Items tagged with cameras
When the topic of encryption comes up, it is often related to smartphones and tablets, and the differing opinions on the matter between hardware makers such as Google and Apple versus government agencies. Those are not the only areas where encryption matters. In an open letter to the camera makers around the world, Freedom of the Press Foundation makes a plea to build encryption into still photo and video cameras to protect the "safety and security" of photojournalists and filmmakers, along with their sources.The open letter is signed by more 150 documentary filmmakers and photojournalists. It is an issue that resonates throughout the industry and is of concern to both those who work independently...
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One of the rumors floating around about the iPhone 7 is that it will sport dual cameras on its backside for depth sensing. That might still be the case with the larger size iPhone 7 Plus model, but based on a leaked shot of what's purportedly the camera component for the 4.7-inch iPhone 7, it will have a single rear-facing lens.In the absence of dual cameras, it appears the single lens design of the iPhone 7 is being upgraded with optical image stabilization (OIS), a feature that's present on the current generation 5.5-inch iPhone 6s Plus model, but not the smaller iPhone 6s. That's assuming the leaked shot of the camera module by French-language website Nowhereelse.fr is legit.The site placed...
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Nikon has a new entry-level digital SLR (DSLR) camera for anyone who's outgrown their point-and-shoot and is looking for something better suited for serious photography. It's the Nikon D3400 and it's designed to help budding photography buffs learn more about the hobby without feeling intimidated by a swath of advanced settings. The way it does that is through Nikon's Guide Mode, an integrated feature that provides step-by-step assistance when adjusting camera settings. Photographers can turn the top Command Dial to Guide Mode and see a full range of capture options, which the camera then guides them through to snap the desired shot. It's intended for first-time DSLR owners and helps make the...
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LG is just a tad late bringing its anticipated Action Cam with LTE connectivity to market (the company stated in May that it would ship in June), but it's now starting to roll out, first to South Korea and then followed by other "key markets" in the coming weeks. It's not entirely clear when and if LG will launch its Action Cam in the U.S.We assume the U.S. is considered a key market, especially for something like this, which will go toe-to-toe with the GoPro line. The big selling point here is the built-in LTE connectivity that allows users to record and stream their adventures in real-time to YouTube Live and other online services without having to tap into their smartphones. That's a trick...
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One of the most popular add-ons for Raspberry Pi's low-cost mini PC line is a 5-megapixel visible-light camera board. It also happens to be Raspberry Pi's first official accessory, which it introduced in 2013. Now three years later, modders and makers have access to a pair of new camera boards, both based on Sony's IMX219 8-megapixel sensor. The new camera boards are available in visible-light and infrared flavors. As with the old model, these can be used in a variety of projects, including telescopes, kites with aerial views, science lessons, hyperspectral imaging hacks, and the list goes on. The introduction of a new camera accessory comes as stock of the old model has nearly run out. Raspberry...
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GoPro might have been better off waiting until the weekend to report preliminary financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2015. Instead, it held off until after trading hours yesterday to reveal an expected revenue miss and anticipated job cuts only to wake up to a plummeting stock price.Shares of GoPro are taking a beating in early day trading. Initially shares dropped by upwards of 25 percent but have slightly recovered and are now trading at $12.27, down around 16 percent with slight fluctuations in both directions. That's a far cry from the more than $90 per share GoPro was commanding just months after going public with a $24 IPO in June 2014.The reason for...
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Remember Nokia's fancy pants Ozo camera? It's billed as the first virtual reality camera system specifically designed for professional production, and today we learned it will have a price tag to match -- $60,000. Ah, but turn that frown upside down, you don't have to come up the full amount right off the bat. It only requires a $5,000 deposit! All kidding aside, the price tag reflects the camera's target audience and intended purpose. This isn't a toy or even a high-tech device for hobbyists, but a serious tool for creating professional level content in the emerging VR field.Is it just us, or does Nokia's Ozo VR camera look like Q*bert? To do that, the Ozo sports eight 2K by 2K video sensors,...
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Logitech just made a splash in the home camera market with the introduction of its Logi Circle, a portable camera that's somewhat similar to Nest's Dropcam. Both cost the same at $200 MSRP, but unlike Dropcam, the Logi Circle is portable and rechargeable, allowing you to take it from room to room for up to three hours of streaming. It also lasts up to 12 hours in power save mode. Once it runs out of juice, you can place the camera on the included magnetic charging ring. This is a pretty big advantage over Dropcam, which needs to be plugged into a power source, though it lacks the integration with smart products (Dropcam can connect to Nest's Thermostat and Protect devices). This is Logitech's...
