CES - Digital photo and video

LAS VEGAS--If Flix on Stix has its way, you may soon be downloading movies directly from kiosks to a USB flash drive.

Officially unveiling and demoing its movie service at CES this week, Flix on Stix will offer thousands of movie titles--both recent films and older titles--from its upcoming line of kiosks.

Starting in the first quarter, the company will be launching kisoks across shopping malls, supermarkets, bookstores, and college campuses. The kiosks will debut across the U.S. initially, but Flix on Stix says there's been interest from other countries as well.

Each kiosk contains a hard drive … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Capturing 3D video requires two lenses; that's how the human head does it and how 3D cameras do it. GoPro, maker of the HD Hero series of outdoor action cameras, has added the capability to capture 3D video to its bag of tricks by simply slapping a pair of its 2D cameras together.

OK, so it's not as simple as I'm making it sound, but at its core, the 3D Hero case is the high-tech equivalent of duct taping a pair of cameras together and hitting play at the same time. However, there's a bit more to it.

The case maintains GoPro's waterproof, shock-resistant design, but also includes the 3D Hero link cable. This connection joins the two HD Hero cameras by their BUS connections and allows one camera to take full control of the second, automatically syncing video capture and settings with the touch of a button.… Read more

When it comes to flash memory cards, large capacity and high data-transfer speeds usually are somewhat mutually exclusive advantages--if nothing else, to keep the costs down. But what happens when you give the product development folks an opportunity to indulge their fantasies?

SanDisk's new Extreme Pro CompactFlash card unveiled at CES, that's what.

This card from one of the premier brands in flash memory products has three superlative attributes: a 128GB capacity, a data-writing speed of "up to" 100 megabytes per second via a UDMA-7 interface, and a price tag one penny shy of $1,500. … Read more

LAS VEGAS--A year ago, Facevision introduced the first Skype-certified HD Webcam, the FV TouchCam N1, that was capable of streaming high-definition video over the Internet, turning video chat into a much better experience. It was one of a few HD Webcams at the time.

For this reason, the FV TouchCam N1 was rather expensive, costing around $120 when first released (it now has a street price of about $100).

Today, the company announced and demonstrated at CES 2011 a new version of the Webcam that offers the same capability but at a significantly lower cost, the TouchCam V1 720p HD … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Officially, the Consumer Electronics show runs for four days. But the real action happens before the show, as the world's consumer electronics companies line up to tout their latest and greatest gadgets, products, and apps via a marathon of press conferences--every hour, on the hour.

This year was no exception: 2011's "day zero" yielded a data dump of unprecedented proportions from the industry's biggest names. We're still sorting through it all ourselves, but here's a photo overview--with relevant links to earlier stories--to help put it all into perspective. Among the recurring themes … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Though ILCs may be the more interesting enthusiast cameras, the more popular market seems to be the compact, fixed-lens models, most notably the Canon PowerShot S95. Olympus forges into that market with its XZ-1, a promising-looking model that's not quite as compact as the S95, but with an exceptionally fast f1.8 lens and a sleek design that rivals models like the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 in size and operation. I had some time to play with a preproduction version of the camera--can't really make any judgments about photo quality or performance, unfortunately--and think it's got a … Read more

Running a close second to Fujifilm for the number of digital still cameras announced at CES 2011 is Sony with11 Cyber-shots. And like Fujifilm, Sony refreshed everything from its cheapest budget models straight up to the high-end ultracompact TX9, which was itself announced in the second half of 2010. There's a lot to choose from and really just about something for everyone. The only update conspicuously missing is for 2009's full-size megazoom, the HX1.

One thing's for sure: if you don't want a compact camera with a 16-megapixel sensor, you're going to have very little … Read more

LAS VEGAS--In one of the more interesting camcorder announcements at the show, Sony rolled out a line of prosumer AVCHD camcorder models with projectors built into the body. Coupled with an enhanced speaker system, the new Handycam HDR-PJ series sounds like it might offer some appealing capabilities for users who want a better way to share their videos without huddling around a smallish LCD. The projector can throw an image up to 60 inches.

With prices ranging from $700 to $1,000, they do seem a bit expensive for the potential audience, but that's unsurprising for a new technology. … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Sony rolled out three new prosumer/mainstream flash-based AVCHD camcorders here at the show. The top-of-the-line Handycam HDR-CX700V ($1,300) and midrange CX560V ($1,100) incorporate new 16:9 aspect Exmor R CMOS sensors--albeit at different resolutions--and increase the top recording bitrate to 24 megabits per second. As the "V" indicates, they also offer geotagging. Other shared features include a 3-inch LCD touch screen and a 10X zoom lens, plus 5.1-surround audio using the new enhanced mic and speaker system. And in a welcome design update, they have built-in USB cables in addition to mic and … Read more