Blackmagic Designs has announced it is shipping its Raw-video-shooting Pocket Cinema Camera and is reducing the price of its original, larger Cinema Camera. The Pocket Cinema Camera is built around a ‘Super 16mm’ sized sensor (12.5 x 7mm) and can shoot Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) or lossless compressed CinemaDNG 1080 footage at 23.99, 24, 25, 29.97 or 30p. Meanwhile the company has knocked $ 1,000 off the price of its original, 2.5K resolution Raw-shooting Cinema Camera model.
Just posted: Our quick review of the Autographer from OMG Life. Billed as the ‘world’s first intelligent wearable camera’, it’s designed to take pictures automatically triggered by the output from five built-in sensors. The camera has a super wideangle lens with a 136° angle of view, a 5MP CMOS sensor, and 8GB of built-in memory for image storage. It also has Bluetooth for connection to a smartphone. It’s certainly intriguing, but how well does it work?
Feeling old? Photoshelter has published a humorous list of 17 signs that you were around before digital photography became the norm. For those of us that were, the list is a nostalgic look at some tools and accessories that have fallen into disuse, as well as a reminder, possibly, that some things remain useful, even in the digital age. If you’re too young to remember anything before digital, you should take a look at the list anyway. You might learn something.
Consumers need to think about sensor size rather than pixel count, says Aptina’s Sandor Barna, because larger image sensors are likely to appear in all types of devices. Barna, the Vice President and General Manager of sensor maker Aptina’s Consumer Camera Business Unit, spoke to us about the challenges facing compact cameras, the niche that will continue to exist for them, and hints that more large sensor compacts are on their way.
If you haven’t seen the 600,000 pixel, 360 degree Tokyo panorama that’s flying around the internet, clear your schedule for the next hour and take a look. It’s a work from photographer Jeffrey Martin, who previously documented London in a similar fashion. With a lot of storage and processing power, Martin captured the photo with a Canon 7D, 400mm F5.6L lens and a robotic assistant. Click through and check it out.
GoPro has updated its iOS and Android apps with more robust control and sharing capabilities, allowing you to share pictures and videos directly to the usual social networks. In addition to viewing the content stored on your GoPro, users can now share clips and stills without leaving the app. Right now it supports Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, as well as email and text, but it’s indicated that support for other apps is on its way as well. Click through for more details on connect.dpreview.com.
The Japanese imaging manufacturers association, CIPA, has just released its global shipments report for the first half of the year, and there’s not a lot of good news in it. Between January and June 2013 Japanese manufacturers shipped just short of 30 million digital cameras – that’s a 45% drop in a single year. And it’s not just point and shoots in decline: SLR and mirrorless sales are down too. More after the link…
Alongside the enthusiast-oriented DMC-GX7, Panasonic has announced the Leica DG Nocticron 42.5mm F1.2 – the fastest autofocus lens ever created for the Micro Four Thirds system. If you’re getting a sense of deja vu that’s because Panasonic actually announced this lens already (sort of) at last year’s Photokina tradeshow in Cologne, Germany. But what was then a dummy lens behind glass now appears to be a real product, albeit one without any firm availability date or pricing information.
Panasonic has announced the Lumix DMC-GX7 – the follow-up to the DMC-GX1 – which is its first mirrorless interchangeable lens camera to include in-body image stabilization. This 16MP, rangefinder-style camera also includes a high-resolution, widescreen EVF that can be tilted upwards 90 degrees. Panasonic claims that their newly designed Live MOS sensor improves both detail and color saturation by 10%. Other features of note include a tilting LCD, a ‘silent shooting’ mode, focus peaking, 1080/60p videos, and Wi-Fi with NFC capability.
Prior to its announcement today, we had the opportunity to use Panasonic’s new high-end Lumix DMC-GX7 mirrorless interchangeable lens camera. As well as a redesigned 16MP Live MOS sensor, the GX7 features a tilting camcorder-style EVF, a tiltable rear LCD screen and a silent mode designed to capture full-resolution still images without the mechanical shutter. Click through for our hands-on first impressions review.