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Virtual reality has captured the hearts and minds of consumers and developers alike with systems like Oculus Rift and Samsung's Gear VR, but what if you want to capture your own VR content? Nokia has you covered. The company announced a funky looking camera with an equally funky name -- OZO. While it looks like one of the orbs that shot energy bolts at a blindfolded Luke Skywalker during his Jedi training, it's actually a purpose-built camera designed for professional content creators. OZO came out of the minds of Nokia's R&D facilities in Tampere, Finland. It's a work in progress, though it's close to being finished -- Nokia says it will conduct final testing and refinements to OZO in partnership...
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Nobody likes getting behind a semi-trailer truck. Those 18-wheelers typically drive slower than four-wheeled cars (not all the time, mind you), and because of their size, there's quite a bit of roadway that gets blocked. You can't see what's going on in front of the truck, and passing isn't always easy, especially if you're on a road where the passing lane is for opposing traffic. To solve those problems, Samsung is mounting giant displays on the back of 18-wheelers. Those displays consist of a video wall made from four exterior monitors. Wireless cameras mounted to the front of the truck feed the monitors real-time visuals, allowing you to see what's in front of the semi-trailer so you can anticipate...
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Canon on Thursday announced the Powershot G3 X, the newest addition to the company's G series of premium compact digital cameras. The shooter is aimed at photographers who want features comparable to a DSLR but in a compact body that's both dust-resistant and water-resistant. It's also for photographers who need a relatively high level of zoom. Despite it's compact size, the Powershot G3 X comes with an f/2.8-5.6, 25x Optical Power Zoom lens that's equivalent to 24-600mm. That should let photographers get pretty close to the action, even when sitting in the nosebleeds seats at a sporting event. And if you're feeling shaky from all that caffeine, Canon says the improved Intelligent Image Stabilization...
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It's being reported that Apple has gone out and acquired LinX Computational Imaging Ltd., a camera-technology based in Israel, for about $20 million. While nothing has yet been announced, it's assumed that Apple will use LinX's technology in future smartphone and tablet devices, including the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans," an Apple spokesman told The Wall Street Journal, which took that statement as confirmation that a deal had been consummated. LinX specializes in miniature cameras for mobile devices that use various sensors and algorithms to capture and process multiple images at...
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Garmin isn't ready to concede the action camera market to GoPro, hence the announcement of two new next generation models, the VIRB X and VIRB XE. Both of Garmin's new HD cameras are compact and capable of shooting wide-angle footage, and both bring an an all-new form factor with additional mounting options to the table. Like GoPro's Hero line, the VIRB X and VIRB XE are designed for action shots, whether it's taking tight corners on a motorcycle or snowboarding down a challenging mountain at breakneck speeds. Regardless of the activity, the cameras will capture your footage in a range of harsh environments -- both are waterproof to 50 meters without needing an external case. "With the updated...
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Let's be honest here, GoPro pretty much owns the action camera scene with its super popular line of Hero cameras. That being the case, what's a company to do that doesn't see much competition? One option is to rest on its laurels, though a better idea is to buckle down and keep innovating. It looks as though GoPro has chosen the latter, as a newly granted patent shows the company tinkering with a compact square camera. In the patent, GoPro describes the housing as being of substantially equal length on all sides. It’s a little cube, in other words, that can be secured in several different orientations. To accommodate for that, there are openings on three sides, all providing...
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Eyefi has announced the latest addition to its family of Wi-Fi-enabled SD cards. The Eyefi claims that its 32GB Mobi Pro is “the most powerful WiFi SD card ever” and will be a welcome addition to the arsenal of professional photographers everywhere. The Mobi Pro supports Selective Transfer, which allows users to tag individual images for syncing instead of transferring every photo stored on the card. However, this functionality is a bit cumbersome to use as each photo that you do want to sync has be marked as write-protected from the camera. The Mobi Pro also supports the wireless transfer of RAW files, and can connect to wireless networks via infrastructure or direct mode. What this means that...
