That satisfying clunk of the mirror swinging up and away, the rapid-fire clatter of DSLRs going into burst mode, could be on its last legs. Well, for Sony Alphas at least.
The company has confirmed that its translucent mirror tech, most recently confirmed to be coming to the A77 and earlier shown on the A55 and A33, will be coming to the entire Alpha line.
The sensor actually captures light through the mirror itself, which is just reflective enough to allow for real-time focusing even while capturing video.
It’s something of a bold move in the generally stoic DSLR market, and only time will tell whether it helps to boost Sony’s street cred up to Canon and Nikon levels.
A dark shadow has befallen the Sony NEX-3 interchangeable lens camera, the shadow of being described as “no longer in production” by its maker’s official website.
Coming out in June of last year alongside its more celebrated NEX-5 brother, the NEX-3 enjoyed some decent success with critics, mostly owing to its oversized 14.2 megapixel sensor, and showed no signs of struggling commercially, however Sony has seen fit to halt production within eight months of its introduction.
Reasons haven’t yet been given, though we imagine people were willing to spend the extra cash to upgrade to 1080p video recording and a magnesium alloy body on the NEX-5, which is what rendered the NEX-3 expendable.
At least we know the NEX-5 and the NEX-VG10 will keep E-mount lenses going into the future, so current NEX-3 owners should have little to worry about. If anything, their camera just became that extra bit more exclusive.
We had a feeling the Olympus XZ-1 would be a winner, and Digital Photography Review seems to think so, too — it called the 10 megapixel, full-manual point and shoot “the best photographers’ compact currently available” at the end of a thorough review.
Most of the praise was heaped on that F1.8-2.5 Zuiko lens, providing an “unbeaten combination of range and brightness” whose potent, detailed low-light performance was practically enough to cancel out the publication’s worries about the lack of a adjustable noise reduction setting.
Though the publication admitted that the camera lacked the customization of certain Micro Four Thirds cousins, it didn’t miss most of the advanced controls, preferring the streamlined menus and manual dials for easy access to common adjustments. (Battery charging over USB and a dedicated movie button were also deemed nice touches.)
In fact, the only major ding DPReview had for Olympus was the complete omission of auto exposure and autofocus locks for focus-and-recompose shooting, but if you’re willing to snap shots using Olympus’s 11 AF points and aren’t looking to tote a set of expensive interchangeable lenses around, this might be the one. Dive into our source link to find out for sure.
Digital photography has come a long way since it started to catch on in the 1990s. While even your high-end smartphone may take pictures that look like crap, a real digital camera can make even the stodgiest photographer forget about film.
The Hasselblad H4D-60 is probably the most expensive digital camera in the world. This DSLR camera has an astonishing 60 megapixel 40 x 54 mm sensor.
Aided by the Absolute Position Lock processor, Hasselblad’s True Focus system allows the photographer to focus on the composition without constantly fiddling with the focus. Read the rest of this entry »
Remember that patent for a manual-and-electronically-zooming Nikon lens?
The rumor mill thinks it knows where it belongs: in Nikon’s unannounced CoolPix P500, an update to the company’s already-ludicrously-lengthy P100 that adds a 36x optical magnifying glass and bumps the backside-illuminated sensor to a full 12 megapixels of resolution.
That camera will reportedly bow in February, but April is when Nikon will allegedly bring out the big guns — the EVIL, market-molding monster of a mirrorless camera it’s been teasing since last summer.
Hit up our source links for all the scuttlebutt you need.
Samsung just introduced a slew of new cameras at CES earlier this month, but it’s now already back with another batch, which consists of five low to mid-range point-and-shoots in its ST series.
Those begin with the $100 ST30 model, and move on up to the ST65, ST90 and touchscreen-equipped ST95, before topping out with the $230 ST6500 (pictured above), which packs a 16 megapixel sensor, a 5x optical zoom, 720p video recording, and the same touchscreen interface as the ST95.
As for the rest of the lot, you can expect to get between 10 and 16 megapixels, either a 3x or 5x optical zoom, and 720p video recording on all but the ST30. Head on past the break for the press releases with the complete specs, and look for all five cameras to be available in February or March.
Like the Sony A560 DSLR but need a few million more pixels at your disposal? That’s basically what you get with the A580, a successor to the A550 and doing basically everything the A560 does — but with a 16.2 megapixel sensor.
So it sports 1080i recording, a 3-inch tilting LCD, and 7fps burst shooting, but can’t match the continuous autofocus of the funky Sony A55 and its mystical, magical, translucent mirror and overheating sensor.
Overall performance and image quality are said to be good, with minimal noise up to ISO 1600 and fancy modes like HDR built in. All yours for about $899.
Back when cameras took pictures on this weird ribbony stuff called film, taking good photos took practice and talent. But as the digital cameras have come of age and their prices fallen from levels requiring the sale of an organ to something more accessible, taking great photos has become easier than ever.
Nikon’s new D3100 is no different: a large-format 14 megapixel CMOS sensor means the camera gathers more light per pixel, making shooting in low light situations easier.
It’s also Nikon’s first DSLR to shoot full 1080p HD film at 30 fps, making home porno home movies a cinch. Comes with a great lens that allows for both wide-angle and telephoto shots. The full list of features is too extensive to print here, so follow the jump to get your geek on.
$700 Check It Out
Samsung’s had this thing with the angled lenses lately. Apparently the camera is much more ergonomic when pointed down 25 degrees — which is probably a much less natural shooting position as well, but we’ll leave that up to you to decide.
Anyways, the company’s newest such beauty, the SMX-C20UN, features a 2.7-inch display, 1/6-inch (680K) CCD sensor, 10x optical zoom, SDHC storage, and support for H.264 video.
As is usually the case nowadays, video can be edited on the camera and uploaded directly to YouTube — perfect for capturing those embarrassing v-blogs before you sober up and your social filter kicks in. Available now for $200.
