Ricoh mirrorless camera

Ricoh will have a presentation of a mirrorless APS-C camera on November 12th, 2009. The camera will be available in December 2009. I am expecting more details in the next few days.
This is the information I posted two months ago on this rumor:

Ricoh is working on a compact camera based on Pentax’s K mount. It’s not clear if they would use the exact K mount or the M 4/3 approach by keeping the mount diameter in-tact and reducing the distance so that older K mount lenses still can be used via an adapter and a new series of new “micro K mount” lenses will be introduced.

Posted in Ricoh| Tagged | 12 Comments

New exciting technologies coming soon to a camera near you

  • The first video is of a flexible OLED prototype, by Samsung: It’s a 2.8″ display (166ppi), and it’s just 20 micrometer thick (source):

  • The other news from this week was Epson’s announcement of a mass production, high-end EVF panels. Some details:

epson-evf-panel

Features of the new panel

  • Compact – small 0.47-inch diagonal screen enables compact, thin cameras
  • High resolution – high pixel density with SVGA resolution (800 x RGB x 600, 1.44 megapixels)
  • Color filter – not affected by color breakup that occurs with fast-moving subjects and panning shots when using a field-sequential color system

Advantages when used in a DSLR camera

  • High resolution enables easy focusing
  • Can capture images as they are seen
  • Viable alternative to optical viewfinder
  • Avoids the blackout of optical viewfinders when shooting video
  • Enables smaller cameras by eliminating need for mirrors and pentaprisms
  • Eliminates mechanical time lag caused by mirror

SDXC-Memory-Card“The new SDXC specification provides up to 2 terabytes (TB) of portable storage capacity to store weeks of high-definition video, years of photo collections and months of music. It will accelerate SD interface read/write speeds up to 104 megabytes per second for the first phase. It can be used in cameras, camcorders, mobile phones and other consumer electronic devices. The SD Association will have a road map for a data transfer bus interface speed of 300 megabytes per second in the coming months.”

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Leaf entry-level Aptus-II 5 digital back now official

UPDATES: link to datasheet and camera compatability. The new product is now also on Leaf’s website:

Leaf-Aptus-II-5

This was reported as a rumor few days ago, now it’s official:

“The Aptus II 5 sports a 48x36mm sensor, and offers an ISO range of 25-400. It is available in four mounts, allowing the back to be used with Hasselblad H and V cameras, Contax 645 and Mamiya/Phase One’s 645 bodies. The entry-level back retails at £5995 +VAT.”

leaf-aptus

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Samsung’s new backside illumination CMOS sensor

new-smasung-sensor

Google translation:

“Korean Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Is, CMOS back radiation can increase the sensitivity of the sensor (BSI: backside illumination) to commercialize a technology to mass-produce the product was 2010. Now, CMOS sensor all three major companies back to 2010 was irradiated with CMOS sensor technology (BSI CMOS type sensor) will begin mass production. Samsung is the appropriate approach to adopt low-cost process technology.”

Sony already has a backside illuminated sensor (see here and here for more info) in two of their p&s models (Sony WX1 and Sony TX1). It seems that Samsung will also use their sensor for smaller cameras. Introducing this technology to a DSLR camera may not be appropriate based on this interview with Sony’s CMOS Exmor R sensor developers.

Nikkeibp via Pentaxforums

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20MP imaging and 720p video coming soon to your phone

texas-instr

Texas Instruments developed a coprocessor that supports 20MP imaging and 720p video for the phone industry. A matching sensor is yet to be developed.

Press release after the break:

Read More »

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Polaroid back to life in 2010

polaroid-logo

The new owners of Polaroid (Petters) decided to bring back to life the Polaroid instant camera in 2010.

Press release after the break:

Read More »

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Is that the new mirrorless, interchangeable camera system from Sony?

Few weeks ago Sony mentioned that they are interested in a mirrorless, interchangeable camera system and now I have this in my hands:

click on image for larger view

click on image for larger view

I am just confused by all those pdf type Sony rumors. I went through many different camera models and could not find one that looks like the camera pictured above. Thoughts?

Posted in Sony| Tagged , | 28 Comments

Leaf to announce a new, entry level Aptus digital back

leaf-aptus

image source: BJP

In an interview with BJP, the CEO of Leaf Dov Kalinski said:

“We’ll be announcing shortly the release of the Aptus 5, an entry-level product. We see a need for entry-level products with aggressive pricing to respond to the changes that are happening in the market.”

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Sneak peek into the Photoshop labs

Posted in Adobe| 8 Comments

New Olympus m4/3 camera to be presented on the ZOOM.experience 2009 show?

According to this dpreview thread Olympus has send “mailshots” about their presence on the ZOOM.experience 2009 show that will start on October 31, 2009. Why is this news interesting? Remember this teaser?

olympus-ep2

Olympus EP2 is coming folks!

Posted in Olympus| Tagged | 6 Comments