Yanko Design » Cameras

Take In The Whole 180 Degree View

Radhika Seth — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 07:56:15 +0000

Adding a new dimension to photography is the Intel Capture180 Camera. Taking a tangent from the mega-pixel war, and data storage issues, the Capture180 Camera brings in the news with its Virtual Reality imaging proposal. It uses a 180 degree fish-eye lens to capture 180 degree hemisphere and stores the information as meta-data within each shot, allowing the camera’s viewfinder, a digital picture frame, or your computer screen to come alive with the images.

The 180 degree fish-eye lens captures quite a wide view of the shot.

The warped photos are unwrapped in-camera into a hemisphere of image, and everything outside of the traditional picture frame is stored as meta-data. When viewing photos, position sensors allow the camera’s viewfinder to act as a window into a still moment in time. If it’s a photo of fireworks, you can point the camera over to the left see the faces of the people sitting next to you- it’s like the camera never left the place. The extra meta-data also means that photos can be recomposed long after they’ve been shot. Photos can be cropped down or up, and this pretty much eliminates the need for the user to point. The whole scene is captured with each shot, and one or multiple photos can be composed from the scene later.

Designer: Lucas Ainsworth

What? No Display On This Cam!

Radhika Seth — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 07:00:59 +0000

You got that right! No Display! So every time you take a picture it’s like throwing a dart in the dark, you never know what pose, angle or subject you may capture. Not knowing is sometimes better, because this ways you can capture “real” pics v/s artificial smiles. Oneshot Camera has more tricks up its sleeves: it needs a good shake to produce its own power (through piezoelectricity), no confusing buttons, just click pics like how you click a ballpoint pen. Face recognition software and light measuring software manage the show and biggest thing of all…there is no display! See your handiwork by uploading the pictures on the computer using the mini-usb.

The one thing that comes to my mind about its palm-sized iteration is that we live in a world where there are freaks who could misuse this feature. However keeping such freaks aside, I think the concept is neat.

Designer: Tino Klaehne

Camcorder In My Palm Is Good For Left And Right Handers

Radhika Seth — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 07:00:49 +0000

Yes, the form of the camcorders has certainly toned down, but the Pioneer Hi-def seen here takes the cake. It’s palm-sized, high-def, has a lens that pivots up and down with a display that is fixed at an ideal angle. What’s nice is that the form is symmetrical, so that both lefties and right-handers can use it conveniently. And since most of the controls are accessed via the touchscreen, they come alive only when required.

Designers: Dan Harden, Sam Benavidez & Hiro Teranishi for Whipsaw Inc.

Typical Girlie Camera

Radhika Seth — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 09:45:35 +0000

Oh come men, this could be awesome for the little girls in your life; so give it a fair chance and read on! Yea tweens can get intimidated by technology, they do find it cute that Big Daddies like Sony offer them color options like hot pinks and reds, so when a concept like Samsung Blossom DPS Camera comes up, it’s like butterfly-times again! Simple to operate and with uncomplicated features, this camera is cute-a-vicious for one feature alone, the power to photoshop the pics via the cam.

Here are the highlights:

Full touchscreen navigation with a simple menu and no complex buttons to use.
There is a touchup function that allows the user to use software like Adobe Photoshop to tweak pics. That’s how the girls get to distort the enemy’s face while making themselves look gorgeous!
On the side of the camera is a nozzle beneath the cap, when hooked to the comp via USB, this nozzle can be used to touch up photos, fix red eyes, or blur the background like DSLR photos by pressing this nozzle and touching simple applications on the screen.
The embossed logo is a comfy grab whilst clicking pics and the popped up shell protects the lens.

A typical girlie look in appropriate colors (Hint: Barbie or Hanna Montana co-branding) along with special photoshop features makes this better deal than picking up those con jobs currently available!

Designer: Hyun-mook Kang

Shooting Film

Chris Burns — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 07:01:50 +0000

Just the other day I was thinking about how amazing it would be to be able to hold a camera with one hand and “shoot it” like a pistol. What a bunch of ease that would be – but it’d be impossible to do! It’d look just like a gun, right? And what sort of place wouldn’t suspect you of wrongdoing when you’re carrying what appears to be a firearm? Tuh-dah! Florent Cuchet’s got the solution: the sport-oriented “Trigger” camera.

Super simple. Super kawaii.

