Fujifilm unveils 3D digital camera plans

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Notice anything strange about this Fujifilm camera? How about the fact that it’s got two lenses on it? And the word 3D?

Yes, that’s right. This is the latest in Fujifilm’s philosophy entitled “if you can’t beat them, patent something they haven’t already thought of” and in this case, it’s the world’s first consumer 3D stills camera.

It works by taking two slightly different angles of the same action and the images are either displayed in print with a clear plastic overlay that acts like a lens or on a 8-inch LCD photoframe that directs the images separately at the left and right eyes.

On the one hand it stinks of gimmick, on the other, it’s a gimmick I just really want to try. Imagine your friends looking through your future photos of your safari holiday. Imagine the shots of charging rhinos actually looking like they’re coming right out the picture.

Naturally, this fun isn’t going to come cheap when it’s launched in Europe in September. They’re looking at $600 for the camera, a few hundred more for the frame and prints could cost anything up to a couple of quid a shot.

Oh, and the name. Oh yes. The working title is the Fujifilm FinePix Real 3D System. Let’s hope they find a short version, eh.

(via Time)

Prezzybox launches the Pet's Eye View camera

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Occasionally we at Tech Digest receive information on some of the more ‘wacky’ gizmos and gadgets that are being unleashed upon the world of tech. Some we like and some we don’t.

The Pet’s Eye View from Prezzybox is definitely one we like. It’s such a simple idea that you can’t help but like it.

It’s a small, lightweight camera that can be attached to a pet’s collar – we’re talking cats and dogs here people, not gerbils and hamsters – and can be set to take pictures at intervals of either one, five or 15 minutes. It can store up to 40 photos.

If you ever wondered what your pet gets up to during the day then the Pet’s Eye View could provide you with the answer.

Wouldn’t it be awesome if loads of people found out that their dogs had weird, secret habits like cross-dressing or throwing wild toga-parties for the other neighbourhood dogs?

The Pet’s Eye View camera is available now from Prezzybox priced at £39.95.

LG announces the GC990 Louvre with 12-megapixel camera

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If you’re a fan of the LG Viewty Smart then you’ll definitely be interested in the news coming out of Warsaw, yes Warsaw in Poland, regarding LG’s unveiling of their GC990 Louvre handset.

The GC990 Louvre has a 12-megapixel camera that is also capable of HD video recording – surely this makes the Louvre the best camera phone in the word ever, ever, ever.

The camera is without doubt this handsets main strength. It is capable of auto and touch focus, has a xenon flash, records 1280×720 HD video at 30fps. It has LG’s new Intellizoom feature and has ISO up to 3200. Photos are geo-tagged and there is zero shutter lag.

Moving on from the camera, the smartphone has Wi-Fi, A-GPS, Bluetooth and TV-out as well as a 3.2-inch touchscreen. It also supports DivX and Xvid.

It’s only a concept at the moment, LG state: “The GC900 or ‘Louvre’ mobile phone from LG is a great example of the type of mobile technology innovation LG is developing. There are no confirmed plans to bring it to market. As we have further details on our camera-phone portfolio or other mobiles, LG will provide information on where and when they will be available to consumers.”

When it does get released expect us to be all over it in the usual Tech Digest way.

(via GSMArena)

The Pentax Optio W80 "adventure" camera

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Are you more of a Bruce Parry than a Bruce Forsyth? Do you prefer to spend your holidays clinging to an overhanging cliff face rather than clinging to the bar after one too many sangrias? Do you prefer to pitch your tent in the middle of an Arctic storm rather than sleeping in a 4* hotel room?

If so, the Pentax Optio W80 point and shoot camera could be the perfect companion for your travels. This is one hell of a tough camera, you see. This camera is “adventure proof”:

– Coldproof: Perfect for skiing or snowboarding as it can stand temperatures as low as minus 10°C.
– Waterproof: Not just from the rain either, you can use this camera to take images and videos up to 5m deep.
-Dustproof: Not just great for dirty houses, this will also come in handy on desert safari.
-Shockproof – Drop this baby from a metre and it won’t feel a thing. Drop it from higher than that and who knows? It’s only shockproof from a metre so don’t push your luck.

It’s not only a durable little blighter, it’s also got the spec that an ardent traveller is going to need to get good shots. For starters it’s 12.1-megapixels with a 5x optical zoom. It can also capture video in HD with a widescreen resolution of 1280×720 at 30fps.

