6Sight

KODAK IMPROVES VIDEO, STILL CAMERAS, FRAMES, SOFTWARE…

Kodak may be offering the lowest-cost highest resolution pocket HD camcorder: the Zi8 captures 1080p HD video camera, and costs only $179.

The new pocket-sized model also provides electronic image stabilization, an external microphone jack, and a 2.5-inch LCD. 

It also captures 5MP still images.

Also announced were:

• The Z950, a $279 camera with a 10x optical zoom lens with image stabilization, 12 megapixel sensor, 3-inch LCD, and HD video capture. 

It boasts a click-to-capture speed of less than 0.3 seconds.

• The M381, with a 12 megapixel sensor, 5x optical zoom, and 3-inch LCD for $179.

The M341, with a 12 megapixel sensor, 3x zoom, and 2.7-inch LCD for $149.

• The $199 Kodak Theatre HD Player has been updated with better YouTube viewing, net video access to on-demand video feeds, and a collage view for discovering relevant date-based photos.

Kodak bills the device as a hub for wirelessly delivering personal content, online entertainment, and more to HDTVs.

The new Discovery collage views are “a unique new way to rediscover the photos collected on your PC;” for example, the Player can locate and display pictures relevant to today’s date and two weeks forward.

• Kodak says the D830 8-inch LCD fits into standard 8x11 inch frames, allowing you to more easily fit the display into your décor.

It has 512 MB memory, and a collage mode displays several pictures at once. It’s priced at $139.

The $139 S730 frame has a 1GB storage and a rechargeable batter. Its Picture Finder feature easily and quickly finds images for automatic display, Kodak says. 

• Kodak’s free Easyshare software v8 makes it simpler to upload photos and video to third party sites such as Facebook. It also adds “exciting technology to improve the upload speed to Kodak Gallery,” Kodak says, for  “one of the fastest ways to upload your pictures.” 

August 3, 2009

NIKON UPDATES ENTRY-LEVEL AND PRO SLRS

The D3000 replaces Nikon’s popular D40 entry-level SLR, a market leader for more than two years. 

The new model has a ten megapixel DX-format CCD, 3-inch LCD, and a burst rate of three frames per second.

It costs $600, packaged with an 18-55mm lens with optical image stabilization.

The beginner’s camera also features a new “Guide Mode” that Nikon says “lends a smart helping hand to new D-SLR users.” It has step-by-step instruction “and inspiration” on screen.

The D3000 also has in-camera image editing, including effects such as a Miniature effect that makes “distant subjects look like close-ups of miniature models.”

Nikon also updated its D300 SLR with HD video capture. The D300s captures 720 video at 24 frames-per-second, with AVI Motion JPEG compression. 

The camera’s contrast detection autofocus works with the vide capture. It also adds a stereo microphone jack for an external mike.

The camera has a 12-megapixel CMOS sensor, three-inch LCD, and 51-point autofocus system. Its burst mode now takes seven frames per second.

Body-only, the D300s is $1,800.

August 3, 2009

PANASONIC DOUBLES IMAGE STABILIZATION

Three new cameras all feature new “Power OIS” optical image stabilization that Panasonic claims has “double the repression power” for overcoming camera shake, as compared to its previous models.

The 12-megapixel cameras also feature face recognition that can simultaneously identify up to three people, showing the names on the LCD of people previously ‘registered’ on the camera. 

The Lumix DMC-FP8 is a compact model with folding optics to fit a 4.6x optical zoom lens in its thin body: 3.8 x 2.3 x 0.8 inches. 

The lens’ focal range starts at a reasonably wide 28mm wide-angle.

The $299 camera has a 2.7-inch LCD and captures HD video at 1280 x 720 pixels.

Almost as tiny is the Lumix DMC-ZR1, with has what Panasonic claims is the first 0.3mm thin aspherical lens -- which allows for an 8x optical zoom to protrude when opened from the 3.9 x 2.1 x 1.0-inch body. The $279 camera’s zoom starts at the equivalent of 25mm. 

