RSS
 

Posts Tagged ‘Camera’

OnePlus 5 2x tele camera uses 1.6x optical in combination with digital zoom

24 Jun

When we shot our sample images with the brand new OnePlus 5 we noticed that the dual-camera’s 2x tele-module did not quite deliver the pixel-level image quality you would expect from the 20MP Sony IMX350 sensor. Images showed low levels of fine detail and looked as if they had been upscaled which would point towards some form of digital zoom implementation.

This has now been confirmed by OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei in a tweet. He clarified that the second lens on the back uses a 1.6x optical zoom and that digital zoom is used to reach the claimed 2x zoom factor. The cropped image is then upscaled to achieve the specified 20MP image size.

The company says it is using its SmartCapture multi-frame technology to make the zoom “lossless” but arguably not everybody would agree with this term. Exif viewers show the focal length of the wide-angle and tele lenses to be 24mm and 36mm equivalent respectively which would mean a 1.5x zoom factor. However, there is a chance Exif isn’t taking the SmartCapture portion of the zoom into account.

Some other dual-cam implementations we have seen, for example on the iPhone 7 Plus are using a 2x optical zoom with a smaller sensor than the main camera. It appears OnePlus opted for the same 1/2.8″ sensor size in both cameras. An optical 2x lens would probably have required a thicker body or noticeable camera bump.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on OnePlus 5 2x tele camera uses 1.6x optical in combination with digital zoom

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Lucid VR begins sales of its LucidCam 3D VR camera

24 Jun

Lucid VR has announced the general availability of the LucidCam, its 3D VR camera.

The LucidCam captures a 180º field of view, less than the spherical 360º field of view found on many consumer VR cameras, however it does so with binocular vision, creating a 3D VR experience with a sense of depth. If you want to capture a full 360º view, three LucidCams can be combined to do so.

The LucidCam was developed with the help of a crowdfunding campaign in 2015, and while it’s just now becoming available, the wait appears to have had at least one side benefit: the camera’s original specs called for 1080p resolution per eye, but the final product will ship with 4K cameras instead.

In addition to 4K binocular recording, the LucidCam also supports live streaming through Facebook, YouTube, and Lucid’s own iOS and Android apps, so that you can share what you’re doing with friends in 3D VR. The camera also features stereo audio, 32GB of internal storage as well as MicroSD card support, HDMI out, and 1.5 hour battery life.

For those of you in the in the Bay Area, Lucid will be touring around San Francisco on Friday, June 23 to give people a chance to experience the LucidCam in person. The company will begin taking orders for the $ 499 camera on June 26, with shipments expected to begin in early August. As a promotion, Lucid will be offering a 15% discount to anyone who orders a camera between June 26 and July 26.

Press release:

LucidCam Launching into General Availability with Truck Tour of SF Landmarks

Lucid VR truck to tour SF landmarks on Friday, June 23 encouraging consumers to capture and share VR experiences with friends & family far away

Santa Clara, CA – June 21, 2017— Lucid VR is officially kicking off the general availability of its simple-to-use, pocket-size 3D VR camera, the LucidCam with a billboard truck touring photogenic San Francisco landmarks all day on Friday, June 23. View the itinerary here.

This launch tour aims at encouraging more consumers to tap into VR and bridge the distances to their loved ones by capturing and sharing experiences the same way they see them. Lucid CEO Han Jin’s vision–to create a technology that brings the world closer together through a true 3D VR camera, the LucidCam–started with a crowdfunding campaign two years ago and has now come to reality.

“It’s been an incredible journey to bring this product to life and to the masses, as initially all I wanted was to build one for myself which would capture and share my life with my grandmother in China,” said Jin. “LucidCam creates images and videos which let you for the first time see the world through someone else’s eyes as if you were really there. I want everyone to have such incredible superpowers.”

On tour day, the Lucid VR truck will visit top SF tourist sights. Anyone can follow the truck, take pictures and share them with #LucidCam for a chance to win a free VR camera. Complimentary VR viewers will be handed out at every stop. The Friday tour kicks off the one-month LucidCam preview sale which starts Monday, June 26, where the camera will be discounted 15 percent off the retail price and delivered as early as August 9, just two weeks after the campaign closes July 26.

LucidCam makes virtual reality content creation and livestreaming in 3D at very high resolutions easy, with a simple plug-n-play process flow. Consumers can create their own 3D VR without a computer or any additional processing requirements, making LucidCam an all-mobile experience for capturing, viewing, sharing and delivering immersive content either through Facebook/YouTube or Lucid’s iOS and Android app to anyone around the globe. With two lenses like your eyes and two microphones like your ears, LucidCam recreates a first-person experience, allowing people to feel like they are seeing the world through someone else’s eyes.