The 2.5-inch LCD screen will display crystal clear images even in bright sunlight and there’s also built in face detection for up to 32 faces with smile capture and blink detection.

This camera looks very impressive. I want one already. I want one even more now I know that it comes in three colours including Gunmetal Grey. Gunmetal Grey sounds like the hardest colour ever. Can colours be hard? I bet Gunmetal Grey could kick any other colour’s arse.

It’s out in July in the States for $300, expect a UK release not long after with a price between £200 and £250.

(via Engadget)

8-megapixel Nokia N86 availble for pre-order now

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It shoots 8-megapixel resolution, it’s got a Carl Zeiss, 28mm wide-angle lens and it’s the first mobile phone to have a variable aperture. Ladies, gentlemen, camera fiends, the Nokia N86 is ready for pre-order.

It’s got an 8GB expandable memory and 2.6-inch OLED to show off your amazing snaps. A-GPS will ensure you can do all your geo-tagging and it’s the first Nokia handset to come with Nokia Maps 3.0 which offers 3D angles. Got a feeling you’ll still be using Google’s but I appreciate the gesture.

Best of all, the N86 is free on contract with the Carphone Warehouse from 19th June and then available from all but Vodafone come July. If you must go SIM free, you can pre-order now but it is going to cost you £399.

I thought the N97’s camera was outstanding. So, this one is going kick bottom. No word on the flash but I’m presuming double LED.

Nokia N86 pre-order

Will the camera phone kill the camera?

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Cameras in our phones are becoming serious pieces of kit. It didn’t take long for mobile manufacturers to work out that megapixels make sales and, just one year on from 5-megapixels seeming like a huge amount, we’ve had 8s and now 12s are just around the corner. With camera phones packing the same kind of resolution as high end DSLRs, are the days of the dedicated photography hardware well and truly numbered? Is the digital camera dead?

There’s probably one thing to get out the way fast before anyone blows their top – megapixels do not equal quality. We know this. So, the short answer is that the camera is not dead and indeed will not die for at least the foreseeable future – at least, not the DSLR, but life isn’t looking so rosy for the compact.

You see, camera phones are more than just megapixels these days. Just look at the likes of the LG Renoir. You can control white balance and exposure, you can manually focus, there’s a world of compact features like face detection, blink detection, smile and beauty shots, anti-blur, image stabilisation, vibration reduction and they’ve got ISO ranges just as impressive as anything you’d pick up from Nikon, Canon et al.

In fact, with the likes of the Samsung Pixon on the horizon, there’s not really a lot that all but top end compact cameras can offer that a mobile phone can’t. Before long, they’ll be after the big boys but until then, here’s five things that the camera phone must do to mount a serious challenge:

1) Glassware

If photography is about anything, it’s lens quality and one look at the tiny little shooter on the back of any mobile phone should give you an idea that it’s going to be little match for a chunky old hunk of crafted glass on a dedicated digi-cam.

Nokia and LG have got the right idea by getting world famous manufacturers like Carl-Zeiss and the impronouncable Schneider-Kreuznach involved but it’s still little match for NIKKOR and Leica and co. They’re going to have to work out how to condense that quality into that tiny peas of a lens if camera phones are really going to do the biz.

2) Shutter Response

For me, this is the main reason why camera phones are just as good/bad as compacts. It’s that killer aeon of time that passes between you pressing the shutter release and the photo actually being taken. Much of the lag is about waiting for the auto focus to catch but then there’s all the flash, double flash nonsense and general bleeping and chirping that gets in the way too. And by the time all that’s done, you’ve generally missed the shot.

Only DSLRs give you that instant shutter release and, when the camera phone has mastered that, they’ll be on the warpath. Something beyond two frames per second shooting would do nicely too.

3) PSAM (or a degree of autonomy)

I don’t often shoot in fully manual mode and rarely in either aperture of shutter priority for that matter but, damn it, I want the choice. Maybe I want to take a long exposure shot. It’s the kind of playground that real photography’s made of. Options people, give me options!

4) Zoom

Weirdly, this is one area where compact cameras excel. People love to zoom. We must be a race of voyeurs.

I’ve lost count of the huge telescopic lengths to which compacts can take optical zoom but suffice to say it’s miles further than what you can get out of a mobile. Anyone mentions digital zoom to me and I’m crackin’ skulls.

5) Image Sensors

No one likes a CCD sensor. It’s all CMOS these days but just because it’s got the letters, it doesn’t mean this modern day version of camera film is as faithful in a mobile phone as it is in a DSLR. There’s love and care goes into the production of these things for dedicated cameras and although I’ve seen some interesting news about image sensors for mobiles, I’m yet to be convinced. Get this one right, and the glassware in order, and that’s most of the battle won.

