Digital Cameras

Olympus goes to the dogs with their new Stylus Tough-3000

By Alan Brandon

09:56 January 20, 2010 PST

Olympus has updated their go-anywhere Stylus Tough line of compact digital cameras with the new Stylus Tough-3000. This new rugged shooter features 720p HD video capability, plus a special "pet mode" that automatically tracks and focuses on Man's best friend. Of course, the Stylus Tough-3000 is also shockproof, waterproof, and freezeproof, with image stabilization and an array of Olympus art filters. Read More

Samsung to release X15 optical zoom point-and-shoot

By Gizmag Team

19:50 January 19, 2010 PST

Another landmark in the unrelenting evolution of the digital camera was reached this week when Samsung announced two 12.2 mega-pixel point-and-shoot digital cameras with 15x optical zooms. The top of the line camera, to be known as the WB650 in Europe and the HZ35W in the U.S., sports a 3.0” AMOLED display, Dual Image Stabilisation (both optical and digital image stabilizers), a GPS (for geo-tagging) and 720p video at 30fps. It’s a stunning achievement to fit all this into a compact camera body just 30mm thick and with the PMA Show approaching, one wonders if this camera will still be winning the “mine’s bigger than yours” contest a month from now. Expect it in the showroom in March. Read More

Big screen experience from your mobile device - the Microvision SHOWWX laser pico projector

By Mick Webb

12:39 January 10, 2010 PST

The Microvision SHOWWX laser pico projector

first came to our attention in development back in 2008, with the final version making an appearance at this years CES. Around the size of a smartphone, the SHOWWX projector enables a user to connect their iPod, mobile phone or a myriad of other devices to display movies and photos as a WVGA (848x480 pixels) DVD quality “big screen” experience. Read More

Casio EX-G1: the world's slimmest shock-resistant digital camera

By Darren Quick

19:45 November 19, 2009 PST

Casio’s G-Shock line of shock-resistant watches have been adorning the wrists of outdoorsy types since the release of the first G-Shock branded watch in 1983. The company extended the rugged specifications of the G-Shock line to mobile phones with the release of the G’zOne durable, water-resistant mobile phone in 2000, and has now further extended the brand to compact digital cameras with the release of the EX-G1 shock-resistant, waterproof, dustproof digital camera – the first in the company’s new EXILIM G line. Read More

Preschooler’s digital camera: sophisticated features in a kid-sized package

By Jude Garvey

22:58 November 17, 2009 PST

I’d love to be a kid again. Seriously. The technology age has delivered children all manner of sophisticated toys and games, think Nintendo, Playstation and Wii ... just to name a few. Now, they even have a variety of mini digital cameras to choose from, including the Kid Tough camera and the Preschooler’s digital camera. The Preschooler’s camera is a kid-tough unit that is suitably sized for small hands, can take photographs and video, and has a fixed-focus lens - so kids simply line up their shot and press a button. Read More

Toshiba announces new sensitive 14.6 megapixel CMOS sensor

By Paul Ridden

18:12 October 30, 2009 PDT

Toshiba has announced a 14.6 megapixel CMOS sensor for mobile phones and digital cameras which it says will boost light sensitivity and absorption by up to 40 percent. Whereas conventional sensors have multi-layer wiring sandwiched between the lenses and light receiving substrate, Toshiba has moved the wiring out of the way and placed the lenses and the photodiodes together. Read More

Memory chips could lead the way to gigapixel cameras

By Dario Borghino

17:51 October 14, 2009 PDT

Image sensors embedded in digital cameras are expensive, and issues with their circuitry limit the quality and resolution in the pictures they produce. Now a research group from the Netherlands believes a cheaper solution could be right before our eyes - the team's "gigavision" technique exploits the high light sensitivity of memory chips to produce inexpensive gigapixel sensors that perform very well, especially in extreme lighting conditions. Read More

Kingston releases MobileLite Flash card reader, reloaded

By Dario Borghino

03:24 October 10, 2009 PDT

Kingston recently released MobileLiteG2, the second generation of its portable Flash card reader. The 18.9g plug-and-play unit shows up as two separate devices on your system to make it easier to transfer data between Flash memory cards using only one USB port. Read More

