News entries for July, 2012

If you're anything like us, there's something of a divide in your personal, photographic archive. You've probably got a fairly good handle on your digital photo collection, but chances are your photos from back in the film days are another matter entirely. Perhaps they're in storage, or maybe just hiding under the bed or at the back of a cupboard, but quite likely your old...

Action camera heavyweight Woodman Labs offers a staggering selection of camera mounts for its GoPro-series cameras. You can chest-mount your GoPro, wear it on your wrist, put it on your head or a helmet, attach it to surf boards or bike handlebars, and plenty more besides. All these mounting options have one thing in common. While they're great for getting shots of the...

It may look like one of those annoying smiley face buttons you still see from time to time but this "happy" pin actually has a more subversive purpose: it's a secret spy camera.

Called the "Chobi Cam Smile Smiley Pin Button Camera (Secret badge spy cam)," -- yes, that's a mouthful -- this camouflaged gadget can record 3-megapixel (2048 x 1536 pixel) JPEG still photos or...

Sigma announced support for mirrorless digital cameras with interchangeable lenses at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show, and after the 30mm f/2.8 DN ("Digital Neo") lens was released, the Sigma 19mm f/2.8 DN quickly followed. The lens is small and light, and comes in mounts for micro four-thirds mount cameras from Olympus and Panasonic, and Sony E-mount cameras. We've...

In the runup to the IFA show in Berlin, which kicks off at the end of August, Germany's Hama GmbH & Co KG has taken the wraps off several new products. The company is debuting several action cameras, masks and goggles with built-in cameras, and a variety of mounting options that let you attach your camera to various objects including vehicles.

Starting with the action...

Sometimes product categories are defined by one popular line, and the Nikon P510 continues the tradition of excellence in ultrazoom digital cameras, with a very wide, very long zoom lens and impressive print quality. With a zoom that ranges from 24 to 1,000mm equivalent, it has a tendency to make you see the world differently, allowing you to realize shots you hadn't before...

Italian camera support manufacturer Manfrotto has introduced its new 290 Carbon Fiber series of tripods and monopods, offering near-identical specs to its existing 290 Aluminum series, but with a worthwhile weight savings. The decrease in weight obviously varies depending on the specific model, but taking the three-section 294 tripod as an example, the carbon fiber variant...

I think the reasons we take travel photos are to remember where we were and to share those places with others. When we upload images to the web or make prints when we return home, we want our friends and families to see and enjoy the things we encountered.
 
However, just as there is a difference between tourists and travelers, the former flitting like bugs on the surface...

Announced last spring, the Fujifilm X-Pro1 is the company's first mirrorless, interchangeable-lens model. It's proven popular for its combination of great image quality, and a high-quality body that handles like cameras of days gone by. The design doesn't include a built-in diopter correction, though, and the 19mm diopter correction lenses used by its viewfinder aren't the...

If you didn't think the snazzy Nikon 1 mirrorless compact camera system was already blinged out enough, a new service called PimpYourCam offers a way to give it some extra style.

PimpYourCam is a collaboration between German photographer and author Jens Brüggemann and airbrush artist Torsten Rachu. The pair will transform your Nikon 1 using "special paints and coatings...

Sometimes I get to write cool, new stuff. Sometimes there’s just grunt work to be done, usually of my own making. This is one of those times.

To bring you up to date if you’ve landed here first, this is how I got here. Autofocus Reality Part 1 showed that on center-point, single-shot autofocus, standard phase detection was less accurate than manual focus and live view...

There's nothing like a pocket travel zoom digital camera when you want to get creative shot on vacation. The PowerShot SX260 HS is Canon's best attempt yet at meeting the needs of both the point-and-shooter and the enthusiast photographer, regardless of the destination. Its 20x zoom has great optical quality, and combined with its 12-megapixel sensor the Canon SX260's image...

While waiting for my flying car to be delivered — I ordered it 30 years ago — I try to keep up with the latest science around imaging. Earlier this year I reported on a camera that can see around corners and now Ramesh Rasker, a researcher at MIT, has introduced the concept of femto-photography, a new type of imaging in which you can literally record light itself.

In a...

While some photographers covering the London 2012 Olympics are packing their bags with all sorts of pro DSLR camera bodies and lenses, a photographer for Getty Images will be using just one compact system camera during the Games: the recently announced Panasonic Lumix DMC-G5.

The Getty photographer, Dean Mouharopoulous, will use the mirrorless, 16-megapixel G5 with a...

In the ongoing battle of man vs. nature, nature wins this time around.

Luckily it was only a man-made object -- an underwater camera rig -- that this massive shark swims off with not a diver's limb.

The footage was filmed on location at Tiger Beach in the Bahamas as part of the video, This Is Your Ocean.

Not sure if the underwater camera rig was ever recovered --...

Could the CompactFlash Association's XQD card format be the shortest-lived in history? That will likely be the question on many photographers' lips, as they learn of an update to the specification that's already in development. It seems incredible when one consider's it's been less than eight months since the original XQD card standard was finally adopted, and the first...

We'd imagine there are more than a few concerned conversations taking place at Woodman Labs of late. After several years of near-total dominance for its famed GoPro series in the action camera market, the company suddenly finds itself facing increasingly stiff competition. Last month, consumer electronics giant Sony announced plans to ship an action camera model this fall....

The Chief of Police in Washington DC supports the rights of photographers to shoot stills or video in public without being arrested, according to a potentially landmark general order released last week.

The order, issued by DC Police Chief Cathy Lanier (r.), cites the constitutional rights of DC residents under the First Amendment, and instructs her officers to respect...

Fujifilm North America Corp. today unveiled a new, wireless networking-capable digital camera, the Fuji F800EXR.

In terms of its imaging functionality, the FinePix F800EXR couples a 1/2"-type, EXR-CMOS image sensor, and a Fujinon-branded 20x optical zoom lens. The F800EXR's lens provides everything from a generous 25mm wide angle to a powerful 500mm telephoto. Maximum...