Nov 24

Kuwait bans DSLRs, leaves Micro Four Thirds question hanging in the air

Posted in: camera, dslr, government, Law, legal, photography, Today's Chili

We’re not sure what the humble DSLR has ever done to offend the Kuwaiti government, but, according to the Kuwait Times, the recreational use of Digital Single-Lens Reflex cameras has now been outlawed in the country. The Ministries of Information, Social Affairs and Finance (hello, 1984!) have collectively decided to ban the use of the chunky shooters in public places, except where it can be shown that it’s for journalistic purposes. This decision has left a lot of people scratching their heads, not least because every self-respecting smartphone nowadays can pump out screen-filling images. And then there’s also the matter of determining where the line between compact cameras, which are still allowed, and DSLRs resides — for example, is the Lumix G2 an illegal shooter just because it looks like one?

Kuwait bans DSLRs, leaves Micro Four Thirds question hanging in the air originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Nov 2010 05:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink The Next Web  |  sourceKuwait Times  | Email this | Comments

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Nov 19

MIT’s laser camera can photograph around corners, render your camouflage useless

Posted in: camera, laser, light, mit, photography, prototype, research, Today's Chili, university

You know, we’d love to meet this Ramesh Raskar character. Possibly even shake his hand, or secretly become injected with a pinch of his DNA. You see, he’s devoted his life to proving that the impossible is actually possible, first conjuring up a 6D “super-realistic” image system just over two years ago. Now, he’s onto bigger and better things… things like cameras that can see around corners. Granted, this concept isn’t exactly a new one — LIDAR-equipped robots have been discovering hidden objects for years, but the mere thought of cramming this technology into a camera has us salivating. Auntie Beeb has a new piece up on the technology, and it actually does an exceptional job of explaining the technobabble. Put simply, the created prototype utilizes an ultra-short, highly intense burst of laser light (a femotosecond laser, if you have to know) to light up a scene; from there, it bends around corners and bounces back, using algorithms to figure out what’s inside of the room based on the bounce points. We’re guessing it’ll still be a few decades before this gets wrapped into a mid-range DSLR, but we’re cautiously hoping for a working mockup at CES 2015. Seriously, we just marked it down. Don’t disappoint us, guys.

MIT’s laser camera can photograph around corners, render your camouflage useless originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Nov 2010 10:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Twitter (@austinmann)  |  sourceMIT  | Email this | Comments

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Nov 19

Panasonic Lumix GF2 reviewed: smaller, simpler, and arguably better than the GF1

Posted in: camera, digital camera, DigitalCamera, micro four thirds, MicroFourThirds, Panasonic, review, reviewed, Today's Chili
Panasonic Lumix GF2 reviewed: smaller, simpler, and arguably better than the GF1

Panasonic’s DMC-GF1 proved itself as a tasty go-between, filling the gap between high-end compact and DSLR. The GF2 will soon arrive and, according to Photography Blog, if anything it slots in a little closer to the compact side of things thanks to a new user interface that ditches many buttons and dials in favor of touchscreen menus. This will drive some users mad, but ultimately the up-rated features here still make this a worthy choice over the GF1, including video recording at 1080i60 and a new body that’s a fifth smaller and seven percent lighter than before despite still containing a pop-up flash, 12.1 megapixel sensor, and image quality that’s about as good as you’re going to get out of a shooter this size.

Panasonic Lumix GF2 reviewed: smaller, simpler, and arguably better than the GF1 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Nov 2010 10:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourcePhotography Blog  | Email this | Comments

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Nov 18

Sony sees RED with PMW-F3 camera, we go hands-on with the $16k “indie” (video)

Posted in: camcorder, camera, hands-on, sony, Today's Chili
In the wild, wild world of film production it’s sometimes tough to separate the consumers from the prosumers from the independent filmmakers from the big studios — especially when more affordable technology makes it easier and easier for one class to imitate the other. Sony’s latest 35mm CMOS imager video camera is an attempt to cover lost ground in the “indie” realm of requisite low-budget and desired high production value, a market dominated by the RED One, and to some extent Canon’s 5D Mark II and 7D, for the past couple years.

Sony’s PMW-F3 — shipping in February — is a considerable step up from the earlier EX3. The most obvious change is the inclusion of the new Exmor Super 35 CMOS sensor and interchangeable lens mounts, facilitating shallow depth of field with a fairly impressive dynamic range. But at the price of a semester’s worth of film school, will this offering hold its own in the field?

Read on for our full impressions — including all the gory details — and video of our brief encounter with the new shooter.

Continue reading Sony sees RED with PMW-F3 camera, we go hands-on with the $16k “indie” (video)

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Sony sees RED with PMW-F3 camera, we go hands-on with the $16k “indie” (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Nov 2010 19:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nov 17

Droid 2 Global GSM bands locked, camera bulge added to case

Posted in: att, camera, droid, leak, leaks, Today's Chili, verizon

No surprise here, but it looks like Verizon’s on-sale-but-never-really-announced Droid 2 Global has its GSM radios locked down, meaning you can’t just throw an AT&T SIM in there and expect anything to work. Of course, the enterprising hackers at xda-developers are hot on the case, so there’s a chance things will be opened up, but we wouldn’t hold our breath.

In other news, it looks like there’s been a slight case modification to the Droid 2 Global — the camera module now sports a slight hump as seen in the comparison photo above. We’re not sure if this is to accommodate the extra radio or (please please please) perhaps a better sensor, but whoomp, there it is. No big thing in the grand scheme of things, but between the dark blue casing and the camera bulge, you’ll totally be able to spot D2G owners out of the crowd. And that… that will make you a super nerd weirdo. But it’s okay, because we love you.

