We do know that Sony’s upcoming Honami smartphone will most likely feature a 20-megapixel shooter to go along with it, and Sony has certainly been doing their bit to ensure that their smartphones’ cameras get better and better with each […]
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This week it would appear that the team at Haselblad have been working on a custom modification of none other than the Sony RX100 according to several leaked images. This run of customizations would have a series of odd – and awesome – new grips for the machine while the outer body gains its own bit of Hasselblad-unique flare. Included in this lineup is a Padouk wood grip, carbon-fibre, Walnut, Wenge, Olive, and Mahogany.
If you planned on working with the Sony RX100 for quite a while after you’d purchased it and want to make a day of it with a custom body the likes of which you’d only be able to get at this massive price-range, Hasselblad has your back. With prices expected – no confirmed, mind you, expected – to range between $1,600 and $3,200, you’ll be getting a bit more exotic right out of the box.
According to PhotoRumors, the big H up front is set to continue to be a staple of the customized series. The series is also set to be released somewhere around the 26th of July – soon – and the major differences are quite likely to remain aesthetic – exterior on the whole.
You’ll see too that the lenses keep the same name – no ZEISS update here. Have a peek at a few photos of the Sony Cyber-shot RX100 II from our most recent hands-on (also linked above) and see how this update would make the shooter look – and possibly feel – a lot smoother. And cooler, without a doubt.
Hasselblad Stellar leak beefs up Sony’s RX100 is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Hasselblad’s strategy of sprucing up Sony cameras must be paying off — that would explain Photo Rumors‘ apparent leak of the Stellar, a Hasselblad take on the RX100. The already high-end compact cam will reportedly switch to a tan metallic body and offer several choices of exotic grip material, including carbon fiber and padouk wood. There’s no mention of functional upgrades over the Sony original, though. As with the Lunar, we’re more likely to see a price hike instead — Photo Rumors claims the Stellar should launch on July 26th for between $1,600 to $3,200, which would limit it to particularly well-heeled photographers.
Source: Photo Rumors
A new technology that could make its way to production cars is being tested in a handful of Ford police interceptors. The new tech is called “Surveillance Mode,” and it essentially gives police officers eyes in the back of their heads when they’re in their cars to prevent sudden sneak-ups coming from the rear.
It’s a fairly simple technology and it uses current rear cameras used for backing up to detect movement going on behind the car. When it detects a person moving in the camera’s view, the inside of the car makes a beeping noise and all the doors automatically lock and the windows automatically roll up to prevent any possibly sudden attacks.
The technology is obviously designed to keep police officers safer while they’re out on patrol, especially when they’re alone. Interestingly enough, the idea for this was thought up by Ford engineer Randy Freiburger who went on a ride-along with a police office in Los Angeles. The officer had to get out of the car to chase down a suspect on foot, leaving Freiburger alone in the car.
A screen in the rear-view mirror shows the video footage of the rear camera, and unlike in production cars when the camera is only enabled in reverse gear, this camera can stay on at all times and remain activated until the driver chooses to disable the feature when it isn’t needed.
The technology will come standard in all 2014 Ford police cars, and older models can have the system retrofitted for just a few hundred dollars. No word on whether or not this technology will make it to production cars at some point, but everyday drivers could certainly benefit from such a feature to prevent robberies and carjackings.
SOURCE: Ford
Ford Surveillance Mode gives police cars protection from rear approaches is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
These days, even a cheap phone has the ability to record sights and sounds using its camera. But that’s just two of our many senses. With her concept for an “odor camera”, designer Amy Radcliffe hopes that she can encourage electronics makers to make devices that can record scent.
Amy named her scent recorder Madeleine, after the French pastry popularized in Marcel Proust’s novel In Search of Time. In the novel, the pastry – combined with the taste of tea – causes a character to remember something from the past (I wonder if Amy realizes that that scene involves the sense of taste, not the sense of smell). To record a scent with Madeleine, you place its funnel over the object whose scent you want to record. Madeleine’s pump will suck the air surrounding the object and mix it with a resin. Then you send that mixture to a fragrance lab. The lab will replicate the scent and send the replica back to you.
In an interview with The Atlantic, Amy said she deliberately imagined a slow development process for the Madeleine because she wants to bring back the curation that consumers had to enforce back in the days of film photography. Nowadays we can take dozens of pictures in an hour then forget we even have them – or what’s in them – before the day ends. But with film, you had to choose which pictures to develop. In other words, you had to choose which memories to keep. Now imagine if you could keep a thousand scents in your phone. You’d be tweeting recordings of stranger’s farts every 10 seconds. #IRegretNothing.
[via Amy Radcliffe & The Atlantic via The Verge]
Police on patrol live and breathe situational awareness. Even in the safety of their patrol cars, cops can’t let their guards down. Now, a new feature developed by Ford and InterMotive Inc. lets officers know when pedestrians are approaching from behind — and puts the vehicle in lockdown. This car will cover your six.
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While concept behind the Instagram-themed smart camera Socialmatic is one so outlandish you’d expect it to stay conceptual forever, it’s become apparent this week that the creators of this machine are aiming for a real release relatively soon. Confirmed this week are two factoids not known before – one of them a confirmation of the operating system under the hood of this rather squared-off shooter: Android. Whether or not Google will approve is not yet known.