Exceeding the original specifications of the LucidCam crowdfunding campaign, the engineers at Lucid VR enhanced it and developed a robust 4K 3D VR camera with on-the-go VR content processing of pictures and videos, plus livestreaming capabilities. With the addition of Lucid’s viewing clip or phone case, you can create and view your own 3D VR anywhere with a click of a button.

The special LucidCam preview sale begins June 26, and includes a 15 percent discount off the retail price, with delivery as early as two weeks after the promotion ends. Retail availability of LucidCams begins in August, with thousands of units coming into the online and offline sales channels. For more information about LucidCam or to purchase the device, visit www.lucidcam.com.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Lucid VR begins sales of its LucidCam 3D VR camera

Posted in Uncategorized

 

EyeEm Selects helps you find the best images in your camera roll for posting

23 Jun

EyeEm has rolled out an update to its mobile app for Android that brings the new EyeEm Selects feature. EyeEm Selects helps you find the best photos on your phone’s storage by scanning your camera roll and then using computer vision to suggest photos to upload. Selection criteria is based on aesthetics. The algorithms picks images that are composed particularly well, have the best quality, or highest chance of selling on the EyeEm stock image platform.

EyeEm is already using advanced computer vision technology on its servers for scanning of images that have been uploaded to the service and determine their content, relevant keywords, and aesthetic quality. The app update means that some of those algorithms can now be run on your locally stored images before uploading them. Running the process locally means users save bandwidth and battery power and don’t need to worry about any third parties seeing their images if they decide to not upload them.

Selects is integrated into the image uploader component of the app. Above the camera roll you’ll now see thumbnails of the images suggested for upload. EyeEm says the feature also provides an easy way for finding hidden and long forgotten gems in the depth of your camera roll that weren’t shared right after capture. Android users can download the updated EyeEm app from Google Play now. iOS users will have to wait a few weeks longer.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on EyeEm Selects helps you find the best images in your camera roll for posting

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Caltech research team develops lensless camera

23 Jun
Image: Caltech

Smartphone cameras have improved considerably over the past few years but despite innovations such as image stacking and dual cameras with image fusion technology the cameras are still limited by the laws of physics. This becomes particularly evident when looking at the ‘tele’ lenses that have cropped up on some recent high-end smartphones with dual cameras, such as the iPhone 7 Plus or Xiaomi Mi6.

Due to space constraints in the slim smartphone bodies these lenses use smaller sensors and offer considerably slower apertures than their wide angle counterparts which makes them a lot less usable in lower light conditions. However, now it looks like a research team at Caltech could have found a solution to the problem. They have developed an ‘optical phased array’ chip that uses algorithms instead of a lens to focus the incoming light beam. A time delay which can be as short as a quadrillionth of a second, is added to the light captured at different locations on the chip. This allows for modifying focus without a lens.

Professor Ali Hajimiri says the system ‘can switch from a fisheye to a telephoto lens instantaneously – with just a simple adjustment in the way the array receives light.’ The existing 2D, lensless camera array consists of an 8×8 grid with 64 sensors and is capable of capturing a low resolution image of a barcode. The current image results are a long way from current smartphone cameras but at this point the system is only a proof of concept and potential commercial applications are a few years in the future. The team’s next objective is to use larger receivers that are more sensitive and capable of capturing higher-resolution images.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Caltech research team develops lensless camera

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Yi announces development of 180 VR camera with Google

23 Jun

Yi, which already has VR offerings in the Halo and 360 VR cameras, is announcing the development of a new, stereo 3D camera called the 180 VR. They’re working directly with Google Daydream, and promise it will be easy to use, and easy to view.

Any real details regarding the product, including pricing and availability are still to come.

Press release:

YI Technology Announces Upcoming VR180 Camera with Google

ANAHEIM, CA – JUNE 22, 2017 – Today at VidCon 2017, the annual conference for online video fans, creators, and industry leaders, it was announced that YI is working with Daydream on an upcoming VR180 camera. Later this year YI Technology will deliver a new stereo, 3D camera, designed from the ground up for VR180. Technical details, pricing, exact availability dates, quantities and the product name remain undisclosed but together with Daydream, this camera will be as easy to use and as compact as a 2D camera. And 3D videos and livestreams will be just as easy to upload to YouTube.

