Digital Cameras

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

Lensbaby is an odd company making distinctly analogue products to suit modern digital SLR cameras. The Composer Pro is a lens body that features a tilting head which bends light and distorts the focal plane of whatever lens optic you drop into it, giving you a bunch of ways to creatively mess with your photography in-camera for some pretty striking and evocative effects. It feels like a strange thing to do, putting such low-fi and distorted lenses on your ultra-sharp DSLR – but then again, hey, if it feels good, do it! Click through to see some example photos. Read More

Nikon has announced the latest addition to its entry-level D-SLR lineup in the form of the new D5100. The D5100 boasts the same 23.3 x 15.6 mm CMOS sensor, 16.2-megpixel resolution and ISO range of 100–6400 (expandable to 25,600) as Nikon's D7000, plus a new Night Vision mode that can shoot up to a staggering 102,400 ISO. The D5100 also sports a new 3-inch, swing out style Vari-angle LCD screen with 1000:1 contrast ratio and 921,000-dot resolution that has the ability to rotate 180 degrees horizontally and vertically. Read More

It’s humbling, and in fact almost a little scary, when you realize just how far the video quality of mobile phones and pocket camcorders has progressed over the past few years. While features such as their resolution are truly something to behold, they do however have one distinct disadvantage when compared to their larger, heavier predecessors – they shake like crazy. It’s a shortcoming that’s addressed by the Steadicam Smoothee. Read More