Though past iterations of this machine appearing in social networking pop-ups and conceptual board collections pointed toward a release time “in the future”, the team known as Socialmatic LLC has confirmed that “Pre-order available soon!” is the new most accurate answer for when it’ll be headed to reality. The fact that their newest one-sheet comes with a $299 price-tag is encouraging – an added note “suggested price” reminds us that we’ve not yet actually seen the physical product in any real-world photographs as yet.
The closest anyone’s gotten is a set of two rather realistic renders from ADR Studio Marketing and Communication which show the machine’s size with some rather fine 3D rendering and photoshop magic. The newest Facebook-bound communication from the Socialmatic LLC team shows the newest visions of the device in black and white.
This device is teased with promises of a 14-megapixel front-facing camera, and 2-megapixel camera at the devices, back, and a single (rather tiny) LED flash above the device’s main shooter. This device works with a front-facing LCD display with what the company calls “Mood Assistant A.I.”, reminding users – we must assume – to smile or frown, depending on the wishes of the photographer. It does not appear at the moment that this screen can be used as a second viewfinder for the camera – a much, much more user-friendly use-case.
Have a peek at the Samsung DV150F for the best implementation of a front-facing display on a camera we’ve seen yet.
The Socialmatic will be coming with a Zink instant printer for Polaroid instant-result physical photos, you’ll get 4GB of internal storage, and you’ve got a full-sized SD-HDC slot for external storage. And of course you’ve got full “compliance” with the Socialmatic Network as well. Gotta have that!
UPDATE: Additional press renders have surfaced via Socialmatic itself – have a peek at some additional possibilities in the development of this wild device!
Socialmatic retro smart camera promises pre-orders, remains mum on release is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
The Galaxy S 4 Zoom offers a point-and-shoot style camera attached to the body of a smartphone, but if you’re wanting something with robust camera sensor that can be removed when you don’t need it, you’re not going to find it sadly. However, it’s rumored that Sony will be releasing a camera lens attachment with the same specs as the RX100 II that was recently unveiled.
According to Sony Alpha Rumors, two anonymous sources say that Sony will be releasing such an accessory at some point in the future, and while it’s essentially a clip-on lens, it packs a 20.2-megapixel Exmor RS sensor with a Carl Zeiss lens that uses your smartphone’s display as a viewfinder.
This basically means that the attachment is its own camera, but it needs a few more functions in order to take photos, and this is where the smartphone comes in to offer a viewfinder and change around settings for taking optimal photos. The lens also has a built-in battery, WiFi, and NFC. We’re not sure exactly how it will communicate with your smartphone, but we’re guessing it’ll use one of these wireless protocols listed.
It’s unclear whether the camera attachment will only be compatible with Sony’s Android devices or if it’ll work with all smartphones using an adapter, but we’re guessing that Sony might keep it exclusive to Sony devices at least for a little while.
The attachment does seem a little far-fetched, but sources say that they’re pretty confident that Sony will release it soon. As for a price tag, that’s not yet discussed, but seeing as how the RX100 II costs $750 (with the lens most likely being a big part of the cost), we’re guessing the attachment won’t be cheap.
SOURCE: Sony Alpha Rumors
Sony RX100 II camera lens attachment tipped for smartphones is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
In today’s sci-fi-inches-closer-to-reality news, Sony has filed a patent application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for integrated camera sensors that can tag movies and photographs with your vital signs. The application, which can be read in full at the source below, describes a system of intensely personalized filings on your mobile device or camera. Rather than tagging those awkward family photos as “The Johnsons at Christmas dinner,” you would theoretically be able to attach your own biological data to the image, including body temperature, pulse rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, blood oxygen level and skin conductance. Camera units would contain dedicated sensors for vitals that would attach such information to the file, like a weirdly personal time stamp. Why you’d want to have your blood pressure associated with your photos, we’re not quite sure, but Sony, at least, is determined to fill a void we didn’t even know existed.
Filed under: Cameras, Peripherals, Sony
Source: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
You can more or less say that IKEA has popularized the notion of packing everything flat, and I love the way they advertised their flattest package yet – the IKEA gift card. Surely you are unable to get any more thinner than that, can you? Well, here we are with what could be deemed to be a modern day marvel – a SLR camera that you assemble yourself. Wait a minute here, you say, aren’t these things supposed to be assembled on a production line somewhere in the world? Well, perhaps, but there is a certain satisfaction that comes with building things using your own bare hands, right? The £34.99 Konstruktor DIY SLR camera offers “flatpack photography” for those who love tinkering around with stuff.
It comes with clear and simple instructions, but even so, it is estimated to take anywhere from one to two hours in order to build your own camera. Once you are done with the task, it remains up to you to do up the external aesthetics, where you can rely on stick on leather detailing thanks to the included sticker sheet. One ought to note that Lomography is the one behind the Konstruktor DIY SLR Camera, but just remember that this is no digital camera. Rather, it will rely on classic 35mm film.
[ Konstruktor DIY SLR camera copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
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