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› archive for June, 2010

Winners in Olympus E-PL1 Contest Announced

The winners of Olympus’ recent E-PL1 contest have been announced. 6 finalists are getting a free Olympus E-PL1 Micro Four Thirds camera and five grand to flesh their video proposals into real projects. Then, one of those six will be chosen as the grand winner and the creative staff sent to the Olympus-sponsored US Open Tennis Championships, where their work will be aired on the giant video board at the Arthur Ashe Stadium. Not too shabby.

All six video proposals are on Olympus’ YouTube channel. Or in the press release. Both linked below.



New Canon Patent Application Is Intriguing

Thanks to the eagle-eyes of some watchful (and somewhat disturbing) internet denizens, a recent Canon patent application is making the rounds today. Why, you might ask?

Well, because if everyone’s reading it right, it would allow a camera to perform pixel-level HDR calibration by firing a test shot, evaluating each pixel against some heuristic, then re-firing the shot, adjusting the EV at each pixel site to adjust for any over- or under-exposure.

That’s friggin’ cool.

For those of you new to things, HDR (High Dynamic Range) is a general term covering a lot of solutions to one common problem: digital sensors can’t record as much dynamic range as the human eye can see. If you’ve ever wondered why skies and highlights look washed out, or shadows seem too dark and lurking, that’s why. The goal of HDR in any form is to keep highlights from blowing out and still keep fine detail in shadows. Taken to an extreme, especially with a process called tone-mapping, and you can end up with photos with detail and color that the human eye physically couldn’t perceive, and that’s where the raging debate about “HDR” photos being photographs or photo illustrations or outright garbage stems from.

Aaaanyway…

Back to that patent, there might be something about being to adjust just show drastic an adjustment the camera makes when firing the second shot? Something like that. All-and-all, a very intriguing patent app, and should it ever see the light of day and materialize in a real-world device it has the potential to be a game-changer. Will that happen? Who knows? Patent apps are fuzzy things at best, and it’s anyone’s bet if they ever see actual implementation, but at least we know Canon’s engineer’s are rubbing their sexy brain-lobes over the problem, yeah?



Panasonic Lumix ZS7

Pansonic’s Lumix DMC-ZS7 (sometimes called the TZ10), has been updated to firmware v1.1, which includes apparently two things. One is a cryptic fix that ‘improves stability when the camera is turned on,’ which is a bit disconcerting. The other is a bit more pedestrian and improves performance when using it in the optional underwater housing with third party strobes, a combination of events so common I’m sure every last one of you has been banging your head against the wall and pleading to the very gods that Panasonic would hurry up and provide you a fix.

I’m unsure where you actually go to find that firmware update, but maybe if you happen to own a ZS7 you’ll know anyway.



Engadget Talks Frankly About Nikon’s D3s

Is it fun to watch $5,200 evaporate from your savings account? Hardly. But being able to elevate your game to new heights can only be good — nay, great — for business, and if you’ve had the D3S on your mind, we can’t say a single word to stop you from pulling the trigger. Any minor annoyances that might irk you — the lack of a 1080p movie mode, a smaller-than-desired 12.1 megapixel sensor and the dearth of inbuilt wireless flash support are the only ones that come to mind — pale in comparison to the stellar low-light images you’ll be able to acquire, and we’d surmise that your worries of spending too much on a camera would all but vanish the first time you capture a noise-free, blur-free handheld shot of a couple’s first kiss… at ISO 10,000.

-Darren Murph, Engadget

Read their in-depth thoughts about ISO performance and handling niggles via the external link, but that excerpt was too good to pass up.



Canon’s New 70-200mm f2.8L IS II USM Reviewed

The first L lens to ship without a hood.

Canon's newest L offering, mm tasty.

Canon’s newest bit of 2.8L alphabet soup, let’s just call it the 70-200 2.8 II shall we?, has been reviewed by the stalwart folks over at SLRGear. I didn’t see anything suprising in the review, with things basically indicating that, yup, it’s a Canon L with all the quality that the branding implies. But, I’m not a Canonista, so, all you Canon folks out there? Feelings?

Review via the external link.



Sony NEX-3 is here…with fisheye!!!!

So….we finally received the production models of the Sony NEX-3 cameras.  In both 16 2.8 and 18-55 kit configurations.  We also got a very cool accessory along with it.  A fisheye adapter that bayonets onto the 16 2.8  Twist, click, and start shooting!

The 720p HD video mode in AVCHD is none too shabby either.  Check it out below.  The focus and exposure do impress.  Did I mention the fisheye adapter is only $150?



Panasonic’s Micro-Four Thirds Camcorder A Little More Real

Last seen a while back as just a concept rendering, Panasonic’s Micro Four-Thirds camcorder the AG-AF100 has resurfaced today with a short PDF outlining the most general of planned features and including a new product shot with a bit more real-world detail worked in. What’s in there? Well, it’s going to have two SD/SDHC/SDXC card slots, which’ll let you hold up to 12 hours at the very highest quality setting. That highest quality setting will be AVHCD PH mode, if you’re interested.

It’ll record 1080:59.94i/50i/29.97p/23.98p r 720:29.94p/50p/29.97p/25p/23.98p. It’ll have HD-SDI out, and XLR 2 channel input. And yeah, it’ll have a 4/3 sensor, which while often criticized in the still sphere for being smaller than comparable APS-C sounterparts is down-right huge compared to video-standard 2/3″ sensors. It’ll accept any lens the rest of the Micro Four-Third family does (native M4/3 lenses, and basically anything else with some form of adapter.)

Apparently the Panny link for the PDF keeps going down. DPReview is hosting a copy, and we’ll host one here, too. Click the image below.



Third-Party Third-Party Adapters Reported For Sony E-Mount

So, those Sony NEX-3 and NEX-5 interchangeable lens compacts that are coming out and that we didn’t shoot a sneaky snarky cloak-and-dagger video of we certainly don’t know what you’re talking about, well, like the Micro Four Thirds system from Olmpusonic (Olympus/Panasonic), their lack of a mirror yields a shallow flange-back distance. This distance, put in over-simplistic terms, is the distance from the imaging plane to the back of the mount. Now, this is interesting, because since it’s shorter than any 35mm based system (that includes APS-C bodies, actually), you can create adapters that let you mount basically any lens ever made onto it and still maintain infinity focus. Leica? Sure, why not? Nikon F? Of course. Canon FD? Hey, those lenses have to still be good for something.

And, just like there are quite a few mounts floating around for the Micro-Four Thirds system, we’re starting to hear word there’ll be the same third party style mount adapters to convert Sony E to your favorite legacy whatever (all manual, of course). Early ones are sound expensive, but if you’ve been wanting a nice digital body to strap to your dusty collection of Pentax primes, well, it sure makes an NEX seem more appealing, doesn’t it?



New Pany GH1 hack

So Derek just shot me over a link that I think needs to be shared.  Looks as if somebody hacked the GH1 to make the video ability even better.  Looks like it might even surpass the Canon 5DMKII.  50 MB/sec.  Wow.  Here is the link: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/06/how-to-hack-panasonic-gh1-to-shoot-super-high-quality-24p-video-and-more/

What will the GH2 do?  Will it matter?