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July 31, 2007

SeaLife ECOshot Camera is Seriously Rugged

Sports and sensitive electronics don’t always go together, one hard bump and your normal digital camera could be junk. SeaLife cameras is debuting a rugged sports camera that can take some hard knocks called the ECOshot.

The camera is said to be truly waterproof and shockproof. The 6MP camera uses the latest technology to capture fast action under different conditions with very minimal shutter lag.

The ECOshot is guaranteed waterproof to 75 feet or 25 meters and shockproof to 6 feet or 2 meters. SeaLife says they will be running over the ECOshot with a SUV during a live demo to shoe the cameras durability. Check out the video below to see one of their cams getting run over repeatedly and still working.

Posted by shane at 1:05 PM

Samsung adds three New Cameras to NV Line

Yesterday Samsung announced several new cameras in their NV series. The three cameras are the NV20, NV15, and NV8. All three cameras use Samsung’s Smart Touch User Interface which has been made even easier to control.

Faster anti-shake reduction has been added to the feature list, advanced noise reduction supporting up to ISO 3200 and local contrast control. The NV20 is Samsung’s first 12MP compact camera. It has a 3x optical zoom lens, ASR and can shoot MPEG-4 VGA movies at 640 x 480.

The NV15 has 10MP and a 2.5” LCD along with ASR and video recording. The NV8 is an 8MP camera with ASR ad Red Eye Fix with a 3x optical zoom. All the cameras are due to hit market in September with the NV20 selling for about $500, the NV15 at about $463, and the NV8 at around $402. Via DPreview

Posted by shane at 12:45 PM

July 30, 2007

Samsung Launches the i85 Compact Digital Camera

Another new camera announcement today was form Samsung who announced their new i85 compact camera. The i85 is an 8MP camera featuring 5x optical zoom, a three inch screen, and a maximum shutter speed of 1/2000 sec.

The i85 also integrates advanced shake reduction, 14 scene modes and displays back video and music. One strange feature of the camera is the world tour Guide function that provides travel information on 4500 regions in 30 countries.

This information is supposed to help you plan a trip, personally I don't see someone going to the camera for information on an area they are traveling in unless a computer is no where to be found. The i85 measures in at 3.74” x 2.42” x 0.8” and carries an MSRP of $349. Via Samsung and I4U News

Posted by shane at 12:53 PM

Panasonic Announces Two New HD Camcorders

Today Panasonic announced the HDC-SD5 and HDC-SX5 HD camcorders. Both the cams use AVCHD format and record in 1920 x 1080 full HD. The HDC-SD5 is heralded as the world’s smallest 3CCD full-hd camcorder and it records onto SD/SDHC cards.

The other cam announced today, the HDC-SX5 records onto the SDHC/SD disks as well, but adds the ability to record video directly to 3 inch DVDs. Both cameras include Advanced Optical Image Stabilization, Lecia dicomar lens, intelligent contrast control and HD advanced pure color engine.

These cameras will be released in September with an MSRP of $999.95 for the HDC-SD5 and a MSRP of $899.95 for the HDC-SX5. Is it just me or does it seem like every camera or camcorder launched lately is the world’s first, smallest or best for one reason or another. Panasonic Via I4U News

Posted by shane at 12:39 PM

July 27, 2007

LightCam Can Record in Near Darkness, Looks Like Flashlight

Mall security guards and other security personal that don’t get to carry weapons and need a way to defend themselves and record criminal activity have a slick camera now that can do the trick.

Called the LightCam the device has an aluminum body that looks heavy enough to smack a crook around if needed. The light is also waterproof so it can be used outside in the elements. The light source is white LEDs with infrared rays.

The cam portion is a DVR that can record in virtual darkness thanks to the IR light produces. The camera can take snapshots and record video and audio at a paltry 15 frame per second max with a resolution of 320 x 240 or 160 x 120. Light sensitivity is 0.2 lux. Video and still shots are stored to 512MB of internal memory. Via Aving

Posted by shane at 12:16 PM

July 26, 2007

Fujifilm Announces the A920 Digital Camera for Beginners

Fujifilm also announced another new entry level digital camera today called the FinePix A920 that is designed specifically for first time photographers. The camera uses Fujifilm’s Super CCD, but the press release fails to mention how many megapixels the camera has. With the cheaper camera I talked about before being 8.1MP, it would be a safe bet this one is at least the same.

To make navigation easy the camera uses an icon based GUI and takes advantage of Picture Stabilizations to remove shake form images. I have owned several FinePix cameras over the years and the thing I always hated most was the xD card they required.

