27 posts tagged “digital camera”

Casio has introduced into this new pocket-sized digital camera features which were previously found in more expensive prosumer models, the EX-F1 and EX-FH20.  The EX-FS10 has a 9.1 MP-effective CMOS sensor, a 3x optical zoom (38mm-114mm, F3.9-F5.4), a 2.5" LCD display, in a 3.8" x 2.3" x 0.64" body weighing 4.2 ounces.  The main features are based on a high-speed burst mode of the camera, capturing a series of images in quick succession which then makes possible the following features:

• Burst shooting mode of 30 shots per second (resolution downsized to 6 MP, still plenty for most uses).

• Best Shot and Combination Shot - The high-speed burst allows you to select the best shot from the series of images taken.  Alternatively, the series of shots can be combined into a single image, including re-aligning the position of the subject, to avoid motion blur.  Useful in quick motion scenes and night shots.  Note: for the FS10 there is no optical image stabilisation.

• Lag Correction or Pre-Record - The camera captures up to 25 images (again 6 MP) in a high-speed burst prior to the release of the shutter, so that you can go back in time for the shot which you should have missed, but was stored in the buffer of the camera for you.  You can set the amount of time lag.

• Slow Motion View - A dedicated button allows you to view the movement of the subject in Slow Motion on the LCD display, selecting the best moment to capture.

• High-speed Movie Recording - up to 1,000 fps (but only at 224 x 64 pixels, probably not very practical).  There are also options for video at 420 fps (224 x 168) and at 210fps or lower (480 x 360).  The output is effectively slow-motion.
  

• HD Movie - 720p video at 30 fps

• Image Capture during Video - Even while recording 720p video, a dedicated button allows you to capture a 6 MP still image.

For a better zoom range, there is also the Exilim EX-FC100, with the same features but a lens range of 37mm-185mm, a slightly faster lens (F2.6-F4.5), and anti-shake image stabilising CMOS.

Either This is the Deadlist Show or Your Clock has Stopped
Paraphrasing Groucho Marx ("Either this man is dead or my watch has stopped"), Dick notices that Leo's clock on the wall has stopped.

A Warehouse Gadget Revived
Peter Ganzarski heard about a new Sony gadget, the Party-Shot Automatic Camera Dock (IPT-DS1)  which tilts and swivels the camera and uses the face and smile detection of the Sony TX1 or WX1 cameras to take pictures for you: see macnn.com.  Peter thought this sounded familiar, until he realised that this is just a reincarnation of a Warehouse Gadget, the Konica Kanpai in Episode 685 (another Japanese idea).  Sony should have done a flop search first.  Another listener Toyota Boy made a similar observation.  Don't these manufacturers ever learn?  Straight to the Warehouse please, says Dick.

Listen to Episode 899
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The latest addition to Leo's camera collection is the Olympus E-P1.  Reminiscent in style of the old Olympus PEN series film cameras, the E-P1 is Olympus's first foray into the Micro Four Thirds format.  Similar to the Four Thirds format, the Micro Four Thirds uses a sensor which is about a quarter of the area of a 35 mm full frame (still gigantic compared to sensors on most compact digital cameras), resulting in a focal length multiplier of 2.  It takes one step further in reducing the size of the camera by removing the mirror box in SLRs.  It seeks to give you the flexibility of interchangeable lenses of an SLR and the size comparable to a compact, but still maintaining a relatively high quality in the picture output.

The E-P1 has 12.3 MP (effective), ISO up to 6400, takes 720p video at 30fps in AVI motion jpegs, and comes with one of two lens kits (crop factor 2): either a 14-42mm lens (f-stop 3.5-5.6) or a 17mm pancake fixed lens (f-stop 2.8).  It also offers lens adapters for Four Thirds lenses and old Olympus OM lenses.  Unfortunately it doesn't have a viewfinder or built-in flash, although you can get them as hot-shoe accessories.

Leo has taken some pictures and videos on the Wine Train using the E-P1, which he will post to Smugmug in the fullness of time.  Meanwhile, you can check out another set of photos taken by Leo on his E-P1 on Smugmug.

TWiT Cottage Air-Conditioner
Leo is very proud of the air-conditioner he bought for the TWiT Cottage, with the help of Colleen and Mini Split Systems.  It's a Sanyo split-system, complete with temperature and flap control, Quiet Mode and Turbo Mode, and 17,000 BTU.

More Home Office Locations
More suggestions by Denny Pyott from Glide, Oregon for relocating the TWiT Home Office: Remote, Oregon, and Boring, Oregon.


