Pictures of the Year International is a photojournalism contest that’s a pretty big deal. This photo of the 2nd Platoon under fire in Afghanistan by New York Times photographer Damon Winter took third place this year. It was taken with the iPhone app Hipstamatic, which slathers photos with moody effects. More »
Back in November, we told you about Wafaa Bilal, a New York University professor visiting from Iraq who announced plans to have a small camera implanted in his head, beaming images to a museum in Qatar.
The “3rd I” projector was “a comment on the inaccessibility of time, and the inability to capture memory, and experience.” It also ended up being a comment on the dangers of implanting foreign objects into the back of one’s head.
Bilal, who had the camera installed in his head earlier this month, has since had it removed, due to the pain of his body rejecting the device. Despite the unexpected surgery, Bilal insists that he will press on. “I’m determined to continue with it,” Bilal said in an interview with an academic journal.
Sony has finally confirmed that they will be releasing a new digital camera to replace the A700, later on this year. The new camera is called A77, which they have released a photo of the model. As of yet, Sony has not released much info on the camera except the above image–and the fact that it will be released later on this year.
The teaser photo shows us two things. One is the transparent mirror on the lens, which will help the lens focus better. The second item is that the case is clear, which creates more of a robotic look for the A77.Neither items are big news, but it does give us a good sneak peek at what is to come.
Hopefully, Sony will have something that will make the A77 stand out this time around.
Via Engadget
Is it spring already? Nikon has just assaulted us with no less than nine new Coolpix models, freshening up its consumer offering with a litany of hot new shades, touchscreens and hardware updates. We’ll let you dig into the press releases after the break for the full details, but the two new Performance range cameras, the P500 and P300, are worth discussing in more detail. The P500 improves on Nikon’s P100 by a few orders of magnification, touting a voyeur-friendly 36x optical zoom, while also offering a 12.1 megapixel CMOS sensor, 1080 / 30p video plus stereo sound recording, max ISO of 3200, and an 1100mAh battery. The back is also adorned with a tiltable display, sized at 3 inches diagonally and fitting 920k dots. Yours on March 3rd for $400, €464 or £400, depending on your local currency.
Gallery: Nikon Coolpix P500 hands-on
The P300 is cheaper at $330 / €348 / £300, however it might well be the more appealing option for image quality obsessives as it boasts a lens with an aggressive F1.8 aperture and 4.2x optical zoom. It shares the same backside-illuminated sensor as you’ll find in the P500, but benevolently permits its user full manual control to let him or her capture that perfect shot. Rapid-fire shooting at 8fps for up to seven frames is available, but we’re loving the fact it can also do 1080 / 30p with continuous autofocus and the ability to both capture images and use its optical zoom while recording. If Nikon is to be believed, the P300 is basically the P7000 that came out last year, but shrunken down to the size of a compact. It really is a very diminutive and attractive — it has that intentionally understated matte black finish that huskily whispers the word “prosumer” in your ear — compact camera. It lands on March 17th.
Nikon crams 36x zoom in P500, full manual controls in P300, refreshes Coolpix range with tons of color originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Feb 2011 20:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The Think Tank Photo Retrospective camera bag looks like a well-worn family heirloom shoulder sack. Only when the Retrospective’s big cover flap is open do you see a perfectly padded bag with lots of room for camera and lenses, and almost no room for improvement. How many bags do you know that have a mute button for those noisy Velcro fasteners?
Brace yourself, Samsung has new point-and-shoots to fill in what little pockets of consumerism weren’t intrigued by any of the company’s five CES shooters… or even the five more announced just weeks later. First up is the PL20 (pictured left). A 14 megapixel CCD sensor, 27mm wide angle lens, 5x zoom, digital image stabilization, 720p 24fps HD video with Smart Filters. That one comes out in March for a penny under $120, with a choice of silver, pink, black, and tomato red (Sammy’s description). For the ES80, subtract two megapixels from the sensor, nix the HD recording, keep the color options, bump the release date one month, and subtract $20. You get the idea. Full details and press release after the break.
Gallery: Samsung PL20 and ES80 press images
Continue reading Samsung announces PL20 and ES80, brings 2011 pocket camera lineup to 12 total
Samsung announces PL20 and ES80, brings 2011 pocket camera lineup to 12 total originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Feb 2011 13:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Another big name is jumping headfirst into the increasingly popular Micro Four Thirds waters with the announcement from Olympus today that Carl Zeiss has signed up as a member of the MFT System Standard Group. What that basically entails is that the folks responsible for some of the finest optics in the world will start making lenses directly compatible with Olympus and Panasonic’s camera standard. You could, of course, have tracked down adapters to get Distagon glass working with your GF2 before, but it sure is nice to see the big boys producing hardware designed specifically for this relatively new category of camera. Full press release after the break.
[Thanks, Ken]
Continue reading Carl Zeiss joins the Micro Four Thirds revolution
Carl Zeiss joins the Micro Four Thirds revolution originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Feb 2011 05:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Inch by inch, model by model, Canon is slowly dragging the DSLR toward its destiny: a full-fledged photo-video hybrid camera. We’re not there yet, but the $800 T3i brings shooters a bit closer with a video-centric swivel out screen. More »
That SLR around your neck might lose the huge lens in the future, thanks to lessons learned from biology. Scientists from the University of Illinois and Northwestern have created a camera with a liquid lens and flexible sensor that can capture images in a method similar to the human eye. Cameras have previously been designed around the same principles that the eye uses, but they have been limited to a single focal length incapable of zooming. This is due to the constraints of using the solid, rigid sensors used in regular cameras, according to a press release. Unlike your eye, this new camera uses silicon photo-detectors connected to a hydraulic system to get a 3.5x zoom, roughly the same as that on high-end compacts like Panasonic’s Lumix LX-5. When water is pumped into the lens to change the thickness, the sensor adjusts accordingly and the image zooms in.
The big advantage to this technology is the simplicity of the design. Current camera lenses use a number of elements together to create the image that you see on your sensor. The light has to be corrected for a number of aberrations to make the resulting image as sharp as possible. Even the simplest lenses that can’t zoom, like a 50mm f/1.8, can have around six elements. This system uses only one, shaped to correct imperfections using water pumped into it.
Though the tech is still a while off from showing up in your next Canon, the team responsible for it says they see it being used in everything from night-vision to consumer electronics. Maybe in the future, you and your camera phone might be looking at the world through the same kind of lens.
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