Archive for June 11th, 2007
Digital Photography News
Shuttertalk, Australia
A new camera
Posted by matthew at 04:54 AM GMT +1000
It’s amazing what changes in a few years. The camera that I’ve been using for the past two years wasn’t a new design when I got it, and was already showing its age compared to the competition. Last week, a slightly stunned Me walked out of a Toronto camera store with a brand-new Olympus E-510, one of the first in Canada. I had been planning on waiting for the next top-end Olympus camera, but it’s not expected to be released until after I’m safely back from my trip around the world. And the modern features of the new midrange body are just too good to pass up.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been cutting-edge…
It’s a nice machine, being slightly narrower than my E-1, but a lot shorter. It’s too new for the review sites to have opinions, but I’m guessing that it’ll be compared to the Nikon D80 and Canon 30D. It has a non-weatherproof plastic construction (it’s worst feature, for me), but it has plenty of external controls (18+1 dial, compared to my E-1′s 21+2) and even comes with a pop-up flash. (Nifty.) It has a 10mp sensor, a moving-sensor image stabilizer, and a useable iso1600. Oh yeah — and Live View.
The IS system really does work. The photo of my neighbouring construction site was taken during a storm a few days ago, and shows the steel studs that had been torn loose by the high winds. It’s taken at 1/30s and a 200mm effective focal length. This was using my 5-pound lens that I was able to carefully hand-hold at 1/125 when I was photographing a concert, so it’s a good two-stop advantage. Given that I’ve gone from bracing against a wall at 1/125 to bracing against the wind at 1/30s, I have no complaints.
I have to apologize for a strikingly unimpressive pair of photos, but I was able to take this at a local street fair today. The camera was over my head, and I framed this shot on the LCD. Wedding Shooter, given how much better the Canon you have on order is supposed to be, you are going to love this.
Just for fun, I tried some high-iso photography. I’ve never been afraid of noise, and I’ll even emphasize it in many of my photos. My recent experience with my E-1 at iso1600, when I needed to be able to sell the resulting prints, finally convinced me to buy some noise-reduction software. The results were usable, but not great. Here’s a 100% crop from a jpeg with my E-510 at iso1600 with no PP noise reduction at all. (And it is a colour photo.)
So, I have a 10-megapixel image-stabalized camera that can work at iso1600. Naturally, I spend most of my time in broad daylight. Here are a few more images from the past week.
June 11th, 2007
From cave paintings to camera phones
ZDNet
In his recent Guardian column, Nick Carr opines on the newest leisure time activity–the self-recording of one’s daily life. “Today, we seem to be operating under a new and very different dictum: the unrecorded life is not worth living,†Nick writes.
He traces the phenomenon from painting on cave walls to cheap camcorders and now camera phones, and cites Gordon Bell’s MyLifeBits project and Twitter as latter-day examples.. He could add Justin.tv to the bunch.
In his summation, Nick offers some possible explanations for self-recording as expression obsession:
What exactly is behind our rage to document the minutiae of our daily existence? That’s hard to say. Maybe it’s just another manifestation of modern-day narcissism. Maybe it’s a byproduct of our media-saturated culture, with its sense that nothing’s real until it’s been recorded and broadcast. Or maybe it goes deeper than that. In striving to preserve the moments of our lives, to immortalise them, might we simply be expressing our fear of death?
Adding to Nick’s possible explanations, the self-recording obsession may be more a case of initial rapture with the increasingly capable digital, multimedia tools and the Internet, which allow anyone to become an instant publisher. After a while, the urge to purge oneself online and point the camera toward human activity in public or private wears off. You first get your HD video camera or 10-megapixel still camera and take it everywhere, recording with unbridled enthusiasm. Then the initial fascination wears off and the camera gathers dust.
However, the more casual digital recording culture, people depositing the breadcrumbs of their daily lives, will continue to evolve, adding exabytes of data to the cloud. Camera phones will deliver high-quality video and still photos, with immediate upload and delivery across the Internet. And, ’security’ cameras are going to be everywhere, strategically located to record our public lives whether like it or not.
Cave paintings drawn more than 30,000 years ago rarely had human forms, and are composed of mostly wild animals, perhaps depicting hunting and gathering scenes. Today we shop in supermarkets for food, and spend more of our time focused on ourselves as subject and object. As Nick concludes in his column, “We’re so busy recording our lives that we have little time left to examine them. And perhaps that, more than anything else, is the real point.â€
June 11th, 2007
For women, gadgets go beyond ‘cute’ and ‘pink’
Financial Express, India
Nancy Duarte professes no affection or affinity for consumer electronics. Despite being a founder of a presentation technology company in Silicon Valley, she does not go gaga for gigabytes. “I’m not typically wired and connected,†Duarte said without apology. “I don’t have a belt with all things electronic hanging off of it. I’m not a BlackBerry smitten person.â€
There was a time when the marketers of electronic gear might have just chalked that up as a woman thing and ignored her. But times are changing.
