Hasta La Gadget!

Despite its pro looks, the Pentax Q uses a tiny digicam sensor

Pentax has gotten into the mirrorless camera game with the Q system. It seems most of the work has gone into designing the new lens mount, as the rest of the specs are competent but fairly ordinary. That said, it looks like Pentax has come up with a solid (literally) entry into the hot mirrorless market, with one exception: the sensor.

The first Q-series camera has a 12.4 megapixel sensor, measuring 0.43 -inches on the diagonal. That’s no bigger than what you’d find in a decent point-and-shoot. It will at least shoot bursts of 5fps and up to ISO 6,400, and can capture video at up to 1080p.

The LCD is a pedestrian 460,000 dots, and the flash pops up on a rather long, fragile-looking arm. There are lots of machanical controls, including a very handy dial on the front. The four positions can be assigned to various functions, but the available functions are only for tweaking the in-camera special effects. A real waste.

There are also five lenses in the lineup. In 35mm equivalent, they are as follows: an ƒ1.9 47mm prime, a 27.5-83 zoom, 35mm and 100mm “toy” lenses (think Lomo) and a 160-degree fisheye. There will also be an optional optical viewfinder.

But that sensor cripples the system. Why would you go for this over a Canon G12 or other compact camera when the sensor is about the same size? Especially as the kit (with the 50mm equivalent) will cost $800 when this launches in the fall. I’d say you’re much better off buying into the Micro Four Thirds system, where you can choose between all shapes and sizes of body, beginning in the same price range.

Pentax Q [Pentax via BJP]

See Also:

• Pentax
• Pentax Swallows Paint and Robots, Vomits Camera
• Tiny Olympus Micro Four Thirds Camera Body Leaked
• Leica 25mm ƒ1.4 Lens for Micro Four Thirds

Ex-Stanford student Ren Ng is just about to launch a new kind of camera that will blow you away. Don’t believe me? Try clicking around on this photo of a Scuba diver standing in front of distant mountains.

This is a single exposure, taken with one camera. See how you can move the point of focus anywhere, even after you have taken the photograph? I told you it was cool.

Ng’s company Lytro is planning on launching the camera this year. Regular Gadget Lab readers will recognize the technology as a a light-field, or plenoptic camera. These camera put an array of micro-lenses over the sensor. This lenticular array sits on the focal plane of the camera (where the light is focused by the lens — also known as the film plane), and the sensor sits slightly behind.

Thus the camera not only records the color and intensity of the light, but also the direction. Using some heavy processing, this information can then be used to do the magic you see above. It also replaces much of a camera’s precision mechanics with software.

While this after-the-fact focus choice is the clear wow factor, there are other neat tricks the camera can do with this information. First is that the camera can shoot in much lower light. Second is that, as the sensor is recording direction information, you can peek “behind” the edges of the foreground objects.

Lytro’s trick is to get this tech into a camera that is small and affordable enough for consumers, and in an interview with All Things D’s Ina Fried, he promised a “competitively priced consumer product that fits in your pocket” later this year.

At first, Lytro will make and market its own camera. I really can’t wait. Imagine being able to pick and choose just what is in focus when you get back home, just like we can do now with white balance and — to a certain extent — exposure. If it works as well as it seems from these sample photos, this could be huge.

Lytro Picture Gallery [Lytro via All Things D]

See Also:

• Array Camera Tech Turns Cellphones into Futuristic Image …
• Augmented Reality: plenoptics
• New Camera Chip Takes 3D Pictures
• Adobe Shows off 3D Lens: Never Trust Photos Again

So ugly even its own mother is disgusted, the Alpinist will nevertheless make you love it

This hideous looks like a stoned hippy took to carving his airline seatbelt buckle with a Dremel, but if you’re a climber, you’re probably going to love it anyway. It’s called the Alpinist Case, and it protects your camera from mountains.

The case is machined from aluminum held together with stainless steel screws and filled with low-density foam. Should your camera fall, or get whacked by a passing cliff, then there’s a good chance it will survive.

But protection is pointless if you can’t get the camera out to take photos. To this end, the flip-up, clamp-shut lid can be locked down, but popped open easily. And you hang the case from your belt by a carabiner, so access is easy and fast. You can also leave the lid un-clamped and it will be held closed by magnets.

There are three sizes, from a tiny case for slim point-and-shoots up to a larger one for bigger compacts like the Leica D-Lux. You won’t be carrying an SLR in there, but then you probably don’t want to schlep a big heavy camera up a mountain anyway.

Available now (but on back order until late July), from $60 to $120.

Alpinist cases [Betashell via PetaPixel]

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Yes, it’s absurd, but you’re still intrigued, right?

What happens when you stack up 50 UV filters and screw them all onto the front of your lens? That depends on the quality of the filters you use.

The folks at Lens Rentals have a lot of filters lying around. One day, an employee named Kenny drew the sort straw and had to clean them all, stacking them as he went. And then he wondered, what if I shoot through these?

The results are not startling, but they sure are interesting. A shot through 50 filters looks like somebody smeared Vaseline on the lens. Things get even more interesting when you compare the best and worst filters (apparently not all Lens Rentals customers return the same good filters they receive).

Guess which is which? Photos: Lens Rentals

A photograph taken through five top-of-the-line UV filters shows surprisingly little degradation, despite ten air-to-glass interfaces. A picture through the cheap filters, though, isn’t much different to the one shot through 50. The results are blurred and lacking in contrast.

As Lens Rentals’ Roger Cicala writes in his post, this is a situation unlikely to ever occur in real life, but it sure shows the difference in quality between the cheapest and the best. The takeaway? If you insist on putting a UV filter on your $1,000 lens, then don’t opt for the $20 model.

Good Times With Bad Filters [Lens Rentals via DP Review]

See Also:

• How do color filters work?

PopBooth turns digital pictures into real prints, just like a real photo booth

PopBooth is an iOS photo booth app with one big difference. It actually prints out real strips of photos. These pictures don’t pop out of a slot in the side of the iPad of course, but ordering them is as easy as posting your photos to Twitter.

In fact, you can post these photos to Twitter and Facebook, or send them by email, but the point is the real paper photos. Just specify the recipient from within the app and hit send. The prints will drop onto the doormat three to five days later.

The service comes from Sincerely, the folks behind Postagram. Postagram is a similar app which lets you use an iPhone or Android phone to send postcards containing your camera snaps or Instagram photos. These cost $1 a pop, and although Sincerely hasn’t yet revealed the price for PopBooth, it will be a little more than a dollar per strip.

I love the convenience of this idea. I’m always meaning to print my best photos, but I’m not willing to buy a printer, and I have no idea where I would get decent quality prints anyway. Snapping a photo and then having it turn up a few days later could get expensively addictive.

PopBooth will be available in a couple of weeks.

PopBooth [PopBooth via Tech Crunch]

See Also:

• Postagram Prints, Mails Instagram Photos
• Instagram
• Print-Sending App Turns iPhone Into a Photo-Booth
• HP Announces Wireless Printing App for iPhone