Hasta La Gadget!

Sony has announced a camera-mounted CLM-V55 LCD screen for videographers. The WVGA-resolution monitor clips into the hot-shoe and hooks into the camera via an HDMI port. While it is designed to complement Sony’s Alpha SLRs, it will work with HDMI-capable bodies from any manufacturer.

WVGA is 800 x 480 pixels, and these make up a 5-inch screen. On-screen markers show both 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratios, and there are lots of aids for manual focussing. A “color peaking” function highlights the edges of any area that is in sharp focus, and you can also zoom in on the full HD image to check focus. You can also adjust pretty much anything, from color temperature to brightness.

The CLM-V55 also swivels, and can be mounted off-camera, making it handy for stills-shooter, too.

The monitor will be on sale in March, although a price has yet to be announced.

Clip-on LCD monitor from Sony for HD video shooting with Interchangeable Lens Digital cameras [Sony]

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The Olympus PENpal is a Bluetooth widget that beams photos from your camera to your computer. It slides into the accessory shoe on the top of the Olympus PEN E-PL2 camera and is controlled by the camera itself.

This ingenious dongle integrates with the camera’s own menus, and sends images to any device compatible with Bluetooth file transfers (which counts out the iPhone and iPad, as we noted in our full review of the E-PL2). It works like this: Browse your photos on the camera’s screen as usual and then hit the menu button. From here, choose the “Send a Picture” option and you’re done. The photo will appear on your computer a few moments later.

The PENpal will also resize photos before sending. Depending on your settings, it will shrink pictures to 1280 x 960, 1920 x 1440 or 640 x 480, and can store up to 2,600 pictures in its own memory.

This seems like an ideal solution for crappy cellphone cameras. You can take a snap with a proper camera and then send it to your phone for editing and uploading, letting both devices do what they’re good at. This seems to be a trend in consumer electronics in general: We’re moving away from convergence and the do-everything machines that entails, and coming to small ecosystems of networked devices. Camera, computer and tablet are all beginning to talk to each other.

It’s just a shame that this won’t work with the iPad, which really needs a camera, and that it is Olympus-only. At least it’s cheap, though, at just $80.

Olympus PENpal [Olympus via Derek Story]

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This solidly designed Polaroid GL30 beauty is a modern take on the old-school Polaroid camera you may own and love. It’s digital, has an adjustable display, and will spit out your photos in seconds. And did I mention it’s freakin’ gorgeous? More »

LAS VEGAS — Sony Ericsson’s new Xperia Arc packs some startling photo and video-taking features into a rather slim – and arc-shaped – package.

The phone runs the latest version of Android 2.3, Gingerbread, and slides it into a thin body that measures just 8.7mm at its waist. And it is a “waist”: the case has a pronounced concave-curve at the rear which gives it a swooping elegance. Onto the front of this body is grafted a huge 4.2-inch multi-touch screen. It is, with its 1 GHz Qualcomm processor, a competent Android phone.

Then we get to the camera, an 8MP monster with a wide maximum aperture of ƒ2.4, coupled with the Exmor R sensor, a backlit CMOS sensor also seen in Sony’s proper cameras. If the promo videos are anything to go on (and obviously allowing for their inevitable exaggerations) then the camera is impressive, with image processing to take care of noise, tweak colors, enhance contrast and generally fix up cellphone photos into something worth keeping.

Android is great, but the handsets are starting to look more like giant slabs of chocolate than actual phones that can fit in a pocket. The Xperia Arc manages to not only buck this trend, but pack in some serious photography tools to boot.

Xperia Arc press release [Sony Ericsson]

Next Step – Xperia arc [Sony Ericsson product blog]

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LAS VEGAS — 3-D Blu-ray discs alone aren’t going to make 3-D TV take off. Consumers have to be able to create and view their own three-dimensional home movies, student films, and the like.

To that end, Sony unveiled today a spankin’ new, 3-D-capable Handycam that promises to unleash your inner James Cameron, while also providing razor-sharp 1080p HD for those not quite ready to hop aboard the 3-D TV bandwagon.

On the outside, the Handycam HDR-TD10 boasts what Sony is calling “Double Full HD,” owing to the fact that each of the integrated dual lens (a setup necessary for shooting in true 3-D) contains all the key components for operation: A Sony G lens, CMOS image sensor, and image processor. Naturally, you’ll still need a 3-D TV to show off your custom content, but you can also view 3-D playback sans glasses on the Handycam’s optimized 3.5-inch LCD display.

Under the hood, the HDR-TD10 commands 64 GB of flash memory, as well as a 10-inch optical zoom for those extreme close-ups, 5.1-channel surround sound, and 7-megapixel still-image capability, if you’re just merely scouting locations for your next Avatar fanfic epic.

Look for the the HDR-TD10 on store shelves sometime in April, and be prepared to lay down about $1,500 for that budding director in your life.

Images: Sony