Eight months ago, Duarte, the 44-year-old chief executive of Duarte Design, bought an Apple MacBook. Soon she discovered just how useful her digital camera became when it conversed with her Mac’s iPhoto software, spilling her pictures on to the laptop’s screen with a single touch. A short time later, she said, she was making homemade DVDs with slideshows and videos, and beginning to notice that various manufacturers “make really cute bags now to carry around your laptop.â€
In short, Duarte fell for high-tech gadgets. Her basic feelings about consumer technology did not change. What changed was the design of the products. They were easy to use, and that appealed to her.
“Women are busier than men,†she said. “I don’t love technology enough to sit down and spend two hours with a manual like it’s some great puzzle. Men get great gratification out of that. I’d rather read a book.â€
Duarte represents a growing number of women who are embracing consumer electronics just as the technologies are reaching out to embrace them. Behind this quiet revolution are engineers and designers who are bringing a more feminine sensibility to products historically shaped by masculine tastes, habits and requirements.
Only a few years ago, feminising a consumer electronic product meant little more than creating a pink or pastel version of the same black or silvery item coveted by men. And, some retailers note, that kind of marketing still goes on. But feminising technology is more about a product’s fundamentals, often expressed in its ease of use. It is not always aimed exclusively at women, but it is female friendly. Shoppers see it throughout the electronics store, from increasingly popular digital picture frames to flat-panel televisions, designed with speakers on the top or bottom instead of the sides, to fit into the cabinets and armoires that once housed smaller-screened traditional models.
Marketers are taking notice. Women bought slightly more than half the digital cameras in the first four months of this year, compared with 48% a year ago, according to the NPD Group, a market analysis firm.There are more subtle touches, too, like the wider spacing of the keys on a new Sony ultraportable computer notebook that goes on sale next week. It accommodates the longer fingernails that women tend to have. Some of the latest cellphones made by LG Electronics have the cameras’ automatic focus calibrated to arms’ length. The company observed that young women are fond of taking pictures of themselves with a friend. Men, not so much.
Nikon and Olympus recently introduced lines of lighter, more compact and easy-to-use digital single-lens-reflex cameras that were designed with women in mind because they tend to be a family’s primary keeper of memories. The new camera is smaller than the old version and can be easily carried around the neck or slipped into a handbag. Camera makers wanted to reach the female market with digital SLR cameras because they carry a higher profit margin than the point-and-shoot models.
—NY Times / Michel Marriott
June 11th, 2007
Sony India Launches New High Definition Handycam, Cyber-shot Models
IT News Online Staff
2007-06-10
Sony India has launched its new High Definition (HD) Handycam and Cyber-shot models. The company said its seven new models embody the best of the rapidly advancing HD technology with revolutionary designs.
“As HD becomes more pervasive in Asian households, it is only natural to want to view all of your content, including photos, in High Definition. HD lets you see a whole lot more, razor sharp reproductions with the minutest of details, all in crystal clear quality.
While others profess to provide you with HD quality, only Sony delivers the complete HD experience, seamlessly and easily,” said Masaru Tamagawa, Managing Director, Sony India Pvt. Ltd.
“We are confident that our new products support a shift in customer behavior, from viewing digital photos on a PC to having a full entertainment experience in the living room. To simply put it, since we are the leaders in HD, and the future is HD, the future belongs to Sony,” said Tamagawa.
Adding to its Handycam range, Sony has unveiled four new stylish HD camcorders – the HDR-CX7K (Memory Stick format), the HDR-HC5 (DV tape format), the HDR-UX5 (DVD format) and HDR-SR5 (hard disk). Each of these camcorders offers Sony’s ClearVid CMOS sensor and Enhanced Imaging Processor that allows both high quality videos and still images to be captured as well as extensive 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound capabilities. The camcorders incorporate innovative consumer driven design elements to improve the user experience, including 4 MP cameras, 2.7″ Wide Clear Photo LCD Plus, external navigation keys for ease of use and compact size, which enhance both the experience and appearance of these camcorders.