The new A920 can use xD, SD, and SDHC memory cards via a single card slot. The LCD is a large 2.7” screen with anti-glare properties; the camera has 15 scene modes and can capture video at 640 x 480 at 30 fps. IrSimple technology is used to make it easy to connect to other Ir devices to transfer images like PDAs and other digital cameras. The A920 will be available in September for $199.95.

Via Fujifilm

Posted by shane at 2:32 PM

Fujifilm Announces New Entry Level FinePix F480 Digital Camera

Today FUJIFILM announced a new addition to the F-Series line called the FinePix F480, which is aimed at entry-level photographers. The F480 has an 8.1MP CCD sensor with digital signal processing for noise reduction.

FUJIFILM claims the camera is no bigger than a pack of playing cards and has a 4x wide angle optical zoom lens from Fujinon. Also features is picture stabilization mode that reduces blurry images cause by camera shake.

The LCD display is a 2.7” and the mode dial allows you to choose the most accessed shooting modes. The camera can also capture QVGA quality movie clips at 30fps with sound. Power is via an included Li-ion battery and the price suggested for the camera is $179.95. the F480 will be available starting in September 2007. Via Fujifilm

Posted by shane at 2:19 PM

July 25, 2007

Clarion DriveEye Records Accidents

Clarion DriveEye is a camera housed in a titanium enclosure that mounts to the windshield of your car. Inside the camera is a G-sensor that can sense emergency braking and begins to record video automatically to a 128MB CF card.

The camera holds 15 seconds of footage in the buffer from right before the crash occurred and keeps an additional 5 seconds in the buffer from after the crash. The footage can be moved to a computer later for help supporting a case against a lawsuit.

Currently the DriveEye is only available in Japan for about $412. The camera uses no moving parts to help reduce the chance that it is damaged in the crash that it is recording. You can also trigger recording manually if you just want to shoot footage as you race around town. Via Technabob

Posted by shane at 12:09 PM

July 24, 2007

Panasonic Announces More Lumix Cameras

Panasonic is on a roll today with new digital camera announcements. This morning it was the 18x optical zoom Lumix and now we have the DMC-FX33 and the DMC-FX55. Both these camera models have 8.1 megapixel resolution and use the same anti-blurring filter as the DMC-FZ18 that we spoke of earlier.

Both of these cameras use a 28mm lens and 3.6x optical zoom. Face recognition is included in both cameras with up to 15 faces at a time. The FX33 is very thin at only 22mm.

If the digital zoom is used with the optical zoom you can get a max of 5.7x zoom from both cameras. The difference between the two cameras appears to be size alone. The FX33 is thinner and uses a smaller LCD screen for the display. The FX33 will be available in silver, pink, brown, blue, and white. The FX55 will be available in silver, pink, and black. No pricing information is known at this time, but eh cameras should be on sale on August 25. Via Panasonic

Posted by shane at 11:16 AM

Panasonic Announces New 18x Zoom Lumix Digi Cam

Panasonic has announced a new digital camera for Japan called the Lumix DMC-FZ18. The camera is an 8.1MP unit with a massive 18x optical zoom. The translation of the press release is stunningly poor, but it seems that the cam has a triple blurring prevention filter to remove hand shake from your images.

The camera is also able to do macro photography as well and has face recognition technology for composing your shots. Full manual operation is available, as well as automatic point and shoot functionality.

The lens is a 28mm wide angle unit and digital zoom is availabilities for a total possible zoom of 27.8x. The camera is set to launch on August 25 with silver or black color options. There is no word on pricing at this time. Via Panasonic

Posted by shane at 8:55 AM

July 23, 2007

Hitachi Introduces the First Blu-ray Camcorders

With the popularity of HD content in the form of Blu-ray and HD DVD movies and HDTV sets it’s no surprise to anyone to expect a Blu-ray camcorder to be coming to market. What you might not expect was for the first Blu-ray camcorder announced to be from Hitachi.

These camcorders may be on store shelves as soon as this fall, in time for the holiday shopping season, but no firm launch date has been announced. The camcorder will use Hitachi’s new 8cm BD/DVD drive along with a 5.3 megapixel CMOS sensor recording full 1920 x 1080 video.

Video capacity will be 7GB of MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 video and I would assume that to be the capacity of a smallish Blu-ray disc that will be directly written too. No word on the price of the camcorders, but I would expect them to be expensive. Via I4U News

Posted by shane at 12:23 PM