Cameras

From the time Lytro launched its first consumer Light Field Camera in March, the company has been clear that the Lytro you buy today will be able to do much more in the future.

For example, as of today, current Lytro owners can get a firmware update via the desktop software (available for Mac and Windows) to add some more control over the camera, including shutter speed and ISO.

Without control over shutter speed or ISO, most low-light shots I've taken end up looking like the above -- grainy with poor color. That's because the camera ramps up … Read more

With the Photokina show in Germany producing so many new high-end cameras, it's evidently been a busy season for Adobe Systems' Lightroom team.

That team just released Lightroom 4.2, which supports 22 new cameras, 43 new lenses, and lets people shoot with 11 new cameras tethered to a computer. It takes work to figure out how to decode each camera's proprietary raw format.

Here's the full list of new cameras supported, but note that the Nikon D600 support is "preliminary and there is a minor risk that the appearance of your images may change when … Read more

Studio photographers dissatisfied with recent events in the world of Canon SLRs might take heart at a fleeting glimpse of a possible 46-megapixel Canon EOS 3D.

That glimpse came from Nine Volt Photo, a maker of equipment to help photographers help take photos with cameras tethered to computers. It said it found a reference at retail powerhouse B&H Photo after an "inadvertent search for a Canon 3D."

The company shared a screenshot of the page list with specifications including a 46.1-megapixel CMOS image sensor, dual Digic 5+ processors, a 3.2-inch LCD, and dual CompactFlash … Read more

Shutterbugs who've used lens hoods -- an invaluable accessory for reducing stray light to improve image contrast -- know how frustrating it is to try to cap one's lens with the hood in the way. To prevent photographers from misplacing their lens caps or damaging their lenses, Taiwanese accessory makers have created a nifty accessory that combines both accessories into one.

The Hoocap features a simple design. It's a hood with two retractable doors; when not in use, the doors flip down to form a shield.

Judging by pictures of this contraption, it does seem to add … Read more

COLOGNE, Germany -- A decade ago, a cataclysm rocked the photography business as digital image sensors replaced fim.

It turns out that was just the beginning.

At the Photokina show here, it was clear a second wave of change is sweeping through the industry. Cameras produced during the first digital photography revolution looked and worked very similarly to their film precursors, but now designers have begun liberating them from the old constraints.

Three big developments are pushing the changes: a new class of interchangeable-lens cameras, the arrival of smartphones with wireless networking, and the sudden enthusiasm for full-frame sensors for … Read more

Apple has filed a handful of patent applications that suggest future iterations of the iPhone and iPad will have dramatically improved camera features.

The seven patent filings -- filed on Thursday and first discovered by Patently Apple -- describe gesture techniques and technology for preventing red eye in images.

The abstract for patent application No. 20120242852 outlines mapping user interactions to input the parameters for various image filters, as well as applying "location-based distortions" to image processing. … Read more

Imagine turning a street corner and coming face-to-face with... yourself?

It could happen, if you've ever been captured by the Google Street View cameras. For his Street Ghosts project, artist Paolo Cirio prints human-scale pictures of people found on Street View and posts them where the shots were originally taken, thus placing the digital imagery firmly in the physical world.

"In this project, I exposed the specters of Google's eternal realm of private, misappropriated data: the bodies of people captured by Google's Street View cameras, whose ghostly, virtual presence I marked in Street Art fashion at … Read more

Popular camera accessory maker Joby -- known for its unique Gorillapod tripod -- recently launched its new 3-Way Camera Strap during Photokina 2012. Compared with typical neck straps, this camera strap can be configured into a wrist, neck, and shoulder strap by simply toggling a switch.

The strap, which retails for $39.99, comes in the form of a base plate, which has a universal thumbscrew that can be attached to the tripod mount of most cameras. The 3-Way Camera Strap features a Dyneema Cord -- a very strong material rated to hold more than 100 pounds that can be … Read more

COLOGNE, Germany -- Leica may not have the mass-manufacturing clout of Samsung or the retail footprint of Canon or the electronics know-how of Sony. But the German camera maker has got one thing in spades: a brand.

And nowhere is that brand more obvious than at Photokina, the camera show that takes place every two years here in Germany, Leica's home turf. Canon and Nikon had bigger crowds, but the Leica had the better ratio of booth visitors to customers as it introduced a new top-end rangefinder camera with new electronic abilities, a lower-end rangefinder that's not quite … Read more