Photography is something which we are all familiar with, regardless of our personal abilities in the field. Taken from the Ancient Greek words ‘photos’ and ‘graphos’, meaning ‘light’ and ‘written’, a photographer is now a description which can be applied to any individual capable of operating a simple camera.

With so many cameras available, finding the one right for you is essential – but which are best?

1. The all-rounder

As a general rule, these cameras offer good levels of optical zoom (which is considered superior to digital zoom by almost all users) as well as a variety of functions and shooting modes. Variable flash settings and shutter speeds are a must and make these cameras just as effective in the hands of an amateur as in the hands of a professional.

The perfect example of this type of camera is the Panasonic FZ48. Boasting a 12.1 megapixel resolution alongside 24x optical zoom and Intelligent Resolution Technology, this camera can transform quick snaps into professional quality photographs and is even capable of full HD video recording.

2. The professional

Those with a more professional take on this popular hobby look for cameras like the Panasonic mentioned above, but with additional features. Usually the ability to change lenses is considered the best feature for those after a professional device and, once again, optical zoom is paramount.

A great example of this type of camera is the slightly larger Panasonic DMC-G3. Boasting an improved 16 megapixel resolution coupled with a 3 inch LED touch-screen display and full HD video recording, this Panasonic digital camera has a zoom range of 28-84mm through its 14-42 mm lens.

3. The amateur

For those after a simple camera capable of holiday snaps, the Samsung PL20 is ideal. Still featuring an impressive 14 megapixel resolution, this camera is easy to operate and has 5x optical zoom to help junior photographers focus their shots.

Fact detection and Perfect Portrait technologies are also incorporated and the memory is expandable via an SD card slot.

4. The vibrant

Nowadays, electronic devices such as digital cameras are just as much about style and fashion as they are about practicality. This means a wide variety of cameras are now available in bright and bold designs – offering customers a device which is both functional and vibrant.

Numerous manufacturers including Kodak, Panasonic, Samsung and Fujifilm offer bright versions of their popular compact cameras and the Fujifilm JX550 is even available in vibrant violet, whilst continuing to offer high specs.

5. The classic

Lastly, those after a classic camera can’t go wrong with the Sony Cybershot range. These cameras vary from the professional to the compact and offer great features and stylish designs.

The sleek and attractive shape makes these cameras the perfect possession for any individual and colour options are aplenty. Classic choices of black and silver are likely to remain popular with the majority of consumers, whilst bolder colours such as blue and pink feature alongside an elegant white colour that is embraced by the more daring buyer.

Top five digital cameras from Amateur to Pro is a post from: Gadgets and gizmos

A tweet posted by @conradev says, “So, I found out how to enable Panorama is the iOS Camera app. Set the key ‘EnableFirebreak’ to YES in com.apple.mobileslideshow.plist”

Hidden features like this are common on Apple’s Mac OS X, but they are easier to crack on a Mac because iOS is more tightly controlled than the OS X. Also, users will have an easier time turning on this feature if they have a jailbroken iPhone.

To turn this feature on, users need to have a jailbroken iPhone running iOS 5. Download the “Firebreak” software, which can be found in Cydia, and once the software is donwloaded, open the camera app. Tap the screen and the settings screen will pop up, where the panorama button appears. After clicking it, users will have the ability to capture panoramic photos.

Users who do not want to jailbreak their iPhones can go to the Apple App Store to choose from a number of apps that can capture panoramic photos.

The iOS 5 mobile operating system adds a number of new features to the camera of the iPhone such as a camera button from the home screen, capturing photos using the volume rocker on the side of the phone and a simple built-in editor.

via: Apple Insider

Panoramic mode found hidden in iOS 5 is a post from: Gadgets and gizmos

The Nikon 1 uses a 1-inch CMOS sensor and, like Micro Four Thirds cameras, it has similar flexibility in accessories. The camera uses the Nikon CX-format CMOS sensor with a 2.7x crop factor, which means that the camera’s sensors are smaller than those found in Micro Four Thirds and significantly smaller than those of digital SLRs and Sony’s NEX cameras. Larger sensors generally offer better photos and lower noise, but are more bulky and expensive.

“The new Nikon 1 system is the culmination of more than 75 years of optical excellence and relentless pursuit to the unrivaled technological advancements in camera technology,” said Nikon’s Director of Marketing Bo Kajiwara. “Nikon’s new 1 J1 camera allows consumers to have confidence in a new way to express themselves, with amazing speed, versatility, ease of use and portability.”

