Photo Rumors » Future of Photo Equipment

French company announces microdisplay with SXGA resolution

PR admin — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 17:30:52 +0000

The French company MicroOLED announced a 0.61 inch diagonal, 5.4MP microdisplay to can provide SXGA resolution (1280×1024). As IR noted, this resolution is more than double of the Sony's XGA (1,024 x 768 pixel) OLED panel that is currently used in the Sony NEX-7, a77 and a65 cameras. This is what the CEO of MicroOLED Eric Marcellin-Dibon said about their new product:

“We are really excited by the market potential of our new 5.4 million pixel density 0.61 inch diagonal OLED microdisplay that is superior in picture quality to any product in its category. This OLED microdisplay is already creating quite a stir among world leaders in imaging products who commend the high pixel density and the remarkable image quality. Moreover, the current trend in replacing optics with electronics components fits excellently with our ability to produce this exceptional picture quality in miniature format. We see many opportunities opening up in existing applications and new markets as a result.”

Ducati Sogno digital rangefinder concept design

PR admin — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 01:22:12 +0000

Dan Anderson created this Ducati Sogno digital rangefinder concept design:

MIT’s new camera can do 1,000,000,000,000 frames per second

PR admin — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 02:51:18 +0000

“You can think of it as slow motion,” Andreas Velten, a postdoctoral researcher who is a member of the design team, said during a recent technical presentation. “It is so much slow motion you can see the light itself move. This is the speed of light: there’s nothing in the universe that moves faster.”

Read the entire article at NYTimes. Here are two videos that captured traveling light shot at one trillion frames per second:

Via PetaPixel

CompactFlash Association announced XQD – a new memory card standard

PR admin — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 07:15:33 +0000

The CompactFlash Association announced a new memory card standard called XQD. The new memory cards will be slightly bigger than standard SD cards and provide write speed of 125MB/sec and higher:

CompactFlash Association Announces the Recently Adopted XQD(TM) Specification as a New Memory Card Format

Cupertino, California – Dec. 7th, 2011 – The CompactFlash Association (CFA) is pleased to announce the release of the XQD specification as a new high performance memory card. This XQD specification is based on the PCI Express® specification, which provides a solid base for future performance scaling.

The CFA has adopted a new card specification with exciting performance and storage capabilities.

The key features of the XQD format include:

Optimized form-factor

Dimensions : 38.5 x 29.8 x 3.8mm
Durable & Robust

Scalable High Performance Interface

PCI Express: 2.5Gbps today and 5Gbps Future

Actual Write Speeds

Target 125MB/sec and Higher

To distinguish the new memory card format, an XQD compatibility mark has been created as shown below.

“The XQD format will enable further evolution of hardware and imaging applications, and widen the memory card options available to CompactFlash users such as professional photographers,” said Mr. Shigeto Kanda of Canon, chairman of the board, CFA.

XQD cards will be shown at the CompactFlash Association booth at CP+ 2012, February 9-12 in Yokohama, Japan.

Licensing for CFA members will start in early 2012. Please contact the CompactFlash office for more information.

Apple iCam concept camera

PR admin — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 22:31:49 +0000

Similar to the Leica i9 concept and the WVIL hoax, this Apple iCam concept created by Antonio DeRosa uses the iPhone as the core for a mirrorless camera system:

Via Petapixel

Two fingers air concept camera

PR admin — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 21:23:41 +0000

This two fingers air camera is designed by Yeon Su Kim. The concept camera is operated by your fingers gestures. The images/videos are transferred to your smartphone via Bluetooth:

"If you want to click pictures, wear the camera band on your thumb and the shutter button on your forefinger and gesture to click a pic. To take videos, simply curve your fingers to mimic a video camera grip and shoot. The tension from the finger movement triggers the shutter button to operate."