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Leo was tempted to buy the Palm Pre (Episode 862), but after Apple announced the features on the latest iteration of the iPhone, Leo got the iPhone 3GS instead.  It has a faster processor and hence the "S" suffix for speed.  In addition to the GPS which already existed in the iPhone 3G, the 3GS has a compass (as on the Android G1 in Episode 686) which in due course will enable more applications based on the magnetometer, e.g. like the Layar browser on Android.  The Find Me feature on the Mobile Me service will help you locate your phone based on its network connectivity.  The Kill Switch can remotely erase all your personal data on the phone via the internet in case you have lost the phone.

The auto-focus camera is now 3 megapixel, with the ability to change the focus after you tap a particular point on the LCD display, which also adjusts the white balance and exposure.  It's now capable of capturing video (640 x 480), with software to do simple editing or trimming on the phone itself.

Some of the other more commonly requested features, such as "copy and paste", MMS and tethering, have finally found their way into the iPhone 3GS.  Multitasking, however, is still restricted.

Video Trimming on the iPhone 3GS
Leo has tried the video trimming function oh his new iPhone 3GS, and it works for him.  Here's Apple's demo video:

Scott-E-Vest Wardrobe in a Tom Bihn Bag
For his China Tour and MacMania 9 Geek Cruise, Leo has packed an almost exclusively Scottevest wardrobe, in his new Tom Bihn Tri-Star (see Episode 865) which, it is hoped, Leo will cover on a TTTT.  Right now, Leo has finished the trip in China and should be in Japan on the Costa Classica.  Follow his AudioBoos, and view Leo's gallery on Smugmug.

Ed McMahon Dies
Ed McMahon, whose appearance in the Johnny Carson Show is often the subject of reminiscence on the Daily Giz Wiz, passed away on 23 June 2009, aged 86.

Another Cheesy Infomercial
Jayzee, better known as Toyota Boy, notes that cheesy infomercials have often been the subject of conversation on the show, and has recently seen a really cheesy one.  It's the Comfort Wipe, a toilet paper extension arm and holder.  The original infomercial can be seen on YouTube, but perhaps a more interesting version is a spoof of it shown on Jimmy Kimmel Live, featuring President Obama, also available on YouTube.

Bidets Rule Supreme
Alex Lindsay is much enamoured with the bidets in Japan which wash your behind (and some even blow-dry you), and offer choices of water-jet speeds and temperatures, and temperature-controlled seats.  They are available in the US and Alex has bought one for his family.  An extreme example is the Bio Bidet Supreme BB-1000 with Remote that leaves nothing to the imagination, but there are more reasonably-priced toilet add-ons on Amazon for your more basic comforts.



Listen to Episode 872
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Kodak and other camera companies joined forces in 1991 to develop the Advanced Photo System (APS), which was introduced at PMA in Las Vegas in 1996.  It was intended as an alternative to or replacement of the conventional 135 film format.  APS film was 24mm wide, compared to 35mm of the 135 format, and the surface area was only 56% of 135 film.  It offered 3 aspect ratios - C type (Classic, conventional 3:2 aspect ratio), H type (HDTV, 16:9), and P type (Panoramic, 3:1).  Consumers could choose an aspect ratio for individual films on the same cartridge.  It also offered Magnetic Information Exchange which could record exposure information, date and time and other personalised information on a magnetic coating, which could be printed on to the backs of photographs.

The film cartridges manufactured by Kodak were marketed as Advantix Film.  In January 2004, Kodak announced that it would stop selling APS cameras.

Polaroid at CES 2009
Speaking of old-timers, Polaroid announced a digital camera at CES, the Polaroid PoGo Instant Digital Camera.  It's a camera and a PoGo Printer (Episode 683) in one.  Little is known about the specs of the camera itself (apart from the PoGo printer capability).  It seems Polaroid is still hanging on to the idea of instant prints.


Getting Smug
Steve Miller thanks Dick and Leo (especially Leo) for introducing him to SmugMug to which he has moved from Flickr.  Now he is putting his old pictures and slides on to SmugMug.

All Things Obama
Mad has just had its 3rd Obama cover out, while the previous two are selling on eBay.  Leo has been invited to the inauguration ceremony for his campaign contribution, along with the rest of the public, and has been invited to buy all the official Obama merchandise.


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Leo was going to talk about this gadget last Tuesday but he forgot.  It's the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, a full frame digital SLR camera.  Leo bought the 5D for his wife Jennifer, which he ended up using, including on this trip to Tasmania.  Canon had been leading the field for a while until Nikon caught up by vastly improving low light performance on its D3 through advances in noise reduction and eschewing pixel count increase.  Canon has now released the 5D Mark II which has bridged the gap with Nikon in terms low light performance, although it can be imagined that the improvement must have been limited by the increase in pixel count to 21 MP.