Sony’s three new Cyber-shot digital cameras – DSC-W200, DSC-T100 and DSC-H9, feature a HD component output. These new cameras offer simple and direct connection to an HDTV set so you can easily integrate full 1080 HD photo viewing into your home theater. Packed with Double Anti Blur solution and Bionz high-speed processing engine, these digital still cameras compensate for shaky hands, minimize blur to preserving images in bright highlights and more detail, for great results even in difficult lighting conditions. All models sport Carl Zeiss 3x optical zoom lenses and traditional, eye-level viewfinders, wrapped in sleek metal bodies. It’s easy to connect the Cyber-shot cameras with your HDTV. Just dock your digital camera in the Cyber-shot cradle and watch your memories unfold in HD in the comfort of your living room.
Sachin Rai, Product Head, Digital Imaging, Sony India Pvt. Ltd., said, “There’s a generation of style-conscious, tech-savvy people who want the brands and products in their lives to reflect who they are and we are committed to developing these distinctive products for our customers. We believe that our new Video and Digital Still camera range completely embodies everything that today’s consumers are seeking in terms of unique design and flawless performance.”
Sony HD Handycam series:
HDR-CX7K: The lightest and smallest HD AVCHD camcorder on the market, the HDR-CX7K is the first Memory Stick capable Handycam camcorder that records HD videos and captures still images at up to 6.1 MP. Featuring a 3.2 MP ClearVid CMOS Sensor, 10X optical zoom and 20x digital zoom, the HDR-CX7 also has 2.7-inch Clear Photo LCD Plus display, HDMI output and a built-in 5.1 channel microphone.
HDR-UX5 : Featuring the x.v.Color technology, the HDR-UX5 model delivers a powerful HD punch with its 2 MP ClearVid CMOS sensor that can also produce 4 MP digital still photos. It has also 10x of optical zoom and 80x of digital zoom for video recording. The HDR-UX5 has a 3.5″ display, 5.1 channel audio and uses 8 cm DVD as storage media that supports DVD-R/DVD+R DL/DVD-RW/DVD+RW.
HDR-SR5 : The Sony HDR-SR5 AVCHD HD camcorder has a 40 GB hard drive, which can store more than 15 hours of footage (LP modes) and also offers HDD Smart Protection for safeguarding against data loss as well as easy connection to PCs via USB. Equipped with a 2.7-inch Clear Photo LCD Plus it also features a 2 MP sensor for full HD 1080 video and produces a 4 MP photo. Sony’s x.v.Color technology, built-in Dolby Digital 5.1 channel surround sound recording, Super SteadyShot optical image stabilization are other useful features.
HDR-HC5 : Capture HD and Standard Definition (SD) video to a MiniDV cassette with the HDR-HC5 High Definition camcorder. Record every detail of every moment with the 10x optical/80x digital zoom and Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* Lens. It captures still images at 4 MP and lets users snap 2.3 MP photos while filming in dual record mode.
Sony HD Cyber-shot series:
DSC-W200: The DSC-W200 combines the detail of 12.1 MP resolution with high sensitivity for shooting without a flash even in very lowlight. The Super SteadyShot image stabilization keeps blur to a minimum, and advanced high-tech features like Face Detection, D-range optimization, and in-camera retouching and red-eye reduction help bring out the best in every shot you take. For shooting and sharing on location, there’s a large 2.5″ LCD screen that makes viewing exceptionally easy.
DSC-T100: The 8.1 MP DSC-T100 camera is a showstopper with its Carl Zeiss 5x optical zoom lens and 3-inch LCD screen. Armed with Sony’s Super SteadyShot optical image stabilization and high light sensitivity (up to ISO 3200), you can also shoot sharp, clear photos. Powered by the Bionz processing engine that helps extends battery life, the DSC-T100 on a full charge, takes up to 380 shots. Red-eye correction and dynamic range optimization to adjust under- or over-exposed areas can be performed without having to make a lot of adjustments to the camera. Photos can be retouched and enlivened on the spot with up to four filter selections, such as the fish-eye filter for an amusing fishbowl effect.
DSC-H9: Debuting Sony’s new advanced sports shooting mode, new 8.1 MP DSC-H9 combines high shutter speed shooting and intelligent continuous auto-focusing with the Carl Zeiss 15x optical zoom lenses for up-close shots. Designed to appeal to all, the camera is powered by the Bionz processing engine and Sony’s new face detection technology, that automatically adjust focus and exposure for color-rich, detailed pictures. The 3-inch, flip-up LCD screen enables uses to shoot comfortably from nearly any position.
All products will be available at select Sony stores across the country at the following prices :
Cyber-shot
DSC – W200: Rs. 24,990
DSC – T100: Rs. 24,990
DSC – H9: Rs. 29,990
Handycam
HDR – CX7K: Arriving soon
HDR – SR5: Arriving soon
HDR – UX5: Rs. 59,990
HDR – HC5: Rs. 69,990
June 11th, 2007