Hasta La Gadget!

And here it is, Panasonic’s prototype G-series micro-four-thirds shooter with new interchangeable 3D lens. We caught the pair hanging out at IFA with nary a soul around to take notice. Too bad for them, good for you if you’ve made the jump to a panny MFT as the lens will ultimately be compatible with your Lumix G micro system… probably — unfortunately, Panasonic isn’t saying which cams will be eligible for the software update. From the sound of it, the whole kit will get official in just a few week at Photokina with a new G-series body playing host to the new 3D lens. Here in Berlin, however, we’ve got a G2 body with an updated 3D image processing system doing the dirty work. Nevertheless, it was fully functional and produced a reasonable 3D image with plenty of pop that was ready to view on a brand new Panasonic 3D television. Come on, a 3D televsion is nothing without 3D content. Sneaky Panasonic, sneaky.

Panasonic’s prototype Micro Four Thirds 3D lens and body arrive in Berlin originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 20:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Olympus has just made a pair of new, limited edition kit options official for its PEN E-P2 shooter. Both include an M. Zuiko Digital 17mm F2.8 prime lens and an all-black paintjob, with the choice for the buyer being between a a Special Black (or just black, if you’re talking to humans) EVF Edition that brings you the V-F2 viewfinder, and an equally noir Flash Edition, which will enrich your life with the FL-14 external flash. Prices are €1,079 ($1,371) and €1,049 ($1,332), respectively, and launch is scheduled for October of this year. As the old saying goes, you don’t have to be crazy to buy these, but it’d help.

Olympus E-P2 dons all-black garb for limited edition pancake lens kits originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Aug 2010 05:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  dpreview  | Email this | Comments

Inon’s monstrous X1 is a tough aluminum alloy housing to keep the Panasonic GF1 from getting its little feet wet. The underwater shell will keep the mirrorless camera safe down to a cochlear-crushing 75-meters (the limit for recreational diving is just 40-meters, or 130-feet).

The GF1 turns out to be well-suited for underwater use. While the X1 case dwarfs the camera body, it’s not so much bigger than a naked pro-SLR. And because it is designed to use the rear-LCD screen as a viewfinder, you don’t have to peer through an actual viewfinder or use a top-mounted rangefinder.

What about the price? It will cost you a stomach-sinking ¥186,900, or around $2,200, and the grips on either side will be another $115 each. That’s not cheap, but then, if you dive to these depths you don’t expect it to be. My friend Pieter told me the story of his father’s deep-diving camera strategy: He buys a waterproof housing first, and then buys a few identical SLRs to fit inside. One is used, and the others are kept in their boxes as spares. Pieter’s dad is both an airline captain and a deep-diver, so he officially counts as awesome and his advice should be accepted without question.

The X-2 is available now, complete with accessories for using almost all your Lumix lenses.

On a related note, I’m in the market for a cheap (sub-$200) underwater camera. It should shoot decent images and HD video, but otherwise simple is best. Any suggestions?

X-2 housing for GF1 [Inon via Engadget]

Confirm depth for recreational dives.

Welcome to Engadget’s Back to School guide! We know that this time of year can be pretty annoying and stressful for everyone, so we’re here to help out with the heartbreaking process of gadget buying for the school-aged crowd. Today, we’ve got our optical viewfinders set firmly on digital cameras — and you can head to the Back to School hub to see the rest of the product guides as they’re added throughout the month. Be sure to keep checking back — at the end of the month we’ll be giving away a ton of the gear featured in our guides — and hit up the hub page right here!

Time for us to open up chapter two of this year’s Back to School advice compendium. Up for discussion today are digital cameras, which have been in the gym all year working on their processing prowess and return today with 720p HD video as an almost standard feature. We’ve got a good cross-section of young pretenders and finely aged veterans for your perusal, so why not give your mouse a little exercise as well and click past the break?

Continue reading Engadget’s Back to School guide: Digital cameras

Engadget’s Back to School guide: Digital cameras originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Aug 2010 13:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Panasonic is really into 3D. Not only will it sell you a big 3D television with which to watch the latest Hollywood head-spinners, it will soon sell you a lens which can be popped onto a G-series camera and shoot your own stereoscopic pics.

The lens is actually two lenses in a single, compact housing. When you shoot an photo or video, two pictures are captured simultaneously onto your sensor. Obviously this reduces the overall resolution of the resulting images, but with video this shouldn’t matter as the footage is down-sampled from the giant photo-sensor. This double-image (or video) is then turned into a 3D one in software, to be viewed on one of Panny’s TVs.

The lens has not yet been given a launch date or a price (other than a vague “end of the year”), so plenty of questions remain unanswered. Will cameras need a firmware update to use the lens? That seems almost certain. Also, how good will the stereoscopic effect be with the two lenses so close together? And I’m assuming here that the cameras will actually shoot 3D video: the press release only mentions still images, but who wants to view their photos on a TV screen?

Still, we love that Panasonic is making 3D an optional extra for its Micro Four Thirds system. It’s this kind of innovation that is currently leaving the likes of Nikon and Canon behind, and we’re all for it. And it shouldn’t be long before somebody hacks their way around the 3D format and lets us do something useful with the images instead of looking at them on a TV.

Panasonic developing world’s first interchangable 3D lens for Micro Four Thirds (Press release) [DP Review]

See Also:

• Firmware Update Adds 3D Panoramas to Sony NEX Cameras
• Stereo Lens-in-a-Cap for 3D Digital Photography
• Panasonic Details Micro Four Thirds Camcorder
• Micro Four Thirds

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.