nikon

Concept 360-degree panorama cam draws lots of interest, little understanding

Update, 5/30/07: I knew this wasn't the first concept of its kind, and sure enough, our own Candace Lombardi had covered one in a previous life. Cedric Tay's 360 Degree Digital Camera even won a European design award.

While it lacks the visceral impact of the film version shown to the left, designer Ye Chen's hypothetical digital camera optimized for shooting 360-degree panoramas has the advantage of being a lot smaller and cooler looking. The camera concept, posted today on the Yanko Design site, incorporates a rotating camera lens, essentially turning the entire camera body … Read more

Digital camera shipments up 6 percent

Digital camera shipments increased 6 percent to 4.9 million in the first quarter of 2007, market researcher IDC said Wednesday.

Top leaders were Canon at 21 percent of the market, Sony at 16 percent and Kodak at 13 percent. Samsung jumped from 4 percent in the year-earlier quarter to 11 percent this year, propelling it to a fourth-place finish, IDC said.

Kodak fared better, with shipments increasing 5 percent--the first growth in five quarters, attributable to its emphasis on compact cameras costing between $200 and $300, IDC said. Nikon, though, didn't fare as well.

"Nikon was seventh … Read more

All the glory of the universe, in a single Flash app

Every few months, I come across something on the Web that completely blows my mind. This morning, a friend of mine sent me a link to Nikon's Universcale Web app. It puts the entire universe into proportion, from the smallest particle to the largest measurements of space.

From the femtometer to the light year, Universcale spans 40 magnitudes of measurement into a single cosmic Web application. It's really amazing when you zoom all the way out into stars and galaxies and then realize that every time you go a magnitude higher, everything you saw before, from the flea … Read more

Nikon's 10.2-megapixel D40x

Just in case the D40's 6-megapixel sensor was keeping you from making the plunge into the world of digital SLRs, Nikon has just announced the D40x, which sports a 10.2-megapixel sensor. Despite the larger pixel count, Nikon still manages to bump the new camera's continuous shooting speed up to three frames per second for up to 100 shots, compared to the D40's 2.5fps. If you often shoot in very bright conditions, you'll appreciate the D40x's wider range of ISOs, which stretches from ISO 100 to ISO 3200 (Nikon calls it H-1). The D40 … Read more

Smile, say blub blub blub....

We said they were coming and here they are.

Fantasea, in addition to its many other underwater housings, is now offering them for the Nikon D-80 and the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi. Both housings are each available for $1,099 from Fantasea and can withstand a depth of up to 200 feet under water.

For you Nikonians out there, the Fantasea FD-80 comes with a standard port (18-70mm zoom lens), but you can also buy interchangeable port accessories for different SLR lenses. Functions that work with the casing include: mode selection, menu, ISO, auto-focus mode, metering mode, exposure compensation, … Read more

Nikon trips the light enthusiastic

This spring, Nikon's Coolpix P series of compact cameras--a steady, solid, mainstream family of midprice models--will be welcoming its geeky uncle Coolpix P5000 to live in the attic.

With the P5000, Nikon belatedly returns to the the market with an enthusiast-oriented compact. With features such as the full set of manual and semimanual exposure modes and a flash shoe, the black P5000 looks ready to take on the Canon PowerShot G7. And, in fact, it has many similar specs: a 10-megapixel sensor with maximum ISO 1,600 (ISO 3,200 at 5 megapixels), optical image stabilization, a 2.5-inch … Read more

A cacophony of Coolpix cameras

It's spring, and new cameras are in the air. With the PMA expo in Las Vegas early next month, companies are already announcing their newest cameras. Nikon just revealed a handful of compact shooters to use when it's finally warm enough to leave the house again.

If you were to put the Coolpix S50 and the S50c next to each other, you probably wouldn't be able to tell them apart. They look alike, they shoot alike, they have the same 7-megapixel sensors, 3x lenses with mechanical image stabilization, and 3-inch LCD screens. Despite these similarities, these two … Read more

Stepping up to SLR

I am considering upgrading from the Canon Powershot SD400 point-and-shoot digital camera to a digital SLR. Fortunately, Nikon just introduced the Nikon D40, and at $599.99, it is reasonable enough for me to consider making it my first SLR camera. Canon even dropped the price on its EOS Rebel XT kit by about 20 percent just to keep up with the D40's fierce competition. Based on the success of the Nikon D50, I'm betting the D40 could make me fall in love with SLR cameras. Don't get me wrong, I still love my PowerShot because it … Read more

Nikon's new everyman dSLR

Confirming what the blogosphere so graciously leaked over a week ago, Nikon has officially announced its new entry level digital SLR, the 6.1 megapixel D40. A followup to the company's D50, the D40 includes the same processing engine as the D200 and the same 420-pixel sensor 3D Color Matrix Metering II metering system found in the D80, while sporting a body that makes it the smallest Nikon dSLR to date.

One of the most interesting things about this camera is its new graphical user interface. Rather than the usual text-centric interface, Nikon has developed a cute and intuitive … Read more