An obscene exageration of HDR

Although not available in a consumer product yet, research on High Dynamic Range (HDR) video coming out of the UK’s University of Warwick shows great promise for dramatic improvements in video image quality:

The new system captures 20 f-stops per frame of 1080p high-def video, at the NTSC standard 30 frames-per-second. In post-production, the optimum exposures can then be selected and/or combined for each shot, via a “tone-mapping” procedure. A process called Image-Based Lighting can also be utilized, in which computer-created objects can be added to real-world footage.

At this point the system captures a massive amount of data, 42GB per minute, for processing by post-production software.  A huge investment in signal processing hardware will be necessary before a technology like this will be able to make its way into your next family camcorder.

[ Post from GizMag - Slashdot Comments ]

Nokia is on the verge of releasing their flagship cameraphone which sports a whoppingf 12MP sensor and Carl Zeis optics.  Also running a new release of their Symbian OS.   Supposedly the press event announcing this is Tomorrow, April 13th, so stay tuned Nokia nuts.  We’ll update this post then.

Read more from:

• Tech Tree:  Nokia N8 to be Announced on April 13?
• Unthinkable:  Nokia to join 12-megapixel club with N8

Camera (a safe choice)

IntoMobile.com January 3rd 2010

iPhone Help January 11th, 2010 (via French Telecom)

NowhereElse.fr January 18, 2010 – 90% chance of 5 megapixel camera

No Camera (blatent subterfuge misinformation IMHO)

Crunchgear January 12, 2010  - As far as we can tell they started the big “No Camera” rumor

Daring Fireball (John Gruber) January 12, 2010

Slashgear Jan 13th 2010

iSlateApple.com Jan 14th 2010

Front Facing Camera

The Mac Observer December 31st, 2009

The Mac Observer January 13th 2010  (leaked faceplate picture with opening for front facing camera)

Dual Cameras

You heard it first here folks, a Megapixel Myth exclusive!  The iSlate will obviously have Dual cameras.  It makes sense since nobody has predicted it, and how the heck do you take a picture of something other than yourself without having a preview of what you’re pointing at?

YouTube started with 480P, went to 720P, and it has announced that it is now going to Full HD 1080P.

A reminder:  1080P HD video is still just 2.07 Megapixels (1920 x 1080 = 2,073,600 pixels)

Click more for some appropriate low-res Fonejacker awesomeness…

Continue reading ‘YouTube is going 1080P HD’ »

Right behind Samsung, Sony-Ericsson, and Casio; Fujitsu joins the ranks of manufacturers producing 12MP camera phones (which we think are totally superfluous). What’s special about this one is that it’s water resistant up to 1.5 meters (4.9 feet).  So no more concerns of dropping your phone in the toilet!

No word on the Image quality out yet.  The camera featues Auto-focus, and 6.2X “Super Zoom” (This must be some wacky Japanese term for digital zoom).  Since this, like the Casio,  is a clam-shell style phone there is less thickness for lens depth than the Sony-Ericsson and Samsung models.

Continue reading ‘NTT DoCoMo / Fujitsu F-01B waterproof 12 Megapixel camera phone’ »

Film dead?  Not just yet… The license to the Polaroid name has been acquired by The Impossible Project

According to their press release:

“Large-scale production and worldwide sale of The Impossible Project’s new integral film materials under its own brand will already start in the beginning of 2010 – with a brand new and astonishing black and white Instant Film and the first colour films to follow in the course of the year.”

Read the business week article: Analog in a Digital Age: Polaroid Re-launches its Cameras

Click more for some vintage Polaroid T&A

Continue reading ‘Polaroid film cameras back from the dead’ »

In yet another example of over-stuffing pixels into a tiny form factor, Casio has released their 12MPix Camera-Phone – The Exilim Ketai CA003

Continue reading ‘Casio jumps on the 12 Megapixel cameraphone bandwagon’ »

Droid is a new handset running Googles Android operating system. Verizon launched attack ads going after the Apple Iphone. Some of the things they said was “iDon’t take night shots” / “iDon’t take pictures in the dark”, attacking the Iphones poor camera phone image quality.

The Droid specs state that it has a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash.

Verizon’s droid site: www.droiddoes.com

Great Writeup from engadget: Motorola Droid stands in for glamorous photo shoot

PC World article: Verizon’s Droid Targets iPhone

The Boy Genius report: Motorola Droid hands on!

Continue reading ‘Verizon attacks iPhone Camera Phone Image Quality’ »

The Nobel Prize was awarded for the inventors of the CCD Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith who developed semiconductors capable of sensing light through the Photoelectric Effect.

We can’t wait to get a hold of one of these to test it’s Image Quality.   We consider 12 Megapixels to be a ridiculously large number for a camera phone.  This phone has been delayed before but apparently is now released in Asia and Europe.

News of it’s release in june from Engadget:  Samsung’s Pixon 12: a dozen megapixels of cameraphone nonsense in June

Here is a test of the phone.   Apparently it has the ability to take a decent picture, but we still think that the 12 megapixels is a waste of Memory and Network bandwidth.  See more for some low light tests. Continue reading ‘Samsung’s Pixon 12 offers a controversially large number of pixles’ »