Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

With a resolution of just 640×480 I don’t think Vivitar’s new DVR 510 has what it takes to dethrone the almighty Flip, but it does have a few unique features that will make it stand out in an already crowded market. It’s waterproof up to a depth of 5 meters thanks to what appears to be a sealed housing that they’re incorrectly using in that product shot (isn’t the DVR 510 inserted backwards?) and it’s got basic night vision too making it actually usable in the dark.

The 2GB of built-in storage isn’t much, though more than enough when you’re only capturing VGA resolution footage, but that’s expandable thanks to an SD card slot. It’s also got a 1.8-inch LCD screen, TV-out, a sliding USB connector and is available now for just $49.99.

[ Vivitar DVR 510 ] VIA [ Chip Chick ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Geotagging is nothing new, and the required hardware is finding itself into more and more cameras. After all, who wouldn’t like to know exactly where their pictures were taken? Well if your camera doesn’t have a built-in GPS device, it’s rather difficult to acquire the exact location of your shot. Thankfully devices such as the JOBO photoGPS exist.

The JOBO photoGPS sits atop your DSLR in the hot-shoe, and captures raw GPS data whenever you snap a photo. Later, when you download your pictures to a computer, you can also download the GPS data. The included software will then use the information it previously gathered and geotag your pictures. It can even add in information such as city, street POIs and more. $159 is a bit pricey, but also looks to be one of the easier geotagging solutions for existing cameras.

[ JOBO ] VIA [ GizMag ]

By David Ponce

You see what all the cool kids are doing these days? Getting drunk and taking regrettable pictures of themselves is what. And Samsung just made the task a little easier with the release of the TL225 and TL220, both of which feature a smaller LCD in front for those times you got no one but yourself to hold the cameras. That’s really the only innovative feature here, although the other specs and features are pretty decent too.

For instance, to turn the camera on you simply touch the LCD at the back, and to delete pictures you swipe an X over them during playback (you have to confirm, so no accidents). There a 3.5 inch LCD for the TL225, and 3.0 for the TL 220. Along with that, you’re looking at a 12.2-megapixel resolution, HDMI output and 4.6x optical zoom, though the lower priced TL 220 loses the HDMI output.

Prices are $350 for TL225 and $250 for TL220.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Dvice ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Ouch! So Akihabara News had a chance to try out Fujifilm’s new 3D capable digital camera, and saying they walked away disappointed is a bit of an understatement. Now the actual design of the camera and build quality were OK, but after that things just go downhill. The terrible UI apparently hearkens back to the good old days of 1999, and just changing something like the ISO settings required a trip through the user manual.

But the worst part was actually using the camera in 3D mode, which according to them will require a bottle of aspirin in your camera bag since the 3D viewfinder induces a terrible migraine headache after just a few minutes use. And viewing your 3D photos? Well the camera captures 3D images in a .MPO file which as far as they know is only supported by Fujifilm’s 3D digital photo frame. It does however capture JPEGs at the same time allowing you to view them on your PC, but image quality is another aspect where the camera is severely lacking. So the moral of this story? Avoid this camera at all costs.

[ Akihabara News - Fujifilm W1 3D Camera… Just the worst ever Camera made on Earth, the Review ]

By Andrew Liszewski

While the term ‘Exmor R’ is nothing more than a new PR catchphrase for Sony to toss around, the technology behind the sensors in their new Cybershot DSC-TX1 and DSC-WX1 is kind of interesting. Traditionally, compact P&S digital cameras are not known for their fantastic low-light performance. The smaller optics means there’s less light hitting the larger and larger sensors, which leads to noisy photos. I mean there’s a reason professional photographers will drop thousands of dollars on a gigantic ‘fast’ lens. But the ‘Exmor R’ technology supposedly results in a sensor with twice the light sensitivity of a traditional sensor since the various elements like wires and circuitry which usually hinder the photo-diodes from gathering light have been effectively moved out of the way.

