Hasta La Gadget!

If yesterday’s preview of the GF2 wasn’t enough for you, here’s a little more eye candy to feast upon. We paired up Panasonic’s all-new Micro Four Thirds shooter with the GF1 that preceded it and collected a nice little gallery for your perusal below. The major difference between the two is in their dimensions — the GF2 feels a lot closer to your typical compact camera — though there are plenty of smaller modifications as well, such as the refashioned grip on the camera’s right side, the replacement of the jog dial up top with a stereo mic array, and the introduction of a luminous iA button for switching on the intelligent auto mode. The back of the GF2 is also quite a bit tidier, which has been achieved mostly by eliminating some buttons in favor of the touchscreen interface. Check it all out below or jump past the break for some video action.

Continue reading Panasonic Lumix GF2 vs. GF1… fight!

Panasonic Lumix GF2 vs. GF1… fight! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Nov 2010 09:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rumors have been swirling around an imminent update to Panasonic’s GF-1 for the last week, but now we have a photograph of the Lumix GF-2. The word from the snitches and stool-pigeons on the street has been that the GF-2 will be tiny, and will keep the same sensor as the current GF-1.

As you can see, it is very small, with some reports claiming that it will be smaller than Sony’s NEX cameras, the current kings of the mirrorless slimming contest. This photograph was snapped by a French reader of the 43 Rumors site, outside the Salon de Photo show which opens in Paris tomorrow. This rings true: every year at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, ad billboards betray new products days before the show begins.

But you want more details, right? The GF-2 will sport a new image processor, record “Full-HD” and will come equipped with a touch-screen. Looking at the photo, it appears that the size reduction might come at the expense of utility: Apart from the shutter-release, there appear to be almost no controls on the top plate, and certainly no dials. I guess the touch screen will fold these into some slow-to-navigate menus instead. A shame, as the controls on the GF-1, which I have and love, are pretty great.

Panasonic may also be offering a new kit, with a 14mm ƒ2.5 lens instead of the 20mm ƒ1.7 found on the GF-1.

Hopefully Panasonic won’t mess this up. We should find out tomorrow, as the same rumor sources point to an announcement in the morning. Availability of the new model is not expected until 2011, so if this does turn out the be the LX-5 with interchangeable lenses it appears to be, you can still snap up the awesome little GF-1 before it ships.

Panasonic GF2 image spotted in Paris [43 Rumors]

See Also:

• A Month With the Lumix GF1, And Why I No Longer Use The Nikon D700 …
• Hands-On With Panasonic's Leica-Lite GF1

It’s been a long, long time coming, but OnOne has finally gotten around to making an iPad version of its handy DSLR Camera Remote for the iPad. The app, previously available for the iPhone and iPod touch, allows you to remote-view what your SLR sees on the iPad’s screen, and also control most aspects of the camera therefrom.

Actually, you’ll have to wait a little longer for the imaginatively-named DSLR Camera Remote HD to hit – it’s due late November, but that does’t stop me getting excited. The iPad’s jumbo display is the reason: the iPhone’s screen isn’t much bigger than that of a modern-day SLR, so it made little more than a fancy, if useful, remote. Now you can preview and compose your shots on the iPad’s big screen, which opens up many more opportunities. Hell, in the studio, where portability isn’t a big deal, you might even use this right next to the camera just for that big preview.

Sadly, DSLR Remote still can’t fire the camera directly. You need to tether it to a computer running the companion server app. From there, you can peek your camera’s live-view, adjust exposure, focus and even use the iPad as an intervalometer for those time-lapse sequences you’ve always wanted to do.

There are some new features for the iPad version, too. You can now use gestures to pan and zoom the image for closer inspection, and also choose to save a low-res version of the picture to the iPad’s camera-roll. Finally, you will b able to shoot video and even monitor it with compatible cameras. The iPhone version will also get these additions in the next update.

Sounds great, right? You may want to sit down. The iPad app will cost you $50. The update to the iPhone app is free ($20 to buy new), but you’ll have to pay another $10 in-app to get the video-shooting functionality. Canon and Nikon only.