Yankodesign via Petapixel

13 crazy camera concepts

PR admin — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 04:54:45 +0000

The Edna camera:

“It brings autofocus capability to these lenses through a shifting image sensor. With its horizontal mirrored design it is equally easy to handle for left- and right-handers. A distinction between the Nikon & Canon camera lenses and the HCI makes the platform accessible to the user.” (designers: Vuk Jakovljevic, Marko Doblanovic, Szilveszter Buzasi & Bernhard Ranner

The Rotor 360 camera offers a new way of navigating through the menu:

“The column consists of several cylinders stacked on top of each other forming a set that in would fit into the camera. To access the features and menus, just drag the thumb on the cylinder are in order to rotate each function. Each cylinder would correspond to a line displayed on the screen.” (designer: Charlie Nghiem)

The Sling Shot camera guarantees your pictures will have unique face expressions (designers: Sung Young Um & Jung Eun Yim):

AXIO camera:

"There are no tactile buttons, just a simple on/off switch. The touchscreen lets you navigate the menus but for the most part, the experience is quintessential point & shoot. Questionably, the lens is surrounded by a blue LED meant to indicate when it’s on but one can assume, the lens might pick up unwanted flare." (designer: Christos Ragias)

Another camera concept (designer: Mac Funamizu):

Butter-Fly camera concept (designer: Joh Minhoo)

2Duo concept camera (designer: Ahlim Son):

Micro Four Thirds camera concept with touch screen and an ergonomic handle (designer: Daniel Spönemann)

REC camera concept has a rotating display that shows what’s being captured in the frame (designer: Dongyeon Kim):

3D concept camera (designer: Michal Bonikowski from Mindsailors):

The next OnAir camcorder concept is made for live broadcasting and can record what’s in front and behind the camera where the user’s face shows up as a blurb on the main screen (designer: Jung Hoon Lee):

The UCIM camera concept takes USB memory sticks instead of memory cards (designer: Jung Eun Park):

The SLOW camera concept:

The SLOW concept turns your mobile phone into a camera that gives you control over three built-in lenses - fixed, macro and fisheye (designer: David McCourt):

To operate, slide the front face open and insert your mobile phone.
Turn the lens to select which lens effect you want.
The Slow Photography camera has three lenses; fixed focal length, macro and fisheye. Carefully compose your shot by looking through the viewfinder and push the shutter release to capture your shot.

Via Yankodesign

New image compression format: JPEGmini

PR admin — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 00:38:44 +0000

Megapixel has an interesting article on a new image compression format called JPEGmini that is compatible with the existing JPEG and allows the file size to be up to five times smaller without any visible loss of image quality. You can try JPEGmini for yourself by uploading your own photo on their website.

Appcam: a brand new operating system for cameras

PR admin — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 14:22:05 +0000

Appcam DSLR camera

Appcam is a new project promising to introduce a new operating system for cameras. Similar to the iPhone, Appcam will introduce "camera-apps" which will be controlled with a touchscreen. Here are some of the advantages listed on their website:

The Appcam is easier to handle
The Appcam is faster to handle
The User-Interface is clearly- arranged
There is only one operation logic
While using the Appcam it won’t longer be necessary to go through complicated camera-menus and submenus
The arrangement of the control- buttons on the Appcam’s user interface is no longer set by the producer. Each control can be individually configured, to the specific liking of the user or depending on the shooting conditions.
Handling and configuration of the Appcam are intuitive and very easy- studying the manual will not be necessary.

Appcam compact camera

This digital camera can print photos on any surface, but is it real?

PR admin — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 04:04:00 +0000

The PrintBrush 4X6 is a camera that can print in color on virtually any surface. The printing process is done by sweeping the device over a flat surface:

The PrintBrush is developed by Alex Breton who spent 11 years and $10 million for the development of the device. Expected release date is early 2012.

I am really doubtful if this thing is real - remember the WVIL camera or the invisible camera? What do you guys think?

Via PetaPixel

The WVIL camera strikes back

PR admin — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 01:40:15 +0000

Do you remember the WVIL camera (Wireless Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens) and their "tricky" video during CES 2011? They are back again with another video:

Artefactgroup via Gizmodo

Digital film design concept

PR admin — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 00:48:56 +0000

After the RE-35 April Fool's prank, a group of students from Hongik University designed another "digital film" concept:

While we are on the digital film topic, you can read few interesting comments from someone who used to work for Silicon Film back in 2001 in this thread (search for Jon). I am expecting/hoping Jon will share some more details about Silicon Film in a future guest post since his NDA has already expired.

Yankodesign via Petapixel

Is this invisible camera possible?

PR admin — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 15:05:45 +0000

Updated - this is a 100% hoax since the camera will be "shipped" a week form Friday - on April 1st...

This video describes "The Invisible Camera" which is a see-through plastic box with a pinhole that can completely isolate the film from the ambient light and take a correct exposure. What do you think, it this real or a hoax?

