Hasta La Gadget!

Yes, even the best cameraphones take crappy pictures by camera standards, but there’s one thing phones will always have over their more optically-adept cousins: convenience. The fact that you always have your phone with you, it can often geotag, and it’s got an always-on, always-available data connection for uploads to photo sharing sites are all factors giving handsets an edge in the fight to dominate Flickr. Add in the fact that we’re approaching just-good-enough picture quality for everyday use on the upper end of the phone spectrum with the latest 5, 8, and 12 megapixel models, and, well… you’ve got a recipe for an upset. After briefly showing it having pulled ahead yesterday, Flickr’s stats currently have the iPhone in all its flavors neck-and-neck with Canon’s Digital Rebel XTi for upload popularity after a stark, sudden jump presumably spearheaded by the launch of the 3GS — and given the trending we’re seeing, it seems like it’s just a matter of time before the iPhone pulls ahead for good. Granted, Flickr’s pooling all iPhone models into a single stat, which isn’t really fair — philosophically, that’s not much different from grouping every Digital Rebel together — but the fact remains that this speaks volumes about the modern cameraphone’s value as a serious photographic tool.

[Via pocket-lint and Los Angeles Times]

Filed under: Cellphones, Digital Cameras, Handhelds

iPhone nips at Rebel XTi’s heels for most popular cam on Flickr originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Aug 2009 07:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In the past few years image stabilization has gone from a big-money feature available only in the priciest of lenses to something of an afterthought in the most boring compacts. So, what’s a high-priced lens to do if it wants to maintain its exclusivity? Why, invent a new flavor of stabilization, of course. Canon is introducing its Hybrid Image Stabilizer technology, set for inclusion in some mystery lens before the end of the year. It compensates for camera shake on two axes: rotationally and linearly, meaning you should be able to get smooth shots whether you’re on the Tilt-a-Whirl or a wooden roller coaster. Canon isn’t indicating just yet how much this new Hybrid IS lens will cost, or when other bits of glass will follow in its pixel-perfect footsteps, but is indicating it’ll be included in “a wide range of products” — we’d guess none will be cheap.

[Via Photography BLOG]

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Canon’s Hybrid Image Stabilizer tech takes the blur out of your twist and shake originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Jul 2009 07:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With Panasonic recently announcing a 240GB camcorder, Canon has deemed this a good time to juice up the storage on its own product line with a pair of updated models. Both the HF 21 and the new flagship HF S11 double their predecessors‘ integrated memory to 64GB, with the latter also adding in a new night shooting mode and more advanced image stabilization to the mix. The expanded storage will allow up to five and a half hours of recording at the top quality settings, which pales in comparison to the 30+ hours you can get from Panasonic’s HDD-equipped beast. Other major specs, like the DIGIC DV III image processor, Full HD CMOS sensors, AVCHD format and SDHC expandability, have been left untouched. You can expect Japanese availability in early August, with the US and Europe probably joining in on the fun just as soon as the territory-specific VIXIA and Legria labels have been slapped on.

[Via Camcorder Info]

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Canon HF S11 and HF 21 AVCHD camcorders flash more memory in Japanese debut originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Jul 2009 05:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NewEgg.com, one of my favorite destinations for buying computer hardware, is celebrating our nation’s birthday with an Independence Day Sale. The sale, exclusive to NewEgg.com e-mail subscribers, features a bevy of discounted prices in computer hardware, electronics, peripherals, and accessories–all with free shipping, no less. Discounted prices and/or promo codes are valid until July 6.

I chose four products from NewEgg.com’s special sale and compared their prices to other retailers and online stores. Find out if you should buy that Epson printer, Crucial RAM stick, Lenovo notebook, or Canon PowerShot camera from NewEgg, after the jump.

It’s hacky and requires some fiddling, but EOS 5D Mark II owners interested in maxing out their video abilities will want to check out the new Magic Lantern firmware developed by Trammell Hudson. The new code adds a tons of features, including on-screen audio meters, audio and video gain control with the option to disable the auto settings, zebra stripe masking of overexposed areas, and on-screen aspect ratio overlays — and what’s more, it’s billed as an “open platform,” so there should be many more plugins and tweaks forthcoming. Caveats apply with this early release, though: you need to reload the firmware if the camera so much as goes to sleep, and battery drain appears to be an unresolved issue. Still, we’re certain these problems will be fixed over time, since we’re guessing there’s gonna be tons of interest in this — if Canon would just throw us some autofocus in addition to those new manual exposure controls, we’d be all set.

[Via Wired]

Continue reading Magic Lantern EOS 5D Mark II firmware tweaks video mode, adds more manual controls

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Magic Lantern EOS 5D Mark II firmware tweaks video mode, adds more manual controls originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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