Hasta La Gadget!

Panasonic has stolen its own thunder with the LUMIX GH3 micro four thirds camera, pre-announce posting a video of the new model and spilling its 16-megapixel sensor and 72Mbps video recording. The GH3 inclues a new Venus image processing engine and is clad in a magnesium alloy casing that, Panasonic says, is dust- and splash-proof.

The headline ability might be video recording, though details from the video are still scant. There’s HD recording at up to 72Mbps, an impressively high bitrate for a micro-four-thirds camera, and a 60p mode; it’s not clear whether that’s at full 1920 x 1080 resolution, however, or at a lower setting like 720p.

Controls look to include a flip-out LCD display as well as the usual clusters of buttons, and the lens – which we’re assuming is the standard kit lens – is an f/2.8 12-35mm.

We’ll undoubtedly know more when Panasonic makes the LUMIX GH3 official, which is likely to happen imminently if this video’s arrival is anything to go by. We’ll be keeping an eye out.

Update: The video was taken down, but there’s a new copy here:

[via Engadget]

Panasonic LUMIX GH3 makes premature appearance is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Still hungry for a closer look at Sony’s WiFi-packing NEX-6 despite perusing our hands-on? Apparently the FCC feels the same, so it’s used its government-granted authority to inspect the camera first-hand, and tear it apart in the process. This isn’t the only time the 16.1-megapixel shooter has been given the ruler treatment, but a full copy of its user’s manual has notably come along for its US visit. Check out the gallery below to view this NEX’s guts, or hit the source link to gloss over a PDF of the instruction manual — might as well get the boring stuff done before the package arrives in November.

Filed under: Cameras

Sony’s NEX-6 satisfies the FCC with paperwork, guts originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Sep 2012 15:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nikon has revealed its latest DSLR, the 24.3-megapixel D600, its smallest and lightest full-frame camera to-date, with Full HD video recording and a new 39-point AF system. Tipped as the perfect trio-completion with the D4 and D800, the FX-format camera supports ISO 100-6400 (extendable to 50 and 25,600) and has a scene and face recognition system that analyzes 2,016 pixels for brightness, colors, and other information, to help set autofocus and auto exposure.

The same technology is used for 3D subject tracking, which Nikon says is also improved for smaller subjects. The Multi-CAM4800 AF system – borrowed from Nikon’s D4, just like the D600′s EXPEED 3 image processing engine – can be set to 9-, 21-, or 39-point coverage, and can handle a combined aperture up to f/8 with detection down to -1 EV. Meanwhile the 100-percent coverage viewfinder adds selection of different AF modes, so that you can keep the camera to your face but still see which you’ve selected.

Scale-wise, the 700 comes in at 760g (sans-battery, mind) and has magnesium alloy top/rear covers with weather-seals like the D800. It can shoot around 900 shots on a full charge, and takes twin SD cards (supporting SDXC and UHS-I), while there’s USB and HDMI outputs along with an optional WU-1b Mobile Adapter for shuttling off images wirelessly and remotely-controlling the D600 from your phone or tablet.

On the back there’s a 3.2-inch 921k-dot LCD with automatic brightness control, handy for using the D600′s integrated HDR photo mode and other in-camera editing tools. Full HD 1080p video can be recorded in 24p, 25p, and 30p, with the option of 60p, 50p, and 25p in 720p mode; clips are capped at 29 minutes 59 seconds, and there’s a stereo microphone input for audio.

The Nikon D600 DSLR goes on sale later this month, priced at $2,099.95 in the US and £1,955.99 in the UK body-only; it will also be offered as a kit with the AF-S NIKKOR 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5G ED VR lens for $2,699.95 in the US and £2,443.99 in the UK. The WU-1b, meanwhile, will be $59.95 in the US and £64.99 in the UK.

Nikon D600 24.3MP DSLR official with remote phone/tablet control is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Handheld cameras are often preferred over standard video cameras when capturing videos. This is because they offer a certain amount of ease and mobility due to their smaller and lighter size. Building on this concept, a designer, Christopher Terella has come up with the cool idea of an ‘ultimate action cam.’

The camera is being called ‘E-Clips video camera’ and is termed an action cam simply because its design makes it very easy to carry about, not only in your hand but also when you are on the go. For instance, you can easily hitch up the camera to your bike if you wish to capture a video while biking.  (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Fujifilm X-E1 Arrives With Interchangeable Lens, New Face-Scanning Technology Can Spot Drunks,

Augmented reality isn’t just a gimmick for Google Glass and Nokia City Lens, but could make industrial work safer and improve visibility for those with partial sight, according to new research. The team at Eyetap, led by “father of AR” Professor Steve Mann, has cooked up a so-called quantigraphic camera for a new WeldCam HDRchitecture (HDRchitecture) helmet that rather than simply mask the bright lighting produced by welding equipment, actually uses HDR photography techniques to pick out the details the wearer most needs to see.

Traditional welding helmets use a sheet of smoked glass for the eyepiece, cutting down on the dangerous glare from the welding process itself, but also reducing overall visibility. The HDRrchitecture system, instead, processes images coming from one or more cameras, rendering a Full HD, 30fps stream with the brighter elements stripped out but the core details retained, all in real-time.

Professor Mann actually developed HDR (high dynamic range) photography several decades ago, and has been making heavy use of it in his own Eyetap wearable computer. There, three simultaneously captured images at different exposures are combined – again, in real-time, and at 120fps – to produce a more detail-rich view of the world than could be seen by the human eye alone.

“By capturing over a dynamic range of more than a million to one,” the Eyetap team says, “we can see details that cannot be seen by the human eye or any currently existing commercially available cameras.” They’ve also come up with a standalone hardware device, small enough to fit into “a large shirt pocket,” which can process two HDMI camera inputs – one for each eye – and two HDMI outputs for separate eyepieces, with the processing done using GPUs and multicore CPUs.

Although the initial work is being presented as ideal for welding helmets, Mann & Co. believe the true usefulness is yet to be explored. Since the system is self-contained, and requires no user-controls or connected PC, it could be evolved into a set of HDR eyeglasses, for instance, aiding those with less than perfect eyesight. There’s more detail in the full research paper [pdf link].

[via Hack A Day]

Quantigraphic camera promises HDR eyesight from Father of AR is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.