Hasta La Gadget!

There’s a good chance ripping apart Sony’s Alpha A99 isn’t on the to-do list of those who own the freshly released $2,800 camera — even if they are curious about the hardware’s guts. Luckily for such inquiring minds, Sony’s taken matters into its own hands and torn the DSLR apart. While it’s not your conventional play-by-play video teardown, Hirai and Co. came prepared with the camera already split into layers that showcase its major parts such as its magnesium alloy body, 35mm full-frame sensor and main circuit board. For the grand tour of the A99’s innards, hit the jump to catch the footage.

Continue reading Sony’s Alpha A99 gets torn apart, exposes its 35mm full-frame sensor (video)

Filed under: Cameras, Sony

Sony’s Alpha A99 gets torn apart, exposes its 35mm full-frame sensor (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Nov 2012 03:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The trusty D5100 and D7000 have held sway over Nikon’s low-to-mid DSLR range for around 18 months now, but come December and there’ll be a new option driving a wedge right between them. The D5200 will still fulfill the role of a lightweight “advanced beginner” model and physically it’s the spitting image of the D5100, but at the same time it brings some fundamental and distinctly D7000-like photographic improvements to try to excuse its £720 (body-only) recommended retail price. (Update: that equates to around $1,150, but Nikon tells us that there’s no official US pricing or arrival date at this time.)

The D5200 offers a 39-point AF system for smarter focusing and tracking of moving subjects (compared to the 11-point module on the D5100), a 2,016-pixel RGB metering sensor (whereas the D5100 judged exposure based on just 420 pixels), and a new Expeed 3 processor that permits up to five shots per second (versus the older camera’s 4 fps). There’s also a brand new main image sensor: a DX-format chip that is the same size as the D5100’s and yet somehow squeezes in 8 million more pixels, bringing the effective resolution to 24.1 megapixels. Need more convincing? The camera also has a slightly simpler-looking UI, a stereo internal mic, more choice of h.264 frame rates up to 60 frames per second (in 1080i), and compatibility with Nikon’s admittedly flaky WU-1a wireless adapter. Check out our hands-on video after the break plus a review roundup in the next few weeks, and then, if you’re still not appeased, don’t sweat it: the D5100 and D7000 will continue to be sold for the forseeable, and both with ever-increasing discounts.

Continue reading Nikon reveals D5200 SLR with D7000-taunting specs: 24MP sensor, 39-point AF, wireless port (hands-on)

Filed under: Cameras, Nikon

Nikon reveals D5200 SLR with D7000-taunting specs: 24MP sensor, 39-point AF, wireless port (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Nov 2012 00:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung’s Galaxy Camera will go on sale across the UK on November 8, the company has announced, offering 16.1-megapixels, a 21x optical zoom, and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean on a quadcore processor. Announced back at IFA 2012, the Galaxy Camera blends a smartphone with a point-and-shoot, taking advantage of Android’s app flexibility and the addition of a 3G radio (or 4G in the US) to make shooting, editing, and uploading images straightforward, all from the device itself.

On the camera side, there’s a 16.1-megapixel backside-illuminated CMOS sensor, paired with a 23mm aperture lens and optical image stabilization. It also packs a 21x optical zoom – unheard of on a smartphone, and reasonably rare on compact cameras too –  together with Full HD video recording and 120fps slow-motion 720p videos.

As for the phone side, the Galaxy Camera will do just about everything your Android smartphone can, bar making voice calls. There’s HSPA+, WiFi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, HDMI 1.4, and 8GB of internal storage, plus a microSDXC card slot, while Android itself is running on a 1.4GHz quadcore processor. Control is via a sizable 720p touchscreen.

Samsung Galaxy Camera hands-on:

According to Jessops, the Galaxy Camera will be £399.99 and available in white and black; it will also be sold via cellphone stores, and – a day early, from 5pm on November 7 – at Samsung’s official Brand Store. In the US, the Galaxy Camera will be offered “in the coming weeks” on AT&T.

There’s more on the Galaxy Camera in our hands-on, as well as photo samples

Samsung Galaxy Camera priced and dated for UK is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

If you’ve ever played XCOM: Enemy Unknown, you’ll be familiar with the Battle Scanner, a gadget used by the game’s sniper class. The Battle Scanner provides visibility to an area covered by fog-of-war. A new company is currently working on a real world equivalent of that device. And not just because the Sniper won’t share his toy with the rest of us.

The yet unnamed device is being developed by Bounce Imaging. The device will have six cameras that can take two pictures per second, which will then be stitched together to provide a 360º degree of its surroundings. It will also have infrared LEDs to help it take pictures in low light. The ball will send the 360º view to a mobile device so the user can scout and plan in safety. Aside from the cameras, the ball could also contain various sensors, such as ones that analyze temperature, chemicals or radiation.

As with the Battle Scanner, this concept device will be extremely useful in combat situations. But Francisco Aguilar, the founder of Bounce Imaging, was actually compelled to start his company after the earthquake in Haiti back in 2010, where his concept device could have helped find survivors. Aguilar says the device will be tested by SWAT teams and Massachusetts police in January 2013 and could have a retail price as low as just $500 (USD).

[via New Scientist & Time via Digital Trends]

PhotoBot is a tiny robotic camera that is designed and built by Tommy Dykes, a British digital product designer. What makes the PhotoBot unique from the rest is its ability to scan a given area, locate people through its ultrasonic sensor, and automatically take pictures of them while instantly displaying the photos on a tiny screen. The robotic camera concept came to Dykes when he was exploring for other alternative ways of doing photography.

“This automation allows people to enjoy an occasion, such as a party, in the knowledge that the occasion is being documented photographically without the need for them to do it themselves,” he adds. The design of the PhotoBot, according to Dykes, is anthropomorphic or human-like, therefore creating a sense of trust and fun that quickly dispels the sense of surveillance. Earlier versions of the PhotoBot was reportedly condemned by some users as creepy and a tool that can be used for spying. Dykes managed to solve the dilemma by making its lens and display screen more visible to the naked eye.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Hidden surveillance camera use given nod by court, Lytro cameras gain manual controls through firmware update,