The full-sized Lumix DMC-FZ35 packs an 18x optical zoom lens that starts at 27mm. The $399 camera captures AVCHD Lite HD video, and can have manual adjustments made to the shutter speed and aperture while shooting HD.

August 3, 2009

ALTEK PHONE PACKS 3X ZOOM

Claiming that most camera phones should instead be called “phones that take pictures,” Taiwanese camera maker Altek announced what it bills as a the first “professional camera phone.” 

Aimed at the China consumer market, the T8680 has a 3x optical zoom lens, 3-inch touchscreen, and 12-megapixel CCD image sensor.

It features an adjustable aperture with which to blur backgrounds to make foreground subjects more prominent, Altek says.

Also provided are 20 scene modes with automatic scene recognition, facial recognition, smile shutter and continuous capture.

August 3, 2009

In the Weekly Briefing August 3, 2009

6SIGHT SPOTLIGHT: The week’s top stories

Kodak improves video, still cameras, frames, software…

DIGITAL CAMERAS

Nikon updates entry-level and pro SLRs

Panasonic doubles image stabilization

Ricoh touts light sensitivity

MOBILE and INTERNET IMAGING

Altek phone packs 3x zoom 

COMPONENTS AND ARCHITECTURES

Eye-Fi aims at Apple

Tessera enhances wafer-optics technology

INDUSTRY UPDATES

Smaller, better aerial surveillance

FUJIFILM REFINES MULTI-RESOLUTION CAPTURE

Fujifilm claims its FinePix F70EXR provides “the most advanced features and technology available in a point-and-shoot.”

The $279 compact camera measures 3.9 × 2.3 × 0.9 inches, and features a 2.7-inch LCD and a 10x optical zoom that starts at a 27mm wide angle.

While that’s a nice lens, the advancements here come from further refinements of the Super CCD: Fujifilm says its EXR technology “uses the human eye as the basis for the perfect camera sensor.” The EXR is essentially a switchable sensor, changing its electronic behavior to suit the subject from three modes:

• High Resolution deploys all the pixels to capture fine detail when lighting is full and even.

• Wide Dynamic Range captures two exposures each with half the pixels, which are combined for detail in highlights that would otherwise be lost.

• High Sensitivity and Low Noise combines two adjacent photodiodes to simulate a larger pixel that is “big enough to absorb light in the darkest of conditions,” and so capture low-light shots.

If that sounds confusing, the F70EXR provides an ‘EXR Auto’ mode which “takes the guesswork out of setting the camera by doing it for you,” Fuji says. The camera will recognize the scene and optimize focus, color balance, exposure, flash and sensitivity and will automatically switch the sensor to HR, SN or DR mode depending on the lighting conditions of the scene.  

Also, new shooting modes combine the Super CCD EXR with “multi frame technology” to capture exceptional images “that rival the most expensive professional D-SLR cameras.”

• For a ‘wide aperture’ look, the Pro Focus mode combines two or three burst shots, and a “crisp shot of the subject is synthesized against a defocused background and foreground.” The feature “provides satisfying professional results at the touch of a button,” Fuji says.

• Pro Low-light mode takes four high sensitivity images [using Fuji’s “pixel fusion” system] that are overlapped “to create one image with extremely low noise.”

The pocket camera also reduces blur by automatically increasing the shutter speed, and using CCD image stabilization to counteract handshake.  

For even better optics, Fuji is offering the FinePix S200EXR, which it bills as its “most advanced SLR-styled camera” thanks to its 14.3x optical zoom lens, 12-megapixel sensor, and 2.7-inch pixel LCD.

The camera has all the above benefits of the EXR sensor -- which are even more important with bigger glass, Fuji says. Long-zoom compact cameras typically use a smaller sensor as it accentuates the zoom -- but those are “vulnerable to difficult lighting conditions since light has a harder time reaching the sensor,” Fujifilm says.

The FinePix S200EXR measures 5.3 × 3.7 × 5.7 inches and will sell for $599.

Fuji says the FinePix Z37 is targeted at the “tech-savvy fashionista consumer.” The camera is billed as “thinner, sexier and bolder than previous Z-series models.”