Now just because the mobile phone’s playing catch up with the camera, it doesn’t mean that Nikon, Canon and co. have nothing to lean from telephony. There’s gadgetry within our pocket handsets which should be commonplace in compacts and DSLRs if they want to hang onto their edge too. So here’s five areas where they could borrow some tech:

1) GPS

A minuscule handful of cameras have GPS functionality built in but all too many require extra modules you need to strap on for all your geo-tagging needs. Two words for you there – annoying and expensive, whereas the humble mobile has had GPS for years.

GPS is also a hell of a power drain, so while we’re at it, how about the kind of battery life that wont make us fear turning it on like a dad fears people tampering with the thermostat.

2) Added Functionality

Both mobile phones and cameras have woken up to video capture at roughly the same speed. There’s plenty of DSLRs that shoot HD as there are phones now too, but how many cameras do you know that play music or play a variety of video codecs or feature Dolby sound?

Gadgets are converging and, although I’m not particularly interested in having a toaster on my camera, I appreciate that some people are.

3) LCD Displays

Camera displays are stuck at 2.7 to 3.0 inches. Phones are off to infinity and beyond and, with live view shooting becoming the favourite of future generations, dedicated cameras are going to have to up their game in terms of both screen size and touch interaction as well.

4) Connectivity

So, you’ve taken taken your stills, or video for that matter, and now it’s time to upload them to the web. Easy peasy on a mobile phone but where’s the Wi-Fi and 3G on a camera? The Eye-Fi is all very well and good but it’s not available in the UK as yet.

Now, I appreciate that there’s a whole world of SIM card-ery if this dream is to come true but they’ve made it work for laptops and, besides, it’s not me who’s making the rules here.

5) On board storage

It was all a bit trivial in days gone by but look at something like the N97 – 32GB of built-in storage, and that’s before you’ve bothered with an SD card. A few cameras have addressed the issue but most have a hard disk that’s filled up in seconds by more than a handful of snaps. Plus, when we’re talking HD video footage too, we can really do with all the help we can get. More storage please.

Conclusions

I wouldn’t chuck away your compact just yet but, the minute you see serious quality camera lenses telescoping out beyond a mobile’s body before packing neatly back away again, it’s probably time to start thinking about it.

As for DSLRs, well, I think there’s enough purists out there who’d never hand theirs in for the sake of a phone. They’re untouchable for both image quality and functionality and I doubt we’ll see them replaced for quite some time.

I like to think there’s something else in it too, something slightly more intangeable. I enjoy using camera phones but it just feels right taking pictures with a half a kilogram, specially crafted piece of kit in my hands. Snaps on my mobile phone I’ll take and forget. Photos on my camera are for life.

Sony Ericsson patents theme music technology to match your mood

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Here’s some pretty future tech for you. Sony Ericsson has filed a patent for phone technology that’ll recognise your facial expressions and automatically select music for you according to your mood.

Your handset will use the front facing camera to capture your image and, although there may be some initial calibration involved, the system will then pick the next track from your collection that best suits your mood.

If it works, there could be some alarming revelations about your neutral expression. I’d like to think my general demeanour would sound like the poppier end of The Who’s catalogue but I guess I’ll have to wait and see what Sony Ericsson thinks.

What would your theme music be according to your phone? Answers in the comments below

(via USEB)

Sony Cybershot DSC-W290 released to industry-wide hysteria – ish

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The new Sony Cybershot DSC-W290 was released this week. The Carl Zeiss lens wielding compact, packs a punchy 12.1 megapixels and a boat-load of software features all for around £240.

In black or blue and weighing in at 160g, the W290 isn’t going to be strain in your pocket but does come with all the features of an altogether more expensive compact.Boasting multi-face detection, anti-blink reduction, smile shutter and red eye reduction, the W290 has a feature set not to be sniffed at.

Though whether this means it will be any good at taking pictures is another thing entirely. Too often the practise with compacts seems just to wedge them full of megapixels, vaguely helpful and occasionally, entirely useless features with the quality of the snaps playing second fiddle.

Megapixels do not maketh a compact. A lens does though.

The thing that should set the W290 apart is Dynamic Range Optimization, which works by automatically figuring out the best exposure and contrast levels to give more natural looking photos.

