Items tagged with camera
The Galaxy S20 Ultra is no doubt the overachiever of the Samsung's currently Galaxy S family, and it has the specs to match. In addition to its massive 6.9-inch 120Hz QHD+ display, the smartphone comes equipped with up to 16GB of RAM, 512GB of UFS 3.0 storage, and a 108MP primary image sensor with 100x Space Zoom. However, it's that last spec sheet stat that has caused the most issues for some users. Many have complained about autofocus problems when using 108MP sensor, which uses pixel beginning to combine light information from 9 pixels into a larger "virtual" pixel. While impressive on paper, the 108MP sensor also didn't include Samsung's well-regarded Dual Pixel autofocus system,...
Read more...
Google has announced that it is temporarily (and automatically) reducing the video recording quality for its family of Nest cameras. Google is taking this step to reduce the amount of bandwidth required in an attempt to lessen the strain on ISPs, and the internet in general. Demand for bandwidth is booming with people all around the country (and around the globe) being forced to work from home due to the coronavirus. The change is temporary, and only the quality and bandwidth settings will be adjusted. Google says that other user-configured settings will remain the same and will work normally. It's unclear what the default quality setting will be, but presumably somewhere in the middle of the...
Read more...
There's no question that smartphone OEMs have gone “camera crazy” in recent years. Just a few years ago, it was an oddity to see a smartphone with two rear cameras, and now it's rare to see a new mid-range to flagship smartphone released with any less than three image sensors. Given the demand for multiple high-quality sensors in today's devices, suppliers are finding it hard to keep up with demand. For Sony in particular, the company says that it is running its production lines 24-7 in order to keep up with demand, but even that isn't enough to satisfy its customers. As a result, the company is looking to double capital expenditures for the current fiscal year to roughly $2.6 billion....
Read more...
The log-in credentials for 3,672 Ring camera owners have been leaked this week in a security breach. The leak exposed log-in emails, passwords, time zones, and the names people gave to their Ring cameras. Often those names are specific to where the camera is located, such as "bedroom" and "front door." Using the information that was leaked, an intruder could access the Ring customer's home address, telephone number, and payment information. The payment information included the type of credit card, the last four digits, and the security code. The worst thing about this breach is that it gave the intruders access to live camera footage to all cameras associated with the account. It also gave up...
Read more...
Intel has announced what it says is the world's smallest high-resolution LiDAR depth camera. The device is called the Intel RealSense LiDAR Camera L515, and with it, the company is introducing a new type of solid-state LiDAR tech. The L515 uses LiDAR to scan a full scene allowing it to provide a point cloud with up to 23 million points of accurate depth data per second. The camera promises consistent high depth accuracy throughout the entire supported range of the camera starting at 25cm and going up to 9 meters. Intel says that the accuracy of the camera is less than 20mm Z error at maximum range. Intel fits L515 with an internal vision processor, motion blur artifact reduction, and short photon...
Read more...
There are few better ways to record memories than video. You have probably recorded clips of birthday parties, vacations, or family holidays here and there. Maybe you enjoy sharing a glimpse of your daily grind to Instagram. Videos help us to share our world with others and reminisce about days gone by. Impromptu filming has become ever more accessible as smartphones have overtaken camcorders with remarkable new capabilities. While smartphone camera quality has improved dramatically year after year with powerful image stabilization capability, shots can still be ruined by human hand shake shortcomings. Most of us need some assistance to get a stable shot - particularly while walking or running...
Read more...
The thought of a stranger hijacking your camera and being able to see what you are doing without your knowledge is the stuff of nightmares for most people. Our phones tend to follow us into every area of our lives. Checkmarx decided to see if the cameras that are built into Android phones might be vulnerable to hacking. For their testing, the team took a Pixel 2 XL and Pixel 3 smartphone and began to probe the Google Camera app. The team found that there were a number of "concerning vulnerabilities" in the Google Camera app. They also found that the same vulnerabilities impact the camera apps of other smartphone vendors in the Android ecosystem. They specifically cited Samsung's camera app as...
Read more...