NOTE the title is a bit deceiving as this camera will inevitably be a digital camera, thus no “film” – but you being such intelligent folks, I’m sure you got the idea right away.

What Cuchet’s done here is to take the traditional camera and par it down like one of those for-children cameras. What this camera is is super simplification. It has only a few options on a toothed click-wheel: “movie, classic snapshot, and moving snapshot.” With the “moving” option being the one that’s got the super-high shutter speed for those traveling a billion miles an hour on their skateboard.

I’ll take the first tester if you want, Cuchet!

Designer: Florent Cuchet

Going Pro on a Budget, Olympus E-3 Review

Long Tran — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 07:10:27 +0000

It’s not the newest kid on the block but the Olympus E-3 still produces amazing pictures. The 2008 flagship model faces stiff competition but fans are loyal because of the amazing Zuiko optics, splash-proof magnesium body, and the world’s fastest autofocus. I took the E-3 and the Zuiko 12-60mm SWD lens to the San Diego Zoo for a test run. The results are impressive.

The E-3 was one of the first SLRs to embrace Live View and tho pros may poo-poo the feature, it’s incredibly useful when shooting at odd angles. The screen flips out and swivels 360º revealing Olympus’ most high contrast LCD screen ever. Compared to the E-volt line, it’s like night and day.

I’m not sure if newer SLRs have taken the title but in 2008 the Zuiko Digital SWD 12-60mm coupled with the E-3 had the world’s faster AF system system. The latest SWD (Supersonic Wave Drive) focuses twice as fast as previous Zuiko lenses and the speed is highly appreciated with shy animals at the zoo.

I’m totally smitten with the high shutter speed too, 1/8000-second! Even the fastest animal was no match. You can even set the camera to shoot at the highest quality setting at 5 frames per second. The 10 megapixel sense delivers some amazing prints. Day or night, noise levels were at a minimum and photos never looked soft. Everything is tack sharp with no chromatic aberration.

Being a pro camera, there are no automatic settings. You can choose between shutter and aperture priority modes or go full manual. Navigating the menus is pretty easy tho a bit awkward since at times you have to press two buttons at once.

As an avid Nikon user, nothing comes close to their VR (vibration reduction) technology but the E-3’s optical stabilization is no slouch either. It compensates for camera movement up to 5 steps EV. In fact, every SWD class Zuiko lens has built-in optical stabilization so even those most action oriented photographers will love it.

The E-3 is priced at $1,399 body only. Olympus’ flagship SLR is a little long in the tooth but advance and pro photographers will find it has more than enough power. Toting around the magnesium body was a little tiresome but that’s what Olympus is known for – durability in conditions other SLRs would fail in. Some of the world’s best nature photographers use Olympus glass and now I understand why. With very little muss and fuss I was able to take some amazing captures. Little benefits like ISO 100 made shooting in bright sunlight a non issue. I won’t give up my Nikon anytime soon but Olympus is quickly becoming my second favorite choice.

What we loved:

High-performance 10.1-megapixel Live MOS Sensor
RAW capture is exceptional
Amazing metering for HDRI
The World’s Fastest Auto Focus
All controls are easily accessible
1/8000-second high-speed, high-precision shutter
Exclusive Supersonic Wave Drive Image Stabilization System
Four-Thirds lens mount with Digital Specific Lenses
Live View shooting
2.5-inch swivel Live View LCD
Supersonic Wave Filter Dust Reduction System
100% accurate optical viewfinder
Rugged magnesium-alloy construction
Supports CompactFlash Type I/II, Microdrive, xD-Picture Card (Dual-Slot)
11 point full-twin cross AF sensor
ISO 100 – 3200
7 Picture modes

What could be improved:

Can’t delete photo after you take it. You have to go into preview mode
Long lithium ion battery charge time
LCD screen is an improvement but still lackluster compared to Nikon
No HD movie mode like current flagship competitors

Company: Olympus [Buy it here]

Ten Creative Camera Concepts

Radhika Seth — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 12:49:54 +0000

The camera is one gadget that gets me jittery. We have come a long way from the pin hole to the digitalized era; but the abundant options and navigations in the current ones leave me all confused. One time, I almost managed to ruin my African Safari photographs coz I forgot to switch the focus from manual to automatic! However, here is a look at ten concept cameras for the future that are conspiring to leave me as the amateur photographer, while you folks become the pro.

