Cutting Edge

Updated at 1:30 p.m. PDT with more information about possible applications for the camera.

For shutterbugs who like to take pictures of fast-moving subjects, nothing beats a dSLR with high frame rates to capture precious moments like scoring a goal at a soccer game or a rally car cornering at breakneck speeds. However, high-end dSLRs such as the Nikon D3 can fire off at only 11 frames per second (fps). Are there other shooters that can rattle off much faster?

Scientists at UCLA's Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have developed a novel, continuously running camera that they claim is the fastest shooter ever. In a mere second, it can capture 6.1 million shots with the shutter speed measuring 440 trillionths of a second.

By using a laser that emits different infrared frequencies to illuminate the subject, each pixel picks up individual signals that are amplified to be visible. According to the scientists--who detail their research in the current issue of Nature--this technology is called serial time-encoded amplified microscopy, or STEAM for short.

The study was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, the U.S. Department of Defense's central research and development organization. One application the researchers envision for the camera is flow cytometry, a technique used for blood analysis. Traditional blood analyzers can count cells and extract information about their size, but they cannot take pictures of every cell because no camera is fast enough and sensitive enough for the job.

The Eyeborg Project

There's a blurred line between challenge and opportunity.

Having lost his eye in a childhood accident and suffered a lot of pain, Rob Spense, a 36-year-old filmmaker, has decided to do something that'll put filming and seeing into just one eye, quite literally.

His work is called the Eyeborg project, and involves his friend Kosta Grammatis, a photographer/engineer, and a team of ocularists, inventors, and engineering specialists. The team is building a prosthetic eye that can capture and transmit video.

The prosthesis and the tiny camera it contains.

(Credit: Eyeborgblog.com)

While the idea is simple, it's a great engineering challenge. For the project to be successful, the smallest, lightest, most power-efficient technologies have to be found and implemented.

The team is using the world's smallest CMOS camera for the project. This device is about 1.5 millimeters squared. It's so small that if you sneeze while it's resting on your open palm, you might never find it again.

The eye camera captures and sends video signal wirelessly using an RF transmitter as small as the tip of a pencil. According to Kosta, the data will be sent to a recorder placed in a backpack. The eye-socket camera is powered by a lithium polymer battery that fits inside the prosthesis.

Rob and the team are currently working on a documentary about the Eyeborg Project and the experience of living with a bionic eye.

Their work could ultimately help San Francisco artist Tanya Vlach who is looking for technology to use for her own bionic eye-cam.

Sakar International announced on Monday that it has snapped up the Vivitar brand name and intellectual property from Syntax-Brillian in a move to expand its camera line into the midrange digital-camera market and gain greater visibility.

Sakar, a consumer electronics maker, plans to use the 70-year-old Vivitar brand on digital cameras priced in the midprice range of $70 to $300, stretching its current lineup from the low-range market of $20 to $100.

"Linking ourselves to Vivitar will strengthen our presence on the retail shelf while also enabling retailers to buy more product from a single source," Ralph Sasson, Sakar's chief operating officer, said in a statement that did not disclose terms of the acquisition. "We will now have an even more extensive product line at multiple price points."

Sakar markets a range of consumer electronics ranging from digital cameras and accessories to iPod accessories to digital-music players.

The sale of Vivitar's brand and intellectual property, which comes approximately two years after Syntax-Brillian acquired the camera maker and less than two months after Syntax-Brillian filed for bankruptcy protection, will move Sakar's product offering into a market that competes with the likes of Olympus' point-and-shoot model, Canon's PowerShot SD790, and Nikon's Coolpix S600.

The Nikon D700 looks to be a bit of a cross between the full-frame (FX format) D3 and the DX-format D300.

(Credit: Nikon USA)

For those who don't need the indestructibility or built-in vertical grip of a traditional pro dSLR like the Nikon D3 or Canon EOS-1D Mark III--and that's quite a chunk of the pro market--smaller, lighter, and cheaper full-frame models like the Canon EOS 5D are the real workhorses.

Plus, their (relatively) lower prices put full-frame shooting in the hands of deep-pocketed amateur photographers. Until now, that's a party at which Nikon never got to dance. But with Monday's announcement of the full-frame D700, Nikon's a wallflower no more.

The D700 looks to be a bit of a cross between the full-frame (FX format) D3 and the DX-format D300. It has the same 12.1-megapixel Expeed CMOS sensor as the D3, with its concomitantly wide ISO sensitivity range.

The D700 will also boast some of the durability characteristics of the D3, such as the magnesium alloy outside and dust and weather sealing. The 150,000-cycle shutter and dust prevention system come from the D300. Other features it inherits from both sides of the family include the 3-inch LCD, two live-view shooting modes, a 51-point AF system, and 3D Matrix metering technology.