Kodak aims to make on-the-go 360-degree video recording simple and available to anyone via its new Orbit360, a 4K camera under its PixPro product lineup. This camera is, like action cameras before it, durable enough to handle less-than-gentle outdoor usage, as well as compact enough to easily transport. Despite this, it creates fully spherical videos for use with VR.
While camera makers like Sony, Fujifilm, and Olympus have found varying levels of success with the mirrorless camera format, Nikon has been more conservative, limiting its offerings to devices that are closer to the point-and-shoot market. It looks like that's going to change soon, as Nikon has said that going forward, all of their mirrorless cameras will be full-frame.
The latest action camera from GoPro, the Hero 6 Black, has leaked ahead of its official reveal, but not in the typical way of specs and photos making their way online. Instead, the actual camera, complete with finalized retail packaging, has been discovered at a Best Buy store in Canada. This comes well before the expected announcement/release on September 28th, but it gives us an early look at the camera's details and specs.
The Polaroid OneStep 2 i-Type Camera is a modern recreation - reboot, if you will, of the original Polaroid OneStep. The original Polaroid OneStop was made in 1977, and the subsequent line of OneStop Polaroid self-printing photo cameras made Polaroid a household name. In 2016, the company "The Impossible Project" created "The Impossible I-1", a self-printing photo camera that used self-printing photo film made in the last remaining Polaroid film-printing factory in the world.
Smartphone photography is no longer just a “nice to have” feature anymore. In many instances, it is the driving force behind some of the latest innovations in both the mobile industry as well as the camera market. It has definitely come a long way, but DxOMak’s tests, which produce its well-regarded scores, are still stuck in the early days of the smartphone camera sensor. After having not a few smartphones beat its highest records, DxOMark finally decided to update its criteria for testing smartphones, which has caused a few phones to rise up or go down the ranks.
Because of the limits of technology, we are sometimes forced to choose our battles and settle for compromises. That’s true for smartphones and it’s true for digital cameras as well. Super zoom? Yes, you can have that, but you’ll have to settle for less than speedy performance. Sony, however, is saying that you can have your cake and eat it too, so to speak. The latest addition to its Cyber-shot family, the RX10 IV, boasts of a few firsts. But its real claim to fame is combining a 24-600 mm lens with fast autofocus and fast tracking in a single camera.
While Apple may have impressed users with the cameras on the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, it obviously couldn't leave them untouched in the jump to the iPhone 8. The cameras on both the iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus have been granted a number of improvements, and all of them were detailed by Apple's Phil Schiller on stage in California today.
Love them or hate them, instant cameras are back and now Kodak has gotten into the mix. These cameras are, like Polaroid models from days gone by, models that print instant photos. These images aren't very big and they aren't the best quality, but they're a fun way to make stickers, fill out a scrapbook, or entertain the kids.
Canon and Nikon recently announced new digital cameras that were clearly aimed at the smartphone generation. Their spiel was to entice them with features that will help them graduate from their measly phone cameras. Fujifilm is following suit but is singing a different tune. it is, instead, bringing smartphone features to its mirrorless camera line, but, sadly, at the expense of some things that would otherwise make the X-E3 interesting to amateur photographers as well.
If you want connected home security, Apple’s HomeKit framework is pretty sparse. It’s one of the weak-points of the platform. The only officially listed ‘security’ device for HomeKit is Honeywell’s Lyric Controller, but it’s not available yet. There are plenty of other options available for DIY home security, but they don’t work with HomeKit. It’s a conundrum, but there’s (sort of) a fix. Instead of a proper security system, you can patch one together using cameras and sensors. It works, too – maybe even better than bespoke systems.
The action camera space might seem crowded right now, not to mention commoditized, but Sony believes it has something sufficiently different. That's the promise of high-end optics in a segment more commonly associated with ruggedness and ease of use, with Sony partnering up with Zeiss for the lenses on its new RX0 camera. However, it's not only GoPro that should be worried.
Last July, Fairphone gave its early adopters some bad news. The first gen Fairphone could no longer be supported because of the logistics and costs of discontinued replacement parts. To reassure its remaining believers that the modular phone dream is not only still alive but also real, Fairphone has announced what is practically its first upgradeable part. If you have a Fairphone 2, you will now be able to upgrade both of your phone’s cameras without actually buying a new phone. Best of all, you can perform the upgrade yourself.