This camera will just be the latest in YI Technology’s growing line of advanced yet approachable virtual reality solutions, including most recently, YI Halo, the most advanced, cinematic quality VR camera ever, and the YI 360 VR Camera, the first high-end, live-streaming VR camera for everyone.

To learn more as details are announced, and to be considered for early shipments, please visit the pre-launch website, www.yitechnology.com/180-vr-camera and to learn more about YI Technology’s other current VR offerings go to yitechnology.com/yi-360-vr-camera and yitechnology.com/yi-halo-vr-camera. To learn more about Daydream’s VR180 program go to vr.google.com/vr180.

About YI Technology:

YI is the leading provider of advanced, intelligent video, imaging and computer vision technologies. We are inspired by a singular, bold vision of a future powered by widespread, intelligent, video technology, where smart cameras everywhere will make people’s lives safer, richer and more fun.

We are passionately dedicated to, and humbled by, the mission to make even the most sophisticated, ground-breaking, complex innovations useful every day to everyone from high-end professionals to kids. We work incredibly hard toward these goals across a large and growing range of offerings. But across them all we stand by a consistent set of values and standards that combine the very best technology, the very best design, and great value.

At YI Technology we are committed to the promise that such technology will extend everyone’s reach so they can…

See Everything.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Yi announces development of 180 VR camera with Google

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Videre 35mm is a build-it-yourself cardboard pinhole camera

21 Jun

In an era where everyone has a camera in their pocket, incredibly, cardboard analog cameras are having a moment. It’s easy to see the charms of Videre 35mm, an adorable, assemble-it-yourself pinhole camera that’s seeking funding as part of Kickstarter’s Gold program right now.

It’s a re-tooled version of the medium-format Videre, which was fully funded on Kickstarter in 2013 by creator Kelly Angood. Her second project, a smaller version called Viddy which took 35mm and medium-format film, was successfully crowdfunded a year later.

$ (document).ready(function() { SampleGalleryV2({“containerId”:”embeddedSampleGallery_5146472518″,”galleryId”:”5146472518″,”isEmbeddedWidget”:true,”standalone”:false,”selectedImageIndex”:0,”startInCommentsView”:false,”isMobile”:false}) });

Videre 35mm is smaller and easier to assemble than its medium-format predecessor, offering a tripod mount, redesigned film mechanism and a sturdier shutter. Angood claims that the whole thing can be assembled in about an hour, and shipping is anticipated for December 2017 – provided its $ 10,000 funding goal is reached. With 40 days to go the project has reached close to $ 4,000.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Videre 35mm is a build-it-yourself cardboard pinhole camera

Posted in Uncategorized

 

OnePlus 5 camera samples

20 Jun

Today OnePlus has launched its latest flagship smartphone, the OnePlus 5, which comes with a dual-camera setup that combines a main camera with a 1/2.8″ 16MP Sony IMX 398 sensor and F1.7 aperture with a 2x tele-lens that captures images on a 20MP 1/2.8″ Sony IMX 350 sensor features an F2.6 aperture.

We already have our hands on a production unit and our full camera review will be available in the near future. To shorten the wait until then we have posted a selection of sample images that were taken with both wide angle and tele lens in a variety of lighting situations in the gallery below.

Sample Gallery

There are 17 images in our OnePlus 5 samples gallery. Please do not reproduce any of these images on a website or any newsletter / magazine without prior permission (see our copyright page). We make the originals available for private users to download to their own machines for personal examination or printing (in conjunction with this review), we do so in good faith, please don’t abuse it.

Unless otherwise noted images taken with no particular settings at full resolution.

$ (document).ready(function() { SampleGalleryV2({“containerId”:”embeddedSampleGallery_4311077055″,”galleryId”:”4311077055″,”isEmbeddedWidget”:true,”standalone”:false,”selectedImageIndex”:0,”startInCommentsView”:false,”isMobile”:false}) });
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on OnePlus 5 camera samples

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Watch a mirror, LED, razor and a camera make the invisible visible

16 Jun

If you have a camera and a long lens, then you’re halfway toward a Schlieren photography setup. YouTube channel Veritasium demonstrates the effect in the video above, essentially revealing gasses and airflow normally invisible to the human eye. All it takes is an optical-grade concave mirror, an LED, a camera on a tripod with a telephoto lens and a razor blade.

What the camera sees with everything aligned is actually the slight differences in the refractive index of whatever’s in front of the mirror. If you light a match in front of the mirror, light from the LED will change direction slightly differently as it passes through the warmer and cooler air around the flame.

