By Andrew Liszewski

Believe it or not, HDR techniques weren’t originally developed to produce gaudy monstrosities like you’ll find in this well known Flickr pool. They can actually be used to produce an overall well-exposed image when the lighting conditions at the time of the photo being taken weren’t ideal. And that’s exactly what the ‘HDR Image Enhancement Technology’ in Ben-Q’s new E1260 P&S digital camera does.

Now given the average P&S user probably doesn’t have the best camera technique (ie holding it perfectly steady) I’m going to assume the E1260 doesn’t use an exposure bracketing technique, but instead does an internal processing of the RAW data from the sensor to produce a well-exposed image from a shot with high contrast lighting. Other features include a 12MP sensor, 720P ‘HD’ video recording (the site seems to indicate it’s actually 640×480 interpolated) a 28mm wide-angle lens with 4X optical zoom, a 2.7-inch LCD display and a G-sensor that will automatically rotate images or allow you to shake the camera to advance through a slideshow. Available sometime in May, pricing currently unknown.

[ Ben-Q E1260 ] VIA [ GadgetReview ]

By Evan Ackerman

The Eye-Fi Pro X2, which debuted at the beginning of this year, offers “endless memory” by deleting pictures off of itself after wirelessly uploading them to your computer and/or online photo storage service using built-in 802.11n WiFi. Not unexpectedly, such a useful feature isn’t cheap, with the 8 gig Eye-Fi Pro X2 costing a staggering $150.

Eye-Fi has just released two more SD cards in the X2 series with the endless memory feature, the Eye-Fi Connect X2 and the Eye-Fi Explore X2. The Connect X2 holds 4 gigs of stuff (not like it matters that much with the endless memory), while the Explore X2 is 8 gigs and includes lifetime geotagging of dubious quality and a year of hotspot WiFi access. The best news is that the Connect X2 is only $50, which is way more than a regular 4 gig SD card but way less than the $150 Pro X2 or even the Explore X2, which costs $100. If you don’t have an Eye-Fi card yet, the Connect X2 is definitely the one to get. If you’re looking for justification to upgrade to the Explore X2, if you travel a lot, Eye-Fi would also like you to know that their WiFi hotspots now include Starbucks and BP gas stations.

Incidentally, at CES Eye-Fi told me that the card’s ability to delete pictures off of itself is a hardware thing, not a software thing, so it’s not something that they can add to older cards with a firmware update or something like that. Sad, but sometimes, that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

You can find Eye-Fi cards at Best Buy, Amazon.com, Adorama, and B&H among other places.

[ Eye-Fi ]

By Andrew Liszewski

With a price tag of around $118,000 you probably won’t want to use the Phantom HD GOLD high-speed digital video camera for capturing your child’s first steps, but on the other hand, it could make for a baby video that your friends and family might actually want to watch. The camera has a max resolution of 2048×2048 pixels, and it can capture about 555 frames per second at that setting. And as you decrease the resolution the fps capabilities obviously increase, all the way down to a 16×8 pixel icon which can be captured at 100,000 fps.

It comes with 32GB of onboard storage, though if you’re capturing at 2K resolutions you’ll probably want to add a couple of the swappable Phantom CineMags which expand that storage by 256GB or 512GB at a time. And if you’re planning to use the camera as a more affordable alternative to film for that indie flick you’ve been planning, the Phantom HD GOLD can will give you 35mm depth of field in either 2K or HD resolutions, and comes with a PL lens mount, though other lens mount options are available.

[ Phantom HD GOLD ] VIA [ Uncrate ]

By Andrew Liszewski

The need for a construction-site-friendly MP3 player is still questionable in my opinion, but Ryobi’s new Durashot digital camera, also from their TEK4 Electronic Tools line, makes a bit more sense. It’s an 8MP behemoth that will dwarf your average P&S camera, but the fact that it’s impact resistant and dust & water proof means it should be able to survive the daily rigors of life on a construction site.

The 3X optical zoom lens has what looks like a sturdy metal sheath, so it’s never exposed to the elements, and won’t get damaged if the camera is dropped while it’s extended. All of the function buttons, including the shutter, are large and easy to operate, even while wearing work gloves, and I’m going to assume the 2.5 inch LCD display is as protected as the rest of the camera is. It’s also got a voice memo feature for attaching a verbal description to any photo, and the ability to capture 640×480 video at 30fps to really get your point across, and is available from Home Depot for $199.

[ Ryobi TEK4 Durashot Digital Camera ] VIA [ Meandering Mind ]

By Gaurav Kheterpal

Rumors suggest that Canon is leaving no stone unturned for a February launch for its EOS 60D DSLR and the Canon 550D/600D. No doubt that Canon has been feeling the heat of the competition from Sony with its point-and-shoots waterproof cameras and Nikon with its swivel-screen displays.