The biggest buzz of the 5D Mark II, for the time being, is its capability to shoot 1080p H.264 Quicktime HD video at 30 fps, up to a maximum file size of 4GB (usually about 12 minutes), with HDMI output - one up over the Nikon D90's 720p video capability.  Automatic White Balance and Autofocus work during recording.

For sample videos, go to Canon's website for the Vincent Laforet video (scaled down resolution), or Digital Photography Review for full resolution short clips.  For Leo's interview of Vincent Laforet, check out The Tech Guy Episode 495, starting at 1:39:58.

Slow Down
It took a trip to Vegas for CB to catch up with the Daily Giz Wiz.  Slow down, says CB.


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The Yashica KC600, also called Kyocera DR350, hails from 1997, with 640 x 480 resolution, removable memory, and optical viewfinder.  With an included 2MB CF card, it could take 8 photos and sold for $599.

DGW fan Pablo recently (in Episode 722) heard about Dick's first digital camera (the Casio QV-10, Episode 15) and wanted to donate the Yashica KC600 to the Gadget Warehouse.  He got it for $300 but had to pay $150 for a 6MB CF card.

CES Reports on Stickam
Dick intends to talk about CES on Stickam from his hotel room in Vegas.  Follow him on Twitter and TWiT Army to get the details.

Apple Quicktake
Three years before the Yashica KC600 was the Apple QuickTake 100, same resolution, 1MB storage for eight 24-bit photos, cost $750.

Dick and Leo surmise that at this CES, they will see 64GB USB sticks.

Time to be Born
Leo asks Dick, if he could choose any time to have been born in, what time would he choose.  8.30 pm, says Dick.  Leo would like to be born as late as possible, because he wants to see what the future holds.  Dick wants to have been born in 1900, but with all the gadgets he now has.

Radio Leo
Jeff Royal from Braunfels, Texas (who last wrote in Episode 563) heard the request by a listener for a single weekly download of DGW (Episode 730), and thinks that there should be a single weekly download of all of Leo's podcasts.  Not quite, but Leo already has something like that, an RSS feed of all of Leo's podcasts, all under one roof, called Radio Leo.


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Leo finally gave something to Jennifer which she loved, but sadly she has lost it, but Leo may well buy her another one.  It's the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3, a compact camera.  It's at the high end of compact/point-and-shoot cameras.  Instead of simply upping the pixel count meaninglessly on a tiny CCD sensor common in compacts, Panasonic has decided to stay at a decent 10 MP, but on a larger CCD sensor, which means less noise, especially for high ISO images.  Available in silver and black.

The Leica lens range is 24mm to 60mm (35mm equivalent), which is very wide, with a small sacrifice of the zoom range.  It offers 3 aspect ratios - 16:9, 4:3 and 3:2, but all shot with the same angle of view.  Image stabilisation is by way of lens shift technology.  The lens is a very fast lens for a compact, with aperture values from F2.0-F8.0 at the wide end, and F2.8-F8.0 at the telephoto end.  On the back is a 3" LCD screen, but no view finder (although an expensive view-finder accessory is available).  Supports RAW and JPG.  ISO values from ISO 80 to ISO 3200, with an additional high sensitivity mode (1600-6400).  Has an off-axis pop-up flash, with AF Assist Lamp.  Takes movies at resolutions up to 720p at 24 fps.  It also has a hot shoe for add-ons, such as a flash or viewfinder.

The combination of a fast lens and image stabilisation means you need resort to high ISO values less often, but if required, high ISO performance is better than most cameras in this category due to the larger CCD size and the resulting lower noise, outperforming the Canon G10 and Nikon Coolpix P6000 at ISO 400.

A real advance from the first sub-$1,000 consumer digital camera, the Casio QV10 (Episode 15).

For a detailed review of the camera, see Digital Photography Review.  For Scott Bourne's mini review, go to TWiPPhoto.

Off to France
Leo is off to France today to visit Abby.  The pre-recorded shows should cover most of the holiday season.

Guest Appearance
Jennifer has always been shy of the camera, but today she makes a special appearance with Ozzy.



Letters Jingle Special Mixes
Dan Lueders is still at it, giving us more versions of the Letters Jingle (the original and festive versions written and performed by George Wood aka the Jingle Singers, from Scotland).  Leo plays some of the new versions:  Disco, Elvis, Beatles, Santana, and Punk renditions.

Coming Soon: The 12 Days of GizWiz
Paul Minshall has also done a Christmas special for his favourite podcast the Daily Giz Wiz, for his GizWiz friends.  It's a video called "The 12 Days of Giz Wiz", which will be played soon.  If you can't wait, go to Paul's blog.

