiously optimistic about what the 3 megapixel sensor has managed to do here. Sure, blowing the image up to full size reveals some nasty artifacting and muddy details, but when you get right down to it, that’s what cameraphone shots are all about, right?

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Palm Pre camera used, results shared at long last originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 May 2009 18:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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