Posts Tagged ‘nikon’

Nikon was quiet at this year’s CES, announcing just the J3 and S1 interchangeable cameras, but apparently it was just biding its time: the company’s now announced seven new Coolpix cameras, essentially overhauling its point-and-shoot lineup in one fell swoop. At the top of the lineup is the new Coolpix P520 (the successor to the P510, which will still be sold), which offers a ridiculous 42x zoom, plus an 18-megapixel sensor and a 3.2-inch tilting LCD. The $449.95 camera also comes with GPS built in, plus support for Nikon’s WU-1a Wi-Fi adapter. Big zoom and Wi-Fi are common themes with Nikon’s new Coolpix models, as is ruggedization. The $349.95 AW110 is shockproof to 6.5 feet, waterproof to 60 feet, and freezeproof to -14 degrees..

View the original here:
Nikon’s seven new Coolpix cameras bet big on huge zoom and Wi-Fi

Another year has passed, and once again research firm BCN is releasing its annual awards , celebrating the three manufacturers with the biggest shares in the Japanese domestic electronics market across a huge range of categories, from headphones to hard drive enclosures. The data comes from a list of 22 online and physical retailers, but notable exceptions like Apple’s retail operations mean that readers should be skeptical of BCN’s findings in markets like PCs and tablets. But even by BCN’s methodology, Apple still maintained the top spot in smartphones, ahead of rivals Sharp and Sony. All three of the top mirrorless manufacturers lost share So with that out of the way, what’s changed in the past year ? Canon managed to gain more..

View article:
Olympus, Sharp, Canon, and Apple still on top in Japanese market share rankings

Rumors are gathering pace that Polaroid is about to launch a mirrorless interchangable-lens camera powered by Android. Recent months have seen both Nikon and Samsung release Android point-and-shoots, and Polaroid itself was touting its own Android wares at CES all the way back in January. Today’s rumor, however, is of a very different product.

Read more here:
Is Polaroid really making an interchangeable-lens Android camera?

While time-lapse videos may be a dime a dozen these days, French photographer Stephane Vetter put together one that perfectly captures a full 360-degree view of the night sky . It’s a stunning view that was made possible through the use of an 8mm Sigma fisheye lens paired with a Nikon D3 DSLR. The end result is a great video of the starry sky spinning overhead as it did on November 17th, along with an appropriately spacey soundtrack; Vetter even labeled some of the major stars and constellations that were visible that night. While it’s only a two-minute clip, it does an excellent job at capturing and portraying the beauty found in the vastness of space .

See more here:
Watch this: 360-degree view of the night sky captured with fisheye lens

Since its release, there have been claims that the sensor in Nikon’s full-frame D600 DSLR attracts dust at an alarmingly high rate. Early anecdotal reports have since been confirmed by trusted sources like dpreview , but a timelapse video has now revealed the extent of the issue. Captured with a brand-new Nikon D600, the video shows that not only is the camera’s sensor susceptible to dust, but the dust seems to come from inside the camera itself. Canadian artist Kyle Clements shot the timelapse, and says as it progressed, he could see more and more dust appearing on the sensor.

More:
Timelapse video shows the extent of the Nikon D600′s dust issues

Popular sci-fi action figures line store shelves by the dozens, but you won’t find real scientists next to Jedi Knights and Klingons. That’s where the Heroes of Science action figures come in. The collection of famous scientists — totalling 30 in all — is based on real Star Trek toys, with 50 hours of Photoshop manipulation eventually creating a surprisingly authentic-looking ensemble. The creator limited the selection to those who were alive during the 20th century to keep things simple, but you’ll still see plenty of recognizable faces such as Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Alan Turing, and even Neil deGrasse Tyson. Unfortunately, you can’t buy any of the figures — it doesn’t look like there are any plans to create them…

View the original here:
Heroes of Science: action figures we’d love to buy

As the sound designer on the set of Lincoln , Ben Burtt was charged with the daunting task of lending aural authenticity to Steven Spielberg’s Civil War-era drama. Burtt, a Hollywood veteran whose resumé includes work on Star Wars and E.T. , quickly realized that he wouldn’t have access to audio from Lincoln’s time — sound recording only became a reality in the 1870s. — and that he couldn’t rely on standard battle sounds, either, given the subdued nature of Spielberg’s screenplay.