How good does the camera in your pocket need to be? Well, if your name is Samsung, the answer appears to be "extremely" good. Samsung has started rolling out a new version of the Samsung Camera app in One UI 2.0 beta 4, and a quick tear-down of the new APK (courtesy of XDA Developers) reveals a few interesting secrets. APK stands for Android Package Kit. These files are what the Android operating system uses to distribute and install applications, in some ways similar to an EXE file on Windows. These APKs can also be decompiled using a software tool to reveal their contents. Courtesy XDA Developers In this case, the teardown uncovered a number of strings which indicate support...
Read more...
GoPro cameras were the only action cameras out there for a while, but that's definitely not the case today. There are a bunch of different competitors targeting the action market. In July, Canon rolled out a camera called the IVY REC that aimed right at the GoPro. Not to be outdone, GoPro has unveiled its latest action cameras called the Hero8 Black and the Max along with new mods that go with the camera. The new Hero8 Black camera has some new features that help it to record better video, including HyperSmooth 2.0 video stabilization. HyperSmooth 2.0 dramatically improves stabilization over version 1.0. GoPro notes that Hypersmooth 2.0 works in all resolutions and frame rates and has a Boost...
Read more...
Canon is a big name in the photography world, making cameras that run the gamut from entry-level offerings up to high-end professional cameras. However, Canon has turned to crowdsourced funding site Indiegogo for its latest camera project that is aimed at bringing in new customers who also happen to be casual photographers. The camera Canon has on Indiegogo is called the IVY REC. It's a little camera that has a clip on the side and is meant to be clipped to a strap on just about anything you want to keep it close at hand. It promises to be the "ultimate go anywhere camera" with a clippable design that is lightweight, compact, and rugged. It has no screen to crack; Canon says that the clip area...
Read more...
Is 2019 the year of the “foldable” smartphone? It will be if Oppo has anything to say about it. Oppo’s latest patent reveals a foldable phone with no bezels and a unique pop-up camera. Rumor has it that Oppo will officially announce the device by the end of 2019. Renderings of Oppo's Foldable Smartphone-- Image from Let's Go Digital Oppo recently filed a patent with the European Trade Mark and Design Network (TMDN). Oppo has not disclosed anything about the device’s specs, but their patent reveals a few interesting features. First, the device includes an incredibly streamlined design and appears to be bezel-less. Second, the phone includes a pop-up camera. The device includes...
Read more...
The smartphone market is hurting right now with fewer and fewer people upgrading their devices each year as changes tend to be minimal. Smartphone makers are more likely to get users to upgrade if they have a key differentiating features, and much of the Android market sets itself apart with innovative camera systems. Samsung is trying this with its 20MP front camera sensor designed specifically for punched hole displays on phones trying to minimize the notch as much as possible. A new report is making the rounds that says Samsung has acquired a camera company called Corephotonics. Corephotonics is notable for two things; one is its fancy Hummingbird camera tech that combines images from...
Read more...
An Oppo invite is making the rounds that wants people to tune in on January 16. We won't know precisely what the event is about until tomorrow, but rumors point to technology that is an evolution of tech that Oppo showed off back in 2017 at MWC. That tech was for a slick 5x optical zoom system that uses a prism. That fancy prism was able to bend the light 90-degrees allowing the lens for the zoom function to be horizontal across the device to overcome the packing constraints of thin smartphone designs. As cool as that zoom tech was, Oppo never put it into a commercially available smartphone. That may be changing with rumors pointing to a refined version of that tech making its debut at tomorrow's...
Read more...
Google launched its Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL smartphones in October, and so far the devices have proven to be popular with Android fans. However, there have been some significant issues with these devices including a flaw that prevented the smartphone from saving photos in some instances. Some Pixel 3 devices have also suffered from a bug that resulted in two notches being displayed on the screen. Another Pixel 3 camera bug has surfaced, and this one causes the camera to encounter a fatal error that prevents the camera from working at all until the phone is rebooted. Reports indicate that the failure occurs when owners attempt to use the camera in third-party apps. When the error is triggered,...
Read more...
Sony has announced a new digital camera that it claims to be the world's smallest compact camera with a 24-720mm zoom lens: the Cyber-shot HX99 (DSC-HX99). The small size of the camera makes it well suited for travel, yet the high zoom rate allows you to get closer to far away subjects. The lens is a ZEISS Vario-Sonnar T 24-720mm High Magnification Zoom lens with Optical SteadyShot integrated. Image stabilization is important at high zoom levels, or you end up with close up, blurry images. Sony integrates a Zoom Assist function that makes it easier to zoom accurately and keep distant subjects in the frame by temporarily zooming-out to show the shooter a wider area. A BIONZ X processing engine...