Apple iCam concept camera

World’s smallest camera

PR admin — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 02:49:00 +0000

World's smallest camera compared to a needle

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany have created the world's smallest camera with dimensions of 1 x 1 x 1 mm. The camera has 62,500px resolution, can take 250x250px images and is very cheap to produce.

Via PetaPixel

New sensor technologies

PR admin — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 22:51:00 +0000

Bidirectional OLED microdisplay combines a sensor and a display on the same chip by integrating photodiodes between the OLED pixels:

This technology was developed by the the Fraunhofer Institute. For now the demo chip is only monochrome with 320x240 display and 160x120 camera, but there are plans for higher resolution displays (VGA and above). Here is a video (in German) describing this technology:

Few weeks ago the Silicon Valley startup Pelican Imaging came up with a technology to improve image quality by placing 25 micro cameras in an array. A specially designed software that creates the final image by combining the data from all 25 cameras:

Next is the the "Eyeball camera" developed at Northwestern University and University of Illinois:

"The tiny camera combines the best of both the human eye and an expensive single-lens reflex (SLR) camera with a zoom lens. It has the simple lens of the human eye, allowing the device to be small, and the zoom capability of the SLR camera without the bulk and weight of a complex lens. The key is that both the simple lens and photodetectors are on flexible substrates, and a hydraulic system can change the shape of the substrates appropriately, enabling a variable zoom."

Some camera concepts

PR admin — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 21:38:00 +0000

The first camera concept is developed by Lucas Ainsworth and is called Capture 180 - it takes a 180° hemispheric photograph and allows the user to view an image beyond the dimensions of a standard image. By moving the large LCD display on the back, you can see different portions of a previously taken picture:

The second concept, designed by Han In Kyung, is for a floating dual lens camera called "Underabove" that can take images simultaneously above and under water. The LCD screen combines the images taken from above and under water:

Next is a cardboard pinhole camera by Yoo Geun-hyuk & Yoon Bo-jung:

The last camera is actually real and will be available soon. According to the product website, the Poco Pro will be:

"The world's thinnest, full 1080P high definition pocket video camcorder, is also the world's smallest 14 Mega Pixel compact digital still camera, and the same size as a credit card."

Via Petapixel and Engadget.

Fly’s eye camera a.k.a. panoptic camera

PR admin — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 01:38:34 +0000

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland created a panoptic camera that resembles a fly's eye - it has 100 cameras and the combined image is rendered on a computer providing a 360° view in 3D. The camera is also able to measure the distance to an objects and can potentially be used in the car, movies and video games industries:

Via Gizmodo

MIT camera can take pictures around corners

PR admin — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 05:04:42 +0000

Interesting news reported by BBC - MIT created a camera that can produce an image of an object that is not directly visible by sending a laser beam and creating an image from the bounced light of the object:

"The prototype uses an ultra-short high-intensity burst of laser light to illuminate a scene. The device constructs a basic image of its surroundings - including objects hidden around the corner - by collecting the tiny amounts of light that bounce around the scene."

Professor Ramesh Raskar from MIT explains that an image can be captured without direct line of sight, similar to the way the echo bounces around until it reaches our ears:

Watch the video on BBC or read the original paper for more information on "Femtosecond Transient Imaging".

Connectivity: key to camera market growth in the next 5 years

PR admin — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 17:35:50 +0000

InfoTrends published a report (digital camera market forecast for Western Europe) in which they outline that connectivity will play a major role in the camera development over the next 5 years:

“Sharing images instantly with friends and family is becoming a more important aspect of photography. Smartphones currently provide this ability, but digital cameras generally do not. Consumers will soon come to expect that cameras will interface with any device that they use to store, share, manage, and print their photos. As connected devices become more widespread, cameras will need to become connected to compete.” (Mette Eriksen, Director at InfoTrends)

What is a Plenoptic camera?

PR admin — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 17:35:11 +0000

Plenoptic technology is developed by Adobe and it lets you select which part of the image you want to be in focus. A Plenoptic camera contains an array of microlenses between the front lens and the sensor and it captures a series of small images from different viewpoints that can later be extracted and manipulated by special software in order to reach a certain depth of field during postprocessing.

Todor Georgiev is one of the scientist from Adobe that worked on that project and on his website I even found a picture of the the first plenoptic camera on the market produced by the German company Raytrix: