CES - Digital cameras and video camcorders

Sony replaces Webbies with 'bloggies,' seriously

I remember groaning when Sony introduced us to its Webbie branding for MPEG-4 camcorders last year; this year's redubbing them as "bloggie" (complete with lower case "b") leaves me dumbfounded. Sony says the target audience for these models is 16-28-year-olds and moms aged 25-40; I guess those demographics must be intimidated by products with names that end in consonant sounds, or they don't realize that blogs live on the Web. If anyone out there can tell me why "bloggie" might succeed where "Webbie" implicitly failed, please have at it in … Read more

Samsung puts new angle on picture taking

LAS VEGAS--Samsung's wisely been addressing improvements to the shooting experience through design. With the CL80 and TL240, for example, the bottom of the camera has a 7-degree tilt to it so that the camera angles up when placed on a flat surface. That little bit of an angle makes it much easier to get good self and group portraits.

Both models also have shutter buttons that are angled forward making it more comfortable and natural to hold and shoot.

Typical of Samsung's midrange and high-end point-and-shoots, these cameras are feature laden. Both cameras are 14 megapixels, have 7x … Read more

Samsung adds wireless to new camcorder line for spring

LAS VEGAS--Moving slightly upscale from its mainstream HD consumer camcorders, Samsung introduces a new flash-based S series characterized by larger 1/2.3-inch, 10-megapixel backside-illuminated sensors, and two of the new models incorporate Wi-Fi/DLNA connectivity for wirelessly uploading video and streaming directly to your TV, a potentially useful feature.

The S series is comprised of three models at as-yet unspecified prices. The lowest-end HMX-S10 has no built-in memory and lacks the wireless support; the HMX-S15 includes 32GB and the HMX-S16 has 64GB. (Samsung makes a big deal of saying it uses SSD, but flash by any other name will … Read more

Samsung refreshes standard-definition F-series camcorders

If you need a flash-memory-based standard-def camcorder with a long lens and a small body, Samsung has you covered. The company announced refreshes of its F34 camcorder: the SMX-F40, SMX-F43, and SMX-F44.

Specs include: 1/6-inch 680K CCD 720x480 resolution (60i) 52x optical zoom H.264 file format Time-lapse recording Auto scene recognition and face detection 1,600x1,200-resolution photos

The only differences are in storage capacities. The F40 is SDHC card only, while the F43 and F44 have 8GB and 16GB of internal flash memory, respectively, and take SDHC cards.

No prices, but I would expect them to be … Read more

Samsung updates HD camcorders with backside-illuminated CMOS

LAS VEGAS--The highlight of Samsung's 2010 midrange HD camcorder announcement is the adoption of backside-illuminated CMOS sensors, one of the big trends in camcorders this year. The company bumps its H100 series up to H200 with four completely overhauled models at as-yet unspecified prices.

The members of the lineup, all of which have SDHC slots, differ only by internal memory capacity: HMX-H200 (none), HMX-203 (8GB), HMX-H204 (16GB), and HMX-H205 (32GB). (Samsung makes a big deal of saying it uses SSD, but flash by any other name will still record as sweet. In other words, it's meaningless to everyone … Read more

Casio continues Dynamic Photo push on new compacts

Unless you follow Casio's camera developments closely you probably don't know what the company's Dynamic Photo feature is. Hell, there's a good chance that even if you know about it, you're not entirely sure what it does or why you'd want it. But Casio must be getting some kind of good feedback on it because they've added the feature to three more cameras.

The quick explanation is that the cameras--the EX-H15, EX-Z2000, and EX-Z550--are capable of creating a motion image from a burst of shots. The moving subject can then be clipped from … Read more

Casio goes high-speed with its pocket megazoom

The Exilim EX-FH100 is very similar to 2009's FC100 in features, but out front is a 24mm-equivalent lens with a 10x zoom range. Essentially it's a marriage of the FC100 and Casio's H10. But that's not the whole story.

The FH100 features a high-speed back-illuminated 10.1-megapixel CMOS sensor (the FC100's wasn't backlit). The back illumination improves overall sensitivity, which should reduce noise levels in low-light photos. The speed of the sensor helps it shoot up to 30, 9-megapixel images at 40fps. It also enables up to 1,000fps high-speed movie recording, though at … Read more

Iomega revamps entire ScreenPlay product line

LAS VEGAS--It's quickly becoming clear that one of the trends at CES 2010 is the prevalence of all-in-one media players and networked streamers. While we already got a taste of the Iomega ScreenPlay TV Link back in 2008, the company is debuting three new products that launch the device in a more ambitious direction. All of the products still get content to your TV screen, but now offer much more useful ways of doing so.

The first, the ScreenPlay Director HD Media Player, is directed at consumers who want the ability to get their content via a home network, … Read more

Navteq touts 3D laser mapping technology

Navteq has begun collecting data to construct detailed 3D models and maps of the United States, the digital-mapping specialist said Wednesday.

The Nokia subsidiary has begun outfitting its data collection vehicles with a system called Navteq True. One big part is a lidar (light detection and ranging) system that uses lasers to construct 3D maps of the world out of a sea of data points. The company boasts that its True system uses 64 rotating lidar lasers, captures 1.5 million 3D data points per second from features as far as 150 meters away and works even when the data … Read more