Anti-paparazzi lasers being fitted to the world's biggest private yacht

By Loz Blain

05:34 September 22, 2009 PDT

Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich rose from obscurity and successfully navigated the shady world of early Russian privatization to become one of the world's wealthiest self-made billionaires. His 40-man private army of security personnel make him one of the best-protected businessmen in the world, and when his private gigayacht the Eclipse is handed over in time for Christmas this year, it will be the largest (at a staggering 560ft) and most expensive (at US$1.2 billion) private yacht the world has ever seen. Security will be as tight as you'd expect, with missile defence and intruder detection systems - but the Eclipse's most notable feature is a privacy system that can detect the digital cameras of snooping paparazzi and blind them with laser bursts, ruining spy photos. Read More

SanDisk Extreme Pro CompactFlash memory cards perform at twice the speed

By Darren Quick

23:24 September 16, 2009 PDT

Any professional photographer who has bought a cheap flash memory card and spent hours offloading gigabytes of images, or had their memory card stall when trying to shoot in burst mode, would know that not all memory cards are created equal. SanDisk’s new line of Extreme Pro CompactFlash memory cards proves this point by offering 90MB/s peak read and write speeds – double the performance of previous SanDisk high-end camera memory cards. Read More

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ38 does 12.1 megapixel stills, 720p HD video, and recognizes your family

By Alan Brandon

20:20 September 10, 2009 PDT

The Lumix DMC-FZ38 is an incremental update to Panasonic’s line of compact super-zoom cameras. Based on the FZ28, the new FZ38 boasts 12.1 megapixels, an 18x wide zoom, and 720p HD video with stereo audio and the AVCHD Lite recording format. And, remarkably, it can also recognize your family and friends. Read More

Olympus µ TOUGH-6010 flexes a bit more muscle

By Alan Brandon

22:58 September 7, 2009 PDT

Whether you’re a snow-sports adrenaline junkie, inveterate beach goer, or just like gear that can take a few bumps, Olympus µ TOUGH-6010 may be the camera for you. Shockproof, waterproof, and even freezepoof to -10°C (14°F), the µ TOUGH-6010 combines compact style with a rugged chassis and an arsenal of shooting features including dual-image stabilization, advanced face detection, and i-Auto scene selection mode. Read More

Frankencamera: Digital cameras get the open source treatment

By Darren Quick

02:15 September 4, 2009 PDT

Open-source started with the Netscape Navigator browser and has expanded to include operating systems for PCs (Linux) and mobile phones (Android). Now photo scientists at Stanford University are out to bring the advantages of open-source development to digital photography with the creation of an open-source digital camera giving programmers around the world the chance to create software that will teach cameras new tricks. Read More

Samsung DualView cameras put the photographer in the picture

By Darren Quick

03:43 August 14, 2009 PDT

Seems one LCD display per camera is not enough for Samsung, which has just unveiled two compact digital cameras that feature dual LCD screens – one on the back and one on the front. The extra displays found on the TL225 and TL220 are designed to make turning the camera on yourself a bit more reliable than the "hold at arm’s length and hope" method usually employed when taking self-portraits and profile picture shots. And for those after a digital camera that boasts unprecedented connectivity, Samsung has also unveiled the CL65 with geo-tagging, Bluetooth 2.0, DLNA, and Wi-Fi capabilities. Read More

AstroScope gives your DSLR night vision

By Alan Brandon

22:23 August 13, 2009 PDT

The AstroScope, from night vision manufacturer Electrophysics, is a modular adapter that adds night-vision capability to DSLR cameras and camcorders. Designed for use by the military, law enforcement, news agencies, and well-heeled enthusiasts, the AstroScope night vision adapter fits between the camera body and the lens to capture high-resolution images at night and in low-light situations that are otherwise too dark for standard digital cameras. Read More

Sony Party-shot snaps pictures while you party

By Alan Brandon

20:15 August 10, 2009 PDT

You’re throwing a big party, and you want it be a night to remember. You’ve invited some cool friends, stocked up on good beer, and have the stereo cranked up to 11. Only one thing could make this shindig any better – a robot photographer! Well fear not, Sony’s got your back with the new Party-shot robotic camera dock that automatically pans, tilts, and takes snapshots while you go for the cheese dip. Read More

