Looks like the Sigma DP1 has a date and price: according to their site, it’ll be out tomorrow for ¥89820, or about $850 US. Those that just can’t wait to find out more about this sucker should check out Pop Photo’s very early first impressions. Although they don’t have a lot of conclusions to make about it in their first 24 hours of testing, there’s certainly a sense of excitement in the air about a smallish point and shoot equipped with an over the top 14 megapixel FOVEON X2 CMOS pulled right out of Sigma’s SD14 DSLR.
[Thanks, Tano]
Read - Sigma’s price n’ date
Read - Checking out the DP1
The guys at Pop Photo have managed to get their hands all over the much-hyped Sigma DP1. Apparently, the DP1 has a build quality comparable to the solid Canon PowerShot G9, and the mega sensor monster does away with any fuss with regards to shooting options; you’ll find Manual, Auto, Aperture-priority, Program, and Shutter-priority modes for image capture, as well as QVGA video mode (320 x 240 @ 30fps) and an audio capture mode, but beyond that, there are absolutely no ludicrous scene selections to choose from. The chaps at Pop Photo found this a refreshing turn to minimalism, and we would have to agree. All in all, the hype is looking to be well founded. Checkout the full tear down by hitting the link. [Pop Photo]
Let’s not get carried away here, Minox. We can understand the slim, 18.5mm-thick form factor, and the 7.2 megapixel sensor and 3x zoom seem certainly par for the course, but a 3-inch LCD? It’s almost like you guys are trying to build a competitive camera here. Electronic image stabilization and face detection? Let’s all keep heads here, people! No need to do anything rash. There’s no word on price or availability yet, so perhaps you guys can still manage to work in some true lameness between then and now.
[Via LetsGoDigital]
Polaroid film may be gone, but for some of us with fond memories of the format — for no discernible reason, Polaroids were slow, blurry and expensive — this digital picture frame concept seems a fitting tribute. There’s a dry erase portion on the bottom, and the frame can stand on its own or be pinned to a cork board for added realism. “Standard” mode emulates a regular digital frame, while “Classic” mode slowly fades the picture into view. Yeah, maybe a little too cute for its own good, but maybe we like it that way.
[Via Gadget Lab]
It hasn’t even been a full month since Panasonic’s PMA lineup was revealed, but the folks over at PhotographyBLOG have already had a chance to put the succulent Lumix DMC-FS20 through a series of paces. Upon whipping this shooter out, it was immediately praised for having a 4x wide-angle zoom and and a very pocket-friendly design, and thankfully for those looking into picking one up, the good news didn’t stop there. Small niggles such as the lack of a true optical viewfinder and noticeable noise at high ISOs were overshadowed with buckets of compliments. Put simply, the cam was seen as “almost identical to the FX55” (albeit at a lower price point), and overall, it managed to snag 4.5 out of 5 twinkling stars from the powers that be.
While we wait patiently for camera manufacturers to realize that geotagging is a much more compelling feature than yet another megapixel, we’ll be building this DIY GPS attachment for the Nikon D200 instead. Just like the $400 GeoPic II, the box is based on a SiRF Star III chip, but since you’re building it yourself, you’ll wind up shelling out less than $100. While you’ll need a steady hand and a bit of soldering skill, it doesn’t look too hard to put together — so what are you waiting for? Instructions at the read link.
[Via Make]
Swedish designers Per Emanuelsson and Bastian Bischoff believe that their Surveillance Lamp is “Orwellian” in the sense that it is an “ambiguous reflection of their thoughts about the political future.” That’s deep and everything but the bottom line is that a lamp modeled after surveillance cameras looks pretty damn cool. The only question is whether or not it is cool enough to drop over 50,00 EUR ($7,500) on—because that is where the bidding is on Ebay right now with about 6 days left. [Ebay via Surveillance Light via Dezeen]
Oddly, it turns out the photos floating around of the DSC-W300 really don’t do the megapixel-packing slim point and shoot justice. That finish actuall looks pretty good in real life, although the lens protrusion was a little puzzling. And, of course, the DSC-H50 is a hefty, solid feeling bugger, not unlike what you’d expect from the H-series. Hit the photos below, it shouldn’t be too long before the camera sites post their reviews.
We’ve already heard a little bit about about the new and improved CFast CompactFlash card standard developed by the CompactFlash Association, but it looks like things are now starting to firm up, including word as to when the cards might actually be available. As CNET’s Underexposed blog reports, a Lexar rep says he “predicts” that the cards should start showing up in “18 to 24 months,” and that companies will “want to start working on prototype samples as soon as the specification is finalized.” The big advantage to the cards, as we’ve mentioned, is their use of an SATA interface, which not only boosts the transfer rate to a speedy 375MB/sec but, of course, also makes them incompatible with current CompactFlash-based cameras. And you thought that 55-in-1 memory card reader was future proof.
Sony is no stranger to digital cameras, as the company has professed in its press release detailing the Cyber-Shot DSC-H50, a new 9.1-megapixel shooter that should have camera fans perking up their ears. The new model — a successor to the DSC-H9 “super zoom” camera — sports a Carl Zeiss 15x optical zoom lens, a 3-inch tilting LCD display, ISO to 3200, and a long-distance flash (capable of lighting subjects from 55 feet away). The DSC-H50 also has an “advanced sports” shooting mode which allows it to utilize ultra-high shutter speeds (like 1/4000 of a second). The camera is expected to go on sale in May, and will only slightly break the bank at $400.
