You'll have to watch the video to see just what happened. But if you're here for the giveaway, know that you're going to get a Watto cup-topper. Not a lava lamp. Sorry.
The Typhoon HD4 camera
(Credit: photobucket.com)The world as you see it can be so much more amazing in slow motion. It's then that you can really take time to appreciate the forces of nature.
With that in mind, Australian underwater cameraman Bali Strickland, and Dylan Longbottom, an Australian world-class surfer, teamed up to capture the waves of Micronesia's Caroline Islands. With the help of the BBC's Natural History Unit, they were able to capture the stunning vortexes created by the monster 12-foot waves--and Longbottom riding through the barrel.
The task was done in advance of the BBC's new documentary "South Pacific" with a special camera called TyphoonHD4. This $100,000 high-speed cam can operate in super slow motion and can shoot in high definition at 20 times the speed of a normal HD camera.
The camera had been specially modified for the job, requiring a special housing unit designed for high-speed filming by Rudi Diesel, a German high-speed cameraman/technician. This was the first time this type of camera has been used for underwater filming.
Technically, the TyphoonHD4 camera features an advanced CMOS sensor with ultra high light sensitivity of 1,000 ASA and an HD resolution of 1,280x1,024 pixels (720p). It support max frame rates up to 200,000 frames per second.
Obviously, this is not some HD camera you can get at Best Buy and operate by yourself, but take a look at the gorgeous footage below and you'll wish you could.
The HP Photosmart C8180 isn't cheap, so we wouldn't recommend you throwing down $400 for this multifunction unless you're an amateur photographer who needs a top-notch printer and won't mind waiting more than a minute for each photo.
We just finished testing the C8180 (full review), and we were impressed by its built-in LightScribe drive. LightScribe is a direct disc-labeling system that uses lasers to burn an image directly onto the disc. The LightScribe system is meant to eliminate the smudges and peeling that inevitably happens with sticker labels, and the fact that Hewlett-Packard decided to include this proprietary method in the c8180 speaks to the popularity of the media. Feel free to insert your opinion: do you use LightScribe yourself or do you prefer the old sticker way?
Unfortunately, the c8180 isn't without its faults. First, there's no auto-document feeder, so forget about scanning and copying stacks of paper. Second, the printer is so slow that we recommend you pick up a hobby to occupy your time while you want for the tray to spit out your photo. We ran our standard speed tests and the c8180 couldn't even print one photo per minute! The standard rate came out to about .66 photos per minute; like we said, slow. Good thing the prints themselves look great because HP would have to be crazy to think that anyone would wait more than a minute per photo if it were anything less than flawless.
(Credit:
Crave UK)
Life moves too quickly for us pathetic humans, with masses of fascinating activity happening too fast for our meagre brains to interpret. So thank heavens for high-speed cameras.
These marvelous inventions can capture thousands of frames per second, allowing a producer to slow down the footage so we can see exactly what happens when someone is punched in the face. One second of action can be played over several minutes, and without any apparent loss of playback smoothness--so we can see what it looks like when you throw tiny pies at a wasp. Now that's progress.
The following 20 clips are, we feel, the most amazing slow-motion videos ever made. We'd love to know what you think at our our forum. First up in the collection: food.
(Source: Crave UK)
Who gives a hoot about bumping compact cameras from 10 megapixels to 12 megapixels? It's time for some digital camera features that will really open up new photographic possibilities.
A prototype Casio camera that can shoot video at 300 frames per second
(Credit: Casio)Enter a prototype Casio is showing at the IFA consumer electronics trade show in Berlin. The camera can shoot 60 frames per second at its full 6-megapixel resolution, Casio said. And in video mode, it can shoot 300 frames per second. In contrast, even Canon's $4,500 photojournalist-oriented 1D Mark III can shoot 10.5 frames per second (though doubtless with higher image quality) and newer compact cameras' video modes only hit 60 frames per second with a teensy 320x240-pixel image.
This sounds like a lot of fun to me, and some of the sample photos and videos on the Casio site make me want to go try one out. I'm sure any number of parents would love to go capture some new footage of the kids' T-ball progress, and there probably is a golf pro somewhere would could recoup an investment in this camera in two hours by critiquing clients' swings. And how about science fair projects?
As an added bonus, Casio said the camera has a 12x zoom ranging from 35mm to 420mm equivalent--a new direction for Casio. And it's equipped with sensor-shifting technology to compensate for shaky hands and help in dim light. The camera uses a CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) image sensor.
Casio is mum about when the camera will go on sale, how much it'll cost, or how many floodlights you'll need to get good results out of that high-speed shooting. The company did add, however, that it's working to further improve performance.
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