Hasta La Gadget!

If you’ve seen our Hong Kong feature from awhile back, then you would’ve already heard about my favorite gadget hangout Sham Shui Po. By chance, my post-flight stroll in said district yesterday coincided with Apliu Street’s Chinese New Year flea market, which featured many vintage items like jade figurines, paintings, jewelry, video tapes, vinyl records, etc. Naturally, what really caught my attention were the old gadgets that were literally piled up along the street, and from just HK$30 (US$3.85), you could easily pick up an old classic such as a Sony Clié, an HP iPaq, a WonderSwan Color, an original GameBoy, a MiniDisc player, or even a proper old school laptop or camera. Hell, some guy even had a couple of Nintendo Micro VS Systems (Donkey Kong Hockey and Boxing)!

The catch? Well, there was obviously no warranty for these old timers, plus the broken screens or the lack of compatible batteries for some meant that most were more suitable as collectibles. Regardless, we took a $6 gamble with a Sony Clié PEG-NR70 Palm PDA with docking station and boom! It works! Well, except for the battery that only lasts for an hour, but I’ll figure something out.

Hong Kong gadget flea market: a blast from the past originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Feb 2011 20:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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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.

[via University of Illinois, NewScientist]

Ricoh’s sensor-swapping GXR camera is getting more interchangeable than ever before — this fall, the company plans to introduce a APS-C sized 12.3 megapixel CMOS module that lets you pop out lenses too. Rather than building a new set of macros and zooms, though, the new unit will serve as an adapter for the vast hoard of Leica M glass you’ve been stockpiling for a rainy day, and sport a new focal plane shutter too. No word on price, but considering Leica M adapters for Micro Four Thirds can be had for a reasonable $200 and an APS-C GXR package runs about $700 on the street, you can probably do the math.

Continue reading Ricoh GXR will swap out lenses with Leica M mount, makes Micro Four Thirds mildly jealous

Ricoh GXR will swap out lenses with Leica M mount, makes Micro Four Thirds mildly jealous originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Feb 2011 06:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Point and shoot cameras are tricky to hold still, but the powers that be thought up a crazy fix — build bending, sliding, transforming grips right into the body of the camera. Sony’s patented the idea you see immediately above, which turns the sliding lens cover into a handle using tiny hinges (or perhaps electrorheological fluid, we’re not sure). Amazingly enough, the basic concept actually isn’t new: Sony itself references a Fujifilm patent whose cover-turned-grip protects the rear LCD instead. Neither look terribly comfortable, but which would you rather choose: a pocketable camera that snaps stable single-handed shots, or one that monopolizes your fingertips? Take a gander at one of Fujifilm’s proposed designs after the break.

Continue reading Sony, Fujifilm patents are half-camera, half-origami

Sony, Fujifilm patents are half-camera, half-origami originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Feb 2011 00:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After being leaked just a few days ago, Sony’s high-end 16.2-megapixel HX100V and HX9V cameras are now official. According to the press release, the DSC-HX100V is the first of the Cyber-shot line to include a 27mm Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonar T lens with 30x optical zoom, while its smaller compact brother, the DSC-HX9V, is also the first to sport a 24mm Sony G lens with a 16x optical zoom. That’s certainly great news for lurkers or folks who like shooting from a far, especially when considering both cameras are capable of recording 1920 x 1080 60p HD video. Their new “Exmor R” back-illuminated CMOS sensor also is the first to support a so-called Intelligent Sweep Panorama HR mode, which lets users capture up to 42.9 megapixel scenes with a whopping 10480 x 4096 resolution. Speaking of panoramas, the new camera’s have also picked up the same 3D Sweep Panorama Mode, GPS, and Dual Recording functions found on other cyber shots announced back at CES. If you’re dying to get your hands on that crazy zoom action, their official release is set for April with pre-sales starting in February. Price wise, the DSC-HX100V and DSC-HX9V cameras will cost about $450 and $350, respectively. For more details hit up the PR after the break or browse through the gallery below.

Continue reading Sony’s DSC-HX100V and HX9V superzooms get official, headed to shelves this April

Sony’s DSC-HX100V and HX9V superzooms get official, headed to shelves this April originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Feb 2011 01:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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