10) The Canon Snap by David Münscher

A single button interface and small enough to fit like a ring, this camera is for those whimsical sorts who upload every moment of their lives on social sites. Almost like a finger’s point of view!

9) Flying Stick Camera by Tsunho Wang

Using kinetic energy to power it, the Flying Stick is like those fascinating straw helicopters we used to get at the beach. Rub it between your palms and whoosh it away! I’m sure it will capture your bald plate perfectly!

8 ) Triops Digital Camera by Franziska Faoro

Don’t want a chopper camera, no worries play catch with it. Three protected fisheye lenses capture the moments of joy in a panoramic way, every time you throw these beauties.

7) Samsung SS700 by Jin Woo Han

Wow, imagine a camera that doubles up as a display. Imagine the amount of money you will save on those digital photo frames! Wow!

6) Touch Sight by Chueh Lee, Liqing Zou, Ning Xu, Saiyou Ma, Dan Hu, Fengshun Jiang & Zhenhui Sun

A digital camera for the visually impaired sounds like an oxymoron to me! Jokes aside, the Touch Sight has a lightweight, flexible Braille display sheet which displays a 3D image by embossing the surface. Neat, very neat!

5) Fun Camera by Jian Guan

Adding the fun element to the art of photography, this camera will give us a fisheye distortion view of the pics that we take. You can even click funny pic of yourself thanks to its magnifying glass iteration.

4) Skyros by Siddharth Kambe & Dipti Hanako Kambe

From the heavens above…or more closer, say 120 feet and then all the way back to its base; Skyros captures images at regular intervals and brings them back for you. Almost like hooking a cam to a boomerang, only this one flies up further and is safer.

3) eXtreme Compact Digicam by Camillo Vanacore

An all-weather, all-terrain coolpix camera, answer to my prayers?

2) Panoramic Digital Camera by Hye-Jeong Yang

Ok, so we recounted cameras that fly, soar and even one which we can throw. So let’s do a different motion, how about one that spins and captures all that it sees on the trip?

1) USB Digital Camera by Sungwoo Park

This no-fuss-pot is my kinda camera, click it…load it and view it. Simple as that!

The World Through My Eyes

Radhika Seth — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 07:45:41 +0000

How would images look if we captured them on a camera that was based on the Human Eye? Taking into consideration our field of vision, optical sensory and the brain’s perception of images, George Milde has developed the Human Eye Camera. This device combines modern technology with digital postproduction. When the light hits the “eye” of the camera, it is spread via a prism onto three arrange-able sensors. And like the digitalized version, this one too offers the RAW format, which is variable in focus and focal length. The outcome of images is like a stitching or overlay of pictures. Like a panorama picture that’s been curved and distorted coz the brain did not flatten the peripheral view.

Designer: Georg Milde

This is a James Dyson Award Entry, You can vote for it here.

Self-Aware All-Sports Steady-Cam

Chris Burns — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 07:10:58 +0000

Not quite on the level of chwarzenegger or Optimus Prime, but it’s getting there. The Chasercam intelligent sports-camera comes basically in two parts: the camera (with base), and the sensor target. When activated, the camera turns on it’s base and up and down, seeking in all directions the sensor target. What you do is stick one to the person doing the tricks, and one to the person who is chasing the person doing the tricks. Total coverage!

Gotta strive for total coverage. You can’t exactly do that too well with the head-cams of today, where whenever you, the film person, have to watch where YOU are going on your own bike, or skateboard, or snowboard, etc. – you’ll be crashin! Now you haven’t got to worry about that!

With the camera base sitting on top of your head, the camera seeks automatically – and in a steady manner – the target. The target, safely attached to the athlete, is a sure shot for where the action is.

Designer: Bastian Albinus

A Totally Different View

Radhika Seth — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 07:00:27 +0000

360° View is an outdoor camera system that captures the exotic thrills of extreme sports from amazing angles. The setup consists of three small waterproof video cameras with adapters, a display module and an external trigger. This means you get three different perspectives of the particular trick or maneuver. You can either place the cams stationary or mount it on the athlete via the adapter. What’s interesting is that if no help is around, the athlete can independently record the tricks via the external trigger.

In the mood of being vain? Hand over the 360 view module to your pals and let them get live streaming of your action. Best three tricks can be later uploaded to your YouTube account. Go ahead, and be a SHOW OFF!

Designer: Senka Agic