Read more...
Facebook and RED Digital Cinema have been collaborating on what the duo calls the world's first end-to-end solution for 3D and 360 video capture. Facebook and RED are offering a first look at the Manifold camera, which is a studio-ready camera system for immersive six degrees of freedom storytelling, and Facebook notes that the camera will allow creative pros to connect with audiences in a "bold new way." This tech could allow moviegoers to watch the action from inside the film in a much more immersive way than was possible before. However, Facebook and RED note that there is "plenty more work on the horizon." Facebook believes that this camera represents a paradigm shift in the ability...
Read more...
Early this month we discussed leaked images claiming to show what the next generation of GoPro cameras would look like and gave up some details on the devices. Those cameras have now gone official confirming the details of the leak. GoPro has three versions of the camera that are differentiated by their color and the features supported. The cameras include the Hero7 Black, Hero7 Silver, and Hero7 White. The Hero7 Black is a camera capable of recording 4K video at 60 fps, 2.7K video at 120 fps, and 1080p video at 240 fps. It can also shoot still images at up to 30 fps and has what GoPro calls HyperSmooth video stabilization. A vertical portrait mode supports social media, and the camera...
Read more...
It appears that action camera maker GoPro has plans to launch a new camera series in the coming weeks. No official word about the new cameras has come down from GoPro, but the launch must be close because images of a new Best Buy display going up in at least one store have surfaced. The actual announcement and launch of the cameras are expected later this month. All we have in the way of information on the cameras comes in what we can glean from a trio of images that surfaced on The Verge and Reddit. The images show that GoPro is going back to its older naming convention with cameras with the Hero 7 White, Silver, and Black editions. It appears that the White and Silver cameras have no front...
Read more...
Nikon has rolled out a new entry-level DSLR camera called the new D3500, and this camera is an affordable way for new users to step into the DSLR realm. While the Z7 and Z6 mirrorless cameras that Nikon rolled out earlier this month would set you back at least $2,600 in kit form, the new entry-level D3500 will cost you a much more affordable $849.95 when it lands in September including two lenses. Those lenses are the AF-P DX NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR and AF-P DX NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-6.3G ED. If you want to spend even less to get into DSLR quality images, you can get a single-lens kit with only the 18-55mm lens and D3500 body for a much more affordable $499.95. For the money, the new D3500...
Read more...
DJI has created a lot of buzz in the drone and photography communities with the Mavic 2 that leaked last month. Along with a leaked image of that device came some alleged specifications. Later in the month, a catalog page for the new drone leaked that called out a Hasselblad camera for the Mavic 2 Pro with a 1-inch sensor, 31-minute flight time, and the ability to stream video and images over 5 miles. A Mavic 2 Zoom was also called out with a zoom lens. Mavic 2 Pro The drone is also tipped to be 360-degree hazard aware in the leaked catalog. One thing we didn’t know was when exactly the drone would be unveiled. We now have an answer to that and know that DJI is having an event tomorrow...
Read more...
Earlier in the month, a leak made the rounds that claimed to show the upcoming DJI Mavic 2 drone. The leak suggested that the drone might be able to detect obstacles with a 360-degree field of view. The Mavic 2 drone has since turned up in the latest Argos catalog, despite not being officially announced by DJI just yet. The catalog actually calls out two versions of the drone, one of them is the DJI Mavic 2 Pro, which packs a 1-inch sensor, and the DJI Mavic 2 Zoom with an integrated 24-48mm zoom lens and a "Dolly Zoom" effect. The description from the Argos catalog calls out some other specifications as well, including 1080p video transmission with a transmission distance of up...
Read more...
DJI is one of the top companies in the world of personal drones for shooting video and other content. DJI also has a history of having a tough time keeping its new products under wraps. The $799 Mavic Air leaked back in January and it was officially launched not long after that slip-up. Another DJI drone has leaked and this time it is said to be the upcoming Mavic 2. The Mavic 2 designation on the drone is clear in the leaked image. You can tell from the hands near the drone that while it might be larger than the Mavic Air it still appears to be compact enough to be easily transportable. The rumors circulating with the leaked photo indicate that the camera on the Mavic 2 is modular...
Read more...