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Are you ready for your facepalm moment of the week, and perhaps the year? Bear selfies are now a thing on social media. Not only are tourists taking selfies with bears in the background, but it's happening so frequently at South Lake Tahoe that officials with the U.S. Forest Service have had to issue a warning against doing it. "People have been rushing up to the bears to take selfies and videos with them," Lisa Herron, a public affairs officer for the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit, told Mashable. "A bear will come and whole mobs of people will charge up to them to take photos. Just hangin with a grizzly ?? pic.twitter.com/5GFehOnNP8 — Miranda McKee (@mirandeeezy) October 18, 2014 Bear...
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If you record your outdoor adventures with a helmet-mounted camera, you’re going to love this. A trio of Microsoft researchers have solved the problem of shaky time-lapse videos with a method they call “hyperlapse.” Where speeding up a long video used to create a surreal, stuttering movie, hyperlapse lets you take your viewers on a smooth, fast ride. Check out the video for some samples that will have you itching to strap on that GoPro and head out for a bike ride or some rock climbing. Microsoft researchers Johannes Kopf, Michael Cohen, and Richard Szeliki say in a post on Microsoft’s research site that the hyperlapse method determines the input path of the camera and...
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One of the essential features of any smartphone is the built-in camera, and the quality of photos a device outputs plays a role in our evaluation of these devices. For many, a quality camera is no longer a luxury, but a necessity in an increasingly social landscape, so is it any surprise that smartphone and tablet shipments have turned us all into photographers? According to ABI Research, over 1 billion cameras shipped in smartphones and tablets during 2012, and by 2018, that annual figure will jump to 2.7 billion, the research firm predicts. Mobile device makers are privy to the importance of a quality camera and continue to push the envelope with new features and higher quality optics. "Advancements...
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Ricoh may not be the first brand you think of when it comes to digital cameras, but the company has some good offerings. Take the new GR Digital III, for instance. This new camera features a fast 28mm, f/1.9 lens. That’s something you don’t usually see on a point-and-shoot digital camera. The GR Digital III also uses a new 10 megapixel CCD sensor and image processing engine that is designed to reduce noise without loss of resolution or saturation. Another cool feature of the GR Digital III is its burst speed of up to five RAW shots a second—that’s comparable to DSLRs. The high-resolution, 920,000 dot 3-inch LCD on the back is pretty impressive too. Look for this camera to be available in the...
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Do you remember Panasonic’s new Lumix DMC-GH1 that can record HD video? Panasonic has finally announced recommended pricing and availability for the camera. Expect the Lumix DMC-GH1 to be available for purchase in June for a suggested retail price of $1,499.95. The camera will come as a kit with the LUMIX G VARIO 14-140mm/F4.0-5.8 ASPH/MEGA O.I.S. lens. This lens features a silent motor and continuous auto focusing capabilities to assist with HD movie recording. As you’ll recall, the Lumix DMC-GH1 is Panasonic’s latest Micro-Four Thirds camera with a 12.1 megapixel Live MOS sensor that can record high definition videos with built-in Dolby Digital Stereo Creator for quality sound. The camera...
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Rather than risk being lost in the flurry of CES, Panasonic waited until today to unveil its latest sub-$300 cameras. Two of the new cameras are part of Panasonic’s FS-Series line, and feature a slim and compact build at a lower price than the company's higher-end FX-Series. The third camera is part of Panasonic’s LS-Series line. This line isn’t quite as compact as some of the other lines, but it is more affordable. As a successor to the FS5, the Lumix DMC-FS15 will offer 12.1MP with a 5x optical zoom and a 29mm wide-angle lens. This camera will have a 2.7-inch LCD with 230,000 pixels. Panasonic improved the Intelligent Auto Mode in this camera from previous models to add Intelligent Exposure...
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J.D. Power and Associates has just released the results of its 2008 Digital Camera Usage and Satisfaction Study, based on responses from over 8,000 digital camera purchasers between April 2007 and March 2008. Not only does the study identify which cameras consumers liked best, but it also gives an indication of what consumers are doing with their cameras and what kind of features they want. The report breaks out digital cameras into four sub-categories: digital single-lens reflex (DSLR), point and shoot, premium point and shoot, and ultra slim. Then each of those categories is evaluated with four criteria--picture quality, performance, operation, and appearance--which are then rolled up into...
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