Digital Cameras

Panasonic has added another superzoom to its FZ-series camera range. The LUMIX DMC-FZ47 features a 25 - 600 mm equivalent zoom lens with a special coating that's claimed to reduce ghost and flare, and a brand new sensor capable of recording 1080/60i high definition video. It also features a host of creative photography options, including those seen in the company's DMC-G3 camera announced in May. Read More

Like all things digital, the technology in your beautiful new camera is heading towards obsolescence at an alarming rate. The same is true, though to a lesser extent, about that SLR lens with its own processors and motors for focus, aperture and stabilization. In the analog world of manual film lenses where a lifetime of use is guaranteed there has been a renaissance in the manufacture of high quality optics at all price points, driven in part by the advent of digital SLRs and cheaper camcorder options that are capable of delivering that "film look". But for serious moving picture shooting, still camera lenses just won’t cut it. Let’s explore why. Read More

There's little doubt that when it comes to snapping spur-of-the-moment photos, nothing quite matches the always-ready convenience of the smartphone. Apple's iPhone is second only in popularity to Nikon's D90 for overall image uploads to Flickr, and takes the top three spots in the Cameraphone category. There are now a whole host of apps available that can help add numerous clever effects to the photos taken with an iPhone's camera, and a growing number of hardware-based enhancements. If you find yourself yearning for a little more zoom than the Eye Scope offers, or the close-up goodness of the Fisheye and Macro/Wide Angle lens is just too small and fiddly for you, then perhaps what you need is an iPhone SLR Lens Mount. Read More

Before current technology allowed them to be available to the public, wearable POV (point-of-view) video cameras were known within the television industry as “bullet cameras,” because of their shape. Nowadays, they come in all shapes, sizes and price ranges, and are generally called actioncams or helmetcams. Hearkening back to the days of yore, however, is Rollei’s recently-released Bullet HD. With its aluminum body and rounded nose, it does indeed look like a big bullet ... or perhaps a small Thermos flask. Read More

Olympus has announced three new additions to its Micro Four Thirds PEN camera family, and two new lenses. There's no increase to the now familiar 12.3 megapixel count but the new E-P3, E-PL3 and E-PM1 do come with a newly-developed sensor, a brand new image engine and a huge ISO range. The new flagship E-P3 is also laying claim to the world's fastest autofocus title and benefits from a bright OLED touchscreen display to the rear. Read More

It fits on the head of a pin, has no lens or moving parts, can be made for just a few cents, and yet it can take a photo of the Mona Lisa in which she’s actually sort of recognizable ... it’s called the Planar Fourier Capture Array (PFCA), and it’s a tiny camera developed at New York’s Cornell University. Although you might choose not to use it for photographing your child’s birthday party, it could come in quite handy in the fields of science and technology. Read More

Lo-fi photography focuses on creative experiments with the use of inexpensive film cameras - like the Holga Twin Image Maker (TIM). This US$60 camera features double lenses to shoot either 3D images or half frames, allows for multiple exposure of a single frame and comes with a detachable flash with color filters. Read More

One of the challenges faced by serious videographers is the ability to “land” the camera’s focus ring on the right spot when shifting focus between two onscreen objects. If you’re shifting between a person in the background and a flower in the foreground, for instance, it can often take several tries before getting a take where you don’t focus right past the flower, or overcompensate by slowly creeping up to it. Professionals use a device called a follow focus to avoid this problem, but they can often be prohibitively expensive for amateurs and low-budget film-makers. Fortunately, however, those people now have an alternative – the DSLR Follow Focus. Read More

The old adage says “a picture is worth a thousand words,” but just exactly which words is the question. While facial recognition and GPS-enabled cameras have made tagging digital snapshots with names and locations much easier, a team of students from Duke University and the University of South Carolina has developed a smartphone app called TagSense that takes advantage of the range of multiple sensors on a mobile phone to automatically apply a greater variety of tags to photos. Read More