And further improving the camera’s low-light performance are the hand-held twilight and anti-motion blur multishot modes which basically use exposure bracketing and in-camera HDRI techniques to automatically combine multiple shots with varying exposures to produce a final result with more detail and less noise. As for other specs, both cameras feature a 10.2 mega-pixel sensor and while the thinner TX-1 includes a 3-inch touch screen LCD on the back, the larger WX-1 benefits from a wider angle Sony G lens instead. $380 for the DSC-TX1 and $350 for the DSC-WX1 and both should be available come October.

[ PR - SONY DEBUTS WORLD’S FIRST DIGITAL STILL CAMERAS WITH BACK-ILLUMINATED “EXMOR R” CMOS SENSOR TECHNOLOGY ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

By David Ponce

Most photographers will tell you: regular camera flashes are horrible. They tend to reflect off people’s skin amd create unwanted white spots, they give you red eyes in some pictures and they also blind you. NYU researchers have developed a way around this by creating a flash that uses light that is outside the visible spectrum, thus invisible to us.

It works like this: first the camera takes a picture with IR and UV light which produces a monochrome image. In quick succession a second image is taken without any flash, using only ambient lighting. Typically this will result in a dim, noisy, grainy image. The magic happens when the software combines both images using the first monochrome picture as a reference point to de-noise the image with natural colors. Once combined, the result is nearly indistinguishable from a long-exposure shot.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Andrew Liszewski

When you want to see what’s going on in your neighbor’s apartment you can simply get yourself a nice telescope or a high-quality pair of binoculars. But what if you want to record those ‘moments’ without having to spend thousands of dollars on a high-end video-capable DSLR with a nice telephoto lens, you can go with Chinavasion’s far more affordable Avatar digital camera instead. (~$128)

The most obvious feature is its 21x zoom telephoto lens which is hopefully removable, otherwise you’re going to have a heck of a time finding a camera case for it. And besides capturing stunning 2MP photos, the Avatar can also capture 640×480 videos at a PAL-friendly framerate of 25fps. Media can be stored on the 1GB of internal storage, but a microSD slot is also included making the thing actually usable. And like pretty much every single device with an LCD display that Chinavasion sells, the Avatar can be used as a media player supporting everything from Divx movies to MP3s to even .TXT eBooks.

[ Avatar Digital Binocular And Spy Camera ] VIA [ The Red Ferret Journal ]

By Evan Ackerman

I’ve got portable chargers for my cell phone, portable chargers for my iPod, portable chargers for my little video recorder, portable chargers for my AA batteries… The only thing I don’t have a portable charger for (besides my laptop) is my DSLR, because it takes those annoyingly square 7.4 volt battery packs that require their own special charger. Energizer is about to solve this problem with a little clip that has teeth to attach to the contacts of battery packs of any size. The other end can be plugged into a USB port, and if I may say, props to Energizer for not making it some kind of proprietary plug.

Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure that you can’t charge a 7.4 volt DSLR battery out of a 5 volt USB port, which means that you’ll have to instead use one of Energizer’s new line of XPAL universal power packs (out next month) that come with 8.4 volt outputs. Nothing wrong with that, though… The battery packs looks pretty useful, and some of them even come with solar chargers. We should be seeing a review unit sometime in the near future, and we’ll keep you updated.

[ Energizer XPAL Power ] VIA [ Gearlog ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Most of you probably still remember what a Polaroid camera was, but I suspect that many of today’s tweens and even teens probably don’t. With the rise of the digital camera, Polaroids quickly faded into nonexistence. Strangely enough there actually hasn’t been anything that really takes its place, at least when producing near-instant pictures from the camera itself. Sure, you can buy a portable printer for peanuts these days, but it still isn’t quite the same. Well guess what folks, the Polaroid instant camera  is back, and updated for the digital age.

It seems only fitting that Polaroid be the company that rolls out a digital camera that can print instant pictures. The new Polaroid PoGo combines the best of the new and old. On one hand, it’s a regular digital camera with all of the usual benefits like an LCD screen and the ability to perform quick edits. Once you’re happy with the shot, just press a button and in 40 seconds you have yourself a 2”x3” picture to hand off to someone. The special paper is called Zink (short for Zero Ink) and is touted as “smudge-proof, water-resistant, fade-resistant and tear-proof.” You can pick up the camera for around $200, while the Zink paper can be bought in packs of 30 for $13.

[ Amazon ] VIA [ Technabob ]