Digital Cameras Reviews

Archive for January, 2009

As you’re no doubt aware, Japan is a country where the twelve hour workday is pretty well standard, the population is aging faster than any other in the world, and the economy is all “recessionized” — not the most auspicious circumstances for makin’ babies. With a national birthrate of just 1.34, the populace is in danger of disappearing — but don’t fear! Canon has a plan. The company is encouraging its employees to leave work at 5:30 PM twice a week, hoping that a couple shameless early-off days will relieve some stress and encourage folks to use their time, well, productively. In other news, we have it from a reliable source that Bad Company album sales are at an all time high in Tokyo.

Continue reading Canon gives its workers time out — for love

Filed under: Digital Cameras, Misc. Gadgets

Canon gives its workers time out — for love originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’re just now starting to come to grips with the fact that Canon’s utterly succulent EOS 5D Mark II is just way, way out of reach, here’s a little something to lessen the impact of your inferiority complex. An enterprising young buck with a passion to bring video capture abilities to other EOS cameras figured out a way to enable that very capability on all Liveview EOS DSLRs. Of course, there’s still the whole “manual focus” requirement — which means that the bulk of your captures will be way out of focus — but it’s a new feature for your existing camera nonetheless. Now that the cat’s out of the bag, why don’t you just push out an official update to add this into more cams, Canon? We mean, can you imagine the look on Nikon’s face if you really came through?

Read – The hack
Read – Video capture from a Canon EOS 40D

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Hack provides Liveview Canon EOS DSLRs with video recording originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 25 Jan 2009 21:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In theory, at least, we already knew that the Gigapan Imager was capable of some amazing things. This, friends, is proof. David Bergman strapped the device and his Canon G10 onto a rail at Barack Obama’s inauguration and snapped 220 images. After giving his MacBook Pro 6.5 hours to compile a two gigabyte image, he hosted it up on his website for people to zoom around on. We’ll caution you — you can easy kill a few hours checking out faces and such if you end up visiting the read link, but it’s totally worth it.

[Via Gadling]

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Gigapan Imager used to craft 1,474 megapixel image of Obama’s inauguration originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 25 Jan 2009 18:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Olympus’ E-30 just recently began to hit store shelves after being announced last November, and the shutterbugs at DigitalCameraReview have taken the liberty of critiquing it for all prospective buyers to see. The cam maintained the quirkiness that tends make an Olympus, well, an Olympus, but when it came down to actual performance, the DSLR didn’t disappoint… much, anyway. It should be noted that it couldn’t hold a candle to the D90 at ISO 3,200, so low-light fiends may want to look elsewhere. That aside, critics were more than pleased with the copious amount of features, the top-shelf focusing speed and the remarkable build quality. If it were priced a few hundies lower, it’d almost be a no-brainer, but with an asking price of around $1,300 at present time, it’ll be hard to sway the eyes of those already focusing on another shooter. Have a look at the read link for a few sample shot comparisons and the full writeup.

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Olympus E-30 DSLR reviewed: distinctly different, but that’s a good thing originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 24 Jan 2009 13:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With everything going on at this year’s CES we didn’t get a chance to do more than take a few pictures of Sony’s unfortunately named Webbie HD (aka the MHS-CM1), a tiny little camcorder that shoots in high-def yet costs just $200. Michael at Diffusion had the opportunity to review one and, while he liked everything on the camera’s spec sheet, in practice found it to be a “low priced, low quality disposable HD camera.” It shoots 720p and not-quite-1080p video (maxing out at 1440 x 1080) as well as 5 megapixel stills through a 5x optical zoom lens. Overall image quality was found to be poor, thanks in large part to exposure settings that could never settle on the right values themselves yet couldn’t be manually tweaked. Given the price really there’s not much reason to complain, as it seems perfectly serviceable for those who worry about cost more than image quality, but if you were hoping for a prosumer cam at a plaything price, keep searching.

