camera

Triggertrap camera-triggering app free for the holidays

An interesting low-cost gift for your favorite photog, the $24.99 Triggertrap Mobile Dongle lets you use an Android or iOS device as a remote shutter release for digital SLR or advanced compact cameras.

The dongle is compatible with more than 280 cameras, but you'll still need to download and install the iOS or Android app to actually use it. Those apps usually costs $4.99, but starting today the apps are free for the holidays.

That's not a huge savings, but it does mean that if you pick up the Triggertrap Mobile for a gift, the recipient … Read more

Get your hands on Camera Launcher for Nexus 7

Camera Launcher for Nexus 7 does something simple and necessary: it adds a launcher icon for the Nexus 7's camera.

As the Nexus 7 tablet does have a small built-in camera but doesn't have a native camera app, we found this app very convenient. There's practically no interface, and the app doesn't require any specific permissions to run. It has no other functions and can't be used on other devices, but for the Nexus 7 we absolutely recommend it.

T-shirts let you wear a snapshot of camera history

Photography diehards and fans of printed T -shirts will like Dodge and Burn's latest camera-inspired collection. The New York-based company's latest Evolution TLR design highlights the history of the Twin Lens Reflex camera, a medium format film camera used in the '60s.

The site also offers a variety of other print designs, from the iconic Leica rangefinder camera to the classic SX-70 Polaroid film camera. Each shirt is printed using plastisol inks to create designs with textures that have a vintage and worn-out effect. … Read more

Five great enthusiast camera deals for less than $500

When it comes to holiday shopping, I tend to take a conservative approach: decide what you want, then look for good prices. That makes you a little less likely to be swayed by faux bargains, like bundles with mediocre bags or accessories you really won't use. The one exception is for lenses -- provided they're ones you'll actually use -- which do increase the value of a bundle, though you don't want to buy a mediocre body just because the two-lens kit is cheap. With that in mind, I found a handful of models that take … Read more

Some find problems with Wii U update

You don't have to wait long for Monday's CNET Update:

Sales of the Nintendo Wii U system began Sunday, following a midnight launch event at the Nintendo World store in New York. But anyone getting a Wii U will need some patience before getting started. A required 5GB firmware update can take an hour or two to download, but be sure to not turn it off once the update has begun! Some users that turned off the console before the download was complete have "bricked" the machine and need to exchange it for a new one. … Read more

Compact cameras for advanced shooters (roundup)

Editors' note: This story was originally published on November 21, 2011, but has been updated to reflect more-recent reviews. The latest update adds a discussion of the Nikon Coolpix A and the Ricoh GR in the section about the Fujifilm X100S.

It's a common complaint: you want the photo quality of a dSLR but find you're leaving the camera at home because it's so large.

The compromise is a compact camera with a sensor larger than a typical point-and-shoot -- sometimes even the same size as a consumer or midrange dSLR -- raw file support, and sufficient … Read more

Samsung reveals Black Friday camera deals

Samsung still doesn't have much of a name when it comes to cameras, but it's managed to compete with other manufacturers with one feature: Wi-Fi.

For that reason, people shopping this holiday season for a camera for someone who is addicted to shooting and sharing should check out these Black Friday deals.

Anything that's branded as a Smart camera will have Samsung's built-in 802.11n wireless, which can be used to connect to your Wi-Fi network for automatic backups to a Windows computer or Microsoft SkyDrive, viewing photos and movie clips on DLNA-equipped devices, or sending … Read more

Take great pix and more with your Android device with Camera360 Ultimate

It's easy to see why PinGuo's Camera360 is one of the most popular camera apps for Android: just look at your screen. This free app is a great choice for handling snapshots and other basic camera duties, but it also lets you apply and preview all kinds of cool effects before you save an image. You can download and apply Scenes to create your own photo postcards and displays. Camera360 also manages your image galleries, including batch processing. We tried the latest and greatest version of this Android freeware, Camera360 Ultimate. Among its many upgrades is the Camera360 … Read more

Get old-school photographs with CamWow Retro

CamWow Retro is an iOS app that lets you take photos with antique effects applied to them. Whether a sepia-tint or grainy black-and-white images, there's a lot of effects you can apply. CamWow Retro is a free app and installs easily.

The CamWow Retro interface is based on a larger app called CamWow Pro and works the same way. When activated, the app opens an interface with four panes. One shows the image from the camera natively, and the other three panes show various effects in real time. You can scroll through a few screens of effects to find … Read more

Flayvr for iOS brings organization to your Camera Roll

Note to Apple: Nice job with the cameras and all, but Camera Roll? Not so great.

See, browsing photos on an iDevice kind of sucks. You're stuck either swiping through tiny, disorganized thumbnails or paging through endless full-screen snapshots to find what you're after.

Flayvr for iOS turns your Camera Roll into nicely organized albums, offering a much cooler way to view and share your snapshots.

When you run the app, it automatically groups your photos by date and presents them in a scrolling list. Each dated group (or "flayvr") consists of a title and four … Read more