More here:
Watch this: creating the sounds of ‘Lincoln’ from a silent era

As promised , Finnish startup Jolla has given a first demo of its new MeeGo-based OS, Sailfish. The company, which was founded by a number of ex-Nokia employees , is currently demoing the OS at a live show in Finland, but has uploaded a promotional video to YouTube. MTV 3 Finland has a live demo of the new OS running on what looks like an old Nokia N950 developer device that’s worth checking out for a closer look at the OS. There are a few interesting UI concepts detailed in the video.

Read the article:
Jolla gives a first glimpse at its MeeGo-based Sailfish OS

Nikon this week announced the winners of its Small World Photomicrography Competition, an event that celebrates the best microscope photos of the year. The winning submission, embedded above, comes from Jennifer Peters and Michael Taylor of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, who used a confocal microscope to capture the formation of the blood-brain barrier in a living zebrafish embryo. Second place went to Walter Piorkowski of South Beloit, Illinois, who used reflected light, image stacking, and fiber optics techniques to photograph two newborn lynx spiderlings (below). You can browse through all the winning photographs here

Read more here:
Nikon’s Small World competition celebrates the best in microscope photography

Photokina is the biennial photography convention where NIkon, Canon, and all the other camera big shots compete for attention with their latest products and best new innovations. Follow this stream to learn about all the new announcements, from more affordable full-frame shooters like the D600 and EOS 6D to slim new mirrorless cams like the Sony NEX-6. Continue reading…

View post:
Photokina 2012

The leaks are certainly building up the closer we get to Photokina 2012 in Cologne a couple of weeks from now. Today’s leak comes courtesy of 43 Rumors , which has dumped a whole list of specs for Panasonic’s rumored GH3 Micro Four Thirds camera that’s apparently aimed to take down DSLRs with APS-C sensors like the Nikon D7000 and Canon 7D . The leaked specs are highlighted by a 16-megapixel sensor, maximum ISO of 12,800, the “fastest AF of any interchangeable lens system camera,” and a magnesium alloy body that’s — unsurprisingly — said to be bigger than its predecessor, the GH2 (pictured above). Be sure to check out the full specs below, but keep in mind that these are just rumor even though 43 Rumors says they come from “many..

Read the article:
Panasonic GH3 Micro Four Thirds spec sheet leaked before rumored Photokina 2012 reveal

The Enough Project, an anti-genocide nonprofit organization, released a report this week on the use of conflict minerals among leading technology manufacturers. Titled “Taking Conflict Out of Consumer Gadgets,” the report assesses and ranks each company based on efforts to eradicate conflict minerals from their supply chains. Intel , HP , Apple , and Motorola were among the organization’s highest-ranked firms, while HTC , Sharp , Nikon , and Nintendo were ranked at or near the bottom, having made little or no progress in recent years. At issue is a group of minerals including tantalum, tin, and tungsten, all of which are used to produce a wide variety of tech products. Many of these resources are mined in politically unstable countries such as…

More here:
Intel, HP, and Apple leading the fight against conflict minerals, report finds

Oh hey, it’s the famous Dan Rubenstein from SB Nation making his first appearance as host on our humble little show! Couldn’t be happier that he let us film him in a professional setting like that. Real trooper, that Dan. Turns out he knows everything there is about Google, the FTC, Facebook, and Nikon’s lineup of professional DSLRs commonly used at fast-paced events. On with the show! Stories of the day: Google to begin punishing pirate sites in search results FTC and Facebook reach final privacy settlement, agree to 20 years of audits Usain Bolt: full-time Olympic legend, part-time sports photographer