Sounds like the same old shtick you’ve heard a bajillion times before? Me too. Hopefully we’ll get our hands on one soonish and find out. If you’ve got a W290 tell us what you think about it in the comments, go on. Do it. I freaking dare you. What are you scared? You chicken…Go on.

SHINY VIDEO PREVIEW: Nikon D5000 DSLR camera

I’ve just shinned it up and down London’s Centre Point Tower to get my hands on the Nikon D5000 family DSLR camera. My first impression after this morning’s thoughts are that it’s pretty small – not small like MP3 players or sub-atomic particles or anything but compared to the Nikon D90, below which the D5000 sits in the Nikon consumer range, it’s dinky. It’s rather like a D60. Just 550g in weight including the battery.

Once you get over the size of the thing, my next question for this family camera was: “Would I really let my kids run around with a £720 piece of kit?” I’m sure it’s as hardy as a DSLR can be but these things are all about the glass and it’s just too easy to scratch and destroy.

If Nikon does succeed with its mission to convince families to buy their camera then I do wonder how much it will eat into the sales of the D90.

Full spec sheet over the jump.

Megapixels – 12.9
Sensor type – CMOS
Autofocus points – 11-point AF
Crop factor – 1.5
Lens mount – Nikon F mount
Metering system – Matrix, Center-weighted, Spot
Frames per second – 4fps
ISO min – 200 (+ Lo-1 ISO 100 equivalent)
ISO max – 3200 (+ Hi-1 ISO 6400 equivalent)
Screen size – unique 2.7″ LCD vari-angle / free-rotation
Card format – SD card
Battery model – EN-EL9 & EN-EL9a (new, 1800mAh)
Weight (g) – 550g inc. battery
Size -127mmx104mmx69mm
Included accessories – Battery EN-EL9A, MH-23 battery charger, USB cable, AV cable, Body cap, eye-piece cap DK-5, Accessory shoe cover BS-1, Camera Strap AN-DC3, software CD Rom, Quick start guide, Manual, Warranty

Resolution – 12.3 million effective pixels
Aspect ratio – 3:2; 4:3; 5:4; 16:9; 1:1
Sensor size – 23.6 mm × 15.8 mm CMOS sensor
Autofocus system – Single-point AF; Dynamic-area AF;Auto-area AF; 3-D tracking AF
Exposure modes – Auto; P; S; A; M; 19 scene modes
Screen resolution – 230,000
File formats – JPEG; RAW; AVI
Connectivity – Type C HDMI; Hi-speed USB; Video output; Accessory terminal (remote cord / GPS)

Flash type – “Auto flash with auto pop-up P, S, A, M: Manual pop-up flash with button release”
Flash guide number – “• At ISO 200: Approx. 17m/56f, 18m/59f with manual flash
• At ISO 100: Approx. 12m/39f, 13m/43f with manual flash”

Flash metering “i-TTL
Auto aperture
Non-TTL auto
Range-priority manual”
Flash sync speed 1/200 sec.
Image stabilisation Yes (in VR the lens)
Integrated cleaning yes
Live view yes
Buffer depth (RAW) 10.6 MB, 268 images, 11 exposures
Buffer depth (JPEG) 100 exposures, 7700 images @ JPEG Basic small 0.4 MB
Shutter speed max 1/4000 sec.
Shutter speed min 30 sec.
VF coverage 95%
Vertical grip yes
Manufacturers link www.nikon.co.uk

Starting RRP £799.99 with 18-55mm VR lens; £749.99 body only.

RUMOUR: 3.2-megapixel iPhone for 2009

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I’m slightly loathed to publish this story because the information lies somewhere between total speculation and the bleeding obvious. Stay with me here, you’ll see what I mean.

So, word has it via iPhone Buzz that OmniVision has won the contract to supply Apple with the CMOS sensors for the iPhone of next Tuesday.

They’re saying that it’ll bring the iPhone 3.0 handset up to 3.2-megapixels and, beyond that, they’re taking consignment of 5-megapixel equipment for a second handset later this year.

So, it’s total speculation because none of this has been confirmed with anyone, and it’s the bleeding obvious as the camera is the one place on the iPhone that’s simply been screaming to be upgraded ever since the first handset came out two years ago.

As for a fourth iPhone, well, it’s possible Apple plans on doing to their phone range what they’ve done with iPods and, indeed, we’ve heard murmurs about it already but my money’s on 2010 for that kind of action. Perhaps this other optic set up is for another piece of Appleware. Tablet anyone?

iPhone on O2