Digital Cameras

Despite the killing off of the FLIP there's still some movement left in the Pocket HD camcorder market. Samsung's latest release is a shock, water and dust-proof rugged unit capable of recording full high definition video and snap 5.5 megapixel stills. The bright lens and LCD screen are coated to help keep videos blur-free and the sensitivity is twice that of previous models thanks to the inclusion of backside-illumination technology. Read More

Despite the numerous digital cameras which now offer high definition recording capabilities, if you want to slow things down for Matrix-like action scenes, you usually have to sacrifice the resolution. There are somewhat unwieldy broadcast quality, high-speed solutions available, but the TS3 Cine from the Fastec Imaging Corporation puts high definition super slow motion in the palm of your hand. The DSLR-sized camera offers 720p resolution at 720 frames per second (fps), but if you do want to shed some pixels, then up to 20,000 fps capture is also possible. Read More

Converting captured high quality video to edit-ready format can be a time consuming business, but the new Ninja Recorder from Atomos is a little box that takes care of this task by bypassing in-camera video compression and recording uncompressed 10-bit video directly to a 2.5-inch removable SSD or HDD in Apple ProRes format (HQ, 422 or LT) in real-time. The self-contained portable device connects to a DSLR or camcorder's HDMI connector and allows incoming video to be monitored or recorded video to be played back on its 4.3-inch 480 x 270 touchscreen. Read More

In one of the most astonishing bits of news we’ve seen in a long time, the iconic Flip video camera was officially pronounced dead earlier this week. Cisco, which paid US$590 million for the business from Pure Digital just two years ago, has decided to kill the entire company. In an unprecedented scenario, the Flip has been killed outright while holding United States video camera sales market leadership (marginally ahead of Sony and roughly double the share of third-placed Kodak). Why Cisco didn’t sell the brand rather than kill it is probably more to do with showing analysts it is serious about remedying its ailments, though if I were a shareholder, I’d be asking why some effort wasn’t made to extract value from a market leading brand and retaining the jobs of hundreds of people. The good news is that the Flip 4GB Ultra HD is already down to US$130, which makes it a worthwhile buy if your phone doesn’t yet shoot 1080p video. Read More

Eye-Fi’s range of wireless memory cards have been giving photographers the ability to send photos from a digital camera to a computer over an existing Wi-Fi network for a few years now. That’s great if you’re close to your home network but what when you’re out and about and want to offload some of those captured pics and vids from your camera? The company’s latest Eye-Fi Mobile X2 Card answers the call with a new Direct Mode that allows the card to create its own Wi-Fi network so it can establish a direct connection and upload photos and videos directly to mobile devices such as a smartphone or tablet. Read More

We've seen optical add-ons for the iPhone before, but the OWLE Bubo takes a slightly more holistic approach to giving the smartphone's video capture capabilities a boost. The Bubo is a hand-held video rig carved out of a block of billet aluminum that provides handgrips for increased stability, multiple tripod mounting points, a sensitive microphone and a wide angle glass lens. Read More

HDSLR cameras are taking off in a big way as cheap video rigs with quality interchangeable glass – but the more you get into SLR filmmaking, the more obstacles you find yourself working around. One of those obstacles is that you can't stick your eye to a viewfinder – you have to watch an LCD screen. And in harsh sunlight or wide aperture conditions, that makes it very difficult to get a tight focus on the action. And that's exactly why Zacuto's Z-Finder EVF was built; it's an alternative plug-in LCD screen for your DSLR that can be mounted on a frame or held separate to the camera. It's got higher resolution than your camera's screen, it's got a rubber eyepiece to block out ambient light, and a bunch of other pro video-friendly features that help move your DSLR closer to a proper video camera form factor. Read More

DSLR cameras have brought high-def video capture into the hands of vast numbers of people like myself – people who have now had a glimpse at the possibility of making pro-standard video but who don't have the cash for all the pricey accessories that you need to move to the next level. So a bunch of businesses are taking creative approaches to bring down the cost of moviemaking – and here's a neat example. RigWheels are a simple and compact way to build yourself a cheap camera dolly to liven up your footage with sliding shots – the visual effect is similar to what we got with a slightly more expensive Glidetrack-type slider rig on our recent Zero Electric Supermoto review video. Read More

Fujifilm has announced the upcoming release of a new 16 megapixel compact with a multi-touch display, a new sensor and the ability to shoot full high definition video. Taking over from the FinePix Z800EXR, features include more dynamic range, improved battery life and full resolution continuous shooting of three frames per second. Read More