The 12 gadgets featured on the video are: (1) Nokia N93 from Episode 172, (2) Toothpick Bird from Episode 282, (3) Road Mice from Episode 698, (4) Power Squid from Episode 24, (5) Titanium Spork from Episode 182, (6) Scott-E-Vest from Episode 34, (7) Sony Walkman from Episode 55, (8) Palm Pilot from Episode 590, (9) CubiCaller from Episode 381, (10) Toilet Tunes from Episode 604, (11) Uroclub from Episode 598, and (12) Drobo Backup from Episode 332.


Listen to Episode 722
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Kingston has now made a 32GB version of their Elite Pro SDHC card, the highest capacity so far of SD cards, and Dick has asked a sample to be sent Leo's way.  It's a Class 6 SD card, with a minimum data transfer rate of 6MB/s.  Leo can now use it on his Panasonic HDC SD5 Camcorder (Episode 407) and his new Panasonic Lumix LX3 (which he has bought for Jennifer and which Leo may talk about on another TTTT), or as the equilvalent of an external drive by in combination with his Kingston Data Traveler SD Card Reader (see an example in Episode 353), or on his new MacBook Pro with a Belkin ExpressCard Card Reader, both of which can read SDHC cards.




Happy Birthday on the Manhattan
Dick celebrated his birthday on 19 October on the Luxury Yacht Manhattan on the Classic Habor Line with his friends.

Mad Auction
Steve Miller writes again, this time about the upcoming Mad auction at Heritage Comics Auction, the subject of an article on MSN.  It will be held tomorrow, and the artwork for the original covers (including Alfred E Neuman's first cover, by Norman Mingo in 1956) will be auctioned off.

Dick's Beloved Mad
Dick's favourite Mad issue was the one with a spoof of Poseidon Adventure on its cover, also Mad's best selling issue ever (see Episode 282).  The original artwork was auctioned off, and Dick did not bid, thinking it was beyond his means.  Annie Gaines bought it and it is now on loan to Dick for life.

Testamentary Wishes
Dick may not realise this, but he is fairly consistent with his "testamentary wishes".  See Episode 235 (Sea Urn) for Dick's previous hilarious expression of his testamentary wishes, and Episode 135.  He wants a death theme for himself.


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Swann Communications' Flashlight DVR is a flashlight which can also take videos/snapshots.  It's a heavy duty flashlight, with 3 levels of brightness, and the infrared sensors provide night vision up to 13 feet.  But you can also turn it into a camcorder for taking videos (640 x 480 MPEG-4), or a camera for taking snapshots.  128MB built-in memory, but has a card slot for mini-SD, up to 2GB.  USB-enabled.

Off To France
Leo's daughter Abby is off to France today.  Leo and Jennifer are going to be a bit teary.

MST3K
Doug from Stanhope, New Jersey, knows Dick loves doing movie satire in Mad, and writes in about the old TV show Mystery Science Theater 3000, which did running commentaries on bad movies.  The creators of the show now produce just the audio running commentary soundtrack which you can download from their website, and play it at the same time as the movie.  It's at RiffTrax.


Listen to Episode 648
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A digital camera built for underwater photography, the Pentax Optio W60 operates up to 13 feet underwater, at subzero temperatures (down to 14°F, or about -9°C).  10M pixel sensor, 5x zoom (internal zoom) starting at wide angle 28mm, 720p HD video, Macro capture up to 1 cm, up to ISO1600 (or ISO6400 at 5M reduced resolution), image stabilisation, face detection.  Comes in silver or ocean blue.

For photography in deeper waters, check out the Liquid Image Underwater Digital Camera Mask Model 302 (Episode 484) - up to 30 meters.  For an underwater camcorder, see the Sanyo Xacti E1/VPC-CA65 (Episode 348).

Sleeping-In Sunday Theme
Robert Hounton has sent in a theme for Sleeping-In Sunday, after another listener's suggestion in Episode 624.  Unfortunately neither Dick nor Leo can play the file.

Flipper the Dolphin
From Flickr to Flippr, to Flipper the Dolphin, learn all about uploading your photos, and the 1960's TV series.

Dick on Audible?
Audible is now part of Amazon, and their charter is every book on Audible.  Perhaps they can get Dick to do Good Days And Mad.

PalmPilot
Daniel Bersteiner writes in response to Episode 590, the Palm Pilot.  He has been using a Palm device for 12 years, upgrading from one to another, with his current one being the Palm Treo, which has data which he entered 12 years ago.

Old-Timers
Who is Abbe Lane?  What about Xavier Cugat?  Listen to Dick's story about his encounter with Abbe Lane, and an interesting quote from Dolly Parton.

Longest Episode
This show overtakes Episode 291 (The Smart Cab) as the longest episode so far.


Listen to Episode 628
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