We don’t normally perceive those differences, but this setup reveals them as lighter and darker spots to the camera. The same thing happens with, for example, butane escaping from a lighter. Light passes through it at a slightly different angle than the air around it, and the Schlieren rig captures those slight differences.

Suddenly, it’s possible to see the heat displaced when you rub your hands together, or worse, the stuff that flies everywhere when you sneeze. It’s pretty darn cool, especially when played in slow motion as in the video above.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Watch a mirror, LED, razor and a camera make the invisible visible

Posted in Uncategorized

 

CIPA figures for April illustrate steadying of the digital camera market and continued mirrorless growth

10 Jun
DSLR sales continue to decline, but great news: the overall camera market seems to be stabilizing.

The latest figures released by the Camera and Imaging Products Association (CIPA) show that the total camera market remained mostly steady year-on-year for the month of April, and that mirrorless sales are growing against a decline in the number of DSLRs sold. CIPA’s data demonstrates that its member companies produced almost the same number of cameras this April as they did in April 2016, but that they were worth fractionally more.

During the period from January to the end of April CIPA members actually produced more cameras than they did in the same period last year, and even though the difference was only 3-4% by volume and value, it is still very positive news.

The decline in the Japanese market rather drags the worldwide shipping figures down from 8.4% by value, when Japan is excluded, to just under 4% when looking at the whole world. Outside of Japan the market grew year-on-year for the period Jan-April by 3% by volume and 12% by value, indicating the cameras being shipped are higher in price than last year.

While the interchangeable lens camera market grew by 7.4% in volume and 4.5% in value for the month, the bulk of that growth came from the ‘non-reflex’ sector. CIPA includes mirrorless cameras, compact system cameras and rangefinder cameras in these figures, though without the membership of Leica or Hasselblad we can assume that most of the category is compact system and other mirrorless cameras that have interchangeable lenses – such as Fujifilm’s GFX.

Asia remains by far the largest market for these cameras and sold almost as many bodies as Japan, Europe and America combined.

This non-reflex category jumped in value by 37.5% in Japan but in the rest of the world that growth hit 80.5%. An area designated by CIPA as ‘Other’, that doesn’t include Asia, Europe, Japan or the Americas, saw mirrorless growth of 141% by volume and 136.5% by value – though the actual figures are relatively small. Asia remains by far the largest market for these cameras and sold almost as many bodies as Japan, Europe and America combined.

While only 89% of last April’s SLRs shipped this April, the worldwide market for these cameras is still just less than twice the size of the mirrorless segment, though in Japan the value of DSLR market was only 57% of what was managed last April – a really significant drop.

The good news, of course, is that the market didn’t shrink.

For more information see the CIPA website.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on CIPA figures for April illustrate steadying of the digital camera market and continued mirrorless growth

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Platypod Ultra compact camera support launches on Kickstarter with more features than Pro model

07 Jun

Platypod, the company behind the compact camera support of the same name, has launched a new product on Kickstarter called Platypod Ultra. This latest model is designed for mid-size and mirrorless cameras, unlike the larger Max model and original Pro model. Ultra is compatible with the majority of pro-tier tripod ball heads, according to Platypod, though the device itself is only about the size of a smartphone, making it ultra-compact.

Platypod Ultra is thicker (4.6mm vs 4.0mm) and 10% wider than the original Platypod Pro, making it sturdier, according to the company. The Ultra model comes with four spiked, threaded feet with rubber tips on one end, enabling the device to be used at a variety of angles on both rough and smooth surfaces. The Platypod Ultra also features five threaded holes for greater balancing and positioning options.

The company has also added three new openings to the Ultra plate so that it can be transported on bags using bungie cords or carabiners; there are also three countersunk holes for screwing the plate to a surface, such as a wood post. Finally, the plate also has two belt slots for strapping the tripod to irregularly shaped or vertical surfaces. The company is including a Velcro cinch strap with the kit.

The company is also launching a multi-accessory kit with accessories for both the Ultra and Max models. This kit includes a non-slip pad, 36-inch cinch strap, 3-inch spigot adapter, and a riser for certain tripod ball heads.

The Kickstarter campaign has exceeded its funding goal with more than two weeks remaining. The company is offering backers who pledge at least $ 49 a single Ultra unit, while a $ 69 pledge will also include the multi-accessory kit. Shipping to backers is estimated to start this upcoming July.

Via: Kickstarter

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Platypod Ultra compact camera support launches on Kickstarter with more features than Pro model

Posted in Uncategorized

 
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »