Hasta La Gadget!

There are all sorts of things you can do with a flying drone aircraft or quadcopter carrying a camera. You could do the obvious and chase your dog or cat around the house. You could have it follow your significant other around to make sure they’re not causing trouble.

One thing I would not have thought of doing with a camera-packing drone is send it into the caldera of an active volcano. I would expect the hot gas and flying molten lava to destroy the drone in short order. I would be wrong, at least in this instance. Recently, Shaun O’Callaghan’s DJI Phantom quadcopter drone carried a GoPro into an active volcano on Tanna Island in Vanuatu.

You can see in the video that lava and gas are flying everywhere and going all around the camera and drone. I can’t believe the thing survived, but Shaun says the drone says no harm came to it or the camera during filming.

[via DroneHire]

Just over a year ago on October 14, 2012, daredevil Felix Baumgartner made history with his daring jump from 128,000 feet – setting a record for the world’s highest skydive. Baumgartner exceeded speeds of 825 mph and broke the sound barrier without the use of an aircraft. One of the coolest things about the jump was that there were cameras everywhere to capture the record setting feat.

Video footage captured by some of those cameras has already been viewed, but there were cameras attached to the balloon and to Baumgartner himself, much of which hasn’t been shared publicly. The footage from the cameras attached to the balloon and Baumgartner have now been put together and used to create a documentary commemorating the entire launch. To go along with the upcoming documentary, Red Bull has now offered up footage of the jump from the Baumgartner’s perspective.

The video includes embedded statistics such as air speed, elevation, and biometrics. Check out the 9-minute-plus clip above to see this epic feat from the jumper’s point of view. Be sure to set the video to 1080p and full-screen mode for the best experience. It starts out chaotically, but gradually lulls you into a strange calmness as Baumgartner gets closer to the Earth.

[via Forbes]

Sony has released camcorders and cameras for a variety niches here at IFA, including a new HD action cam, the HDR-AS30V. It’s immediately noticeable that the second-gen model is 25 percent smaller and 35 percent lighter than the original, making it even less cumbersome when clipped onto a helmet — especially compared to a GoPro. As far as the layout goes, not much has changed; you’ll find USB, line-in and HDMI ports at the bottom, with the power and record buttons still on back. The rear panel also opens up to give you access to a microSD card slot and the battery compartment. The side features the same basic info LCD with two selection buttons, so you’ll still make need to make use of its onboard WiFi and a smartphone — or the new Live-View Remote (details in a bit) if you need a viewfinder.

You’ll find stereo mics and a fixed Carl Zeiss lens at the front with a 170-degree viewing angle, though you’ll only get a 120-degree field of view with SteadyShot enabled. Lastly, there’s the obligatory tripod mount at its underside. The new bits are essentially a backlit Exmor R CMOS censor, GPS and NFC. Full HD videos can now be captured at 1080/60p (last year’s model topped out at 30p), while 720/120p and 720/60p settings are available for slow-mo videos. As a bonus, it can also take 11.9MP images and shoot at interval timing. Using Sony’s PlayMemories Home app, you’ll be able to sync up video from two of the new Action Cams, rotate the orientation of your clips, and add overlays based on GPS data.

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Filed under: Portable Audio/Video, Sony

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Source: Sony

The newly constructed Triple-E line of cargo ships from Emma Maersk are massively, enormously huge vessels. They dwarf even the mightiest aircraft carriers, displacing some 165,000 metric tons, so parking one can be just a wee bit of a challenge. But the crew aboard the Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller make it look easy, even thought its the ship’s maiden voyage and her first time ever pulling into port.

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Google has committed to pushing software updates to its Glass headset each month, and a post on Google+ reveals this month’s tweaks are focusing on pictures. If you’re a fan of using the device for POV shots, it should take better pictures by capturing a sequence of images for improved low-light performance and HDR pictures in bright situations — check out a gallery of enhanced images at the source link below. Also new is a prompt to add a caption after you take a picture. Users can tap their headset, speak the caption and it’s automatically inserted. Last month’s XE5 update addressed a wider range of issues, but this one will make sure any impromptu pictures (with your subject’s full awareness and permission for the photo, we’re sure) are high quality.

Filed under: Wearables, Google

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Source: Project Glass (Google+)