What makes these cameras stand out is the Nikon EXPEED 3 sensor, which has two engines that can manage 600 megapixels per second, letting users capture photos in less time without reducing its quality

The camera currently consists of two bodies (the cheaper J1 and the V1) and three lenses. It was reported that the system will include an adapter that will enable photographers to use Nikon F-mount SLR lenses.

The Nikon V1 kit with 10-30 mm lens will cost a whopping £829, while the Nikon J1 will cost £549.99. The cameras will go on sale on October 20, with more accessories and lenses to be released later this year.

via: T3

Nikon unveils its smallest interchangeable lens cameras is a post from: Gadgets and gizmos

The World’s Smallest Camera, as it is listed in the site, measures just 26 mm squared. The camera’s 2 megapixel lens can capture photos at a resolution of 1600 X 1200, as well as take 30 fps video clips at 640 x 480 resolution. These captured media is saved on a 2 GB microSD card that is included with the device. The good thing about it is, the storage card can be expanded to 32 GB, so you can take more photos.

The camera was created by New York-based Hammacher Schlemmer, which has also created the “World’s Smallest” luggage scales, record players and electric guitars.

“Although The World’s Smallest Camera is only slightly larger than a marble, it takes still images and records video just like much larger cameras,” said Hammacher Schlemmer General Manager Fred Berns. “It is a remarkable piece of kit and is expected to prove very popular with the public.”

Due to its small size, the camera has no screen, so you can only preview captured photos when copied to a computer via a USB connection.

The camera comes with a wrist lanyard that “keeps it close at hand and enables ease of portability.” The device’s rechargeable batter can also provide 30 minutes of operation from an hour of charging.

The World’s Smallest Camera is available at the Hammacher Schlemmer website for £64.

Hammacher Schlemmer unveils the World’s Smallest Camera is a post from: Gadgets and gizmos

In a revealing article posted in the site, it states that around 375 billion photos could be captured in a year if everyone took at least 150 photos in that one year. It goes on to say that around 70 billion photos will be uploaded to social networking site Facebook this year, which amounts to around 20 percent of all photos that will be taken by people.

The article shows that Facebook has already stored 140 billion photos, which is 10,000 times the photos in the Library of Congress.

“Digital cameras are now ubiquitous – it is estimated that 2.5 billion people in the world today have a digital camera,” said the report. “If the average person snaps 150 photos this year that would be a staggering 375 billion photos. That might sound implausible but this year people will upload over 70 billion photos to Facebook, suggesting around 20 percent of all photos this year will end up there. Already Facebook’s photo collection has a staggering 140 billion photos, that’s over 10,000 times larger than the Library of Congress.”

According to the site, humanity has taken a total of 3.5 trillion photos, and right now, we snap as many photos every two minutes as the whole humanity took in the 1800s.

The study also shows that the number of analog photos taken each year has seen a decline from the year 2000. It has now dropped from 86 billion to 4 billion, the same amount of photos taken in the mid-1960s.

via: 1000 Memories

Facebook is now the world’s largest photo library is a post from: Gadgets and gizmos

“This photo claims to have been taken by an iPhone 4, but the rest of its EXIF data tells a different story: although the image has been cropped to 2235×2291 (5.12 megapixels), the original picture was a much larger 3264×2448 — or just shy of eight megapixels,” wrote PocketNow in its article. “What’s more, the lens was recorded as a 4.3mm f/2.4, which is closer to that of a point-and-shoot than the iPhone 4′s actual 3.85mm f/2.8.”

It is very easy to fake a photo’s EXIF data, though. You can easily edit it and make it look like it came from an iPhone 5 or any other camera, but we believe that this is true as it was captured by an Apple software engineer named Anton D’Auria. D’Auria worked on WebKit and Safari for Apple’s iOS mobile operating system.

D’Auria posted the image on Flickr, and before the photo was taken down, the website grabbed the file and studied it.

TechCrunch posted a report that the photo’s embedded data gives the location of where the photo was captured — 1 Infinite Loop, Apple Inc.’s Cupertino headquarters.

Either way at least it looks like some tasty sushi .

via: PocketNow

iPhone 5 camera’s test photo leaked is a post from: Gadgets and gizmos

The HDC-Z10000 bridges the gap between the professional and amateur user in quality and cost, making the camcorder ideal for students, videographers and filmmakers who want to capture broadcast quality footage.

The HDC-Z10000 uses two 3MOS sensors for recording high-quality 2D and 3D videos in 1080p resolution. Unlike its lower end model, the Panasonic HDC-SDT750, the HDC-Z10000 has integrated dual lenses and uses two of the company’s 6.57-megapixel 3MOS sensors. This enables the camcorder to record two images simultaneously for the left and right eyes.

