Cameras, Printers & Scanners - Page 7

If you've ever wanted to get into 4K video, which comes in resolutions of 3840x2160 or 4096x2160, up until now it has been an expensive adventure. Usually you'd grab one of the RED One, Scarlet or Epic cameras, but they're many thousands of dollars, and not really consumer-based hardware.

But, a Canadian company, Point Grey Research Inc. is designing, researching and manufacturing the 4K-capable Flea3 webcam all in Canada. The camera is poised to become the next-generation of technology in surveillance, while providing some insane levels of details for those who need it in a security setting.

Flea3 is one of the world's first USB 3.0-based webcam, capable of delivering 1920x1080 at up to 150 frames per second, or 4096x2160 at up to 21 frames per second. Flea3 sports Sony's Emor R (IMX121) 8.8 million CMOS sensor, and captures 4K video, and not just a megapixel-riden gimmick of a number. For a sub-$1000 4K camera, this definitely looks like the goods. You'd want to have a 4K-capable screen to go with it, though.

Earlier on today we visited the VIA Technologies headquarters here in Taipei where we got our first up, close and personal look at 3D printing.

VIA had a demo of its 3D printing station earlier this month at Computex, but we didn't have enough time at this stage to stick around and see a full print. We were invited back to the VIA offices today where we got our first look at 3D printing. Although not a new technology, guys were first messing around with 3D printing back in the 1980's, it's our first time to see it in person, and for me personally, I'm impressed.

VIA hooked up one of their VE-900 Mini-ITX motherboards to a MakerBot Thing-O-Matic 3D printer along with a customised VIA user interface all displayed on a touch-screen panel. We are told the VIA user interface here is much more advanced than the standard 3D printing interfaces and it provides advanced ability such as providing Dropbox connectivity and more. It's a nice interface to use too with clear menus and information provided on screen such as the device temperatures and so forth.

I'm a bit of a fan of the maker community and I have a real interest in 3D printing and prototyping. I've been chasing a 3D printer for a while now, but the cost has always kept me from buying or building one. A former MakerBot exec has now created a 3D printer that is ready to print and it costs less than $500!

Solidoodle is the company that produces this latest printer. It is led by Samuel Cervantes, who is MakerBot's former COO. The new printer can print objects up to 6"x6"x6" and is strong enough that "a 200-pound man can literally stand on top of the machine while it's printing." Not quite sure why you need that, but there it is.

The video above gives a quick explanation of how the printer works and shows some examples. Some of the stuff, such as Yoda, is really cool! It's incredible what you can now make in your house. A quick design on the computer and it can be printed in almost zero time. This is perfect for case modders like myself.

The geeks over at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have been fiddling around again. When this happens, cool stuff usually results. This time, they have provided us with a camera that can see around corners. Somehow the new camera is able to make sense of the reflections of scattered light.

The incredible specs of the camera allow it to take a picture every 2 picoseconds. One picosecond is equal to one-trillionth of a regular second. This allows the camera to track the distance traveled by a photon with extreme precision. Once they have collected this data, they use a complex algorithm to begin figuring out what's around the corner.

One curious issue of the camera is that a photon could travel the same distance and hit the same part of the camera lens after hitting a different part of the object. This issue was overcome by taking photos from multiple angles. The whole process takes several minutes, but MIT believe that it can be shortened to as quick as 10 seconds. The final application will have its place in military and rescue operations, as well as trying to see hard to reach places. Check out the video for more information:

Panasonic has made a couple announcements today with two new Lumix series cameras - the DMC-GX1 Micro Four Thirds and DMC-3D1.

Beginning with the former, the GX1 sports a Venus Engine image processor with a 16.01MP Live MOS sensor and a sensitivity of up to ISO 12800. It includes a Contrast AF focus system with 0.09 second (Light Speed AF) autofocus and the use of a dust reduction system, as well as One Push AE and the iA and iA Plus modes for automatic shots.

The LCD on the new GX1 is touch-enabled, being 3-inch (460,000-dot) in size. The camera is capable of recording video at up to 1080/60i and will come in two colour options - black and silver. There will also be two differing kits on offer from Panasonic for this model, the DMC-GX1-K which comes with the 14-42 standard zoom (priced at $800) and the DMC-GX1-X which has the Lumix G X Vario PZ 14-42mm / F3.5-5.6 ASPH. / POWER O.I.S (H-PS14042) lens (at $950).

Three new models have entered Toshiba's long time running Camileo range of palm-sized camcorders this week, the Clip, X200 and X400. Focusing on the Clip to begin with, this is perhaps the more interesting of the refreshed Camileo trio with the clip on the back of the camcorder (hence, the name) allowing it to be clipped onto various objects for hands free shooting. The Clip runs measurements of just 46.5 x 80 x 16 mm, weighing about 85 grams. It sports a ruggedized, splash-proof casing and 1.5-inch LCD.

Getting a bit deeper into the specs, it does Full HD (1920 x 1080) video recording (at 30 fps in H.264 HD format), has a 5-megapixel CMOS sensor with BSI (back side illumination) technology, an electronic image stabiliser, 10x digital zoom, SD/SDHC/SDXC compatible memory slot and gives connectivity via both mini-HDMI and mini-USB 2.0 ports. The camcorder is capable of taking up to 16MP still shots and comes in four color choices - dark blue, hot red, bright yellow and snow white.

As for the X200 and X400 models, these also pack the aforementioned 5MP CMOS sensor with BSI tech, image stabiliser, mini USB and HDMI ports, SD/SDHC/SDXC memory slot, but both offer a double sized 3-inch LCD. What separates the models is the 12x optical zoom capability on the X200 versus the whopping 23x on the X400.

Panasonic has announced a couple new cameras into its Lumix series today, the FZ150 and FX90.

Focusing on the higher-end FX150 first up, this is quite the zoom happy contender with its 24x optical zoom capabilities. It uses a 25mm ultra wide-angle Leica DC Vario-Elmarit lens and is capable of recording 1080 60p video.

Looking closer at the specs, it's got a 12.1-megapixel MOS sensor, a Venus Engine processor, Power O.I.S. (Optical Image Stabilizer), a stereo zoom microphone, 3-inch LCD and sports a 3D Photo mode which works by taking 20 panning shots and selecting two images to synthesize a 3D composite.