DSLR Camera Remote HD [OnOne via Rob Galbraith]

See Also:

• Hands-On With DSLR Remote for iPhone
• Camera-Triggering iPhone App Allows Remote Viewing
• Remote Display Lets You Use Camera from 500 Feet
• ShutterSnitch and Eye-Fi: Wireless Camera Tethering for iPad …
• The Eye-Fi Pro and the iPad? Forget About it

Have you ever needed to attach “your digital camera to cylindrical objects in extreme conditions”? Perhaps you find yourself cold and shivering in a torrential downpour, Thermos in one hand and umbrella in the other, yet desperate to snap a picture whilst you sip your hot beverage?

With the Flymount, you can do it all, and stay dry, warm and refreshed as you clamp the camera onto either the umbrella-shaft or the Thermos itself. The Flymount is an Australian camera-mount and, being from a land that spawns fit, sporty and outgoing progeny, it is made more for extreme sports than for extreme coffee-sipping (itself a real sport in my run-down Barcelona barrio).

The mount is made from glass-reinforced nylon and stainless-steel, and holds on to your camera in two ways. First is the standard tripod-screw, and second is an adjustable retaining-strap which wraps around the camera’s body and stops it from unscrewing itself as it is jiggled and whacked.

On the other end, the urethane-covered jaws screw-clamp down onto “cylindrical objects in extreme conditions.” Your Thermos will have to be very thin, though: the jaws can only bite down on cylindrical objects of between 20-40mm (0.8-1.6-inches) in diameter. It will, however, hold them tight in non-extreme conditions, too.

The Flymount looks pretty tough, and so it should if you are to entrust your ruggedized camera to its embrace as you do “extreme” things on windsurfers or mountain bikes. Having been out of action for a week due to an “extreme” broken leg, I’m thinking of ordering one of these and attaching a camera to the base of one of my crutches, whereupon it can witness me doing some “extreme” hobbling from room to room, and witness the meteor-storm-like hail of fragile cups and gadgets that rain on the kitchen floor as I lumber incompetently through the house and sweep them from every surface.

Available now for AU$95 ($92), cylindrical objects not included.

Flymount product page [Flymount. Thanks, Tom!]

See Also:

• Extreme, Custom and Pimped-Out Kegerators
• Extreme-commuting
• GigaPan Releases Camera Rig for Automated Panorama Photos
• Monsterpod Camera-Mount Sticks to Almost Anything
• Helmet Mount Puts Cameras Up-Top and (First) Personal
• Shake, Rattle and Roll: Camera Mount for Bikes

Spider Holster has unleashed the Black Widow. Happily, it won’t inject dangerous venom into your veins – instead it will perform the much friendlier task of holding your camera at your hip, ready to grab and shoot.

The Black Widow is the newer, smaller cousin of the original Spider Holster, reviewed by us and found to be “so solid that you stop worrying.” This version is lighter and smaller, made to support small SLRs and mirrorless cameras instead of the beefy metal workhorses that the big Spider can hold on to.

Just like its big-brother, the Black Widow comes in two parts. A “holster” which threads onto your belt, and a plate which screws to the bottom of the camera. This plate has a ball which slips into the slot on the holster and locks in place, letting the camera dangle securely at your side, and hanging it upside-down so the lens faces towards the floor, out of danger.

I tried to use the original Spider Holster with a Panasonic GF1, a Micro Four Thirds camera. It worked, of course, but the wide plate and long, ball-ended spike were impractical on such a small body. This smaller steel and resin version should fix that.

The Black Widow also allows a tripod quick-release plate to be attached, something hard to do with the original.

Finally, there is an optional belt accessory, which is wider and spreads the load better than your own thin and trendy leather number.

The Black Widow isn’t yet live on the site, but I am told it will cost $55, half the price of the Spider Holster. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this mildly amusing line from the press release, which takes on a rather chilling aspect when you consider that a Black Widow sometimes eats her mate after intercourse.

Perfect for hands-free carrying, the Black Widow is ideal when setting up a tripod, cheering on a favorite sports team or pushing a baby carriage on vacation. [emphasis added]

Shiver.

Spider Holster product page [Spider Holster. Thanks, Zach!]

See Also:

• Spider Holster Adds Arca-Swiss Mount, Third-Party Belt Support …
• Spider Holster, A Belt-Mounted Camera-Hitch
• Hands-On With the SpiderPro Camera Holster
• Brando's Hip-Mounted Camera Carrier
• SpiderPro Camera Holster Is the Belt Peter Parker Would Use …