Droid 2 Global GSM bands locked, camera bulge added to case originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Nov 2010 22:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Pocketnow  |  sourcexda-developers  | Email this | Comments

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Nov 16

NYU Professor to Get Camera Implanted in Back of Head

Posted in: camera, Today's Chili

Thumbnail image for nyu_camera_head.jpg

There will be no more student chatter behind Wafaa Bilal’s back while he’s
teaching. The NYU assistant professor visiting from Iraq
plans to undergo surgery to have small camera implanted in his head. The
project would broadcast a live stream of classroom to a meseum in Qatar.

Bilal plans to have surgery to implant the camera in the
next year. The camera will stream still images at a rate of one-per-minute. The
surgery will create a piercing onto which the camera (thumbnail-sized,
according to The Wall Street Journal) can be attached.

The project has been deemed “The 3rd I.” The museum
describes it as “a comment on the inaccessibility of time, and the
inability to capture memory, and experience.”

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Nov 15

Researchers develop ‘blood camera’ to spot crime scene stains in a flash

Posted in: camera, Today's Chili
Could inspecting a crime scene for even the most minuscule blood stains one day be as simple as taking a picture? It will if some research now being conducted at the University of South Carolina in Columbia pans out. A team there led by Stephen Morgan and Michael Myrick have developed a so-called “blood camera” that uses a combination of infrared light and a transparent layer of the protein albumin — the latter of which acts as a filter and is able to highlight blood stains by filtering out wavelengths that aren’t characteristic of blood proteins (or so we’re told). That’s as opposed to current methods for detecting blood at a crime scene, which rely on the chemical luminol to make the stains appear in the dark. As New Scientist notes, however, that method can also dilute blood samples and make DNA difficult to recover, and create false positives. The researchers don’t seem to be stopping at blood, though — they say the camera could also be easily adapted to detect detect trace amounts of other materials that aren’t visible to the naked eye, like drugs or explosives.

Researchers develop ‘blood camera’ to spot crime scene stains in a flash originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Nov 2010 02:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceNew Scientist  | Email this | Comments

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Nov 08

LG L-03C has 3x optical zoom, 12 megapixel CCD sensor, Xenon flash — and it can make phone calls!

Posted in: 720p, camera, digicam, digital camera, DigitalCamera, Japan, LG, point and shoot, PointAndShoot, Today's Chili

Dear Nokia and Samsung, please come to reception to collect your old and busted 12 megapixel cameraphones. The new king of the phonecamera heap, in appearance at least, has arrived in the shape of LG’s L-03C. It comes with a retractable 3x optical zoom lens from Pentax, a 12 megapixel CCD sensor, a Xenon flash, and a 720p movie recording mode. The L-03C is also intentionally styled to remind users of the more timeless compact camera designs of the past (and present) and it’s only by entering the NTT DoCoMo OS and hitting up the dialer that you discover that it’s also a cellular phone to boot. In spite of its 3-inch display and 800 x 480 resolution, this is still strictly just a featurephone, but it’s sure put in a lot of work to make sure one of those features stands out. Look out for it in Japan from this January.

LG L-03C has 3x optical zoom, 12 megapixel CCD sensor, Xenon flash — and it can make phone calls! originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Nov 2010 03:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Engadget Japanese  |  sourceNTT DoCoMo  | Email this | Comments

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Nov 07

DIYer builds handsfree, Arduino-powered remote camera trigger (video)

Posted in: arduino, camera, digital camera, DigitalCamera, diy, dslr, hack, photography, Today's Chili, video

It takes a pretty radical hack to truly grab us, but we’re fairly confident that Matt Richardson is now one of our most favorite dudes ever. He has put together a comprehensive video detailing the setup required to build your own Arduino-powered remote shutter trigger, and while it’s certainly one of the more complicated setups out there, properly executing it can land you self-taken photos like the one above. You’ll need a laptop, a solid DSLR, an Arduino, a DIYer toolkit (you know, tiny screwdrivers and the like) and a good bit of spare time. If you’ve already checked all five from your list, head on past the break and mash play — your weekend project awaits.

[Thanks, Matt]

Continue reading DIYer builds handsfree, Arduino-powered remote camera trigger (video)

DIYer builds handsfree, Arduino-powered remote camera trigger (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 07 Nov 2010 08:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceGithub (mrichardson23), YouTube (mrichardson23)  | Email this | Comments

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Nov 07

Camera Shirt Turns You Into the Spy You Were Meant to Be

Posted in: camera, Tech Toys, Today's Chili

electronic_spy_camera_shirt.jpgThank goodness for ThinkGeek. It provides us with the toys that keep us from feeling too much like grown ups. Its latest gotta-have-it item is the Electronic Spy Camera Shirt, a t-shirt with graphic featuring a James Bond-like agent holding a camera in one hand and a gun in the other. And, beautifully, that camera is a real working camera. It links to a controller you keep in one pocket.

The shirt is capable of capturing 150 photos at 640 x 480 resolution. The pocket remote works off of three AAA batteries, and offers vibration feedback so you know when you’ve taken a shot. The electronics in the shirt remove for washing. You’ll get better results in the daytime, as the camera doesn’t do well in low-light. You can pick one up from ThinkGeek for $39.99.

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