lenses

The camera industry is in the throes of a digital photography revolution. But a new version of Nikon's 300mm telephoto lens announced this week, a $5,900 model intended for professionals, shows at least some parts of the photography market are constant even as the rest is overhauled.

Digital photography is profoundly different from the film era for many reasons. Here are some: new image sensors can enable photography in conditions too dark for film. The same camera can shoot video and still shots. Cameras can record not just when you took a photo, but where you took it. It's easy to publish photos globally on the Internet or to alter them significantly with software. And steadily increasing computing power lets cameras do everything from detect smiling faces to correct lens shortcomings.

And yet islands of stability remain. The high-end lens, with its complex optical engineering and premium pricing, is one of them.

Many SLR users don't venture beyond the kit lens that comes with their camera--an 18-55mm zoom that's reasonable for indoor shooting and basic tourist photography. Those who want to photograph the kids' soccer matches can step up with a telephoto zoom--usually one reaching to 200mm or 250mm and costing a few hundred dollars.

So why all the extra price for a bit more focal length to reach 300mm? … Read more

In the year Olympus declared an end to the megapixel race, we've seen all kinds of exciting, innovative, and occasionally insane new digital cameras.

This new generation of cameras no longer relies on the myth of megapixels to seduce you: you're tech-savvy enough to know that more megapixels don't necessarily mean better pictures. These days manufacturers have to think outside the box to differentiate their products. Way, way outside the box.

From interchangeable lenses to built-in projectors, GPS, and Wi-Fi; from touch screens to extra screens to 3D pictures and transformed sensors, we run down the cameras … Read more

Photochromic lenses that allow you to walk from inside to outside without putting on UV-filtering lenses have been around for decades. But the technology is just making its way to contacts.

Traditionally, these light-to-dark lenses have been constructed by coating a normal lens with a photochromic dye. When UV light hits the dye, the individual molecules expand, darkening the lens and absorbing light. Coating contacts, however, doesn't work so well.

So researchers at the Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology in Singapore have laced contacts with a matrix on nano tunnels filled with these photochromic dyes. Not only has the … Read more

Words have always been considered powerful, mystical things--the story of the Golem is merely one example that pops into mind--but they take on more prosaic power when it comes to search engine optimization.

While there are lots of reasons why SEO is important from a content provider standpoint, as a writer/editor I really only care about one thing: will people be able to find a particular product review when they search for it?

There are just some categories that defy consensus; I still don't know what to call all those camcorders that compete with the pioneering Flip, ending … Read more

Contact lenses have traditionally been engineered to help the visually impaired see the world around them more clearly--to attain perfect, or close to perfect, vision.

But why not super vision? Why not a lens that could superimpose holographic driving control panels over a pilot's otherwise normal view? Enable Web surfing on the go? Provide a virtual world for gamers that covers their entire field of vision instead of just a plasma screen?

Engineers at the University of Washington have been asking just that as they manufacture first-gen versions of the bionic eye in the form of contact lenses with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights.

"Conventional contact lenses are polymers formed in specific shapes to correct faulty vision," writes Babak A. Parviz, an associate professor at UW who heads a multi-disciplinary group on electronics in contact lenses, in the September 2009 issue of IEEE's Spectrum. "To turn such a lens into a functional system, we integrate control circuits, communication circuits, and miniature antennas into the lens using custom-built optoelectronic components. Those components will eventually include hundreds of LEDs, which will form images in front of the eye, such as words, charts, and photographs."… Read more

Tamron has updated its higher-end 17-50mm zoom lens with its vibration compensation technology to counteract camera motion.

The company released a 17-50mm model with a constant F2.8 aperture last year, but updated it with vibration compensation to a new model called the SP 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di II VC. Tamron added the new feature "without materially increasing its size and weight," the company said.

But one thing is different: price. The earlier version costs about $450--and note that it's not being discontinued--while the image-stabilized version costs about $650. Tamron is selling a Nikon version initially and a model for Canon SLRs shortly afterward, it said. … Read more

Personally, I'm not a big fan of wide-angle optics, though I have to admit this glass comes in pretty handy when snapping landscape shots. However, camera accessories maker Omax thinks its lenses can be put to even better use.

The company engaged Publicis India to create a series of advertisements that depict men seemingly taking pictures of innocent subjects. Somewhere in the frame are women (mostly scantily clad).

From a creative standpoint, I think this idea is brilliant. It is a humorous take on gender stereotyping while offering an alternative use for wide-angle optics. But from a technical point … Read more

Improving on two already-popular Nikon lenses, Nikon today announced the new AF-S DX Nikkor 18-200mm f3.5-5.6 ED VR II, and the new AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 G ED VR II. One is a popular FX series lens, the 70-200 f2.8, which has long been a staple for working professionals due to its fast aperture and versatility. And one is a popular DX series lens, the 18-200mm f3.5-5.6, which is one of Nikon's best sellers for the simple fact of its amazing versatility in a single lens. Both new lenses share Nikon's latest … Read more

In the first significant improvement Canon's made in its optical stabilization technology in a few years--I think the last major update was the SuperRange OIS in its camcorders--the company announced a new Hybrid IS technology that adds angular velocity sensing to its current bag of OIS tricks. While its IS system already has a sensor to detect rotation, the new velocity sensor is intended to detect the speed of rotation and thereby compensate more precisely. (Here's a simulation of how the current lenses work, and here's a nice PDF white paper on how angular velocity sensors work, … Read more