Hasta La Gadget!

The Raspberry Pi mini computer won’t be blind for much longer: a video camera unit shown off last month that will allow Pi owners to build video applications is expected to go on sale in April, according to the Pi Foundation’s Liz Upton.

“We’ve sent the first camera boards to production, and we’re expecting to be able to start selling them some time in April,” she writes on the Foundation blog.

In the meanwhile, in a Google Glass style contest (but without the extortionate $1,500 price-tag — an entirely free giveaway in fact), the Foundation has 10 camera boards to gift to testers who will put the Pi’s Eye through its paces.

The boards will go to folk who “have a magnificent, imaginative, computationally interesting thing you’d like to do with a Raspberry Pi camera board”, as Upton puts it, to help the Foundation do “extra-hard testing”.

She writes:

The reason we’re giving these cameras away is that we want you to help us to do extra-hard testing. We want the people we send these boards to to do something computationally difficult and imaginative with them, so that the cameras are pushed hard in the sort of bonkers scheme that we’ve seen so many of you come up with here before with your Pis, and so that we can learn how they perform (and make adjustments if necessary)… We want you to try to get the camera doing something imaginative. Think about playing around with facial recognition; or hooking two of them up together and modging the images together to create some 3d output; or getting the camera to recognise when something enters the frame that shouldn’t be there and doing something to the image as a result. We are not looking for entries from people who just want to take pictures, however pretty they are. (Dave Akerman: we’ve got one bagged up for you anyway, because the stuff you’re taking pictures of is cool enough to earn an exemption here. Everybody else, see Dave’s latest Pi in Space here. He’s put it in a tiny TARDIS.)

Pi owners hankering to have an eye to play with should email iwantacamera@raspberrypi.org and explain exactly what they want to do with the board, backing up their application with example of prior project work (with or without cameras) and GitHub code or the like, says Upton.

The Foundation also needs your postal address should you win. The competition is open worldwide until March 12.

Nikon’s new “COOLPIX S3500″ will be released in late March. It’s a small stylish compact digital camera, available in multiple colors, with 20.05MP 7X optical zoom lens and many useful functions to help casual picture-takers get the most out of their shots.
These include:
– Lens-shift Vibration Reduction that helps minimise blur from camera shake
– Subject Tracking – locks on to moving subjects to keep focus on the target
– Scene Auto Selector – …

The Nikon COOLPIX P330 is a compact digital camera but with specs and shooting ability to be usable by more serious users who typically use much more serious equipment.
Newly-added NIKKOR lens with maximum aperture of f/2.8 and 1/1.7 CMOS Sensor, and 5X optical zoom all contribute to the overall quality of the pictures. Pictures can be taken of objects up to 3 cm away from the lens for macro photography as well. Effective pixels are 12.2MP, and 1080p Full HD video with stereo sound.
Other …

Caution Coolpix P310 owners: Nikon’s latest point-and-shoot announcement may cause you to weep. The P330, as this year’s flavor is to be called, offers a handful of upgrades over its predecessor, which launched in February of 2012. First, there’s a new larger sensor on board, with 1/1.7 of an inch to work with, compared to 1/2.3 of an inch on last year’s flavor. It’ll also snap lower-resolution images, which may sound like a step backwards, but the 12.2-megapixel chip should offer superior image quality, along with a sensitivity range of ISO 80 through 12,800. Also new this year is RAW shooting — a feature that could help position this mid-range model as a companion shooter for advanced amateurs and pros alike, for those occasions where a full-size rig wouldn’t be practical. Finally, there’s a 5x, 24-120mm f/1.8-5.6 optic with lens-based VR, a 3-inch TFT LCD, built-in GPS, 1080/30p and 60i video shooting and WiFi connectivity with the optional ($60) WU-1a module.

In an atypical move, Nikon graciously permitted us to photograph the P330 before its official debut, so we have some hands-on pics and impressions to share. The camera itself looks very similar to the P310 — there’s a nifty mode dial up top, along with a zoom toggle, control dial, power button, stereo mics and a pop-up flash. It’s a solid-feeling compact, though Sony’s RX100 does offer a more premium feel (and shooting experience to boot, but for nearly twice the price). Overall, the P330 is a solid entrant to Nikon’s midrange lineup, but at $380, it’s a fairly significant investment, too. Expect the camera to hit stores later this month in black and white — you, dear reader, can thumb through our hands-on gallery for an up-close look today, though.

Filed under: Cameras, Nikon

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In 2012, ADR Studio created a Socialmatic Instagram concept camera, which is now set to become a reality. Socialmatic announced earlier this week that it signed an MoU agreement with C&A Licensing allowing it to make a Poloroid digital camera with instant printing capabilities. All the details are still unknown, but you can see the concept image after the jump.

Official details, such as its design and specifications, haven’t been finalized, but word has it the camera will be launched in 2014. Along with the device will be a line of accessories specific to it, such as filters, lenses, and camera bags. This indicates the company expects the device to be popular, a reasonable expectation given the enthusiasm that spread across the Internet when the concept was produced.

If the camera follows closely to the concept, users can expect a generously-sized 4.3-inch touchscreen display on the back, as well as 16GB of internal storage. The device will print instant photographs from an integrated printer. Connectivity could then be comprised of both Bluetooth and standard Wi-Fi. It is reasonable to assume the on-board operating system could be Android, although everything is speculation at this point.

Socialmatic’s CEO Antonio De Rosa said: “We are so proud to work together with C & A and Polaroid, giants of digital photography. It has been a long and difficult negotiation but we were strongly motivated to reach an agreement to create a small revolution in digital photography. This mix of Hardware and Software, together with our brand new photo social network will fill the gap between virtuality and reality.”

[via Engadget]

Socialmatic to make Polaroid-branded Instagram digital camera is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
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