Crave

The camera industry is in the throes of a digital photography revolution. But a new version of Nikon's 300mm telephoto lens announced this week, a $5,900 model intended for professionals, shows at least some parts of the photography market are constant even as the rest is overhauled.

Nikon's new 300mm f2.8 lens

(Credit: Nikon USA)

Digital photography is profoundly different from the film era for many reasons. Here are some: new image sensors can enable photography in conditions too dark for film. The same camera can shoot video and still shots. Cameras can record not just when you took a photo, but where you took it. It's easy to publish photos globally on the Internet or to alter them significantly with software. And steadily increasing computing power lets cameras do everything from detect smiling faces to correct lens shortcomings.

And yet islands of stability remain. The high-end lens, with its complex optical engineering and premium pricing, is one of them.

Many SLR users don't venture beyond the kit lens that comes with their camera--an 18-55mm zoom that's reasonable for indoor shooting and basic tourist photography. Those who want to photograph the kids' soccer matches can step up with a telephoto zoom--usually one reaching to 200mm or 250mm and costing a few hundred dollars.

So why all the extra price for a bit more focal length to reach 300mm?

(Credit: Crave UK)

In the year Olympus declared an end to the megapixel race, we've seen all kinds of exciting, innovative, and occasionally insane new digital cameras.

This new generation of cameras no longer relies on the myth of megapixels to seduce you: you're tech-savvy enough to know that more megapixels don't necessarily mean better pictures. These days manufacturers have to think outside the box to differentiate their products. Way, way outside the box.

From interchangeable lenses to built-in projectors, GPS, and Wi-Fi; from touch screens to extra screens to 3D pictures and transformed sensors, we run down the cameras with unique selling points, and decide if they're a stroke of genius or a hopeless gimmick.

Read more of "Gimmicks are the new megapixels: The new generation of unusual digital cameras" at Crave UK.

Photochromic lenses that allow you to walk from inside to outside without putting on UV-filtering lenses have been around for decades. But the technology is just making its way to contacts.

The contact lens on the left contains photochromic dyes that darken in the presence of UV light.

(Credit: Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology)

Traditionally, these light-to-dark lenses have been constructed by coating a normal lens with a photochromic dye. When UV light hits the dye, the individual molecules expand, darkening the lens and absorbing light. Coating contacts, however, doesn't work so well.

So researchers at the Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology in Singapore have laced contacts with a matrix on nano tunnels filled with these photochromic dyes. Not only has the team been successful in producing transition contacts; these contacts darken in the presence of UV light faster than standard lenses (just 10 to 20 seconds).

The researchers are now working on isolating the photochromic material to just the corneal region of your eye, granting you all of the UV filtering without turning your entire iris black.

But until they graft the timeless style of a Wayfarer onto my eyeball, I'll pass.

This story originally appeared on Gizmodo.

Is this camera EVIL?

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

Words have always been considered powerful, mystical things--the story of the Golem is merely one example that pops into mind--but they take on more prosaic power when it comes to search engine optimization.

While there are lots of reasons why SEO is important from a content provider standpoint, as a writer/editor I really only care about one thing: will people be able to find a particular product review when they search for it?

There are just some categories that defy consensus; I still don't know what to call all those camcorders that compete with the pioneering Flip, ending up with unsatisfactory choices like "mini camcorders" or "budget camcorders" simply because they'll turn up the right models when people search.

So I'm taking a different approach for cameras like the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1, Olympus E-P1 and their ilk.

Frankly, I hate all the possible category descriptions. While "EVIL" (Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens) is the catchiest, it seems to have some Sony-related roots (pause here to appreciate that a search on "Sony" and "evil" brings up rootkit memories), not all of these cameras have or will have EVFs.

They started their lives referred to as "hybrid" cameras, but they're not really hybrids--they don't really mix different species of products. And at this point "hybrid" has really become associated with cars.

I kind of like Mirrorless Interchangeable-Lens Camera, and think it most accurately reflects the category, but "MILC" is too precious for me. Interchangeable-lens camera seems to be the most popular, and I've tentatively settled on that. But is it too hard to search on?

Some simply refer to them as Micro Four Thirds (MFT) cameras, which works for now since all of the current models adhere to the MFT standard. But that won't be true forever--or even for the near future, unless Samsung surprises us. And while "system cameras" may accurately reflect what they are, it doesn't really distinguish them from SLRs, which are the original system cameras

So I ask you: please vote on what we should call them. And if you have any better ideas, leave 'em in the comments.

Engineers are developing contact lenses with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights.

(Credit: University of Washington)

Contact lenses have traditionally been engineered to help the visually impaired see the world around them more clearly--to attain perfect, or close to perfect, vision.

But why not super vision? Why not a lens that could superimpose holographic driving control panels over a pilot's otherwise normal view? Enable Web surfing on the go? Provide a virtual world for gamers that covers their entire field of vision instead of just a plasma screen?

Engineers at the University of Washington have been asking just that as they manufacture first-gen versions of the bionic eye in the form of contact lenses with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights.

