Oh! Gizmo

By Luke Anderson

I envy kids today, as they get much cooler toys than we did. Sure, my Nerf guns and Laser Tag games were cool and all, but even those have been upgraded with the latest technology. If kids want to pretend that they are spies, they’ve really got it made. Just check out these working night vision goggles from Jakks Pacific.

Most toys that claim to be night vision really just have some sort of crappy flashlight attached to a helmet, but not the EyeClops Night Vision. It utilizes an infrared imager and LCD monocle which will let you navigate (and spy) in even the darkest of environments. If you’re wanting to photograph some evidence, they even make an EyeClops BioniCam which is the same thing, only with a digital camera instead of a headset. Each will retail for $80 when they hit stores this fall.

[ Jakks Pacific ] VIA [ Crave ]

By Andrew Liszewski

It might look like another boring candybar-style cellphone, but the DV300T from Mustek is actually a compact digital video camera. While the 2-inch LCD screen is not as convenient as the pop-out swivel screens on other tapeless video cameras, the DV300T seems to be going for a slim design over everything else.

It includes a standard VGA CMOS sensor which is fine for capturing near-NTSC or PAL quality video, but for still photos the images are actually interpolated to a resolution of about 3.1 megapixels, which isn’t exactly ideal. Since the lens is fixed, you have to rely on an 8x digital zoom for getting in closer to the action, but the DV300T at least includes some level of digital image stabilization to help improve your footage. On-board you’ll only find about 64MB of memory, but it will accept SD cards allowing you to considerably expand the amount of storage. Of course Mustek has also thrown in voice recording, MP3 and even eBook functionality, but what doesn’t have those these days?

Unfortunately I can’t find any pricing info for the DV300T, but given the basic VGA sensor and the paltry amount of on-board memory, I can’t imagine it will be that expensive.

[ Mustek DV300T Digital Video Camera ]

By Ian Chiu

The LifeCam VX-7000 USB webcam is part of the promotional effort by MS’ hardware peripheral department to increase consumers’ awareness of their Windows Live! services. The camera itself isn’t any groundbreaking; you won’t find any motorized base nor auto focus, even though the latter of which is becoming the de facto feature on high-end webcams. The most notable improvement is perhaps the glass element lens for better image quality. Hardware-wise, the VX-7000 hasn’t quite caught up with Logitech and even Creative yet.

However, the VX-7000’s software acts as the heart of the fully integrated Windows Live system, coordinating between the webcam, Windows Messenger, Windows Media Player, Windows Live Spaces, and Windows Movie Maker for a complete Microsoft communications package. In real terms, this system means that you can use your webcam to not only video conference with your Windows Messenger-using friends and colleagues, but also record podcasts and video podcasts and upload them to Microsoft’s social networking site to share with others. And this pretty much covers most aspects of the software.

For the full review, hit the link after the video effect demo below.

While I thought Microsoft did a good job constructing a desktop-friendly camera that fits well on any LCD and handles video conferencing and smaller size video podcasts without any problems, I was disappointed to find that the camera’s high definition options were usable only with a sacrifice in quality. As a result, while this camera is a good option for someone looking to make video call or lower resolution podcasts, there are other cameras out there that will accomplish the same task for less money.

[MS LifeCam VX-7000 USB Webcam @ Everything USB]

By Evan Ackerman

This monster of a camera, brought to you by Seitz Phototechnik, has a you’ve got to be kidding me resolution of 160 megapixels in a 60mm x 170mm frame. That works out to 7,500 pixels vertically and 21,250 pixels horizontally. The image (each one is 900 megs at full res) is recorded directly onto a tablet PC (sold separately) in 48 bit color depth. Thankfully, the camera takes standardized large format lenses, since spending nearly $45,000 on one of these things doesn’t leave me much extra money for glass. The downside of this camera (besides the 10lb weight, the 18in width, the price, and the fact that it requires a PC to work) is that it works like a scanner, which is why it’s so, um, cheap. Rather than using a 160 megapixel sensor of some kind, the camera back uses a linear sensor that scans across the field of view when the shutter is open. The camera can still somehow achieve a shutter speed of 1/2000 at low resolution, but for a true 160 megapixel image, the minimum shutter speed is a whopping 1 second.

Now, why the heck am I complaining about 160 megapixels not being enough? Just for the sake of having something to complain about, for one, but what I’m referring to is digital vs. photographic film. Medium format photographic film is the equivalent of about 100 megapixels, but for high quality large format images, you’re looking at about 500 (!) megapixels. We’re getting closer, but we’re not quite there yet, especially at a shutter speed of 1 second. Still, I have to say, the 10 megapixel images that come out of my Nikon D40x, while 16 times smaller, are still plenty satisfying for a casual shutterbug like myself. 160 megapixels? Bah, humbug.

