November 25th, 2009

Holiday Gift Guide 2009: Digital cameras for kids

Posted by Janice Chen @ 9:51 am

Categories: Digital Photography, Holiday Gift Guide

Tags: LEGO Co., Digital Camera, Holiday Gift Guide, Camera, Kid, Janice Chen

Kids love digital cameras. Whether it’s the happy chorus of “Can I see? Can I see?” and subsequent jockeying to get a glimpse of the LCD, or the fact that you can just let them snap away randomly without worrying about wasting film, digital cameras provide a level of gratification for kids that their film counterparts never did. While it’s tempting to just pass along your old digital camera to the children when you upgrade, cameras that are designed just for kids offer features that make them better suited to the smaller set.  Here’s a list of my four favorite digital cameras for kids:

Vtech Kidizoom Plus
This is an update to my favorite kids digital camera from last year, and it’s still a winner. The “plus” version of the camera retains all of the kid friendly features of its predecessor, such as the rugged construction, two-eye viewfinder, 1.8-inch LCD, video capability, playback on TV, and on-camera games and special photo effects. It also doubles the built-in memory to 512MB (expandable with an SD card) while retaining the 2.0-megapixel resolution (which is really plenty for most young kids), bumping storage up to 2,000 photos or five minutes of video. There are all new games and new special effects, including several Funny Face liquid distortion filters that lets your child make entertaining caricatures (remember Kai’s Power Goo?).  The menus and function buttons have been updated as well, but they’re arguably more complicated. Instead of the joystick button, the Kidizoom Plus uses a four-way rocker and a new mode dial to switch functions. Volume control is now a less-intuitive two-step process though the addition of a dedicated flash button is nice. There are also buttons to control the new 2x digital zoom feature, which is fun for kids to use (though for adults digital zoom isn’t all that useful).

The Kidizoom Plus (list price $59.99) is a great camera for younger kids and comes in blue or pink versions. I’d recommend it for children about 3 to 8 years old. Non-readers will need help accessing menus and changing settings, but will still have fun snapping photos and videos until they grow into the more advanced features.

[Read product info] [Check prices]

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November 24th, 2009

Swarovski glamorizes the Olympus Pen E-P1

Posted by Rachel King @ 5:50 am

Categories: Digital Cameras

Tags: Olympus Corp., Camera, Swarovski, Pen E-P1, Rachel King

You’ll either love it or hate it, but Swarovski has taken the Olympus Pen E-P1 and bejeweled it with their traditional crystal gems.

Spreading tiny gems all over a camera isn’t exactly traditional (it sounds like a kid putting stickers all over a camera), but the jewels combined with the already retro-look of the E-P1 is downright bizarre. I think this look would work for certain personalities, and it’s actually kinda cute, in a kitchy way. (Although not everyone likes it.) And it’s definitely something you shouldn’t do to a professional camera.

But with the £1,999/$3,300 price tag, it’s no toy. A regular Pen E-P1 is more than half that price. It also won’t be easy to get your hands on, as it’s only available at Harrods’ Micro Anvika department in the UK.

What do you think of the flashy look on this camera?

November 18th, 2009

Digital cameras enable Web-based Spontaenous Smiley art project

Posted by Janice Chen @ 8:40 pm

Categories: Digital Photography

Tags: Web, Digital Camera, Camera, Digital Cameras, Digital Photography, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Janice Chen

When I read about Ruth Kaiser’s Internet-based conceptual art project, I had to, well, smile. The Spontaneous Smiley Project combines digital photography, social networking, and just pure goofiness into an undeniably appealing, feel-good communal art project.

Kaiser photographs smiley faces that she finds in everyday objects like a slice of bread, a rusty old sink, or even a rock. In February of this year, she launched a project that calls for people to take pictures of smileys they find and upload them to her Web site or Facebook page. She’s collected thousands of photos from dozens of countries across the globe and has a self-published coffee table book and a gallery show opening November 21 in Berkeley, Calif.

In an Oakland Tribune interview, Kaiser says the project has taken off because digital cameras have made photographing and sharing smiley faces so much easier. “With a digital camera, suddenly I had the ability to show (people) what I was seeing and then people would say ‘I get it.’”

In fact, on her site, she describes an example of how people have been drawn into her project:

One day as I was crouched with my camera in hand over Spilled Soda on the Sidewalk Smiley, a man came a long and asked, “What in the world are you taking a picture of?”

I showed him the Smiley. He smiled. I smiled. He went on his way.

About two minutes later, he came running back in my direction.