"Conventional contact lenses are polymers formed in specific shapes to correct faulty vision," writes Babak A. Parviz, an associate professor at UW who heads a multi-disciplinary group on electronics in contact lenses, in the September 2009 issue of IEEE's Spectrum. "To turn such a lens into a functional system, we integrate control circuits, communication circuits, and miniature antennas into the lens using custom-built optoelectronic components. Those components will eventually include hundreds of LEDs, which will form images in front of the eye, such as words, charts, and photographs."

Tamron's new 17-50mm lens gets vibration compensation.

(Credit: Tamron)

Tamron has updated its higher-end 17-50mm zoom lens with its vibration compensation technology to counteract camera motion.

The company released a 17-50mm model with a constant F2.8 aperture last year, but updated it with vibration compensation to a new model called the SP 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di II VC. Tamron added the new feature "without materially increasing its size and weight," the company said.

But one thing is different: price. The earlier version costs about $450--and note that it's not being discontinued--while the image-stabilized version costs about $650. Tamron is selling a Nikon version initially and a model for Canon SLRs shortly afterward, it said.

(Credit: Omax)

Personally, I'm not a big fan of wide-angle optics, though I have to admit this glass comes in pretty handy when snapping landscape shots. However, camera accessories maker Omax thinks its lenses can be put to even better use.

The company engaged Publicis India to create a series of advertisements that depict men seemingly taking pictures of innocent subjects. Somewhere in the frame are women (mostly scantily clad).

From a creative standpoint, I think this idea is brilliant. It is a humorous take on gender stereotyping while offering an alternative use for wide-angle optics. But from a technical point of view, the voyeur in the ad will probably have to use a fish-eye lens if he wants those women in his camera sight.

(Source: Crave Asia via Gizmodo)

Nikon 70-200mm VR II

(Credit: Nikon)

Improving on two already-popular Nikon lenses, Nikon today announced the new AF-S DX Nikkor 18-200mm f3.5-5.6 ED VR II, and the new AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 G ED VR II. One is a popular FX series lens, the 70-200 f2.8, which has long been a staple for working professionals due to its fast aperture and versatility. And one is a popular DX series lens, the 18-200mm f3.5-5.6, which is one of Nikon's best sellers for the simple fact of its amazing versatility in a single lens. Both new lenses share Nikon's latest image-stabilization technology, Vibration Reduction II (VR II) for reduced blur from camera shake. VR II is said to compensate for up to four stops, allowing the shooter to shoot handheld up to four shutter speeds slower. The VR II on both lenses has two modes: a Normal mode for general usage, and an Active mode for when there is constant vibration; an example given was shooting from a moving car.

Nikon 18-200mm VR II

(Credit: Nikon)

The AF-S DX Nikkor 18-200mm f3.5-5.6 ED VR II with its 35mm equivalent range of 27-300mm offers amazing range, and is a lens capable of most everything. It now features two Extra-low Dispersion (ED) lens elements for enhanced sharpness and minimized chromatic aberration. There are also now three aspherical lens elements for improved image quality. The lens has Nikon's Super Integrated Coating for reduced flare and ghosting. Nikon has added a zoom lock, which allows you to lock the zoom ring when the lens is at 18mm to prevent the zoom ring from extending while carrying the lens, a welcome addition.

The AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 G ED VR II lens is the latest improvement on what has long been a basic piece of equipment in most pro shooters' gear bags, with its fast aperture and telephoto range, and for much less than the 300mm f2.8. It now features a total of seven ED lens elements for improved sharpness and contrast, even at its widest apertures. It now has Nikon's Nano Crystal Coating for a reduction in flare and ghosting, on top of the SIC coating that it already had to minimize ghosting and flare in images. There is also Nikon's Silent Wave Motor for quick and quiet autofocusing, and it has the ability to take full advantage of Nikon's 3D autofocus tracking systems in cameras such as the D3x, D3, and the D700. To round things out there is a nine-bladed aperture diaphragm for a nicer bokeh, the softness of the out-of-focus part of an image shot at a wide aperture like f2.8.

Both of these lenses will be available in September 2009 with the 18-200mm f3.5-5.6 VR II going for $849.95, and the 70-200mm f2.8 VR II going for $2,399.95.

(Credit: Canon Inc.)

In the first significant improvement Canon's made in its optical stabilization technology in a few years--I think the last major update was the SuperRange OIS in its camcorders--the company announced a new Hybrid IS technology that adds angular velocity sensing to its current bag of OIS tricks. While its IS system already has a sensor to detect rotation, the new velocity sensor is intended to detect the speed of rotation and thereby compensate more precisely. (Here's a simulation of how the current lenses work, and here's a nice PDF white paper on how angular velocity sensors work, written about Epson Toyocom's gyro-sensor.)

While this is the first angular velocity supplementation in a still camera stabilization system that I can find, it sounds quite similar to the implementation of the Active Steady Shot system in Sony's latest crop of HD camcorders, which also use angular speed detection and lens shift correction.

Canon USA says it will ship a lens using the technology by the end of the year. While I think the initial roll-out will probably be in a refresh of some popular pro long lens, especially given the timing, I don't think the implementation should be very expensive or large, the two things that would preclude it from appearing in consumer lenses. And shaky-handed consumers need the OIS boost more than pros, though the latter could certainly benefit. I'm guessing there'll be an 18-55mm IS II when Canon replaces the T1i next spring.