See more here:
90 Seconds on The Verge: Friday, August 10th, 2012

A new firmware update for Nikon’s 1 Series compact interchangeable lens cameras is out, and while it might not be as earth-shattering as Canon’s recent update to the 7D , it’s still worth grabbing. When shooting stills, both the J1 and V1 offer a Smart Photo Selector mode that records a number of frames and presents you with best shot candidates, and this firmware update (1.20) improves the way the camera sets your exposure, both in this mode and Programmed Auto (P). The new formula leans toward faster shutter speeds to limit the amount of blur in your shots, although at the obvious expense of slightly darker photos, more noise artifacting, and / or shallower depth of field.

Read the original:
Nikon’s 1 Series firmware update reduces blur and improves auto white balance

If you’ve been waiting for something new from the compact camera market, Nikon might have a doozy coming soon — if the latest rumors are to be believed. Nikon Rumors is reporting that the company is planning to launch the Coolpix S800 on August 22nd. The most noteworthy feature of this point-and-shoot is that it’ll reportedly be based on Android (2.3, unfortunately), and have full access to the Google Play store thanks to a built-in Wi-Fi connection. It’ll also include GPS for location tagging, a 3.5-inch screen of an unknown resolution, and a 25-250mm zoom lens. There’s no word on what sort of image sensor will be on board, but Nikon’s point-and-shoot cameras currently top out at 16-megapixels, so we’d expect something in that range.

Original post:
Nikon rumored to launch Android-based Coolpix S800 with Google Play access on August 22nd

The Space Shuttle Enterprise is on the closing leg of its journey to its final resting place. For now, it’s taking a pit stop of sorts atop the USS Intrepid aircraft carrier in New York City before being transported from this temporary home to a space more befitting of its grand size. Still, after watching NASA’s first shuttle fly across the skies of New York aboard a 747 before being ferried up the river to her current home, we couldn’t help but visit and get a close look of the spaceship for ourselves. Enterprise is currently housed in what looks quite a bit like an inflatable indoor tennis court that’s called the Space Shuttle Pavilion — right at the stern of the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum.

View post:
NASA Space Shuttle Enterprise aboard the USS Intrepid in pictures

NikonRumors is reporting that Nikon will soon replace its entry-level D3100 DSLR, seemingly corroborated by the recent appearance of “Nikon D3200 for Dummies” guide books on Amazon . The D3200 is said to bump the sensor from 14 to 24 megapixels — if true, the sensor is probably the same Sony chip found in the NEX-7, A77, and A65, similar to how the D7000 and NEX-5n share a Sony sensor. The leaked specs also say that you’ll be able to capture four frames a second, one more than the D3100, and there are apparently unspecified improvements to video functionality along with a native ISO range of 100 to 6400. Maybe most unusually for a DSLR, the D3200 is set to offer Wi-Fi connectivity.

Read More:
Nikon D3200 DSLR coming soon with 24-megapixel sensor and Wi-Fi?

Composer Sascha Dikiciyan is well known for composing the scores for a number of the most popular games of the last few decades, from Quake 2 in 1997 to 2010′s Tron Evolution . And while Mass Effect 3 is probably one of the more controversial games to come out in recent memory, many critics have high praise for its score, part of which was composed by Dikiciyan and his long-time creative partner Cris Velasco (other composers on the project include famed movie composer Clint Mansell). For those who want to know more about how the score was created, Dikiciyan has posted an in-depth breakdown of the digital and analog gear he used to record the game’s soundtrack. Among the key pieces of gear are the Roland Juno-106 synth (which Dikiciyan…

Follow this link:
Sascha Dikiciyan shows off the gear he used to record the ‘Mass Effect 3′ score

Researchers at MIT and Harvard have mapped approximately 14,000 former human settlements over almost 9,000 square miles in Syria — using satellites to discover changes in the soil that humans left behind. Using a combination of satellite photos from the 1960s, digital maps of the Earth’s surfaces, and multispectral imaging as sources, the researchers key in on anthrosols — changes in the soil caused by human waste and the decayed remnants of primitive structures. Anthrosols change the reflective properties of the soil, allowing a specialized software program to automatically process the imagery and create the maps of human activity.