“Quick. Bring your camera. I found one.”

[Via The Oakland Tribune]

November 18th, 2009

Ultra-slim Casio EX-G1 is ready to take on some damage

Posted by Rachel King @ 8:34 am

Categories: Digital Cameras, Digital Photography, Waterproof

Tags: Digital Camera, Camera, Casio Inc., Rachel King

Casio’s brand new Exilim EX-G1 is being praised as the world’s slimmest and toughest pocket camera. To start, it’s ultra-resistant to extreme conditions, including water, shock, dust and below-freezing temperatures. Ready?

Read the rest of this entry »

November 16th, 2009

Casio upgrading Exilim models to EX-FC150 and EX-FH25

Posted by Rachel King @ 3:21 am

Categories: Digital Cameras, Digital Photography

Tags: Video, Optical Zoom, Casio Inc., Corporate Communications, Iso standards, Monitors & Displays, Process Improvement, Memory, Marketing, Quality

Casio has two new systems lined up for its Exilim series: the EX-FC150 and EX-FH25. Their upgrades from the EX-FC100 and EX-FH20, respectively, are very subtle, mainly some new model codes and backlit CMOS sensors, plus a few other tweaks. Read the rest of this entry »

November 13th, 2009

Panasonic debuts digital photo frame with audio

Posted by Rachel King @ 4:38 am

Categories: Digital Photography, Gadgets

Tags: Audio, Panasonic, Apple iPod, Digital Photograph, Photograph, Digital Cameras, Digital Photography, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Rachel King

Panasonic has announced the upcoming release of a digital photo frame, the MW-10, which will also feature an audio system and iPod dock. Read the rest of this entry »

November 12th, 2009

Intel announces a digital camera that can read to you

Posted by Janice Chen @ 2:48 pm

Categories: Digital Photography

Tags: Digital Camera, Camera, Intel Corp., Digital Cameras, Digital Photography, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Janice Chen

Electronic book readers like the Amazon Kindle and the Barnes and Noble Nook may be poised to take the holiday shopping season by storm, but the new Intel Reader (announced earlier this week) promises to give the gift of reading to those with vision- or reading-related disabilities. Essentially a digital camera combined with an Intel Atom processor, the Intel Reader allows users to photograph printed text and then listen to the words read aloud by a computer-generated voice. Developed by by Intel’s Digital Health Group (the original concept came from an Intel researcher with dyslexia), the new reader costs a steep $1,500, so it’s obviously not meant to compete with the mainstream e-book readers.

Check out a detailed demo video from Intel below, and read more about the device from fellow ZDNet bloggers, Christopher Dawson, Tom Foremski, and Rachel King.

November 11th, 2009

ImageSpan and Digimarc partner for new image management venture

Posted by Rachel King @ 5:00 am

Categories: Digital Photography, Web services

Tags: Image Management, Image, Digimarc Corp., ImageSpan, Business Structures, Finance, Rachel King

ImageSpan and Digimarc are announcing plans to form a joint venture dedicated to creating a program for managing and monetizing image assets at the 6Sight 2009 Conference.

ImageSpan has been been making a lot of friends lately, announcing a partnership with liveBooks a few months ago. Under this new partnership, ImageSpan, a Northern California-based image management company, will use their LicenseStream platform for processing licenses and royalties, and then publishing. Then Digimarc comes in for adding digital watermarks to images in order to copyright them and provide a link back to the photo owner from anywhere the particular image is found on the web, making them easier to purchase. The plan also calls for a Content Tracker system, in which will be constantly surfing the web of every image (sounds difficult since there are a lot of them out there), and then send reports back about where the images are being used.  Sounds simple, but how much will all of these services cost?

To read the complete release, click here. For you pro photographers out there, does this venture pique your interest?

November 10th, 2009

Ricoh GXR system details and photos officially released

Posted by Rachel King @ 6:54 am

Categories: Digital Cameras, Digital Photography

Tags: Ricoh Corp., Photograph, Camera, Camera Body, CNET Asia, Rachel King

A day after details were leaked to the web, an official announcement and photos of the new Ricoh GXR system have been released.

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November 9th, 2009

Black Friday digital camera and camcorder deal reports are rolling in

Posted by Rachel King @ 3:37 am

Categories: Deals, Digital Camcorders, Digital Cameras, Digital Photography, Digital SLR

Tags: Camcorder, Camera, Huliq News, Rachel King

For those of you who want to get prepared for your holiday shopping, and especially the best Black Friday deals, some sales are already being announced.

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