PedalPower+ charges cyclists' phones, GPS, iPods

By Jeff Salton

21:52 August 9, 2009 PDT

In bygone days, a bicycle dynamo struggled to generate enough energy to power a weak headlight for the lonely cyclist riding home on a dark night. Back then it was the only electronic application that a cyclist needed because dynamos were first invented when riders still made calls from public telephone booths or stopped to read a map for directions. But a new bicycle dynamo system called PedalPower+ can help recharge the arsenal of battery-powered accessories modern cyclists’ rely on for communications, navigation and entertainment - on the fly. Read More

Fujifilm FinePix Real 3D camera shoots stills and movies – no glasses required

By Alan Brandon

22:55 August 5, 2009 PDT

After a year of rumors and prototypes, Fujifilm has officially announced its 3D camera, the FinePix Real 3D W1. The W1 takes digital three-dimensional photos and videos, and you can view them without goofy colored glasses. Fujifilm also announced its Real 3D V1 digital picture viewer, and a 3D photo-printing service. Read More

Nikon CoolPix S1000pj camera packs a built-in projector

By Darren Quick

05:57 August 5, 2009 PDT

In what seems like an obvious merging of technologies now that it’s happened, Nikon has announced the world’s first compact digital camera to feature a built-in projector. The COOLPIX S1000pj is a 12.1 megapixel camera that could see an end to people elbowing each other out of the way to get a glimpse of themselves in the latest happy snap on a camera’s small LCD display. Read More

Olympus Stylus-7010 has a little chassis and bigger features

By Alan Brandon

20:01 July 27, 2009 PDT

Olympus has announced the newest addition to its fashion-oriented ultracompact digital camera line: the Stylus-7010. The new 1-inch thick model featuring 12MP resolution and a 7x wide-angle/long-zoom lens (equivalent to a 28-196mm zoom) plus some tuned-up shooting modes and "Magic Filters" for in-camera editing. Read More

Pet's Eye View Camera - see what your furry companions get up to during the day

By Jude Garvey

19:14 July 12, 2009 PDT

Some people are so fond of their pets they want to know what they are up to every minute of the day. Maybe it’s because of those guilty looks you get when you arrive home unexpectedly… you know that wide-eyed, “I wasn’t doing anything wrong” look? The Pet’s Eye View Camera could help solve these little mysteries - it's a lightweight digital camera that attaches to your cat or dog’s collar and takes 640 x 480 photos at five, ten or 15 minute intervals. Read More

Magic Lantern unofficial firmware for the EOS 5D Mark II shows Canon how it's done

By Darren Quick

17:06 July 1, 2009 PDT

Canon might want to consider putting a certain Trammell Hudson on the payroll. Hudson has developed an enhancement to the firmware of the Canon 5D Mark II digital SLR camera to make the already impressive camera an even more attractive option for shooting professional video. Dubbed ‘Magic Lantern’, the new firmware includes both audio and video fixes and is a completely open platform, meaning users are free to extend the Magic Lantern firmware themselves. Read More

Light sensor breakthrough could enhance solar cells and digital cameras

By Alan Brandon

02:06 June 30, 2009 PDT

A new type of light sensor that acts like a pixel in a digital camera has been created by researchers at the University of Toronto. Scientists believe the sensor, which takes advantage of a phenomenon called multi-exciton generation (MEG), could lead to substantial advancements in the performance of a variety of electronic devices including digital cameras. Read More

Crayola goes digital

By Darren Quick

21:04 March 30, 2009 PDT

Crayola is a name that conjures up happy childhood memories for generations of kids – or former kids. Although the Crayola brand is synonymous with crayons and other assorted ‘coloring implements’, that hasn’t stopped them embracing the digital age with a range of colorful electronic toys designed to combine learning with fun. Gizmag got the low down on the latest from the company at the recent Australian Toy Hobby and Nursery Fair. Read More

Canon EOS Rebel T1i: HD video at a third the price of the EOS 5D Mark II

By Noel McKeegan

00:05 March 26, 2009 PDT

Digital SLR cameras featuring HD video capture have burst onto the market in recent months and Canon has now put this functionality within reach of a much wider audience by including 1080p recording in the latest addition to its entry level Rebel range. The new EOS Rebel T1i Digital SLR sports a 15.1 megapixel CMOS sensor, DIGIC 4 Imaging Processor, nine-point Autofocus, a 3.0-inch LCD and shoots 1080p video at 20 fps and 720p HD video capture at 30 fps. The best bit - at USD$800 (body only) it's around a third of the price of the HD video capable EOS 5D Mark II released in September last year. Read More