Excerpt from:
Researchers use satellite imagery to discover long-lost human settlements

The Nikon D800 is officially out today in Japan, with pre-orders shipping around the country and retailers hailing the full-frame camera’s arrival. However, if you’re not one of the lucky few it looks like you’ll have trouble securing your own. Major retailers Bic Camera, Yodobashi Camera and Camera no Kitamura are all out of stock, without any estimations for when they’ll be able to get in more shipments. Bic and Yodobashi both price the body at ¥298,000 (about $3,575), while Kitamura is selling for ¥268,200 ($3,217)

See the original post:
Nikon D800 ‘out today’ in Japan, sold out everywhere

Sharing files on Facebook’s platform is getting a lot easier this week — first with the addition of Pipe for sharing big files , and now the ability to share Dropbox folders with friends using their Facebook names. Thanks to the update, you can now share a folder with someone that you’re friends with online, but whose email address you don’t have handy. To share folders with your Facebook friends, simply go to Dropbox’s share page and click the link in the top right to connect the two accounts.

Link:
Dropbox now lets you add Facebook friends to shared folders

We first officially heard about the Samsung Exynos 5-series back in November , and now we have a glimpse at what could be some additional details on the SoC. SemiAccurate has the image , reportedly captured from a slideshow presentation at the Common Platform Technology Forum, which lines up with what we knew before: the SoC will utilize a 32nm process and feature a dual-core Cortex A-15 clocked at 2GHz. While we knew the chip would potentially carry a quad-core GPU, we now see it named as the Mali T-604, however, along with theoretical rendering performance of up to 2.1Gpixels per second. It’s within the parameters of what we’ve been expecting, but with rumors breaking this morning that Samsung will be utilizing a quad-core chip in the…

Read the article:
New Samsung Exynos 5 GPU details potentially revealed

Back in February we heard word that streaming-music service MOG was on the auction block , allegations that the company’s CEO refuted. It appears there may have been some truth there after all, with Business Insider reporting that the company has indeed been acquired — by HTC’s Beats Audio, no less. BI cautions that it has only one source for its report, but GigaOm is stating it was able to confirm the two companies were indeed circulating deal terms over the past weeks. You may recall that HTC and Beats were rumored to be launching a streaming music service last month at Mobile World Congress, an announcement that obviously never materialized. HTC has been heavily pushing Beats as a differentiator in its devices since investing $300…

Read More:
MOG snapped up by HTC’s Beats Audio division?

AT&T’s back-and-forth with Matt Spaccarelli, the customer that took the carrier to small claims court for its throttling practices on unlimited data plans, appears to be over. AP reports that the carrier sent Spaccarelli a check for $850 — along with $85 for court fees — in compliance with the court ruling in February . You may recall that the carrier initially wanted to settle with Spaccarelli under the terms of a non-disclosure agreement, something he was unwilling to do, and the carrier seems to have decided to simply pay him as ordered.

Follow this link:
AT&T brings customer’s throttling dispute to an end with $850 payout

Sony has announced the A57, a 16-megapixel “SLT” (single lens translucent) camera. It’s the followup to 2010′s well-received A55 , the first camera to employ Sony’s translucent mirror technology. Body-wise it looks extremely similar to last year’s A65 , which had the same 24-megapixel sensor as the A77 and NEX-7 , but the A57 seems to use the NEX-5n ‘s 16-megapixel sensor (also found in the Nikon D7000) and a lower resolution, Tru-Finder LCD electronic viewfinder — no OLED here, unfortunately.

View original post here:
Sony A57 announced: 16-megapixel translucent mirror camera, available in April for $699.99