Filed under: Digital Cameras, Portable Video

Sony’s Webbie HD reviewed: cheap but not a bargain originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Jan 2009 09:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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At this point, it’s remarkably tough to say how legitimate these claims are, and while we’d wholeheartedly recommend digesting these details with a dose of NaCl, we’d be shortchanging you to not pass ‘em on. According to a curious post over at Photofan.jp, Sony is readying an Alpha A800 DSLR (mockup pictured) with a 15.2 megapixel sensor, an ISO range of 200 to 12,800, a new high-speed sync flash, 23 total AF sensors, a fresh metering / AF sensor tracking system and inbuilt WiFi. We’re told that the camera will be officially unveiled at PMA 2009 alongside a trio of new lenses — thankfully, March (and our answer) is less than two months out.

[Via Photography Bay]

Filed under: Digital Cameras

15.2 megapixel Sony Alpha A800 DSLR rumored originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Jan 2009 12:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve been playing around with Kodak’s new Theatre HD Player for the past few days, and our feelings are mixed. Kodak is doing a lot of interesting and innovative things here, especially with the gyroscopic Pointer Remote it has included for interfacing with the box, but we’re not convinced this thing is polished or helpful enough to justify the $299 asking price. Check out our full impressions after the break.

Continue reading Kodak’s Theatre HD Player with gyro-based Pointer Remote unboxed and reviewed

Filed under: Digital Cameras, Home Entertainment

Kodak’s Theatre HD Player with gyro-based Pointer Remote unboxed and reviewed originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Jan 2009 11:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sanyo announced a plethora of “dual camera” models (camcorders with still capture aspirations) just yesterday, and Geek.com‘s Chris Gampat was lucky enough to get a little hands on time with the lot, choosing three favorites: the VPC-FH1, VPC-HD2000, and VPC-WH1. The first two are similar in terms of specs, both capturing 1080p video at 60fps and 8 megapixel stills at 12fps through a 10x optical zoom. They differ only in form factor, the VPC-FH1 offering a traditional style and the VPC-HD2000 coming with a pistol grip. Then there’s the more daring VPCP-WH1, waterproof down to 10 feet and coming in a “look at me, sailor” yellow, but only shooting 720p video at 30fps and 2 megapixel stills. However, its 30x optical zoom is perfect for spotting Piping Plovers, and the 3.5 hour battery life means this thing can probably survive longer underwater than you. Videos of these three are below, and surely one them fits your lifestyle, so make a little room this spring, won’t you?

Read – Hands-on: Sanyo VPC-FH1 and VPC-HD2000
Read – Hands-on: Sanyo VPC-WH1 waterproof camcorder

Continue reading Video: Sanyo’s collection of new “dual cameras” handled, critiqued

Filed under: Digital Cameras, Portable Video

Video: Sanyo’s collection of new “dual cameras” handled, critiqued originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Jan 2009 08:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pentax’s convention-defying white and black K2000 DSLR may not be for everybody, but those wanting to stand out in a crowd of shutterbugs will no doubt be pleased to learn that the camera (complete with both 18-55mm and 50-200mm lenses) is now available for pre-order direct from Pentax. Best of all, it’s available for the decidedly non-premium price of $679.95, which is actually a bit less than we were expecting when it was first announced. You’ll still have to wait until mid-February for it to actually ship, however, but that should at least give you enough time to get the rest of your gadgets Colorware’d to match. Hit up the link below to get your order in.

Filed under: Digital Cameras

White Pentax K2000 now available for pre-order originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Jan 2009 20:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Engadget Japanese is attending a Sanyo presser where its much loved Xacti camcorders are being overhauled. The 5-strong mix of pistol-grip and new, horizontally-oriented camcorders includes several world’s firsts according to Sanyo: the world’s first to shoot progressive, Full HD 1,920 x 1,080 video at 60fps (models DMX-HD2000/FH11 pictured above), the world’s first waterproof HD cameras (DMX-CA9 and DMX-WH1 with 30x optical zoom), and world’s first HD camera to shoot 10 megapixel still images (DMX-CG10). All the cams shoot in MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 format for broad compatibility with devices and video editing software. The DMX-HD2000 will hit the streets first on February 6 with the rest to trickle out before April is up. No prices were announced but we expect these to be competitive, as always. The rest of the new models pictured after the break with full specifications just beyond the read link.

[Via Engadget Japanese]

Continue reading Sanyo’s 2009 HD Xacti camcorder lineup brings a trio of world’s firsts

Filed under: Digital Cameras, Portable Video

Sanyo’s 2009 HD Xacti camcorder lineup brings a trio of world’s firsts originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Jan 2009 01:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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