Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve already expressed our opinion on the PEN E-P2‘s price point (hint: it’s not positive), but for those with more cash than problems to throw blank checks at, Olympus’ second-ever Micro Four Thirds camera is now on sale and shipping from a wide variety of respected e-tailers. Just in time for the holidays, don’tcha know? If you’re still wondering if $1,099.99 is worth blowing on this, The Online Photographer has published an hands-on critique, complete with a few luscious sample shots and interesting gripes about the viewfinder. Make no mistake — the image quality looks fabulous, but man, that MSRP. It’s large.

Olympus PEN E-P2 gets reviewed and starts shipping out originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Slashgear  |  Amazon, Let’s Go Digital, The Online Photographer  | Email this | Comments

Fans of the go-anywhere ContourHD wearable video camera have a whole lot of things to add to their wish lists. The company just announced four new accessories that let them bring the extreme sport camera into new situations.

• The Waterproof Case ($39.99) lets ContourHD and ContourHD1080p owners protect their cameras from the elements while still accessing all the controls. It’s safe to a depth of 10 meters. Use it while surfing, river rafting, or kayaking.
• The Handlebar Mount ($29.99) lets ContourHD and VholdR Wearable Camcorder owners position their cameras however they want with its 360-degree rotation. It fits any standard 29mm handlebar.
• The Vented Helmet Mount ($19.99) is an upgrade to the previous version, and it now does a better job of tightening down on a bike helmet. Use it with CountourHD or VholdR Wearable Camcorders and you can tilt your camera to get the most exciting angle.
• The Lens Kit ($29.99) is a clever way to expand the usefulness of your ContourHD or VholdR Wearable Camcorder by adding standard 37mm lens filters. It also includes extra lens covers and a replacement lens ring.

We’ll admit we save our Nikon excitement for the sort of gear that comes with “bad mother” stitched into its casing, but sometimes even our jaded souls can get intrigued by a compact. This particular slimline unit has an OLED touchscreen display, with the additional inclusion of multitouch and gesture support, which already gets it right up to speed on the latest trends. With a 5x optical zoom, 12 megapixel sensor, and 720p/30fps video, it’s also no slouch on the spec sheet, but reviewers at Photography Blog found a few shortcomings. The Nikon S70 is said to be overly reliant on the 3.5-inch touch display for controls, and although the camera is both thin and ultrafast to start up, those benefits come at the greatest cost of all: image quality is only average, and noise handling is poor even at base ISO. We’ll file this one in our “vivacious but vapid” archive while you busy yourself with reading the full review.

Nikon Coolpix S70 review: excellent spec, but mediocre image quality originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 08:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Never mind that silly name: ProFORMA (which stands for ‘Probabilistic Feature-based On-line Rapid Model Acquisition’, if you must know) is some cool system that turns any ordinary webcam into a powerful 3D scanning tool. In fact, a camera is pretty much all you need for some “on-line” modeling action — no laser or green screen necessary — meaning the 3D models are constructed on the spot while you slowly rotate the objects, although ProFORMA can also track fast moving objects as shown in the demo video after the break. Fans of machinima should also look into this for their next Warhammer drama series, but don’t say you heard it from us.

Continue reading Cambridge’s ProFORMA does 3D scanning with any stationary webcam

Cambridge’s ProFORMA does 3D scanning with any stationary webcam originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 03:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Boing Boing  |  Cambridge University  | Email this | Comments

Sony’s latest professional-grade camcorder probably meets your needs and then some by quite a stretch, recording AVCHD up to 24Mbps and SD quality in MPEG-2 / 9Mbps. We’re also looking at a 20x zoom lens, 3 x 1/3-inch Exmor CMOS sensor, and storage options including Memory Stick Pro Duo and an optional 128GB flash memory drive. Don’t lie, you want this beast, even if it clearly falls in the “if you have to ask, you can’t afford it” category. Look for more temptation sometime closer to its expected early 2010 launch.

Filed under: Digital Cameras

New Sony NXCAM is more camcorder than you ever need, but still you covet originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 Nov 2009 04:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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