For the first time in a camcorder, its two large-diameter F1.5 lenses are treated with Nano Surface Coating to significantly reduce ghosting and flare, producing clear and crisp image rendering. The lenses can also focus as close as 17.8 inches, making it possible to capture close subjects in darker places than usual. The HDC-Z10000 has a 3.5-inch LCD screen with a 1,152,000 dot resolution. It is capable to record 3D videos and images without using 3D glasses.

The camcorder records videos in AVCHD format, supporting 1080i 3D and 1080p 2D videos. Aside from its LCD screen, the camcorder also features a 0.45-inch Live View Finder with 1.2 million dots. Video is directly recorded to SD cards, with two slots available for expanded recording capacity. Panasonic has not yet revealed the device’s pricing, which will be announced 30 days before its launch.

The specs sound good and now Panasonic just has to deliver the price point, will it be close enough to consumer tech to accommodate all? We’ll have to wait and see.

Panasonic unveils its new HDC-Z10000 2D/3D camera is a post from: Gadgets and gizmos

“Now consumers can watch birds, wildlife, sports action and more in steady, sharply-focused close-up views, while capturing their subjects in crisp Full HD,” said Andy Bubala, Sony Electronics’ director of the camcorder business. “These new models add entirely new levels of flexibility and convenience to viewing, recording and enjoying your favorite images and scenes.”enjoying your favorite images and scenes.”

What’s interesting is that these binoculars have two of Sony’s G-Lens optics systems, similar to the ones found in Sony’s HandyCam video recorders and CyberShot digital cameras. It makes shooting 3D videos easy since the two lenses make it stereoscopic. The binoculars can shoot in both 2D and 3D, as well as capture 7-megapixel still photos.

The DEV-5 model also features a built-in GPS receiver, so you can geo-tag your video clips and photos. Both binoculars are designed for stealth as it has no visible buttons that shine, so your subject won’t see you perched in a tree. It has around three and a half hours of battery life for 2D recording, although there is an extended battery that can boost power to over six hours.

The DEV-3 and DEV-5 digital binoculars will be available in November at £850 ($1400) and £1215 ($2000) a piece.

via: Gizmag

Sony jumps into the digital binoculars market is a post from: Gadgets and gizmos

What’s amazing about the project is no CGI effects were used in the music video. The team used a combination of Arduino, Flash and openFrameworks to sychronize the Canon camera to flash at the correct time.

The music video shows the band playing in the dark, with the wall of DSLR cameraas behind them creating words and animations of light. It looks like what U2 does in their concerts, but this is a bit trickier because it took the team an entire day to connect the cameras together and making the animation.

It took a total of 48 hours to shoot the music video, with the first day used for building the set and day second day was for shooting the video. “In theory, we knew it would work, but we never had a chance to test out the whole 250 cameras until the day of the shoot,” said Kawamura, the video’s director.

On the band’s website, users can watch and create their own versions of the video, with a customized message spelled out in lights. The user-created videos can be shared on Twitter or Facebook.

via: Gizmodo

Music video’s light animation created using a wall of DSLRs is a post from: Gadgets and gizmos

The study also shows that the most active regions in the UK are Edinburgh and Glasgow, with 42 percent of Scots having a regular hobby. The least active regions are found in the South West and Wales, where 24 percent of people have a regular pastime. About 83 percent of Brits said that they wish they could take up a hobby.

The most popular choice for hobbyists is photography, followed by running, jewelery design and cooking.

Nikon UK’s Group Marketing Manager Jeremy Gilbert said, “Hectic lifestyles are often an excuse for not having an interest, but having a regular hobby is a great way of relieving stress and promoting well-being by having a better work-life balance.”

“Photography is an ideal hobby because it can be done anytime, anywhere and with anyone. It’s also very creative so it gives people the opportunity to experiment and do different things as well as feeling like they are developing a noteworthy and interesting pastime that they can share with their friends and family,” he added.

Commenting on the study, psychologist Dr. Glenn Wilson said, “People in the UK are working harder than ever and ‘me’ time is fast dwindling – even when you’re relaxing at home you find yourself thinking about the washing, friends you need to call and that errand you said you’d run. When we hear other people talking about their hobbies and interests, it’s only natural to compare and find ourselves a little dull in comparison. This can negatively impact self-esteem, but finding a rewarding hobby can provide emotional benefits that positively impact confidence. And if we can do our hobbies with friends and family, all the better.”

A Nikon study shows that most Brits don’t have hobbies is a post from: Gadgets and gizmos