[ Seitz ] VIA [ Gearfuse ]

By Andrew Liszewski

For just $14.77 you can turn the crappy digital camera on your iPhone into a crappy digital camera with 6×18 zoom. This lens attachment from Conice includes a clear plastic housing for the iPhone itself, which also serves as a mounting bracket for the lens over the phone’s camera. That way you can easily attach and remove the lens as needed.

Something tells me if your budget allows for an iPhone, you can probably afford a small P&S digital camera as well. Not only will it take far better shots, but it should also include a tripod mount on the bottom, since a zoom lens will amplify any motion in the camera, resulting in blurred shots if you don’t keep it steady. And those hoping to just rely on the iPhone’s camera should also be aware that this lens and its case nearly double the weight of the phone.

[ Conice 6x18 Zoom Attachment for iPhone ] VIA [ technabob ]

By Luke Anderson

Geotagging pictures has become popular of late. Basically the idea is to tag your photos with information regarding the location that they were taken. This seems to be used a lot by people that do a large amount of traveling, and wish to remember exactly where each picture was taken. If you’re one of those people, but doesn’t want to hassle with going through all of your pics and manually adding tags (and trying to remember where each was taken) this little gadget might be of interest.

This little gizmo is basically a GPS receiver and card reader bundled into one. It keeps track of everywhere you’ve traveled via the GPS signal and logs exactly what time you were at each location. All you have to do is carry it with you when you’re out snapping pics. When you’re done at the end of the day, just pop in your SD card (or use it with a USB card reader if you don’t use an SD card) and it will automatically assign a geotag based on the time each photo was taken.

I’m sure that there will be a market for this device when it hits stores in the next couple of weeks. It’ll set you back $99, which seems pretty reasonable for all the hassle it will save you.

[ Photofinder ] VIA [ Crave ]

By Luke Anderson

What’s this, two crazy Brando products in one day? Sorry, this one was just too good to pass up. Picture this, (no pun intended) you’re stranded out in the middle of nowhere (or somewhere for that matter) and you need to snap off a couple pictures of something way over there. The only problem is that you’re stuck with your crappy little camera in your phone, and you can’t walk all the way over there. Well if you had a telescopic lens for your phone, you’d be all set.

That’s right, Brando has created a zoom lens especially for the MOTO RAZR and KRZR. I think it would be a bit of a hassle to carry this little guy around everywhere, but I guess it wouldn’t be too bad to toss in your wife’s (or if you’re a girl, your own) purse and forget about it until the need arises. While it doesn’t seem all that practical, it’ll only set you back 19 bucks.

[ Brando ] VIA [ GeekSugar ]

By Luke Anderson

How many times have you been out somewhere and decided to snap a picture, but you wanted to be in it and no one was around to hold the camera? At this point you have to find somewhere to set the camera, someplace that will be the correct height and sit at the perfect angle to get your shot. Sure, you could walk around everywhere with a tripod, but then you look like a tool.

Here’s a camera stand (I’d call it a tripod, but it really has to have three legs to earn that title) that wouldn’t be so bad to carry around. It folds up quite small, and can even attach to your keychain. When you unfold it, you find that it will adjust to direct your lens at just the right angle to snap that awesome picture. The only downside to this little gadget is that it doesn’t appear to be available outside of France.

[ Manfrotto ] VIA [ technabob ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Compact flash cards are slowly but surely being pushed out of the digital camera market by SD cards, but there are still plenty of cameras, particularly digital SLRs, that rely on the older format. So companies like RIDATA haven’t given up on CF just yet, and to prove it they’ve just introduced an updated version they call the SMART compact flash card.

As far as I can tell what makes these cards ‘SMART’ is a new internal data monitoring system that works to ensure you never experience any data loss. While having 16GB of storage in your camera is great, it’s not a pleasant feeling when something happens to the only card you’ve been shooting with the past few days. And besides extra data monitoring, the cards also include embedded error correction code (ECC) that supports “two random bits of a sector on-the-fly ECC corrections.” I’ll assume that’s a good thing.

The new cards even offer longer reliability, with a Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) of 5,000,000 powered-on hours, and 100,000 times of program/erase cycles. The SMART CF cards will be available in two series, a Supreme 150X version with a capacity of up to 8GB, and a Lightning version with a capacity of up 16GB.

[ RIDATA SMART Compact Flash Cards ] VIA [ Digital Photography Review ]