The Canon 60D may inherit 50D’s metallic body and 15.1 MP resolution but it’s likely to have an improved sensor and offer low-light sensitivity. The new Rebel would be of a smaller size than the existing Rebel T1i and would be capable of at least 720p30 video.

Watch out for Canon’s possible announcements at PMA Photography Expo on 20th February, 2010 for more.

[ Canon ] VIA [ TFTS ]

By Evan Ackerman

This looks, at first glance, like an incredibly useful charging accessory: it plugs into a USB port and has adjustable teeth to charge any of those blocky, unfriendly, proprietary custom camera batteries. Any maybe it still is an incredibly useful charging accessory… But when we wrote about it last July, we were hoping that it would come along with some of Energizer’s universal power packs. Why? Because the 5 volts that comes out of your USB port isn’t enough juice to charge DSLR batteries, which generally need something like 7.4 volts.

It doesn’t look like that’s how it’s going to go down, since Brando is selling this, not Energizer. Oh well.

If you have one of those wimpy cameras that takes 3.7 volts or whatever (not that you should be ashamed of that), this accessory could certainly come in handy, since in addition to being able to charge many different kinds of batteries from a USB port, it’ll also work with all of those portable USB charger gadgets out there. At only $12, it’s a pretty good deal, just not as good of a deal as it could have been.

[ Brando ] VIA [ RFJ ]

By Evan Ackerman

I’m not quite sure how they do it, but Eye-Fi manages to keep on cramming feature after useful into their wireless memory cards. This time around, they’re introducing a new tier of card (above Pro), the Pro X2. It costs $150, but at least read about what it does before you scoff at the price… The X2 is an 8 gig SDHC card with a built-in 802.11n antenna. N! N means faster uploads at greater distances, so that’s definitely good. And more storage is good too. But the most useful feature of the X2 is the option to have the card delete pictures after it uploads them, giving you an infinite amount of memory (provided you’re near some source of WiFi) while sharing and backing up your pictures real time. The card won’t delete anything until it’s confirmed that the upload was successful, but hypothetically, you can just stop worrying about whether or not you’re running out of space when taking pictures (or videos).

The X2 also comes with all the rest of the awesome Eye-Fi features, like RAW support, geotagging, ad-hoc WiFi connections, and Wayport WiFi access. Unfortunately, from what I can tell from the press release, the infinite memory option will be available on the new X2 cards only. This is a bit of a disappointment, since previous useful firmware upgrades were made available to all of the cards. But, I guess it’s probably somewhat unrealistic to expect to keep getting free goodies, and for you heavy shooters, the additional SDHC space and the potential for never having to worry about space again may make the X2 a worthwhile upgrade.

Look for the Eye-Fi X2 on Amazon and the Eye-Fi website.

[ Eye-Fi ]

By Evan Ackerman

We’re all big fans of Eye-Fi cards, and rightly so: these SD cards include a wireless antenna that automatically sends pictures you take to your computer and to any number of photo sharing sites over your wireless network (read our reviews here and here). Our biggest quibble with the Eye-Fi cards is that they’re really freakin’ expensive compared to other SD cards, but today Sellout.Woot has a 2 gig Eye-Fi Explore for $45 shipped. The Explore version is an upgrade that includes a kinda crappy but still functional geotagging service plus one year of hotspot uploads. Yeah, 2 gigs isn’t that much storage, but remember that the whole point of this thing is that it’s uploading pictures for you, letting you free up space on your card while backing up your pics and the same time. Awesome gadget, good price.

[ Sellout.Woot ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Clearly targeted at consumers who are living a more extreme lifestyle than I do, the new Casio EX-G1 features a shock-resistant shell allowing it to survive drops from as high as 7 feet, or being submerged up to 10 feet underwater for as long as an hour. The waterproof seal also keeps out dust, and the camera is rated to survive temperatures as cold as -10 °C, which isn’t actually that cold, though it is below freezing.

As for tech specs, the EX-G1 features a 12.1MP sensor that’s also able to capture 30fps AVI videos at 848×480, 3X optical zoom using an internal mechanism so the lens doesn’t actually extend from the body, and all the other features you’d expect to find on a reasonably equipped P&S digital camera these days. The choice to use microSDHC and microSD memory cards is a bit odd, though I imagine it helps keep the camera compact.

The Casio EX-G1 should be hitting shelves sometime in December of this year in black or red for $299.99.

[ PR - Casio Releases World's Slimmest Shock-Resistant Digital Camera ] VIA [ Ubergizmo ]