It has a 10-megapixel CCD, 3x optical zoom lens, and 2.7-inch LCD. It measures 3.5 × 2.3 × 0.9 inches, and will sell for $149.

July 27, 2009

FUJIFILM DETAILS 3D CAM

Fujifilm will soon ship the 3D camera and viewer system it first began discussing last year.

The Real 3D W1 camera and viewer has two sensor/lens combinations to capture two nearly-identical images simultaneously and produce a stereoscopic 3D image.

The camera will have a 3X optical zoom, and also capture 3D video. Its 2.8-inch LCD displays 3D images without requiring glasses.

Perhaps just as cool and more useful: 2D photographs can be adjusted after capture for the amount of depth or sense of spatial perception.

Fuji will also market the companion Real 3D V1 viewer, an 8-inch LCD that also displays 3D without requiring glasses.

Both should ship in September.

July 27, 2009

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CUSTOM PRINTS SPECIAL PHOTO EDITION VIA HP

HP Indigo photo printing lets anyone customize a photographic cover of a special “Your Shot” edition of National Geographic magazine.

The issue features the best photographs from the more than 150,000 images submitted by the public to the Your Shot online feature.

The special edition can feature one’s own photograph on the cover. 

Consolidated Graphics is using its HP Indigo digital presses to produce the covers, which are then bound to copies of the special edition magazine. 

“The pervasiveness of Indigo technology in the printing industry gave us the confidence to approach the cover customization project with HP," says the National Geographic Society.  The project “enables us to engage with photography enthusiasts and general consumers who like the idea of being able to customize the cover with a unique, personal photograph.”

National Geographic’s regular gravure and web offset print service provider produced the body of the issue, as well as a complete newsstand version that does not have a customized cover.

With more than 50 presses, Consolidated Graphics is the largest user of HP Indigos, installing 36 presses at various plants in North America and Europe just last year.

July 27, 2009

PHOTO BOOKS GROWING AT KODAK

Nicoletta A. Zongrone, Kodak’s general manager, retail systems solutions, consumer digital imaging group, tells is all about new photofinishing systems that let customers make photo books and more in-store, and how it’s a key strategy for potential growth.

The episode is available at: 

www.imagingexec.com.

July 27, 2009

In the Weekly Briefing July 27, 2009

6SIGHT SPOTLIGHT: The week’s top stories

Fujifilm refines multi-resolution capture

Fujifilm details 3D cam

National Geographic custom prints special photo edition via HP

DIGITAL CAMERAS

Olympus pockets four 12MP cams 

Pocket camcorder provides stereo audio 

MOBILE and INTERNET IMAGING

Yahoo! acquires Xoopit.

Facebook eases email photo sharing

Microsoft gets off its soapbox

Adobe and Akamai collaborate on open video player

White Rose optimizes iPhone images

COMPONENTS AND ARCHITECTURES

Canon develops double-duty image stabilizer 

OmniVision thins video sensor 

INDUSTRY UPDATES

Apple Updates Final Cut Studio 

Low-cost HD home theater

Leading imaging analysts debate at 6Sight Future of Imaging Conference

A must-see on-stage participation of major imaging analyst firms in one event – contrasting and comparing varying opinions on the future of imaging – will be offered Nov. 12 during the popular “Analyst View” session at the 6Sight Future of Imaging Conference, Nov. 10-12, 2009, at the Monterey Conference Center in Monterey, Calif. 

The session is moderated by InfoTrends founder and Consumer Electronics reporter Kristy Holch, with top industry analysts from Future Image, Gfk, IDC, InfoTrends, Lyra, NPD, Photo Imaging News, and PMA comparing and contrasting views and predictions. 

The 6Sight conference brings together technologists, marketers, futurists, artists, industry and financial analysts, educators, high-volume users, and members of the media who meet to preview breakthrough technologies; forecast innovative uses; and spark new ideas and alliances that benefit current and potential customers, participating companies, and the imaging industry as a whole. 

Also, for the first time, the top imaging analysts will provide discussions with conference attendees in the 6Sight Tech Fair during the conference.